Liu Rufeng drove a carriage and quickly entered the courtyard of Dongchang Prison.
On the carriage was the body of a middle-aged man who had been sent to the frontier and died of serious illness on the way.
His hair was disheveled and his appearance could not be clearly seen. However, his figure was extremely similar to Cao Zheng, the dean of the Auditing Academy who had just left.
The carriage arrived directly at the door of the cell where Cao Zheng was previously imprisoned. Du Shaoqin, the warden of the prison, looked at Liu Rufeng on the carriage with a puzzled expression, wondering what he was going to do.
"Give me a hand." As he spoke, Liu Rufeng jumped off the carriage, shouted to Du Shaoqin, and walked towards the back of the carriage.
"What's in the car?" Although he was confused, Du Shaoqin still followed him closely.
"The body. Help me carry it into the cell." Lifting the curtain on the carriage, grabbing his feet, Liu Rufeng pulled out most of the body.
Although he didn't understand what was going on, Du Shaoqin stepped forward, supported the upper body of the body, and carried it into the cell.
After pulling off the original clothes from the body a few times, he picked up the tattered blue gown that Cao Zheng had changed into and put it on the body. Liu Rufeng just clapped his hands and asked the captain outside the door to drive the carriage away.
Only then did Du Shaoqin realize that Liu Rufeng was afraid that if someone paid attention to the number of prisoners, this corpse would just clear up the doubts.
"No one cares about our Dongchang affairs, except the emperor." Du Shaoqin said.
"No one cared about it before, but it's different now. The emperor arranged for Jinyiwei to have a commanding officer who is not friendly to Dongchang. The meaning is very clear. No matter what others do, we must ensure that no one is left behind."
Picking up the clothes that had been changed from the corpse, Liu Rufeng lit them directly with the oil lamp on the wall and let them slowly burn on the ground.
"You have been following Xiao Chen. Have you noticed any changes in him? Why do I feel that after he came back this time, his whole mood was wrong? He seemed to have something serious on his mind, but he was unwilling to tell us?" Looking at the man on the ground.
Du Shaoqin asked in a low voice as he lit some of the clothes on fire.
"From the time I left Gu'an and went to Baoding City, I could tell that he had something on his mind. After asking several times, he always refused to tell us. He said that he would tell us after he had a thorough understanding. After that, he was busy working on the case.
I didn’t ask any more questions.” Kicking away the ashes on the ground, Liu Rufeng raised his head and said, “The body will be buried after dawn, and the public will say that the criminal committed suicide.”
"Understood." Du Shaoqin nodded vigorously.
In the cell next to him, Xiao Chen sat quietly in the corner, holding his knees with his hands and staring at the ground blankly.
At this moment, all he could think about was the scene of his "old guy" cooking for him.
Seeing Xiao Chen's appearance, Liao Xianghe, who was standing opposite, shook his head gently, with a bitter look on his face.
For ordinary people, how painful would they feel if they knew that the person targeting them at every turn was actually their own master?
What's more, this is a child who has no parents, grew up alone, and already regards his master as his parent.
Although the mission of people like me to stay in this world is related to this "child", the fact that the whole thing has reached this point is something that no one expected.
Although everyone's starting point is good, the outcome of this mutual confrontation is really difficult to end for a while.
"Actually, we were originally in the same camp. However, something happened suddenly and he had no choice but to leave you. And you, by accident, entered the other side's camp. Over the years, we have stuck to our original intentions.
, completing his mission step by step, but he is still racking his brains on how to face you and how to bring you back." Liao Xianghe said with a bitter look on his face.
"Leave? Then you can take me with you. Why did he wait for me to fully integrate into the court before he designed every possible way to make the court embarrass me and break up with me? He just wanted me to be extremely disappointed with the court and choose to trust him again.
Join him in opposing the imperial court. Or is it that he originally planned my entry into the East Factory and only hoped that I would have a certain reputation in the imperial court so that he could use it? What am I? Am I just a chess piece without any emotions?
?" Xiao Chen's voice was not high, but every sentence questioned Liao Xianghe's heart.
From beginning to end, the accusation in Xiao Chen's mouth was clear, it was "him".
Liao Xianghe understood how lofty "his" status was in Xiao Chen's mind. However, now, this huge gap, this dissatisfaction of being deceived, this resentment of being targeted, made Xiao Chen's master
That tall and glorious image suddenly collapsed.
If a person has no worries in his heart, what is the difference between living in the world and a walking corpse?
What is Xiao Chen's concern in his heart? Is it the emperor? Is it the prince? Is it the title of purple-clad captain that is respected by thousands of people, or is it the huge power that can make a fortune at any time?
neither!
What he cares about should be the friend who grew up with him, the master who gave him the only warmth in his life, and the brother who now lives with him through life and death.
But now, his master, who is as important as his parents, is standing in his hostile camp, and is against him at every turn. How should he face all this?
Who else can he trust in this world?
"Alas..." Liao Xianghe sighed and looked at Xiao Chen with eyes full of love, "My child, you are just like everyone else. You also have your own parents, but they are not the foster couple in the village.
Parents, they were gone when you were less than one month old."
Xiao Chen raised his head and looked at Liao Xianghe with blank eyes.
"We all live in this world just to protect you." Liao Xianghe said in a low voice.
"Protect me? In order to protect me, he framed me at every turn. In order to protect me, did you crush the friend I grew up with to death under the wall?" Xiao Chen stood up and shot out a flame from his eyes.
When he thought of Wang San's death, Xiao Chen wanted to pull out the Liblade from his waist and cut the opponent into pieces.
"The eunuch's death was purely an accident. He is not the target we want to target."
"Accident? How many people lost their lives due to your accident? How many innocent lives have become your stepping stones for the so-called great cause you are planning?" Facing Liao Xianghe, Xiao Chen roared loudly.
"Which of the great achievements in ancient times were not accumulated with human lives? Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty, how many innocent souls died at his hands? Zhu Di seized the throne, and how many fresh lives were lost in the Battle of Jingnan, Hua
For the bones in the wilderness? How can you be kind to a woman if you want to achieve a great cause?" Liao Xianghe's tone also became higher.
"Okay, okay." Xiao Chen shook his head, raised his right arm, and pointed suddenly, "Even if you achieve great achievements, war and death are inevitable, but those people who live in remote mountain villages, who do they mess with?
, are all the men, women, old and children going to be killed in the entire village just because someone is passing by unintentionally?"
Liao Xianghe frowned: "Common people?"
"Are the people responsible for escorting the prince his subordinates? They stayed in a small mountain village called Yangcun and slaughtered all the people in the village. No one, old or young, was spared. These people were not
Life? What crime did they commit? Just because their ancestors chose the wrong place and shouldn't live on the path of this group of people? He is my master, and he has been kind to me. I will remember it for the rest of my life. How to target him?
I, I can accept it as I owe him. But those innocent people were killed, I don’t agree, I don’t agree!”
Xiao Chen's fingers raised in the air were trembling rapidly.
"Perhaps, they had no choice. After all, no information about the kidnapping of the prince can be leaked." Even so, Liao Xianghe still lowered his head in embarrassment.
All great deeds involve the death of people. But if innocent people are also killed, this reason is somewhat far-fetched.
"What's the difference between killing people and silencing them, and being a robber? They say that to achieve great things, sacrifices are necessary. These are all your selfish excuses."
"Everything we have done is for you. Do you know that your surname is not Xiao, nor is your name Xiao Chen? Your surname is..." Liao Xianghe was about to say the next words, when someone scratched the iron door of the cell.
Three quick taps.
"Xiao Chen, people from Jinyiwei are here, saying they have something important to do with you."
Liu Rufeng's voice came from outside the iron gate.
