Ink Burns

Chapter 127 The Best Scapegoat

The sudden appearance of the onlookers made He Wuma stunned in place. After her slow mind got stuck, she screamed in shock, crawled to Zhu's side on her knees, spread her arms and subconsciously protected Zhu behind her, crying, "What does this mean?"

"What's the meaning!"

"It means we've been set up!"

Zhu's voice suddenly rose!

She dragged He Wuma back with her backhand, slowly straightened her back, and fixed her eyes on Shanyue's face, almost burning sparks: "I hunt eagles all day, but I got pecked in the eye by a sparrow. You hide your incompetence very well, but you are not as skilled as others. I am willing to admit defeat. I, Zhu Caijin, admit it!"

Shan Yue bowed with soft eyes, and offered a gentle blessing, but it would be disrespectful to refuse.

"You killed... You killed... Xiaokan..." Xue Changfeng walked out of the dark room tremblingly, his pupils blank, his knees weak, barely able to support him to stand, he staggered and almost fell to the ground: "My wife, who I have slept with for twenty years, turned out to be a female killer who would kill gods and Buddhas who stood in her way!"

Xue Changfeng's back was soaked with cold sweat, and he felt a surge of fear in his heart: "Who are you? Who are you?"

Zhu originally had her back to Xue Changfeng. Upon hearing this, she lowered her head and her shoulders shrugged outwards as if she was losing air. After a long while, Zhu's thin shoulder blades moved slightly like a blue swallowtail butterfly spreading its wings: "Ha, ha, ha"

Zhu was laughing, and she turned around slowly as she laughed: "Who am I? Who am I? I have been lying beside you for twenty years. I am your wife! I am a first-rank lady! I am the mistress of the Xue family! I am Xue Chen's mother!"

"If I hadn't killed anyone, how could I have come to your side?" Zhu stood on tiptoe and raised her hands high: "You are the second son of the Xue family, high above everyone else, like the moon! Like the moon hanging on the shore! And what about me?"

"I'm just a drop of water! A drop of dirty water!"

Zhu's eyes were filled with tears. "I was an orphan from the Zhu family who was stranded outside. My mother was a prostitute, and was coaxed into becoming a woman by Master Zhu, who then abandoned me and my mother in Fanlou to fend for ourselves. After my mother died, I lived with Baishun's family, but we couldn't go on like this - I was found by the Zhu family! My elder sister Yingkan had a weak body since she was a child, and after she came of age, she was living a life of mediocrity. It happened that a good marriage was offered to the Zhu family, but they were reluctant to let me go, and were afraid of causing dislike from the wealthy nobles in the capital, so they pushed me out."

"Xue Lang——"

Zhu spoke in a gentle voice, tears rolling down her cheeks. Her figure was slender and graceful, and her long, soft hands and wrists were hidden in her wide sleeves, revealing her fragility and helplessness: "You were originally my stolen luck. Now the Baishun family and I have been tricked, and the truth has been revealed. This drop of muddy dirty water of mine will eventually return to the mud."

"You can dislike me or divorce me, but I just hope you don't hate me."

Zhu spoke in a sorrowful voice, with a gentle and sorrowful tone in her voice: "For the past twenty years, you and I have supported each other and accompanied each other day and night. Just think of this marriage, this child, and this family fortune that I have saved up with all my hard work as mine, and as the precious things I have exchanged with the gods for the rest of my life!"

Xue Changfeng's expression changed from fear to sadness.

I just feel that fate is playing tricks on me, and gods and Buddhas are unpredictable: a little girl is just a floating leaf in the control of the clan and the impermanence of the world. She will land wherever the wind blows, take root, bloom and bear fruit - just as she said, their meeting is just a coincidence by chance.
Zhu said shrilly, "Xue Lang! In the next life! In the next life, I will be born worthy of you!"

Zhu turned his head and swooped down towards the knife that Xue Xiao was holding in one hand.

Xue Changfeng was startled.

Shanyue lowered her head and said nothing, listening to Zhu's slow and autumnal writing style and blurring out the key points. She stepped back silently to make it easier for Zhu to charge forward.

The cold blade is right in front of you.

Zhu opened her sleeves and loosened her clothes, like a moth flying into the fire, without any hesitation or wavering.

The blade was getting closer.

Zhu clenched her back teeth and closed her eyes. At the moment of life and death, she was pulled aside by a strong force and collided with Xue Changfeng.

"Xiao Kan, Xiao Kan, did you kill him?" Xue Changfeng asked loudly!
Zhu's quest for death came even more suddenly, and he had no time to react. He could only follow his body's subconscious reaction: save her and find out!

Zhu cried in Xue Changfeng's arms: "How can I kill her? How dare I kill her! If she is really hopeless, according to my stepmother's penny-pinching personality, how could she allow me to be taken into the Zhu Mansion! Baishun's family was locked up by Xue Xiao and became stupid. She said that I reduced the dosage of the medicine for the eldest sister by half, which caused her death. You are a scholar, you have a promising future. Think about it, how can taking less medicine cost a person's life! It was the eldest sister who asked me to do this! The medicine is too bitter and the body is too painful. She has lost the will to live. She can only ask me to tell her not to drink such bitter medicine, so that she can die more comfortably!"

"I have seen you since you came to Zhenjiang Prefecture as a child. I hid in Fan Tower and secretly took a look at you. When I knew I was going to marry you, I was so happy that I almost died." Zhu half leaned on Xue Changfeng's chest, grabbed Xue Changfeng's clothes, and sobbed and murmured.

Xue Changfeng's face was also full of tears: he didn't know whether it was for Xiaokan, the savior in his dream, or for his step-wife who had been with him for decades. In his tearful memory, Xiaokan's face and his wife Zhu's face alternated back and forth, and they had overlapped without him knowing when.

He has lived a really comfortable life in the past twenty years.

His step-wife was gentle and considerate, treating him like a god and always putting him first in everything, even his own son Xue Chen had to give way!
Since the death of the former crown prince, no one listened to his words in the court, and he was like a dispensable duckweed;

But at home, in the main courtyard, in the main room, he is God, and his words and his will are the highest instructions for his step-wife.

The reason is simple, just because his wife loves him!

This kind of respect and love cannot be found anywhere else!

Is it just like that? Pick it up high and put it down gently?
Xue Changfeng was in a painful dilemma, his face full of tears: "Fate plays tricks on us, fate plays tricks on us!"

In the eyes of someone who doesn't know the situation, this must be a pair of ill-fated and ill-fated mandarin ducks.

Shan Yue raised her head: Zhu is really smart. Even if she is exposed, she can save herself quickly.

He is very good at the Spring and Autumn style of calligraphy.

Zhu was sure of one thing - as long as there was no evidence to prove that she killed Xiaokan, she still had room to maneuver with Xue Changfeng. As for the other lawsuits, wouldn't it just pass without the people bringing them up and the officials not bothering them?

"Where's my mother?"

A low voice broke this absurd "love".

Xue Xiao, dressed in black, stood behind him, holding the scabbard tightly in his right hand, with a cold look between his brows: "He Wuma said that she killed my mother, and it was she who traveled thousands of miles to the capital to clear obstacles for the Zhu family - how do you settle this account?"

Zhu froze.

He Wuma woke up as if from a dream, and kowtowed on the ground: "It's my fault! It's my fault! I was lying! I thought the lady wanted to kill me! I hated it! I said anything! It's my fault! It's my fault! I was framing the lady! I was slandering the lady!"

Xue Xiao raised his eyes and stared at Xue Changfeng fiercely: "Do you believe it?" Xue Changfeng opened his mouth but said nothing. After a long while, he said: "How can a woman like them sneak from Zhenjiang Prefecture to the capital to kill Su?"

Zhu leaned in Xue Changfeng's arms, her eyebrows slightly drooped, and a faint smile appeared at the corners of her mouth.

Xue Xiao's trembling and tense muscles and flesh were hidden within his tight black clothes.

"liquor--"

After a while, Xue Xiao slowly raised his head: "You killed my mother with wine, and it was this wine pot that contained the poison—"

Zhu raised her chin slightly in Xue Changfeng's arms: "Words are not enough, and we can't make a conclusion based on guesses alone!"

The witnesses changed their testimonies, the physical evidence was insufficient, and the officials were incompetent, so it was impossible to conclude the case.

Xue Xiao ignored him and continued in a deep voice: "The Su family is a Hakka family from southern Fujian. Although it is a bad custom, according to custom, after giving birth, the mother will drink a cup of wine - that cup of wine, is it filled in this wine pot? - The midwife who served the wine is this He Mama, right? As for how a woman came to Beijing, you have to ask Madam Zhu -"

Xue Xiao paused and said, "I heard that there is an organization in the Jiangnan officialdom called 'Qingfeng'?"

There is nothing to respond to when there is no verdict.

What's more, the official who judged the case didn't care about this case.

Zhu raised her chin slightly and looked at Xue Xiao calmly.

The look was defiant and fearless.

So?

Even if you guess the truth, so what?

So what if we bring out "Qingfeng"?
As long as she could explain the way Xiaokan died, what else could she do? Even if Xue Changfeng listened, thought about it, and half believed it, given his personality, how could he have the courage to scrape his bones to heal his wounds and cut off his arm?

He can only smooth things over! He pretends nothing happened! He knows nothing!
Zhu's face was filled with pride, just like when she entered the post station, with all-powerful hands and eyes.

Xue Xiao asked Xue Changfeng again: "Master Xue, if your family members do evil, do you care or not?"

Xue Changfeng's thoughts paused for a moment: as far as he could remember, after Su gave birth, she suffered heavy bleeding and was stopped by acupuncture from the hospital director abducted by his eldest brother-in-law. Everyone was delighted and a midwife indeed served a glass of wine according to Hakka custom.

He had a bad memory and had long forgotten what the midwife looked like. He only remembered that she kept her head hunched and his face could not be seen clearly, but she was short and fat, and the fingers holding the wine jug were very short, like a few short and fat pestles.

and many more.

矮肥
Short fingers
Xue Changfeng turned his gaze to He Wuma.

At this time, He Wuma also had her head hunched, her body spread out on the ground like rotten meat, her short, fat fingers placed on her legs bloodlessly and uncomfortably.

"Wh, what organization? What 'Qingfeng'!?"

Xue Changfeng was unwilling to face the doubt in his heart: "Have you gone crazy from handling cases? The emperor hates forming cliques in the court for personal gain the most! The officialdom in Jiangnan is huge, they have several heads on their necks, how dare they instigate these things!? - Damn it, don't be too crazy!"

The dead cannot be resurrected, so we can only cherish the people around us!

Xue Changfeng also wore a sachet of dried jasmine flowers carefully prepared by Zhu.

If Zhu was taken away, wouldn't his story of gratitude and deep love between husband and wife become a joke? ?

"Your mother is dead! Your uncle's family was confiscated and exiled by the order of the late emperor! Are you going to dig up the late emperor's grave to vent your anger?" Xue Changfeng held Zhu in his arms and said earnestly: "Forgive her when you can, why do you keep pursuing her? Zhu was wrong, I will investigate, whether it's to build a family temple at home or to put her under house arrest, but never let her come out to defile you again-"

"Swoosh——" a loud noise broke through the air!

There is no need to endure it anymore!
Xue Xiao suddenly tapped the ground with his toes, holding the knife in both hands, and flew into the air. With lightning speed, he flipped sideways over the obstacles of the four plan tables like a crane in the sky, a tiger in the mountains, and a lion in the ground. With a whistle that broke through the void, he chopped Zhu's head with his knife!

Time and space seemed to stand still.

Zhu's expression and appearance are silent in the still time and space!
I do not know how long it has been!

A blood mark spread out from the top of Zhu's head and stopped at his jaw!

Zhu's eyes bulged, and after a moment's pause, he fell to the ground with a bang. A large pool of bright red blood slowly seeped out of the ground.

Xue Xiao used Zhu Zhu's force to turn over, with the back of his knife facing upwards, and chopped down with the blade, rushing straight towards Xue Changfeng again!

The sharpness of the blade was suddenly retracted in an instant!

At some point, Shan Yue, who had been standing quietly in the shadow, ran over quickly, opened his arms to block Xue Changfeng, pursed his lips, and looked at Xue Xiao with burning eyes.

Xue Xiao suddenly retracted his strength, his legs recoiled on the ground, the handle of the knife hit his chest, and in anger, he spat out a mouthful of blood on the ground: "You don't want to die! -"

The blade wind formed by internal force cut a bloody mark on Shanyue's face!
"Your face!" Xue Xiao shouted angrily, not caring about the blood spurting out, his eyes only focused on the wound on Shanyue's left cheek that was slowly oozing blood.

"We need someone to pay for Zhu Caijin's death."

Shan Yue shook his head nonchalantly, shaking off the blood on his face: "Xue Changfeng is the best scapegoat."

　A fat chapter

　　(End of this chapter)