It was a deep night as always, the roads were pitch black, and apart from the barking of wild dogs, it was difficult to hear any sound other than her footsteps on the street.
The watchman was still doing his job competently, patrolling the main road in place of the officers and soldiers who had been busy all night.
Xiao Qiao, who lowered her hood and noticed someone approaching, walked into the alley. After the watchman had gone away, she continued walking towards the Zhou Mansion.
Before and after everyone... the person who occupied a huge weight in her heart spoke out what was in his heart behind everyone else's back.
After learning this, Xiao Qiao acted calmly, but his heart was already broken beyond repair.
Maybe she had dried up her tears. Listening to the evening breeze, which was as desolate as the shadows singing at night, she could only laugh helplessly at this moment.
I lamented that all the hard work I had put in over the years had flowed away with the wind, and then disappeared without a trace.
What did she do? She did nothing—she was nothing.
Because it was nothing, she now felt like she had lost all direction.
Xiao Qiao was still walking alone on the road.
There is only half a stick of incense left to go, and she will return to the home she has no nostalgia for anymore.
"Are you really going to give up on this?"
Suddenly, Xiao Qiao was frightened by an unfamiliar voice and her legs became weak.
The last rationality controlled her not to scream, just because she didn't want to be discovered that she went out without permission tonight.
But...but what is the origin of this voice that suddenly appeared next to me?
For a moment, Xiao Qiao thought of countless possible outcomes for himself, but these were no match for the man's calm words:
"Don't worry that I will hurt you. I just want to ask Miss Xiao Qiao, after everything you have experienced today, do you plan to just return home as if nothing happened and continue to live a life like that where nothing can be changed?"
At some point, the man who walked out of the shadows stood in front of Xiao Qiao - he seemed to know that Xiao Qiao was afraid, so he kept a safe distance and put his hands behind his back without any unnecessary actions.
"Then what can I do! Tell me... what else can a useless woman like me do besides just watch?"
"He...he is the Grand Governor of Soochow. They are the ones who control the army and everything. And what about me?"
It seemed that those words inspired all the suppressed emotions in Xiao Qiao's heart today - all the emotions of unwillingness, sadness, and pain were swept away at this moment.
The tears that had dried up now burst out of her eyes like a river that had burst its embankment. Xiao Qiao, who was crying and shouting, did not even dare to amplify his voice because he was afraid of being heard.
But the longer she held it in, the heavier her sadness became.
Finally, her legs could no longer support her and she was about to collapse to the ground.
However, before that moment, a slender but powerful hand gently supported her from the side.
"Sorry for being so rude... There is a stone bench in the alley. If you really can't stand, how about you rest there?"
Xiao Qiao, who had already burst into tears, had only some sense and knew that the other party had not harmed her, so she obeyed his instructions. Following the guidance, the two of them walked into the long and narrow alley. Slowly, with some distance between them,
Sitting on the same stone bench.
——
"I'm sorry... I let you see the joke, no... uh..."
After Xiao Qiao had brewed his emotions for a while, he finally regained his composure. But just when he realized that he had made a mistake and wanted to apologize, he suddenly remembered that the other party had just called him by his name...
"Young master...do you know the slave family?"
The man sitting not far away smiled and said:
"That's natural, or...if Miss Xiao Qiao wants to find someone responsible for knowing so many sad things tonight, then the blame should be placed on me."
"Ah! You! You..."
Xiao Qiao suddenly screamed in surprise, because just based on what the other person said just now, Xiao Qiao understood the other person's identity.
Because long before... when he met with Lu Xun, Lu Xun had mentioned intentionally or unintentionally that tonight's arrangement was not made by him, but by someone else.
Combined with the current situation, Xiao Qiao suddenly thought of everything——
Then you know the identity of the person in front of you.
"Girls can call me Zhantang... Of course, they are more accustomed to calling me sir."
"You can call me whatever you want, Miss Xiao Qiao... and as I said before, it is not what I want to make such a beautiful woman cry. So if you want to blame me, I will not have any complaints."
——
Of course the shock lasted for a long time.
The stars and moon hung high in the sky, and the night was still silent.
The two people sitting on the bench were silent for a long time. The silence was not broken until Xiao Qiao spoke again.
"No... no... I won't blame you... Not only should you not blame Mr.... Xiao Qiao actually wants to thank Mr.... Thank you for being able to let the slave family know everything about that person today... Living soberly and in pain is better than being ignorant and...
Live happily."
Xiao Qiao's tears have not stopped... but the reasons before and after are different. Now she is crying because she knows that there is someone who is willing to let her know the truth even at the risk - even if the truth is accompanied by boundless pain.
But as she said, she wants to live soberly.
She was fed up with knowing nothing, being raised as a caged bird, with clothes to stretch out her hands and food to open her mouth, living in ignorance - until she died, no one would know her existence, her life was just
It’s a fleeting cloud of smoke…
"The girl's words made me feel even more guilty. I was already prepared to be beaten by the girl... I didn't expect..."
Yi Xiaotian pretended to be scared. When he mentioned that Xiao Qiao could hit people, even Xiao Qiao couldn't help laughing angrily:
"What makes Sir think that Nujia is the kind of woman who beats people at every turn?"
"Ah...well..."
Yi Xiaotian shrugged and said calmly:
"Of course it's Miss Xiao Qiao's sister - she said that although she looks the same as her, you two have completely opposite tempers. She told me to be prepared to be beaten after telling the truth."
Yi Xiaotian made this sentence up, and only he knows about his schedule today.
But in his opinion, in order for Xiao Qiao to have a legitimate reason to leave here, everything now is indispensable.
Sure enough... Although Yi Xiaotian said it calmly, Xiao Qiao suddenly opened her eyes in excitement because Yi Xiaotian mentioned her sister:
"You...what did you say! Sister? You...have you met my sister?"
"No...no...you said you planned everything...sister? Does she also know everything that happened today?"
Xiao Qiao suddenly became confused and incoherent.
Yi Xiaotian did not really answer her directly, but continued the last question as before, looking directly into Xiao Qiao's eyes and asked:
"Girl... To tell you the truth, your sister is in a very dangerous situation right now."
"And she did all this to help you and Shang Xiang escape from this torturous fate..."
"I'll ask you again now, are you going to return home as if nothing happened, and then watch them fall into danger?"