Volume 5: Fellow Traveler Chapter 880: Aftermath
Seeing that Ah Liu's second arrow just missed Chu Kuan's suicide dagger, the emperor's face suddenly changed, and when he rushed over, it was too late. He grabbed Chu Kuan and shouted angrily, "Asshole." However, even though he was furious, the childhood playmate who usually had a calm face and confessed his guilt, now just left an inexplicable smile, and was already dead.
Apart from the previous words, there was not a single word that could be considered a last will.
The emperor had previously received a report from someone at the Observatory in the palace, claiming that someone from Zhang Garden inexplicably set off fireworks in broad daylight, so he found it a bit strange. After a moment's thought, he thought there was nothing to worry about, so he hurried out of the palace in plain clothes to see what was going on. However, at Bei'an Gate, he met Princess Yongping, whose carriage had broken down. After having to repair the carriage, borrow a different car, she was delayed for a long time before she was able to return to the palace.
After hearing Princess Yongping's hasty explanation that Zhu Ying was summoned by the Queen Mother of Qingning Palace, Zhang Shou behaved abnormally, as if something had happened. He simply took his daughter to Zhang Garden, but found that more than half of the people were missing. He learned from a group of ignorant little guys who only knew to follow orders and set off fireworks in broad daylight that Zhu Jing had asked Zhang Shou to go to Baiyun Temple, and he felt something was wrong.
His own son-in-law was not convenient to say that he wanted to go to Baiyun Temple. So the emperor immediately sent someone to summon a team of sharp cavalry to Baiyun Temple.
Although he only caught up with the last fight when he came in, he was aware of what had happened. Therefore, the emperor was even determined to punish Chu Kuan severely to serve as a warning to others and to give an explanation to Zhu Jing and Zhang Shou, the father-in-law and son-in-law... Thinking of the past events, he even decided that even if he had to put aside their old feelings, he had to ask Chu Kuan carefully.
But at this moment, his mind was blank, and scenes flashed before his eyes like a revolving lantern.
The next moment, the many imperial attendants who had not , surrendered. However, they stopped too quickly and too suddenly, so that most of the opponents were unable to stop in time, and under the swords, some died and some were injured. But even those who died and were injured only groaned, and no one begged for mercy or confessed their guilt.
After a long while, the emperor finally came back to his senses. With blood all over his hands, he slowly loosened his grip and let the body fall to the ground. Then he looked up at Zhu Jing and Zhang Shou and asked word by word, "What did he say to you?"
Zhang Shou did not expect Chu Kuan to be so resolute, but what made him even more unbelievable was that Ah Liu only blocked the sword but not the knife, so he was looking sideways at the frustrated young man and could not answer the emperor's question immediately. However, he would be distracted for a moment and ignore the emperor, but Zhao Guogong Zhu Jing would not.
"Yingying, take Zhang Shou out." After saying this, Zhu Jing didn't care whether Zhu Ying agreed or not, and ordered directly, "Others, take away the imperial attendants brought by Chu Kuan. I have something to report to the emperor alone."
Zhu Ying wanted to insist, but she could see the unquestionable determination in her father's eyes, and she saw that Zhang Shou was obviously distracted, so she finally went forward and dragged Zhang Shou out. But after a few steps, she turned around and saw Ah Liu was also in a daze. She immediately said angrily: "Ah Liu, what are you doing here? Come and carry Ah Shou on your back. Look how scared he is!"
Ah Liu was only slightly startled before he hurried over and carried Zhang Shou on his back without saying a word. However, when he followed Zhu Ying out without looking back, he suddenly felt someone tugging his ear hard. Although he had always been very resistant to pain, he couldn't help but gasp at this moment, and then he heard a cold laugh behind him.
"You also feel the pain? But you don't know fear either!"
Knowing that Zhang Shou had regained consciousness, Ah Liu saw that Zhu Ying seemed to have not heard anything and walked straight ahead, so he whispered, "Master, what are you talking about? I don't understand."
"Still pretending to be stupid? And you're pretending to be stupid with me? Ah Liu, I've been with you for so many years, how can you hide this from me? If you want to stop someone, even if it's Chu Kuan, whichever hand he uses to commit suicide will definitely be hit by the arrow, how could you miss! Do you think the emperor is a fool?"
Ah Liu muttered quietly, "But he must still have poison on him... and in his mouth!"
"Why don't you just wait until he takes the poison? Why pretend to fail?" Zhang Shou said in a low voice. Seeing that Zhu Ying in front of him still seemed to have heard nothing, he couldn't help but slap the boy's head again in anger. When he was about to scold him again, he heard the boy's low voice, "Even if I have to pay for his life, I will kill him!"
"Who told him to kill you?"
Zhang Shou was choked and speechless. Then, he saw Zhu Ying in front of him suddenly turned around. She glared at him fiercely and then asked Ah Liu , "Little Ah Liu, tell me honestly, what did Chu Kuan say before?"
"That's all crazy talk." Zhang Shou really had no interest in talking about the conversation, especially knowing that Ah Liu could repeat the conversation word for word. Therefore, he did not give Ah Liu a chance to speak, but only briefly mentioned it, focusing on Chu Kuan's suspicion of his innate knowledge. As a result, he only heard Zhu Ying curse angrily.
"It's ridiculous! What's wrong with being born knowing? Aren't there always some strange stories in this world, saying that someone is reincarnated into someone else, so a child acts as someone else's ancestor in a very conspicuous way? Even scholars would enjoy recording these things, which shows that this is not a particularly strange thing. Does Chu Kuan have nothing better to do? He actually has nothing better to do than to dwell on these things!"
Seeing that Zhu Ying didn't take it seriously at all, Zhang Shou couldn't help but smile bitterly, then changed the subject and asked, "Princess Yongping said before that you were summoned to the palace by the Queen Mother. Judging from your behavior, did you find out halfway through?"
"There have been a lot of messes lately, so my grandmother and mother have repeatedly warned me to be careful, so I agreed with Aunt Yuquan in advance on a message that I must bring those words when she summoned me to the palace. He was really a eunuch from Qingning Palace, and the reason he made up was also plausible, but he didn't have that message when he summoned me, so I became suspicious."
"I thought it was just someone who wanted to do something bad to me, so I secretly sent a message to my eldest brother, and then told that guy that I wanted to buy something to bring to the palace to present to the Queen Mother. Then my eldest brother waited for him and set an ambush to capture him. That guy was very difficult to deal with. He asked for death when he saw something wrong. He was like a general and his soldiers were like his own, just like Chu Kuan!"
At this point, Zhu Ying couldn't help but curse a few more times, but then she raised her eyebrows slightly: "But big brother is still powerful. He acted quickly and stopped the guy who wanted to die. Later, I don't know what means he used to get the information out."
As she spoke, she deliberately glanced at Ah Liu, and said as if to comfort him: "But Ah Liu, you did nothing wrong by letting Chu Kuan commit suicide. Fortunately, you did not get so angry that you shot him in the throat with an arrow. Don't kill him yourself, otherwise the emperor will remember you for the rest of his life..."
Although it is still possible that he will be remembered for the rest of his life... Zhu Ying only thought about this in her heart, but she didn't say it out loud. After all, she understood Ah Liu's behavior of letting him go just now.
"You have been very restrained. If it were me, with a bow and arrow in hand, I would not care about him and would definitely shoot him to death with one arrow! Anyone who dares to attack Dad and Shou must die!"
Just now she was praising Ah Liu for being restrained, but then Zhu Ying's true nature was revealed. She even gnashed her teeth, feeling extremely annoyed that when Zhang Yuan's group rushed over in small groups, they only brought Ah Liu's bow and arrows, not their own, so she lacked the means of long-range attack just now, and could not just throw out the long sword to vent her anger.
Zhang Shou got off Ah Liu's back again and rubbed his slightly aching temple. He was thinking, after this incident, how deep was the thorn in the emperor's heart? Should he take advantage of the next large-scale fleet sailing overseas to harm others?
However, these days there are thieves and bandits on land, and the sea route is even more dangerous. Even a man with extraordinary luck like Emperor Taizu could not stop them. He is so young and he hasn't lived enough!
He was thinking about where to go in the future, but then he felt a pair of soft hands hugging him tightly from behind. Feeling the two plump breasts pressed tightly against his back, he knew it was Zhu Ying, and immediately smiled and said, "It's okay, my father-in-law carried me out before, that's because he loves his son-in-law, not because I really can't walk."
"Ah Liu carried me on his back because you wanted him to avoid the Emperor..."
Before he could continue, Zhu Ying's gentle voice came from behind him: "I have always felt that you, Shou, know a lot. Your attitude towards people and things is different from that of ordinary people. Even the way you solve problems is different from that of ordinary people. Maybe this is why Fatty Lu and the others obey you, because you have never regarded them as playboys who need to be feared."
"From the first day I met you, you didn't look like a country boy. It's not because you're good-looking, but because you were so calm and composed , as if we, the children of the rich and powerful who grew up in the capital, were country people! I still remember that you would stay away from me whenever you had nothing to do, as if I were a scourge!"
Zhang Shou didn't expect Zhu Ying to bring up the past at this time, and he coughed immediately: "The past is too painful to recall, Yingying, don't mention it..."
"What past events? They happened less than two years ago. Why can't we talk about them?" Zhu Ying was not shorter than Zhang Shou. At this moment, her head could almost lean against his shoulder. Her voice was filled with unconcealed joy. "Do you know that when I saw the side hall on fire, I wanted to grow wings and fly in? Do you know how happy I was when I saw Dad carrying you out?"
"So, at that time, I really wanted to hug Daddy and spin around like he did when he hugged me when I was a child, but it was a pity that I couldn't hug him!"
Zhang Shou found it difficult to laugh when he heard such extremely childish words.
Just now, when he and Zhu Jing teamed up to confront Chu Kuan, they both seemed quite calm and composed. In fact, he was at least sweating, because he was not sure whether the group of people in Zhang Garden would act as he expected, nor was he sure what kind of drastic action Chu Kuan would take...
Because he was just stalling for time! Fortunately, Zhu Jing was also stalling for time, and his father-in-law, who usually didn't like to talk much, actually presented facts and reasoned with Chu Kuan at that time, and he talked a lot!
Therefore, Zhang Shou could not help but gently press Zhu Ying's hand, but did not repeat Zhu Jing's impassioned words. He did not know how many eyes and ears there were near and far, but he did not care about them. He just instinctively did not want those things to reveal the truth of the beautiful era in his wife's mind.
He didn't know where Zhu Jing knew those things, nor did he know whether the emperor knew about it, but he was very sure of one thing, that is, in Zhu Ying's mind, the compatriot who was separated from him by more than one era was a great hero.
Well, let him continue to be a great hero, because that is indeed a great hero!
Therefore, neither of the couple spoke, and naturally, no one noticed that Ah Liu had already quietly slipped away. But the young man did not hide in a deserted place, but quietly sneaked back to the side hall that was burning fiercely before. But apart from the disgusting sound of burning wood, he did not hear any other voices, and when he looked out, he found that there was no one at all.
At this moment, Ah Liu was immediately annoyed. Just as he frowned and was about to look for someone else, he heard the sound of fluttering clothes. At this moment, all the hairs on his body stood up, and he almost subconsciously clung to the wall. Then he suddenly jumped up and came face to face with the person flying over the wall, staring at each other.
When the master saw his disciple, he was full of surprise, and when the disciple saw his master, he was full of disgust.
So, when he saw Ah Liu turning around and walking away without saying anything, Hua Qi subconsciously reached out to grab him, but as soon as his fingers touched his shoulder, he suddenly sank his shoulders and tried to break free. If it was normal, it would be fine, but he had just rushed here in a hurry and wanted to find someone who knew the whole story to ask about it, so how could he let Ah Liu go like this?
He instantly increased the speed of his attacks, but Ah Liu had no time to waste with him. The young man was still thinking about finding the Emperor and Zhao Duke Zhu Jing who were talking somewhere unknown!
Naturally, neither the master nor the disciple was willing to give in. The fight was very lively. However, one was experienced and the other was young and strong. When they were about to have a real fight, they heard a voice almost at the same time: "Uncle Hua? What are you and Ah Liu doing? What are you fighting for?"
Ah Liu was completely submissive when he saw Zhu Ying, and Hua Qi also jumped in front of Zhu Ying. Just as he was about to ask what was going on with the imperial attendants outside, he was stunned by the news that Zhu Ying threw at him directly: "Uncle Hua, Chu Kuan mobilized those imperial attendants to kill Ah Shou, and even refused to let my father go. Now he is dead!"
