Chapter 56
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Now Fu Nian had no choice but to disregard whether he might hurt people in the crowd. He forcefully pushed the person holding onto him aside, creating a path through the crowd, and started running in the direction of the city outskirts.
“Senior Brother! Senior Brother! Wait for me! Why are you running?”
Fu Nian didn’t dare to look back.
When they reached a rarely traveled street corner, Fu Nian quickly pulled the clueless person following him and shouted in a low voice, “Can’t you use your head? I’m wanted!” He looked into the bewildered eyes and yelled again, “I’m wanted! The palace has issued a warrant for my arrest, and they want my head!”
“So, the warrant was for you?” Fu Bie finally grasped the situation.
Fu Nian: “How common is it to find a guard with a missing right arm and right leg? Of course, it’s me.”
Fu Bie paused for a long time before cautiously asking, “Then why did you still read it out… and so loudly?”
Only you have a mouth.
After thinking about it, Fu Nian refrained from shouting that out loud and instead sat down in place, opened his water flask, and took a sip of water.
“So, why is the palace issuing a warrant for your arrest? What did you do?”
“It’s a long story…” Fu Nian didn’t know how to explain, “Xiao Bie, let me ask you, do you know my name?”
“Fu Nian.”
“If someone asks you what my name is, say you don’t know me, and we’re not acquainted.” Fu Nian instructed, adding, “Don’t ask why, I’ll explain later. For now, let’s exit through the west city gate and leave the city boundary first.”
Fu Bie nodded in confusion.
In the early morning, the streets were not crowded. Fu Nian knew the roads of the capital well, and he was able to avoid the soldiers surrounding Fu Zhen’s residence from a distance.
He decided to take a detour and didn’t want to risk being seen by them.
“Halt!”
As they were about to exit a narrow alley, Fu Nian suddenly heard a loud shout up ahead.
He quickly turned around and prepared to run back in the opposite direction.
But before he could take more than a couple of steps, he saw that the other end of the alley was also filled with soldiers in imperial guard uniforms.
Seeing this, Fu Nian took advantage of the situation and jumped up onto the wall, attempting to escape from above.
This move had saved his life many times when he had been pushed to a dead end before.
However, his prosthetic limbs were still semi-finished, and they had been heavily worn out during his escape. When he was about to jump out of the alley, there was a “crack.”
Fu Nian’s foot missed its step, and he froze for a moment.
As he fell, he saw that the knee joint of his right leg’s prosthetic had no support, and the lower leg prosthetic hung weakly, swaying.
“Senior Brother!”
When he landed, Fu Nian instinctively tried to cushion the impact with his left arm.
There was another “crack.”
Intense pain filled his entire body for a moment, and his brain went numb.
“Arrest them both!”
“D*mn it, how did his bones pierce through his flesh!”
“Get some hemostatic ointment, apply it to him first.”
Fu Nian laid on the ground, vaguely hearing the voices around him.
The last time his right shoulder was dislocated, he could still move…
But this time, he was already injured all over, and the broken bones were just the final blow… No matter how he tried to comfort himself, Fu Nian couldn’t accept it.
As he laid in the carriage, Fu Nian felt a surreal sensation.
He had come so close to escaping.
Through the carriage window, he saw the surrounding streets becoming more and more familiar.
It was the Imperial City, the place he knew better than anywhere else.
For the first time in this life, Fu Nian entered the Imperial City, and he was carried in while lying down.
He had never imagined that this time, would be even more tragic than the last.
When he was taken off the carriage, Fu Nian opened his eyes and glanced around. He was in the main hall where Chu Zhaoyi held his morning court.
Blood was dripping from his arm, and it had filled in some of the gaps in the floor tiles along the way. Turning his head, Fu Bie was also pinned down and being brought into the hall together with him.
When they were finally released, Fu Nian let out a slight sigh of relief.
His vision was still hazy, and his entire body ached, making it almost impossible to think.
In the midst of catching his breath, in his blurred vision, a figure in embroidered dragon court attire appeared. With each step, the ceremonial robes emitted a crisp sound.
Fu Nian: …
In the previous life, he had only witnessed other corrupt officials being dragged into the court while bloodied, but he never expected to experience it himself.
“Li Gonggong.”
“This servant understands.”
He saw Chu Zhaoyi slowly walk towards the direction where Fu Bie was pinned down on the ground, and he remained silent, just watching.
“Since you were both captured together, you must know each other. What is your relationship?” Chu Zhaoyi’s voice remained calm, revealing neither joy nor anger.
Fu Nian desperately tried to signal Fu Bie with his eyes.
“He is my…” But before Fu Bie could finish his sentence, he remembered what his Senior Brother had told him earlier.
“What is it? Let me remind you that he has no siblings, parents, friends, or even acquaintances. However, there were a few fellow senior and junior brothers in his sect…”
“He is my father!” Fu Bie shouted in desperation.
After uttering those words, Fu Nian clearly saw Chu Zhaoyi, who had just been calm and confident, slowly clench his fists.
Although he couldn’t see Chu Zhaoyi’s facial expression, witnessing the eunuchs and palace maids in the hall suddenly kneeling on the ground, Fu Nian could guess the state of Chu Zhaoyi’s emotions.
“Is that the truth?” Chu Zhaoyi’s tone, once casual, had now become biting.
In the next moment, Fu Bie was lifted up from the ground, grabbed by the collar.
“It, it’s true…”
“No,” Fu Nian tried to explain in a hoarse voice.
Chu Zhaoyi suddenly let go, then issued a cold command, “Take them away. To the Ministry of Punishments.”
Upon seeing this, Fu Nian desperately tried to sit up.
However, now that he had no prosthetic limbs, his left arm was still broken, and any slight movement would cause excruciating pain.
He laid back down, waited for quite some time, and gradually, his vision cleared. Fu Bie was nowhere to be seen; there were only the stones and blades that had been confiscated from outside the hall, serving as proof of his presence.
Next, he noticed a familiar face beside him, holding medicine in one hand and wiping away the blood with the other.
“Doctor Xu…” Fu Nian whispered softly.
“Seeing you again,” Doctor Xu said with a wry smile.
“Cough.”
A cough echoed from the Dragon Throne.
Fu Nian didn’t engage in any hushed conversations this time; he laid quietly, allowing the doctor to treat his wounds.
After the bandaging was done hastily, Fu Nian sensed Doctor Xu standing up. He followed the doctor’s gaze and saw him take a few steps forward, then kneel under the throne. “Your Majesty, the injuries are not optimistic. His arm was severely burned originally, and after the fracture, the broken bone pierced through the flesh. I humbly request that he be transferred to the Imperial Hospital for joint treatment by me and the other doctors. By the time you finish your inquiries, his left arm might… ” Doctor Xu said, glancing at Fu Nian’s prosthetic right arm.
Fu Nian paused when he heard this.
He couldn’t afford to lose this arm…
“Li Gonggong, prepare a carriage,” Chu Zhaoyi immediately ordered.
“Your Majesty, the carriage is outside a gate. We’ve already arranged a stretcher…”
“Have the carriage brought to the front of the hall. How many of our ancestral rules have I violated?” Chu Zhaoyi interrupted without waiting for Li Gonggong to finish speaking.
While waiting for the carriage to arrive, Fu Nian heard familiar footsteps approaching him.
The sound of footsteps stopped in front of him, and Fu Nian realized that his embroidered golden dragon robe had been stained with quite a bit of blood.
“Your subordinate pays respects to Your Majesty,” Fu Nian said, taking several breaths. “Your subordinate knows he’s not worthy to face you, but please, Your Majesty, spare that… that child.” Fu Nian dared not speak Fu Bie’s name; with just the surname Fu, Chu Zhaoyi would surely deduce Fu Bie’s identity.
“Aren’t you pleading for yourself?” Chu Zhaoyi didn’t answer directly but instead asked, “Will you not explain why you disappeared without reason for several days after completing your mission in Shuzhou? Changing your appearance, even discarding the waist token of a palace guard?”
He laid on the ground, shaking his head with great difficulty.
The waist token, light armor, and other items had all been destroyed by Fu Zhen. Disappearing without reason for several days was a clear mistake in his judgment. He had treated an imposter as his brother and had repeatedly violated palace rules, even engaging in theft.
“Your subordinate knows that his crimes are unforgivable and won’t plead for himself… I am only asking for Your Majesty’s compassion to spare the innocent. Your subordinate truly deserves a thousand deaths. It’s a long story, but your subordinate truly deserves a thousand deaths…” Fu Nian gasped as he spoke in a low voice.
“How would anyone know if it’s an unforgivable crime without hearing the explanation? Since I’m still willing to have the doctor save you, it means I believe you must have had your reasons. In the past, for those who served in the Chengyuan Hall, as long as their actions weren’t excessively egregious, they were usually demoted to slaves at most, not sentenced to death. At the very least, they could preserve their lives.”
Fu Nian remained silent and laid on the ground, using deep breaths and luck to alleviate the physical pain.
He felt that Chu Zhaoyi was standing right beside him and didn’t seem to mind the blood staining his clothing. Chu Zhaoyi was gazing at him intently.
Every second lying on the ground felt extremely long. It seemed like an eternity had passed when Fu Nian finally judged, from the vibrations on the ground, that the sound of approaching horse hooves was getting closer to the hall’s entrance.
Suddenly, he saw Chu Zhaoyi crouching down.
In his blurry vision, Fu Nian’s gaze met the stern eyes of the Emperor. Out of respect, he looked away and did not dare to meet his gaze directly.
“In fact, it’s not difficult to trace your whereabouts over these past few days. Where you went, what you did, even including your past actions and deeds that haven’t been disclosed—I know all of it. Now, even if you intend to fabricate or remain silent, it won’t make much sense. It’s better to confess openly,” Chu Zhaoyi said firmly, with a resolute gaze, not wavering in the slightest. “Let me ask you again, besides pleading for him, do you really have nothing else you’d like to confess voluntarily?”
Upon hearing this question, Fu Nian swept his eyes over Chu Zhaoyi’s face from the corner of his eye.
As cold and stern as ever, but the way he looked at him… for a brief moment, Fu Nian truly felt that Chu Zhaoyi had seen through everything about him in this life, including his concealed identity, petty actions, and foolish mistakes.
However, in an instant, Fu Nian dismissed that thought.
Chu Zhaoyi had always been skilled at penetrating the depths of the human heart; it didn’t necessarily mean he truly knew.
“Look into my eyes and answer,” Chu Zhaoyi suddenly raised his voice, not quite shouting but exuding a commanding presence.
The sound of approaching hooves stopped a few steps away from the hall. Before being lifted onto the carriage, Fu Nian mustered the courage to finally meet Chu Zhaoyi’s gaze directly. With a trembling voice, he replied, “Your subordinate has nothing more to say.”
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