spoiled brat

Chapter 154, Section 153: The Frost's Startling Touch (Part 3)

"Why does Lord Li ask my age?" Xie Xiaoqing replied without changing his expression. "I am seventeen this year, so what?"

Li Qingwen disdained to argue, but the boy couldn't stand it: "Don't play dumb! Just now you suddenly appeared, shoved me aside, and bumped into my master. You know perfectly well what you did! You're supposed to be a scholar, yet you resort to such despicable and laughable tactics!"

Xie Xiaoqing squatted down, washed his hands with the stream water, and waited until the boy had finished shouting before slowly raising his head and meeting Li Qingwen's gaze without fear: "You call smearing a little mud vulgar? You are, after all, Lord Li's personal attendant, how can you have such limited knowledge? Have you never seen anyone hire a hitman to kill or use snakes to take a life?"

The young boy hadn't known Li Qingwen for long and had only seen his refined and scholarly side: "What does such wickedness have to do with my master? Don't beat around the bush; you've offended my master without cause and must apologize—"

Before he could finish speaking, a horse galloped up. It was a minor official from the Ministry of Revenue who dismounted and said, "Lord Li, the grain rations have arrived!"

Li Qingwen's eyes suddenly lit up. He hurriedly asked the boy to fetch a wet cloth, wiped his clothes clean, mounted his horse, gathered his men, and headed back to the city to fetch grain.

Xie Xiaoqing could tell he was genuinely happy, but the grain was allocated to refugees, so what did it have to do with him?
Remembering what Zhao Zhao had said earlier, Xie Xiaoqing spurred his horse to catch up with Li Qingwen and followed him all the way to the outskirts of Taicang.

As the sun sets in early summer, the air is bathed in golden light.

After Li Qingwen and the Ministry of Revenue verified the official seal, they ordered the soldiers to open the granary. Bags of grain were loaded onto oxcarts and transported out of the city in large numbers.

The old official who came to negotiate was very reluctant and patted Li Qingwen on the shoulder: "The world is not good now. Natural disasters and wars are constant. Fields are barren and rice prices are soaring. This grain is hard-won. You must be careful when you provide relief to the refugees and prevent your subordinates from leaking grain and reselling it."

Behind the warehouse wall, there was a corner of a robe. Li Qingwen withdrew his gaze, smiled, and cupped his hands in greeting: "Please rest assured, sir."

Both were Jiang Zemin's supporters. The old official wasn't too wary of his superior's son-in-law. After giving him a few words of advice, he let Li Qingwen take the grain away.

Xie Xiaoqing hid behind the warehouse wall and saw that the old official hadn't even sent anyone to supervise the relief efforts. He sighed inwardly, "What a fool!" Everyone says that the Wu faction ruined the country, but are the Jiang faction, who consider themselves upright, all blind to the truth?
He had a vague premonition that Li Qingwen was up to something. Sure enough, no sooner had the old official left than a eunuch in a blue robe arrived, said a few words, and then left.

coming!

Zhao Zhao guessed correctly; this fellow really does have something going on with the eunuchs!
Xie Xiaoqing stared intently at Li Qingwen when a gust of wind blew by, blinding him with chaff. When his vision cleared, Li Qingwen had vanished.

Xie Xiaoqing hurriedly looked around, his eyes catching a glimpse of green in the chaotic crowd—it was that annoying green official robe!
He hurried after him, afraid of missing Li Qingwen's affair with the eunuch, but after chasing the green shadow for a while, the road became narrower and the people fewer and fewer, and the surroundings gradually became desolate. He ended up in a poor alley!

With no way forward and only a high wall standing in the way, Xie Xiaoqing stared at it for a while before squatting down in frustration.

Zhao Zhao is right, he's more trouble than he's worth, he can even lose track of a living person!
Just as he was feeling dejected, a shadow crept up to his feet, and Xie Xiaoqing's scalp tingled. He instinctively tried to dodge.

But how could he dodge the heavy blows of the stick? They had been waiting for him for a long time!
Caught off guard by the blow, Xie Xiaoqing felt a splitting headache, his vision went black, his limbs lost all strength, and his bones felt like they had collapsed! The person holding the stick looked down at Xie Xiaoqing and, seeing him trying to escape, quickly followed up with several more blows, each one aimed at killing Xie Xiaoqing.

Xie Xiaoqing's head was smashed open. As a dying man, he always has to utter a few curses. He wanted to curse Li Qingwen to be torn to pieces, but when he opened his mouth, only blood and foam gushed out. He didn't utter a single word. Instead, he was choked by the sweet and bloody taste in his mouth. His last bit of strength dissipated, and he died a pathetic death with his eyes wide open.

-

pain.

It hurts.

Xie Xiaoqing never expected that the skull that had been cracked open in his life would still hurt when he became a ghost in the underworld. He had difficulty concentrating his consciousness and could not open his eyes.

This is not surprising; the book says that new ghosts are as ignorant as babies.

The book also says that new ghosts must cross the River of Oblivion by boat to enter the underworld. Xie Xiaoqing listened intently and heard the sound of flowing water. Sure enough, he was on the River of Oblivion!

If that's the case, then there must be Black and White Impermanence to guide them. Although Xie Xiaoqing was in so much pain that he couldn't open his eyes, he could still discern the location of the rowing ghost and vaguely asked, "Is it the ghost messenger?"

The sound of oars paused, and an old voice answered, "Yes."

The tone was very strange, too flat and slow, the words were not pronounced, but it didn't seem like it was deliberately put on.

Xie Xiaoqing thought to himself that this was indeed a ghost. He rarely interacted with mortals and had even forgotten how to speak. He said, “Ghost messenger, I was beaten by a thief’s stick in my previous life. My skull is probably cracked open and it hurts terribly. Please hurry up and send me to be reincarnated so that I won’t have to suffer the same pain as in my previous life.”

The ghost snorted, "It's no use trying to hurry up. Reincarnation depends on opportunity. Someone like you who does evil will have to wait at least several decades!"

“I have always lived an upright and honest life, and I have never done anything wrong.”

"You aided and abetted the wicked."

"Ridiculous! You must have mistaken me for a ghost!" Xie Xiaoqing cried out, "I was framed by a villain, yet you slander me!"

The ghost messenger asked, "Then why did you conspire with that little prostitute to murder the second son of the Li family?"

Xie Xiaoqing wondered if he had misheard: "We plotted to kill him? That's utterly outrageous! My uncles and aunts appreciated him, took him in and raised him for ten years, saving him from homelessness and hunger, only to be betrayed like that. Shouldn't I avenge him?!"

The ghost messenger remained silent, and Xie Xiaoqing continued, "You are not from the mortal realm, so why do you speak of worldly matters like a mortal? Did that girl choose to come from a brothel? Her mother used her savings to support the man surnamed Li to go to the capital for the imperial examination, and after he succeeded, he hired assassins to slaughter her entire family! Shouldn't such deep hatred be avenged?" The ghost messenger finally spoke, "That woman took advantage of the kindness she received and insisted on becoming Li Er's principal wife, but how can a second-place scholar marry a prostitute? And how can he have a shameful past? A person who does great things should not have a past."

Xie Xiaoqing gritted his teeth: "Then why did he kill my uncles?"

The ghost sneered, "That bitch had some pitiful infatuation, but your uncle died without any injustice. Do you think he treated Li Er? Li Er was your age when he came to the capital, young and handsome, and he just happened to run into that beast of a man, your uncle..."

The idea of ​​ingratitude being described so lightly made Xie Xiaoqing's eyelids twitched. He bent his fingers and suddenly realized he was bent inside a large barrel... Are ghosts transported in barrels in the underworld?
The canopy above his head was shoved aside, and by the dim moonlight, Xie Xiaoqing could see the person in front of him clearly. This was no ghost messenger at all, but a dirty old man in his fifties who said in a menacing tone, "We've arrived. You should get off the boat now."

Xie Xiaoqing was still alive. The men sent by Li Qingwen did not kill him directly, but instead transported him to the North River outside the city, put him in a barrel and sank him into the river, killing him without leaving a trace!
"You..." Xie Xiaoqing was tied up in the barrel and couldn't break free no matter what he did. He cursed loudly, "You and that Li fellow will die a horrible death!"

The river was turbulent, and the old man didn't lower the anchor, causing the boat to rock uncontrollably.

He moved the bucket to the edge of the boat and said, word by word, "You and that little prostitute will die a horrible death. My husband, such a good man, will live a long and peaceful life, achieve unparalleled feats, and be remembered for generations." After saying this, he kicked the bucket, and the bucket carrying the man rolled overboard. Xie Xiaoqing's curses were drowned out by the river.

—Coo coo.

The trees are deep and the moon is cold; the sound of cuckoos calling in the night can be heard.

Xiu Yi gently tugged on the reins, slowed the horse's hooves, watched the startled birds fly away in the woods for a while, and then calmly looked away.

The wind was strong by the river, and He Bi's torch swayed and trembled. He muttered, "Master, this isn't our fiefdom. Why do we have to patrol outside the city every night?"

Xiu Yi lowered his eyes and looked at the pale moonlight on the ground, lost in thought, his jade-like face somewhat lonely.

He gestured for his attendants to move away, then lowered his voice and said, "Are you really bothered by this?" He paused, then suddenly realized, "No wonder we never stay in the mansion; out of sight, out of mind!"

Xiu Yi said calmly, "No."

The two grew up together and were more like brothers than master and servant.

Why bother knowing he's cold-hearted, has a sharp tongue, and keeps everything to himself? Someone needs to speak up for him: "Are you afraid Zhao Zhao'er will get involved with that poor scholar?"

They've already gotten involved.

Xiu Yi still said, "No."

“It’s obvious!” Why did you steer the horse toward him? “Ever since Minister Jiang’s birthday banquet, you haven’t said a single word to her, and you even avoid her at the Princess’s place, like a mouse hiding from a cat.”

"If you say you don't care, that's certainly true on the surface. But every time I present the behavior of the servants in the mansion to you, you always turn to her page first."

The Princess's residence is extremely careful in its personnel management, keeping records of all comings and goings.

Xiu Yi knew that Xie Xiaoqing, with his temperament and family background, could not possibly have so accurately catered to Minister Jiang's preferences; someone must have been helping him plan it.

He also knew where Zhaozhao had been recently. She and Xie Xiaoqing had met three times at Xiangyun Inn, each time in a private room, alone together for an hour or two.

"Actually, it doesn't have to be that complicated."

The night breeze by the river was cool, and I felt quite comfortable as I stretched on my horse.

“You are of noble status, while she is merely a maidservant, unworthy to be a wife. Taking a concubine is easy for you. My lord, why bother competing with a poor scholar for your affections? You were born to be a man of the highest position; whatever you want, you can simply reach out and take it, or even snatch it.”

He could break every bone in her body and manipulate her into any shape he wanted, if he so desired.

Xiu Yi said indifferently, "There are too many people in the world who have looked down on her, and I shouldn't be one of them."

Raise your hand, point the whip north, and the moonlight cascades down like a silver waterfall, turning the mountains and rivers into a frosty white expanse.

Tonight, the wind is gentle and the clouds are light. In the distance, several beacon towers can be vaguely seen, their smoke signals flickering as if about to ignite. News of successive victories from the front lines has been pouring in, and the people all think that a great victory is just around the corner. But this is not the case. Only Minister Jiang Xiuyi and his associates, who are involved in confidential matters, know how difficult the battle is.

"With a great battle imminent, I will have to go north sooner or later." Xiu Yi said calmly. "How can someone whose life is uncertain dare to dream of love? It's better to come and go without any worries, thus saving myself a lot of trouble."

A fire that hasn't been lit should be extinguished, not allowed to linger on.

Why waste a moment? Now I understand.

Just as they were about to offer some words of advice about enjoying life to the fullest, they noticed something floating on the shimmering river surface, which looked like a wooden barrel used by ordinary people to store wine.

There was a white line along the edge of the bucket, an eerie, strange white.

Xiu Yi also saw it, and upon closer inspection, he realized it was a group of people. His face darkened: "Send someone to retrieve them."