Xie Changgeng slowly put down his pen, raised his eyes, and his gaze fell on her face, which looked as haggard as a dehydrated flower.
The night is long and cold, the ears are filled with silence, and the candlelight shines brightly in the deep room.
He just sat there, looking coldly at the woman, his wife, who was sitting across the table from him, with his thin lips pursed, not saying a word.
Mu Fulan took a long breath and spoke again: "Sanmiao and Changsha are neighbors, and we have had exchanges since our ancestors. Now there is a rampant malaria and the people are starving. They came to ask for help a few days ago, and we, the Mu family, cannot ignore them within our capabilities. This time I am going there to help them, and the reason why Brother Yuan came with me is, first, to protect me and the doctor, and second, to ensure the smooth distribution of grain."
"I already know that you asked Wuji to lead the way for you. The reason why there is the saying of 'Baron' is completely a rumor. There are not many people in the Sanmiao who can speak Chinese, and the language barrier caused the misunderstanding. Please rest assured that this matter has been clarified before I left. As for you, I have explained the relationship between me and Brother Yuan before, and there is no need to repeat it. Whether you believe it or not, I ask you, adults should solve adult matters. Tell us what you want to do and we can discuss it. Please don't vent your anger on a young child. It is not in your right mind."
When he heard this, he suddenly laughed. His face was as bright as ice and ripples appeared at the corners of his lips.
He leaned forward slightly, looked at her and said, "I am Xie Changgeng, born a great bandit. What identity do I need to worry about?"
As he said this, there was a hint of smile on the corners of his lips, but Mu Fulan saw clearly that there were two dots of faint candlelight in his pupils, and his gaze was extremely dark.
"So what do you want?" she asked.
Xie Changgeng slowly stood up, walked to her side and stopped.
He stared at her face for a moment and said, "How can you have such a deep bond with a child you just met at the beginning of the year and had nothing to do with before?"
He looked from her face down to the dusty hem of her skirt and stared at it for a while.
"You must have suffered a lot chasing this kid all the way here, right?"
He curled his lips and his eyes fell on her thin and haggard face again.
"Mu, you were unfaithful to me first, and then you deceived me. You treated me like a fool and humiliated me in various ways. If it was just between you and me, I would have let it go. But now you still don't know how to restrain yourself and cause such a quarrel."
"I don't care whether you did it intentionally or not. If you don't tell me the truth, no one is innocent in this matter. Including the child you mentioned."
He slowly leaned towards her and his lips stopped at her ear.
"That child, he is your own, isn't he?"
He asked quietly, his tone gentle.
His face was pressed very close to her, as if he was whispering to her, tempting her to speak, and his hot breath fanned over her delicate earlobe.
Mu Fulan turned her head abruptly.
He tilted his head to avoid her face that was rushing towards him, then stood up straight and stared at her. His expression turned stern, as if covered with a layer of frost.
Mu Fulan closed her eyes for a moment, then slowly opened them.
"Yes. He is my biological son," she replied.
"That man, who is he?"
Xie Changgeng's eyelids twitched and his face was expressionless.
"He is already dead."
Mu Fulan said.
"Remember I told you before that I had a crush on someone? That man's child. Before I got engaged to you, I met him in Junshan. Later he died."
She looked at the face of the man opposite her which was gradually becoming stiff.
"It's all in the past. I don't want to think about it anymore. I would never tell anyone about it in my lifetime, but you insisted that I tell you, so I did."
"I'm sorry and have brought shame upon you, but when you came to ask for my hand in marriage, it wasn't me that you were asking for."
"In the past, you got what you wanted. Now, and in the future, when you and I can divorce and have nothing to do with each other, this secret will never be known by anyone."
"If you are still angry, I will apologize to you for the humiliation I brought upon you in the past and ask for your forgiveness."
Mu Fulan stared at Xie Changgeng, lifted her skirt, knelt on both knees in front of him, stood upright, and kowtowed solemnly.
Xie Changgeng lowered his head and looked at the figure kneeling at his feet, motionless.
His intuition told him that this time, the woman finally told him the truth.
Indeed, as she said, when he went to ask for marriage, it was not for her, the Princess of Changsha. And the reason why he and she are still husband and wife is only because of what he said in front of Empress Liu last year in order to take her out of Shangjing. Now he can't divorce her.
When the day came when he broke with the court, it was time to divorce her.
The Princess Mu, who had always made him feel uneasy since the first time they met in Changsha last year, was finally caught by him today. She knelt at his feet and kowtowed to beg for forgiveness.
So respectful, gentle, and humble, unprecedented.
It can be regarded as a relief for the anger in his heart. He should be satisfied.
But he felt his palms were slightly cold and his fingertips seemed to be numb.
She lied to him and he was angry.
Tonight he finally forced her to lower her head, kneel down and confess her guilt, but he did not feel the pleasure he had imagined.
He didn't say anything. She just knelt at his feet, touching her forehead to the ground, for a long time without getting up.
In the distant sky, a dazzling flash of lightning streaked across the sky, and the sound of autumn thunder boomed in my ears.
Xie Changgeng looked at the soft back of her head lying at his feet, his eyelids twitching. He slowly clenched his five fingers, and suddenly, with a turn, he grabbed the sword lying on the table with his five fingers, and with a "clang" sound, he drew the sword and stabbed at her.
The tip of the sword pierced into the thick bun of hair on the back of her head, and a cold light passed through the bun.
The wrist holding the sword paused for a moment, then suddenly raised it.
In an instant, the long hair that was cut off by the sharp blade flew high like a gossamer, floating in front of his eyes, fell from the air to the ground, and scattered everywhere.
A strand of hair lightly touched the surface of one of his boots.
He clutched the sword, lowered his head, and stared at the disheveled but motionless figure in front of him. He took a breath for a moment, threw the sword to the ground with a "clang", took a step, strode past her, and went out.
Mu Fulan slowly got up from the ground.
The night rain drizzled for a while and soon stopped.
The next morning, the steward who had received her the night before came to look for her and said that the young master was at the horse farm. The horse farm was near Beishan, about half a day's ride away.
"My dear young master, everything is fine. My lady, you have come from a long journey. If you cannot bear the journey, please stay here and rest. I will go to the stable and bring you here."
The steward said respectfully with a smile on his face.
The heart that had been hanging for several months suddenly fell.
Her eyes brightened instantly, and her pale cheeks showed a fresh red color, and her complexion regained its radiance in an instant.
She wished she could fly over there and meet that little guy right away. How could she be at ease and continue waiting here in vain
"I'll go there by myself! Please lead the way."
She said.
The carriage stopped outside the gate of the government office. Mu Fulan hurried out and was about to get on the carriage to set off when she suddenly saw a fast horse coming from the opposite direction. When it reached the gate, the man rolled off the horse and shouted to the steward, "Is the governor here? Something happened! Last night in the middle of the night, a thunderstorm hit the horse farm, burning the hay and the stables, scaring away some of the horses, and the young master left behind by the governor is also missing!"
Mu Fulan's heart began to beat wildly. She came to her senses, immediately climbed onto the carriage and urged the team to set off.
At noon, she arrived at the horse farm.
She stood in front of the stable where the fire had been completely extinguished an hour ago. She stared with wide eyes at the busy groom, who kept digging under the smoking ashes and carrying out piles of charred horse carcasses. Her teeth were chattering and her whole body was shaking. Finally, she heard a voice shouting, "All cleaned up, fifty-six horses! No casualties!" She could no longer control herself, her legs went soft, and she fell to the ground.
When the stable was first built, consideration was given to preventing the fire from spreading over a large area, so the stable was built in sections. The fire was discovered early last night, and the nearby horses were moved in time, so only a few adjacent rows of stables were burned, and there were not many casualties.
The total number of horses that broke through the fences and escaped from the racecourse out of fear has been revealed, about 500. Most of them have been found this morning.
After the steward finished his report, he knelt down and kowtowed to apologize: "The fire was really an accident. A thunder blast caused the hay to catch fire and the stables to burn. The rain that fell later was of little use. The horses were frightened and many fences were broken. There were so many things going on at the time that I thought the young master had fallen asleep and was in an upwind position, so I didn't pay attention to him. When I came back from putting out the fire this morning, I found that he was gone! I sent people to look for him all around at that time."
"I have failed to live up to your trust, please punish me!"
"Where is his foal?" Xie Changgeng asked with a serious expression.
"The foal is missing too. Maybe it escaped with the rest of the herd, or maybe..."
The steward hesitated for a moment and whispered, "...it's possible that the young master took them and fled during the chaos..."
Xie Changgeng recalled the kid's words to him that night that he would not run away, and he flew into a rage: "Something must have happened to him! Forget about the horse! Gather all the people here and go find him! If you can't find him, you bring his head to me!"
The manager responded repeatedly, ran away tumbling, and called for help loudly.
Xie Changgeng called one of his men and ordered him to notify Liu An to quickly dispatch soldiers to conduct a large-scale search for the person. After giving the order, he turned his head and looked at the figure sitting on the ground not far away, facing the collapsed stable. He walked over and stopped beside her. She looked at the charred and deformed horse corpses with a pale face and empty eyes. He hesitated for a moment, leaned over to her, and said softly, "Relax and go and rest first. Xi'er will be fine. I have sent someone to look for her. Wait for my news..."
Before he finished speaking, she quickly got up from the ground and said, "I'll go look for him too." After that, she walked past him quickly without even looking at him.