Chapter 350: Chapter 255:
The weather was indeed gradually getting cooler.
In Bianzhou City, the houses remained in high demand but seldom on sale. Xie YanYu was of good character; even as an official, he had no intention of abusing power to coerce people into selling their houses.
So, the brother and sister could only stay at the Prefectural Magistrate Mansion.
As the autumn exams drew nearer, Xie YanYu became busier.
In contrast, Ji Chengfeng, the Lord Governor, seemed very leisurely, visiting the backyard almost daily to inquire about the well-being of his ’savior.’
However, his manners were decent, and his words were appropriate.
Xie Wanqing no longer felt uncomfortable about it.
One day, Ji Chengfeng brought some news.
The turmoil in Xiangzhou had been suppressed, and Yu Cheng, the Military Governor, was captured alive by Lu Ziyuan. His entire maternal family was executed, and the Crown Prince Consort, from the Yu Family, was implicated and exiled to a military camp.
It was said that His Majesty the Emperor did not agree with this.
The reputation of the Imperial Family would be tarnished along with the Yu Family if a Royal woman went to entertain the troops.
But the Crown Prince insisted.
He said that when the Emperor commits a crime, he is treated the same as the commoners, and the families of criminals do not enter the Imperial Music Bureau, but are sent to the camps.
The Imperial Music Bureau is no better than the camp.
Those entering the Imperial Music Bureau are all of high rank, who usually must be respectful and bow to the Crown Prince Consort.
But now...
Yet, the Crown Prince has not fallen from power, so there is caution.
Thus, Lu Ziyuan resolutely decided to send the Yu family to the military camp.
In the military, no one recognizes a Crown Prince Consort; once in the brothel, there are no noblewomen.
Xie Wanqing was momentarily stunned upon hearing the news.
This was the second time Lu Ziyuan sent a woman to entertain the troops.
But she was no longer shocked as she was the first time.
Perhaps it was after she witnessed, that night at Hot Spring Villa, how those men spoke the Great Khan’s dialect and tore the maidservants’ clothes to perpetrate their atrocities.
Or maybe it was the fear after being abducted from the Capital and the experiences traveling from the Northern Land to the south that made her no longer ’naively compassionate.’
She knew that the two thousand elite soldiers who, together with Jin Wuji, surrounded the Hot Spring Villa that night were from Yu Cheng.
So Yu Cheng was not innocent.
His daughter was not innocent either.
In turbulent times at the Great Khan’s, while Lu Ziyuan led the army at the Northern Border, shedding blood and risking lives, they conspired with foreign enemies purely for self-interest, wishing for his defeat.
For this alone, no matter the consequences, they deserved it.
She listened quietly, with no emotional waves in her heart.
Today was overcast, and even though it was not yet evening, the sky was gloomy and black.
In the cool autumn wind, a very discreet carriage slowly stopped at the gate of the Prefectural Magistrate Mansion.
Xie YanYu returned from outside, and seeing the people accompanying the carriage on horseback, he couldn’t help but slightly furrow his eyebrows.
Pei Shu.
... one of Pei Changqing’s personal guards.
His frown deepened, and almost instinctively, he turned his gaze toward the carriage.
Just in time to see a long, slender hand reaching from inside the carriage, slowly lifting the curtain.
The familiar figure appeared, and Xie YanYu’s jaw tightened.
Inside the carriage, Pei Yuqing also saw this older brother-in-law.
Clearly, he had already looked into it and knew Xie YanYu was ordered to come to Bianzhou.
Pei Yuqing got off the carriage, and before he could speak, Xie YanYu tilted his chin slightly, "There are too many people outside, let’s go inside first."
The two exchanged a glance.
Both were smart; with just a look, they understood each other and tacitly dismissed the followers around them.
Pei Yuqing nodded gently and entered the vermillion red gate side by side.
