"stop!"
A powerful voice came from outside the ancestral hall.
A middle-aged man in official robes strode into the ancestral hall, followed by Lu Jinxiu and several female envoys.
Seeing something was wrong, Lu Jinxiu quickly invited the third master of the mansion, Xie Jun's younger brother Xie Zhu, over for fear of something happening.
If we talk about the reputation of Duke Chang Ning in this mansion, one of them is Mrs. Xie who is on the sick bed, and the other is Xie Zhu. After Xie Jun returned to seclusion, Xie Zhu represented the Xie family's face in the officialdom. He was kind and loyal, and was a famous Confucian master in Lidu Prefecture.
As soon as Xie Zhu came in, he saw Xie Queshan's torn back and couldn't bear to close his eyes. After all, blood is thicker than water. His bones are broken and his tendons are connected, and he curses every day. But when he sees his nephew like this, he still feels soft in his heart.
"Third uncle."
"Third uncle."
Everyone saluted Xie Zhu.
"Brother, enough is enough."
Xie Jun didn't answer with a straight face.
"He is from Daqi after all. If he dies in the Xie family, how will you explain it? Brother, are you going to destroy the entire Xie family just because of your anger?"
Xie Jun closed his eyes, raised his head and took a deep breath: "What kind of evil is this..."
Xie Jun didn't even look at Xie Queshan, turned around and left.
Xie Zhu looked at Xie Queshan sadly: "You have such a spirit of disregarding death, but you sacrifice your life for the Taqi people... Why is this?"
Xie Queshan lowered his eyes and turned a deaf ear. He wanted to stand up, but stumbled back. Xie Zhu wanted to reach out to help him, but Xie Queshan avoided him. Xie Zhu sighed, said nothing more, and left.
The ancestral hall that was full of people just now was completely dispersed in an instant. No one wants to be involved in Xie Queshan’s dirty business.
——
All the movement had faded away, and Nan Yi dared to crawl out from under the table. She held the dagger that Xie Queshan had given her tightly in her hand, the white tip of the knife facing him, and slowly approached.
Their safe distance was gone, and she was forced to put on a hard shell again, showing him the fangs of the beast, showing off her bravery and vulnerability.
Xie Queshan just looked at her flatly, without dodging or reacting, as if she and the threat she posed did not exist.
He tried to move his muscles a little and put his clothes back hastily. After this movement, his whole body was filled with heartbreaking pain.
He suddenly wanted to confirm something, so he dragged his scarred body and walked slowly towards the ancestral tablet. He ignored Nan Yi and finally stood in front of the shelf on the side of the ancestral hall and took down the genealogy placed on it. .
After flipping through the pages, I finally reached his generation. The three words "Xie Chaoen" were crossed out with a conspicuous cinnabar pen.
Xie Queshan laughed, which was not surprising.
Everyone standing in the ancestral hall today is a relative connected to him by blood. He was not born alone in this world, but he forcefully lived his life as a loner.
"Aren't you afraid that I will kill you?"
Xie Queshan did not look back, still staring at the page on the genealogy: "Do you dare to kill me?"
Nan Yi approached Xie Queshan holding a dagger. The sharp blade gave her some courage: "Did you report the identity of my illegitimate daughter?"
"yes."
"You are so shameless!"
Xie Queshan looked back at Nan Yi. People tend to bully the weak and fear the strong. Seeing that he was scarred, she had the courage to offend him and spurn him. But Xie Queshan was not annoyed either.
"Everyone knows I'm shameless."
Nan Yichao glanced at the genealogy, and she remembered the three characters Xie Hengzai. Next to Xie Hengzai was a name crossed out with cinnabar.
"Is that your name on it?"
"yes."
"Since you ran away, why do you have to come back and suffer?"
"Idiot -" Xie Queshan sneered, "Haven't you noticed yet? There's no point in running away."
Nan Yi was stunned.
She was used to running away, being chased, and narrowly escaping. Her options were so limited that she never considered running away.
But she realized that Xie Queshan was right, and every time she ran away, she fell deeper into the quagmire. Even if she leaves the Xie family today, she will not be able to escape the wrath of the family or the Lidu Mansion.
"Escape means completely handing your back to the enemy."
Death fell into silence in the ancestral hall, and the dim candlelight flickered in their eyes.
Nan Yi's voice was full of confusion and hesitation: "Then if you don't run away, are you waiting to die?"
"Yes, you can only wait to die."
Xie Queshan suddenly took a step forward, grabbed Nan Yi's wrist, and forcefully pulled her hand forward an inch, so that the tip of her blade was touching his heart.
Nan Yi was startled and tried to take back her hand.
"You clearly pulled out a dagger at me, but you didn't dare to kill me. You will always be a cowardly woman."
He seemed to be irritating her.
"What the Xie family doesn't dare to do, I don't even dare to do!" Nan Yi stared at Xie Queshan angrily, "But Xie Queshan, I'm not afraid of you anymore."
Xie Queshan's face turned grim, he grabbed Nan Yi's wrist and twisted it, pressing her whole body against the cabinet. In an instant, the dagger in her hand was placed on her neck.
This action indeed consumed some of his remaining strength. Xie Queshan held Nan Yi's wrist with one hand and pressed the other hand against the shelf of the cabinet. The veins on his hand popped out and he tried his best to support his figure. The bloody breath from his mouth faintly hit her face.
"You are an interesting plaything, so I left you alive, but you seem to have forgotten your place."
With the blade pressed against her neck like this, Nan Yi couldn't help but be afraid, but she still faced Xie Queshan's gaze and looked back at him.
"Do you dare to kill me in the Xie Family Ancestral Hall?"
The two faced off for a long time, but no one moved.
"I'm not afraid of you, because you're not much better than me. We are both homeless dogs." Her words were trembling, but every word struck him in the face.
Xie Queshan let go of his hand, took a few steps back, and looked up at the numerous ancestral tablets. The light and shadow fell on his eyes, and there seemed to be twinkling tears passing away.
"roll."
Nan Yi left, and everything returned to silence.
Xie Queshan looked at the empty screen wall. He finally couldn't support himself any longer. He swayed and slowly slid down to sit down.
A wry smile appeared on his lips.
……
Night had fallen, and the entire Lidu Mansion was shrouded in the tranquil moonlight.
The sound of the watch banging on the street could be heard far away through the wind, and could even be heard at the ancestral hall of Wangxuewu Deep Courtyard.
Xie Queshan was still in the ancestral hall. He sat on the floor and took out a set of tools from his sleeves, which turned out to be a set of pocket-sized paper, ink, pen and inkstone. The ink is a special colorless ink. When the small regular script is written on the paper, the water mark disappears quickly, leaving no trace on the letterhead.
After writing the letter, Xie Queshan sealed the letter into a wax pill, and then shot it outside the high wall with a crossbow in his sleeve.
The slight movement did not attract anyone's attention, as if nothing had happened, but everything was happening quietly in the dark.
The watchman picked up the wax pill outside the high wall, put it into his arms as if nothing had happened, and continued to beat the clock.
