Love Affairs in Chang'an - Chapter 207

Chapter 207 Come With Me
Li Ke cut his hands and walked to the main hall of the secretariat’s mansion without saying a word.

The seats in the hall were arranged neatly, and it was obvious that they had already been prepared to welcome Li Ke. Right now, officials of all sizes could only stand cautiously in the hall with their hands lowered, not even daring to step out of the hall.

Li Ke sat in the hall, his face almost expressionless. His pair of cold eyes swept across the people in the hall. He remained silent for a long time, but he did not speak.

The atmosphere in the hall was suffocating. Although it was early spring’s cold weather, Zhao Chong’s forehead was also drenched in cold sweat, while Wu Facao’s legs were trembling slightly.

Seeing that the atmosphere was so awkward and stagnant, Quan Wanji took a few steps forward to Li Ke. He bowed and whispered, “Your Highness, please calm down … I’ve already heard about what happened before. It’s a misunderstanding.”

“Chief Quan, you’re overthinking things. This king is not angry.” Li Ke suddenly smiled and casually waved his hand, “This prince is new here, so this prince can be considered to be acquainted with you today. In this case, this prince should no longer be captured as a water ghost companion, right?”

“Haha” The officials and generals present squeezed out a burst of dry laughter, and the atmosphere was somewhat lively. Wu Facao and Zhao Chong became even more nervous, their bitter smiles even uglier than crying.

Li Ke was more relaxed and casual. He rubbed his belly and said, “Sit down, everyone. This king is really hungry. The food in prison is not for people to eat. What are you waiting for? Go to the table!”

“Thank you, Your Highness, for giving me a seat!” The officials heaved a sigh of relief and sat down one after another.

Quan Wanji stood at the side and stared blankly at Li Ke. He was confused for a moment and didn’t know what Li Ke meant. He thought to himself, “According to His Highness’s past personality, having suffered such grievances and insults today, it would have been a long time ago for him to be furious, and even swing his whip to whip someone.” What was going on now? Why did he feel that he was somewhat unfathomable?

“Chief Quan, you can sit down and have a feast!” Li Ke smiled and pointed at the upper seat next to his lower head.

Quan Wanji smiled bitterly and cupped his hands in return. “Thank you for the seat, Your Highness. However, shouldn’t this seat be reserved for General Qin?”

“No need. He definitely won’t come to the banquet today. Sit down.” Li Ke waved his hand and smiled mysteriously.

Quan Wanji smiled helplessly and shook his head. He knew that Li Ke and Qin Mubai, a pair of best friends, were both extremely intelligent characters. How could he conspire with them? Forget it, let them go and see how Li Ke behaves today.

Moments later, the banquet was presented, and everyone sat down to eat their own meals. Li Ke was so hungry that he had to eat half his fill by himself before he had the mood to deal with the officials and generals who were welcoming him to the hall.

“Everyone, this king has traveled thousands of miles from the capital to Xiangzhou. I’m not familiar with this place. I’ll have to rely on my colleagues to help me in the future.” Li Ke stood up and left the table with a glass of wine and walked into the hall. Everyone else put down their chopsticks and sat down, listening seriously.

“Apart from Changshi Quanwanji, who came with me, and Wu Facao and Captain Zhao, who met in a hurry, I don’t know any of the other colleagues present.” Li Ke smiled and said, “Why don’t you take the initiative to introduce yourselves? Well, let’s start with the prefectural officials. The following is Sima. Where is Sima from Xiang Prefecture?”

“This humble position is here!” A red-robed official hurriedly stood up, walked to the hall and bowed down to Li Ke, and respectfully said, “This lowly Wei Taochen greets His Highness! This lowly Wei Taochen is thirty-eight years old, and he is a trillion-year-old official from Beijing. He raised the Ming Scripture in the second year of Zhenguan. It has been more than three years since he took up the post of Sima of Xiangzhou.”

“Wei Sima, um, nice to meet you.” Li Ke nodded with a smile on his face and pondered for a moment before asking, “I wonder what is the relationship between Sima and Doctor Wei’s family in Chang’an?”

“Your Highness, this lowly ancestor came from the Guanlong Wei clan and is related to the Chang’an Wei clan.” Wei Aochen replied.

Li Ke looked at Wei Xiaochen carefully and couldn’t help but be a little surprised, “So Wei Sima came from such a famous family. How disrespectful!”

“I don’t dare, I don’t dare!” A faint smile appeared on Wei Xiaochen’s face, and he was vaguely complacent. He hurriedly cupped his hands and said, “Your Highness possesses two dynasties of royal bloodline. It is truly indescribably expensive!”

Li Ke nodded and signaled for Wei Xiaochen to sit back down.

The Great Tang Empire paid attention to family background, while the Wei Clan in Chang’an was a typical influential clan.

Next, someone took the initiative to introduce himself to Li Ke. In this current environment, it was obvious that he should be the highest ranked official general here. As expected, this man with a strong and elegant face was one of Qin Mubai’s deputies, Guoyi Commandant Du Chengyuan of Xiangzhou Prefecture.

Coincidentally, this person was also a Jing Zhao Ren Shi. He came from the Du Clan of the Guan Long Shi Clan at the same time as Wei Aochen, and was also a relative of the founding prime minister, Du Ruhui!

In the later generations, there was a saying, “Weidu in the south of the city, five feet into the sky.” This was the most appropriate way to describe the glory of the Wei and Du clans in Chang’an.

The Wei clan and the Du clan were both well-known clans of the Great Tang Dynasty. Their clans were prosperous and wealthy, and since the Northern Wei Dynasty, there were many generals who were prime ministers. They had many marriages with the royal clan, and they had close and intertwined contacts with other clans. Nowadays, the Wei and Du Clans had infinite glory in Chang’an, because Li Shimin had accepted a woman from the Wei Clan as his imperial concubine, while the Du Clan had given birth to a pillar like Du Ruhui.

Li Ke had never expected that the nephews of the Wei and Du Clans would be officials in this small Xiangzhou Prefecture! If it weren’t for his presence as a prince, if it were an ordinary official, Wei Aochen and Du Chengyuan wouldn’t have put him in their eyes!

…

At this moment, in the prison.

Qin Mubai had the jailer invite Chen Yan to the innermost cell. The jailers threatened to lock him and Li Ke up in the secret room of the iron prison.

Qin Mubai could hardly recognize Chen Yan at this moment.

The heroic and valiant heroine of the past was now covered in a fishy stench. Her face was as pale as paper, and her hands and legs were clenching with the sound of shackles. It was so ear-piercing.

“Why are you looking at me like this?” The corners of Chen Yan’s mouth slightly stirred up, as if she was smiling, “This is not the expression that an old friend should have when they reunited.”

“You sit first.” Qin Mubai said to the door, “Blackie, let the prison untie its shackles.”

“No need.” Chen Yan said indifferently, “That jail was prepared to remove it for me just now. I refused.”

“Why?” Qin Mubai said in surprise.

“Because I killed someone. I’m on death row.” Chen Yan continued to speak calmly, “A murderer deserves to die. Since you are an official, the more you must not abuse your authority to break the law.”

Qin Mubai was speechless for a moment, and his brows knitted again.

“I’m very happy to see you again.” Chen Yan smiled faintly and raised her hands to let out a bite sound. “Unfortunately, I am already a prisoner of the next rank and am unable to drink a toast with you,” she said.

“Tell me, what exactly is going on?” Qin Mubai asked.

Chen Yan smiled and said, “Is it necessary? I killed 17 people in a row. It is indeed an indisputable fact. Even the emperor should be granted amnesty to me. I know that you have the intention to save me, but can you cover your mouth? In the end, it is not a matter of stirring up a fire? My sin is to die, and I do not want to implicate you.”

“Then treat it as a chat between friends. You should be able to tell me why you killed those seventeen people.” Qin Mubai asked.

Chen Yan was silent for a moment before nodding, “Since you want to hear it so much, then …”

It turned out that after staying in Jiangzhou for a period of time, Chen Yan was prepared to return to her hometown in Jiangnan by boat to take care of some things. That night, it was near the Eight Ghosts Crossing in Xiangzhou. Suddenly, miserable screams and battles could be heard from the surface of the river, and a large fire broke out on a boat not far ahead.

Chen Yan was originally a chivalrous person who walked in Jianghu, so she immediately jumped off the boat and swam over without hesitation, preparing to save her. It turned out that there was someone fighting on that ship, and it was already nearing the end. Seventeen assassins in black had already killed all the people on board and had also searched all the treasures and cargo on board. They were just about to flee. Chen Yan’s appearance caused the other party to be very shocked, and he immediately killed everyone and silenced them.

At that time, she was in a hurry to save someone, and she didn’t even think of escaping, so she fought against the other party. After a fierce battle, all seventeen of the opponents were killed by her sword. At this moment, the fire on the boat was getting bigger and bigger. Chen Yan searched the boat for a while, but she didn’t find a single living person. Only then did she realize that this was a boat of salt owls who were lucky enough to smuggle salt-that was to say, she had accidentally intervened in the struggle between salt owls!

At this moment, a few official boats sailed over, blocking Chen Yan’s path.

Previously, Chen Yan’s boat had already escaped far away from the ten-mile waterway. There were dozens of corpses on the scene and there was no one who could defend her from the blaze. She didn’t have a good impression of the people in the government, and now she knew that it was hard to argue with them, so she decided to dive into the water and prepared to flee. Moreover, Guan Jun was well prepared and used the Deepwater Crossbow Spear to scratch her out of the water. A large net caught her.

Later, she was thrown into solitary confinement on death row without trial. From the beginning until the end, there was not even a single cell that dared to approach her, and not even a single person dared to speak to her. As a result, Chen Yan was still unable to figure out what kind of people she had killed.

…

As Chen Yan spoke, Qin Mubai was looking at her. He saw the scars left behind by the iron hook, scratching claws, spears, sabers, and swords on her body, such as her shoulders and pipa bones. There were also some scars that were already overflowing, almost sticking together with her clothes, unable to escape.

…

After Chen Yan finished speaking, she smiled and said, “That’s the story. I know that I didn’t kill a good person, but regardless of whether it was a good person or a bad person, I still killed them. Then I should die, right?”

“You weren’t like this before.” Qin Mubai knitted his brows and said, “You’ve been in Jianghu for so many years. This is definitely not the first time you’ve killed someone.”

“That’s right.” Chen Yan stood up and took two steps back. She turned around and murmured, “After the Jiangzhou case, I swore that I would no longer challenge the law. I was also prepared to retire from Jianghu and return to my hometown to be a commoner woman.” Because from then on, I understood that there was still emotion, reason, and law in this world. There was indeed no need to use slaughter and swords to solve all problems. It was you and your highness who made me understand that the people in the government may not all be greedy people in the faint market … ”

“Then you don’t have to be a scapegoat.” Qin Mubai said.

Chen Yan was slightly stunned. She turned around and asked confusedly, “What do you mean by that?”

“You just killed a bunch of people that should be killed. What’s your crime?” Qin Mubai gently raised the corner of his mouth and whispered, “If what I expected wasn’t wrong, you should have killed the water ghosts of the West River Cao. These people have no law to rob the surface of the river, and they even dare to attack the officials. They are the real felons on death row!”

“So what?” Chen Yan smiled somewhat disappointedly. “I’m just a commoner. I don’t have the right to execute them, do I?”

“If I say you do, then you do.” Qin Mubai smiled mysteriously. “Can’t I just say that you were a secret envoy sent by someone from Qin to investigate the case of the water ghost in the West River Channel?”

“This …” Chen Yan’s eyes lit up and she shook her head. “Isn’t that so inappropriate? You haven’t even taken up your post in Xiang Prefecture yet, so how could you send a secret envoy to inquire about the West River Cao Water Ghost? Isn’t this just covering your ears and stealing bells to deceive yourself and others?”

“Heh! Logically speaking, it is indeed unreasonable.” Qin Mubai smiled. “However, many things in this officialdom are often unreasonable and reasonable. Because my officials are older than them, whatever I say is what I say. Moreover, the West River Channel’s water ghost stinks, Evil Zhao, everyone gets it and executes it. Even if others understand that I deliberately found an excuse to excuse you, they still have no nonsense to talk about. In this way, no matter if it is in terms of affection, righteousness, or principle, it can still stand. ”

Chen Yan remained silent for a long time.

“Chen Yan, I must save you.” Qin Mubai said resolutely.

Chen Yan knitted her brows as she stared into Qin Mubai’s eyes and said solemnly, “I hope that I won’t cause you any trouble …”

“Don’t worry.” Qin Mubai smiled confidently and relaxed. “If I can’t handle such a small matter, then I’m really wasting my breath-come with me, now!”