Chapter 14 Lend Me Seven Years 2
The man picked up an empty porcelain bottle next to him and carefully put the soil into the bottle with his hands.
In the silence, the footsteps that were not deliberately restrained were particularly clear. The man's movements did not pause at all, as if no one had noticed.
Zhou Zhenzhen stood behind the man and pursed her lips. Although she was mentally prepared, she still found it hard to accept this moment.
The man seemed to sense the thousands of waves surging in her heart, and spoke calmly: "Wait until I finish pretending, you accompany me to the Zheng family cemetery! With you here, I am not afraid of what Cheng Jue will do to me."
Zhou Zhenzhen stiffened her neck and said, "I didn't tell Master Cheng what happened tonight. I came here by myself."
"If someone bumps into me on the road, it will be hard for me to get away." The man stood up and turned around. His handsome face had a smile that seemed to see through everything. His eyes were too deep to be like that of the weak Zheng Xiangrui. "It's safer to take you with me."
"Why should I agree to you?"
"Since you can see me here, you know what I am capable of. Lord Zhou has no other choice." Zheng Xiangrui protected the porcelain bottle with one hand and stretched out the other hand in front of Zhou Zhenzhen, "Let's go out together!"
Zhou Zhenzhen put her hand on it without hesitation, and held her hand tightly as if they were in the carriage from Kuailv Villa to Chang'an or by the couch in Zheng'an Palace.
Zheng Xiangrui smiled gently, but there was an overly strong sense of sadness in his eyes.
After the incident during the day, the burial site that had been dug was not covered. The huge pit seemed like an endless abyss, making the Zheng family cemetery look particularly desolate. Zheng Xiangrui put the bottle in, took Zhou Zhenzhen's hand and sat casually beside her.
"You caused such a trouble and destroyed my brother's ashes. I really wanted to be angry with you, but I don't know why I couldn't be angry when I saw you." Zheng Xiangrui pinched the back of Zhou Zhenzhen's hand, as naughty as a half-grown child.
Zhou Zhenzhen felt a chill down her spine, but her heart felt sore and hot. She heard herself asking, "Why?"
"I'm not the daughter of Prince Zheng'an. His real daughter died of an illness on the way from Nanqiang to Chang'an. I'm pretending to be her in order to be someone else's spy in Chang'an. I know everything about Nanqiang, so no one has ever doubted me." Zheng Xiangru said calmly, "Zheng Yan is the only one who knows that I'm not the daughter of Prince Zheng'an. That was the second year after I arrived in Chang'an. We both got injured when we went horseback riding together, but our blood didn't mix. He knew it very well, but he didn't tell anyone about it. Instead, he treated me well as always. But my past taught me that the love between siblings is just a false affection between children. Once you grow up and your heart becomes cold, all this will no longer exist."
"So, just to prove that your perception is correct, you're going to kidnap other people's sisters to test their brothers' reactions?!"
"I have already proved it. In fact, I don't remember anything about the past. I don't even remember who I am. But I remember clearly in my mind that it was my own brother who abandoned me to the wolf pack and ran away. If I hadn't met my master, I would probably not be alive today." Zheng Xiangrui's expression suddenly became gloomy. "So, I want to expose the hypocritical faces of those people. Look at the hypocritical faces of Du Rufeng and Liu Yan. It's really disgusting."
Zhou Zhenzhen shook her hand off with all her might, her chest heaving with emotion. She pointed at the porcelain vase in the pit and said, "What about him? What about Zheng Yan, who wanted to give you the moon? What about your brother, who noticed your intentions and risked his life to take the blame for you?"
Zheng Xiangrui half-closed her eyes, and hid her shaking hands in the dark. In Zhou Zhenzhen's sight, her face was hidden in the night and could not be seen clearly, but her voice was still cold: "He is not my biological brother."
"But your own brother took care of you when you were driven out of the village due to the plague, regardless of his own safety, and risked his life to keep you alive. You survived, you have already survived, what else are you dissatisfied with, why do you still do this kind of thing!! Qin Qiu, you don't remember yourself, you don't remember Qin Chun, you don't remember me, you don't remember Shen Shizhi, you forgot everything, but this is not an excuse for you to do evil. Du Ruyue and Liu Fang, they are two living lives, they are not tools for your game!"
Zhou Zhenzhen roared, her eyes already red.
Zheng Xiangrui looked at her blankly, and her words poured into his ears like a spell.
Qin Chun... Qin Qiu... Shen Shizhi...
She felt a dull pain in her chest, her face turned pale instantly, and the whole world was spinning. Her vision was filled with thick fog, and suddenly a breeze came and blew away the fog. She saw the mountain, the forest, the bloodthirsty wolves, and the brother and sister running fast one after the other.
"Brother, wait for me, save me."
The little girl at the back cried out in panic. The boy at the front didn't turn around, but said, "I'll keep running forward to attract the wolves' attention. When I shout 'one, two, three', you run eastward. Keep running and don't look back."
"one two three--"
The young man quickened his pace and rushed out. The little girl followed his words and ran eastward. The wolves howled and chased the young man. The little girl felt relieved and slowed down. She was already weak from the plague and had broken her leg while running. She wiped her tears and tore off a piece of cloth from her skirt to simply bandage the wound.
Blood oozed out of the wound, and the bloody smell spread, attracting the wolves that had left the road...
Later, later, she was rescued by her master and lost her memory. She no longer remembered the brother who had never abandoned her, the sister who had the plague, and never forsaken her.
She only remembered his departing back, which took root deeply and transformed into the deepest indifference and hatred day after day.
She wanted to prove that it was not her problem, and that it was not because of her bad behavior that her brother abandoned her, so she was eager to prove this in the last moments of her life.
But she was wrong, so wrong.
"Brother..." Tears welled up in her eyes, Zheng Xiangrui felt weak all over, and collapsed to the ground, her sobs gradually turned into wails. She dug her hands into the ground, bleeding without realizing it, and cried out of breath, "I was wrong, brother will never forgive me again, and Zheng Yan... He protected me and loved me, and treated me like his own sister, but I deliberately tested him to see if he would still stand in front of me as always at the critical moment of life and death... He will never want to see me again, no, no..."
Zheng Xiangrui murmured hoarsely. Zhou Zhenzhen's tears welled up in her eyes. She realized something was wrong. "What's wrong with you?"
Zheng Xiangrui was shaking all over, almost twitching, but he kept repeating those words stubbornly.
"Are you sick?" Zhou Zhenzhen reached out to help her, "I'll take you back to Dali Temple to find Yan An."
"Don't you blame me, Zhizhi?" Zheng Xiangru leaned half of his body on Zhou Zhenzhen and asked softly.
"It's strange, but you can't die yet. People must always be responsible for their own actions. I... I won't let you die like this." Zhou Zhenzhen gritted her teeth and wanted to help her up, but Zheng Xiangrui grabbed her hand.
"I can't survive..." Zheng Xiangrui said softly, "The master has planted medicine in the bodies of every spy sent to Chang'an City. Every month someone will send us the antidote, but there was no antidote this month. I know he doesn't want to keep us any longer."
Zhou Zhenzhen was horrified, and the tears she had been holding back suddenly fell at this moment: "No, you can't die, you've already died in front of me once, you can't, Qin Qiu, Qiu'er, you can't..."
Zheng Xiangrui reached down, hooked her fingers, and held her hand, just as they had done countless times when they were little, intimately.
She forgot everything, but the familiarity with Zhizhi penetrated into her bones and blood.
"I'm so happy that you can come and see me off for the last time." Zheng Xiangrui smiled with relief. In front of her increasingly blurred eyes, she saw Qin Chun, who would always remain in his youth, and Zheng Yan reaching out their hands to her at the same time.
"Elsholtzia."
"Qiu'er."
"Brother is here to take you home."
She had strayed too far in her life, and she was willing to use her life as collateral to restore innocence to the world.
…
I want to borrow seven years from God and go back to seven years ago.
I want to tell myself who is lost in the mountains and forests, tell her that there is your brother in this world who loves you more than he loves himself.
Zhou Zhenzhen didn't remember how long she stayed in the Zheng family cemetery, nor did she remember how she left.
In a daze, it seemed as if the sky was falling and the earth was collapsing.
When she regained consciousness, it was already the next night. She struggled to stand up and looked at everything that was unfamiliar in front of her: "Where is this..."
"You're awake." A familiar voice startled her, and then she saw Cheng Jue standing up from the couch not far away, walking around to the table to pour a cup of warm water, then walked to the bed and handed it to her.
Zhou Zhenzhen then realized that her mouth was dry and she was indeed very thirsty. She took the teacup, raised her head and drank it all in one gulp, still confused: "Master Cheng, is this... your home?"
Cheng Jue nodded.
"Why am I here..."
"I carried you back." Cheng Jue wiped the water stains on her lips with a handkerchief and said softly, "Are you sad? If you want to cry, just cry. I allow you to cry this time."
Zhou Zhenzhen knew that Huo Chi must have known about her and Huo Chi's plan. He was not far away at the time, and if anything happened to her, he would rush out.
He must have heard her conversation with Zheng Xiangrui.
But he didn't ask anything, instead he left her past to herself, and didn't force her as always. Zhou Zhenzhen stared into his deep eyes, her hand unconsciously hooked his little finger, and shook her head: "Qiu'er thought everything through before she left. Everything in this world was a shackle to her, and all the people she cared about lived underground forever. Leaving like this was also a relief for her. I'm not sad, Master Cheng..."
She took a deep breath, made up her mind, and held his hand with a little force.
Cheng Jue looked at her half-closed eyes, her eyelashes trembling slightly like a weak butterfly. He couldn't help but reached out to scratch them. Just then, she suddenly raised her head, and the faint numbing feeling jumped from his fingertips all the way to his heart.
He saw the determination in her eyes and his heart was shaken.
"Six years ago, when the Qingzhou case happened, Master Cheng left Chang'an to go to Qingzhou City in order to understand Lu Fang's predicament. It rained heavily that day, so Master Cheng took shelter in a dilapidated temple for the night and returned to Chang'an City the next day... Is this true?"
Cheng Jue frowned slightly, not understanding why she brought this up: "It is true."
"That night, there was a little beggar in the dilapidated temple who was injured and starving to death because he had no food to eat."
He had mentioned his plan to go to Qingzhou during the case of Duke Qing, so Zhou Zhenzhen was not surprised to know this, but he had never mentioned this little beggar to anyone. Cheng Jue's eyebrows relaxed, and he stared at her face carefully, as if he saw a fateful reunion.
"……It's you?"
"Yes, it's me."
That year she was not called Zhou Zhenzhen, but Shen Shizhi. Her parents had gone out to make a living since she was a child and never came back. She lived with her grandmother in Yangliu Village, 30 miles away from Gaizhou City.
In the 25th year of the Yuan Dynasty, a plague broke out in Gaizhou City, and Yangliu Village was severely affected. At first, people infected with the plague like Qin Qiu were driven out of the village, but later it became too late to drive them out. Some people said that there was a problem with the water source near Yangliu Village, so the remaining people in the village moved to live elsewhere.
Shen Shizhi left with his grandmother. His grandmother was old and without the land in Yangliu Village, Shen Shizhi could only work as a maid in other families and do rough labor to support herself and her grandmother.
Gaizhou City was the fief of Song Youan, Marquis of Huainan. His father, King of Huainan, was the younger brother of the previous emperor. When Song Youan inherited the title, Emperor Xuanhe was reducing the power of the princes, so he was promoted from King of Huainan to Marquis of Huainan.
Huainan Hou was fond of sensual pleasures, and he often drank with beautiful women until dawn. In order to select beauties, he also held various beauty pageants in the local area, which attracted many wealthy businessmen to visit Gaizhou City. So although Song Youan was absurd, Gaizhou City had always developed well, and he did not do anything too outrageous, so the court had always turned a blind eye to Gaizhou City.
Shen Shizhi stepped into the Huainan Marquis's mansion when she was helping the restaurant carry fine wine. It was during this time that she accidentally discovered the secret of the Huainan Marquis.
She was thin and weak, and squeezed in the cracks of the rockery so that no one could see her. She saw the housekeeper dragging an unconscious beautiful woman towards the pond, but she disappeared in an instant.
There are lotus flowers in full bloom in the pond, and bubbles are bubbling up on the water surface.
She was suspicious, and the next day she went into the rockery to guard. On this day, the woman the housekeeper dragged was replaced by another one, and the woman tilted her head, revealing most of her face.
