Kyushu · Endless Nagato

Chapter 60 The culprit (2)
An Xingmian and Xue Huaiqing came to this theater called Jinhufang, bought tickets from black market ticket vendors at a high price, and sat in the back row.They put aside all the mysteries and confusion in their hearts for a while, and enjoyed the performance wholeheartedly.The Qiuyan troupe has always been known for its strong lineup of performances. Facing the countless nobles and celebrities in the imperial capital, they worked extraordinarily hard and showed all their unique skills.

Tang He was still performing the high-altitude rope skills. He saw a thin rope that was almost invisible hanging in the air. Tang He seemed to be flying in mid-air, walking on the rope with light steps and doing some tricks on purpose from time to time. The two thrilling moves drew screams from the audience.

This was Xue Huaiqing's first time watching such a wonderful performance, and she couldn't help being fascinated by it, but An Xingmian was a little absent-minded.After all these years, although he has followed Zhang Haoge to practice painstakingly, once he has the opportunity, he will definitely go to see Tang He's performance. He has seen many difficult juggling or ferocious beasts a long time ago.In addition, his mind towards Tang He has changed. At this moment, he only wants to find Bai Qianyun.

After spending a long time, when Tang He's performance was over, among the densely packed seats, he actually found Bai Qianyun.Bai Qianyun was sitting on the other side of the theater, yawning, making no effort to hide his boredom, and the daring bastard didn't make any changes.An Xingmian smiled secretly, knowing that she guessed right, Bai Qianyun really came here just for Tang He.Once Tang He left the stage, he was immediately absent-minded, probably all his thoughts were on going backstage after the performance.

"It seems that I guessed right, the two of them are really having fun!" An Xingmian said to Xue Huaiqing.

"Ah? What?" Xue Huaiqing replied casually, her eyes fixed on a girl in blue on the stage, who was putting her head into a ferocious big mouth.Seeing her focused and nervous appearance, An Xingmian smiled, and didn't bother her any more, but suddenly thought lovingly in her heart: Now Xue Huaiqing is completely an ordinary girl.

After the one-and-a-half-time performance ended, Xue Huaiqing was still intoxicated by the wonderful atmosphere, and she almost didn't want to stand up and leave the stage. An Xingmian suppressed her laughter, and dragged her to the backstage, just in time to bump into Bai Qianyun.When the four met, they were all extremely happy.

"Brother Bai, how did I hear that you follow the Qiuyan class wherever you go?" An Xingmian said jokingly, but it was actually a casual test. He didn't know if Bai Qianyun did this.Unexpectedly, just after asking, he found that Tang He's face turned red, and only then did he realize that he was right.

"Nonsense!" Bai Qianyun was much more generous than Tang He, "I'll only go to see Xiao He's performance! I'm not interested in other nonsense stuff!"

Xue Huaiqing couldn't help but burst out laughing, Tang He's face turned even redder, but there was no anger in his eyes when he looked at Bai Qianyun, instead he looked joyful and tender.An Xingmian knew in her heart that this couple was probably inseparable.He wasn't jealous at all, he just felt relieved in his heart.

"How is the matter you want to investigate?" Bai Qianyun asked.

"There are some clues, but the last link is still missing." An Xingmian roughly recounted the results of his and Xue Huaiqing's investigation, as well as the past events asked by the ranger Yu Fengxian.

"That is to say, if this is the exchanged prince, the emperor would not send someone to hunt him down; if this is the illegitimate child of a court lady, it is unlikely that someone would pay such a high price to cover it up—both aspects make no sense, do they? "Bai Qianyun's thinking is very sharp.

"That's it," An Xingmian replied, "These two directions can be consistent with most of the inferences, but when it comes to the key path, it doesn't make sense."

Bai Qianyun also frowned, and helped to guess a few times, but to no avail.The four of them stayed in the chaotic backstage, and no one could speak for a while. In the end, Tang He spoke first: "The uncles are probably full to watch the juggling, but I am tired and hungry. Uncle An has a lot of money. , why don't you invite us to find a good place to sit down and chat while eating?"

An Xingmian laughed: "That's right, the best restaurant around here is the specialty restaurant 'Dajinzhang' which specializes in Hanzhou flavor. Let's eat some lamb shank."

Bai Qianyun immediately applauded: "First of all, I will be sleepy when I am full. I will only eat meat for a while, and leave the brains to you smart people."

"Be careful that your brains will all turn into mutton!" Tang He said bluntly.

Hanzhou has been the land of the barbarians since ancient times, and the barbarian lords have lived in the golden tent for generations, so it is also called the golden tent country.In the past, the barbarians and the Chinese fought for generations, and the hatred was as deep as the ocean. But with the advent of the peace period, although the two sides still have mutual grievances, at least the business exchanges are slowly opening up.This restaurant called Big Golden Tent is opened by authentic barbarians. The whole restaurant is ingeniously built in the shape of a huge tent. After entering, you can see several charcoal ovens and a barbarian man with a shirtless upper body. When cooking, the golden roasted mutton made a "sizzling" sound, and drops of mutton oil fell on the charcoal fire, exuding a tempting aroma, which made people move their index fingers.

An Xingmian asked for a private room, the so-called private room in the Dajin Tent was a separate yurt.Except for Bai Qianyun who needed a chair because of his inconvenient legs and feet, the other three sat cross-legged. They chose to barbecue by themselves instead of having the help of a barbarian big man, for the convenience of talking.An Xingmian, Xue Huaiqing, and Tang He shared a leg of lamb, but Bai Qianyun ordered one by herself and ate it heartily.

"It's really strange that you can eat so much without gaining weight," Tang He said, "Besides, you have to look good when you eat. Look at Xiao An. Although it's delicious, your appearance is much better than yours."

"Xiao'an is a learned man and a future wife," Bai Qianyun said nonchalantly, "I'm a blacksmith and a businessman, and I'm a rough guy. It's meaningless to compare."

"Every time you say something about you, you use rough people as a shield..." Tang He shook his head helplessly, "I think your skin is the thickest."

An Xingmian smiled and said nothing, holding a small knife in his hand, nimbly cutting the roasted leg of lamb.He found that Tang He was much more polite to him now, and even used him as a positive example to suppress Bai Qianyun.But when I think about it carefully, I don't like to argue with others, and I never fight back in front of Tang He. I'm afraid that image is useless enough. On the contrary, Bai Qianyun is so rude and straightforward, and it's even better to be able to bicker with her. have fun.And someone like Xue Huaiqing, who is not very talkative and has a gentler temper, may be more suitable...

He blushed for a while, didn't dare to think about it, and poured himself a glass of wine.Xue Huaiqing was always silent, eating and drinking very little. An Xingmian guessed based on her personality, and felt that her mind was still on solving the puzzle, so she couldn't help being moved.In fact, all the Jinwu Guards were dead back then, and the hatred of her adoptive father was no longer that important to her. The reason why she worked so hard and never complained about being tired, was actually only for herself.This girl used to have an indifferent appearance. Until now, she didn't like to talk to others except in front of herself, but her heart seemed to be burning with fire.Thinking back carefully, although there was a lot of pain and sorrow in the past half a year, because of having Xue Huaiqing by my side, it seemed that any difficulties could be overcome.

Thinking of this, his heart moved, he stretched out his hand involuntarily, and took Xue Huaiqing's hand.Xue Huaiqing slightly withdrew her hand, but in the end she didn't pull it back, but let An Xingmian hold it gently.Look at Tang He and Bai Qianyun, who are arguing with each other sentence by sentence, without noticing the small movements of the two people around them.

This moment is really rare, An Xingmian thought, if there is no damn conspiracy, damn scam, damn secret, let time freeze forever in this moment, freeze in this hot felt bag that makes people sweat, freeze in beating In the charcoal fire, how good it should be.

An Xingmian was lost in thought, but suddenly heard a noise coming from outside.He opened the door of the yurt, only to see a few people coming out of another, bigger yurt—the so-called luxurious private room.The first one was a fat middle-aged man who looked like a rich and unkind profiteer, holding a child in his hand, slapped angrily and scolded: "You bastard! How could you do this to me?" Shame!"

The other middle-aged man behind him looked handsome, but there was a striking oil stain on the chest of a snow-white gown.He didn't seem to care about the oil stain, and kept persuading the fat man: "Brother Wei, there's no need to be like this. What does it matter if the child is a bit naughty? Just go back and wash the clothes."

"Hey, brother Tan, you are a grown-up, you have a lot of things," the middle-aged man was still angry, "You don't know, this little bastard is always making trouble for me, and it's impossible not to teach me a lesson!"

The child he held in his hands was also stubborn by nature, and he dared to scratch and kick after being taught by his father, and his mouth was not idle: "Damn fat man! Smelly fat man! Immortal thing! You always talk about it behind your back." You scolded this vampire surnamed Tan, and now what are you going to do to curry favor with him?"

The fat man surnamed Wei turned into a liver-colored face, and the man surnamed Tan didn't look very good-looking, and the onlookers burst into laughter.The fat man was disgraced, and while beating his son's ass, he cursed angrily: "Nizi! Nizi! I really regret having this bastard. If I had known, I would have thrown him on the street and let the traffickers take him away!"

Whether the man surnamed Tan is really a sanctimonious vampire is unknown to others, but at least he is well-mannered in front of others.Even though the child Tong Yan Wuji told the truth, he hurriedly stopped the fat man surnamed Wei: "Brother Wei, you must not say such things in front of children, it will hurt the child's heart."

The fat man was furious: "This little bastard knows how to talk nonsense and make me lose face! Such a bastard should not have been born in the first place. If I knew he was so stubborn, I would rather pick up an abandoned baby on the street and bring him back to raise him." !"

The play was noisy, mixed with the loud cries of children, which made the diners gloated and felt that it was good to see such a play for free.But on the other side, there were two people whose faces were not very good-looking.One is Bai Qianyun, an orphan who had no father or mother since he was a child. When he heard the fat man surnamed Wei opening and closing his mouth, "I should have thrown you away in the first place", Tang He couldn't help but get agitated. Tang He guessed what he was thinking, and gently pulled him His hand for comfort.

The other one was An Xingmian, his brows were furrowed, his eyes were bright, and his fists were tightly clenched.Xue Huaiqing noticed that there was a difference in his expression, worried that he would lose his composure in front of others, so she hurriedly gave Tang He a wink.Tang He understood, and each of the two women dragged An Xingmian and Bai Qianyun back to their private room.An Xingmian sat down, grabbed the jug full of Qingyang soul, the famous Hanzhou wine, and poured half of it down, then put the jug heavily on the table, and said through gritted teeth: "I understand! I already know what happened on the night of June [-]! Everything can be explained clearly! I also know the mastermind behind the scenes!"

Xue Huaiqing was overjoyed, even Bai Qianyun threw away the unhappiness just now, the three of them surrounded An Xingmian and asked repeatedly: "You guessed it, what's going on?"

"Who is the mastermind behind the scenes? Let's talk about this first!" The impatient Tang He shook An Xingmian's arm.

An Xingmian took a deep breath, and then slowly regained her composure.For nearly a year, he almost exhausted his energy in order to find an answer, and was also involved in various complicated and treacherous incidents, but in the end, on such a warm and happy night, he Touched the truth, touched the evil hidden behind all pretense.At this moment, he really needs the knife-like Qingyang soul to suppress his turbulent emotions and keep his mind calm.

"Everyone, here is the truth," he said slowly, "The person behind all this is the current Empress Dowager."

The mastermind behind all this is the current empress dowager.

"The Empress Dowager?" Xue Huaiqing was startled, and Tang He and Bai Qianyun were also very surprised.

"The empress dowager of the court, the empress of Emperor Shengde, and the mother of Emperor Hongjing are the main messengers of all this," An Xingmian said angrily, "she did this series of criminal activities just to hide the fact that a A fact that is enough to overthrow the dynasty—Emperor Hongjing, today’s son, was not born to Emperor Shengde.”

The other three looked at each other in shock.When the son of heaven is not of the orthodox bloodline, if word like this gets out, ten of An Xingmian's heads may have to be chopped off.

"Isn't Emperor Shengde's own? Whose son is that?" Tang He asked.

"Emperor Hongjing was not born to the empress dowager, but an illegitimate son, the illegitimate son of a court lady," An Xingmian said, "on the night of June [-], the empress dowager and the court lady gave birth at the same time, but for some reason, she Abandoned her own child, but snatched the child of the court lady and pretended to be her own. If I guessed correctly, the baby had some defects, which made her realize that her own flesh and blood might not be able to wear the yellow robe in the future For the sake of her future glory and wealth, and to have a son who will be the emperor, she abandoned the baby and snatched the illegitimate son of a court lady to replace her."

"I also have to thank the fat man who beat the child just now," An Xingmian said, "every sentence he scolded reminded me. He said, 'I knew I should have thrown him on the street', and then Saying 'I'd rather pick up an abandoned baby on the side of the street and bring him back to raise him', these two sentences immediately cleared up my blocked thoughts."

Everyone looked at each other in astonishment, they never thought that the truth of the incident back then would be like this, that someone would abandon their own child in order to become the empress and the mother of the emperor, just to get a healthy child and have a chance to become the heir apparent.Moreover, what is even more frightening is that when she abandoned her parents and children...

"Then... who was Tian Luo who was chased by the Jinwu Guard later on? Could it be that she was abandoned by the queen mother... Oh my God!" Even though Xue Huaiqing, who was born as a corpse dancer, was used to all kinds of cruelty Vicious things, when she suddenly understood the Queen Mother's methods, she was still pale with shock.

"Yes, you guessed it too." An Xingmian's expression contained both pity and loathing, "She originally wanted to harm her own flesh and blood, but the child was rescued by that female Tianluo. I guessed correctly If so, it's likely that Ouyang Duan, who delivered her baby, still had a conscience and couldn't bear to watch an innocent baby die at the hands of his mother, so he secretly took him away and handed him over to Nv Tianluo, but the Queen Mother Found it. Ouyang Duan knew that he would not be spared, so he could only let Nv Tianluo take away the child and the evidence he preserved. The queen mother knew that she could not catch Nv Tianluo with the strength she could mobilize, so... "

"So she told the emperor that the court lady had an affair with an adulterer and secretly gave birth to a child in the palace. She sent someone disguised as a Bloodwing Bird to silence her." Bai Qianyun continued for him.

Xue Huaiqing nodded: "Yes, the prince was born, and the illegitimate child of the court lady was also born, and then the two were transferred. In this way, all the inferences are consistent, and the contradiction is resolved. The Jin Wuwei hunted down, It is indeed the illegitimate child of a palace lady, but after the bag was dropped, the baby's true identity is the Queen Mother's own child. This is indeed a secret that must not be revealed, otherwise, people will know that today's emperor is just the illegitimate child of a palace lady , the turmoil in the dynasty will definitely be unimaginable, and if it happens, it will affect the whole body, causing wars and wars that swept the entire Kyushu, and the Queen Mother herself...not to mention the nine clans, even if there are 99 clans, they will all be killed. .”

(End of this chapter)