The Beacon of Kyushu

Chapter 98

Although the sun was still warm, the sky above the Wugong County Prince's Mansion was shrouded in dark clouds.

Zhao Dezhao lowered his head and walked silently to his mansion in Beijing. No one knew what he was thinking at the moment.His footsteps were heavy and slow, as if he still had lingering fears about Zhao Guangyi's words, but also as if he was planning something.

It was only half a mile from the palace to the Prince's Mansion of Wugong County, but he actually walked for half an hour.Zhao Dezhao is not often in Tokyo, and the palace is naturally not as luxurious and luxurious as the Chenzhou mansion, but the spacious and heavy mansion gates, tall and magnificent courtyard walls, and towering palaces and palaces all show the elegance and nobility of the royal family .

Seeing Zhao Dezhao's return, the guard guarding the gate was full of smiles, "Qiantui, you're back. I heard that Qiantui just entered the palace to face the saint, and I'm asking for rewards for the generals in the army. Is everything going well?"

Zhao Dezhao did not answer, but stretched out his hand towards the guard, and said, "Do you have a knife on you? Bring it quickly, and borrow it from me."

The guard was startled when he heard the words, and then smiled and said: "Qiantui, what are you kidding? Although the young one is a guard in your mansion, but he is on duty in the palace, so he dare not carry a knife with him."

Zhao Dezhao gave a "hmm", ignored the guard, and walked quickly into the mansion.As soon as he stepped into the gate of the mansion, a group of family servants came towards him. Everyone stopped when they saw Zhao Dezhao, gave a deep salute, and said in unison: "I have seen a thousand years old!"

After they finished speaking, they were about to pass by Zhao Dezhao. Zhao Dezhao hurriedly stopped them, and said solemnly, "Do any of you have knives on you?"

After hearing Zhao Dezhao's words, the servants were also stunned, and then laughed and said: "Qiantui, we are serving in your mansion, how dare we carry murder weapons with us. If we are found out by the officials, we will definitely say that we intend to assassinate the prince. Even a hundred heads are not enough to cut them off."

Zhao Dezhao sighed slightly, and waved to the servants, who bowed and walked around him.Zhao Dezhao frowned slightly, looking not far ahead, a not too big but very delicate and elegant tea room, walked quickly without hesitation.

In the afternoon, the sun slanted into the tea room, and the room was warm.

At this time, the door of the tea room was closed, and Zhao Dezhao sat alone on a chair in the room.Next to him was a small red sandalwood round table. On the table was a cup of fragrant tea. The steaming water vapor continuously drifted out from the gap between the tea cup and the tea lid, filling the room with fragrance.There is also a plate of fresh crispy pears and a sharp fruit knife on the table.

Zhao Dezhao stared at the cup of fragrant tea with both eyes, quietly watching the water vapor rising and disappearing into the air little by little.He looked at it for a long time, subconsciously picked up the fruit cutter with his right hand, and picked up a crispy pear on a plate with his left hand.

Before his hand could touch the biggest crispy pear, the closed door was suddenly slowly pushed open from the outside, and a masked man in black walked in.This person was dressed in black clothes, but his hands were empty, and he didn't carry any weapons on his waist or back.

He slowly closed the door and approached Zhao Dezhao slowly.Everything he did seemed to be very slow, but in fact it was extremely fast, not to mention attracting the attention of the mansion's patrolling servants, even Zhao Dezhao, who was sitting directly opposite him, didn't seem to be able to react.

When Zhao Dezhao had a premonition that danger was coming, the man in black was already standing in front of him, sneering helplessly and complacently at himself.Zhao Dezhao looked at the man in black with a panicked expression, "Who are you? What are you going to do to me in broad daylight?"

The man in black sighed, and said in a deep voice: "Your father forced my father to death. This hatred has been engraved in my heart for nearly 20 years. I don't want to take revenge all the time, but I have no way to do it. Now the officials are also If I want your life, I can kill two birds with one stone, so I will accept the holy order. Don't blame me after you die, blame you for being Zhao Kuangyin's son!"

Zhao Dezhao stood up almost instinctively, picked up the fruit cutter in his hand, and stabbed the man in black straight in the heart.The man in black sneered, grabbed Zhao Dezhao's wrist, and said coldly, "You want to fight me?"

As the man in black said, he pushed Zhao Dezhao's wrist hard, and pushed the sharp fruit cutter to his neck.Zhao Dezhao opened his mouth to call for help, but before he could utter a sound, the man in black pushed the knife half an inch in, cutting it straight between his neck.Then he grabbed Zhao Dezhao's wrist and slammed it to the side, cutting Zhao Dezhao's neck with a deep wound that reached the bone.

Zhao Dezhao fell to the ground in pain, with blood gushing out from his neck continuously, staining the blanket on the tea room floor with blood.His eyes were glaring, as if he was about to spew fire. He pointed at the man in black unwillingly, opened and closed his lips silently a few times, and then slowly closed his eyes.

Seeing this, the man in black squatted down, probed Zhao Dezhao's breath, and made sure that Zhao Dezhao was dead. Then he opened the door and walked out slowly. Seeing no one around, he hurriedly flew away, and disappeared without a trace in the blink of an eye. without a trace.

Not long after the man in black left, a young servant walked towards the tea room with a plate of lychees smiling.He walked to the door and said softly, "Chitose, your favorite lychee is here!"

Zhao Dezhao has excellent hearing ability. In the past, when the servants came to deliver things, he would immediately call them in, but the servant didn't see the prince's answer even after calling several times, so he couldn't help but feel a little confused.He had no choice but to tiptoe open the door of the tea room, but was stunned by the scene inside!What was waiting for him was no longer the taciturn prince Zhao Dezhao, but the blood stains all over the ground and the corpses in the pool of blood.The little servant screamed in horror, and the plate in his hand, together with the lychees on the plate, rolled to the ground.

"Thousands!" The boy suppressed the fear in his heart, ran up to him, and hugged Zhao Dezhao's blood-stained corpse.With his hands trembling uncontrollably, he stretched out one hand tremblingly to probe Zhao Dezhao's breath, but the result of the probe made him let out a series of exclamations.

The boy's screams quickly attracted everyone in the mansion, they all put down their work and ran towards the tea room quickly.At first, everyone thought it was the prince who had lost his temper and beat the servant uncharacteristically, but when they saw Zhao Dezhao's corpse soaked in a pool of blood with a fruit knife in his hand, everyone was shocked.

Several servants recalled the scene where Zhao Dezhao asked them for a knife just now, and they immediately had an answer in their hearts.One of the older servants let out a long sigh, "Oh, it must be that Qiantui must have said something wrong when he entered the palace and was reprimanded by the officials, so he couldn't think about committing suicide for a while..."

Everyone also nodded, "That's right, it must be like this. Chitose looks weak and deceptive on the surface, but he is very strong in his bones. It must be something that the official said too seriously, which made Chitose feel depressed, so he committed suicide Yes." Everyone lamented and mourned for the deceased prince, and they all cried together at this moment.

The old man Ding was about to send someone to report the funeral in the Eighth Prince's Mansion, but at this time Zhao Defang came in from the gate of the mansion with a golden mace in his hand.Seeing the Eighth King coming, everyone greeted him quickly, knelt down at his feet, and cried out: "The Eighth King is a thousand years old, we slaves should be damned, we failed to protect the martial arts king, he...he committed suicide... ..."

Zhao Defang was stunned when he heard the words, and said in disbelief: "What are you talking about? Brother Wang, he committed suicide? This is impossible! This king was only separated from Brother Wang for an hour, why did he die! Are you talking to me? This king is just kidding!"

The old man Ding said with tears in his eyes: "Qiantui, the body of the king of martial arts is in the tea room. If you don't believe me, go and see for yourself."

Zhao Defang rushed into the tea room like crazy when she heard the words, and she saw Zhao Dezhao's body still lying in a pool of blood.He only felt his eyes go dark, the blood in his chest was churning, and a warmth surged up in his throat, followed by a fishy sweetness.

"Boom!" Zhao Defang leaned on the ground with a mace and supported himself by force, so that he barely passed out.At this moment, he just felt like crying without tears, wanting to speak without words, his chest was full of grief and doubts, but he couldn't say a word.

The old family Ding walked up to Zhao Defang cautiously, and said in a low voice: "Qiantui, the prince asked us for knives just as soon as he returned to the mansion. We only thought that Qiantui was joking with us, but we didn't take it seriously. I locked myself in the tea room and killed myself with a fruit cutter. It’s all useless to blame us, if we had discovered Chitose’s abnormality earlier, maybe this tragedy would not have happened.”

Zhao Defang shook her head slightly, knelt down and hugged Brother Wang's body, tears welled up in her eyes.A man doesn't flick his tears lightly, just because he hasn't reached the sad place.Zhao Defang hugged Zhao Dezhao's body tightly, crying loudly.

Both of his parents died when he was young. Zhao Dezhao, who was far away in Chenzhou at that time, was one of his few relatives.But this half-brother seems to be always busy with things, except that he will rush back to Tokyo to reunite with his family every Spring Festival, and he will never see him at other times.So Zhao Defang's favorite holiday is the Spring Festival, and what he looks forward to the most is seeing his second brother Zhao Dezhao, who can bend down and let him ride as a horse.

Later, Zhao Defang grew up slowly, and Zhao Dezhao came back less and less frequently.He knew that the reason why the second brother didn't want to return to Beijing was not because he didn't miss him, but because he didn't want to see his uncle Zhao Guangyi.The relationship between the two brothers also gradually became estranged due to time and distance, and the brothers did not meet again until after the Northern Expedition.Zhao Defang wanted to say a thousand words to his brother, but he always felt that the future would be long, and he never expected that this reunion was just for a permanent parting.

Farewell to life, you can still get together, farewell to death, the most indefinite.

Zhao Defang hugged Zhao Dezhao's body tightly, letting blood soak his luxurious clothes, and he refused to let go for a moment.At this time, he and Zhao Dezhao were tightly attached to each other. There was no longer any distance between them, but life and death lay between them. Isn't it the furthest distance in the world?
After an unknown amount of time, Wang Jien's high-pitched voice suddenly came from outside the mansion, "The official is here!" Before his voice landed, Zhao Guangyi had already rushed into the mansion.

At this moment, he could no longer care about the dignity of the emperor, and while calling out the name of his nephew Zhao Dezhao, he quickly ran towards the direction surrounded by the crowd.Wang Ji'en and the guards followed closely behind, staying close to Zhao Guangyi for a moment. Seeing the Holy Majesty's approach, everyone in the mansion retreated to the sides in a hurry, and there was a mess in front of the tea room for a while.

When Zhao Defang saw Zhao Guangyi coming, two cold eyes shot out from his eyes, but he immediately retracted his eyes, and cried to meet Zhao Guangyi, "Guan, what did you just say to Brother Wang that he... actually killed himself?" Already!"

Zhao Guangyi ignored Zhao Defang, ran straight to Zhao Dezhao's corpse, stomped his feet and cried bitterly: "Why is this idiot! I just said something seriously. After you left, I felt deeply regretful and came to the mansion to apologize to you. Why? Knowing that you have taken short-sightedness!" As he spoke, two lines of tears fell from his eyes, and the turbid tears fell drop by drop on Zhao Dezhao's face, as if all this had nothing to do with him.

Zhao Defang looked at Zhao Guangyi, feeling extremely complicated.After a long time, he suppressed his sadness and pretended to be calm and said: "Officials, please show me how to handle Brother Wang's funeral."

Zhao Guangyi heaved a long sigh, "Dezhao is my nephew, I will preside over his funeral personally, and bury him in a splendid manner."

Zhao Defang nodded and asked: "Officials, Xiao Wang doesn't have many relatives in this world, should you invite Xiao Wang's sister Zhao Chanxue here? ?”

Zhao Guangyi pondered for a while, and finally shook his head, "No need, Chanxue has been a nun for a long time, and she must have looked down on the affairs of the world. If I send someone to invite her, it will only disturb her cultivation, and it will be in vain. To increase her pain, I think it’s better to forget it.”

Zhao Defang nodded slightly, sighed helplessly, and tears rolled down his handsome face like broken pearls.He understood the reason why Zhao Guangyi refused to invite Zhao Chanxue, and he also understood what kind of result he would get if he insisted on going his own way, so he had no choice but to give up.It's just that the unwillingness and grief and indignation in my heart can't be calmed down.

Seven days later, all officials mourned and all people mourned.

In the early morning, a mighty procession came out of the palace. Many musicians held trumpets and suonas, and played the sad song of farewell to the dead mournfully. All the people marched forward slowly amidst the mournful music with their spirit flags Marching, behind them, followed by countless eminent monks and Taoists, everyone chanted scriptures praying for the blissful rebirth of the Wugong County King.Behind it was a tall and heavy coffin, carried by eight strong men in filial piety.

Zhao Guangyi and Zhao Defang rode one behind the other on the horse, following behind the huge coffin, their eyes filled with tears.Behind them are civil and military officials in filial piety, walking closely behind, and everyone's face is full of sadness.

This team crossed Junyi Street and walked slowly out of the city. People who came to see them off stood along the way. They all looked very sad. Many people spontaneously followed the team and kept sprinkled paper money to the sky. .It was autumn, and the eyes were golden, but the white of the mourning clothes and the spirit flags made the weather extremely chilling and desolate. The paper money raised by the funeral procession, like pieces of snowflakes, fluttered down from midair.

Whether it was the officials in the ranks or the common people on both sides of the road, all of them wept at this time.In an instant, mournful cries resounded in every corner of Tokyo, and they lingered for a long time. People called Zhao Dezhao's name, but he couldn't hear him anymore.

(End of this chapter)