diskusbooks Chapter 132 Joy and Sorrow
Chapter 132 Joy and Sorrow
"Father, let Mother go to the guest room to rest first. Ah Zhe's condition is not easy to move, so let him stay here to recover. Mr. Fei is at home, so it will be convenient for him to take care of him."
Marquis Yong'an nodded upon hearing this.
I went to the room to see Su Zhe.
Pei Heng finally had time to go forward and hug his wife.
His hands were cold, and he was still wearing the outer robe he had worn when he entered the palace last night. The robe was icy cold, and it was obvious that he had been guarding outside all night.
Su Li buried herself in his arms, fatigue and worry sweeping over her, making her unable to stop crying.
Pei Heng didn't disturb her, just held her in his arms and let her cry silently.
In his impression, A'li rarely cries.
He cried once when his broken bones were reconnected.
Huan Ge'er cried once when he fell into the water.
This is the third time I see her cry.
No matter how hard or bitter things were, Su Li never cried. She was too strong to be a girl of seventeen or eighteen. Sometimes Pei Heng would forget Su Li's age and always felt that his wife was older and stronger than himself.
Only at this moment did he feel that his wife was still a little woman after all, a weak woman who needed to be embraced, cared for, and relied on.
Having cried enough, Su Li raised her head, wiped away her tears, and once again endured everything and said:
"Where are the children?"
"Don't worry, I have sent people to bring them back from the princess. Xie An has also been sent back to the mansion."
"That's good." Su Li nodded, and suddenly remembered something important. She pulled Pei Heng and said:
"I forgot to tell you something important."
"what's up?"
"gun!"
"Gun? What?"
Pei Heng shuddered. In the chaos of last night, he seemed to remember that the weapon used by Su Liguan's assassin was called a gun.
"The weapon that attacked us yesterday is called a spear. I saw it in... an ancient Mohist text. It's incredibly lethal. Fortunately, it seems the enemy only made a very basic prototype."
Su Li remembered that Pei Heng had once teased her that she was the successor of the Mohist school. She thought to herself: Mozi, Mozi, please lend me your name.
As expected, Pei Heng had no doubts and asked:
"Ari understands this?"
"Hmm! Have you performed an autopsy on the victim's body? As expected, there should be small steel balls in the wound. They were propelled into the body by gunpowder."
"I didn't expect that someone could create something like this."
Pei Heng was amazed but also worried.
If the other party is really the Beimang people, and they have such advanced weapons, wouldn't it be easy for them to go south and attack Daqi?
Su Li said, "I do suspect someone."
If anyone could make a gun, the first person to be suspected would be Liu Xu. However, she really didn't expect Liu Xu to be so capable.
"Pei Yan's aunt?"
Tonight's surprises are one after another.
"Why are you so sure, Ari?"
Su Li really didn't know how to explain it.
Is it said that Liu Xu is a time traveler?
With Pei Heng's intelligence, wouldn't he doubt her?
He could only stammer, "Uh, I saw her tinkering with these things when I was in the mansion before."
"Okay! I'll go check it out!" Pei Heng was determined to follow this line and investigate thoroughly.
After talking about the important things quickly, Su Li saw that Pei Heng still had official business to attend to, so she said, "You go ahead and do your work. I'll go see Ci'er."
……
In the kitchen, Song Ci was still kneading flour.
I kept ruining the steamed osmanthus cake in batches.
If the steaming was bad, she would knead the dough again, pick osmanthus flowers from the yard, and steam it again.
But no matter how she steamed it, it just didn't work.
"why why!"
Song Ci shed tears as he grabbed the dough and threw it hard, cursing, "Song Ci, you're a fool! Idiot! You can't even make a sweet-scented osmanthus cake! What else can you do besides show off your skills, bully others, and cause trouble all day long?"
While cursing, he raised his hand and slapped himself twice.
"Ci'er! What are you doing?"
As Su Li stepped into the kitchen, she saw Song Ci with red and swollen eyes raising his hand to slap herself, so she quickly stepped forward and snatched the hand away.
"Sister Su! I can't do it! I can't do it at all! Sister Su, I'm useless! Ah!!"
After a night, Song Ci completely collapsed.
She threw the dough away, sat down in the mess on the ground and burst into tears, with snot and tears running down her face, leaving streaks of flour.
Su Li hugged her, patted her back gently and said:
"Don't cry! Azhe is tough, you have to believe he can make it. When he was a kid, he fell into the water in the middle of winter and had a fever for ten days and ten nights, but he still survived. He's very tough!"
The tears that she had managed to hold back were brought back by Song Ci, and her voice choked again.
"Ci'er, it's far too early to cry. You haven't slept all night. I'll have someone take you home, change clothes, and get some sleep, okay?"
Song Ci's clothes were still covered in Su Zhe's blood, which had completely dried up after a night. It had now turned dark black, with large patches of blood, which was really creepy to look at.
Hearing this, she looked down at her slovenly self with tears in her eyes and said to herself:
"Yes, it's not time to cry yet. He said girls should act like girls. I'll go back and clean up. I can make osmanthus cake."
As he said this, he stood up, wiped his tears, and walked out in a daze.
Su Li was worried about her, so she quickly called two maids to follow her.
The general's mansion was in chaos, but people in Prince Jing's mansion were celebrating their victory.
"You didn't see that when Prince Heng was carried back, there wasn't a single piece of healthy flesh on his body. I never thought that Madam Pei would be so powerful just by slightly adjusting the formula of the gunpowder. Even though I was mentally prepared, I was still shocked."
Prince Jing was still very excited when he thought about what happened last night.
Hearing Prince Jing praising Liu Xu, Pei Yan was also very proud and said:
"Xu'er and I are only doing our bit. Everything is under the wise command of His Royal Highness Prince Jing."
"Hahahaha, well said. You are the primary contributor to the success of my great undertaking!"
Pei Yan's face was radiant. He could already see success beckoning him. When Prince Jing ascended the throne, he would be a powerful official of the highest rank.
He held up his wine glass and clinked glasses with Prince Jing repeatedly, in a good mood.
"What a shame." Prince Jing sighed, his eyes full of viciousness. "I was originally going to blow up the old emperor. I don't know what happened to the old emperor, but he suddenly changed his mind at the last minute and didn't go upstairs. He ruined all my careful arrangements."
According to the original plan, Emperor Jingde would personally go up to the tower to light the lamp, and he would die in the explosion.
The rest of the princes and ministers who opposed him would also be killed by the assassins lying in ambush in the crowd.
Unexpectedly, the emperor escaped the disaster.
Thinking of this, Prince Jing slammed his fist on the table:
"Pei Heng! Didn't Duke Qing personally test him and say he was barely escaping death? I see he's alive and well today! I saw the assassin was about to succeed, but he just jumped out!"
"Your Highness, and Prince Su."
"That's right! If it weren't for him, the second brother would have fallen to his death. Pei Heng and the seventh brother ruined my plans, and I will not forgive them."
Prince Jing placed his wine glass on the table with a sinister look, then turned to ask Pei Yan, "Have you dealt with all the people and things?"
"Don't worry, Your Highness." Pei Yan patted his chest and assured, "Everyone has dispersed among the common people. Everything has been dismantled and mixed with firewood and transported out of the city this morning. The bodies of the deceased have also been disposed of. It's done cleanly."
"That's good!"
That night, Pei Yan returned to the Marquis' Mansion drunk and went straight into the Piaoxiang Courtyard. He hugged Liu Xu and kissed her, "Xu'er, our good days are coming!"
Liu Xu's eyes were as charming as silk. She came forward and wrapped her arms around his waist affectionately, saying softly, "Then I, your concubine, would like to congratulate His Highness the Crown Prince in advance on his success and fame, and on his power and influence in the court!"
Pei Yan laughed and rolled into the bed with Liu Xu in his arms.
After a passionate embrace, Liu Xu pushed away Pei Yan, who was drunk and pressing on her, in disgust, and got up and went to the bathroom to wash.
The next day at dawn, she went to Xuxuebing City.
He entered the shop through the back door, took out a bunch of keys, opened a secret door and went down to the cellar.
Soon, she brought a few buckets of ice from the dim cellar and called the shopkeeper Lin:
"Distribute the ice. This is the last batch."
Manager Lin nodded in agreement and hurriedly asked someone to move the ice away.
When there was no one around, the shopkeeper Lin took out the account book and handed it to Liu Xu.
"Boss, this is the account for this period. As you instructed, two copies of the account book have been made. The one with losses has been submitted to the Marquis's wife at the Marquis' Mansion."
Liu Xu flipped through the account book, looked at the numbers on it, and nodded with satisfaction.
"Well done, as usual, I'll deposit the silver in my bank. I'll continue to make losses on the accounts of the mansion."
"Yes!" Manager Lin responded respectfully.
He was convinced by this boss.
Ever since the ice road was cut off, he thought the business of Xuxue Ice City was over. But the owner had extraordinary magical powers and could create ice overnight.
He couldn't help but ask out of curiosity, but Liu Xu warned him:
“If you want to live a long life, you must control your curiosity.”
Manager Lin agreed with this.
He is just an employee who gets paid, why does he care about so many things?
Including the false accounts given to the Marquis' Mansion, the boss said:
"When you are alive, you must know who is the master!"
That’s right!
After seeing off Shopkeeper Lin, Liu Xu returned to the cellar, picked up an axe, and smashed all the large wooden barrels in the cellar. After watching the saltpeter in the barrels flow away along the underground drain, she cleaned up everything and locked the cellar with several heavy locks.