Forgotten Legend of the Bloodied Flower

"Is he unwilling?"

At this moment, Song Chuan was curious about something else. The others were things that he had known from a long time ago.

"I don't know."

Long Qian Xing didn't know how the relationship between Empress Dowager Mei and Prime Minister Bei back then. But he could guess that they might be more than just a dancer and the owner of the dancer.

However, it was good enough that Yang Zhou was born more than a year after Empress Dowager Mei entered Emperor Xuan's residence. If it was any sooner, there might be question about his birth.

"I see."

"If you have so much time to gossip, do you want me to add more work to you?"

"Young Master, please don't, my wife has been pestering me to go home earlier lately. I can't possibly work overnight again…."

Long Qian Xing snorted at Song Chuan's pleading.

He looked at the currently empty seat and sighed. He could still see Emperor Yang Zhou's rigid expression when he pointed at his own mother and sentenced her along with Prime Minister Bei. The two of them were under house arrest for now.

But he knew that it was impossible for Emperor Yang Zhou to keep them alive, especially after what they had done to him.

Because he was not of age yet, the two of them were the regent of Fei Yang Kingdom. It was also because of that, he had so much trouble to gather more people under him. Now that he had the entire court in his hand, it would be impossible for him to hand it to those two anymore.

Whether they did wrong, whether they did right, Long Qian Xing was in no position to judge.

The one and only one who could do it is Emperor Yang Zhou.

"I'm going first."

"Alright." Song Chuan rubbed his nose then waved his hands towards the servants nearby. They had to help him clean up alright. There was no way the court could continue tomorrow if it was still messy.

But upon thinking that there were still some matters that Emperor Yang Zhou had to address, he sighed.

It was not easy.

'If I had known it'll end up like this, I would have strangled you until the end on that day!'

Long Qian Xing faintly recalled the words that Empress Dowager Mei shouted towards Emperor Yang Zhou. He knew very well that it was not the first time Empress Dowager Mei tried to kill Emperor Yang Zhou.

There were many scars on Emperor Yang Zhou's body.

Most of them… were from his childhood.

Instead of inflicted by his enemies, they were instead inflicted by the person who was supposed to be the closest to him: his own birth mother.

For some reason, Long Qian Xing could recall Nan Hua and the long investigation he did to find out about what had happened in Nan Family. There were only a few sentences to describe the situation back then.

Strict father, unreasonable punishment to copy scripture, starvation through the night, or even to punish her mother if she's the one deemed wrong. Then there were a few incidents in which her own father tried to poison his wife to be able to control her and hit his own daughter.

Two sentences.

But behind these two sentences were unspeakable pain that lasted for so many years.

Pain that might cast shadow on their hearts. They couldn't even speak to others about this pain of theirs because other people might not understand what they had felt.

Years of abuse and mistreatment.

All that left out of it was indifference and coldness.

He felt that his best friend and his fiancée both were unfortunate to have a father who didn't care for them or a mother who even tried to kill her own son. His heart ached. For him to have good parents, even if they were mostly absent from his life, it was still much better than these two.

Both of them closed up their heart.

But Long Qian Xing knew that Emperor Yang Zhou still had others who supported him, allowing him to grow up to be a good ruler. He didn't lock himself out forever as there were still people who believed in him.

And Nan Hua still has her grandfather, twin brother, and cousins. They allowed her to experience the warmth of a family.

'I'll accompany Hua'er tomorrow. She didn't have to be trialed along with the Nan Family.'

Long Qian Xing decided silently within his heart.

He couldn't completely understand what they had gone through in their lives and the deep wounds within their hearts. But what he wanted to do was to accompany his best friend so that he will not turn his hatred to the entire world as the Emperor and also his little fiancée so that she didn't have to be alone anymore.

What he could do is limited.

But he couldn't leave them alone.

The two of them were important people in his life.

One is his best friend, his comrade in arm who had ambitious dream and also high position. But the two of them were working together to realize it just like brothers.

The other one is the person he wanted to spend the rest of his life together in the future and become the closest person to him.

…

<Qu Family Residence>

Bang!

Soldiers barged into the residence, telling the people there that they were all not here for any negotiation but to immediately capture everyone from Qu Family. Among many officials who received demotion, exile, or even death sentence, Qu Family's treatment was definitely one of the worst.

"What is this? What are you doing here?" The people from Qu Family were screaming.

The commotion attracted people who were watching outside.

But not a single one of them dared to step forward. These were all soldiers and they came here under the direct order of the higher ups.

Those who dared to go against them would definitely be eliminated directly.

"His Majesty's inauguration… changed the entire face of Fei Yang Kingdom."

Everyone was thinking the same thing.

But they all chose to only watch from the back as the Qu Family was facing this disaster. No one felt pity. They all knew very well that the moment the Emperor changed, there will be a lot of changes on the court. And this changes this time directly involved many people.

They were just ordinary people.

Not worthy of interfering.

Bang!

"Bring them all out." The Commander who was in charge looked at the people in Qu Family with disgust. When he heard the order that was given to him, he was almost in disbelief.

Who would have thought that there will be people who were so disgusting in Fei Yang Kingdom's Capital City?

And to think that they were all part of the nobilities who were supposed to be protecting the people.

Tsk.

Master Qu looked at the commander at the front and tried his best to stay firm. "What brings you here today? Why are you destroying my residence?"

The Commander looked at Master Qu who was fearless. "Qu Family is convicted for treason! All the relevant evidence had pointed that you, Master Qu, is directly involved in delivering information outside to other kingdoms!"

Everyone's eyes widened.

Even the people outside who thought that these people just had minor infringement and would be locked up for a while were in disbelief.

Qu Family was collaborating with people from other kingdoms?

At this moment, they were all looking at Qu Family as if they were looking at heaps of trash.

They were full of disgust.

Who would have thought that the honorable Qu Family was actually a family of traitor?

How about those other families who were related to Qu Family? Right now, it was obvious that they were thinking that many other families were also related. After all, it was impossible for Qu Family to be the one who was so brave.

There must be others too.

Master Qu's eyes widened and he yelled, "Nonsense! Qu Family is loyal subject of Fei Yang Kingdom! We will never…"

Thunk!

"See for yourselves. There are countless more of these scrolls that you have written, Master Qu. All of them are directed to the spies who will send the news to other kingdoms." The Commander looked at Master Qu coldly.

At this moment, Master Qu's body trembled.

He looked at the scroll on the ground and recognized it as the scroll that he did send because he was using a special type of bamboo that was partially burned to erase the source.

After all, he was worried that they would direct it to his house.

Master Qu took a deep breath. "Someone must have been forging my writing and then…."

"We have witnesses." The Commander snorted. He felt that this Master Qu was really hopeless. Does he think that the Qu Family could get away after trying to deliver so many information?

Master Qu is an official and had been working at the court for a long time. The amount of information he could get was plenty and these would definitely allow those people from other kingdoms to come and make trouble.

It's truly a big crime.