Chapter 24: Frost in the Courtyard (V)
Miao Yiyang stayed in the Night Watch Division for a whole night. The next morning, the Night Watch Division's envoy, Zun Han Qing, personally ordered Miao Yiyang's release and allowed him to return home.
" Your Excellency."
Zhou Ting walked out of the gate of the Night Division, saluted Han Qing first, and then looked at the carriage coming to pick up Miao Yiyang at the bottom of the stairs. "Du Cong is from Pan Sansi. I didn't expect him to come forward to protect Miao Yiyang."
"You want to ask why we let him go so easily?" Han Qing watched a young lady come out of the carriage and help the unsteady-footed court attendant up.
Du Cong was a Langzhong in the Ministry of Rites, and now he is serving as the Deputy Envoy of the Ministry of Revenue in the Three Departments.
General Miao didn't have many friendly civil officials in the court, so Miao Yi Yang shouldn't be a big enough suspect. But with Du Cong showing up, doesn't it prove that General Miao is not completely helpless?
This should have increased Miao Yiyang's suspicion, but Han Qing still let him go.
"Your Excellency has your own considerations in mind."
Zhou Ting lowered his eyes.
"Before Miao Yiyang was appointed as the Chief Justice of the Dali Temple, he almost never left the main entrance all day, like a woman. He stayed in the night court for a night, and was half dead, but he still kept muttering the word 'innocent'. If he wasn't so cunning, he would have been as timid as a little chicken."
Han Qing watched the carriage go away before turning back to the door: "Let's ask someone to keep an eye on it first."
The morning mist soon dried up under the sunlight, and Miao Yiyang returned to the Taiwei Mansion. Even though he lay on the bed and wrapped himself tightly in the quilt, he still could not stop the shivering in his bones.
"Chunxu, I didn't even dare to sleep in there. You don't know, they have a torture pool in there, with a lot of blood in it. I also saw a whip with iron spikes, all covered in blood..."
Miao Yiyang grabbed Cai Chunxu's hand that was about to wipe his sweat, "I heard so many screams! They were all crying out for injustice! They were crying out for pain! They kept asking me the same question all night long. I was so thirsty from talking that I didn't dare drink the tea they handed me. I saw the color of the tea, it looked like blood..."
"The Night Envoy even brought you the best Wushan black tea to drink. How come you are so useless?" Cai Chunxu was tired of his chattering. From the carriage to the mansion, he kept chattering.
"Do you know how scary it is, Chunxu..."
Miao Yiyang felt extremely aggrieved, but was unwilling to let go of her hand.
"Why did I give birth to something like you in my life!"
Cai Chunxu only heard the deep and powerful voice, and turned around, only to see several shadows reflected in the sunlight at the threshold. Then a burly man in his fifties came in with a woman of similar age, followed by a young couple.
"Uncle, grandma."
Cai Chunxu immediately stood up and bowed, calling her parents-in-law first. When she saw her brother and sister-in-law coming in, she said, "Brother, sister-in-law."
"A Cai, don't worry about him."
When General Miao came in and saw Cai Chunxu, he snorted coldly, "You just went to the night watchman's office and didn't receive any punishment, but you got so scared that you became so sick and sick. You're so annoying! If I tell others about it, I'm afraid that you, a little chicken, will embarrass me!"
"He just came out, stop saying these things."
When Wang saw that her second son’s face was pale and his forehead was covered with sweat, she felt distressed.
"Uncle, our Second Young Master has been weak since childhood, and he has never seen the dirty things in the Night Watch. This time he had good intentions to save a young lady, but he ended up suffering in the Night Watch because of the young lady's incident. If it were me, I would feel very uncomfortable too."
The eldest daughter-in-law, Xia, chimed in.
This sounded a little strange. The eldest son Miao Jingzhen was born with a cold face. He frowned after hearing her words, "Xiaoshu."
"If you can't speak, then don't speak." General Miao also looked at her. Seeing her covering her mouth with an embroidered handkerchief, he looked at his second son who was half dead on the bed. "You are worse than that young lady. What's her last name?"
General Miao thought of the winter examination case he heard at the morning court yesterday. "Ah, the surname is Ni, right? The young lady was first beaten with a stick in Guangning Mansion, and then was locked up in the Night Police. Why isn't she as weak-kneed as you?"
Miao Yi Yang didn't dare to say anything when faced with his father's explosive temper and loud voice. When he saw Cai Chunxu sitting back, he quickly moved closer to her, feeling aggrieved and silent.
"If it weren't for Lord Du Cong of the Third Division, you would have to stay in the Night Division for a few days!" General Miao got angry when he saw him like that, and called a servant over, "Go get a doctor to check on him."
"Dad, why would Lord Du help you?"
Miao Jingzhen suddenly asked.
“He…”
General Miao touched his nose and said, "He drank with your father before, why are you asking so many questions? You can't intervene in your brother's affairs, so isn't it good for Du Cong to take the initiative to help me?"
Miao Jingzhen looked at his father again, "But do you think this favor is easy to accept? What does the Night Envoy think if he comes to talk about peace now?"
"Who cares what the eunuch thinks?"
General Miao sneered, "Look at your brother, is he the material for murder? Although I can't say a few words to those civil servants in the court, if anyone dares to let my son take the blame, I will not be vague!"
Miao Jingzhen was a man of few words to begin with, and after some probing words and realizing that his father was aware of the seriousness of the situation, he stopped talking.
"Ah Cai, this," General Miao rubbed his head and said to Cai Chunxu, "When you have time, write a beautiful poem that suits me and send it to Lord Du."
"Uncle, are you only sending poems?"
Xia couldn't help laughing.
"Of course I have to give them some good things. I'd hire someone who knows how to appreciate antiques, and buy them some calligraphy and paintings. Aren't my poems in line with the habits of those literati? When making friends, I love to exchange poems with them." Commander Miao said very logically.
As they were talking, a maid came in and said that a young lady named Ni had arrived.
Soon, the maid led the young woman into the yard.
This was the first time that General Miao actually saw the Miss Ni that was rumored to be there. She was wearing a light blue shirt and a moon-white long skirt. Her outfit was simple and elegant, but she had a good appearance.
"Ni Su greets the Grand Marshal."
Ni Su entered the room and after being whispered to by the maid beside her, she bowed to the adult sitting on the folding-back chair, and also bowed to the eldest son Miao Jingzhen and several female relatives one by one.
Everyone in the room was looking at her. Seeing that she was very polite and not timid at all, Mrs. Wang, the wife of Commandant Miao, said, "She looks like a girl from a wealthy family."
"Grandma, if this hadn't happened, my sister Axi wouldn't be so helpless in Yunjing." When Cai Chunxu saw Ni Su coming, she struggled to break free from Miao Yiyang's hand, glared at him and hit him, then walked up to Ni Su and pulled her to sit down.
"Sister Cai, I didn't know this matter would involve..."
"Why are you talking about this? You don't know, but how could we have predicted this? My husband, I know him. Look at him. If you ask him to kill a chicken or a fish, he probably can't even do it. How can he be a murderer?"
Ni Su had only said half of her words when Cai Chunxu interrupted her by patting her on the shoulder.
"What happened to the Second Young Master?"
Ni Su followed Cai Chunxu's gaze and saw Miao Yiyang, who was lying on the bed, looking listless.
Cai Chunxu said angrily: "He's scared. Sister Xi, why don't you take a look at him and tell him what medicine he should take to make up for his fear."
"It really is a medicine..."
The eldest daughter-in-law, Xia, spoke without hesitation, but before she could finish her words, she was stared at by her husband and uncle, so she had to swallow her words and pout.
"We don't have such strange rules in our family. If you really have the ability to diagnose illnesses, you can check him first." General Miao said to Ni Su.
Ni Su responded and went to the bed with Cai Chunxu.
Cai Chunxu placed a thin handkerchief on Miao Yiyang's wrist, "Sister Xi, please."
For a moment, everyone in the room was looking at the woman who was sitting in front of the bed and taking Miao Yiyang's pulse. Except for Cai Chunxu, almost everyone had a silent suspicion towards the woman.
After taking Miao Yi Yang's pulse, Ni Su wrote out a prescription for him, then said goodbye to General Miao and the others. Cai Chunxu escorted her to the mansion gate, where she happened to meet a servant and a medical worker carrying a medicine box hurriedly passing through the corridor.
"Sister Axi, I'm sorry..."
When Cai Chunxu saw this, an embarrassed expression appeared on his face.
Clearly, just now in the room, her uncle had told people not to call a doctor, but seeing that the maid seemed to be from Grandma Wang's side, the meaning of bringing a doctor here now was self-evident.
"Madam loves her son so much, and she doesn't know my background, so there's nothing wrong in being cautious." Ni Su shook her head and smiled at Cai Chunxu.
Cai Chunxu was about to say something else, but suddenly stared at Ni Su's neck.
"Sister Cai?"
Ni Su didn't understand.
"Sister Axi, are you hiding something from me?" Cai Chunxu frowned and grabbed Ni Su's hand.
"What's wrong?"
Ni Su's face was bewildered.
"Didn't you just say that you had eczema on your neck? But this... doesn't look like eczema at all?" Cai Chunxu stared at the crooked silk handkerchief on her neck. She stretched out a finger to lift the handkerchief, revealing the complete tooth marks with blood scabs underneath. She took a breath of cold air and then got angry, "Sister Xi! What kind of scoundrel dares to do this!"
Ni Su's expression froze, and she immediately wrapped the handkerchief again. Her cheeks inevitably became hot, and she was glad that only Cai Chunxu saw the clue. She said vaguely, "Sister, you misunderstood. There is no such thing as a playboy."
"But this mark..." Cai Chunxu lowered his voice for fear of being heard.
Fortunately, the maidservant behind didn't see it clearly.
"The child of the herbal farmer whom I brought here to deliver medicinal herbs the day before yesterday was having a bad temper." Ni Su made up a story.
"What kind of child has such sharp teeth? Why are you holding him?" Cai Chunxu breathed a sigh of relief, and then blamed the ignorant child, "If someone saw him, wouldn't they misunderstand him like I did? I don't know how his family taught him to have such a temper..."
Just as Cai Chunxu finished speaking, he felt a gust of cold wind blowing in front of him. It was chilly even under the scorching sun.
The wind blew Ni Su's skirt. She lowered her eyes and saw a ball of pale moon-like light swaying slightly on the ground. She couldn't help but curl her eyes and said to Cai Chunxu:
"He looks very well behaved, and you can't tell at all that he has that kind of temper."
After leaving the Taiwei Mansion, Ni Su walked on the bustling street, looking at the pale moon-like light reflected on the ground. She bought two fruit drinks at a tea stall and asked for some snacks wrapped in oil paper.
"If you are not afraid of the sun, why don't you show up and walk down the street with me?"
Ni Su walked onto the Rainbow Bridge over the Yunxiang River and spoke to people in a very soft voice.
But there was no one walking with her, only passers-by.
"Are you angry?"
Ni Su took a sip of the fruit drink and said, "Are you mad that Sister Cai and I told you that you are a bad-tempered kid?"
“No.”
The light mist condensed into the shape of a young man beside Ni Su.
Ni Su looked at him in the bright sunlight; his figure was still shrouded in mist. Except for her, no one else passing by on the bridge could spot him.
"Then Xu Ziling,"
Ni Su handed him a cup of fruit drink and said, "Let's go to Yong'an Lake together."
