CH 73

Chapter 73 Dense Fog

Since the Mid-Autumn Festival night, Qu Chenzhou had moved back to the east wing to sleep, slamming the latch firmly every night.

Liu Zhongming came over and pushed the door several times, but the person inside didn’t respond.

He simply restrained his temper, and no longer humiliated him to seek anger.

Although the statement heard that night was indeed terrifying, just like what Qu Chenzhou said, for him, no matter how terrifying it was, it had never happened.

Now that he is 100% alert, he must not let the same situation happen again.

There were twice as many things that he needed to deal with now, and he had no time to be distracted and grieving for things that did not happen.

Not only did he have to take care of the usual account books and news from shops all over, but he also things related to Mu Jingchen, Jiang Xingzhi, Fang Wuyang, that Yangzhuo wine shop, and so on.

Only then did he realize that the days when he just checked his account books and counted money were really too comfortable.

Every time he racked his brains to think about mobilizing people, he felt more stretched, which made him realize that in addition to his own people, in addition to the people who could be mobilized in Shiyan’s hands, he still needed a lot of people, including Fang Wuyang.

But news from Xiyan came one after another.

All facts showed that although Huai Wang was not in the capital, he did not go to Xiyan. The person most likely to appear in the Xiyan area is Mu Jingchen, who accompanied Concubine Xian back home to visit relatives.

Qu Chenzhou was right, Fang Wuyang was lying to him.

He went to visit the Bai Mansion and tried to ask about Fang Wuyang’s life background from his uncle’s mouth, but his uncle told him not to worry so much, and only said that Fang Wuyang had received a great favour from the Liu family and is beneficial and harmless to the Liu family, he was a credible and usable person.

He went home and asked his father if he knew Fang Wuyang, and his father said he did.

His father’s rhetoric was almost the same as that of his uncle.

The shock in Liu Zhongming’s heart was indescribable.

If it weren’t for this accidental inquiry, he would not have even thought that his father would know Fang Wuyang, but if that was the case, why did he let him and Fang Wuyang get to know each other through his uncle?

“Where’s the intoxicated feast? Who gave it to you?”

Liu Weizheng also told him not to ask too much, telling him to go back without answering a word.

Although he was not in a predicament right now, Liu Zhongming was confused.

Everyone around him seemed to have secrets that they wouldn’t tell. These secrets turned into a thick fog and dispersed around him. He couldn’t see the road ahead clearly, and he couldn’t catch them.

He was trapped, only Qu Chenzhou would hold his hand, but he didn’t know where they were going.

“Shizi,” someone called him softly and asked in a low voice, “Are you looking at it?”

Liu Zhongming finally came to his senses. His eyes fell on the booklet in front of him, and he looked away slightly unnaturally, remembering why he was lost in his mind.

—— he doesn’t want anything else to distract him, otherwise he is about to be suffocated by this thing in front of him.

Qu Chenzhou’s mouth was poisonous. Although it was true, he had repeatedly ridiculed him for being bad at romance, no man could bear it.

There were enough troubles normally, and he also needed to find a place to relax.

Having learned the lesson from last time, Liu Zhongming knew that he couldn’t stand the face-to-face alluring situation, and there was no suitable person to ask, so he could only pretend to have a casual chat with Zhiwei.

Zhiwei has stayed in the Xing Yuan for several years, and was also capable of reading others. After what happened last time, he knew that the prince was soft-hearted and treated him well, so he served him with all his heart.

Not only did he considerately prepare a brand-new utensil bag for him, but also prepared a description of the various utensils.

It was the booklet in his hand.

Opening the booklet, he saw a long-shaped thing at a glance, which also grew on him.

Seeing Zhiwei laying out the items of different lengths and thicknesses, Liu Zhongming was so embarrassed that he was just a short distance from cracking. He was not good at showing his cowardice, so he could only bite the bullet and stare at the package, listening to Zhiwei telling him one by one about them.

Now in front of him was a one-foot-long box. Inside were ten longan-sized balls displayed in a brocade. The thin copper shell was hollowed out and carved, he didn’t know how it was engraved.

This thing looked delicate and cute, not embarrassing. He reached for one, and quickly threw it on the table.

The ball was still honestly sitting in the box, but it moved in his hands, as if the set of balls in it couldn’t stop spinning, and his fingertips became numb.

Zhiwei hurriedly picked up the ball and put it in his palm.

“Don’t be alarmed, Shizi, this is Mianziling.” Zhiwei turned the booklet and pointed it to him: “This ball is produced in a foreign country, and it contains the liquid of a strange bird. When it gets hot, it turns endlessly.”

Liu Zhongming saw that sure enough, the ball vibrated very slightly in the palm of his hand, as if some small beast was rushing to the left and right in it, and he asked inexplicably, “This thing… can also be used?”

Zhiwei pursed his lips and smiled, and replied softly: “Replying to Shizi, placed there, two or three balls will be able to touch that point.”

“What point?” Liu Zhongming didn’t dare to listen carefully, he was so distracted that he had to ask.

Zhiwei saw his shyness, and whispered a few words in his ear. A large flush of red grew on Lord Shizi’s neck, crawling all the way to the corner of his eyes, and even the faint birthmark became more and more conspicuous.

Liu Zhongming felt that he was almost on fire.

But when the Mianziling was handed over, he was still holding it in his hand, uncontrollably thinking: if this ball was placed there… would that person cry?

It took him a long time to regain his senses. Seeing Zhiwei looking at him, he could only endure a shy cough and ask again, “If… if this person has never tried it, can he stand it? Will he be hurt?”

Zhiwei saw that his eyes were full of unease and tenderness, and envy grew inside him, he couldn’t help but ask, “Shizi…are you trying to please your sweetheart?”

“What sweetheart!”

Liu Zhongming’s face darkened, and he threw the Mianziling onto the table. The thin ball made a clanging sound, split in half, and a thick liquid flowed out of it, stopping its movement.

Zhiwei’s face turned pale with fright, and he hurriedly knelt down: “Your Highness, please forgive me. Zhiwei has spoken too much and I beg your Highness to punish me!”

Liu Zhongming calmed down and called him coldly, “Get up.”

Zhiwei stood up shyly, not daring to say much. He was scared and answered the question just now in a low voice: “Replying Shizi, if it’s someone who is unfamiliar, you can try the balls one by one…”

“I understand, put them all away.”

Liu Zhongming went to the other side. While sitting down, drinking tea, Zhiwei gently packed the tools and cleaned up the broken bell on the table.

After seeing more, he truly didn’t think there was any similarity with Qu Chenzhou.

“Zhiwei, how old are you? Where are you from? How did you come here? Where are your family members?”

Zhiwei stood by the table with his hands down, and replied respectfully, “Replying Shizi, this slave is sixteen this year. My family suffered a disaster five years ago and only this slave escaped. This slave was young at the time and didn’t know where to go, so he was abducted and sent here.”

Liu Zhongming sighed lightly.

If it was said that the set up slaves was to vent anger to the people of Liequ in the past, it has now become a mess. It is said that in many places, it is no longer safe to travel alone on business.

As soon as a person is caught, the smart ones that won’t cry can stay sane. If they are drugged, they only need to go to the Department of Control for a walk, get a slave mark, and they would become their workers.

Even if there are relatives who come, it will take a lot of money to escape.

For someone like Zhiwei, even if he was released, he had no place to stand, he would just go around outside, getting taken advantage of by who knows what.

Even if each state government has issued strict orders on the surface, driven by interests, there were quite a few collusions made between officials and bandits.

He had heard Bai Shiyan and Fang Wuyang say these things before. Although he couldn’t bear it, what he could do was limited, and he never wanted to shake the giant in front of him.

But Qu Chenzhou appeared in front of him. He was like a mighty cockroach shaking a tree, unaware of his feeble strength, but he still tried his best. He couldn’t laugh at it. He could only choose to squat down with him to dig at that corrupt foundation.

He wanted to become strong, wanted to help people pull up these rotting things, and wanted Qu Chenzhou to live in the sun with integrity.

No matter what fell from the sky or burrowed out of the earth, he wanted to block it for the other person.

But Qu Chenzhou didn’t seem to want to take his feelings.

What’s even more shameful is that at some unknown time, he had grown an unspeakable desire for the other’s body.

When Qu Chenzhou is in his room, his eagerness to move was suppressed by his little rationality. Now that the person lived elsewhere, he tossed around every night, his stomach suffering like swallowing coals of fire.

He didn’t know what to do.

Zhiwei had already sorted out the tools over there. He saw that he was about to leave without saying a word, hurriedly rushing to the door, he handed the package to the attendant.

Liu Zhongming caught a glimpse inadvertently, and immediately burst into sweat.

Now even the people in the courtyard regarded Qu Chenzhou as a person in his house, and such private things would inevitably be handed over to Qu Chenzhou. At that time opening it to check, even if he only figured out the shape, where can his face be placed afterwards.

“Give it to me.”

Liu Zhongming put on a big cloak, and made sure that one couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary before boarding the carriage.

The closer he got to the other courtyard, the more uncomfortable he felt. He was clearly the owner of this place, why was he sneaking around now, like a thief?

Why should he be afraid?

He entered the inner courtyard, stood beside the hanging flower gate for a while, calmed down, did not take the bluestone road in front of him, and hurriedly circled to the west side, but when he turned the corner, he collided with the person coming from the other side.

It was really a narrow road for enemies.

If it weren’t for the tight grip, the bag in his hand would have fallen out in fright.

“Shizi,” Qu Chenzhou took a step back to make way for him: “Shizi came very early today.”

Liu Zhongming had fine sweat on his forehead, he didn’t wipe it. He walked over with a sullen face, then turned around and asked: ” You live in the east side, what are you doing here!”

Qu Chenzhou saw that he seemed to be in a bad mood and was puzzled, but he still replied, “Doctor Qin is here and wants me to come and get something.”

Liu Zhongming remembered. When the doctor came to the manor, Dr. Qin said that it was inconvenient to treat others when the weather is hot. Now that it was autumn, he would find a suitable day to take a look at Little Brother Qu’s injury on his face.

“Go.”

With a hot potato in his hand, he hurried into the bedroom without looking back. After turning around a few times, he felt that nowhere was a safe and hidden place, he even regretted how he had become overheated and brought the stuff back home.

There were voices coming from the yard. Liu Zhongming jumped onto the bed and pulled the quilt to cover himself. After a while, the whispering voices were far away, it turned out to be a servant in the yard.

He felt a sweat, suddenly remembered something, lifted the quilt, lifted a hidden compartment on the bed, pulled out an eight treasure exquisite box, and then threw in the large and small things in the package. He placed those unshowable items together, wrapped it up, closed the hidden compartment, let out a sigh of relief, and then his eyes fell on the bed.

It’s been so long since he touched that place, he almost forgot there was this thing.

The lock of the treasure box was still inserted in the keyhole, and it can be opened as soon as it is lifted. They were all worthless gadgets, but he had always regarded them as treasures when he was a child.

When he moved in from the Marquis Mansion, he didn’t know why but he thought of bringing these with him.

In the past, he used to bring along his brother and tell him about his precious treasures. At that time, Liu Qingchi was still very young, and he was greedy for his treasures. He was not willing to share with Qingchi unless his older brother asked.

It’s a pity that the days when the three of them were fighting together seemed to be a long time ago.

Now there was no one who was willing to listen to him…

With this thought, a name suddenly appeared in his mind. It appeared so quickly that it made him shiver.

Liu Zhongming suddenly lifted the eight treasure exquisite boxmand the tarnished beads and cracked bamboo cage scattered over the bed. He took out the key, placed it in his bosom, took the box and went out the door.