vrcanaries Chapter 425 Grudges
Chapter 425 Grudges
The group returned to the city under the cover of darkness.
Because Huang Zhiwang had a warrant from the Dali Temple to arrest the fugitive, and there were two people tied up in the prison van, he was able to pass through the city gate directly.
In Prince Jin's mansion, Jiang Xing went straight to the study as soon as he came back. His face was illuminated by the warm candlelight. It only took him two quarters of an hour to explain what needed to be done to the secret guards, and then he turned and went to the side hall.
Jiang Yuanfeng was placed in the side hall.
Jiang Xing stepped into the room and ordered the court doctor to bandage the wound on his shoulder, and then handed him a cup of tea.
"Tell me, Lord Jiang, what have you done in the past ten years? Why did it take you so long to plan such a big scheme?"
It was late at night and the dew was heavy, and he was worried that Ah Xuan was not feeling well, so he decided to bring this man back to the mansion for further questioning.
It was destined to be a sleepless night. Although I had obtained some answers from Ji Xiangli's consciousness before, everyone has a different perspective, so I still have to ask him about everything that has happened in the past few decades.
The tea in front of me was fragrant and had a clear yellow luster. The green buds inside were flying up and down, and finally, as if accepting their fate, they all settled down.
Jiang Yuanfeng glanced at Jiang Xing from head to toe and seemed to sigh.
"It is indeed the appearance of a celestial dragon."
When Jiang Xing first returned to Beijing, he was almost deceived by the reputation of the dissolute and prodigal prince and never took this man seriously.
Even though he had set up a deadly formation in Prince Jin's mansion, he felt that it would be easy to capture the enemy.
But he didn't expect that the situation would take a sharp turn for the worse after that disaster. Perhaps it was from that moment, from the moment Jiang Xing came back to life, that the outcome today was doomed!
He touched his chin out of habit: "It's a pity that I was careless and underestimated the prince from the beginning."
He was their enemy, and now, he was a prisoner without any mysterious power.
At this critical moment, this man not only did not treat him with disrespect, but first bandaged him and then gave him tea.
This is where it gets really scary.
This is not due to any good etiquette, but because he knows his deepest weakness.
He simply knew that the arrogance in his heart could only be exchanged for complete submission with a little respect!
However, at this moment, Jiang Yuanfeng had to admit that he really fell for it.
The handsome man in front of me is flexible and righteous, and he can judge people accurately and precisely. Such a person is a true ruler!
Compared to Niu Saner, whom he had wholeheartedly assisted and supported for fifteen years, at this moment, he really felt a little sad.
Apart from the years when he was secretly competing with Ji Xiangli, even if all of Niu Saner's decisions were made by his own will, they could not defeat the young man in front of them who was so brilliant.
He shook his head and laughed self-deprecatingly, "What does Your Majesty want to know? Haven't you all found out everything?"
"Hearing it from someone else's mouth is different from hearing it from the person involved."
Jiang Xing let him look at him and said slowly, "Let's start from the very beginning of this situation."
After tossing and turning for most of the night, Lu Xuan was very hungry, perhaps because she was pregnant. So she ate the pea yellow and cloud cake brought by Xiao Kui while listening to the conversation between Jiang Xing and Jiang Yuanfeng.
At this moment, they seemed not to be enemies fighting each other to the death, but to be old friends who could talk together by candlelight at night.
Jiang Yuanfeng glanced at her from afar, his eyes falling on the window reflecting the candlelight and the dark night.
It is said that before a person dies, he or she will recall his or her life story.
Well, let him finish it all in advance.
Only when the time comes to leave can you do it cleanly and decisively.
"Then let's start from Prince Ding's Mansion."
The lanterns of Prince Jin's Mansion swayed gently under the eaves, and the candlelight flickered, looking very similar to the candlelight in the gauze palace lantern that hung in front of Prince Ding's Mansion back then.
On New Year's Eve when he was four years old, he and his mother knelt in front of the side door of Prince Ding's Mansion and saw lanterns like this.
"Mom, how long will it take for father to come out to pick us up? My knees hurt so much." In front of the side door of Prince Ding's mansion, the little child's eyes were full of grievance as he stared at the young woman beside him and asked.
"Why does it hurt?! We can only live a good life if we can stay inside. I, your mother, have been kneeling like this for so many years, and you've been kneeling for two hours and you're yelling. No wonder the prince doesn't like you!"
The woman, dressed in concubine's clothes and heavily made-up, glared at him angrily, with the corner of her mouth twisted as if she was disappointed in him.
"I went in through this side door many times before I brought you in. This door is for the prince's concubines, and I'm also the prince's concubine, so I should use this side door with honor! I didn't expect to meet a disaster like you. The first time I brought you in, you were stopped outside! Unlucky star!"
The woman rolled her eyes in disgust and simply turned her head away.
"Mom, let's go to the gate? Maybe we can get in from there." Young Jiang Yuanfeng couldn't help but finally said this.
"You're dreaming. The main gate is where the prince, princess, princess, and prince leave. Don't you even know how much you weigh? How dare you claim to be leaving through the main gate?"
"Besides," she squinted her eyes and nose at him, "there are so many people coming and going at the main gate. If someone sees us, wouldn't it damage the reputation of Prince Ding's mansion? The prince will definitely not be happy!"
She extended her index finger and jabbed him hard on the forehead. "It's fine that you don't please your father, but you actually came up with such a perverse idea to kill me! You're such a disaster!"
"If that's the case, the prince will definitely dislike me!"
At that time, his head was hurt by the poking, but he still didn't understand. Could it be that just because he was kneeling here, the prince liked them?
But the woman in front of him rolled her eyes again and insisted, "Of course the prince likes me! It's because of you, a burden, that even I can't enter the house. I am the prince's concubine!"
Being someone's concubine was a disgrace to the family and something despised by others, but his mother seemed to like it very much and told everyone about her being Prince Ding's concubine.
But later he found out that his mother was not even the concubine of Prince Ding, but at most a maidservant.
That's why she was so obsessed with returning to the palace and becoming Prince Ding's concubine.
They knelt there from afternoon to evening, for almost three or four hours, until the palace lanterns were lit with candles by the servants.
No one paid any attention to them. He was alone watching the palace lanterns swaying in the wind.
The lantern kept spinning, and the koi fish embroidered on it were beautifully designed.
After he had turned around countless times, his hands were frozen and his knees could no longer support him. He fell to the ground and cried loudly. Only then did a servant come out.
"Don't be delusional. The prince said that your manor is in Baoding Prefecture, so you will naturally celebrate the New Year there. The prince's family will be reunited, and the family members are naturally the princess and the princess. Not everyone can sit at the table in the prince's mansion!"
He pulled out a hundred-liang silver note from his pocket and tossed it to her, "This is the festival silver the prince gave you. Take it and leave quickly. The princess and the prince will be watching the New Year's Eve fireworks on the city wall at the corner gate later. If you disturb the young master's interest, you will be in big trouble!"
The prince loves the princess, and also likes the princess and the young master. This is something that the entire Dingwang Mansion knows.
It was New Year's Day, and the princess had just had a quarrel with the prince about the concubine, so the servants were naturally very cautious about the dishonest maid who came to visit.
The servants had no say in the matter and could only pass on messages.
The woman with heavy makeup and fancy clothes put the one hundred taels of silver into her bosom and thanked the servant with a smile.
As soon as the servant left, he glared at him fiercely: "If it weren't for you, a burden, I would still be by the side of Prince Ding's Mansion. I thought you were a troublemaker, but who would have thought you were such a troublemaker!"
After saying that, he stood up and got into the shabby carriage on the street alone.
After that, when he returned to Baoding Prefecture, he found that the person he called "mother" had become more harsh towards him and her words were not as gentle as before.
Finally, one day three months later, he found that she was missing and had left him fifty taels of silver.
The servants of the manor couple told him, "Your mother has gone back to the palace to live a good life. You should stay here. You are a bastard of the palace. The palace will send you money every month. Don't go anywhere. We will raise you well."
He didn't cry or make a fuss at the time, thinking that his mother was indeed becoming more and more mean and hateful to him, so he didn't care too much.
But this situation only lasted for two months before he realized something was wrong.
Without his nominal mother, the couple and their servants didn't even treat him as a human being.
He did not see a single cent of the money from the palace. Instead, the house where he and his mother used to live was taken away by the couple. Even his clothes and writing brushes were given to their son by the couple.
Their son was about the same age as him, and he used to be the one who was respected everywhere.
But from then on, he seemed like a different person.
The man was called Shuanzi. Not only did he beat and scold him every day, he also forced him to play with him. Sometimes he would stuff live earthworms and loaches he caught into his mouth. The most severe incident was when he forced him to swallow a live little snake.
It is very close to the evil of human nature.
Seeing that the disturbance was getting worse and worse, the couple was afraid that if they killed him they would not be able to collect the money from Prince Ding's Mansion, so they stopped Shuanzi's evil deeds.
But that was the only time it was stopped.
He felt that this was not a solution, so he simply pretended to be submissive. Shuanzi saw that he was boring and seemed to be getting a little stupid, so he gradually stopped playing with him.
Is life always so painful?
The seven-year-old often thought about it.
It would be great if he was the son of that servant couple, because he envied Shuanzi so much for having his parents to support him.
This situation changed the day Yun Xun and the old sect leader came to the door.
The little girl, who was about his age, helped him teach Shuanzi a lesson, and also taught the couple a lesson. Then she pulled him aside and said, "Wow, those two said this was the manor of Prince Ding's manor, and that if I taught them a lesson, Prince Ding would come and punish me. My father analyzed it for me, and I found out that you are actually Prince Ding's son! Do you know who Prince Ding is? He is the emperor's brother and has great power! You are of such a noble status, what are you afraid of? How dare he bully you? Beat him up!"