Chapter 37 – Who to Trust in Crisis

Su Yan prepared the flower shovel and fire folders, to see the end of the Ohio hour, so he quietly left his room, to find the cloud wash.

The two men met at the corner of the temple where they had arranged to meet, nodded to each other, and proceeded, one after the other, along the path in the courtyard to the forest at the base of the south wall.

Said forest, in fact, not big, because of the small south courtyard remote, usually the palace people also neglected to take care of, the grass grows a little too lush. Daytime bamboo trees swaying, pavilions and pavilions hidden, do not feel extraordinarily deep. At night, the path on both sides of the hollow stone columns in the lamps are not lit, the whole forest will show a few dark and gloomy.

In order not to alarm the bystanders, the two used a fire to illuminate, one foot deep and one foot shallow walking. Yun wash care Su Yan foot injury, deliberately slow down the pace, the ground is slippery also stop from time to time to assist him a hand.

“It is under that camphor tree.”

Yun Wash pointed to a large tree with lush leaves near the fence. Su Yan walked over, bent down and put the fire in his hand close to the ground, used the soles of his boots to push aside the fallen leaves, and indeed found a trace that had been dug up and re-buried.

He was busy handing the fire folders in his hand to Yun Wash, and drew out the flower shovel tucked behind his waist, plowing through the soil, the blade of the shovel lodging into a soft object – a wrapped skin.

Could it be that the bloodstained outer robe and the hikisabe of the same color as the tattoo on his body are wrapped up in this bundle?

Su Yan forcefully yanked out the large bag full of sludge, and found that it was wet and heavy, and kept seeping water out, soaking the nearby soil.

It took him quite a bit of effort to undo the soggy dead ends on the bag.

–

Shen Qi came to Hongqing Hall, where Marquis Feng An was under house arrest, and walked into a hipped room at the corner of the west wing corridor.

He took off the guard’s armor on his body and put on the unicorn trailing sash of the Brocade Guard’s Qianhu, wearing the Embroidered Spring Sword back on his waist.

A beloved Chief Banner knocked at the door and said something to him in his ear.

Shen Qi’s pupils shrank as he asked, “Are you sure?”

The Chief Banner replied: “It’s true. There is a chief flag under him who is a good friend of mine, and when he was drinking this evening he unintentionally slipped up and said that Shang Lianzhou was tricked into going to the attic by him, and that the old man in Shaanxi knew nothing but painting, and was a half-wit.”

Shen Qi murmured, “He Fan Tongxuan a thousand households, how dare he trespass, instructing his men to disguise themselves as East Garden guards, swindling the painter, painting the work of false accusations …… Could it be that he colluded with the murderer of Ye Donglou’s murderer?”

The chief flag suggested: “Thousand Households, should we report this matter to the commanding officer? That Fan Tongxuan usually relies on his ancestor’s shade, looks down on your origin, and has a lot of bad words for you. Since we have caught him, we might as well take this opportunity to–“

Shen Qi raised his hand and stopped the latter part of his sentence. He also asked, “Commander Feng temporarily summoned me back to the Northern Zhenfu Si, who will take over the matter of the Little Southern Courtyard, can you find out the news?”

The Chief Banner said, “It is Fan Tongxuan. I also bumped into him just now outside the Hongqing Hall, dressed as an ordinary guard, heading in the direction of the Little South Courtyard.”

Shen Qi frowned tightly and raised his hand, “You go out and wait first, let me think about it”

The Chief Banner was ordered to exit the hipped room. Shen Qi slowly paced a few steps inside the room, and suddenly slapped on the table top of the crescent table, shaking the vase to the floor.

It was not Fan Tongxuan who had colluded with the murderer, but Feng Daewei! It dawned on him that Fan Tongxuan had been ordered by Feng Daewei to instruct his Chief Flag to lure Shang Lianzhou to the pavilion.

Because the Ye Donglou case scared Wei Guifei, causing her to give birth prematurely, for the woman this is a matter of life and death, so Feng An Marquis Wei Joon has long been excluded from the suspects by him. And because Feng Daewei had always colluded with Wei Jun, he had a preconceived notion of the two as a team and excluded Feng Daewei as well.

However, he did not think of another situation: Feng Daewei did not care that much about the safety of Wei Guifei. He was close to the foreign relatives, but did not tie himself to the boat of the foreign relatives, and this matter was also hidden from Wei Joon.

Whether the murderer approached Feng Daewei to conspire with him, or Feng Daewei took the initiative to borrow the murderer’s knife to kill, the targets of both sides were clear – Ye Donglou, Su Yan and King Yu.

But Shen Qi couldn’t figure out what Feng Daewei was doing this for no matter what.

If the deal with Su Yan is to cut off the roots – since in the court cane execution with the prince read the dead hatred, in order to prevent the other side in the future to get the power to liquidate, simply before the power to remove it, this motive is quite sufficient, and in line with the style of Feng to go to the evil.

But what about killing Ye Donglou and framing King Yu? Is this just the murderer’s goal, and Feng is not interested in helping? Or is there something else at stake?

Shen Qi found himself more and more difficult to understand this gloomy-faced top boss nowadays – as the commander of the Prince of Heaven’s personal guards, he was keen on devious tricks, and behind the Emperor’s back he secretly did things everywhere, did he really think that he could conceal himself from Emperor Jinglong’s eyes?

Putting the cart before the horse will inevitably lead to more losses than gains.

Since the founding of the dynasty, the successive Jinyiwei in charge of the commanding officer rarely have a good end. Either by the power to corrode the mind, involved in major cases, stand on the wrong position, was the emperor gave death; is to climb the powerful ministers, the fire cooking oil a moment of popularity, to be the tree fell, the rats can not escape the fate of a sinking ship; or is more ambitious and means to replace the later, in the power of the turnover of the scene in the gloomy exit.

I wonder which of these categories Von Devereaux would fall into?

Shen Qi rubbed the hilt of the knife in his palm, calming the agitation in his heart that wanted to achieve the goal in one go, and decided to solve the urgent problem first-

In order to sell his misery, he lied to Su Yan last night, saying that Feng de-evil no longer trusts him, and sent another two of his men to assassinate Su Yan, which he disposed of.

But in fact, there is no such two people. This matter Feng go evil still handed over to him to handle, on the one hand, to him this many years cultivated beloved quite valued, the second is also a test and warning, so that he will be the merit of the crime, with Su Yan’s death to prove his loyalty.

After a night and a day, it was now the second night, and Su Yan was still alive.

Feng Dexter was very dissatisfied with this, even if Shen Qi used “the assassin who assassinated Marquis Feng An suddenly appeared”, “the Crown Prince and King Yu suddenly arrived” and other excuses to excuse himself, he could not dispel his suspicion and anger…. -Shen Qi’s previous shrewdness and competence made his inaction more suspicious.

That’s why he was temporarily recalled to the North Township Division, and Fan Tongxuan was sent to take over the matter.

At this time, if he resisted the order, or even back to help Su Yan, it will completely expose the act of betrayal, Feng to the evil will certainly be no mercy to remove him immediately.

But if he listened to it, I’m afraid that even if Su Yan has a gold silk soft armor to protect his body, his life is also in danger.

Such a dilemma, a difficult situation, is simply to put him on the fire. If he couldn’t immediately come up with a way to break the situation, he would have to choose between himself and Su Yan’s life.

Shen Qi clutched the hilt of the knife until it was almost embedded in the flesh.

Outside the window in the distance, vaguely heard the sound of the chamberlain of the drum room playing the night watch to report the time, the time of the Ohio has arrived.

He pushed the door open violently and stepped out of the hipped room.

The Chief Banner was still waiting for orders under the eaves, Shen Qi walked in front of him, but hesitated–was this person trustworthy? How trustworthy is he? Is he capable of doing a great job?

Matters of life and death, even his beloved men, it is difficult for him to trust, in case the trust is not the right person, the consequences are unimaginable.

He swallowed back the words that were about to come out of his mouth, and a freshly-written secret fold in his arms burned like a chestnut in the fire.

“My lord?” The Chief Banner carefully looked at his face, “Is there something you wish to order?”

“…… No, it’s nothing.” Shen Qi turned around and walked down the steps.

Just out of the temple door, I saw seven or eight Tee Rider holding a horse waiting at the side of the road, as soon as he saw him hastily greeted the front, clasped his fists and said: “The night road is difficult to travel, my humble servant has been instructed to drive the lamp for the adults, escorting the adults to return to the North Zhenfu Division.”

Shen Qi looked at these unfamiliar faces and thought to herself, Feng Da Wei really can’t worry about me and sent someone to supervise the transportation. I wanted to personally go to Longde Temple before returning to the city, but now it seems that I can’t go.

He was anxious in his heart and burned within, but his face was faintly unable to see any different color, and he pranced onto the horse.

Traveling to the East Garden near the middle gate, the road came face to face with a few lamp-carrying chamberlains, followed by a small group of guards.

Shen Qi saw the person who was clustered in the middle, with a magnificent figure, wearing a Xuan colored cloak, with the hood covering half of his face, and his eyes suddenly lit up.

He clamped his feet into the stirrups, secretly applying internal energy, the steed at his hip steeply let out a sad neigh, meteor-like towards the other party rushed over.

“Watch out! The horse is out of control!” Shen Qi yanked hard on the reins and shouted sternly.

The opposite chamberlain shrieked in fear, and the palace lamp fell to the ground. The guards, on the other hand, drew their swords and sheathed them, blocking in front of the cloaked man.

The cloaked man slapped his palm heavily under the horse’s neck before the iron hooves trampled his body.

This blow seemed to have the force of ten thousand pounds, the steed hissed in pain, and its momentum was curbed alive, Shen Qi tumbled and fell from the horse’s back, but the cloaked man was still in the counter-vibration air wave, only his hood lifted backward, revealing his true face.

Shen Qi rolled twice when he landed, removing most of the force, and was not injured. He propped his hand on the ground and half-kneeled to apologize: “My humble servant is not skillful in mastering the art, and almost hurt your servant, please punish Your Highness.”

King Yu narrowed his eyes and scrutinized him, his face did not change, “It was the horse that suddenly became frightened and snapped, it was not your fault, there is no need to be afraid. The Lone King understands the nature of horses and has a good idea of what’s going on in his heart.”

Shen Qi knew that he was seeing this, the stone in his heart fell to the ground, and he once again confessed.

King Yu waved his hand impatiently and walked away, the guards rushed to catch up, followed by the chamberlains who were busy picking up the lamps on their hands and knees.

Shen Qi got up, and only then did the several Jinyiwei Tip Riders gather around, some of them were concerned about whether Lord Qianhu could be injured; some complained that the runaway horse nearly dragged them down, but fortunately King Yu didn’t take it into account; others marveled at King Yu’s divine power, which was able to force back the wildly running horse with a single palm strike.

One of the cavalrymen said: ”What’s wrong with that! When King Yu was still the Acting King and guarded Datong Town, he was a famous general. At the age of twelve, he led his own troops in the first battle, and in the face of adversity, he used fifty men to fight against more than a thousand enemies, and finally forced the Tartar leader to flee in a rout, and became famous for one battle. A mere frightened horse can still hurt him?”

The other rider was surprised, “Really? How could I not know that at all!”

“How old are you, naturally you don’t know what happened more than ten years ago, I also heard it from my father. Back then, when the late emperor crusaded against Beicheng, he brought him with him and personally taught him military strategy. I heard that he rushed to the aid of His Majesty, who was still the Crown Prince, at the critical moment of the ‘Border Fortress Rebellion’ in the year Gengchen.”

“The success of the rescue of the Emperor, but also a mother and siblings, no wonder the Royal Master in the many princes and county kings, he is particularly generous to him. These years His Royal Highness King Yu does not even need to be vassal, stay in the capital to enjoy all the glory, even if he sleeps so much–” the person next to him passed a wink, this Tee Rider alerted to the loss of words, hurriedly shut up.

Shen Qi only acted as if he hadn’t heard it and frowned, “My horse took this slap and I don’t think it can be ridden. Either you guys share one with me, or go back and get another one.”

The horsemen were under orders to keep an eye on Shen Qi’s return to the Northern Zhenfu Si, during which he could not be allowed to move around, and especially not to meet with people in private. The horse accident just now was already an accident, so how could they let him turn back and cause trouble, and immediately said that they would even a best horse for Lord Qianhu, and they could both ride together.

Shen Qi got on his horse without saying a word and left in a cloud of dust, followed by the rest of the Tee Riders. The group quickly disappeared into the night.

–

King Yu stopped, reached into his pocket, and touched a ball of paper.

He slowly unfolded the ball of paper and saw in the bright light of the palace lamp that it was actually a crumpled secret fold, the internal style of the Jinyiwei.

The unknown jinyiwei thousand households, for some reason to deliberately make the seat of the car to suffer from pain and shock, in front of the subordinates ride this play, but also in the rolled over to the horse, quietly will be delivered directly to the imperial secret folding flicked into the lapel of his coat.

He quickly scanned, saw the word “Su Yan”, immediately kneaded the secret fold into a ball, into his sleeve, could not help but turn his head to look.

That Qianhu had already spurred his horse and galloped out of the middle gate of the East Garden, unable to see his back.

“Your Highness, but are you going back to the Hall of Chong Hua?” The personal guards saw him stop and turn back and asked for instructions.

King Yu gruffly said, “No, go to the small southern courtyard! Get this king a horse nearby, and make it fast!”

He said, striding at a brisk pace, even faster than an ordinary person trotting, the hem of his cloak tumbled in a flowing manner, hunting like the night wind blowing the battlefield flags.