Zhao Chang Chun hugged Zhao Jin Yu,emotionally moved.
His originally thick and broad chest, was now only skin andbones, as if it would smash with only the lightest push, but this person, had acompa.s.sionate father’s chest, making Zhao Jin Yu greedily draw warmth from it,crying increasingly uncontrollably.
Night slowly descended, there were no candles inside theprison cell, only the small narrow window lent moonlight for them to look atone another, Zhao Chang Chun smiled and said, “Jin girl, you’re so big alreadybut still a cry-baby.” Having spoken he wanted to help her wipe her tears, butin the end he saw his clothes were dirty, his hand was even more filthy, heslowly lowered the hand he had softly raised, his heart filled with a feelingof uselessness.
Zhao Jin Yu eyes were swollen like walnuts, but she stillhad good eyesight to see her adoptive father’s sense of loss, with not thoughtsor hesitation she moved her face closer, rubbing against his apparent filthbecause of living in a prison for a long time and not being able to changeclothes and wash, moreover his clothes emitted a mouldy smell.
“Daddy’s dirty.” Zhao Jin Yu acted like a young daughter,heart even more aggrieved, the tears he held back finally fell down, he wasafraid this time there were no positive signs, since he entered this prisoncell he had prepared himself to meet death, until he had no extravagant hope, hiswife was the Xu family of Jinling’s first wife’s daughter, her older brotherwas also the newly appointed clan leader, naturally he wouldn’t treat herunfairly, as for his son Zhao Jing Chuan he was a boy, even if he had the labelof being the son of a criminal official, at the very least he could stillcontinue with his life, all except this adopted daughter, all alone by herself,stubborn and honest nature, to curry favour by showing obedience, also toofrank nature…, what’s to be her future? The more he thought about it the morehe felt distressed, unable to part with it.
The father and daughter cried for a while holding each othernow it quietened down, especially Zhao Chang Chun, after all he wasn’t anordinary person, at a young age he had been a fifth ranked official, if he hadnot been linked with the Yan high official corruption case, he would have hadboundless prospects.
“Jin girl, the food you make is tastier than your mother’s.”Zhao Chang Chun changed into new cotton-padded clothes, he allowed Zhao Jin Yuto brush his hair, showing a bit of his former cultured and handsome manners, nowwith a content expression he ate the rice b.a.l.l.s made by Zhao Jin Yu.
Xu Shi was a woman of a prestigious family, leading apampered life from childhood, when she had married Zhao Chang Chun she almostbroke off relations with her family, when she was first with Zhao Chang Chun, shecould only learn to cook herself, sew clothes, if the feminine arts would notwork then she can improvise, after all she had learned from childhood, allexcept cooking, this past ten years, she still hadn’t made any progress.
Zhao Jin Yu recalled, Zhao Chang Chun thought money andpower will help you in any occupation, occasionally he would go in and out ofYayuan pleasure house or social interactions, even though he never messedaround he would however carry some smell of cosmetics on his body, Xu Shi wouldmake a bowl of white fungus congee for Zhao Chang Chun to drink without battingan eyelid, watching Zhao Chang Chun’s face as he drank it down, her expressionwould only then faintly relax.
Thinking up to here, the tears she had just stopped againstarted falling again.
Nine years went by in a flash, how can her originally sereneand happy life be broken like this so suddenly?
After speaking Zhao Chang Chun obviously also thought of hiswife Xu Shi…, and seeing Zhao Jin Yu’s tearful outer corner of her eyes, hesighed, saying, “Jin girl, don’t blame your mother.” Even though he didn’t askZhao Jin Yu what happened, but based on being husband and wife for so manyyears, he obviously already caught a glimpse of the whole sequence of events,“You will soon understand, your mother seems harsh, but in fact she’s acting inyour best interest.”
Zhao Jin Yu hung her head not speaking, the dim moonlightshone on her face, making her look even more pale and frail.
Zhao Chang Chun heart ached, almost immediately he wasdetermined, saying, “Jin girl, come to your dad.” Having spoken he looked allaround vigilantly, seeing it was extremely quiet, the prisoners in the prisoncell next door were just fighting over a black steamed bun, the prisoneropposite had his head down sleeping in the pitch-dark, then did he speak with aprofound gaze, “daddy has hidden a letter inside the house, deliver that letterto…”
The more Zhao Jin Yu listened, the more serious herexpression.
Zhao Jin Yu was seen off by the jailor Feng Er, Feng Er hadonce been shown kindness by Zhao Chang Chun, therefore he always showed someconsideration towards them, this was also the reason why the previous jailordid not make things difficult for Zhao Jin Yu.
“Young lady, wait a moment, I’ll call for my wife, take youhome together.”
The night had darken, and the outside was also bitterlycold, Zhao Chang Chun could not be at ease with Zhao Jin Yu walk at night alone,so he entrusted Feng Er to take his daughter home, Feng Er was after all a man,so he called for his own wife to go with them, otherwise if people saw a manand woman alone it would ruin Zhao Jin Yu’s reputation.
Zhao Jin Yu’s brain was in a muddle, because of Zhao ChangChun’s words just now, half a beat slow she then said, “Thank you uncle Feng.”
Hearing Zhao Jin Yu call him like this, Feng Er, the seven chiman somewhat bashfully scratched his head, saying, “It’s fine for the younglady to call me Feng Er, I’m just a very minor jailer how can I be addressedlike this by you.”
Feng Er’s wife Zhang Shi had a suntanned complexion, ast.u.r.dy and tall woman, when she came she pulled along a mule cart, saying, “Whyare you not smart? The young lady is a sweet fair daughter of an official, howcan she be like our family’s Hong Er such a wild girl, who can walk home byherself?”
“I didn’t think about it, wife you still think ofeverything.” Feng Er with an extremely good temperament laughed, “no wonderthey say my life is good, marrying such a clever wife, truly blessed with awoman of pure heart and spirit.”
Hearing this Zhang Shi looked at Zhao Jin Yu worried,turning to look at him and scold, “Be serious, carefully take the young ladyback.” Immediately she apologised to Zhao Jin Yu saying, “Young lady, don’t beangry, my husband is an uneducated person, he speaks crudely.”
Zhao Jin Yu couldn’t help smile at this scene, the anxietyin her heart also faded quite a lot, they say people in ancient times had manywives and many concubines, but apart from those influential families withextravagant lifestyles, the ordinary people were monogamous, honestly andgenuinely live their lives, amongst those there were also not a lack ofhenpecked males like Qian Feng Er.
Originally she had thought she would return home veryquickly, who knew having just come out of the alleyway in front their path wasblocked, an Embroidered Uniform Guard wearing feiyu attire leading ordinary soldiers coldly and ruthlesslyberated, “What is your status? Don’t you know there is a nigh curfew notallowed to go out?”
Feng Er explained for quite a while with a good manner butstill couldn’t make the other person accommodate them, and almost caused themto be arrested, if it wasn’t for the fact Feng Er was a jailer, showing the namebadge around his waist it really would have been difficult to settle thematter, finally Zhao Jin Yu under the invitation of the husband and wife,temporarily stayed at the Zhang house.
Zhao Jin Yu was taken to the main house, bringing over thehouse’s best bedding, Zhang Shi pulled on Zhao Jin Yu’s lily-white hands,stopping all her protests, that suntanned face held a solemn seriousness,“Young lady, you mustn’t treat us as outsiders, if it wasn’t for Lord Zhaorescuing my nearly frozen husband at that time, I would be a widow now, notonly did Lord w.a.n.g arrange for my husband to work here? Your Zhao family gaveour family a new lease of life, me and my husband, and our child, even if weworked like an ox in our next life we still wouldn’t be able to repay yourkindness!” Speaking up to here she sighed, glancing at her thin clothes, ZhaoJin Yu’s thin and pallid expression, her heart both took pity on her, and wasfurious, her tone unconsciously became a few octaves higher, “Lord Zhao is agood person! Many people say him and high official Yan together got hundredthousands of silver from corruption, but my husband knows, this time he enteredprison, the fact is he couldn’t even raise the money to make things better…”
Zhao Jin Yu also believe Zhao Chang Chun wasn’t that kind ofperson, but this was actually the first time she heard such a bright favouringstatement, the rim of her eyes couldn’t help but water, saying,
“Many came whenwe were blessed with double the good fortune, not many provided help in ourhour of need, I thank you on my father’s behalf.”
Zhang Shi’s heart ached when she saw tears fill Zhao JinYu’s eyelashes, comfortingly saying, “Young lady don’t be too broken-hearted,there will be one day Lord Zhao’s name will be cleared, the whole truth will berevealed, the truth will come to light.”
Zhao Jin Yu knew most of Zhang Shi’s words were to comforther, and did not say much else, waiting until she got into bed, blowing out thecandle, but she couldn’t sleep.
Yesterday she had also heard from next door’s Zhang Zhi Shisay, there were a lot of implications with this case, even Ningguo princess’sson had been taken away by the Embroidered Uniform Guards…, and suggested toher, this case seems like a corruption case, but was actually different, therewere other hidden motives.
Thinking up to here, Zhao Jin Yu again unconsciously worriedabout the thing her adoptive father Zhao Chang Chun’s careful and insistentinstructions, what exactly was written inside that letter? Why would there besuch importance attached to it? So much so that even mother Xu Shi wasn’t told?
With these chaotic train of thoughts, Zhao Jin Yu slowlyjoined the land of dreams.
In the middle of the night, Zhao Jin Yu woke up to the soundof a sharp weeping noise, it was brightly lit outside, “My Lord, my daughter isto marry tomorrow, she hasn’t done anything, how can you just arrest her likethat?” The usually straightforward Zhang Shi, her voice held a bit of rarepanic.
Very quickly the cold and ruthless voice of a man could beheard, “Is your daughter’s name Zhang Hong?”
“She is called that…”
“Is the head of your household’s surname Feng, why is yourdaughter’s surname Zhang?”
Very soon Feng Er’s eager explanation could be heard, “I’mthe son-in-law that married into the family, my daughter therefore follows mywife’s surname.”
“Oh, so it’s like that.”
“My Lord, this is to show a little bit of my respect…”
“Get lost, only two silvers? Do you take me as a dest.i.tutebeggar to be made to leave? Tell me does your family have a first-rate jadependant? Hehehe, that also won’t do!” The man’s voice ceased resolutely, evenmore indifferent like ice, “this is our commander’s order, not a single personcan be let off! Come, arrest them.”
“Dad, mother…, wuwu…”
“This is my family’s jade pendant pa.s.sed on from generationto generation, reportedly it’s worth quite a few tens of silver, my Lord isthis fine with you, just turn a blind eye!”
It was quiet inside the courtyard for a while, but veryquickly an even more piercing wail was heard, “It’s not that I don’t want tolet your daughter off, if you need to blame something blame that your daughterhas such a name, I won’t hide from you, today so long as a girl has this name,they will be arrested!”
A quiver worked itself up Zhao Jin Yu, with quick steps shereached the window, for some reason she didn’t hear the other words clearly,however the two words Zhang Hong was like a thorn, suddenly stabbing her heart.
What was this all about?
She had just told the stone yesterday of this name, todayearly morning the Embroidered Uniform Guards started interrogating the whole city!
On the other side Feng Er because his daughter was takenaway, was covered in a gloomy cloud, a depressing mood, and Zhao Jin Yu’s housewas also not peaceful, after the emperor opened his eyes
he discovered, thehouse was completely empty without a single person, bouncing around in circlesfor half the day, and very haughtily threatening Zhao Jin Yu if she dared tohide then she will…, who would have imagined that girl would disappear!
The weather after snowing was very cold, the underfloorheating in the house was not lit, and there was no wood charcoal, the bonepiercing winter night wind was like a knife stabbing into a person’s body,thinking about it when he was in the palace, he didn’t feel the eerie coldnessof the palace hall was difficult to bear, since changing into a stone hecouldn’t even stand the slightest chilliness.
The anger in his heart surged forth, hard to control, theemperor gritted his teeth saying, “We will make life living h.e.l.l!” His stomachhungry rumbled incessantly, the emperor thought of that dish which looked alikeby the imperial kitchen, but eating the potato stewed with meat it was not tohis liking at all, he felt more and more angry.
Two hours pa.s.sed.
Four hours pa.s.sed.
Six hours pa.s.sed.
The emperor’s fierce expression lost its intensity, itsomewhat wilted, in low spirits he returned to bed, covering himself with thehandkerchief Zhao Jin Yu had given him as a quilt, sticking out half his body,absent-mindedly he looked outside.
He didn’t want to admit it, but he was too…hungry.