Chapter 53
When the guard came to summon Jingyu, although Yuli had forcibly kept her, she was more or less uneasy in her heart.
She was sure that Xie Yao would not hurt her for such a matter, but she was worried that he would not be able to let it go and would make small moves behind her back.
Just like he had done with Mei Qing, as long as she was not careful, he might kill the person he disliked behind her back.
Why did he kill innocent people so easily? Was he also so indiscriminate in killing outside of matters related to her?
Yuli thought of many of the rumors she had heard before, and her heart went up and down. She had no interest in cooking anymore.
A maid came to report that Xie Yao had gone out and would be back late. Yuli’s heart rose again.
She had to coax him properly. She concentrated on making the custard buns, put them in the steamer, and returned to Mingyue Residence.
Just as she entered the door, she ran into Xiyun coming back.
Xiyun had a radiant smile on her face. Seeing Yuli and Jingyu, she began to talk endlessly. “So many people came to buy flowers today! The line was more than a li long, and they were all fighting to buy today’s flowers. Lizhen said that there were only ten of each kind. The young servants and purchasing agents outside were bidding against each other. Someone bid up to a hundred taels!”
After Xiyun finished speaking excitedly, she had thought that Yuli and Jingyu would be so surprised and delighted that they would jump up and down. Unexpectedly, their eyes only lit up, and their expressions became even heavier.
“Did something happen?” Xiyun’s excitement was also swept away.
Jingyu did not speak. Yuli asked, “When you left, were the others in the shop still there?”
“Mm, besides the two old dyers, the rest had not yet left.”
“Is Mr. Ye alright?”
“He’s fine. As the Mistress said, we are in it for the long haul, so we don’t work overtime. When I left, he was also preparing to leave,” Xiyun said.
So he was still alive.
Yuli slowly let out a sigh of relief, but the gravity on her face did not lessen.
Xiyun asked again, “What on earth happened?”
Neither Yuli nor Jingyu could bear to tell her.
Yuli forced a smile. “It’s nothing serious. You’re tired too. Go and rest first. The Young Master will be back late today. We’ll have dinner together later.”
Xiyun went with a face full of suspicion. Thinking of the grand occasion at the shop, she was humming a tune when she went out.
Yuli and Jingyu looked at each other, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
After the meal, Xie Yao had still not returned.
In the past, when he came back late, Yuli would be engrossed in her own affairs. Although she would miss him, she would not just think of him.
But in this situation today, she was restless. For a moment, she believed that he had been persuaded by her and was just busy with court affairs. For another moment, she suspected that he might have been angered by her attitude and was going to personally kill Ye Weiqing.
Yuli was suddenly shocked to realize that the scene of him personally killing someone was in line with his character in the original novel.
He was originally a cruel and bloodthirsty psycho who had killed everyone around the original heroine.
Then what about the past six months?
Was it because her docility had temporarily avoided the bad plot, or was he trying to restrain his murderous intent?
Yuli carefully recalled the past. She was sure that he had been restrained.
He had flesh and blood, thoughts and emotions. He was not a puppet controlled by the plot.
He was just a little abnormal.
There are many reasons why a person is abnormal. It may be innate, a hereditary disease, or it may be acquired, a trauma to the brain, or an emotional trauma that leads to a mental illness.
Yuli tried hard to recall, searching through the plot of the original novel.
The original novel did not describe his growth experience, because the heroine did not care. In his family, only his father had appeared.
Yuli remembered.
In the later part of the original novel, that is, after he had held the heroine Song Yi’s hand and stabbed himself, Song Yi’s heart was like dead ashes, and she did not resist much anymore. The original novel’s male lead, Xie Yao, wanted to marry Song Yi and brought her home.
His mother, brothers, and sisters did not appear. Only his father came to see him.
His father was fine at first, but for some reason, he suddenly went crazy and pointed at his nose and cursed, “You heartless, disloyal, and unfilial thing! Your mother should not have given birth to you in the first place!”
At that time, Xie Yao did not react much, until Song Yi, who was on the side, laughed and stared at him with hatred, saying, “Well said.”
Then she mocked him, “Get married? You have already taken everything from me. Why go through this formality?”
“Don’t deceive yourself. Open your eyes and see who cares?”
“Xie Yao, I don’t hate you anymore. I pity you!”
Perhaps it was these words that stimulated him. He had someone take Song Yi away, and he personally killed his father with his sword.
Blood splattered all over his face. When he went back, he locked Song Yi up again and never mentioned the marriage again.
Song Yi was full of hatred for him, and he no longer tried to reform her. When she saw this, she knew that this novel was destined to have a bad ending.
She had followed it to the end just to see how much more torment there could be, whether the male lead would die first or the female lead would die first, and what the other would do after one of them died.
Sure enough, when he returned from his personal expedition, Song Yi jumped from the city wall, which was the climax of the whole novel. The scene of him going home and being scolded seemed insignificant.
Yuli remembered that when she saw this ending, she even thought, why didn’t the male lead just slit his throat and follow the female lead?
Yuli rubbed her face. How could she have been so perverted when she read the novel?
Yuli guessed that his abnormality might be related to his family. His father had such a vicious hatred for him. His youth must have been very miserable.
Thinking of the storyteller saying that he had almost killed the entire Xie family, Yuli was even more certain of this.
Yuli called for Jingyu, who was staying in Xiyun’s room, brought her into the bedroom, and closed the doors and windows.
She walked to her and said in a low voice, “The Young Master’s temperament has always been different from ordinary people. I guess it has something to do with his family background. Now that he is not here, and there is no one else, can you tell me if he was not favored at home, was often bullied, but his parents did not protect him?”
A strange look flashed in Jingyu’s eyes, and she shook her head repeatedly. “I don’t know.”
Yuli sensed that she was very flustered and a little scared.
She encouraged her, “Don’t be afraid. It’s just the two of us now. Tell me, and I won’t let a third person know.”
Jingyu suddenly knelt down. “This servant does not know.”
Yuli was startled, squatted down to help her up, and sighed, not daring to ask anymore.
She changed her train of thought and asked again, “Then are his father and mother still healthy?”
Jingyu’s fear had not yet subsided. Her eyes flashed, and she struggled for a long time before saying, “The Young Master’s father passed away from illness a few days ago.”
Yuli was stunned for a moment, but maintained a normal tone and asked, “Did he really die of illness?”
Jingyu was taken aback for a moment, then nodded. “He passed away from illness.”
*
A dark and shabby alley.
Dark shadows loomed.
A dim yellow light shone from a small room.
The room was extremely small. A bed, a table, a chair, and a standing cabinet were placed in it, and it was almost difficult to turn around.
At this moment, two tall people were standing in the room, making the room seem so small that one couldn’t even stand up straight or breathe.
Ye Weiqing was kneeling on the ground, his forehead soaked in sweat, which dripped from his chin to the ground.
Standing were Xie Yao and Song He.
Song He’s head was bowed lower than ever before. In Xie Yao’s hand was a stack of paper. The paper was the fashionable plain snow paper of the capital, which was extremely expensive for this down-and-out painter.
The paper was extremely white, extremely thin, but it did not let the ink bleed through, almost no different from silk.
When Song He had arrived, he had not known that Xie Yao had also sent other shadow guards to search. Just as he had subdued the entering Ye Weiqing and was about to take him away to deal with him, he had lit a lamp to deal with the traces and had seen this stack of painting paper, carefully wrapped in silk, on the desk. He had only looked at the top two sheets and had immediately sent everyone out.
He had wanted to burn this room, but he had received an order to spare his life. Just as he was in a dilemma about how to deal with it, the master had come in person.
Song He’s heart was heavy at this moment. Things were probably going to be unpredictable.
The paintings on the paper could be said to be exquisite and poetic. If one did not know the person in the painting.
Xie Yao slowly flipped through them, looking at each one carefully.
The top three were of her in men’s clothing, followed by several of her in women’s clothing. He was sure that Yuli had never appeared in front of this person in women’s clothing.
He flipped down, from the slightly crude brushstrokes to the exquisite and delicate lines. The fine brushwork had improved rapidly, and the person in the painting had become more and more vivid. Although she was not seven-tenths as beautiful, her charm was depicted with nine-tenths similarity.
The Yuli in the painting never looked straight ahead, but was always looking elsewhere, either at the bright flowers in her hand, or at the maid with only her back showing on the side.
After that, it began to deviate from the composition of a lady, and only faces were left, each with slightly lowered eyes, at the same angle, from the hair at the temples to the neck, for ten consecutive sheets.
But each one was of a different color, purple hair and purple eyebrows, blue hair and blue eyebrows, cyan hair and cyan eyebrows. The lines were delicate and detailed, showing the painter’s care.
But they all had bright red lips, of varying shades, but all were dazzlingly gorgeous, just like the ones he had just kissed heavily.
Xie Yao’s flipping slowed down, and his breathing was also so light that it could not be heard.
Song He felt as if he were sitting on pins and needles.
The person on the ground couldn’t help but shiver.
Flipping to the back, the faces became even more simplified, with only the face and the five sense organs left.
Flipping through page after page, the cheeks were gone, and the eyebrows and eyes also faded, leaving only a pair of red lips that became more and more gorgeous and clear. In the end, only the eyelashes and the red lips were left.
The prying of an insignificant person, so humble and ridiculous. Xie Yao’s flipping quickened, and suddenly stopped.
This one had a burn mark on the lower right corner, only the size of a fingernail.
The painting was of a young lady’s side profile, looking back, with only half her body, from her shoulders to her waist. The lines were round and undulating. Although it was only an outline, one could see the charm of a woman’s body. Her arms were slightly extended, her fingers slender, and there was a cyan-green entanglement at her fingertips.
Only half of the red lips on the face looking back were visible, and her hair was like a cloud, but there were no eyebrows or eyes.
If it were an ordinary painting, it could be considered elegant and subtle. But with this snow-white paper as the base, and the simplified brushstrokes, it was clear that the young lady was naked.
If it were an ordinary naked lady, it would be fine, but on the wrist of the young lady in the painting, there was a very tiny mole.
Xie Yao paused for a long moment, then suddenly sneered.
A grim, cold aura instantly spread.
Song He’s breath hitched.
He heard him say, “Death by a thousand cuts, and grind the bones to dust.”
A lot had happened today. Song He held on to the order to spare his life just now. In the past, he had never changed an order he had given, let alone for such an insignificant person. But to suddenly send an order to spare him, it must be related to the Mistress.
Song He said in a low voice, “This person’s thoughts are hidden deep. If he were to disappear just like this, I’m afraid it would cause a rift between the Mistress and the master. It would be better to let him say goodbye to the Mistress.”
Xie Yao walked to the desk and placed the last painting in his hand on the oil lamp. The flame spread from the burned corner.
Xie Yao’s face flickered in the firelight, a mixture of dark shadows and bright light, pulling his features into a sharpness like a blade. “Well said. And he has only drawn some paintings and has not done anything evil. I can spare his life.”
Hearing the person at the head of the table refer to himself as “I,” Ye Weiqing raised his head. From the deep purple robe upwards, a black dragon was coiled on his shoulder, its claws sharp, its eyes ferocious, but not as much as his gaze, which made him feel a cold fear.
“But I am worried that he will not be able to forget the face in this painting and will continue to draw it, which would damage the majesty of the future empress and also the dignity of the state.”
Ye Weiqing kowtowed and said, “Thank you for sparing my life, Your Highness. This humble one did not intend to draw it, but was just overcome by emotion for a moment and had already decided to burn all the paintings, but had not yet had the time.”
“Burning paintings takes time,” Xie Yao said slowly, and lit all the paintings in his hand. The flame shot up high. He was not afraid of being burned and only let go when the flame licked his fingertips.
The flame wrapped around the paper and fell to the ground. In just a moment, the thick stack of painting paper had all turned to ashes.
Ye Weiqing stared at the painting paper as it burned, his eyes glowing with fire. In the end, he closed his eyes tightly and panted roughly. “This humble one cannot bear to part with it.”
Xie Yao chuckled.
“Chop off your hands or gouge out your eyes, choose one.”
Hearing this, Ye Weiqing seemed to be relieved and slowly let out a breath. He held out his right hand. “This humble one chooses to have my hands chopped off.”
“Both hands and both eyes,” Xie Yao said, glancing at him.
Seeing him trembling as he held out his hands.
He sneered very lightly. “Song He, gouge out his eyes.”
Ye Weiqing looked up in terror, and Song He’s hand holding the sword also tightened.
Song He did not make a move. He knew that this person was doomed to die, but he couldn’t guess to what extent the master wanted to torture him.
To gouge out a person’s eyes was no different from taking half their life, let alone this person who was lonely and made a living by painting, and was most proud of the colors in his paintings.
Song He looked at Xie Yao. That expression was as if it were so cold that it was indifferent to everything, and yet it also contained a piercing madness.
Death by a thousand cuts, and grind the bones to dust. This was what he had always wanted.
Grinding the bones to dust was fine, after all, it was done to a dead person. But death by a thousand cuts was to slice off the flesh of a living person piece by piece. Song He couldn’t help but shiver.
He couldn’t do it. This was the job of an executioner from the Ministry of Justice.
This person also did not deserve such a great crime. Even if he disregarded the consequences on the Mistress’s side, if he wanted to kill him, giving him a quick death would be the cleanest and leave the fewest traces.
Song He knew in his heart that something was wrong, but he didn’t dare to say a word to persuade him.
In the court, the master was always decisive in killing, weighing the pros and cons, and his planning was flawless.
But once it came to matters related to the Mistress, he would seem to calmly use the cruelest methods and the most reckless ways to solve them. He would even want to erase people who did not need to be killed.
When he was weak, he could only use unusually vicious methods to solve the unbearable difficulties.
Song He did not want to recall the past, but at this moment, he was indeed overlapping with the him of the past.
The room was silent, and a pin could be heard dropping. Yet it was as if the wind were howling, pressing down on people until they couldn’t breathe.
“Do it,” Xie Yao said.
Song He’s body was stiff.
Ye Weiqing suddenly looked up. “On what grounds?”
His tone had changed from the timid and trembling one just now to a low and powerful one.
“Your Highness, the Regent, may I ask what crime this commoner has committed?”
Xie Yao looked down at him with cold eyes, then turned to Song He. The majesty and killing intent forced even Song He to tremble.
A person like a blade of grass was kneeling on the ground. The two standing only treated him as a dead person, only having a dispute over his method of death.
Ye Weiqing suddenly began to laugh softly.
“No wonder.”
“No wonder you watch her so closely. You know she doesn’t love you, right?”
Ye Weiqing’s eyes were full of mockery, and a madness surged in them. “She once personally praised me as a genius. Has she ever praised you like that?”
The room was cramped and small, and the air seemed to have been sucked out, as if it had suddenly descended into the deep sea. The pressing pressure was about to crush people. Song He took a deep breath but held on, not making a move to interrupt the dying madness of the person on the ground.