CH 106

Chapter 106 Brother

Qu Chenzhou knew what he was thinking, and he said after a long while: “Shizi and I… how is it possible?”

Bai Shiyan saw that he had lost the spirit of just now, pondered the meaning of these words, then suddenly understood: “Could it be that you are also interested in Zhongming…?”

“Shizi is confused,” Qu Chenzhou interrupted him: “I’m not confused. General Bai doesn’t need to say too much. Let’s pretend that what Shizi said today…”

Bai Shiyan didn’t understand this time, he only knew that Qu Chenzhou’s words were true. Thinking about Zhongming’s madness just now, he actually felt that his cousin was a little pitiful.

“It’s good if you’re not confused,” he continued vaguely, “My mother said that the Liu family are all fools in love, and they can’t see through it. It’s fine if you refuse. I heard that my aunt has started to look for matches for Zhongming, so make sure to say it as soon as possible by the time Zhongming is twenty years old. If his consort is not easy to get along with at that time, you can come to our house.”

Qu Chenzhou looked down at his toes, and replied softly: “Okay.” 

It was almost the same as he expected, Liu Zhongming broke the boat and laid the matter out in the open to discuss it, which can be regarded as gaining the most reliable backing for himself.

But Liu Weizheng and Bai Shining said earlier that both families can be dispatched by Liu Zhongming, but the two patriarchs refused to show their heads in the open.

Be cautious in everything. Once the safety of the Bai Liu family was threatened, Liu Zhongming would be the first to bear the brunt of an abandoned son.

The hardest part was over.

Bai Shiyan saw his father calling him, so he left Qu Chenzhou alone, and went to another place as ordered. After a while, he brought another person back, and the five of them closed the door of the study.

Qu Chenzhou sat down on the ground bored. Before he could find a wooden stick to fiddle with the ants on the ground, the study door opened again, and Bai Shiyan waved to him at the door, beckoning him to come over.

The person who was brought was naturally Fang Wuyang.

Fang Wuyang thought that the two patriarchs would support him, but he didn’t expect that as soon as the door was closed, his breath was stuck in his throat. Before he could complain, Bai Shining yelled, “Beat him!”

Liu Zhongming was full of anger and it had nowhere to go. He was the first to step forward and kicked Fang Wuyang to the ground, and Bai Shiyan quickly followed.

Only Qu Chenzhou stood by the wall in awe, thinking, in comparison, his treatment seemed to be a little bit better.

Fang Wuyang’s hands and feet were bound, and he fell to the ground, dodging left and right. The wound from the newly bandaged arrow wound was so painful that he had nowhere to hide, so he could only shout loudly: “Why hit me! I was not wrong!” 

“Not wrong? Continue to beat him,” Bai Shining put his hands on his chest and shouted, “Beat him until he admits his mistake.”

“I was wrong! General Bai, I was wrong!”

Fang Wuyang, a good man being able to immediately bow and admit his mistake, was still kicked severely.

Bai Shining waved his hand to make the two little ones back up, before he stepped forward and kicked him in the chest.

Fang Wuyang snorted, curled up, and groaned weakly: “Why did you hit me? It was clearly Zhongming who said he would strike first…” 

“Fang Wuyang, do you think I’m a fool?” Bai Shining stomped on him: “The year before last, you took advantage of the opportunity of Jingchen being by the emperor’s side, and led someone to pretend to be an assassin to assassinate the king and kill him, so that Jingchen could make a contribution and almost became crowned a status, do you think I am blind?” 

Fang Wuyang kept silent

“Let me tell you why you suddenly had such thoughts, you rascal, it turned out that Jiang Xingzhi was behind your back.” Bai Shining kicked him again.

“Jiang Xingzhi persuaded you with a few words? You want to fight for the position for Jingchen, have you ever asked him if he was willing? You can eat sh*t yourself, yet you force others to eat with you?” 

Liu Zhongming and Bai Shiyan looked at each other, and felt that the old man’s words didn’t sound very pleasant or hit home anywhere.

“If he doesn’t want to, I will never force him,” Fang Wuyang argued, unconvinced: “I did it for his own good! Why should he be inferior to others!”

Bai Shining scolded: “Before you came to the capital, didn’t your master tell you to listen to me and Master Liu for all matters?”

“Yes…”

“Then what did we say, do you not remember?”

“Remember… You said that even if there is only one person left in the Liu family and Bai family, they will protect Jingchen…” Fang Wuyang turned his head away from looking at Liu Zhongming and said dully, “I didn’t wrong Zhongming, I didn’t even tell Jiang Xingzhi about Qu Chenzhou, but…” 

“But what is it!” Bai Shining scolded, “When did Zhongming become the Marquis of Anding? You treat, I, Bai Shining’s words as fart? Shiyan, come here!”

Bai Shiyan stepped forward inexplicably.

“Tell him that the descendants of the Bai family will never hurt Mu Jingchen at any time.”

Bai Shiyan was kicked in the butt in astonishment, and he could only say solemnly: “The descendants of the Bai family will never hurt Mu Jingchen at any time.” 

Liu Weizheng, who had been watching from the sidelines, also said in a deep voice, “Zhongming, go over.”

Liu Zhongming glanced at his father and took a step forward.

“You also tell him that even if our Liu family succeeds in seizing the throne in the future, they will never fight against Mu Jingchen.”

“Why?” Liu Zhongming was puzzled.

Until now, he was still at a loss. He didn’t understand why Fang Wuyang made such a serious promise, not to mention why Mu Jingchen was mentioned repeatedly.

“The pond opens Bing Dilian,” Qu Chenzhou said at the side: “Because Fang Wuyang’s brother is…”

Fang Wuyang suddenly jumped up, sat up, and angrily shouted: “Shut up!”

Liu Weizheng also turned his face, and said in a deep voice: “We just let you come in, just listen, and don’t talk too much.”

Qu Chenzhou shut his mouth consciously.

“Bing Dilian…” Liu Zhongming was even more surprised by these three words, but when he glanced at Qu Chenzhou, he turned his face away bitterly. Responding to his father’s words: “I, Liu Zhongming, swear that even if the Liu family succeeds in seizing the throne in the future , we will never fight against Mu Jingchen.”

All eyes were on Fang Wuyang, he hesitated for a while, and refused to let go.

“I… I don’t believe it. I listened to you guys before and believed that Zhongming was friendly with Jingchen, but he went to visit Jingchen and I don’t know what kind of tricks he was playing, but he asked Qu Chenzhou to privately go and divine for Jingchen, so it’s clear that he wants to do harm to Jingchen. I don’t want to help him anymore. I ……”

He hesitated to speak, and after thinking about it for a while, he gritted his teeth and said: “If Jingchen can become enthroned as king, he also has a chance…why let his life and death be at the mercy of others? …”

“Now the Liang family can’t support Jingchen, if you push him up, are you planning to tear him apart?” Liu Weizheng sneered, “Do you think that if you are born with good status, you will have a chance? You are not doing it for Jingchen’s benefit, It’s pushing him to a dead end.”

Fang Wuyang refused to bow his head: “As long as he wants to…”

“I don’t want to.”

A voice came from behind the screen, which startled Fang Wuyang, and when he saw who was coming, he was terrified as if being chased and bitten by a poisonous snake, and flinched back desperately.

“I don’t want to be a crowned king, and I don’t want to be in that position.” Mu Jingchen followed him and walked a few steps quickly, knelt down to support his shoulders, and looked at his eyebrows and eyes carefully, his eyes turned red: “Fang Wuyang, right?”

Fang Wuyang tried hard to get rid of his hand, and roared: “Why is he here! Who told him to come! Get out!”

Qu Chenzhou, everyone just watched quietly without speaking.

Fang Wuyang’s roar could only be vented to Mu Jingchen: “Who are you, I don’t know you! Get out!”

“Didn’t you keep mentioning my name just now?” Mu Jingchen pursed his lips hard and swallowed a choked sob: “It’s you who warned me repeatedly, right? You’ve always been by my side, why don’t you let me see you.” 

“No! It’s not me!” Fang Wuyang snapped: “You are the prince! You are a golden branch and jade leaf! I don’t know you!”

“I’m not a golden branch and a jade leaf… I’ve been looking for you for a long time, why don’t you want to see me?” Mu Jingchen knelt in front of Fang Wuyang, and softly called: “Older Brother.”

“I’m not…” Fang Wuyang suddenly put his head on his knees, and the sound of “swallowing” in his throat was covered by sobs.

The person he could only watch from afar all day long was finally close at hand. This “Older Brother” was just a thought in a dream, a dream of nothingness.

“Brother.”

Mu Jingchen seemed to know that he hadn’t heard enough, so he called out again, untied his hands and feet, nodded slightly to the crowd, helped him around the screen, and entered the room.

Liu Zhongming was dumbfounded. He guessed that Fang Wuyang was related to Mu Jingchen, so he invited Mu Jingchen over in advance, but he never expected that the two were brothers.

Without waiting for anyone to ask questions, Liu Weizheng already sighed softly: “Since Zhongming invited His Highness over, I will not hide some things from you—the concubine Xian gave birth to not only His Highness, but a pair of twins.” 

“Tw… Twins?” Bai Shiyan’s eyes widened, “But they don’t look alike.”

Otherwise, it wouldn’t have taken so long to find out.

“In the previous dynasty, there was a disaster in the country where a twin ascended the throne, but was replaced by the twin brother. So until Dayu, twins were also regarded as something bad. On the night when Concubine Xian gave birth, Shining and I begged a friend to carry away Fang Wuyang.”

“That friend used Jianghu secrets to change Fang Wuyang’s appearance, but they are indeed twin brothers.”

Liu Weizheng seemed to recall many past events, and he stopped for a long time without speaking. Bai Shining continued for him .

“Although Wuyang is playful, he is also a man of temperament. Now that His Highness has come forward, he will not be your enemy in the future. He is not in court, and some things are more convenient to do.” 

Liu Zhongming knew the meaning of these words, Fang Wuyang to him, was just like Jinxiu Ying with the emperor.

“Later Lord Marquis and I will ‘talk about the past’ with him again, and if he has other thoughts in the future, I will help you deal with it.”

This was not only for them, but also for Fang Wuyang behind the screen.

This was the end of the story, there was no more to say. This night was a shock, although there were still a lot of unanswered questions, it could also be considered satisfactory.

Liu Weizheng went out first, followed by Bai Shining, but when he was going out, he squinted at Qu Chenzhou who was guarding the door, grinned and praised: “Good performance.” 

General Bai… Qu Chenzhou groaned in his heart, he really was afraid that the world would not be in chaos, not afraid of lifting any pot.

He glanced at Liu Zhongming whose face suddenly darkened, smiled wryly and said in a low voice, “Thank you, thank you.” 

“It’s a pity,” Bai Shining patted him, “It’s a pity that you don’t have enough concentration.” 

When Bai Shining went out, he saw Liu Weizheng smiling outside the door. Looking at him, he was familiar with this smile, so he couldn’t help but freeze for a moment: “What’s wrong?”

Liu Weizheng was leading him forward for a while before chuckling: “Shining, do you think that he couldn’t hold his breath, woke up early, and didn’t let you see enough of Zhongming’s joke?”

“Ah…what?” Bai Shining really meant that he “didn’t have enough concentration”.

“You underestimated him. He did it on purpose.”

Liu Weizheng turned his head, saw Qu Chenzhou looking away from a distance, and then calmly said: “Zhongming is indeed much more stable than before, but after all, he hasn’t experienced much. He is still a child. He is much smarter than Zhongming, and he also knows how to advance and retreat. He got up just to prevent Zhongming from going crazy.”

Bai Shining thought about the meaning of his words, and asked doubtfully, “Ah Zheng, then you can feel rest assured that you can put him by Zhongming’s side? You saw what Zhongming just looked like just now, I’m afraid it’s real for him.”

Liu Weizheng was noncommittal, and only asked: “Shining, do you think Zhongming has changed in the past two years?” 

“He’s much better. Zhongming used to have a lot of thoughts and refused to tell others. After Qingyan left, I was really afraid that he would be overwhelmed and collapse suddenly.” Liu Weizheng sighed: “He never listened to my advice. It would be heard but never went in. But I didn’t expect that someone could do it now.”

“So you don’t worry about having Qu Chenzhou stay with him?”

Liu Weizheng was silent for a long time before opening his mouth: “Shining, have you noticed that every time Qu Chenzhou mentions Zhongming, it is different.”

Bai Shining scratched his head and shook his head blankly.

Liu Weizheng smiled, maybe he had experienced the same before he could understand such subtle love.

“What about him?” Bai Shining asked.

“He was vague several times in key places, I guess he was once with…” Liu Weizheng was thinking about it, then shook his head again, and changed the words in his mouth.

“As for Qu Chenzhou, it’s not enough to feel rest assured, but since he has been given Shuo Ye, you and I know it, we will just watch. The children are grown up, and when it’s time for us to let go, we have to let go.” 

“You aren’t against them? Zhongming said that just now. Zhongming is the Shizi, in the future…” Bai Shining’s words came out of his mouth, and he regretted it in a blink of an eye.

Back then, Ah Zheng in front of him was also the Marquis of An Ding, and he was also so willful and unreasonable.

“Because he is the Shizi, he should be more clear. If he is not successful, if he cannot stand on that high place, he will never be able to be with Qu Chenzhou.” 

Bai Shining felt uncomfortable when he heard it. He knew that Liu Weizheng still had something to say that had not been said – otherwise, he would be just like me.

“Have you asked Wuyang,” he asked softly, “how is he doing lately? Is he still bringing you wine or writing letters?”

Liu Weizheng stopped for a while, as if he didn’t hear his question, and moved on.

“You can’t believe everything that Qu Chenzhou said. Regarding Qingyan’s matter, I will send someone to check around Dingling Hill. I will tell you if there is any movement. You have been taking care of Ying Er recently and cannot be distracted. As for them, how far they can go depends on their own good luck.”

“Okay.”

Bai Shining walked with him and suddenly said with emotion: “It’s nice to be young.”

“Yeah, it’s better to be young, we are all old.” Liu Weizheng responded to him.

“Ah Zheng, if you could be young again, what would you like to do?”

Bai Shining just chatted nonchalantly, and didn’t expect to get an answer.

But whether it was because of hearing such unimaginable things, or seeing his son who was as impulsive as he was before, Liu Weizheng was willing to spend more time thinking about this issue.

“There is nothing I want to do, but there is one thing I don’t want to do,” he twitched his lips and replied with a smile, “I shouldn’t have bet with someone back then, jumping down from Mingyue Building.”

If he hadn’t jumped down, no one would have caught him.

The author has something to say: please let Jingchen be a good person, there is already enough plots to write, if Jingchen also gets involved in the chaos, I will write to death 

PS: Jingchen is a special case, not everyone wants to work hard to climb to that position. In the previous life, although Jingchen picked up the fallen dates, it was not what he expected.