Before he could go over, a ragged old beggar ran out like a rabbit from behind the Buddha statue. His pants weren't even pulled up properly, exposing a big white butt. "You damn kid, you came at the wrong time! Disturbed my good time!"
The old beggar cursed for a while before running off.
"What good time?"
Zhao Yan bared his teeth and turned behind the Buddha statue. He had expected to see some kind of beast.
Unexpectedly, there was a disheveled, naked man curled up in the damp grass. His body was covered in old and new scars - some seemed to be scratched by hands, some cut by knives or rocks. His exposed skin was mottled by large bruises and inflammation. He looked like just a pile of bones left, and his legs were twisted into an extremely humiliating posture. It was unknown what those beggars had done to him. His gaunt, skeletal face was buried in the grass, looking extremely pitiful.
Zhao Yan slowly frowned. He squatted down next to the man and poked his arm with a stick.
"Hey, who are you?"
"What happened to you?"
"Why are you curled up here alone?"
"Were those people earlier bullying you? Why didn't you fight back?"
Jiang Yin hadn't heard such a crisp and clear voice in a long time.
After Zhao Changdu deliberately broke his tendons and threw him in this familiar dilapidated temple, it had been four or five years.
In all those years, except for the beggars and Huai An, rarely would a stranger come to see him.
Sometimes, Zhao Changdu would come to see if he was still alive. If he found that Jiang Yin wanted to die, he would seal his acupoints and force him to ingest some drugs that caused him to lose consciousness. This way, he could continue living in this world for a period of time.
He let out a self-deprecating chuckle and moved his earlobes. He turned his head with a blank look towards the blurry small figure.
Who was it, that was so kindhearted to care about him?
It took him quite a while to regain some strength and consciousness. He clearly saw that the person guarding his side was a young noble boy not very old in age.
He had a veil on, revealing only a pair of black and white, exquisite and beautiful phoenix eyes.
However, it was just a pair of eyes. Yet it made Jiang Yin's heart race wildly.
Long lost vitality and blood rushed to his head, restoring some spirit in his lifeless eyes.
"Boy, you...who are you?"
After not speaking for so long, his voice was very hoarse, like the sound of scraping tree bark on the city wall.
"You haven't answered my questions yet." Zhao Yan felt this person was very interesting. He didn't know why, but he had some interest in him. He simply used the stick to brush up his messy, dirty hair to look at that particularly emaciated yet very unfamiliar face. "What's your name? What did you do to offend Uncle Huai An?"
"Uncle Huai An?" The corners of Jiang Yin's mouth twitched slightly. With great difficulty, he turned his body to size up the little boy once more. His gaze was profound and complicated. "Are you Zhao Changdu's child?"
Zhao Yan was puzzled in his heart. "Do you know my dad?"
Jiang Yin paused before suppressing the sourness rising in his heart. "Let me see your face."
Zhao Yan was filled with vigilance. "Why should I show you my face? Who exactly are you?"
Jiang Yin chuckled. "If you show me what you look like, I'll tell you who I am. It concerns your mother. I believe you'll definitely be interested."
Zhao Yan's eyes narrowed dangerously.
Jiang Yin watched his subtle movements, almost identical to adult Zhao Changdu's. His heart felt as if it were stabbed violently by a blunt knife, the pain bloody and raw.
But he still couldn't believe that the child had survived.
Didn't he make Chu Jiuniang poison him to death!
What exactly did that wretched Chu Jiuniang do?!
Why was that child still alive!
He tightened his eyes, a sinister look flashing through them.
"You know my mother?"
"That's just the beginning."
Although Zhao Yan was young, he was no fool. He used the stick to examine his body to confirm this person posed no threat before removing the veil from his face.
"Alright, now you've seen my face. Tell me, who are you?"
Seeing the small face blending the features of Zhao Changdu and Gu Yingrong, Jiang Yin was stunned for a moment. The sourness in his heart was so distinct. He looked towards the little boy, trying his best to stretch out his arm to confirm whether that face was real or fake.
But the boy had cold eyes. He used the wooden stick in his hand to cut off his actions. "Don't come near me, you're filthy. Do you understand? My mother hates dirty things very much."
That condescending manner was also identical to Zhao Changdu's.
However, beneath the boy's brows and eyes, that tender red lip and jawline resembled Yingrong very much.
So the child from back then that he made miscarry with a bowl of abortion medicine had grown up to this size now...
The world was just like this. So was fate. Those gods watched from high above, treating the human world as one spectacle after another.
All causal relationships went in cycles, always beyond expectations. This was so absurd, laughable, yet unresistingly helpless.
Jiang Yin choked, violently coughing out painful suffocation. He laughed hysterically for a while before slowly crawling to move closer to the child he had once killed.
Even if the boy was only four or five years old now and possibly didn't even understand the meaning of death.
He still wanted to laugh, laughing at heaven's arrangement of his final destiny here.
"Have you come to kill me?" he asked.
"Why would I kill you? Ever since I was little, my mother taught me to be a good person. I won't kill anyone." Little Zhao Yan's palm-sized, tender white little face was full of ridicule and evilness. "You said you recognized my mother. Now when I look at you, Uncle, you also seem a bit familiar. Could we have met before?"
"Met before," Jiang Yin tilted his head with indifference, chuckling once. He said, "I said, we've met before."
After saying this, his thoughts pulled further and further away.
It was as if the medicinal steam from the medicine cauldron was still before his eyes. That bitter medicinal smell lingered in the small courtyard of the Jiang house.
He still remembered that he had personally boiled that bowl of abortion medicine. It was pouring rain outside. He carried the medicine into the room and forced her to drink it down.
At the beginning, she didn't understand anything and only had some bewildered fear in her eyes.
Later, her stomach started hurting. Fresh blood trickled down from between her legs.
He walked out of the room with a cold laugh, finally feeling truly at ease in his heart.
A slut didn't deserve to be born.
However, that wasn't actually the only child between her and Zhao Changdu. Later on, he learned Zhao Changdu's secret - only then finding out he had been fooled by Zhao Changdu all around.
Every time when he secretly put drugs in Yingrong's meals to send her to accompany Prince Shu, he didn't expect that the one accompanying her in the end was still Zhao Changdu!
When he found out the truth, the imperial physician was sitting at Yingrong's bedside, kind and gentle with a smiling face. He congratulated him, "Congratulations, sir. The lady is expecting now."
Expecting?
Expecting what?
Before he could go over, a ragged old beggar ran out like a rabbit from behind the Buddha statue. His pants weren't even pulled up properly, exposing a big white butt. "You damn kid, you came at the wrong time! Disturbed my good time!"
The old beggar cursed for a while before running off.
"What good time?"
Zhao Yan bared his teeth and turned behind the Buddha statue. He had expected to see some kind of beast.
Unexpectedly, there was a disheveled, naked man curled up in the damp grass. His body was covered in old and new scars - some seemed to be scratched by hands, some cut by knives or rocks. His exposed skin was mottled by large bruises and inflammation. He looked like just a pile of bones left, and his legs were twisted into an extremely humiliating posture. It was unknown what those beggars had done to him. His gaunt, skeletal face was buried in the grass, looking extremely pitiful.
Zhao Yan slowly frowned. He squatted down next to the man and poked his arm with a stick.
"Hey, who are you?"
"What happened to you?"
"Why are you curled up here alone?"
"Were those people earlier bullying you? Why didn't you fight back?"
Jiang Yin hadn't heard such a crisp and clear voice in a long time.
After Zhao Changdu deliberately broke his tendons and threw him in this familiar dilapidated temple, it had been four or five years.
In all those years, except for the beggars and Huai An, rarely would a stranger come to see him.
Sometimes, Zhao Changdu would come to see if he was still alive. If he found that Jiang Yin wanted to die, he would seal his acupoints and force him to ingest some drugs that caused him to lose consciousness. This way, he could continue living in this world for a period of time.
He let out a self-deprecating chuckle and moved his earlobes. He turned his head with a blank look towards the blurry small figure.
Who was it, that was so kindhearted to care about him?
It took him quite a while to regain some strength and consciousness. He clearly saw that the person guarding his side was a young noble boy not very old in age.
He had a veil on, revealing only a pair of black and white, exquisite and beautiful phoenix eyes.
However, it was just a pair of eyes. Yet it made Jiang Yin's heart race wildly.
Long lost vitality and blood rushed to his head, restoring some spirit in his lifeless eyes.
"Boy, you...who are you?"
After not speaking for so long, his voice was very hoarse, like the sound of scraping tree bark on the city wall.
"You haven't answered my questions yet." Zhao Yan felt this person was very interesting. He didn't know why, but he had some interest in him. He simply used the stick to brush up his messy, dirty hair to look at that particularly emaciated yet very unfamiliar face. "What's your name? What did you do to offend Uncle Huai An?"
"Uncle Huai An?" The corners of Jiang Yin's mouth twitched slightly. With great difficulty, he turned his body to size up the little boy once more. His gaze was profound and complicated. "Are you Zhao Changdu's child?"
Zhao Yan was puzzled in his heart. "Do you know my dad?"
Jiang Yin paused before suppressing the sourness rising in his heart. "Let me see your face."
Zhao Yan was filled with vigilance. "Why should I show you my face? Who exactly are you?"
Jiang Yin chuckled. "If you show me what you look like, I'll tell you who I am. It concerns your mother. I believe you'll definitely be interested."
Zhao Yan's eyes narrowed dangerously.
Jiang Yin watched his subtle movements, almost identical to adult Zhao Changdu's. His heart felt as if it were stabbed violently by a blunt knife, the pain bloody and raw.
But he still couldn't believe that the child had survived.
Didn't he make Chu Jiuniang poison him to death!
What exactly did that wretched Chu Jiuniang do?!
Why was that child still alive!
He tightened his eyes, a sinister look flashing through them.
"You know my mother?"
"That's just the beginning."
Although Zhao Yan was young, he was no fool. He used the stick to examine his body to confirm this person posed no threat before removing the veil from his face.
"Alright, now you've seen my face. Tell me, who are you?"
Seeing the small face blending the features of Zhao Changdu and Gu Yingrong, Jiang Yin was stunned for a moment. The sourness in his heart was so distinct. He looked towards the little boy, trying his best to stretch out his arm to confirm whether that face was real or fake.
But the boy had cold eyes. He used the wooden stick in his hand to cut off his actions. "Don't come near me, you're filthy. Do you understand? My mother hates dirty things very much."
That condescending manner was also identical to Zhao Changdu's.
However, beneath the boy's brows and eyes, that tender red lip and jawline resembled Yingrong very much.
So the child from back then that he made miscarry with a bowl of abortion medicine had grown up to this size now...
The world was just like this. So was fate. Those gods watched from high above, treating the human world as one spectacle after another.
All causal relationships went in cycles, always beyond expectations. This was so absurd, laughable, yet unresistingly helpless.
Jiang Yin choked, violently coughing out painful suffocation. He laughed hysterically for a while before slowly crawling to move closer to the child he had once killed.
Even if the boy was only four or five years old now and possibly didn't even understand the meaning of death.
He still wanted to laugh, laughing at heaven's arrangement of his final destiny here.
"Have you come to kill me?" he asked.
"Why would I kill you? Ever since I was little, my mother taught me to be a good person. I won't kill anyone." Little Zhao Yan's palm-sized, tender white little face was full of ridicule and evilness. "You said you recognized my mother. Now when I look at you, Uncle, you also seem a bit familiar. Could we have met before?"
"Met before," Jiang Yin tilted his head with indifference, chuckling once. He said, "I said, we've met before."
After saying this, his thoughts pulled further and further away.
It was as if the medicinal steam from the medicine cauldron was still before his eyes. That bitter medicinal smell lingered in the small courtyard of the Jiang house.
He still remembered that he had personally boiled that bowl of abortion medicine. It was pouring rain outside. He carried the medicine into the room and forced her to drink it down.
At the beginning, she didn't understand anything and only had some bewildered fear in her eyes.
Later, her stomach started hurting. Fresh blood trickled down from between her legs.
He walked out of the room with a cold laugh, finally feeling truly at ease in his heart.
A slut didn't deserve to be born.
However, that wasn't actually the only child between her and Zhao Changdu. Later on, he learned Zhao Changdu's secret - only then finding out he had been fooled by Zhao Changdu all around.
Every time when he secretly put drugs in Yingrong's meals to send her to accompany Prince Shu, he didn't expect that the one accompanying her in the end was still Zhao Changdu!
When he found out the truth, the imperial physician was sitting at Yingrong's bedside, kind and gentle with a smiling face. He congratulated him, "Congratulations, sir. The lady is expecting now."
Expecting?
Expecting what?
