Jiapingguan Chronicle

Chapter 2272 Wanyan Qingmu's Life Experience

After hearing what Merlin said, Xiao Fengqi smiled, looked inside the plate, picked up a piece of cloud cake, and took a small bite.

"I have something to say, but I don't know if I should say it or not." He looked at Shen Haolin, "The Duke is a gentleman, he probably doesn't want to gossip about others behind their backs, but we are partners now, so it should be okay to talk about it, right?"

"It's okay, Mr. Xiao, please go ahead."

"I don't know if the Duke, the General, and the Marquis have ever had such an idea!" Xiao Fengqi thought for a moment and glanced at Merlin. "When I, the two princes, and Xiao Qi talked about Wanyan Qingmu in private, we once suspected that he might not be the biological child of Wanyan and Prince Wen." He looked at Shen Haolin again, "What does the Duke think?"

Shen Haolin didn't say anything. After a moment of silence, he nodded slightly towards Xiao Fengqi.

"What the Duke means is..."

"It means great minds think alike, Master Xiao." Merlin leaned against a tree and clapped her hands gently. When Xiao Fengqi looked over, she grinned at him and said, "I did have doubts, especially after Wanyan Qingmu besieged the city. We felt more and more that he didn't look like the child of Wanyan and Prince Wen at all." She paused, thought about it, and continued, "Wanyan Qingmu, his appearance, temper, and personality are very different from those of Wanyan and Prince Wen. No, to be precise, they are poles apart. Although there are all kinds of things in this world, and there are many cases where parents and children look completely different, he must have some characteristics of the Wanyan family, right? But he..." She shook her head, "not at all, especially the iconic curly hair of the Wanyan family, which he did not inherit."

"General Xiaomei is absolutely right. This is why we suspect he is not Prince Wanyan's child. You can see that Wanyan Ping and Wanyan Xi have curly hair, and Prince Wanyan also has curly hair, which shows that they are the bloodline of the Wanyan family."

"That's right." Merlin nodded. "It's not just these three. We've also seen branches of the Wanyan family. Their hair is more or less curly. Some are very obvious, some are not very obvious, but they all have it. Only Wanyan Qingmu has such long, smooth black hair that I envy him!"

"Is that so? Is that so?" Xiao Fengqi didn't expect that he could have such a good chat with Merlin. He smiled at Shen Haolin, picked up the snack plate, ran to Merlin, and said, "Have you met his half-brother?"

"His brother? Let me think!" Merlin recalled and gestured to Xiao Fengqi while saying, "Isn't he the one who has always been by his side as his bodyguard? He is tall and thin, and always likes to wear a mask when he goes out to meet people. Is he him?"

"Yes, it's him. There's another guy dressed similarly. He should be the son of Wanyan Qingmu's wet nurse." Xiao Fengqi thought for a moment, then imitated Merlin and leaned against the tree, saying, "Have you ever seen him without his mask?"

"Take off the mask? I've seen it before, I've seen it before, just once, and it left a deep impression!"

"Are they very similar?" Xiao Fengqi narrowed his eyes and raised his chin towards Merlin, "Especially the eyebrows, eyes and mouth, they are just like they were carved from the same mold, right?" "The nose is also similar." Merlin touched his chin and took a piece of almond cake from Xiao Fengqi's plate, "So." She thought for a while, "The wet nurse's son, Wanyan Qingmu, and his half brother, all seem to..." She widened her eyes in surprise and looked at Shen Haolin, who nodded at her, "No way, Prince Wanyan was... Doesn't he know it?"

"It's too early to draw conclusions now. These are just our guesses. Don't scare yourself." Xiao Fengqi saw Merlin like this and didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "However, I think the same as you. I also think these three people should have the same father and mother. As for why Prince Wanyan let this situation go, no one knows."

"But why do you suddenly doubt his background?"

"It's not that I suddenly became suspicious. I just found some suspicious points and followed the clues to find out the cause, which led to my doubts." Xiao Fengqi looked at Meilin, then at Shen Haolin, and said, "Have you ever had close contact with him?"

"Wanyan Qingmu?" Merlin thought for a moment and shook his head. "No, I only met him briefly each time. I never had the chance. Master Xiao said that because he had met him before, right?"

"Yes!" Xiao Fengqi felt a little thirsty after eating, so he went back to drink a sip of tea to get rid of the snack residue in his mouth, then came back to lean back again, "Wanyan Qingmu once led an embassy to visit the Liao Kingdom, and his half brother and his wet nurse's son were with him. Coincidentally, I was the one who was responsible for receiving the Jin Kingdom embassy that time."

"That's quite a coincidence. So, what did Master Xiao discover?"

"A lot. It was because of that incident that I became curious about his life experience and suspected that he was not the biological son of Prince Wanyan." Xiao Fengqi thought for a while. "Because I had to deal with matters and arrange their food, clothing, housing and transportation, sometimes there were urgent matters that I didn't have time to report, so I went directly to their homes. I have seen their appearances under the masks many times. Although there are differences, the differences are not big. Not only that, their temperaments are also roughly the same, and even the ending tones of their words are exactly the same."

"That's true." Merlin thought for a moment, "I'm afraid even twins can't have such tacit understanding."

"It's normal. Wanyan Qingmu has been raised by his wet nurse and brother since he was born. If you think about their living habits, it's understandable." Shen Haolin tapped the table lightly. "But this appearance is indeed a little suspicious."

"What the Duke said is true, but there is another suspicious point." Xiao Fengqi looked at Shen Haolin, then at Meilin, "As far as I know, whether it is Daxia, Liao, or Jin, when the royal children are three or four years old and it is time for enlightenment, the palace will send tutors to teach them various rules and etiquette, right?"

"Yes!" Shen Haolin nodded, "Not only the royal children, but also the children of the royal relatives and the children who may enter the palace as companions in the future will have tutors sent from the palace to teach them." He looked at Xiao Fengqi, "Do you think this is Wanyan Qingmu?"

"Yes, Wanyan Qingmu didn't." Xiao Fengqi nodded confidently, "During that mission, I asked around and I can confirm that there was no instructor from the Golden Palace around him."