Бессмертие, Бессмертие - Глава 6
"So, Master Bi stepped forward out of righteousness to stop this great demon Li Lingyan from running rampant?" Shengxiang looked at him with a smile. "But I'd like to ask, who is this Miss Li?"
Bi Qiuhan blushed slightly. "She is Li Lingyan's sister, but she and Li Lingyan are not on the same path. She is also very heartbroken by what her brother has done."
Shengxiang nudged his waist with the handle of her fan and whispered in his ear, "Not your fiancée?"
Bi Qiuhan awkwardly dodged, "Of course not." But seeing his flushed face, it was pretty much true.
"Hmm...you stole someone's girl and don't even plan to marry her. I never knew you, Xiao Bi, looked so honest, but you're so good at playing with emotions." Sheng Xiang sighed, fanning herself with her fan. "Men these days are really unreliable..."
"Holy Incense!" Bi Qiuhan was furious and embarrassed. He could make up so much with just a simple "no." "How can you talk such nonsense and ruin someone's reputation?"
Shengxiang laughed loudly, "I'm telling the truth. If you don't intend to marry someone, don't make the girl have expectations. Otherwise, you'll end up crying, making a scene, and threatening suicide, and you'll suffer the consequences." He dodged Bi Qiuhan's punch to the head, passing under his ribs. With a "whoosh" of wind, he was already on the garden wall, waving his sleeve, "This young master is the smartest. Although countless girls openly and secretly admire me, this young master simply doesn't want to get involved in such trouble."
"Such swift movement!" Bi Qiuhan's heart skipped a beat. Sheng Xiang stuck out his tongue on the wall. In the autumn wind, he stood with one foot on the wall and the other dangling in the air, his clothes fluttering in the wind, as if he would fall down at the slightest sway. He turned around, "Little Bi, do you want to know where Nan Bibi's son, Nan Ge, is? I bet you, since Li Lingyan is recruiting soldiers and acting tyrannically under the guise of revenge, and since he has won over Leng Zhuoyu and Tang Tianshu, he will definitely come looking for Nan Ge. Finding Nan Ge is the same as finding Li Lingyan, and only by finding Li Lingyan can we spank him and tell him exactly how he is so despicable!"
Bi Qiuhan immediately put aside his astonishment at Shengxiang's lightness skill and asked, "Do you know where Nange is?"
"Of course I know." Shengxiang snapped open her folding fan on the wall, smiled in the breeze, her sleeves and robes fluttering gracefully.
"Where?" Bi Qiuhan blurted out.
"The Kaifeng Prefecture prison," Shengxiang said with a smile.
Bi Qiuhan was taken aback. "Jail? What law did he break?"
"Killing a corpse is a grave crime," Saint Xiang said with a grin. "When someone is down on their luck, even killing a corpse can land them in jail. Do you want to see him?"
If they could use Nan Ge as bait, they might be able to lure Li Lingyan into a trap. Bi Qiuhan took a deep breath, "He's in prison, how can I see him?"
Shengxiang beckoned to him, and Bi Qiuhan floated onto the wall. Shengxiang whispered in his ear, "He's in prison. We're neither his father nor his wife or children. There's only one way to see him."
"What method?" Bi Qiuhan asked instinctively.
With a "snap," Shengxiang smacked him on the head. "What other way is there? Stupid! Of course, we have to break him out of prison."
"A prison break?" Bi Qiuhan exclaimed. "But this is the capital, a place of great importance. Aren't you afraid of implicating the Prime Minister by openly breaking into prison?"
Shengxiang rolled her eyes at him. "So of course you're the one who's going to rob him."
"What?!" Bi Qiuhan was completely taken aback, not following Sheng Xiang's train of thought.
"Of course you go." Shengxiang pointed her fan at his nose. "You're the one who wants to see him, you're the one who wants to be a great hero, you're the one who wants to capture Li Lingyan, and you're the one who wants to win the heart of a beauty. What does it have to do with me? I'm physically weak. Do you expect me to go with you to break him out of prison? What if I get injured by those mud-covered bailiffs? Can you afford to compensate me? I'm the son of the Prime Minister..."
Bi Qiuhan smiled bitterly. Was this the true nature of Shengxiang? "Damn it."
“Even if we bring the person back, we can’t bring them here,” Shengxiang said with a smile. “In short, we can’t let them implicate me.”
Bi Qiuhan retorted angrily, "Of course! I'll take responsibility for my own actions and I won't implicate you!"
“Then I’ll tell you where he’s being held.” Sheng Xiang beckoned, “Come closer to my ear.”
After telling Bi Qiuhan the location of Nan Ge's imprisonment that day, Bi Qiuhan began planning a prison break. Sheng Xiang, pretending to be casual each day, overheard certain details, such as who would be there to meet him on September 3rd. He was surprised to discover that Bi Qiuhan was indeed a formidable hero. He commanded the lower-ranking disciples of Wudang and Shaolin, indicating that he had clearly discussed the prison break plan with the elder leaders of the martial arts world. Most of them were obviously opposed. After all, it was extremely unwise to involve the government in matters of the martial arts world. However, after hearing Bi Qiuhan's detailed plan and the location of Nan Ge's imprisonment, they reluctantly agreed.
Nan Ge was imprisoned in a corner of the Kaifeng Prefecture prison. Coincidentally, his cell wall had been struck by lightning a few days earlier during a thunderstorm. If someone outside could sneak into the prison, deliver the message to him about his rescue, and unlock his handcuffs and shackles, Nan Ge, with his martial arts skills, could easily escape. Furthermore, if he escaped on his own, it wouldn't be considered a prison break, making it less likely that suspicion would fall on someone outside.
“Shengxiang,” Zhao Pu slowly walked up behind Shengxiang, who was using kebabs to lure the fat rabbit, “Will letting Nange go lead to Qiuhan leaving the capital?”
Shengxiang didn't turn around, but the fat rabbit kept squeaking at the steaming hot kebabs, wanting to eat but not daring to. "Not necessarily."
“You promised your father you wouldn’t let Qiu Han find out the truth… If he wants revenge for your mother’s lover, the person they’ll kill… is your father.” Zhao Pu sighed and muttered to himself, “Perhaps if the sins of the father are visited upon the son… now their real enemy is you. Besides, the Emperor will absolutely not tolerate anyone who knows the truth, the Emperor…” Zhao Pu didn’t finish his sentence, but Sheng Xiang knew that the reason the Emperor favored him so much was at least one reason: because Sheng Xiang looked very much like his mother.
“Man proposes, God disposes,” Shengxiang turned around with a bright smile. “People come up with ideas, but only God knows the outcome.” He put the skewer back into his mouth and watched the fat rabbit jump around, hugging his leg. “I may only be able to help Dad this once in my life, but I won’t fail.”
When he said "It's not impossible," his eyes were like glass, and Zhao Pu's heart trembled slightly. It was a very strange look in his eyes. "Aren't you going to ask Lord Yu Xiu and the others for help? With Lord Yu's martial arts skills..."
"Have they ever asked me for help when they encountered problems?" Shengxiang interrupted him.
Zhao Pu was stunned for a moment.
Sheng Xiang rarely didn't smile, but he wasn't smiling now. He slowly drew a line on the ground with the bamboo skewer he'd finished eating from a kebab. "No—even until their deaths, they didn't utter a word..."
He didn't finish his sentence, but Zhao Pu understood that unspoken arrogance. It was precisely because they were both like that that they were friends. "Father, you've had a hard time." Beyond that, Zhao Pu didn't know what else to say to Sheng Xiang.
Shengxiang smiled, a smile he rarely wore so gently and calmly. He patted Zhao Pu's shoulder, then wrapped his arms around Zhao Pu's neck, leaning against him, "Silly father..."
He still carried that faint baby smell that he had never lost since childhood, along with the subtle sweetness of eight-treasure osmanthus cake. Zhao Pu could feel his warm body temperature and heartbeat. "You've grown up."
Upon hearing this, Shengxiang smiled again and released Zhao Pu. "I've grown up. Since Father entrusted this matter to me, then no matter what I do in the future, Father, please don't interfere anymore, okay?" He gazed into Zhao Pu's eyes, the corners of his mouth slightly upturned, a pure and slightly intoxicating smile that was unknowingly captivating.
“Okay.” Zhao Pu blurted out, then a question arose: What did he mean by “no matter what I do”? What did Sheng Xiang want to do? “But…”
"Thank you, Father." Shengxiang stuck out her tongue and said with a smile, "Now that Xiao Bi and I are going to Jiangnan for fun, Father can't object, right?"
He interrupted Zhao Pu's question. Zhao Pu stared in astonishment at Sheng Xiang's flawless eyes. Was that really all there was to it? In Sheng Xiang's beautiful, dark eyes, apart from a faint glimmer of light, there was only a deep blackness, as dark as the seabed, so dark that it was impossible to guess what it was.
The task of relaying the message to Nan Ge to escape was much easier than expected. Surprisingly, the Kaifeng Prefecture prison didn't put Nan Ge in steel shackles; they only formally hung a wooden cangue on him. It was said that the previous Censor-in-Chief personally brought him in, and since the prisoner had surrendered himself, there was no need to be particularly wary of him trying to escape.
Why would he surrender if he wanted to escape? Nan Ge was in the most remote place. His crime was insignificant, and he was quiet and unassuming, occasionally even having a drink and chatting with the guards. Everyone knew that this prisoner was educated, a nice person, and handsome. Compared to the other disheveled, crying prisoners, Nan Ge was much more pleasing to the eye.
Bi Qiuhan didn't personally go to break into the prison. He entrusted the task of delivering the message to Nan Ge to someone, and Sheng Xiang didn't know either. However, he knew that once Nan Ge was released, Bi Qiuhan would leave the capital. Sheng Xiang also didn't know where Bi Qiuhan was taking Nan Ge, but it was undoubtedly somewhere where a large net was being cast to capture Li Lingyan.
If we cannot find the real culprit who killed Li Chenglou, then now that things have come to this, and Li Lingyan is no longer under our control, we should strike while he is still out of control. This is one way to stop him from seeking revenge.
How could Shengxiang miss such a great show of chivalrous heroes catching a great demon? He was trying his best to find a way to get Bi Qiuhan to take him to see the excitement. "Little Bi—" he said pitifully, drawing out his voice, "I want to go too."
Bi Qiuhan shook his head, "The martial world is dangerous, and I'm not going out for sightseeing this time..."
“If you won’t go sightseeing, I will!” Shengxiang tugged at his sleeve, trying to appease him. “Take me with you… Dad already agreed. You can arrest people, I can just stand by and watch. If there’s any danger, I can just run away… Little Bi…”