Strange Records of Xijing

Pei Jingxing's hand trembled, and the pen fell heavily on the table, leaving thick ink on the paper.

"Pei Street Envoy?" The Jinwu Guard who sent the message saw him, and said again, "The inner eunuch outside urged you tightly, saying that His Highness the Crown Prince invites you to enter the palace immediately."

Pei Jingxing took a deep breath: "I see, you go out and ask the inner eunuch to wait for a while, and I will come right away."

The current crown prince lives in the East Palace, even though Pei Jingxing is the envoy of the Jinwu Guard, if he wants to enter, he must take off his saber outside the palace gate and hand it to the accompanying Habayashi Guard.

Ever since they came back from the Western Regions, the crown prince has lived in the East Palace for a long time, not even showing up during major festivals such as New Year's Eve and Lantern Festival every year. It is no wonder that the news of the crown prince's death has been wildly spread in Xijing for a while.

After careful calculation, Pei Jingxing had not seen the prince for four years.

The more Pei Jingxing thought about it, the more strange it became. The actions of Zhu Zhiwen and Niu Chunhui during this period reminded him of that bad experience, and he had a very bad guess in his heart.The prince's sudden call made Pei Jingxing feel even more uneasy. On the way to the East Palace, there was already a layer of cold sweat on his back.

"Eunuch, why did the prince suddenly call today?"

The eunuch who led the way did not turn his head, the voice came from the front, was blown by the cold wind in the palace, and got into Pei Jingxing's ears in fragments: "His Royal Highness only asked Pei Street envoy to enter the palace for a while, and did not Say something else."

The doubts in Pei Jingxing's heart deepened, but the crown prince ordered him to follow the eunuch who led the way to the East Palace.

After entering the East Palace, the inner eunuch led Pei Jingxing around the main hall, and stopped in front of a magnificent palace at the back.

"Pei Street Envoy, please wait here," the inner eunuch turned to Pei Jingxing and said, "Our family will go in first to pass the message to Pei Street Envoy."

"Eunuch, please."

After he waited for a while, the inner eunuch came out again, and put on a "please" posture: "Pei Street Envoy, please."

After entering the hall, layers of thick curtains came rushing towards him. A palace man stood next to each layer of curtains, silently pulling the curtains in front of Pei Jingxing, and then quickly put them down to avoid the cool breeze outside the hall. It blows in and disturbs the nobles in the hall.

Pei Jingxing passed through more than twenty layers of curtains, and only then did he see a huge bed, on which lay a young man in a yellow underwear, with black hair loose, which just covered his face.

The hall was very deserted, there were only three palace attendants, one of them stood by the bed, and the other two stood by the curtain.The outermost circle of the house is inlaid with a huge night pearl every arm's length, and three fist-sized night pearls are inlaid on the pillar beside the bed. The whole room is only illuminated by these beads, and the air is filled with An unfamiliar aroma, quite refreshing.

"I've seen His Highness the Crown Prince." Pei Jingxing stopped when there were still a dozen steps away, and saluted the person sitting and lying on the bed.

There was a palace attendant beside the bed, she leaned over and heard the prince's whisper, and then stood up straight and told Pei Jingxing: "Pei Street envoy, please get up. The prince has something to say, please come forward and speak."

Pei Jingxing frowned, and when he raised his head, he returned to his usual appearance, and walked slowly to the side of the bed.

"Huaiyi, you're here." The person on the bed was very angry, his hoarse voice fluctuated from far to near, every time he said a few words he had to stop to catch his breath, very tired.

"Your Highness, Your Majesty bestowed the humble name Jing Xing, and the word Huai Yi has nothing to do with the humble position." Pei Jingxing did not have any nostalgia for the original name, and coldly corrected the mistakes in the crown prince's words.

"What?" The prince laughed at himself, "Why don't you raise your head and look at me?"

Pei Jingxing lowered his head and said, "I don't dare to be humble."

"Hehe, don't you dare?" The prince suddenly punched the bed, "I see, you have a grudge!"

"Your Highness!" The palace attendant by the bed hurriedly supported the prince, patted the prince's back lightly with one hand, and comforted him, "Did your highness forget the instructions from the national teacher? Don't get angry!"

"Go away!" The prince stretched out his hand to push the palace man, but unexpectedly he fell backward instead.

The palace man quickly supported the prince, but soon let go and stood aside again.

The prince looked at his skinny hands, laughed and cried: "You hate me, you hate me, you should hate me!"

Feeling disgusted in Pei Jingxing's heart, he lowered his head and said, "I don't know what is the important thing for the prince to enter the call?"

"No, it's important, I can't come, can I see you?" The prince looked at Pei Jingxing with a pair of cloudy eyes, "Raise your head and look at me."

Pei Jingxing had no choice but to raise his head. When he saw the appearance of the prince in front of him at first glance, he was so frightened that he couldn't help but take a step back - the prince in his impression was full of spirit, but where was the skeleton-like person on the bed?

Seeing Pei Jingxing's reaction, the prince laughed at himself and said, "How, I didn't expect that?"

Pei Jingxing was flustered in his heart and asked, "How did the prince become like this?"

"Retribution, it's all retribution." The prince sighed with difficulty, "After returning from the Western Regions, within a year, I became, like this."

"But..." Pei Jingxing was still puzzled, but he only had two words to say, so he didn't know how to say it.

The prince didn't care, and finished speaking for Pei Jingxing: "But, you are not like this, are you?"

Pei Jingxing said: "I don't dare to be in a humble position."

"Huaiyi, no, Pei Jieshi." When he said these three words, the prince's eyes were full of regret and guilt. His lips trembled for a while before he continued, "We've been back for four years, right?"

"Exactly."

"Actually, I don't want to." The prince's gaze began to go blank, as if he was recalling that period of experience, "At that time, we, too, had nowhere to go."

When Pei Jingxing heard this justification, all the anger that had been suppressed for four years surged up in his heart: "Desperate? Does Your Highness know how I saved my life at that time?"

The prince was taken aback for a moment, and then he stammered for a long time to explain: "You...you are alone, but...but we, we...we have four of us."

Pei Jingxing, who lowered his head, closed his eyes. The only sadness he felt when he saw the prince today was gone. His voice returned to his usual appearance, and he said without any emotion: "It's a lowly position that is presumptuous."

"Are you blaming me?" The prince asked him, "Are you still blaming me?"

Pei Jingxing just felt annoyed: "Don't dare."

"Don't dare to blame?" The prince laughed dryly, "It seems that it is strange."

Pei Jingxing felt that he would go crazy if he continued to stay here, and reminded the prince again: "Dare to ask the prince to call for a lowly position today, what is the important thing?"

"I heard that you and a...cough cough, Taoist priest, are you walking very close?"

Pei Jingxing thought of Su Yan and said, "Who did the prince listen to? Niu Chunhui?"

"That's right," the prince admitted directly, "Aren't you the most hated Taoist priest?"

"Thank you, Your Highness, for your concern, but if you don't talk too much, if you make friends, why should you look at his identity?"

The prince laughed again, panting with difficulty, and said, "I really envy him. Mr. Pei Jie, tell me, if I did the same thing as you back then, would you still consider me a friend? "

Pei Jingxing replied ambiguously: "Your Highness is Your Highness."

"Really?" The prince coughed out phlegm, cleared his throat, and continued, "We used to be friends."

The prince's attitude made Pei Jingxing's heart burn with anger: "I don't know if the prince is friends with Wang Baoping, Shen Guochang, and Duan Quxie?"

The prince was at a loss for words, and it took a long time before he said, "As expected, you still hate me."

Pei Jingxing only said: "I don't dare to be in a humble position."

"Forget it, it's all over." The prince did not continue to entangle on this issue, he gave the palace attendant by the bed a wink, and the palace attendant took out a post from the side and handed it to Pei Jingxing.

Pei Jingxing saw it, but he didn't open it, but looked at the prince.

"Open it, it's Niu Chunhui, here it is."

Only then did Pei Jingxing open it, and it turned out to be an invitation card. Niu Chunhui, Zhu Zhiwen, and Zhao Shimin invited the crown prince to a banquet in five days.

"Yes, it's been four years, let's get together." The crown prince looked at Pei Jingxing and said word by word, "Do you know what is there for this banquet? Do you have food?"

The prince's question was too abnormal, and the bad feeling in Pei Jingxing's heart became a little stronger: "I don't know."

"Niu Chunhui, say, there is a dish that we, the Western Regions, have tasted, and there is another dish that we have never eaten, but it is the same and delicious."

He tasted it in the Western Regions and brought it up mysteriously. Pei Jingxing thought about it and could only think of that.

In his shock, the post slipped from his hands and fell soundlessly onto the thick woolen blanket.

"You knew already?"

Pei Jingxing was furious: "Back then you said you were desperate, why did you do such an outrageous thing now? These days, children, girls and some little monsters have been missing in Xijing, and you did it?"

Seeing that Pei Jingxing blamed him, the crown prince anxiously wanted to defend himself, but the more anxious he was to defend himself, the more he couldn't speak clearly, and even speaking became very difficult, he opened his mouth and began to breathe rapidly.

The palace servants hurriedly stepped forward to please the prince, looked at Pei Jingxing, and blamed him: "Bold! Dare to be disrespectful to His Royal Highness, today you will be let out of the East Palace sideways!"

"Presumptuous!" The prince slapped his backhand, and he put all his strength into the slap, and after the slap, he slid limply on the bed.

The palace man ignored the burning pain on his face, and stretched out his hand to serve, but the prince dodged sideways.

"Come on, pull it out."

Two other palace servants in the room stepped forward and dragged the palace servant down.Afterwards, another palace servant came in from outside the palace, stood quietly beside the bed, and carefully helped the prince up.

"Mr. Pei, I don't know about this matter." The prince panted and explained to Pei Jingxing, "I'm looking for you, and I hope you can stop this matter."

Pei Jingxing felt it was ridiculous and desolate at the same time. This matter that the prince could solve with a single sentence, but in order to cover up the evil deeds four years ago, he put the responsibility on him.

Pei Jingxing couldn't help thinking of four years ago, when Niu Guogong, Zhu Guogong, and Yingwuhou Wu Shunzhi wrote a letter together, asking the emperor to grant him a death penalty, only his master Zhang Feiran ran around overnight, risking the death penalty from the camp thousands of miles away. All the way back to Xijing, he begged the emperor to spare himself the death penalty with a frosty face.

And this prince who claimed to be his friend, what was he doing at that time?

In order to cover up their crimes, is it necessary to kill the only insider?

Thinking of this, Pei Jingxing closed his eyes wearily, and said, "I will obey you."

These four words shattered the prince's last hope, and the only light in his cloudy eyes dimmed, without any vitality.

He hated Pei Jingxing's cruelty, but hated himself even more for his cowardice.If he had the courage to face and endure all this, how could Pei Jingxing despise him so much?

Thousands of words rushed into the prince's throat, but he swallowed them all back.He knew that what he did back then was not something he could just write off in one sentence.

After a long time, the prince sighed and waved his hands: "I'm sorry."

When Pei Jingxing came out of the East Palace and returned to the inner office, the prisoner who was arrested yesterday had already been released.

A Jinwu guard told Pei Jingxing about the incident: "Shortly after Pei Street Envoy left, Niu Chunhui sent someone over again, and happened to meet General Shen. When General Shen found out about this, he ordered the prisoner to be released, and asked that person to report to him on his behalf. Niu Chunhui told him to restrain his servants so as not to cause trouble again."

Pei Jingxing only felt that his whole body was exhausted, the prisoner was useless, and he didn't bother to investigate further: "Okay, I understand."

Jin Wuwei didn't go down immediately, but said again: "General Shen asked the humble officer to convey a message to Pei Street Envoy, think twice before doing anything, and don't make the same mistakes again."

Pei Jingxing could only smile wryly: "I remember."

That night, Su Yan, Pei Jingxing and the little demons gathered at Pei Jingxing's house. According to the dictation of the little demons, Pei Jingxing drew the general terrain of Niu Guogong's mansion.

Pei Jingxing finished his pen, looked at Su Yan and the little demons gathered around him, and forgot the powerlessness and guilt of the day.When the pen and ink on the paper were dry, he put away the map, picked up the dragon head and tiger tooth gun: "Let's go."