Chapter 69 - The Truth

C69: The Truth

Yan Yu was still worried. Ever since Gao Xun appeared, Yan Yu had been on alert.

He remembered how much Gao Xun had loved Xie Zhen when he was a boy, and Gao Xun had companied her since he left her many years ago. He didn’t know how far their relationship had gone and not want to know it.

He carried Xie Zhen to his horse, put on her curtain hat with a wave of his hand, and followed slowly behind the carriage of the Duke Dingguo’s Mansion, neither fast nor slow.

Xie Zhen didn’t know what he was doing, but she felt uncomfortable sitting on the horse. She rarely rode a horse, and although her brother had taught her a few times before, it ground her legs until they hurt and after that, she never rode a horse again.

She gripped Yan Yu’s arm tightly and subconsciously looked towards the carriage of the Duke Dingguo’s Mansion. “I want to take a carriage …”

Yan Yu held her in his arms, holding the reins with both hands, and asked unhappily, “Won’t it be good to ride with me?”

She pursed her lips and shifted uncomfortably. “I want to take care of Ah Xun.”

“She has my mother-in-law and servant maids.” he said.

At the front, Xie Liqing and Xie Rong were riding on horsebacks on either side of the carriage. Gao Xun was walking beside Xie Liqing, and the two of them occasionally exchanged a few words with each other.

For some reason, Gao Xun suddenly turned around and looked at them. His gaze didn’t linger for long. He only smiled lightly and then turned his head around.

Yan Yu could not help hugging Xie Zhen more tightly, his thin lips curled into a line, his eyes staring straight ahead, but his mind was already far away. “What did Gao Xun tell you?”

There was a wind on the road, blowing away the veil in front of Xie Zhen’s face, and she tried to steady herself, but she didn’t notice the jealousy in his voice. “Nothing…”

“I just asked when he came to the capital …”

“When he told me he was going to join the army, I thought it was on a whim. I didn’t think he’d do it so well today.”

Yan Yu snorted lightly, his eyes fell on the person in front of him, “What else did he tell you?”

Before Xie Zhen could cover the veil, a gust of wind blew at her, exposing her sharp and smooth chin. She quickly covered it with her hand and said in a delicate voice, “Don’t ask anymore questions …”

“My hat is about to fall off. ”

Yan Yu lowered her head and saw that she was sitting in front of him with her hands holding the curtain hat, unable to steady herself. She was afraid that she would fall down at any moment.

He helped her straighten her curtain hat and leaned over to shield her from most of the wind, continuing the conversation. “What else did he tell you?”

This was a thorn in his heart. If he did not ask clearly, then it would only get deeper and deeper, until he could not even pull it out.

Xie Zhen thought for a while. “I forgot.”

They were all trivial topics, either about Xie Xun or about how she was doing lately.

Generally speaking, Gao Xun didn’t seem to mention her marriage. Did he not know that she was married?

If he knew that she was married to Yan Yu, he would be surprised, wouldn’t he?

Why was it that when the two of them met just now, it was as if they didn’t know each other.

Xie Zhen couldn’t figure it out, so she pulled Yan Yu’s sleeve and asked, “Does Gao Xun recognize you?”

Yan Yu was annoyed with her words “I forgot”. He couldn’t help but think that he hadn’t changed since he was young. It was just that she would be so heartless that she would forget him.

She was about to ask them why they had ignored each other when she suddenly remembered something. She pursed her lips into a smile, and the laughter came from under the veil, soft and pleasant. “I know why Gao Xun ignored you.”

He lower his eyes, looking a little arrogant. “Why?”

Xie Zhen’s soft sound was blew away by the wind, and came into his ears. “Gao Xun was angry when you left at that time. He told me that when he meet you again, he would have to beat you up to vent his anger.”

Yan Yu was silent. This was the only thing he could never refute.

Xie Zhen asked deliberately. “Did he beat you?”

Yan Yu’s face darkened, “He dares!”

During their talking, they already arrived at the door of the Duke Dingguo’s Mansion. He helped her out of the horse. Before he could say another word, she ran to Xie Xun’s side and asked Madam Leng how Xie Xun was going.

The Mansion had got a doctor here. A few nannies carried Xie Xun carefully back to the Jade Yard. The doctor waited by her side, keeping her cold down with a piece of wet cloth, giving her medicine to drink.

Xie Zhen spent most of the night with her sister before she was dragged into her room in the middle of the night. If it was not that Yan Yu had been so worried that she wouldn’t be able to hold on, he would have expected her to sit all night.

It wasn’t until it was chilly that Xie Xun’s fever was brought down.

Xie Xun’s illness had startled many people. In the morning, both the Duke Dingguo and his wife had come to visit. Seeing that she was fine, the Duke Dingguoo felt slightly relieved.

The old lady did not have any expression on her face. Ever since Yan Yu had scolded the Madam Xu and Madam Wu in front of the servants, her attitude towards the Second branch had been neither cold nor warm.

It was not only because of the sixth prince’s status that she didn’t dare to oppress them, but she also found them extremely displeasing to the eye.

It was precisely because of this that Madam Xu and Madam Wu did not come over. Only the Fourth Madam came and said a few words of sympathy before leaving without saying more word.

Xie Zhen was satisfied with the quietness. When she saw Xie Xun woke up, she gave her a bowl of medicine and wiped her mouth with a handkerchief.

Xie Xun was still weak. She leaned against the pillow and smacked her lips. Her mouth was full of bitterness as she pitifully replied, “Sis gave me some candied dates to eat.”

“How do you feel? Are you ok?” As Xie Zhen said, she put the candied fruit in her mouth and touched her forehead.

Xie Xun nodded. Perhaps it was because she was sick that her big, watery eyes lost their luster, and she looked a little weak. “Did I had a terrible fever yesterday?”

“I seemed to hear mother’s crying.”

Last night, she had a fever and her fever wasn’t brought down. Madam Leng was really frightened. She was so anxious that tears began to fall from her eyes.

They thought that she was unconscious, but they didn’t expect that she would still remember all of it.

Madam Leng accompanied her for the night and only returned to the main room to rest this morning.

Xie Zhen let the rice soup brought in. “How could mother not cry when you were in such a bad fever and full of bullshit?”

A little guilty, she whispered, “What the hell am I talking about?”

“You said you wanted some spiced rice soup,” Xie Zhen teased her, “and so I have the soup brought up so early in the morning.”

As she said that, she scooped a spoonful and fed it to her mouth. She took a whimper of it, revealing a satisfied smile. “Eevry time I get sick, sister is especially good to me.”

Xie Zhen could not help but be annoyed with her. “I usually treat you badly?”

She took another bite, puffing her cheeks, and then, knowing how to curry favor with her, answered sincerely: “You are good to me all the time.”

When Xie Zhen fed her a full bowl of porridge, she managed to recover a little.

Xie Zhen handed the bowl to the servant maids, and servant maids cleaned it and left, leaving the two sisters alone in the room.

Xie Zhen asked about the accident. “You said someone pushed you. Did you see what that person looked like?”

After a night, Xie Xun’s mind is much clearer, not as muddled as yesterday.

She thought back for a moment. “I saw her.”

She was not on shore at the time, and she saw one of the girls slip and almost fall into the water before she went to help.

However, the girl was able to stand firmly on her own, while she was knocked into by a servant maid that passed by behind her. Her feet slipped and she fell into the water.

The moment she fell into the water, she glanced towards the shore. It was an extremely ordinary servant maid who didn’t even look like someone from the General’s mansion. It was unknown whose servant maid she was, but after bumping her into the water, she didn’t even dare to look at her as she hurriedly left.

Xie Xun remembered her as pretty, barely tall, and when she looked down she could just see a red mole on the back of her ear.

After Xie Xun told Xie Zhen all this, Xie Zhen thought for a moment and then asked a completely irrelevant question. “Does the girl who was about to fall have a servant maid by her side?”

“…”

“There seems to be?”

She couldn’t remember clearly.

Xie Zhen found it was weird. If there was a servant maid, the first thing she would do when she saw her master fell into the water was to reach out and rescue her. It should not Xie Xun’s turn to help.

If there weren’t any servant maid, it would be weird. All the people who came to congratulate the family would have a maid by their side.

“Do you remember whose girl it was?” she asked.

“I heard others called her Miss Lin.”

There weren’t many girls with the surname Lin yesterday. Xie Zhen only knew the two daughters of Qing Zhou Patrol Officer Lin Rui, Lin Huapin and Lin Jinpin. Could it have something to do with them?

When Xie Zhen settled down Xie Xun, she came out of the room. Madam Leng was still sleeping, and only Xie Rong and Yan Yu were outside.

Xie Zhen repeated what Xie Xun had said. She worriedly looked to Xie Rong. “Brother, I think Ah Xun falling into the water has something to do with Miss Lin.”

“But why did she want to kill her?”

“Did Ah Xun have any history with her? ”

When Xie Rong heard this, he slightly raised his brow.

Indeed, Xie Xun and Miss Lin had no history with each other, but since it involved the Lin family, he had no choice but to think too much about it …

Yan Yu was listening on side as he brought her to him and said to the point, “It’s not that Xie Xun and Miss Lin have a bit of history, it’s that your father has a history with the Patrol Officer Lin Rui.”

Lin Ruii had framed Xie Liqing for colluding with the Turk in front of Emperor Yuan Hui, and was bent on destroying Xie Liqing’s official road.

Not long ago, Yan Yu proved Xie Liqing’s innocence, and Lin Rui was reported on corruption. Emperor Yuan Hui gave this matter to the crown prince, and the result has yet to be found out.

Yan Yu and the crown prince were on the same side, and Xie Liqing was also Yan Yu’s father-in-law. Lin Rui probably thought that Xie Liqing was the one who caused him trouble and hated him, so he said bad things about Xie Liqing at home. After his daughters heard it, the scene of Xie Xun falling into the water last night began to unfold.

Lin Rui was on the First Prince’s side, and the First Prince and the Crown Prince were at loggerheads.

It was just that he felt sorry for Xie Xun. She had been hated by the miss of the Lin family for no apparent reason, and she had even suffered a serious illness as a result.