Denghuaxiao

Chapter 247 Father and Son

 The marriage between Lu Zhen and Pei Yunying is progressing smoothly.

There are "six rites" for marriages in Daliang, including receiving gifts, asking for names, accepting gifts, accepting invitations, asking for dates, and welcoming the bride.

Since Lu Yun and Pei Yunying's parents were gone, Pei Yunshu took the decision and invited a matchmaker to come to the house to exchange Geng Tie. He also asked Blind He from West Street to finish the horoscopes. He only said that they were a match made in heaven, so they started discussing marriage and selected an auspicious day.

These days, Pei Yunshu and Pei Yunying were busy preparing the list of betrothal gifts.

Qing Feng accidentally glanced at the betrothal gift list. After reading it, he couldn't help but secretly sighed. Although his family was rich, he had never seen such a betrothal gift. What was the difference between giving away the Pei family in a package?

Pei Yunying didn't take it seriously. With a wave of his hand, he added a farm to the gift list.

Qingfeng: "..."

Forget it, as long as he is happy.

The days passed in this busy preparation. At noon on this day, Pei Yunying was painting in the room. Chi Jian came in from the door and said: "Sir, the second young master Pei wants to see you."

Pei Yunying paused in raising his pen and looked up.

"He is not willing to let you go. A few days ago, when you were on duty in the palace, he came twice."

For the people of the Pei family, Pei Yunying had given an order that if they set foot in his and Pei Yunshu's residence, they would be kicked out directly without being polite. However, now that Pei Di has passed away, the Pei family is in such a state of decline that even tit-for-tat exchanges are considered to give them face.

After a moment of silence, Pei Yunying put down her pen and said, "Let him in."

Pei Yunxiao was quickly brought in.

Duke Zhaoning has three sons. The third son is still young. Although the second son is a concubine, he used to be gentle and handsome. However, after not seeing him for a long time, this handsome son is no longer as calm as before. His clothes are wrinkled and there is something hidden in his eyebrows. Very anxious.

Pei Yunxiao stood still and looked at the person in the seat.

Pei Yunying, his elder brother, was sitting in front of the case, looking calm. The new emperor's ascension to the throne and the turmoil in the DPRK had no impact on him. He was still so glamorous and even more confident than when he was in the Pei Mansion.

He is more confident.

"What are you doing here?" The young man said casually, looking down at the painting.

"Are you getting married?"

"Second Young Master Pei came here to reminisce with me, perhaps?"

Pei Yunxiao endured it: "It's been so long since my father passed away. Don't you still want to go back and take a look?"

Pei Yunying looked slightly cold.

Pei Di left.

After the day of the palace change, news came from Pei's house. When Pei Di heard the news from the palace, he felt furious and angry, which caused his old illness, but he died of serious illness in a few days.

And Pei Yunying never went back to take a look from beginning to end.

"What are you going back for?" He laughed, looked up at Pei Yunxiao, and said in an indifferent tone, "Are you using my name to support the Pei family?"

Pei Yunxiao was speechless.

Duke Zhaoning and the prince are very close, and the prince is the loser.

Prince Ning, who had been dormant for many years, ascended the dragon throne and began to clean up the old people mercilessly. Only the secretary in front of the palace is as safe as a mountain.

Anyone with a discerning eye can see why this is happening, and naturally the Pei family can also see it.

If Pei Yunying's connections can be used now, the Pei family may still have a chance of survival.

Thinking of this, Pei Yunxiao's tone softened.

"Brother," he tried to revive the old friendship, "even if you and your father had misunderstandings, the knot in your heart should have been resolved after so many years. After you moved out of Pei's house, your father talked about you in the house every day. He was thinking about you. Yours, on his deathbed, kept calling your name..."

"Really?" Pei Yunying interrupted him and laughed sarcastically, "How did he die?"

Pei Yunxiao's face froze.

"You don't really think that I would be stupid enough to believe that he died of illness."

As if the most secret corner was suddenly exposed, Pei Yunxiao suddenly felt guilty.

"Who killed him?"

The young man stared at him with calm and sharp eyes, "Jiang Wan, Aunt Mei, or yourself?"

Pei Yunxiao's head buzzed and he subconsciously took a step back.

"No…"

He muttered and was speechless.

In fact, before the palace change, Pei Di was already a little confused.

Duke Zhaoning's government and the prince were too tightly tied, but Emperor Liang Ming's favorite candidate for heir apparent was the third prince. At that time, they didn't know that Pei Yunying was from Prince Ning, so they thought he was working for the third prince. However, once the third prince ascends the throne, the Pei family will inevitably be suppressed.

Unexpectedly, the snipe and the clam competed, the fisherman benefited, and the final winner was King Ning.

King Ning.

Yuen Long and the former Crown Prince Yuan Xi had a deep brotherhood, but the death of the former Crown Prince Yuan Xi was not innocent. Although the Zhaoning Palace was not directly involved, it was an accomplice who pushed things along. Prince Ning's ascension to the throne will have much more serious consequences than the third prince's ascension to the throne.

The Pei family is in great danger.

Pei Di was indeed furious after learning about the incident and fell ill in bed, but it was not life-threatening. On the contrary, Duke Zhaoning's wife, Jiang Wan, was hurriedly called back to her parents' home by Mr. Jiang, and did not return until the next day.

She found Pei Yunxiao.

Thinking of what Jiang Wan said in front of him that day, Pei Yunxiao couldn't help but tremble.

"Second Young Master," the aunt, who has always been gentle and charming, pulled herself behind the screen and said in a low voice: "Your father may be implicated in an old case of the former prince. The only way to deal with this now is to sin first and ask for mercy."

"Sin?" He was confused.

Jiang Wan glanced at her husband who was sleeping on the couch. Her eyes were no longer soft and gentle, only cold: "If he dies, we can live."

The third young master Pei Yunrui is still young, and Aunt Mei used to only be jealous and unaware of the critical situation. The only smart people in this house are Jiang Wan and Pei Yunxiao. At this time, they have become grasshoppers on a rope. Jiang Wan wanted to use this accusation against him, but he couldn't get away.

He also wants to live.

So he put the quilt over his father's head.

Pei Yunxiao suddenly shuddered.

Pei Yunying stared at him, and suddenly raised her lips, as if she was trying to kill someone, and said word by word: "So, it's you."

"It's not me!" he retorted suddenly, his voice changing with excitement.

not him.

How could it be him?

He was just an ordinary concubine in Duke Zhaoning's palace. In recent years, it was only because Pei Yunying left home that he came into Pei Di's eyes. Even so, he still couldn't keep up with Pei Yunying's status in Pei Di's heart. Later, he had Pei Yunrui. He was not willing to put in all his efforts to make a wedding dress for his brother, but in the end, Jiji Camp was empty.

Perhaps when he put the square silk blanket over his father's face, he felt a moment of revenge.

All the Pei family members witnessed his father's death together.

This cannot be blamed on him.

Pei Yunying looked at him as if he were looking at a ridiculously struggling ant, and the corners of his lips became more sarcastic, "Master Pei raised his son like a wolf. Unexpectedly, in the end, he actually raised a den of wolves."

"Second Young Master Pei," he stood up, walked slowly to Pei Yunxiao, and said calmly, "There is no more Pei family."

There is no more Pei family.

Pei Yunxiao was in a daze for a moment.

Duke Zhaoning's mansion had been defeated. His former brother saw clearly the filth and selfishness under the glamor of the mansion before him, so he hated it and left. Now that his father is gone, no one will protect Duke Zhaoning anymore. Their father's death may leave them with a life, but in the days to come, they can only live in fear and trembling, waiting for the guillotine that may hit their heads at some point in the future.

Pei Yunxiao stumbled out of the door.

Pei Yunying looked at his back expressionlessly until a figure gradually moved towards the door. The man raised his head under the sun and looked at him silently.

He was slightly startled.

The person coming is Lu Yun.

As if she had made a mistake, she whispered: "Sorry, I didn't mean to listen to you."

Pei Yun was silent for a moment: "It doesn't matter."

He turned around and walked back into the house. For the first time, he couldn't force a smile on his face, and Lu Zhu followed him in.

The guards in Pei's mansion all knew her. She had been here several times before, but now it was almost like entering a deserted land. Or maybe Qing Feng deliberately didn't stop her, so as soon as she walked to the door, she bumped into Pei Yunying and the second young master Pei. The confrontational side.

She had heard about the Pei family from Pei Yunshu, but seeing it with her own eyes was different. Pei Yunshu said that the fights in Pei's house were limited to small fights, but now it seems that this is not the case.

It was almost evening, and the early spring sunset fell through the window into the house, casting a soft red glow. Lu Zhuo looked at the person in front of the case. Pei Yunying took a cup and poured her tea, but he didn't look into her eyes.

Lu Yan was silent. Pei Yunying has never mentioned anything about himself. In fact, Lu Chen can roughly guess what he did. If he doesn't mention it, she won't ask. Everyone has secrets in their heart that cannot be told to outsiders. She understands this feeling better than others. If he doesn't want to talk, she won't ask deliberately.

However, today, after he had just responded indifferently to the concubine who came to the door, Lu Zhen could see a rare vulnerability in his avoidance in his eyes.

She suddenly said: "Pei Yunying, you already know all my secrets, why don't you ever tell me about your own affairs?"

He paused.

The sunset slanted through the window, casting a warm color on the person in front of me. The woman's tone was serious, and her eyes were clear as she looked at him, showing that she was serious and wanted to listen.

He was silent for a moment, lowered his eyes, and smiled indifferently.

"I feel ashamed."

"Where is the shame?"

"Father and son kill each other, are selfish, and do nothing to save his wife for his own selfish desires..." He laughed at himself, "With this kind of background, how is it different from the Qi family?"

He said calmly: "I hate myself too."

He had never seen Pei Yunying like this before, and Lu Zhuo's heart softened.

"I don't understand," she said.

"Didn't you already guess it?"

Pei Yunying turned to look at her, her eyes full of bitterness, "The real cause of my mother's death."

He began to react after his mother died.

If the rebel army abducted his mother by chance, then the successive deaths of his grandfather and uncle's family were enough to plant a seed of doubt in the young man's heart.

He secretly sneaked back to his grandfather's house, and through his grandfather's cronies, he finally got a glimpse of clues in the letters left by his grandfather.

There are many doubts about the death of the late Crown Prince Yuan Xi. The "accident" that killed Qiu Shou may have been caused by Emperor Liang Ming.

As the "humerus" of the late emperor, my grandfather's family secretly investigated old cases, which eventually led to disaster.

Emperor Liang Ming, he designed to kill his brother, and then personally killed the late emperor. He sharpened his sword and sharpened his sword to kill all the old people in the court, killing them one by one, just like King Ning is doing now.

Mrs. Zhaoning, his mother may have been vaguely aware of something, but her mother has always been kind and simple, and she would never have thought that the person next to her had decided to treat herself as a victim of imperial power.

That was not a rebellion at all, it was a test given by Emperor Liang Ming to Pei Di. Pei Di did a wonderful job. He made the "right" choice and watched his wife die at the hands of the rebels, fulfilling the cause of justice.

Emperor Liang Ming accepted the surrender.

Duke Zhaoning's mansion continued to be prosperous and wealthy.

The Pei family has a new wife, and Pei Di has a new son. His mother is gradually forgotten by everyone. When everyone mentions it, she is just a vague shadow in the "righteousness" of the rebellion, and they sigh a few words. That's it.

He was the only one who was dissatisfied, angry, and resentful.

No, he's not the only one.

And his teacher, and Prince Ning.

Yuen Long and Yuan Xi were deeply in love when they were young, but their elder brother and father died under mysterious circumstances. The seemingly meek and young Prince Ning volunteered to worship the Changming Lantern in the national temple for three years, but in fact he secretly cultivated and accumulated strength to investigate the death of the prince. One case.

Pei Yunying still remembered that when Yan Xu brought her to the "Idle Prince" for the first time, the young and kind-looking man sat on the chair, looked at him with a smile and said: "Oh, he is still half a man." Big boy, can you endure hardship at such a young age?”

Prince Ning reminded: "This road is not easy to walk."

"You won't know until you try it whether it's good or not," he replied.

Prince Ning smiled, as if he was very satisfied with his ignorance.

"Master Yan, I leave this boy to you."

Then he had a fellow traveler.

It’s a difficult journey, but fortunately we are not alone. He has teachers, companions, and countless people hiding in the dark who work together. After years of searching, I finally got a result.

Even if this result comes a little late.

"So," Lu Chen looked at him, "the two prescriptions you showed me were the prescriptions used by the late emperor?"

Pei Yunying nodded.

Lu Chen suddenly realized.

Those two prescriptions were originally tonics, which at first glance seemed to warm and nourish the body, but if mixed with gold shavings, the body would gradually weaken over time, and eventually he would die of heart failure.

The royal family all used gold utensils. Emperor Ming of Liang replaced the medicinal recipes and used gold utensils to serve them. The tonics became life-giving talismans. He drank them every day. No wonder he passed away soon.

"Not long after I entered the Medical Officer's Hospital, you sneaked into the Medical Officer's Hospital's medical warehouse at night. Is this also for this purpose?"

"This page has not been recorded in the medical records of the late emperor, but it is still preserved in the medical records of the medical official hospital. I came to look for the prescription, but I didn't expect to meet you."

Recalling the scene at that time, Pei Yunying smiled slightly.

At that time, he was looking for the late emperor's prescription before his death, while she was looking for Qi Yutai's medical records. The two people who were searching for each other bumped into each other at that moment. The tacit understanding stops here and does not take another step forward.

Unexpectedly, it was only today, after a long time, that I finally spoke out.

Lu Yan asked: "You have been working for Prince Ning. What have you been doing?"

"A lot." Pei Yun replied, "At first I was just looking for some people and clues, but later I went to the Palace Division, the Imperial City, where things would be much easier."

"Is it your plan to **** someone at the palace banquet?" Lu Yan asked.

The reason why Pei Yunying was promoted so quickly back then was because he sacrificed his life to protect Emperor Liang Ming who was attacked during the royal banquet. Because of this, he quickly reached the position of commander of the front line of the palace, attracting countless red eyes.

"There are gains and losses." He smiled disapprovingly, "It's not what you said. Revenge is always dangerous."

Lu Chen remained silent, only remembering the day they first met Sunan in the ruined temple. Although he looked as if nothing had happened and could threaten her with a dagger, in fact, his body was covered in scars. She still remembered that the scars came from the back, and they were deep and deep. A long one is indeed very dangerous.

She asked: "Did you go to Sunan for this reason?"

"I'm looking for someone. The death of the late prince involves many people. Some people got the news in advance and escaped. The emperor wants to kill people to silence them. My mission is to find them and bring them back to Shengjing."

He spoke in an understatement, but Lu Yan could hear a hint of hardship in his words.

She wanted to make him relax, so she joked: "Does this count as bringing order to chaos?"

Pei Yunying shook his head.

"Actually, I'm not that ambitious. At first, I just wanted revenge."

He was just unwilling to let his mother die like this and wanted justice. It's just that the person he wants to deal with is the most noble person in the world, so the hope of revenge seems extremely slim.

Later, I walked step by step and reached higher ground. More and more people were involved, the burden on my body became heavier and heavier, and I gradually couldn't help myself. If he hadn't met Lu Zhen and his other self in this world, he would have almost forgotten what he looked like when he first vowed to get everything back.

It turned out to be like this, desperate, decisive and crazy.

"Actually, Duke Zhaoning is right about one thing," he said calmly, "After all, my mother's blood is flowing in my body, and the emperor is still suspicious of me. He was the one who spared my life back then."

Admittedly, this protection may be because he is the heir of the Pei family, and Emperor Liang Ming was very relieved about Pei Di after the rebellion, so he lived for so many more years.

Pei Yunying laughed at himself: "He should regret it very much."

The person who protected him finally left the Pei family and turned against the Pei family. Pei Di sacrificed everything for the Pei family. In the end, his wife and children also sacrificed him for the Pei family. The reincarnation of cause and effect is nothing more than this.

Lu Yan stretched out his hand and covered the back of his hand.

He suddenly came out of his memories.

"You've done a great job," she said.

There was a slight warmth on the back of his hands. Once upon a time, the hands that had drawn swords against him would now hold his and comfort him gently. He lowered his head and spoke in a very calm tone.

"It's not honorable to tell about my background and behavior, so I don't want to tell you." He held her hand in his palm, "But if you want to hear it, I can tell you slowly."

"Okay," Lu Chen turned to look at him and said seriously, "Actually, you should have said it a long time ago. You know, I am good at killing people and burying corpses. If I had known it earlier...if I had known it in Sunan, I will definitely find a way to help you get back to Shengjing."

Pei Yunying looked at her, she spoke seriously and couldn't help laughing.

He thought it would be difficult to talk about these embarrassing past events, but it turned out to be nothing more than that. The conspiracies, calculations, humiliations, and tears of the past seemed to have happened a long time ago. The hatred became blurred, and he could no longer remember the sorrows and hatreds of the past. The feeling may still be scarred, but it will always heal.

It's in the past.

"Lu Chen," he lowered his eyes and kissed the forehead of the woman who was leaning next to him, "I will take you to meet my mother tomorrow."

Lu Zhuo raised his head.

"Also let me meet your parents, brothers and sisters."

They will become each other's new family.

She was startled, then smiled: "Okay."