Chapter 356: Still don’t want you to die
The words are bitter, and the tea in his hand seems to be a little more bitter as well.
Huo Xiu parted his head and looked at the night outside the window, and after a moment hung his head, “It’s me who delayed you. You should still forget me.”
Luo Yanru’s eyes well up, “Forgetting someone and heartily pleasing someone are not easy things. You’re forcing the issue.”
“I don’t even know if I can live to see the day I come to propose marriage.” Huo Xiu averted his gaze, “If my mother really died in the Empress Dowager’s murder, then what I’m doing right now is sending me to my death.”
“Then can you not lay your hands on the Flower Moon Society?”
Huo Xiu’s expression was cold and steely: “Why not? Without crushing the Flower Moon Society, how can the world see the true colors of the hypocrites? Do you also believe that this Flower Moon Society is what she really uses to protect women?”
Luo Yanru was silent. Then she said, “I can’t say I believe it, nor can I say I don’t believe it. However, the Empress-to-be that the Emperor has enthroned is not what the world recognizes as a lady of the house. She is also working for the Flower Moon Society nowadays. According to common sense, after the future wedding, the Empress will definitely be taking over the Flower Moon Society as well. In addition, she had repeatedly thrown her weight around to advise the court. This decision of the palace to register the queen, I think that at least …… it is in line with the purpose of the Flower Moon Society when it was founded.”
Huo Xiu did not comment.
Luo Yanru then said, “The Da Lisi has received the petition, and at this moment, it must have already reached the Empress Dowager’s ears. The Empress Dowager and many of the court officials have been at odds over the Flower Moon Society, and have been holding their breath for a long time. She will definitely not let it happen this time. Since you have ruffled her feathers, are you ready to take it?”
As her words fell, the room fell into a brief silence.
A moment later, Huo Xiu held his cup in his hand, adding a hint of complexity to his still cold demeanor: “I’m just afraid that she won’t take it. Only if she does, can I proceed to the next step. But-”
“How?”
Huo Xiu slowly clenched his hands, “But I can’t say …… it seems that compared to seeing her defeat, what I’m internally looking forward to more at this moment is her reaction.”
“You’re looking forward to it?”
Huo Xiu nodded: “In fact, you said these, and what sister Yu said, I am not completely deaf and blind, twelve years, from the initial get three thousand battalion left behind the evidence of the crime, can not wait to immediately to teeth for teeth hatred, to stoicism so many years over, the heart is not without a wavering.
“But, so many years but no one has ever raised the suspicion of the murder of my mother, this is really can not be explained.”
He to the moonlight long breath: “These years she to jade sister child very heart, jade sister child to her but convinced. If I tear my face off with her, I can’t help but hurt Yu’s heart.
“-If only I had taken Yu’s sister away earlier, there wouldn’t have been this love affair between them, and I wouldn’t have had to look over my shoulder.”
“So now you are hoping that the reaction made by the Empress Dowager will prove that she is innocent?”
Huo Xiu did not say anything. But his slightly slackened expression seemed to acquiesce to her statement.
Luo Yanru mused. “What you said also makes sense. The person who obviously shouldn’t have been sacrificed at that time was killed at that time, and no one in the dynasty is still suspicious.”
“A few days ago, when I returned to the palace to practice my moves with the emperor, I accidentally injured him because of the sudden appearance of a cat – that cat, too, was raised by Ci Ning Palace.” Huo Xiu lightly rubs his brow, “Afterward, I thought about it, the cat won’t suddenly come out, and it’s easy for Ci Ning Gong to make this move because the guards and the cat can be instructed by her. So there must be someone to assassinate words, it can only be her.
“But on the other hand, think about it, what is her reason to do so? And, if she’s so skillful at scheming, isn’t it a bit of a waste of time for her to do something like this?
“Anyway, it seems that whenever I’m a little shaken, something always comes along to pull back my suspicions of her. And I often waver right in the middle of it.”
Luo Yanru looked at him who was hanging his head and supporting his forehead, and said after a long time, “Since it’s impossible, could it be a ploy that someone has deliberately put in place?”
“I don’t think so. In the palace, where else would someone be able to do this?”
Luo Yanru couldn’t answer this question, so she didn’t say anything further.
Outside the window came the faint sound of clappers.
Huo Xiu put down his hand and straightened up, “It’s getting late.”
Luo Yanru also sat up straight.
Huo Xiu stands up, “The clues you gathered for me were very useful. Thank you.”
When he said “thank you”, the man’s gaze changed from resolute to soft, as deep and eerie as the endless colors of the night.
Suddenly, his gaze descended and rested on the silk handkerchief that was exposed at the corner of her sleeve. Then he reached over and pulled it out, a dark green branch on the silk handkerchief stood tall and elegant, just like the man who was holding it.
“There’s no need to do that again. All these things about me, also destroy it. Even if I don’t die, if people know about it, it will not be good for your reputation.”
After saying that he puts the handkerchief close to the lamp, by the flame stained silk handkerchief instantly out of the fire.
“This is my business, it has nothing to do with you!”
Luo Yanru suddenly rushed over to snatch it, and with her bare hands went to extinguish the sparks on it.
Her hands tightly gripped the remaining half of the piece of paddle, as if she couldn’t feel the pain at all. Until the sparks were all extinguished, several red marks appeared on her fair hands from the fire.
“Are you being silly!”
Huo Xiu couldn’t help but clutch her hand and break her fingers apart, only to see that against the root of her fingers, two fire bubbles of varying sizes had grown.
“No harm done. It doesn’t matter.” Luo Yanru said. But the slightly trembling voice has revealed her stoicism, which is more like comforting herself than comforting him.
Huo Xiu looks at her for a moment, then suddenly turns his head and says: “Yao Lin, go fetch some medicine!”
The guards outside the door whispered yes and disappeared into the night.
Huo Xiu retracts his gaze and looks at Luo Yanru with her head hanging down, her hands, which had been used with force just now, also soften and come down.
“Blame me. I shouldn’t have asked you to help me out on the basis of the friendship I had when I was young. If not–”
“I told you, this is my business.” She shook her head, “I wanted so much to be free of my family’s ties, to live for myself. But I couldn’t. God knows how shocked yet impressed I was when I first realized that the person you wanted to take revenge on was the Empress Dowager. There have been so many heroes and heroines throughout the ages. They are powerful to say the least, but how many of them dared to fight against the mighty? Instead, many of the ones who succumbed to power ended tragically.
“Regardless of whether the Empress Dowager is your enemy or not, the fact that you dared to take this step is very capable in my opinion. Even though I can’t get rid of my fate, then it’s good to see you succeed.”
Huo Xiu’s eyes reddened and his chest rose and fell.
“But I still don’t want you to die,” Luo Yanru pulled her hand out, still holding the half silk handkerchief, and said downwards, “Even if the person who killed your highness is really the empress dowager, I still hope that you can think of a way to save yourself. So that vengeance is meaningful.”
“Then you will do?”
She silently paused, said: “Didn’t you say that I should listen to my mother’s words and find a good family to marry? After this return, I will naturally consider it. –Tomorrow the city gates will be opened, you must want to let Long San out of the city, right? Go ahead and do it when you think of it. But be careful, or at least don’t show your face before the Empress Dowager discovers you.”