This question was too rude. Su Huaijing frowned and looked down at Qin Pengxuan's hand holding his. He said coldly, "My Lord, please respect yourself."
Qin Pengxuan came back to his senses instantly and pulled his hand back abruptly.
Su Huaijing hesitated slightly, and a strange emotion surged in his heart.
Wu Kangbo was a powerful official of the time. Emperor Renshou valued civil officials over military officials, so there were only a handful of officials who held military power. Marshal Xia was one of them, and Wu Kangbo was another.
Although he could only lead part of the troops in the imperial city, it was enough to show how much the emperor valued him.
Qin Pengxuan's father was a powerful official, his mother died young, and he himself was the prince. He had never known what fear and panic were since he was born, and naturally he could not learn to be servile.
His superficial respect for others was all because of the pressure from a higher status that he had to respect, which made him occasionally remember the proper etiquette that he should have in his bones as a child of a noble family.
He didn't even respect Rong Tang enough, let alone Su Huaijing.
But from the hesitation when he got off the car to the panic in his eyes when he suddenly withdrew his hand, all of them revealed one fact:
He was afraid of Su Huaijing.
He may not even know the reason for this fear, which is why he appears rude and fearful at the same time.
On the one hand, he was fearless and straightforward, while on the other hand, he was terrified and worried about the consequences.
These were two very strange emotions. Su Huaijing narrowed his eyes, took a half step back, and answered his previous question: "No."
"How is that possible!" Qin Pengxuan suddenly became anxious. He took a step forward without caring about his fear and asked anxiously, "You can't see that place yourself. Is it because no one told you that you didn't know whether it existed or not?"
He cared about the birthmark more than Su Huaijing, the person involved, and urgently needed him to give him a positive answer.
Su Huaijing was at ease and asked, "Do you need me to take off my clothes for the prince to see?"
The Censorate and the Dali Temple have the same origin, and in front of the doors of both stand stone statues of Bi'an, who is in charge of criminal penalties and litigation.
Officials seldom went in and out of the Censorate, so the front of the door was deserted. A sense of solemnity and solitude permeated the air. The slow horse pulling the cart lowered its head and sneezed, stamping its hooves impatiently, as if wondering why the man hadn't gone home yet.
The early spring in Yujing was chilly and the north wind was whistling past. Su Huaijing lowered his eyes and in an instant caught the expectation and temptation in Qin Pengxuan's eyes.
It seemed as if he was very excited about his proposal.
It had been a long time since Su Huaijing felt a surge of murderous intent in his heart.
He narrowed his eyes, lowered his right hand to his side, grasped Rong Tang's waist badge, and raised the corner of his lips slightly, reminding: "Master?"
Qin Pengxuan was called by him, and the north wind blew on him, and his mind suddenly became clear. He quickly took two steps back and apologized with a fist: "I am sorry for being rude, Master Su, please forgive me."
It was neither the Crown Prince's Consort nor Lord Su, but Young Master, a title that was both vague and inexplicably intimate.
Su Huaijing lowered his eyes, suppressed the irritation that was about to overflow, and asked: "May I ask why you ask this, my lord?"
Qin Pengxuan avoided his gaze and made up a lie that could be exposed in an instant: "Pan Yan mentioned it to me."
Su Huaijing stared at him for a moment and smiled softly: "I see, I haven't found the time to visit my cousin since she had a miscarriage. I hope you will take good care of her, my Lord."
"It's my duty, it's my duty." Qin Pengxuan whispered.
Su Huaijing got back into the car. Qin Pengxuan took a step forward without giving up. Before Su Huaijing got into the car, he looked back at him, as if to remind him, but his voice was cold and stern: "Young Master, if you have something you must clarify in the future, don't do things like blocking people in front of the government office."
He asked: "In the vast imperial city, how many families can withstand the scrutiny of the Censorate?"
Qin Pengxuan's body froze, his face showing horror, and he looked at Su Huaijing as if he were looking at a ghost.
Su Huaijing didn't like the look in his eyes. It was too stupid and extremely revealing. He could see clearly what he was thinking, which would make people feel repelled.
He disliked Qin Pengxuan, and could even be said to hate him.
If we go back one year, he was really brought into the Wukang Marquis' Mansion by Qin Pengxuan. At that time, the Wukang Marquis' Mansion should have been unable to take care of itself, and would not have allowed their own prince to do such a stupid thing as blocking people in front of the Censorate.
He was admitted to the court as an exception, and he was also the Crown Prince's Consort of Prince Ningxuan. There were countless people watching him inside and outside the court. If Qin Pengxuan stood in front of the door today, someone would say tomorrow that Prince Ningxuan and Earl Wukang were in collusion.
Dealing with stupid people is very tiring, and Su Huaijing feels annoyed.
But because it was Li Changfu and Qin Pengxuan's audacity that led him to meet Rong Tang, Su Huaijing didn't really want him to die, but today...
Su Huaijing sat back in the car, took off the outer robe that Qin Pengxuan had grabbed, clasped his hands together, and warmed himself over the small stove.
He really didn't have any birthmarks on his back. Even if he did, he would have cut them off when he escaped from the palace ten years ago.
That was a bowl of delayed poison. No one knew at which stage in the future it would take effect and cause him to fail. He couldn't take this risk.
But…
His palms were warmed, and Su Huaijing lowered his head and opened the secret compartment in the car. Inside were bottles and jars filled with countless antidotes, poisons, silver needles, and daggers.
He picked up one of the bottles, opened the lid, and poured a pill into his palm.
The pills are round, bright red, odorless and slightly toxic. They can cause hallucinations, as if one is in a magical land of Wushan and enjoying endless pleasure.
A year ago at Fengyue Tower, he only brought two pills.
One is this, and the other is a deadly poison that kills instantly upon contact with blood. If Rong Tang hadn't appeared halfway and taken him away, one of the two pills would have been used on Qin Pengxuan.
Doctors test medicine before making it. The pills were made according to ancient recipes, and Su Huaijing made some improvements to them. On the day the medicine was ready, he locked himself in the room to test its efficacy.
At that time, I felt that love was low and boring, so after trying the medicine, I left the prescription and locked it in the medical box, never asking about it again.
Now that Qin Pengxuan mentioned this, Su Huaijing suddenly remembered that he seemed to have seen a field of crabapple flowers.
Su Huaijing frowned slightly and counted the amount in the bottle.
There were ten pills in a bottle, and excluding the one he threw away a year ago, there were exactly nine. He had already ground that pill into powder, which was mixed into the soil along with the dust on the ground.
The carriage moved slowly, the snow gradually melted, and the last bit of winter lingered on the earth. Su Huaijing put the pill back into the bottle, slowly closed his eyes, and slowly clenched his fingers at his sides.
Qin Pengxuan has taken this medicine.
I have eaten it, I have seen hallucinations, and I have mistaken the blooming crabapple flowers for the birthmark of the person under me.
And in his fantasy, the goddess in Wushan was Su Huaijing.
There was something strange about this matter, but Su Huaijing had no choice but to believe it.
Qin Pengxuan himself might not have realized what went wrong, how such a perception would appear in his mind, and even connected to many more things that frightened and terrified him, so he came to the Censorate alone without caring about anything and wanted to find Su Huaijing to ask him clearly.
He probably thought it was just an illusion.
Su Huaijing didn't care why he was afraid, nor did he want to know why he suddenly had this memory.
He just clenched his fists in restraint, feeling a tightness in his throat.
"It wasn't a dream after all..." he whispered softly, and when he opened his eyes again, there was a bloodshot red in his eyes.
In the "dream" fabricated by Rong Tang, there was no one like Rong Tang who took him away from Fengyue Tower. He went from Li Mansion in Songjing Lane to the Mansion of Marquis Wukang.
He and Rong Tang did not have that absurd encounter that was almost gentle under the touch of spring water and candlelight, nor did they have a stable residence in Yong'an Lane, letters to each other, and even less the experience of getting married, living together, kissing, traveling across the south of the Yangtze River together, and then returning to the capital.
The five-colored string of the Dragon Boat Festival, the lucky money that is replenished year after year after New Year's Eve...
None of this happened.
That was Tangtang’s “dream”, but now all this seems like Su Huaijing’s “dream”.
What made Su Huaijing even more desperate was that in the previous "dream", he seemed unable to save Rong Tang.
Being imprisoned himself made Rong Tang sad and afraid.
Su Huaijing couldn't help but wonder, what should he do
Sandalwood was burning in the carriage, slowly calming the restless heart.
Su Huaijing calmed down, bent down, and added some more spices to the Boshan stove.
If everything Rong Tang said was not a dream, then let's make an analogy with the past and present lives described in the strange stories and treat it as Rong Tang's previous life.
In his previous life, he chose Sheng Chengli, and wholeheartedly protected him, guarded him, rescued him from the cold palace, and taught him the ways of being an emperor.
With a "click" sound.
Su Huaijing lowered his eyes in shock, and when he saw the incense spoon that he had broken, he was stunned for a long time.
Finally, he put down the spoon, opened the car window, and let the cold wind blow in to cool his brain and drive away the jealousy that was about to surge.
Rong Tang chose Sheng Chengli in his previous life, but in this life he felt disgusted and afraid when he saw him—
The past life is connected to the present life. Qin Pengxuan himself clearly doesn't know where the strange memories come from, but Rong Tang seems to have known everything and can foresee it all.
He had invested so much effort in Sheng Chengli, and had planned strategies for him to form alliances, but in this life he was unwilling to even use his brain, and wished that someone could read the storybook to him.
When Su Huaijing thought of this, he finally calmed down a little.
The carriage was heading from the Censorate to Yong'an Lane, and Rong Tang was waiting for him to go home.
Su Huaijing thought calmly, what does it mean if Rong Tang is the only one who has the memory of his previous life
Can it be said that all development tracks in this world have been similar before, and Rong Tang was caught up in it and had to move forward
So how did he get back
Su Huaijing stared at the charcoal fire in the stove and thought for a long time, and couldn't help but think of the most reasonable possibility.
-died.
Rong Tang died, so we returned to the starting point.
Once you figure this out, almost all the other questions have answers.
How did he die
Being betrayed.
Who betrayed him
Sheng Chengli.
The smoke and fog dissipated in an instant.
Su Huaijing leaned back. When the car was halfway through the journey, he raised his lower lip slightly, but a surging murderous intent gathered in his eyes.
After a long while, Su Huaijing exhaled and murmured in a low voice: "Sheng Chengli killed Tangtang..."
(End of this chapter)