Chapter 24

He swallowed every drop of the medicine, and Xiao Heng placed the bowl on the table, looking down at him. “Try vomiting again.”

Some people subconsciously wanted others to recover, to forget about irrelevant people, but when they spoke, they stumbled over their words and could only resort to their favorite tactic—threats.

Chu Zhaoyou’s throat rolled, resisting the urge to spray the Regent in the face, and swallowed the medicine with a sense of grievance.

Seeing that his cheeks had finally stopped puffing, Xiao Heng tried to make amends. “How about another bowl of chicken soup?”

Ha, the Regent’s chicken soup was toxic. Chu Zhaoyou silently got up from the dining table and returned to the bed, curling up.

He was becoming more and more arrogant.

Xiao Heng pointed at Chu Zhaoyou behind the curtain, then finally retracted his hand into a fist, turned around, and left.

The Emperor took leave, but the Regent still had to preside over the court session. He had left the civil and military officials to come running over.

Fearing that Cui Geng alone wouldn’t be able to resist Chu Zhaoyou’s manipulation, Xiao Heng instructed to inform him when the Emperor took the medicine, and it turned out to be a good call.

The ministers speculated about what urgent matter had prompted the Regent to rush out in the middle of the court session. When he returned, his expression hadn’t changed, as if he had just gone out for a stroll and come back.

Puzzling.

Xie Chaoyun waited outside the court for Xiao Heng. They had only recently arrived in the Lianhua Village when the Imperial Guards reported that Zhang Huiji had secretly returned to the capital with malicious intentions.

For the first time, Xie Chaoyun saw such a look on Xiao Heng’s face—anger, regret, and heartache all mixed together. It felt as if the sky was falling, and the only support was the phrase “all’s well that ends well.”

They had just finished hearing the villagers’ identifications and testimonies and hadn’t even had time to discuss the next steps when Xiao Heng had swiftly returned to the capital.

Xie Chaoyun was a step behind, only arranging for the confidentiality of the witnesses. When he returned to the capital, he was surprised to find that he was two hours behind the Regent.

In those two hours, Xiao Heng seemed tireless. He had visited the Emperor in the Funing Palace, gone to the dungeons to interrogate, and even presided over an emergency court session, announcing the final decision regarding Zhang Huiji.

Zhang Huiji had been left partially disabled in the dungeons. If the Yuexu Country had malicious intent, their ruler would have to personally write a letter of repentance and send an envoy with silver to redeem him. If there was no ill intent, regicide in Great Chu was a capital crime punishable by the execution of nine generations of the offender’s family. Whether or not to go to war was up to them.

Before today, Zhang Huiji had never thought that Chu Zhaoyou was the true ruler of Great Chu. Xiao Heng had always considered the bigger picture. Why would he rashly start a war over the honor of a puppet ruler?

He had made a grave mistake. When Chu Zhaoyou had shouted that the Regent liked him, he should have calmly weighed the pros and cons.

Who would have thought that Xiao Heng would actually like someone! Would anyone in all of Great Chu believe it if it were said out loud?

After the courtiers had left the Xuanzheng Hall, Xie Chaoyun went in to find the Regent.

Xiao Heng was standing at the bottom of the jade steps, lost in thought. Qian Shicheng was slowly walking out, but when he saw Xie Chaoyun come in, he hesitated at the threshold.

Xie Chaoyun asked, “What do you think of my proposal in the Lianhua Village?”

He paused and frowned, then looked at Qian Shicheng beside him. “What’s with that expression on your face?”

Xiao Heng could tell at a glance what Qian Shicheng was thinking. He shook his head. Xie Chaoyun had been in the west for so long that Qian Shicheng hadn’t even had time to rush back for his own wedding.

Qian Shicheng, a burly man, surprisingly felt embarrassed as he spoke, “General Xie, can you lend me some silver? I’ll pay you back next month when I receive my salary.”

Xie Chaoyun asked, “Did you go gambling?” Xiao Heng would use a gambler?

“Nonsense! How can you tarnish my reputation like that!”

Qian Shicheng’s face turned red, and he argued, “My wife has been ill recently and complains every day that the medicine prescribed by the doctor is too bitter. I suggested buying some candied fruit, but she refused to spend the money, and changed her mind, saying that good medicine is bitter and beneficial for the illness.”

As he spoke, he became angry. If he had the money, he would buy a whole cart of it and let his wife see if she could still complain about the bitterness of the medicine.

Xie Chaoyun had not yet visited Qian’s home, and he had not expected his sister-in-law to be so decisive.

He generously handed over his purse to Qian Shicheng, patted him on the shoulder, and said with a world-weary air, “It’s a pity that you’re such a good man.”

“Thank you! Next time, I’ll have my wife act as a matchmaker for you!” Qian Shicheng’s expression immediately changed, and he happily went to buy the candied fruit.

Xie Chaoyun’s mouth twitched. Unbelievable.

Xiao Heng looked at Qian Shicheng thoughtfully. So this was how you coaxed someone to take medicine?

After a moment of thought, Chu Zhaoyou had been given the medicine, but had he eaten the candied fruit? It seemed not. Xiao Heng refused to speak to him anymore and went to the bed.

“What do you think about what I just said?” Xie Chaoyun returned to the main topic.

Xiao Heng was lost in thought.

“Regent? Xiao Yudao?” Xie Chaoyun prompted.

“Hmm?” Xiao Heng, whose name was Xiao Heng and courtesy name was Yudao, snapped out of his reverie. After some thought, he managed to steer the conversation back from Qian Shicheng’s interruption. “Do as you suggested. Send a few people to create a distraction.”

The clues he had found in the Lianhua Village were not as abundant as he had expected, and he was quite perplexed.

He had met three people in the village, all of whom Xie Chaoyun had found in obscure corners, and they seemed to have seen the Regent. However, their descriptions of the “fool” not only contradicted each other but also differed greatly from the Regent.

One villager was particularly certain: “I saw them in the dilapidated temple on the mountain. It was a family of three! I looked from the outside, and there was a man and a woman, oh, and there was a child. The mother was singing to the child in the middle of the night. She was singing ‘Nothing compares to Mom’—it was beautiful. I wanted to go in and listen, but it was midnight, and I was afraid it might be a fox spirit, so I didn’t dare to go in.”

The elder sister-in-law said, “I, I don’t know anything! I didn’t mean to deceive him about the chicken! Our child hadn’t eaten meat for a month, and I had no choice. Later, the chicken was stolen… That fool, oh no, that gentleman has a seriously ill wife and no children. I even said to him that he would have a chubby little boy next year…”

The second villager, holding firewood, pleaded, “Please spare us, my lord. This is the firewood that the other gentleman chopped. It’s still in the village and hasn’t been burned yet. I’ll return it to you right away. Please spare us… The lady is very particular about her tastes, sour or sweet, I don’t know. I gave her some rice water.”

A family of three, seriously ill, and particular about tastes… Xiao Heng’s head ached. Was he really the kind of person who could be deceived so easily?

Xie Chaoyun asked if he had any recollection, but Xiao Heng shook his head, even though the strength used to chop the wood seemed to indicate that he had done it himself.

The descriptions from these three people just didn’t seem to match up.

Xie Chaoyun felt somewhat heavy-hearted. He had thought that someone as astute as Xiao Heng wouldn’t be so easily fooled. This was the first time it had happened, and Xiao Heng had taken it so seriously. He didn’t dare to imagine what would happen if it occurred a second time.

“Could it be that you only encountered a mother and her orphaned children in the dilapidated temple, and the other two times were just figments of your imagination, because the woman only appeared in your account later?” Xie Chaoyun boldly hypothesized. No one understood the desolation in Xiao Heng’s heart better than he did. He had been deeply hurt by “family” in the past, and perhaps Xiao Heng still longed for a normal family?