The snow was rustling at night, and the doormen in the Pan Mansion were too cold to sleep, so they just sat together to drink and gamble.
A few dice were placed in a bowl. One person rubbed his hands, put the two bowls together, raised his arms and shook them to make a sound. The others were guessing the size, but they heard a hurried knock on the door.
It was almost midnight, who would knock on the door at this time? The doormen looked at each other, then two of them got up and went out to unlock the door.
As the door was opened by the two of them from the inside, a warm yellow light was cast at their feet. A doorman looked up and saw that the visitor was holding a glass lantern in his hand.
The doorman saw that he was only wearing a quilted shirt with fur trim, and he was not wearing a thick cloak. He must have been very cold, his body was shaking, and his face had a strange expression. He said, "I have something urgent to do. I need to see your master..."
The doorman felt that he looked familiar, but could not recognize him at first. However, seeing that he was dressed in rich clothes, he did not dare to neglect him. He responded and hurriedly went to call the eunuch in the mansion.
"Master Ding?"
The official in charge of the Pan residence followed Pan Youfang and recognized him immediately.
"The master has gone to bed, Lord Ding, you may as well sit for a while." Nei Zhi said as he led Ding Jin inside.
The Pan Mansion is very large. There are gatekeepers and guards living in the lower rooms connected to the corridors in the inner and outer courtyards. Even on such a cold winter night, there are still strong guards carrying swords, patrolling back and forth.
Ding Jin said nothing. The cold sweat on his forehead slid down the side of his face. The chill made his whole body tremble like a sieve. He didn't dare to look back and could only move forward with heavy steps.
A servant came running over and whispered something to the clerk, who then turned around and leaned over to Ding Jin and said, "Master Ding, the master has stood up. I will lead you to the main hall."
The eunuch had someone light a charcoal basin in the main hall in advance. When Ding came in, she hurriedly asked him to sit down and called a maid to serve tea.
Ding Jin didn't say anything, nor did he drink tea. Seeing him sitting by the charcoal basin, his legs were trembling and his face was pale. He felt a little strange, "Master Ding, why don't you give this lamp to..."
As he spoke, Neizhi reached out to take the lamp from his hand.
“No need!”
Ding Jin dodged his hand as if he were facing a formidable enemy.
Neizhi was startled by his roar. He took a few steps back, wondering how he had displeased the master, when he heard a voice from outside the door: "It's so late, what are you doing here?"
Neizhi turned around, "Master."
"You can get out now."
Pan Youfang gathered her clothes and said as she walked in.
"yes."
The internal official immediately bowed his head, then led the servants out and closed the door.
"Tonight, the Imperial Guards and Cavalry Division are going to search for Zhang Xinen of the Lotus Sect. It's curfew night. Why are you running around at this time?" Pan Youfang looked at him and found that his face was extremely ugly. "What's going on? Why are you in such a state?"
"I……"
Ding Jin did not stand up, still sitting stiffly in the chair.
He is really strange.
Pan Youfang frowned, "Why are you so hesitant? Just say it if you have something to say! I don't have the time to spend half the night here with you!"
The candlelight is dim and the charcoal fire is crackling.
Ding Jin's neck was stiff, and his voice was trembling as he spoke, "There are so many highly skilled guards in Pan Sansi's mansion, surrounding the mansion in three layers. Is it... is it because you are afraid?"
Pan Youfang had just walked to the table to take a sip of hot tea. When he heard his words, he turned around suddenly, narrowed his eyes, and asked, "What am I afraid of?"
He felt more and more that there was something wrong with this person.
Normally he would greet people with a smile, but at this moment, the muscles on his cheeks twitched from time to time, and his face was sweaty. In his hand, he held a glass lamp that came from nowhere. The light and shadow made him look like a puppet wrapped in human skin. His lips moved, "I'm afraid that you colluded with Wu Dai, falsely passed on military orders, and killed 30,000 Jing'an troops in Mushen Mountain."
As soon as these words were spoken, the tea bowl in Pan Youfang's hand almost fell out of his hand and his face changed drastically.
There was dead silence in the main hall.
After a while, Pan Youfang raised his face, and a gloomy look broke the calmness in his eyes, "Ding Jin, do you know what you are talking about?"
He clearly had never told this person about the incident that happened sixteen years ago, and those who knew about it were either missing or dead by now.
So was Du Cong, so was Dou Yingzhang.
So where did Ding Jin know this from?
Du Cong helped Wu Dai's son Wu Jikang to replace the examination paper of Ni Qinglan, a candidate from Que County. Pan Youfang knew about this from the beginning. Later, the matter was exposed. Han Qing, the night eunuch, found out that it was Du Cong. Pan Youfang then ordered the eunuch in the mansion to tell Du Cong to end his life himself.
Unexpectedly, Du Cong disappeared the next day.
Zhang Jing's words before his death made Pan Youfang suspect that Du Cong might have fallen into Zhang Jing's hands, but after Zhang Jing's death, Du Cong still did not show up.
Could it really be Du Cong?
"That's not what I wanted to ask."
Ding Jin trembled, "Someone asked me to ask you."
"who?"
Pan Youfang looked at him coldly, "Ding Jin, you'd better explain clearly why you came here tonight. No matter who told you what, you have to weigh your situation clearly. Where is the person? I want you to bring him here in person."
"He is right here."
Ding Jin murmured softly.
Right here?
Pan Youfang immediately looked around, but apart from him and Ding Jin, who else was there in the room?
He frowned and was about to speak, but saw Ding Jin shaking even more violently. He seemed as if someone was strangling him by the throat. He didn't dare to move at all. He just sat there stiffly, staring at his hands with wide eyes.
Pan Youfang also looked at his hand.
In an instant, a gust of wind came from nowhere and blew out the candles in the room. Only the glass lamp in Ding Jin's hand was still lit. The light shone on the mist that suddenly appeared behind Ding Jin, and it was sometimes thick and sometimes thin.
At this moment, Pan Youfang could hardly believe the extremely mysterious scene he was seeing.
The mist floated quietly and condensed into a figure. The cold wind blew his wide sleeves. He stretched out his hand and Ding Jin tremblingly handed him the glass lamp.
It is this moment,
The mist faded, and the warm yellow light illuminated a pale face with delicate features.
The wind and snow beat against the windows , and ghosts cried and wolves howled.
The clothes Pan Youfang was wearing fell to the ground, and the calm expression on his face suddenly cracked at this moment. The tea bowl fell to the ground and broke into pieces with a "bang".
A chilly air wrapped around his back, the sharp coldness piercing his bones and making them tremble. He watched the misty and faint figure approaching. He wanted to step back immediately, but his knees went weak and he staggered a few steps before falling backwards to the ground.
The broken porcelain pieces pierced his palm, and the pain made him more awake.
This is not a dream.
This is actually... not a dream? !
Pan Youfang opened his eyes wide. He didn't care about the broken porcelain on the ground. He supported himself on the ground with his hands and moved back hastily.
Xu Hexue walked in front of him, the light from the glass lamp illuminated Pan Youfang's pale face. He was calm and composed just now, and even when he heard Ding Jin's words, all the murderous intent hidden in his eyes was shattered by the fear at this moment.
"Pan Youfang."
The voice was so cold as if it had been soaked in ice and snow, and it stung Pan Youfang's eardrums so much that he trembled all over. His entire heart seemed to be wrapped in ice, cold and suffocating.
He could not forget this face.
A 19-year-old boy, wearing red clothes and silver armor, rides a horse on the battlefield, full of vigor and vitality.
More than ten years ago, Pan Youfang had drunk strong liquor and discussed poetry with him at Juhan Pass more than once. Although the general was young, he had the gentleness and humility of a scholar and the decisiveness of a military general.
"General, whatever you want to do, no matter how you do it, I, Pan Youfang, will listen to you. You don't have to worry about the court, I have my own way to deal with them."
One night, the flames of the bonfire were blazing. Pan Youfang held a wine bowl in his hand, his face flushed with red, whether it was from the fire or the alcohol. "If there were fewer conservative people in our court, if they could all show courage and be determined to compete with the barbarians, this war wouldn't be so difficult..."
"That's because they haven't seen through the ambitions of the Hu people yet."
The young general rested one hand on his knee and raised his chin slightly. "I don't care what they think. As long as I am at the border, I will never give up until I take back the thirteen states."
"Thank you very much, too."
He picked up the wine bowl, touched Pan Youfang's, and laughed, "No matter how I wanted to fight, you never interfered. When the court asked about it, it was always you who took the pressure for me."
"The general and I are working together with only one goal in mind," Pan Youfang also laughed, "and that is to drive the Hu people back to their grasslands so that they will never dare to invade the territory of Great Qi again. For this, I am willing to do it."
Hearing this, the young general reached out and patted him on the shoulder, "I will never let you be blamed by the court. Every battle I fight must be won."
"As long as I win, even if they have countless mouths, they won't dare to easily criticize you."
The young man was unrestrained and drank a bowl of liquor, then stood up.
"Where are you going, General?"
Pan Youfang looked at his back.
The boy didn't look back, and his clear voice contained a hint of smile, "Xuanxing is too dirty, I'll go give it a bath."
The cold wind howled and the shadows of the trees swayed.
The guards who were patrolling the courtyard walked in orderly steps, back and forth. The ticking sound brought Pan Youfang back to his senses. He saw the man in front of him. His originally white clothes and his bamboo green cuffs were soaked with bright red blood. Blood drops fell down and turned into mysterious dust in front of him, floating in the air.
The man was just outside the door, his shadow falling on the doors and windows. Pan Youfang found that the people outside did not seem to notice that the lights in the main hall were out, and no one even heard the sound of him smashing the teacup.
Ding Jin slid off the chair and his body went limp.
"During the battle at Mushen Mountain, I thought of many people," Xu Hexue's cold eyes fell on his face. Sixteen years had passed, and this man had grown old, "but I never doubted you."
"Pan Youfang, I believed you."
He died in that year, before sixteen years had passed. His appearance now was exactly the same as it was back then. Pan Youfang's chest heaved violently and his lips trembled, but he found that he could not refute a single word in front of this man.
"General..."
Pan Youfang murmured, hiding behind him, saying, "It was Wu Dai! He was the one who trusted Prince Rili and set a trap for me..."
A chilling feeling suddenly approached, and Pan Youfang's voice stopped abruptly when that bony hand grabbed his collar. He didn't dare to meet that pair of eyes, but felt that he couldn't control his body. The flying dust was the rope that bound him, and fear squeezed his heart, and he could hardly breathe.
"Didn't you ask Du Cong to deliver the fake military order to Tan Guangwen?"
"……yes."
Pan Youfang's throat tightened, and the dust attached to his body became sharper, soaking through his clothes and tearing his flesh. This sharp and burning pain made Pan Youfang tremble even more violently. "But Wu Dai forced me to do that! He threatened me with the lives of my relatives. I thought, I thought there was still time, so..."
"The lives of your kin are your lives,"
Xu Hexue clasped his neck with her hands, tightened her knuckles, and said, "The lives of my 30,000 Jing'an Army soldiers are not lives, are they?"
Because of the use of magic, countless wounds under his robes were chapped, and the originally clean and new robes were stained with blood. He leaned down and said, "So many people have been charged with treason because of you. They died in the Shepherd God Mountain, and no one collected their burials and no one cared. All of this is because of you."
"How dare you?"
The resentful spirit almost filled Xu Hexue's chest. The sparkling dust around him drilled into Pan Youfang's flesh and blood like crazy, torturing him and making him scream in pain.
"Among them, some have saved your life, some have drank with you, and some have sincerely called you 'Lord Pan'. But I want to ask you, in your heart, are these soldiers who protect the country of Daqi just ants that are not important?"
He let go of Pan Youfang's neck, stood up straight, and watched him coldly as he curled up on the ground, coughing, and struggling, watching him tossing and turning in agony at the torture of Ying Chen.
"If it wasn't for Wu Dai harming me!"
Pan Youfang was in great pain all over his body, and his voice was trembling, "If it weren't for him! I wouldn't have come to this point! I don't want to hurt you, and I don't want to hurt the Jing'an Army! I really don't want to..."
He didn't know whether it was because of the pain or because the bloody past was overwhelming him, but his eyelids were wet. "General... I really don't want to."
Having embarked on this road of no return for sixteen years, Pan Youfang killed Dou Yingzhang and abandoned Du Cong. Every step he took was like walking on thin ice.
He didn't believe that there was no impenetrable wall in this world, because he had already paid the price, even if it meant enduring resentment and disgust and living in peace with Wu Dai, even if it meant becoming a running dog of Prince Nankang and his son. No matter who it was, Zhang Jing or Meng Yunxian, or those young and naive people like Dong Yao, as long as the current monarch was there, they could only shut up.
But,
Pan Youfang never imagined that one day he would meet the returning soul of the dead.
The general, whom he had personally given mute medicine to, was now standing in front of him.
The scheming and scheming accumulated over the past sixteen years were completely vulnerable. Pan Youfang felt that his blood ran cold. "Even at the border, the general and I cannot escape the struggle in the court."
His fear and guilt towards General Yujie were heart-wrenching.
"If possible, I would rather work with the general, rather than give up my job as a good person and become someone else's dog..." Pan Youfang's eyes were full of tears, "But General, if you make a mistake in one step, every step I take after that will be wrong."
He suddenly struggled to stand up and tried to grab the hem of Xu Hexue's clothes, but his figure became even fainter, and Pan Youfang stretched out his hand, but could not grasp anything.
Dou Yingzhang brought the general back from the sea of ​​blood and corpses on Mushen Mountain.
It was he who personally sent someone to send him to Yongzhou.
He knew that General Yujie would not survive and the court would sentence him to death and have him executed in Yongzhou.
The newly appointed Yongzhou prefect, Jiang Xianming, was pushed to that position by him, Wu Dai and others, in order to let an upright and loyal minister who knew nothing do this job instead of them.
But he never expected that the public opinion in Yongzhou was so overwhelming that Jiang Xianming would follow the public opinion and change the death penalty from beheading to lingchi.
"For so many years, I have never dared to go to Yongzhou."
Pan Youfang choked up, "I'm afraid to see the execution platform. I'm afraid your blood is still on it. I'm afraid your soul will always be there..."
He suddenly became crazy, banging his head against the ground again and again, until his forehead was covered in blood. He raised his head again and said, "If it weren't for Wu Dai, I could still be an innocent person and an innocent official. If I hadn't taken the wrong path, I wouldn't have let you..."
“I don’t understand how I got to where I am today.”
He shook his head. "General, things are unpredictable."
Xu Hexue suddenly raised his hand, and the crystal dust wrapped around Pan Youfang, suspending him in the air. The crystal dust pierced his flesh but no blood was drawn. The piercing pain tortured him and made him dazed.
"Is there only one Wu Dai in this world?"
Xu Hexue said coldly, "Pan Youfang, I didn't know that your bones are so soft."
"Don't worry, I won't let either you or Wu Dai go."
Xu Hexue stretched out her hand, and Yingchen dragged Ding Jin over like a rope. Ding Jin's legs were weak, and he fell to the ground, "Please, General Yujie! Please let me go! I don't know about these things, I, I have never been involved in them, sixteen years ago, I was just a small official!"
"It was you who forced Dong Yao to death on Yong'an Lake?"
Yingchen turned into a long sword, the tip of the sword shining coldly, and pressed against Ding Jin's cheek. The bone-chilling cold almost made Ding Jin tremble all over. His lips trembled, but he could not utter a word.
"Stand up and help me kill him."
Xu Hexue turned his wrist and withdrew the sword that was against Ding Jin's face.
Ding Jin was in a daze, and the sword was hanging in the air, across in front of him.
If it weren't for Wu Dai, Xu Hexue would rather kill Pan Youfang with his own hands. If he killed Pan Youfang himself at this moment, he didn't know if he would have another chance to go to Wu Dai's mansion.
Ding Jin thought this was a chance to survive, so he raised his head and looked at Pan Youfang. His face was covered with blood because he had hit his head.
"Don't dare?"
Xu Hexue lowered his eyes.
"I, I..." Ding Jin avoided Pan Youfang's gaze and grasped the hilt of the sword. He supported himself on the ground with one hand and barely stood up.
Pan Youfang struggled hard, but he could not break free from Yingchen's restraints. His struggle even intensified the pain all over his body, and his broken forehead was stinging with cold sweat.
"Someone come! Someone come!"
Pan Youfang screamed, "Someone come quickly!"
The floating mist blocked out his miserable screams, but Neizhi's shadow was still reflected on the doors and windows. He could even clearly hear Neizhi whispering to the servants outside.
His guards were discussing whether to drink a bowl of hot wine.
"General..."
Pan Youfang watched Ding Jin approach with the sword in both hands. He looked at Xu Hexue standing on the side in panic, "General, I was wrong! I'm sorry! Please let me go!"
"Please let me go!"
"I don't want to die,"
He shook his head vigorously, "I don't want to die..."
This is probably his true self. He no longer uses Wu Dai as an excuse, and no longer has so many reasons. He just keeps repeating "I don't want to die."
"Ding Jin, aren't you very good at taking people's lives easily with your words? Why don't you dare to kill people when you really pick up the sword?"
Xu Hexue raised his hand, and the silver dust spread out from his fingers, turning into a few strands of silver threads, wrapping around Ding Jin's neck. He tightened his knuckles and exerted force, and bright red blood dripped along his pale wrist bones.
"I kill, I kill..."
Ding Jin's face turned purple, he spoke with difficulty, and stretched out his hand to touch his neck repeatedly, trying to break free from the restraints, but he touched nothing.
The silver thread suddenly loosened, and Ding Jin immediately coughed violently.
This time,
He held the sword firmly in his hand.
"Ding Jin! How dare you!"
Pan Youfang shouted, "Don't forget who gave you the fate you have today!"
Ding Jin shuddered again at his roar, the chill still on his spine. Ding Jin did not dare to look back, "Only living people need these fortunes. If you die, you will have nothing."
"I'm sorry, Pan Sansi."
Ding Jin raised his sword and stabbed towards Pan Youfang's chest with a vengeance.
At this moment, there was a lot of noise outside.
The shadows outside the door and windows moved away in a hurry, and with a "bang", the door was kicked open from the outside. At the same time, a sharp arrow rubbed the cold wind, making a sharp sound, and suddenly pierced Pan Youfang's back.
Ding Jin's sword tip just hit the arrow that pierced Pan Youfang's flesh.
The blade shattered into light.
The cold fog was thick, and the lights outside the eaves shone in.
The dust that bound Pan Youfang dissipated in an instant, and he fell heavily to the ground, blood gushing out of his mouth. He was not dead yet, but Xu Hexue saw the scattered soul fire emerging from his body.
Outside the door, soldiers in armor were surrounding a man.
The man held a longbow in his hand.
Xu Hexue raised her eyes and saw his face.
"...Yonggeng?"
The people outside the door could hardly believe their eyes.
However, the next moment, he saw with his own eyes that the faint figure suddenly turned into mist and disappeared.
A glass lamp fell to the ground.
A crisp cracking sound was heard, and the flame inside went out.
"Zi Ling!"
Prince Jia took a few steps forward, threw away the bowstring, and circled the room, "Xu Ziling!"
What I just saw seemed like a dream.
"I am Zhao Yonggeng, I am Yonggeng..."
Prince Jia turned around and looked at Pan Youfang, who was lying on the ground, dying. He kicked Ding Jin away, drew the sword of his personal guard Yuan Gang, and walked forward quickly.
Like a madman, he swung his sword at Pan Youfang again and again, cutting his flesh and severing his finger bones. His clothes were almost completely stained with blood.
Yuan Gang stood aside, turned his head away and didn't look.
"How dare you hurt him like that?"
Prince Jia's voice trembled, as if he was in a nightmare. He stabbed again with the sword. Pan Youfang's weak struggle was almost useless. Blood splattered on Prince Jia's face. "How dare you betray his trust? How dare you let an innocent person suffer more than a hundred knives?"
"I'm going to kill you..."
"I'm going to kill you..."
The hatred and pain that had been suppressed for so many years almost drove him crazy at this moment. Prince Jia's eyes were full of tears. He pinched Pan Yufang's jaw, his knuckles turned white, and pushed the sword into his mouth inch by inch, cutting off his tongue bit by bit.
Blood was all over the floor and Ding Jin screamed in fear.
Pan Youfang was already silent, his body was covered in blood and his original appearance could not be seen. Prince Jia looked at the blood dripping from the sword and turned his head.
In the dim light, his pale face was stained with blood.
"Your Highness! Your Highness, I am Ding Jin, the Imperial Censor of the Palace!" Ding Jin saw him coming and was so scared that he quickly moved back, "Your Highness, please don't kill me! Those things have nothing to do with me! I know nothing, Your Highness..."
Prince Jia pierced his chest with a sword.
The shrill plea for mercy came to an abrupt end.
All the guards in the courtyard had been killed by the soldiers of the Imperial Guard Cavalry Division. The heavy snow was falling like goose feathers. Prince Jia stood in the main hall with a sword in his hand.
He looked back and the lights under the eaves were a little dazzling.
"Your Highness, if you disobey the imperial order and return to the capital, do you know what the consequences will be?"
On the night when the post station was attacked, Prince Jia forced Meng Yunxian's men who came to rescue him to secretly take him back to Yunjing City. At the Meng Mansion, he met Meng Yunxian.
"I know, but I want to see you, Mr. Meng. I want to ask you, do you know more than my teacher?"
At that time, he asked this.
"His business?"
"His business."
Meng Yunxian was silent for a long time before he said, "It was Pan Youfang. He colluded with Wu Dai and forged a military order to make Tan Guangwen send more troops to Jianchi Prefecture, thus delaying the battle at Mushen Mountain."
"For their own lives and future, they destroyed the lives of Zi Ling and 30,000 Jing'an soldiers, and made your best friend, Chong Zhi's good student, bear the stigma of treason."
"That night, Pan Youfang said to me personally,"
Meng Yunxian's throat choked. "In order to prevent Ziling from saying anything he shouldn't in front of Jiang Xianming, he... personally gave Ziling a mute drug."
"When he was being tortured, he couldn't even cry out a word of injustice or pain."
Tears flooded his vision, and the strong smell of blood made Prince Jia lean over and retch. Yuan Gang hurried forward to help him, but he waved his hand away and threw away the sword stained with blood and flesh.
Staggered out the door.
The cold wind blew on his face, giving him a splitting headache.
"Is Lord Ge still searching for Zhang Xinen?"
His voice was hoarse.
"yes."
The commander surnamed Lin answered respectfully.
Just at this moment, a group of soldiers came hurriedly. One of them held a wooden box in his hand. He leaned over and opened the wooden box in front of Prince Jia. Inside was a bloody human head.
"Your Highness, General Miao asked me to bring Wu Dai's head to see Your Highness!"
"How did he die?"
"One hundred and thirty-six cuts, not a single one is off!"
Prince Jia suddenly laughed. In the midst of the wind and snow, this sad laugh made all the soldiers present feel a little sad. Then he suddenly said in a strong voice: "Okay!"
"Commander Lin, don't let Lord Ge come over, just let him continue to search for Zhang Xinen," Prince Jia felt a little dizzy and barely stood up straight. "I know that both of your battalions are from Lord Ge's Dingqian Army, and you once fought against the barbarians under General Yujie. So you are willing to risk your lives and join me in avenging General Yujie."
"If we hadn't seen no hope, why would we have come to this point? But I can't let you die because of me."
Prince Jia raised his head and said, "So, after tonight, you all must keep your word and say that I took advantage of the Imperial Guards' Cavalry Division's search for Zhang Xin'en of the Lotus Sect to falsely pass on the imperial decree, saying that Pan Youfang and Wu Dai had an affair with the rebellious Zhang Xin'en, and ordered you to kill them immediately."
"No matter who comes to judge you, you must say the same thing. The law does not punish everyone. You are the people who protect the imperial city for the government, and nothing will happen to you."
"It was me who killed them."
"The government is punishable by death, and I am here alone to confess my crime."