The royal sacrifice came to an end.
Kou Yuan had secretly released a condemned prisoner, committing the crime of deceiving the emperor, and Wei Zhao sentenced him to death.
Noble Lady Lian went to Empress Feng and told her how Noble Consort Shu had threatened her, begging the empress to save her father.
The empress had already anticipated this.
Rather than plead for him herself, she arranged for Wei Zhao, who had deliberately avoided seeing Noble Lady Lian, to encounter her by chance in the imperial garden, stirring his pity for the pregnant noble lady.
After hearing Noble Lady Lian tearfully tell him about the threat, Wei Zhao thought it over and pardoned Kou Yuan from the death sentence, stripping him of his official post and reducing him to a commoner.
Kou Yuan learned that the empress had helped them in secret.
For a time, he had mixed feelings.
Caught up in the affair himself, he naturally suspected that something was amiss about Zhao Hai being discovered on the day of the sacrifice.
But he had also been coerced by the Zhao Family at the time and harbored resentment toward them. After the affair came to light, he had thought he would die in this power struggle.
He had never expected Empress Feng to save him.
He could not help feeling some gratitude toward Empress Feng for her deep sense of righteousness.
Thus, on the day before his property was to be confiscated and the Kou residence sealed, Official Kou, the former vice director of the Ministry of Justice, sat down at his desk and picked up a brush to write Grand Preceptor Feng a letter.
Risking a crime punishable by the extermination of nine generations of his family, he disclosed to Feng Minghe, one by one, the secrets he had kept buried in his heart for years.
Finally, he pressed his fingerprint onto it and, as he left the capital with his family for his ancestral home in Jiangnan, sent a trusted aide to deliver the handwritten letter discreetly to the Feng residence.
That night, Feng Minghe received the letter, opened it, and read its contents line by line, word by word.
His usually impassive eyes were wet with tears.
"So that's how it was..."
"So that's what happened..."
He looked up in the direction of the imperial palace and said, his voice choking, "Your Majesty, you actually did such a thing, yet made the men of the Zhang Family bear the blame for your treasonous collusion with the enemy, turning them into your scapegoats! The Zhang Family was wronged, so terribly wronged!"
At that, he seemed overcome with emotion. His thin body hunched over, and he began to cough violently.
Hearing him, the old steward pushed the door open and entered. Seeing him slumped over the desk, he hurried to pat his back. "Master, master, rest a moment, rest..."
Feng Minghe, however, waved a hand and ordered the steward, "Go and summon Chengbai and Chenyi!"
Before long, Feng Chengbai and Feng Chenyi had both arrived in the study.
The doors and windows were shut.
Feng Minghe handed them the letter.
Both their expressions changed when they finished reading it.
Feng Chenyi could not stop himself from punching the wall. The impact reddened his knuckles, but not as much as his eyes.
"What a fine emperor of Great Wei!"
"He was the one who secretly colluded with the State of Chu and disregarded the safety of the people, yet he blamed Official Zhang's family for the crime. Not only was the Zhang Family destroyed, but they still have to bear this terrible disgrace after death!"
"Poor Yunqian. Yunqian died so young, he'll never hear the truth about what happened back then..."
His emotions churned, and he felt utterly grief-stricken.
A man who rarely shed tears, he now wept as they fell like beads from a broken string.
Feng Minghe knew how close he and Yunqian had been.
And had Zhang Jingming not been Feng Minghe's most prized student?
Back then, Zhang Jingming had been full of youthful vigor. Following Wei Zhao, he had often told Feng Minghe that although His Majesty had his flaws, he was nevertheless talented, and that as long as he reined in his temperament, he would surely become a wise ruler.
Yet in the end, this was how it had turned out...
"If this is indeed the truth, we must do everything we can to overturn the Zhang Family's case and see justice done for them."
Feng Chengbai was over forty, cautious and steady by nature. At this moment, he was calmer than both his older father and his younger brother.
He said bluntly, "But if we overturn the case, we'll be forcing His Majesty to admit to the whole world that he secretly colluded with the State of Chu and nearly committed treason. One misstep could plunge us into a situation beyond redemption."
He looked at Feng Minghe, his gaze clear. "Father, are we going to do this?"
Feng Minghe picked up the paperweight on the desk and slammed it down on the letter with a bang, answering with a single word.
"Yes!"
Feng Chengbai let out a soft breath. There was no gravity in his eyes, only relief.
"I understand, Father."
After leaving the study, Feng Chengbai patted Feng Chenyi on the shoulder.
"If it's too much to bear, find a friend and go drinking. Drink until you're dead drunk and unconscious. When you wake up, you must recognize what you should and can do now. Don't let those who have passed away be forever unable to rest in peace."
Tears in his eyes, Feng Chenyi asked Feng Chengbai, "Elder brother, have you missed Official Zhang all these years too?"
Zhang Jingming had been Feng Minghe's most prized student, as well as Feng Chengbai's closest friend.
Feng Chengbai smiled bitterly. "Yes. How could I not?"
"But no matter how much I miss him, he won't come back to life."
"He'll never... come back."
With that, Feng Chengbai shook his head, turned, and left.
But from behind, Feng Chenyi noticed that his elder brother, who was always calm and stood with his back straight, was now slightly hunched, as though all the strength had left his body...
As commander of the Patrol Camp, Feng Chenyi never indulged in drink, for fear that if something happened to the people of the capital, he would be unable to reach them at once.
But today, after reading the truth in that letter, he could not calm his emotions.
His heart ached as though it might tear apart.
He thought of Feng Chengbai telling him to find a friend and have a drink.
But the capital was full of scheming and intrigue, and he was not as meticulous as his father and elder brother.
How could he dare trust someone easily and get drunk in front of them?
As he walked down the street, he suddenly heard a man give a soft exclamation ahead of him.
"Brother Feng? What's wrong?"
Feng Chenyi raised his head and met Zhou Ye's eyes.
Zhou Ye paused, then frowned. "Did something... happen to upset you?"
For some reason, when Feng Chenyi saw Zhou Ye, he suddenly could no longer hold back the tears in his eyes, and they streamed down his face.
Perhaps it was because he and Zhou Ye had previously joined forces to help his elder sister regain the empress's seal and punish the Zhao Family.
Perhaps it was because Zhou Ye met everything with a carefree, easygoing manner that he envied.
Or perhaps the wind was too strong tonight and had gotten into Feng Chenyi's eyes.
He stepped forward, seized Zhou Ye's arm, and cried through his sobs, "Brother Zhou, I want a drink. Take me drinking, hurry and take me drinking!"
"?"
Zhou Ye was bewildered for a moment by the sight of him crying like that.
After all, in his impression, no matter how he looked at Feng Chenyi-from top to bottom, left to right, or circling around him-he did not seem like the sort of person who would cry like this.
Now he was not only bawling his eyes out, but also grabbing Zhou Ye and wildly demanding a drink.
It was a truly unusual situation.
For a moment, he did not know what to do, so he could only coax Feng Chenyi as he would a child. "All right, all right, I'll take you drinking."
Then he went straight to the Jade Fragrance House and left him with Yun Shen.
Yun Shen: "..."
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Great, I feel like I'm probably writing an ensemble story.
It's even getting longer and longer as I write. I hope everyone won't be impatient, won't be impatient QAQ