CH 50.2

Meng Huan took the letter and paused, saying, “Why didn’t you ask who sent this letter to me?”

After saying that, Meng Huan realized his ignorance slightly upset him.

Lin Bozhou smiled and turned to him, his voice patient, “Who wrote this letter to Huan Huan?”

“……” He actually asked. Meng Huan opened his lips, but his voice stuck.

His fingers squeezed the crumpled letter paper, “Who do you think it is? You are so smart, guess.”

Lin Bozhou’s smile deepened. “One is Lu Nanxing? Another letter, not very guessable, perhaps it’s your father?”

Meng Huan jerked straight up and moved a bit quickly, looking surprised at Lin Bozhou. “Have you read it?”

“No,” Lin Bozhou said, “your father’s character is honest and upright, admonishing people regardless of their feelings, which are too rigid and easy to break, so he doesn’t have many friends in the court, only Lu Shi. You have been in the residence for so long. The only one who has come to visit you is also him, so the letter is likely to be sent by your little childhood friend Lu Nanxing.”

Meng Huan’s mouth widened. “Then the second letter?”

“You were quiet for a long time in the bath last night, which means you can read the words on the letter, but it’s just more strenuous. The handwriting must be very neat and on the ubiquitous side.” Lin Bozhou smiled, “Your father is a second-rank Jinshi and has been in the Imperial Hanlin Academy for many years, so he is good at writing the regular script. For you, I’m afraid he is also a loving and attentive father.”

Meng Huan’s brain was baffled. He didn’t expect that he could be exposed so much when he peeked at the letter in the bath.

However, Meng Huan realized, “Did you know I was reading the letter last night?”

“Not really,” Lin Bozhou said. “You Jin picked up these two letters this morning, and this husband guessed them.”

“Then you……”

Meng Huan opened his mouth.

Then you know I am in contact with Lu Nanxing and my father; why are you not angry?

Meng Huan did not ask aloud.

Instead, the corner of Lin Bozhou’s lips curled like a smile that was not a smile. “You want  to ask why this husband is not angry?”

“Woo woo woo……” Meng Huan opened his almond eyes wide. “I didn’t say a word!”

“Your father’s character is honorable and upright, and you correspond with him openly and candidly. There is nothing to worry about; as for Lu Nanxing, the son of a Qingliu party official, he is only a scholar. What can he become?”

“……”

Meng Huan nervously pinched his fingertips, feeling that something that had been pent up for a long time had suddenly been uncovered and found nothing inside.

But Meng Huan was still a little nervous and cautious, looking at him, “Then did you know that we have malicious intent towards you?”

After saying that, he added, “We, meaning Lu Nanxing and me.”

He repeated in a whisper, “Including… me.”

Including your dear wife— the person by your pillow, the treasure in the palm of your hand— also thought of killing you.

But after he finished, his hand was held tighter, and Lin Bozhou’s palm was slightly cold: “To judge whether a person is good or evil, you should look at what he does and not what he thinks in his heart. Your father’s position is different from mine. He is an imperial censor and is the eyes and ears of His Majesty. It was within his duties when he scolded me in the court, and there was no fault. It’s just that people are hiding behind him as a tool for the party dispute. Without further action, your father would have angered His Majesty and been beheaded instead. I admire your father’s character, so he was temporarily released to Fengxiang, away from the party disputes, to save his life.”

Hearing this, Meng Huan looked up sharply.

What?

Wasn’t it because Meng Xueming cursed at you in court and humiliated your pride that you were so furious that you cut his rank and banished him to Fengxiang?

Lin Bozhou’s eyebrows converged with dark light, and his tone was clear. “Promotion and demotion, the ups and downs of bureaucracy is a normal experience. Your father is an excellent imperial censor and will advise the monarch to show great virtue in the future. However, now that the court is in turmoil and His Majesty is not yet mature, it is not the time to use your father.”

Meng Huan looked up. “But ……”

“Now, sealing your father in the box for protection is only temporary. He scolded me angrily in the court, and his good reputation has long spread. In the future, when I leave the court, His Majesty will likely start using him again. At that time, it’s your father’s turn to shine.”

Lin Bozhou gently pinched Meng Huan’s face. “This is called ‘retreat for advance’. Huan Huan, do you understand?”

The flesh of his cheek was soft when pinched, and his touch was light, his fingertips merely rubbing over the fair skin.

Meng Huan raised his eyes to look at him.

It took Meng Huan a while for his mind to run through what he said.

Meng Huan frowned and tried to join the thought: “So, my father being banished is not bad?”

“No,” Lin Bozhou’s tone was gentle. “He just had to suffer some physical pain, but I have asked the officers and soldiers escorting him to take more care of him. I have also told the station soldiers not to make things difficult for your father. He must be living a very leisurely life now.”

— All of these matched up with the letter from Meng Xueming.

So he wasn’t sent away in straitened circumstances, feet and hands in shackles, soles badly mangled, walking all the way to Fengxiang with the hot sun and sandy wind.

It wasn’t that Lin Bozhou was humiliated in court and concealed the truth in a rage, banishing the emperor’s imperial censor that acted as his eyes and ears in retaliation.

Many people saw the first layer but not the second.

Meng Huan inexplicably remembered the beginning of the book where the original shou angrily scolded Lin Bozhou.

So, did the original shou also not know Lin Bozhou’s intentions?

So…… did Lin Bozhou do a good deed and was continually misunderstood and misinterpreted?

Even in the book, as a reader, Meng Huan only felt that he was powerful, vicious, and decisive, a fully villainous gong. Later, the original shou abused him happily, and he also joined the happiness and never saw the arrangement behind this.

—Was this what a power and conspiracy text looked like?

Meng Huan was stunned and suddenly felt that this world was not how he originally saw it.

He raised his head and looked at Lin Bozhou again.

The man sat quietly in his chair. The white veil around his ears and neck fell, revealing the white earlobe, sitting upright, with the ambiance of the cool breeze and bright moon hanging in the dark night.

Outwardly handsome as the Buddha’s son and inwardly ugly as Shura.

Meng Huan’s sight fell to the white veil over his eyes.

He suddenly felt that Lin Bozhou had been in the darkness for too long.

— Long enough that his hands were stained by blood and filth, unable to be washed clean, like a handsome evil ghost with disheveled hair, sharp fangs, and the dark shadows of the gloomy night that everyone was scared to see.

But now…… Meng Huan discovered something.

He was not so dirty that he could not get close to him……

Nor was getting close to him a mistake.