CH 83

“Shizi is asking for mine or Qu Chenzhou’s?”

Liu Zhongming looked at the person silently, and smiled instantly: “Qu Chenzhou’s.”

“The ninth day of September.” Qu Chenzhou answered very quickly.

“What a coincidence, it’s the same day as mine,” Liu Zhongming squinted, “what about you?”

Qu Chenzhou could only sigh: “I thought that since Shizi is older by one year, he should be more sensible and would not be interested in such things anymore.”

“How could it be?” Liu Zhongming laughed: “The older you are, the more you can’t be fooled into living like a child, right?”

Perhaps it was because he hadn’t had nightmares in a while, his roaring and crying was more ambiguous than before, and he couldn’t even tell whether it was imaginary or real, but it made him more frightened than before.

He stared at Qu Chenzhou: “Since your past 30, shouldn’t you be more frank, and not learn to be dodgy like children?”

“Shizi’s words are wrong. Could it be that Shizi has not heard of the saying, the older you get, the less courage you get?”

No matter how much Liu Zhongming forgot about the dream, he couldn’t forget the phrase “the Bai family will rebel”, but after thinking for a moment, he still didn’t ask directly.

The other party concealed a lot from him, and before he understood the ins and outs, he didn’t want to leak his cards in advance.

“Who are you?” As expected, he received silence.

“After the Liu family was convicted, what happened to the Bai family?”

“What happened to uncle, aunt, Shiyan, and Shilei?”

“My sister was imprisoned in the cold palace, how did she die?”

“The emperor was afraid of the Bai Liu family. It was not an event that could happen in a short period of time, why did it suddenly happen? Who moved their lips and framed them?”

Even if he reminded himself that those things never happened, the hatred and pain in the dream couldn’t be reduced by half.

“And…”

“Was there anyone… who once gave themselves to me, but deceived me?”

Qu Chenzhou’s eyes kept on the table two feet in front of him until Liu Zhongming stopped asking questions, then he slowly raised it. He asked, “Why does Shizi want to know this?”

“Because…”

Liu Zhongming was at a loss for words. His heart was poured with ice water. Being asked back made him feel a little confused – nothing had happened, this hatred should not be on him.

He didn’t know if he wanted to confirm or deny, but he was very concerned about whether the Qu Chenzhou in front of him had anything to do with the person in his dream, or…

Qu Chenzhou seemed to be certain that it had nothing to do with himself and picked up his chopsticks.

“If it is revenge, I have promised Shizi that when Shizi gets a seat at Jinxiu Ying, I will inform Shizi the murderer who killed your older brother. If Shizi is in trouble, I will tell the truth. As for the rest…”

He shook his head mockingly: “Hasn’t the Shizi heard that the world is like a new chess game. After Shizi escaped from the capital that year, everyone in the court was the enemy of Shizi. Not to mention, does Shizi want revenge on Lin Xiang? Ling He?”

Liu Zhongming was speechless.

“I have already said that I have reborn into this life and found that many things are different from before, so Shizi should be clear that although you are both Liu Zhongming, you are not him.”

Qu Chenzhou squinted and placed the golden roll in his mouth. He chewed it carefully, suppressing the tense dryness of his tongue.

He didn’t sleep for a long time last night in his tossing and turning, remembering Liu Zhongming calling his name – Chenzhou Er. The current questioning gave him a guess, and he probably understood how Zhongming came to know what happened in the past.

He didn’t know what happened in his dream, and it was impossible to ask. He could only stagger and hold on like walking on a suspension bridge over the abyss, hoping that the trembling rotten wood under his feet could support him.

Since Liu Zhongming still didn’t know the details, he could only try his best to use a little effort for a big payoff.

Liu Zhongming’s tone became hesitant, and he asked after a while, “I want to know…who…was with me…”

“After Shizi escaped from the capital, I was still in the palace at a distance of thousands of miles,” Qu Chenzhou suppressed his beating heart and tried his best to answer calmly: “I don’t know everything about Shizi.”

Liu Zhongming was silent for a moment, this answer was reasonable, but it was also like a machete, cutting the little delusion in his heart to nothing.

He no longer asked the question just now and did not detour with his words.

“The Liu family was convicted and Liu Zhongming fled the capital. He was the target of public criticism. Everyone in the court was his enemy.” His eyes fell on Qu Chenzhou, as if to see through the person.

“And you were in the palace, so you and Liu Zhongming were enemies, not friends, right?”

Qu Chenzhou’s eyes flickered slightly, without denying it: “Yes.”

Without responding, he could only sigh lightly: “I am now in the hands of Shizi. If Shizi is worried about the sincerity of my help, if you want to kill or cut me, I will listen and respect that. I have no power to fight back so there is no need for Shizi to be anxious.”

“Don’t worry, Shizi, if I die, there will be no need to hide the secrets from the past as a self-preservation strategy, I will find a way to leave it to Shizi.”

He looked calm and sincere, and Liu Zhongming was persuaded by him again.

After being drunk, the mind is weak, it is easy to be occupied by the fragility and fear that was hidden in the past. Now that he thought about it, he couldn’t even be sure whether those things really happened, or whether they were the inner demons pieced together from Qu Chenzhou’s words.

And Qu Chenzhou bluntly admitting that he stood opposite him in the past also cleared the haze in his heart.

For this year, the Qu Chenzhou he knew was frank enough with him, and he didn’t even hide his subtle likes and disgusting tempers.

“Okay, I’ll trust you once,” he put down the stone in his heart: “Pack up your luggage, I will take you out the door in a while.”

The sound from Wanhe Spring emitted out a relaxed tone, and a few lines of autumn geese flew out.

In the past, Qu Chenzhou had only read this in a book, it was the first time in his life that he really saw the autumn colors of the mountains.

Or should he say, except for the time he was brought from Changshui Town to the capital, he had never been out so far. It was the first time he could see the sky outside so clearly.

When the carriage swayed out of the city gate, he couldn’t help but lift the curtain of the carriage and keep looking outside until all the bustle and hustle was gradually left behind.

After traveling on the official road, outside the carriage, there were large red leaves and green branches interspersed among the trees, which together hid the gorgeous mountains in the distance and the autumn wind was wrapped in the sweetness of the fruit and the astringency of the leaves.

Qu Chenzhou crouched in front of the carriage window, watching all this greedily, reluctant to blink.

There was the sound of hooves coming from the front, and the man on the horse didn’t wait for the coachman to stop. He nimbly got off the horse, got into the carriage, and patted him on the shoulder: “What’s so beautiful?”

He glanced out the window again, reluctantly turned around and sat up straight: “Little General Bai, the green mountains and waters, the birds singing and the mountain breeze are all very nice.

“Didn’t I say it already, don’t call me Little General, “ Bai Shilei laughed: “How is that nice? I’ll take you to the hunting grounds where there are a lot of good things another day.”

When Liu Zhongming went to Southroad Buddhist Temple, he was often accompanied by Bai Shiyan, but Bai Shiyan had an important position after all, and it was a common occurrence that he couldn’t get away.

Bai Shilei was originally not interested in a boring place like a Buddhist Temple, but his brother lured him, saying that this time there would be a little monster from the Zhongming family accompanying him, so he followed with great interest this time.

He had seen the little monster at home as early as August, but most of the time, the person was by his mother’s side, and he had not had much contact with him. Now that he had chatted a few words, he knew how his mother was coaxed until she couldn’t close her mouth every day.

The little monster looked small, spoke slowly and softly, was neither humble nor timid, and was sweet, soft and innocent. After asking him several times, he would occasionally call him Older Brother Lei in a low voice.

Bai Shilei had always been the youngest of these people and was often treated and fooled as if he was a child. Thus being called Older Brother Lei, he was so happy that he was scratching his head and cheeks with joy.

“Hunting ground?” Qu Chenzhou smiled at him: “I’m looking forward to it.”

There was a loud noise from outside the carriage. Bai Shilei threw himself in front of the carriage window: “Look, it’s a young eagle that started to fly.”

Qu Chenzhou also leaned over.

The sky in late autumn was far away from the ground, and the black spot in the sky was far away from them, as if it was even higher than the sky.

The young eagle let out a long cry that stunned the sky and stopped the clouds, sweeping past proudly.

Qu Chenzhou’s eyes chased the figure flying freely away, his throat was stagnant, and he praised softly: “It’s so beautiful.”

With the carriage, the speed of travel was not so fast. It was after noon that they just arrived at Southroad Buddhist Temple.

Liu Zhongming was not seen along the way. Qu Chenzhou followed Bai Shilei and was led to the wing to wait.

However, after a couple of minutes, he saw Liu Zhongming accompanying another person talking and laughing all the way. They stood not far away for a while, and then walked towards the rear hall.

“It’s Huai Wang,” Bai Shilei also leaned on the window and looked over: “I thought the guards outside the mountain gate looked familiar, so it turned out that Huai Wangye was also here, we really came just in time.”

Qu Chenzhou smiled. They had rushed over with the purpose of coming here today to see Huai Wang, Mu Jingyan.

However, from this point of view, although Zhongming had previously focused entirely on the murder of his brother, he did not take any chances and he could even find out the news in Huai Wangye’s mansion, so he was not truly muddleheaded.

“The emperor ordered Yu Gonggong to rectify the internal affairs department.” Before leaving, Liu Zhongming clarified the purpose of letting him see Huai Wang: “I saw Concubine Yu’s face showing panic, and I wondered if this was related.”

Qu Chenzhou stared at his back silently, feeling ashamed in his heart.

These eyes relied on the heavens to eat, it wasn’t the case where if he wanted to know something, then he would know that something.

Although he was able to spy on Huai Wang’s biggest secret by relying on Shuo Ye in the hands of Consort Liu, this time, he didn’t want to do it.

After a while, a little novice monk came knocking on the door, telling the two to wait in the clean room, saying that the abbot would come later, which made Qu Chenzhou puzzled.

Before going out, Liu Zhongming never said that he was to see the abbot.

No one helped relieve his confusion, even Bai Shilei didn’t know where he was being called, so he could only kneel on the futon and wait silently.

The clean room was so quiet that one could hear one’s heartbeat. There was only the footsteps of the little novice monk outside, which made the stairs creak.

Qu Chenzhou knelt for a moment in the silence, this environment made him feel a sense of deja vu.

The clean room that blocked the sound from the outside seemed to have turned into the Star Gazing pavilion, and it was not the little novice monk who walked back and forth outside, but the murderous soldiers and horses.

It was like reincarnation again. He knew what he was going to face in the future, and his breathing became heavy involuntarily.

In the past, with his obsession, he was able to endure a long period of torture, but when he died, his hot blood was exhausted, and he no longer had the courage to endure the torture.

There were footsteps approaching, step by step, as if to defeat his gradually dissipating will.

A glass of wine was handed in front of him, his whole body was tense, he looked up along those hands, and saw Bai Shilei’s young face.

The memory of the past and the scene in front of him instantly overlapped.

As if being scalded by a soldering iron, Qu Chenzhou jumped up from the futon and stared straight at Bai Shilei’s lips, as if he could hear someone talking in front of him again – “Qu Sitian, your style is even better than the previous year.”

The glass of wine was handed forward again, and the sound of water rippled and amplified infinitely in his ears, covering all the sounds around him.

The sound of water was suffocating and desperate.

Someone pulled him and he jerked away, placed his hands in his hair, and stumbled back a few steps.

Bai Shilei looked at him in astonishment, and then looked at the cup in his hand. This was the Ningshen wine that the abbot had instructed him to bring over himself. He didn’t know why this person had such a violent reaction.

“Little Brother Qu…”

Before Bai Shilei finished speaking, he saw Qu Chenzhou turn around and open the door of the clean room, running out regardless.

The author has something to say:

Liu Zhongming (deep.jpg): I don’t want to leak my trump card beforehand

Hidden trump card Chenzhou: but you have a pig teammate like Bai Shiyan.