Chapter 29: Internal strife
Jiang Yan was beating vigorously when he suddenly saw a person standing in front of him. He was immediately annoyed, "Who are you? You dare to come to me and seek death! Believe it or not, I will have you pinned to the ground and whip you?"
Long Ying said with a smile: "Me? I am Long Ying."
Hearing this name, everyone subconsciously took a step back, even the two men who were crying stopped crying and quietly crawled back.
"Long... Ying? This name sounds familiar." Jiang Yan held his chin with his fingers and pondered for a long time, "Could it be... Qi... Qi... Qixiang Sect Master?"
Long Ying smiled happily, "Congratulations, you guessed it right."
Frightened, Jiang Yan cried on the spot, "What... what do you want from me?"
Long Ying ignored him and glanced at the guards who were on guard, "Go back and tell your Noble Concubine to take the 'Gu Experience' to Qixiang Sect to replace him within three days. If it's too late... he won't live to celebrate the New Year!"
"What? You ninth-level master... Why are you targeting me one by one?" Jiang Yan wailed even louder, "You won't watch me being taken away, right? Help!"
None of the accompanying guards dared to step forward. The name Long Ying sounded too scary. They knew well that with their little strength, they couldn't withstand two moves from the opponent even if they risked their lives. Even if they went forward, they would die.
Long Ying suddenly reached out, grabbed Jiang Yan, and threw him into the forest. like throwing a stone. He disappeared into the forest. Everyone only heard Jiang Yan's scream from the forest, accompanied by a crisp voice of a little girl, "What is that? Oh, uncle, it's a person!"
Long Ying flew back to the tree, took Luo Jin with her, and disappeared in an instant.
The guards were all stunned. It took them a long time to react, "Go back and report to the Noble Concubine!"
…
Jiang Yan cried all the way. Irked, Chai Qi made him faint from acupuncture and threw him on the horse.
Chai Qi also had a place to stay in Tancheng, so he took Jiang Yan back, tied his hands and feet, and threw him into the woodshed. Seeing that he was about to cry again, he simply took a piece of cloth and stuffed it into his mouth.
Long Ying commented while eating melon seeds: "This Xiyuan Emperor gave birth to so many sons, but none of them are raised to be normal. Each one is more twisted than the other. It's eye-opening."
At lunch time, Chai Qi told Luo Jin to bring food to Jiang Yan. Luo Jin gritted her teeth and went into the woodshed with the food box.
She opened the door of the woodshed. Jiang Yan was tied to a pillar and was crying. When he saw her come in, he made a muffled sound from his mouth.
"Let’s agree first. I'll take your cloth off and you're not allowed to cry anymore." Luo Jin raised the food box in her hand. "If you don't cry, I'll feed you something. If you cry, I'll leave and let you starve."
Jiang Yan nodded repeatedly. Luo Jin went over to take the cloth ball out of his mouth.
Jiang Yan's mouth pursed, but when he saw Luo Jin's fierce gaze, he stopped crying and asked in a sobbing voice: "Why did you capture me? I'm useless. Go capture my eldest brother or my third brother. They are useful. Let me go, okay? My mother will be worried. She can't sleep when she is worried."
"You care about your mother," Luo Jin put a spoonful of rice to Jiang Yan's mouth. Jiang Yan hesitated for a moment, but still opened his mouth and ate it.
Luo Jin asked: "Why did you beat those two people today? Did they do anything wrong?"
Jiang Yan shook his head, "No."
"Then why did you beat him?"
"I... I was bullied by my third brother even when I did nothing wrong," Jiang Yan incoherently replied, "So I... I also want to bully others."
"So you beat them... for no reason? Want to hear them cry?"
"Yes..."
Luo Jin’s movement stopped. She stood up, swung her arms, and slapped Jiang Yan in the face.
Jiang Yan's face instantly reddened and he burst into tears again, "Why did you hit me?"
"For nothing," Luo Jin covered the lunch box and stuffed the cloth back into Jiang Yan's mouth. She walked to the door, turned her head at the door, "Only the weak will swing their knives at the weaker, while the strong will always challenge the stronger. Jiang Yan, you are a lowly coward!"
Jiang Yan's crying came to an abrupt halt. He looked up and saw the door slowly closing and was silent for a long time.
"So you didn't feed him. And beat him?" Chai Qi asked.
"Looking at him makes me angry..." Luo Jin said angrily.
Chai Qi sighed, picked up the lunch box himself, and went into the woodshed. He saw Jiang Yan sitting there blankly, not crying anymore, in a daze.
He took the cloth ball out of Jiang Yan's mouth and put the food to his mouth, "Probably eat. If you make me angry, you will go hungry. Speaking of which... I have never fed anyone before, you'd better be tactful"
Jiang Yan opened his mouth, but didn’t eat. Instead, he asked: "Say... what is a strong man?"
Chai Qi stuffed the food into his mouth, and then replied: "I am a strong man."
...
That evening, Long Ying's men came to report: "Someone came to Qixiangmen, but..."
"It isn't Yue Qinghai?"
"It's Noble Concubine Jin."
Luo Jin followed Long Ying to the place where Qixiangmen was located. It was a small teahouse on the corner of the street. The entrance had the words ‘Qixiangmen’ in large characters written. There were four small characters "Xiyuan Branch" afterward. Qixiangmen had such small teahouses in various countries, accepting various commissions. As long as one paid, there was almost nothing that Qixiangmen couldn't do.
Entering the inner room, Luo Jin saw a woman in plain clothes sitting there. She looked to be in her thirties and was pretty. She didn't wear makeup, but still looked radiant.
This person must be the Noble Concubine Jin.
"I am Jin Yan." The woman said. Her expression was quite calm.
"I'm Long Ying." Long Ying also introduced herself, "I said for Yue Qinghai to bring the 'Gu Experience' in exchange for someone, not you coming to exchange. Is your understanding slightly off?"
Jin Yan shook her head gently, "I don't know where Yue Qinghai is. Worried about my son, I came."
Long Ying frowned, "Isn't this necessary? You took the book, read it, and copied it. Even if the original book is returned, there is no loss, right? To be honest, I’m taking this book to save people. Dozens of lives depend on this book! So can we not beat around the bush? Give me the book, okay?"
"Dozens of lives?" Jin Yan was stunned for a moment. Finally, a little more anxious appeared on her face, "What to do? But I don't know where he went. I haven't seen him for many years."
Luo Jin sighed, "Noble Concubine is indeed a powerful character, but you don't have to act. You said you haven't seen him for many years, so how did he enter the palace to steal books with the help of Dongyuan's insider? How did he get the news and go to assassinate Jiang Ge?"
"He went to... assassinate Jiang Ge?" Jin Yan was stunned, "Why did he assassinate Jiang Ge?”
"To make the Sixth Prince the Crown Prince."
"But even if Jiang Ge died, there is still Third Prince. Sixth Prince can't be the Crown Prince."
"Then kill Third Prince as well."
Jin Yan sighed, "You overestimate him. He... isn't as strong as you think. His health has never been good and he often gets sick. How can I let him do such a dangerous thing? I have prayed every day these years, hoping that he can live a long and healthy life."
Luo Jin and Long Ying looked at each other, their eyes full of surprise.
"It can’t be that you ... like him?" Luo Jin asked in disbelief.
"Of course, he is the only man I love in my life." Jin Yan calmly replied.
"Uh... so toward you back then... he didn't force you?"
"I took the initiative, but my Father found out by accident. Afraid that my Father would punish me, he insisted that he forced me. We are in love, but my Father forced me to become a Noble Concubine in order to please the emperor," Jin Yan lowered her head, "I shouldn't have told you this. I only want to tell you that I won't make him do anything dangerous. I don't know who told him to steal your book, but I didn't... I can't find him."
She suddenly knelt on her knees, "Kill me if you want to. Let my son go, please!"
Countless thoughts flashed through Luo Jin's mind in an instant.
Assuming what Jin Yan said was true, who instructed Yue Qinghai?
Jiang Ge couldn't have instructed Yue Qinghai to assassinate him. It could only be Third Prince, Jiang Xu! He had always wanted to kill Jiang Ge. It wasn't difficult to investigate Jin Yan and Yue Qinghai. After learning about this, he sent a message in the name of Jin Yan, asking Yue Qinghai to help him assassinate Jiang Ge.
Jiang Xu was also capable of planting his own insider in the Dongyuan Palace. He used the insider to help Yue Qinghai steal the 'Gu Experience'. It seemed that he wanted to play a big game!
If the 'Gu Experience' had fallen into Jiang Xu's hands now, she can't think of what kind of crazy things this pervert will do.
She realized a problem.
The plot of this broken novel wasn't credible at all. Almost everything wasn't as described in the novel. All kinds of hidden secrets weren’t mentioned in the novel. Yue Qinghai's two major black spots in the novel were killing his adoptive parents and raping the Noble Concubine. In reality, his adoptive parents were demons on earth and the Noble Concubine was willing.
But anyone who read the novel would think that Yue Qinghai was a despicable and bloodthirsty lunatic, right? But now that she knew the truth, she felt that this person was a completely tragic character.
Was the author's mental state alright?
She still remembered that she bought the novel "Liu Feng Zui" from an old bookstore. When she saw it at first sight, she had a strange feeling. After turning a page, she saw the name ‘Luo Jin’ in the novel. At that time, she thought it was destined to be with her, so she casually bought it.
After returning, she found that this name only appeared once. She even doubted why the author carefully named such a character that was casually called by the Princess.
Was it because the author's surname was Luo? She remembered that the author's name was Luo Xin. She didn't know whether it was a real name or a pen name.
Although what Jin Yan said might not be true, Luo Jin felt that the mastermind behind it was more likely to be Third Prince in her opinion. If Jin Yan was capable, Jiang Yan wouldn’t have been bullied in the palace and developed his abnormal personality.
Luo Jin said: "Based on your understanding of him, if you want, there should be a way to find him, right?"
She stared at Jin Yan's eyes and saw that the latter's eyes were indeed moving, as if thinking about something.
"Help us find him. Since he had seen the book, the book is of no use to him," Luo Jin said, "My princess and dozens of people in the palace are waiting for the book to save their lives. Noble Concubine, you won't watch them die, right?"
Jin Yan's eyes moved, remaining silent.
Luo Jin continued: "Don't worry, we only want the book. We have no intention to hurt him. And he is highly skilled in martial arts. It’s just coming to deliver a book. No one can stop him if he wants to leave, right?"
Jin Yan still didn't speak.
Luo Jin said again: "I can save his life."
Jin Yan raised her head at once, "What?"
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