HLnovel Chapter 352 Dark under the lamp
Chapter 352 Dark under the lamp
Pei Ji took the empty bowl. "He came back the night before last. The young master was still unconscious. He said he would come back again today."
Zong Que leaned against the simple wooden frame behind him, closed his eyes wearily, and softly hummed in agreement.
Pei Ji stared at Zong Que for a moment and then said, "Young Master, the people who are supposed to meet us have arrived. We must set off now. Your injuries can't be delayed any longer."
There was no response for a long time.
Just as Pei Ji and Zong Que had already fainted again and would no longer answer him, Zong Que spoke up and said, "We'll set off today after Sheng Junyi returns."
Pei Ji finally breathed a sigh of relief. "I'll go and make the preparations."
Zong Que gave a soft "hmm," and Pei Ji turned and left.
As darkness fell, Sheng Junyi, dressed in black night clothes and covered in sweat, slipped into the somewhat cramped little house.
Zong Que was still leaning against the wooden frame. His eyebrows twitched, and after a moment, he opened his eyes and looked at Sheng Junyi.
Sheng Junyi took out a tinderbox and shook it to light the oil lamp on a simple wooden table.
"Have you found any news about Yangyang?" Zong Que asked.
"No, but I did hear some news that might be more useful to you." Sheng Junyi crossed his arms and leaned against the wall: "Little Fairy Doctor has appeared."
Zong Que frowned: "That little fairy doctor from the immortal island?"
“Hmm,” Sheng Junyi nodded, “A major incident has recently occurred in Jiangnan Prefecture, causing quite a stir. Everyone is saying that the daughter of the Governor of Jiangnan disappeared less than two months after marrying into the Yang family. The Jiang family went to great lengths to find her, even forcing the Yang family to demand her return. After more than a month of this, the Yang family had no choice but to claim that Miss Jiang had contracted syphilis and wanted to divorce her. However, Miss Jiang appeared with Little Fairy Doctor and took her pulse in front of the onlookers. It turned out that Miss Jiang did not have syphilis at all; it was just the Yang family slandering her. As a result, Young Master Jiang directly shut down the Yang family and threatened to investigate where Young Master Yang got the 100,000 taels of silver he spent on hiring famous courtesans.”
"This matter seems to have no problems at first glance, but there are strange things about it. When the Jiang family started looking for people, it was right when you and Lu Yangyang disappeared together. The Imperial Guards went to Jiangnan Prefecture and asked the Governor of Jiangnan to look for people. The Governor of Jiangnan used the excuse of looking for his daughter to search for a month, but he found nothing. That's when the Imperial Guards had no choice but to leave."
“Jiang Jiang, the Governor-General of Jiangnan, is the younger brother of the Princess Consort of Qing’an,” Zong Que pondered for a moment, “and Yang Yang once saved the life of the Princess Consort of the Prince of Qing’an.”
Sheng Junyi was slightly taken aback.
Zong Que asked Sheng Junyi, "On the day Miss Jiang appeared, besides Little Fairy Doctor, who else was there?"
"It is said to be Miss Wen, the Little Fairy Doctor, and a handsome young man, Liu Xiang from the Red Sleeve Pavilion..." Sheng Junyi recalled the information he had gathered.
“Little Fairy Doctor Wen, young man…” Zong Que pondered softly, a slight smile appearing on his lips.
"What? You know him?" Sheng Junyi asked curiously.
“That young man is Yangyang,” Zong Que replied with certainty.
Sheng Junyi asked, puzzled, "But what I heard was that the young man's face was perfectly fine. How can you be so sure it's her?"
"The Governor-General of Jiangnan wants to find someone in Jiangnan Prefecture. With such a large-scale search, there isn't even a single clue. Where do you think the person is safest to hide?" Zong Que asked rhetorically.
Sheng Junyi's eyelids twitched: "It's darkest under the lamp."
“Either Miss Jiang was never lost in the first place, or it was a coincidence that they met at the beginning. She has always been at the Governor-General's Mansion in Jiangnan, so no matter how they search, they will not be able to find any useful clues. In addition, it is not difficult for Little Fairy Doctor to conceal her appearance, so that young man is Yangyang.” Zong Que’s heart, which had been worried for many days, was finally relieved. He called out to the door, “Pei Ji.”
“Young Master,” Pei Ji said as he entered.
Zong Que instructed, "Leave tonight."
Sheng Junyi asked curiously, "Now that you know about her, aren't you going to wait for her? Even if you don't, you've already met Little Fairy Doctor, are you just going to let this opportunity slip by?"
“You killed me in front of the Imperial Guards, Commander He, and Vice Minister Feng, and then took me away. This was all to create a false impression, to make him think that I was dead, but also to make him worry that I wasn’t. Given his mindset, what do you think he will do next?” Zong Que asked.
Sheng Junyi scoffed: "Of course, we'll continue searching the whole world for your corpse. After all, we need to see you alive or dead."
"So if I were to see Yangyang now, she would only be able to hide and run for her life if she followed me. She has her own path to walk and doesn't need to waste her time on me." From the very beginning, Zong Que was not waiting to reunite with Lu Yangyang at this moment, but to make sure that she was safe and sound before he could leave with peace of mind.
Sheng Junyi was slightly surprised, "What about Little Fairy Doctor?"
“She can’t cure me.” Zong Que answered decisively, and after a moment, he added, “You just said that Little Fairy Doctor’s surname is Wen. If I’m not mistaken, she is Wen Yu’s niece.”
"Wen Yu, Lu Yangyang's master?" Sheng Junyi asked in surprise.
“I heard that Wen Yu comes from the Valley of the Medicine God. He told me from the beginning that he couldn’t cure me. Even if his father came in person, I wouldn’t be able to stand up,” Zong Que replied.
Sheng Junyi looked at him.
"So for me now, that's enough." Zong Que had actually accepted the possibility that he would never be able to stand up again from a very early age, so what Lu Yangyang did for him was already an impossible miracle. Even if he had to walk on thorns for the rest of his life because of this miracle, he would be sincerely grateful and satisfied.
Zong Que took off the sandalwood prayer beads he carried with him, pinched one of them, and a particularly exquisite gold leaf fell out.
He handed the gold leaf to Sheng Junyi: "I agree to what you want to do, but you also have to promise me that if Yangyang needs anything, you will do your best to help him. If you can't do that, I will take care of you myself."
Sheng Junyi held the gold leaf in his hand, gently stroking it with his fingertips: "Although I have no bottom line in my conduct, I do understand one principle: if you eat the emperor's food, you must be loyal to the emperor. We each get what we need, and there is no deception between young and old."
Zong Que responded, then pulled out a letter from beside the bed and handed it to him: "This is a letter of recommendation from the Lingzhou Navy. The Lingzhou Navy is in charge of the entire Southeast Navy. The Navy Commander-in-Chief, Wang Qingduo, is the Emperor's study companion and also his confidant. You can go in disguised or send someone else in, but keep a close eye on him. He was the one who handled the Chenzhou case back then. Investigate what he did in it. Also, no matter what happens in the capital, he cannot make a move. If he does, kill him directly. The Southeast cannot be in chaos."
Sheng Junyi smiled and took the letter, asking with great pleasure, "Does Your Highness have any further instructions?"