Since a long time ago, the military had begun to investigate the connection between Ning Que and those strange murder cases. Although they did not find any evidence, the rumor of his origin had already spread in Chang 'an.
Everyone believed that Ning Que was the son of Xuanwei General Lin Guangyuan, the orphan of the massacre. He had been dormant in the world for many years and finally entered the Academy. Once he gained power, he would start a bloody revenge. Even His Majesty, Xiahou, and many Senior Brothers and Sisters at the back of the mountain of the Academy believed this rumor.
Therefore, at this time, when the people in front of the imperial city heard Ning Que's words, they could not help but be shocked and could not believe it. They thought to themselves, "If you are not Lin Guangyuan's orphan, then why did you do these things?"
Xia Hou looked at Ning Que under the black umbrella and frowned. No one knew what he was thinking.
Ning Que looked down at the blood spots that looked like plum blossoms on the snow. He seemed to see the blood spots on the ground in the woodshed fifteen years ago, and a strange smile appeared on his face.
The wind and snow suddenly scattered and gathered, gradually becoming faster and faster.
Ning Que raised his head, looked at the crowd and asked three questions.
"Why do you all think I'm the general's son?"
"Why must I be the general's son?"
"Why do you all want me to be the general's son?"
Everyone was still in a state of extreme shock and couldn't answer his question.
Ning Que laughed at himself and said, "Unfortunately, I'm not."
"My father is not the Xuanwei General, not a captain, not a subordinate officer, not even a clerk. He is just a gatekeeper of the General's Mansion, and a gatekeeper of the second gate. Even so, he doesn't get much."
"My mother was naturally not the general's wife. She was just a lowly servant girl. Although she had fed the young master and could enter the inner residence, she was still just a servant girl."
"Your Majesty has reversed the verdict for the general. I am very gratified. This is my true feeling, because the general and his wife were good people. They died unjustly, but I am very regretful that … I did not hear my parents' names."
He looked at the crowd in front of the Imperial City and said, "This is a very natural thing. My parents were originally unremarkable people, and their names were also very unremarkable."
"My father is an orphan. The general gave him the surname Lin. His name is Lin Tao."
"My mother didn't even have a name. She was sold to Chang 'an from Hebei County. She was called Li Sanniang from her childhood until her death because she vaguely remembered that she was the third child in her family."
The blood continued to flow down Ning Que's palm onto the snow. His expression was very calm, and so was his narration. It was not indifference, but true calmness.
However, this unemotional calmness made everyone who saw Ning Que's face feel a chill rising from the soles of their feet, and then their whole bodies froze.
The calmness was frightening.
Sangsang was not afraid. She just felt what he was feeling at this moment. She felt his sadness and the coldness in his body and mind. She subconsciously reached out to hold his hand, wanting to give him some warmth.
"I know, that's what's written in the books."
Ning Que said calmly, "The prince who was robbed of the throne left his hometown and returned to take revenge. A young master of a minister who was framed by a treacherous official escaped. Many years later, he became the top scholar and was favored by His Majesty. Then, he reopened the case."
He looked at the crowd and asked seriously, "But why must the protagonist of every revenge story be a prince? Is the son of a gatekeeper and a maidservant not qualified to take revenge? "
Faced with this calm but powerful question, the people in front of the imperial city could only remain silent. Zeng Jing wanted to say something, but he could not open his mouth. Li Qingshan sighed softly.
"That's what's written in the books, and that's what people think. I know that I can't blame anyone, and it's stupid to feel sorry for oneself. But I still hate this kind of thinking."
"Just like a dozen years ago."
Ning Que looked at Xia Hou and said, "That day, I took the young master to play on the street, as I often did, because he treated me as a good friend … That's a bit too much. Anyway, the housekeeper wanted to preserve the general's bloodline, so he took me to the Mansion of the Official of Counsel across the street."
Hearing this, Zeng Jing the Grand Secretary's expression slightly stiffened. He thought of the scene across the street when his wife, who was still a concubine, gave birth to a daughter and the scene of a river of blood across the street.
Ning Que continued, "When you led the troops into the General's Mansion, I was hiding in the woodshed of the Official of Counsel's Mansion with the young master and the housekeeper."
Xia Hou said gloomily, "My subordinates finally chased us to the woodshed and saw two dead bodies. At that time, I was sure that Lin Guangyuan's son was dead, so I was very confused about your identity. Now I'm not confused anymore, but I'm curious about what you did at that time."
Ning Que looked at the wind and snow around, as if he was recalling something. He smiled and said, "There's nothing new under Haotian. It's just the same old stories."
"If the general's son wanted to live, the gatekeeper's son had to die. They were both four-year-old boys who were badly mutilated and changed their clothes. Who could recognize them?"
"The housekeeper thought that there was no need to be vigilant against a four-year-old boy, so he looked at me in a daze. His eyes were filled with apologies, sympathy, and sadness. At that moment, I knew what he was going to do."
He spread his hands and said with a smile, "Isn't that what's written in the book?"
Then the smile on his face gradually faded. He looked at Xia Hou, Zeng Jing, Li Qingshan, and all the people he could see. He asked expressionlessly, "But why?"
"Why should I do what is written in the book?"
"Why the general's son wanted to live, but the gatekeeper's son had to die?"
"Why should I die?"
The wind and snow fell on the palace gate. Everyone was silent.
No one could answer this question, so it was quiet. Only Ning Que's voice was still floating in the snow, and it was floating higher and higher, colder and colder.
…
…
"I'm just the gatekeeper's son."
"But I want to live."
"I want to live."
Ning Que's voice was calm and firm. He talked about his thoughts in the past, as if he was talking about the eternal truth that the sun must rise every day and the water must flow down.
He continued, "So when the housekeeper tried to trick me into taking off my clothes and taking the chopper himself, I grabbed the chopper first and stabbed it into his stomach."
"I stabbed him more than once."
Ning Que recalled what happened in the past and said with a frown, "It seemed to be five times."
"Because I didn't have enough strength, I couldn't stab him deeply enough, so I had to stab him a few more times. But I don't know why the housekeeper didn't scream. He just looked at me in horror, as if he was looking at a devil. All these years, I've been thinking whether he was too scared to speak or he didn't want to alarm the people outside the woodshed."
After a moment of silence, he continued, "The young master … that is, the son of the general, did not know what happened at that time. He only saw the housekeeper, whom he had always loved the most, lying in a pool of blood. He rushed towards me as if he had gone mad. He wanted to hit me and bite me."
He shook his head and said, "I was also very panicked at that time. I waved the chopper wildly and somehow cut his neck. Then he covered his neck and fell back on the woodpile."
"The blood in the young master's neck spurted out from the gaps between his fingers. I wanted to cover it for him, but I couldn't. In the end, his blood condensed into paste on my fingers."
Ning Que raised his head and looked at the people in the snow. After a long silence, he shook his head and said, "It wasn't manslaughter."
"Maybe I wanted to kill him at that time."
He looked at Xia Hou and said with a smile, "Because only if he died, people like you and His Highness would no longer care about me, the gatekeeper's son."
The world was shrouded in the wind and snow, shrouded in a dead silence.
The snowflakes drifted to Ning Que's face and touched his smile, which seemed to be even colder.
It was a smile that seemed gentle but was actually extremely cold.
People looked at the smile on Ning Que's face and were shocked speechless. They felt an unprecedented chill.
They seemed to see the scene in the woodshed of the Official of Counsel's Mansion more than a decade ago.
A four-year-old boy, holding a rusty chopper, stood in front of the two corpses. His face was full of despair and fear, and his body kept trembling, as if he could collapse at any time.
But the boy didn't collapse.
Now, the boy was standing in the wind and snow, standing in front of the majestic palace, standing in front of people, telling the story of that long ago.
The stories in the books were often written like that.
The story he told was not in the books.
…
…
(On the first anniversary of the night, I finally told one of the stories I wanted to tell the most in this story. I feel very happy. Eight o 'clock, crooked crooked … 55373, let's chat.) (To be continued. If you like this work, please come to Qidian.Com to vote for me. Your support is my biggest motivation.)
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