NCCnovel Chapter 303 Deliberately Letting One Person Go: Liu Hongyan's Petty Scheme
Chapter 303 Deliberately Letting One Person Go: Liu Hongyan's Petty Scheme
Liu Hongyan stood across the street, her moon-white dress standing out in the twilight.
The setting sun shone in from behind her, bathing her in a pale golden halo, and her slender figure cast a long shadow on the bluestone path.
Li Erniu suddenly loosened his grip, and the cloth he was holding scattered to the ground with a clatter.
"Sister Hongyan!"
His voice trembled slightly with surprise, and he practically jumped as he ran out.
"You've finally arrived!"
He ran up to her and stopped.
He looked at her, at her pale, slightly swollen face, at the scabbed wound at the corner of her mouth.
"Sister... what's wrong? Your face..."
His voice carried a hint of confusion and unease.
"What...what happened to you? Who hit you?"
Liu Hongyan looked at him, at his young face filled with concern.
She remembered this face. Five years ago, it stood in front of her just like this, so nervous that her palms were sweating and she couldn't even speak properly.
At that time, she said, "Don't be afraid, your sister is here."
Now, she stands before him, unable to utter a single word.
Li Erniu's gaze passed over her shoulder and landed on the deep night behind her.
He saw the dark armor, the cold blades, and the densely packed figures emerging from the darkness.
His pupils suddenly contracted.
"Sister Hongyan!"
He suddenly reached out, wanting to pull her into the store, to close the door, to protect her.
Just like she protected him five years ago.
But before his hand could touch her, it was grabbed by a faster, stronger hand.
A guard rushed out of the darkness, grabbed his wrist, and yanked him out of the doorway.
Li Erniu staggered and fell to the ground, his knee hitting the bluestone slab with a dull thud.
He lay on the ground, raised his head, and looked at Liu Hongyan.
The light in those eyes is slowly fading away.
"Sister Hongyan?"
His voice was very soft, as if he were afraid of waking something.
"What... what's going on?"
Liu Hongyan did not answer, but only said one sentence.
"Take it away."
Behind him, the Imperial Guards moved.
Two imperial guards strode forward, one on the left and one on the right, and grabbed his arms.
"Let me go! Why?! What—what crime have I committed?! Let me go! Let me go!"
He was dragged across the cobblestone pavement.
The rough stone surface scraped against the soles of his shoes, making a harsh, screeching sound.
He lost one of his shoes during the struggle, leaving it all alone in the middle of the street.
Liu Hongyan watched quietly as he was dragged away.
The sky suddenly began to darken.
The first drop of rain fell slowly, hitting her face and sliding down her pale cheek; it was hard to tell if it was rain or something else.
She looked up.
It was completely dark by then.
The dark clouds hung low, almost touching the highest rooftops.
The rain grew heavier, and a dense curtain of rain enveloped the entire street in a hazy mist.
The armor of the Imperial Guards gleamed from the rain, and the blades, still unstained by blood, shone even brighter.
Liu Hongyan stood there for a long time.
After a while, the commander of the Imperial Guards walked up to her and asked in a low voice, "Where to next?"
She snapped out of her daze, turned around, and walked towards the other end of the alley.
"North of the city."
Her voice was very soft and faint, swallowed by the sound of rain, almost inaudible.
........
The rain intensified.
In the courtyard of the official post station in the west of the city, Wang Defa was adding hay to the stable.
He was forty-seven years old and had been feeding horses at the official post station for twenty years.
Twenty years, more than seven thousand days and nights.
The horses he fed, from old to thin, from strong to weak, one after another, generation after generation.
He knew the temperament of every horse, which one loved black beans, which one loved alfalfa, which one was bad-tempered, and which one was gentle.
He could tell the age of a horse with his eyes closed, and he could tell whether the hay was new or old just by smelling it.
In twenty years, he grew from a young man into a middle-aged man on this foreign land.
He married a widow from Liyang, but they had no children.
The widow died two years ago, and he became a person again.
Eating alone, sleeping alone, feeding the horse alone, alone in this foreign land in the dead of night, thinking of the snow in the North.
He was the deepest pawn of the Northern Border in the capital city of Liyang.
In twenty years, he received very few missions.
Most of the time, all he needed to do was "live," to live well and inconspicuously.
But every single mission is the most crucial.
Military intelligence, troop deployment, and supply mobilization.
Nearly a third of the secrets that leaked from the court and were enough to change the course of the war were passed back to the North through his hands.
Tonight, he was waiting for news.
A message came from the Ministry of War that something big had happened in the court recently: His Majesty was going to marry into the Qin Dynasty, and Liyang was going to merge with the Qin Dynasty.
If this news is true, then the alliance between the Northern Territory and Liyang is completely null and void.
Your Highness must find out about this as soon as possible and make plans accordingly.
Wang Defa added the last handful of hay into the trough, patted the crumbs off his hands, and turned to go back into the house.
Then, he saw that person.
She stood at the entrance of the stable, her moon-white dress soaked by the rain, clinging tightly to her body and outlining her slender shoulder blades and waist.
Her long hair was wet, strands of it clinging to her pale cheeks, water droplets dripping from the ends and pooling at her feet.
Wang Defa perked up and immediately went to greet them.
But the moment he saw the Imperial Guards behind Liu Hongyan, the hay basket in his hand fell to the ground with a "thud," scattering hay all over the ground.
He stood there, looking at Liu Hongyan, at the Imperial Guards, and at those being escorted, people he knew or didn't know.
On that weathered face, the expression shifted from shock to confusion, from confusion to fear, and from fear to something indescribable.
Then he smiled.
That smile was bitter, as bitter as swallowing a whole bowl of bitter herbs.
"Twenty years."
He murmured, his voice hoarse as if sand were grinding against each other.
"Twenty years..."
He didn't say anything more.
He simply stretched out his hands, allowing the Imperial Guards to put shackles on him.
Those shackles bound not only his hands, but also his twenty years of lurking, twenty years of forbearance, and twenty years of his life.
Liu Hongyan looked at him and suddenly sighed.
........
The fire in the blacksmith's shop in the south of the city burns eternally.
This is something everyone knows, from the north to the south of the city.
Zhao Laosi spent his whole life forging iron, from the northern border to Liyang, from his youth to middle age.
He was skilled; the kitchen knives he made were sharp and durable, the farm tools were easy to use and sturdy, and he occasionally made swords, all of which were ordinary in style, unassuming and unassuming.
He was thirty-eight years old and had been away from Yang for eight years.
Eight years, nearly three thousand days and nights.
His daily routine was pretty much the same: get up early to start a fire, forge iron, eat a bowl of noodles for lunch, continue forging iron in the afternoon, finish work in the evening, drink a couple of ounces of liquor, and go to sleep.
He rarely speaks.
The neighbors all say he's a quiet, reserved person; you can't get a word out of him.
But they didn't know that every word he said could be a piece of intelligence.
He rarely spoke much, nor did he ask many questions.
He did only one thing: he took the information gathered from various places, wrote it on iron blanks in a secret script only the North could understand, then forged it into farm tools, and transported them out of Liyang cart by cart with traveling peddlers.
Liu Hongyan stood at the entrance of the blacksmith's shop, her moon-white dress soaked by the rain, the hem covered with mud.
In the firelight, the red, swollen handprints on her face were particularly clear, and the wound at the corner of her mouth gleamed with a dark red light.
Zhao Laosi was sharpening his sickle when he saw Liu Hongyan enter, and his pupils contracted slightly.
He put down the hammer and stood up.
Zhao Laosi looked at Liu Hongyan, his brows furrowing slightly.
He was silent for a moment.
Then he spoke.
The voice remained deep, yet carried a strange calmness:
"I see."
He didn't wait for Liu Hongyan to say "take away".
He turned around, walked out of the blacksmith shop, and was taken away by the Imperial Guards.
The rain has completely stopped.
The moon peeked out from behind the clouds, its cool light casting a reflection on the wet street, turning the puddles into shattered silver mirrors.
The sound of a watchman's drum came from afar, one beat after another, muffled like a heartbeat.
Liu Hongyan stood at the street corner in the south of the city, watching the prison vans drive into the night one after another.
The wheels rolled over the puddles, splashing up tiny droplets that shimmered briefly in the moonlight before disappearing.
The commander of the Imperial Guards stood behind her, waiting for a long time, before finally speaking:
"His Majesty said to spare one person to go. Which one do you think we should release?"
Liu Hongyan did not answer.
Her gaze fell on the last prison van.
Old Zhang was locked in that car.
He huddled in the corner of the prison van, head down, shoulders trembling slightly, whether from crying or shaking was unclear.
Her gaze shifted to the second prison van.
Li Erniu was leaning against the railing of the car, no longer shouting or crying.
He just stared at her blankly, his eyes red, like an abandoned young animal with nowhere to go.
In the third prison van, Wang Defa sat in the corner, eyes closed, motionless.
His face showed no fear, no sadness, only a deep, resigned weariness.
Twenty years.
He lived here for twenty years, fed the horses for twenty years, and waited for twenty years.
This is the ending we got.
In the fourth prison van, Zhao Laosi stood with his back ramrod straight.
He didn't look at Liu Hongyan, but instead gazed at the distant night sky.
That direction leads to the North.
Eight years ago, he came from that direction.
At this moment, he could never go back.
Liu Hongyan withdrew her gaze.
She was wondering who she should let go.
This person must be someone who can help her clear her name.
It must be someone who can tell she is being forced and is enduring humiliation.
She must be able to bring this information back to the North and let His Highness know that she is someone who has no choice in the matter.
Old Zhang is no good.
He was too old and too tired. He had lived in Liyang for twelve years, and his heart had long since softened.
He would only see betrayal, not coercion.
Li Erniu won't work either.
He's still young, too impulsive, and too emotional.
He saw that his sister had betrayed him, and he only felt hatred, not remorse.
Wang Defa is also not an option.
He was too calm and too rational.
He can analyze, judge, and arrive at conclusions that are closest to the truth.
The conclusion closest to the truth is precisely the conclusion Liu Hongyan least wanted him to reach.
That leaves only Zhao Laosi.
Eight years.
For eight years after he left Yang, he remained silent, expressionless, and devoid of emotion.
He kept everything hidden in his heart, hidden on his taciturn face, hidden in his eyes that revealed no emotion.
He'll understand.
He will definitely understand.
He would see the wounds on her face, the emptiness in her eyes, and the unnaturally long silence she wore when she stood before him.
He would piece these details together and arrive at the conclusion she wanted him to reach...
That means she is not a traitor.
She was forced into it.
Liu Hongyan took a deep breath.
"The last one I caught," she said, her voice so hoarse it was almost inaudible.
"Zhao Laosi, let him go."
"I'll create an opportunity for him to escape. Have your men... cooperate."
The commander of the Imperial Guards nodded.
"Yes."
Liu Hongyan did not speak again.
She turned around and walked towards the other end of the street.
Under the moonlight, the slender figure grew farther and farther away, smaller and smaller, until it finally disappeared at the end of the alley.
A night breeze blew by, swirling a few fallen leaves across the damp stone path.
The drumbeats sounded again.
It's Hai hour (9-11 PM).
The night is still long.