Wang Chengen slowly recalled everything that happened back then, and Lu Wenxuan, who was sitting next to him, listened to him with a complicated expression on the past that he had no idea about.
He clutched the handkerchief left to him by his father. This handkerchief was still the same color and style that Wang Chengen went to the county town with him to pick out. Now it looked so gray and silly.
Lu Wenxuan didn't know whether to believe what he said. After all, twenty years had passed, and who could prove that his words were true?
Even if there is this handkerchief from his father, it can only mean that his father really wanted him to hand over the letter at that time, but it cannot mean anything else.
"So you let me go on purpose?"
"It can't be said that I let you go deliberately. I didn't expect you to wake up so quickly and follow you. When I saw what happened next, my mind went blank at the time and I didn't know what to do."
"I didn't faint at all. I was... just afraid that you wouldn't let me follow you, so I pretended to faint. If Doctor Zhu hadn't insisted on patching up the injury on my hand first, I would have been able to do it earlier.
In the past, maybe..."
Maybe I could know everything earlier, instead of being kept in the dark like a fool for so many years, maybe...
He coughed violently, and Wang Chengen was startled and wanted to grab his wrist to check for his pulse.
"I, cough, cough, no, it's okay, cough, cough, cough..." Lu Wenxuan waved his hands, but before he finished speaking, he suddenly grabbed the clothes on his chest and frowned.
“Xiao Xuan”
Both of them were stunned as soon as the words came out. They hadn't heard this title in twenty years, and both of them thought that the other had already forgotten those trivial things from their childhood.
Wang Chengen took out a small medicine bottle from his arms: "This was left by Dr. Wu before he left. You should take one pill first. You should feel better."
Lu Wenxuan shook his head: "I'm fine, and I won't take his medicine. Wang Chengen, why didn't you tell me after so many years?"
"I thought about it too, but every time we met, the timing was wrong. I didn't know how to speak. Then I thought, maybe this is God's will. But I didn't expect that you would become like this..."
Lu Wenxuan sneered: "If I hadn't turned out like this, I might have died a long time ago. Didn't you say you would leave after the matter was over? Why didn't you leave?"
Wang Chengen thought for a while: "I also forgot. Maybe there were too many things at that time and I got stuck for a while, and then it was delayed like this."
Every time they met, it was a life-or-death affair. Suddenly, the two of them couldn't adapt to the sudden calm, and the atmosphere became weird for a while.
"I've told you everything you want to know. Now it's your turn to tell the truth. Who sent you to assassinate His Majesty? Who asked you to practice this kind of practice method that is extremely harmful to the body?"
Lu Wenxuan held his head: "Not only is the emperor not my enemy, he should also be my benefactor, right?"
"You should also know who brought down Wei Zhongxian. He is the current emperor."
"You guys, be careful of King Zhou, he has already joined forces with the Manchus."
"King Zhou? Why did he do this? He wanted to be the emperor?"
"Being an emperor?" Lu Wenxuan laughed: "He does have this idea, but he is not doing it for power and wealth. He once told me that we are the same kind of people."
"Are you the same kind of people? Could it be that... is it hatred? He has a grudge against His Majesty?" Wang Chengen frowned.
Lu Wenxuan shook his head: "I don't think he has any grudge against the emperor. He probably has grudge against the whole world. This man is already a madman. He can do anything."
Wang Chengen was not able to fully digest the news for a while. The King of Zhou? United with the Manchus? So it was probably this King of Zhou who defeated Wu Sangui and Li Zicheng in Shanhaiguan and Jierharangli Yingwaihe.
But why did he do this? Is it because he had a grudge with someone or, as his junior brother said, did he feel that the whole world owed him, so he wanted to collude with the Manchus to destroy the Ming Dynasty?
"I only know this much about King Zhou. I don't know if I can help you."
Wang Chengen patted him on the shoulder: "Of course it's useful, it's still very useful. Weren't you unwilling to reveal something related to him before? Why are you suddenly willing to say it again?"
Lu Wenxuan looked at the handkerchief and smiled: "I used to think that I was the same as him, but today I realized that they are different after all. There are so many people working hard to let me live. In this world, in fact,
No one has ever owed me anything, and those guilty people are already dead, so no one owes me anything."
He looked up at Wang Chengen: "Actually, I also know that I won't survive tonight. I originally wanted to come to settle things with you, but it seems that I still lost. Your little apprentice is quite talented, much better than I was when I was a child.
Already."
Wang Chengen glanced at the direction of the wood: "He doesn't have as many clever ideas as you did when you were a child. His only advantage is that he is willing to work hard to practice. He has a little bit of talent."
"If I had worked harder back then, maybe the result wouldn't be like this today. But it's okay, I finally knew the truth of the matter before I died, and I'm satisfied."
"Xiaoxuan, I'm sorry. It was me who didn't abide by our agreement. I didn't pick you up at the drug store and didn't take good care of you." Wang Chengen was very sad.
"When it comes to breaking the promise, I broke it first. Who told me to go with you? But I will definitely complain to my father. You were so cruel that day. It really scared me. I had nightmares for a long time.
, I dreamed that you were holding my neck and wouldn’t let go, complaining that I always treated you like a servant.”
"No, I said that just to make Wei Zhongxian not suspicious. I have never complained about master or you for this kind of thing. Master has always treated me as his own son. How could I not know this?
."
Lu Wenxuan suddenly struggled to come over and got a little closer to him: "Senior Brother Ninth, you must remember to take me back this time. I want to go back and be buried with my father and senior brothers. I have not dreamed of this for many years.
I used to think that they blamed me for not being able to avenge them, but now I understand that it’s because I’ve always done wrong and they blamed me for not coming to see me.”
Wang Chengen touched his head like he did when he was a child: "Senior brother will take you back, I will."
"Senior Brother Ninth, do you still remember the path we used to run on? I have always wanted to go back and walk that path with you... I just lied to you, I won't, I won't follow my father
I am complaining, I know that Ninth Senior Brother is the best person to me... He has always been..."