Chapter 227 Silencing
It was finally midwinter in Yanjing.

The snowflakes flying in the sky changed from salt grains to heavy snow. From the streets to the end of the alley, they were covered with thick snow overnight. Thousands of miles of ice and snow, the sky and the earth turned silver-white. Occasionally, a yellow dog from a family was not tied up tightly and ran across the snow, leaving a deep plum blossom-shaped footprint.

Jiang Li stood in the yard. Crystal icicles hung upside down on the eaves, like the pearl curtains in a beauty's bedroom in the deep palace. When she got up early in the morning, the snow had not stopped yet. Jiang Li was wearing a snow-white cloak, and she almost blended into the snow.

"It's too cold." Tong'er got up early in the morning and started sweeping snow in the yard. The iron bucket in the yard turned into an ice lump overnight, standing upright in the middle of the yard.

Jiang Li looked at the horizon, feeling worried. In winter, there were no flowers in the Jiang family's flower garden, and even the gardener was not there. Jiang Li knew that Zhao Ke had gone with Ji Heng to do something. Jiang Li didn't know what this thing was, and Ji Heng didn't tell Jiang Li when he left Yanjing City. Instead, Zhao Ke reminded Jiang Li when he left the Jiang Mansion, indicating that he was not at the Jiang Mansion these days, and Jiang Li should pay more attention to her safety.

Ji Heng didn't tell Jiang Li, either because it was really not worth mentioning, or because it was a serious matter and he didn't want Jiang Li to worry too much. Although most things in the world might be not worth mentioning to Ji Heng, this time, Jiang Li sensitively noticed the difference from Zhao Ke's expression.

This matter might be more important than she thought, and more than ten days had passed without Zhao Ke appearing in Jiang Mansion, and there was no news of Ji Heng.

Jiang Li always felt a little uneasy. She thought about it and decided to take the initiative to go to the Duke's Mansion. At least General Ji was still there, so she could ask him. At worst, maybe Situ Jiuyue or Wen Renyao, Lu Ji would know something.

"Let's go to the Duke's Mansion." Jiang Li said.

Tong'er and Bai Xue didn't understand, and thought Jiang Li was going to see Ji Heng for something. Now that Jiang Li and Ji Heng were married by His Majesty himself, there was nothing wrong with doing this. Yanjing City was not like the previous dynasty, where girls before marriage could not see their husbands, so there was nothing wrong with Jiang Li doing this. When Old Madam Jiang learned about it, she didn't say anything, just asked Jiang Li to go and come back early.

Jiang Li took a carriage and went to the Duke's Mansion with Tong'er and Baixue.

The streets were full of playful children. Children were probably the happiest in winter, as they could roll around in the snow. The red sugar-coated haws looked particularly bright against the white snow.

The lanterns in front of the Duke's Mansion were as gorgeous and bright as ever. When the servant at the door saw Jiang Li coming, he immediately smiled. This was the first time Jiang Li came to the Duke's Mansion after being granted marriage. Everyone in the Duke's Mansion knew that Jiang Li would be the Duke's wife in the future. There had been no mistress in this mansion for many years. With one more, people would look at her more even if it was strange.

Jiang Li walked in. She didn't need anyone to lead the way to Ji Heng's yard. As expected, there was no sign of Ji Heng in or outside the yard, nor were there signs of Wen Ji and Zhao Ke - he had not returned to Beijing yet.

Thinking of this, Jiang Li found a servant at the door of the study and asked, "Is General Ji in the mansion now?"

The servant shook his head and was about to answer when Jiang Li heard a familiar voice behind him, "He's missing."

Jiang Li turned her head and saw Situ Jiuyue coming out from behind. She was holding a bamboo basket in her hand, as if she was going to pick flowers in the flower garden. In winter, she also wore a wolfskin coat and skirt, still dark brown, deerskin boots, and a plum blossom thorn tied around her waist. She had beautiful and lively eyebrows, but she was dressed in a way that kept strangers away.

"Miss Jiuyue." Jiang Li said. Situ Jiuyue lived in the Duke's Mansion all year round. She asked, "You just said that General Ji is missing?"

"Yes." Situ Jiuyue said, "The day after Ji Heng left Yanjing, General Ji disappeared. Kong Liu and Lu Ji sent people to look for him, but they still haven't found him."

Jiang Li's heart tightened: "It was someone..."

"No." Situ Jiuyue said, "He took the sword from the study."

Jiang Li's heart did not relax because of this. Since General Ji took the sword, it was obvious that he left on his own. Why did he take the sword? The first thought of ordinary people would probably be revenge. But General Ji was already old, why did he do this? Jiang Li said: "Miss Jiuyue, do you know what Ji Heng was going to do when he left Yanjing City this time? Aren't Lord Lu and Lord Kong here? Maybe Master Wenren can know something."

"I don't know what he is going to do. He didn't tell me. Maybe he told Lu Ji and Kong Liu, but they won't tell you either, because they are not in the Duke's Mansion now. I don't know where they went. I only know that Ji Heng is doing something very important. This thing is very dangerous. The fewer people who know about it, the better."

Jiang Li heard this, but she was not dissatisfied with Situ Jiuyue's answer. She knew that Ji Heng didn't tell her not because he didn't trust her, but because Ji Heng valued her too much and hoped that she would not be implicated.

This person... is always used to doing everything by himself, even if he is misunderstood.

Jiang Li sighed in her heart. It seemed that she was helpless. No one knew Ji Heng's situation.

Situ Jiuyue did not continue to talk to Jiang Li, but walked to the flowerbed and started picking flowers. The flowers in the Duke's Mansion were still very bright in winter, but they were different from ordinary flowers. They grew in strange shapes. Some were flat and long, some looked like animals, and some would even tremble if you touched them. Jiang Li could not help. She did not know which flowers Situ Jiuyue was going to pick, so she could only watch from the side. As she watched, she thought of the rumors about the Duke's Mansion.

She said, "I originally thought that Ji Heng collected rare flowers in the mansion because of Aihua. Now it seems that the reason why Ji Heng spent a lot of money to collect so many rare flowers in the flower garden is because Miss Jiuyue is easy to make poison. Or these flowers were actually collected by Miss Jiuyue, but they were just borrowed from Ji Heng's name."

Ji Heng has two hobbies, one is loving flowers, the other is watching plays. But if he really loves flowers, how can he be so demanding, and find the rare poisonous flowers in the world? It is better to say that he collects the raw materials for refining poisons in the world. And the raw materials are obviously useless to Ji Heng, and he can't make poisons, so it can be seen that he prepared them for Situ Jiuyue.

"No, these were indeed collected by Ji Heng, but he also wanted me to make medicine because he hoped that I could make a strange poison to wake his father up."

Jiang Li's eyes widened. This was the first time she had heard of this. According to rumors, Ji Minghan returned to the mansion and left Beijing after learning of Yu Hongye's death. He never appeared again. People in the world said that he had died a long time ago, but what Situ Jiuyue meant by this was that Ji Minghan was still alive?

How is this going?

"He... General Jinwu is still alive?" Jiang Li asked.

"No, he's dead." Situ Jiuyue was pulling out a blue flower. She was very careful and used a small shovel to dig the soil next to the flower so as not to damage the roots when picking the flower.

"But... didn't you just say..." Jiang Li couldn't understand.

"Because I didn't make that poison and failed, Ji Heng's father not only didn't wake up, but also died from the toxicity." When she said this, Situ Jiuyue's hand seemed to tremble. Although she tried her best to remain calm, she still revealed a hint of something strange.

"Miss Jiuyue," Jiang Li asked carefully and seriously, "Can you tell me what's going on?"

Situ Jiuyue turned her head and looked at her calmly. After a while, Situ Jiuyue lowered her head and continued what she was doing. She said, "People all over the world say that Ji Heng collects rare flowers in the world. In fact, it is just because most of the poisonous flowers in the world are brightly colored and have strange shapes. Ji Heng is not looking for rare flowers, but just rare poisons. He wants to find poisons just to cure his father's illness."

"His father's...illness?" Jiang Li said softly, "Rumor has it that General Jinwu disappeared many years ago."

"That's not the case. General Ji is still alive and has not disappeared. I don't know what happened. When I first came to the Duke's Mansion, General Ji was already there. For so many years, Ji Heng has kept me by his side and even helped me avoid Mo Lan's pursuit because I am the only one in the world who can wake General Ji up."

"What happened to General Ji?"

"He was seriously injured and poisoned. There is no cure. I have tried my best to prevent the spread of the poison and have been using poison to fight poison to keep him alive. For so many years, he has not woken up. There is no antidote for the poison he was poisoned with. Three years ago, the poison had spread to his throat. I have no way. If this continues, he will live at most one year. At this time, Ji Heng's men found a poisonous herb in the desert. I made medicine with the poisonous herb, but I don't know what the outcome will be. After General Ji takes this medicine, he may wake up and completely detoxify, or maybe... it will accelerate the spread of the poison and kill him immediately."

"On one hand, he can prolong his life for another year, and on the other hand, he may wake up or die. I can't make this decision for General Ji. The old general gave the power of choice to Ji Heng, and Ji Heng decided to let his father take the medicine."

Jiang Li couldn't help but feel sad for Ji Heng when she heard this. She already knew what the ending was, as Situ Jiuyue had just said it, but she still couldn't help but feel sad for Ji Heng.

"Every one of us hopes for a miracle to happen. Ji Heng never believed in fate. Before giving General Ji the medicine, he also went to pay tribute to his mother. But unfortunately, as Ji Heng himself said, even the comedy troupe on the stage was too fake, and no miracle happened. I failed, and General Ji died."

Snow flakes swirled down and landed on Situ Jiuyue, but she seemed to be completely unaware, neither brushing off the snowflakes nor holding an umbrella. She let the coldness fall on her, and Jiang Li even felt that Situ Jiuyue might be shivering.

"This is not your fault," Jiang Li said softly, "This is not Ji Heng's fault either."

"Of course I know." After a while, Situ Jiuyue spoke, "But after General Ji died, I still left Yanjing, and didn't come back until last year."

Last year, Ji Heng asked Situ Jiuyue to treat Xue Huaiyuan.

"I don't like to owe anyone, but after that incident, I still feel that I owe Ji Heng. If Ji Heng hadn't asked me to treat Xue Huaiyuan, I would never have returned to Yanjing City in my lifetime. So once there is a chance to make up for it, I will try my best to make up for it. So you asked me why I treated Xue Huaiyuan and Xue Zhao, and I agreed easily, it was just because I poisoned his father to death three years ago."

Jiang Li couldn't help but say again: "It's not your fault, Miss Jiuyue, you have tried your best." "But the ending is the same. If I am like this, you can imagine how Ji Heng feels." Situ Jiuyue said, "I have never seen a person who is so focused on doing one thing in his life. Since I met Ji Heng, he built such a flower garden just to detoxify General Ji. Unfortunately, for so many years, he could only watch the poison spread a little bit every year, helpless. In the end, he watched General Ji die, just because he made the wrong decision."

Jiang Li was silent. Even if she was imagining it, she could guess how desperate Ji Heng felt at that moment.

Situ Jiuyue finished picking the last flower, stood up and said, "This is the answer. In fact, I thought that he would demolish this flower garden after his father died, but I didn't expect that this flower garden would still be preserved. Maybe it was to conceal his tracks, or maybe it was to be prepared for any eventuality."

Jiang Li asked, "So, where is General Ji buried?"

"We can't make a big move, for fear that someone will find out. It was also his father's last wish before he died, that his body be burned to ashes and placed in his mother's grave."

Jiang Li heard the key point in Situ Jiuyue's words and said, "Are you afraid that people will find out? Was General Ji poisoned by someone on purpose? Is this person hiding in the dark, still in the capital?"

Situ Jiuyue looked at Jiang Li: "That's right. Since you can guess it, I don't need to tell you, but I don't know much else. Ji Heng doesn't trust someone completely, but maybe you are an exception. But in order to protect you, he won't tell him a lot, so the most terrible and ugly truth may only be known by him."

Jiang Li now suddenly understood why Ji Heng had such a personality. It was probably true that he was moody and murderous, but after experiencing such things, there might be more terrible facts. When he was young, Ji Heng learned to face the darkness alone. If a person who came out of the darkness wanted to protect what he wanted to protect, he must first learn to survive in the darkness. It was impossible for him to become a person as upright as Ah Zhao or Xue Huaiyuan. In Ji Heng's eyes, it was even naive and ridiculous.

Jiang Li couldn't tell what she felt. She just felt as if a stone was pressing on her heart, making it hard for her to breathe. The layers of bright and beautiful flowers in the flower garden were all Ji Heng's hopes since she was young. Unfortunately, the flowers were still flourishing, but her hopes were dashed.

She thought back to that day when she came to the Duke's Mansion late at night and Ji Heng was planting trees in the yard. He planted very slowly, looking at the flowers in the flowerbed with a lonely look in his eyes.

She suddenly couldn't bear to think about it anymore.

Situ Jiuyue walked into the medicine room carrying a bamboo basket full of flowers. But she did not make medicine immediately. Instead, she put the bamboo basket away and walked to the edge of the yard, staring at the snow in a trance. Perhaps she thought of General Ji's incident again. No matter how cold her tone was or how calm her face was, her heart was not without ups and downs.

The two girls stood in the yard, the sky and the earth were all white. They each had their own thoughts, but they felt that the world is impermanent and the world is changing, which made them feel indescribable helplessness and bitterness.

After a very long time, so long that the snow stopped, and so long that Xiaohong in the cage woke up, opened his black bean-sized eyes, flew to the eaves, and tilted his head to look at Jiang Li and the others.

Jiang Li said, "Miss Jiuyue, I want to go to the Ye Mansion to see my uncle. Do you want to go and see Ah Zhao's injury? Last time I promised Ah Zhao to make poison for the whip, but I don't know if it's ready yet. If it is, go and give it to Ah Zhao today."

She felt incredibly suffocated, and was eager to find something else to relieve the suffocation in her heart, otherwise she would be overwhelmed by this sad emotion, and her mind would not be able to think of anything else for a while. She wanted to go see Ah Zhao, see her father, see Ye Mingyu and Ye Shijie, and let her heart rest for a while.

She thought Situ Jiuyue was the same. If Jiang Li was no longer around, Situ Jiuyue would definitely not go to the Ye Mansion alone.

Situ Jiuyue was stunned for a moment and looked at Jiang Li in confusion. The last time she met Xue Zhao, she did say that she could make poison for Xue Zhao's whip. She didn't expect Jiang Li still remembered it.

"Miss Jiuyue, let's go together." Jiang Li said.

Situ Jiuyue did not refuse, she said: "Okay."

The two of them left the Duke's Mansion and got on the carriage, walking very quickly, as if to escape from some emotion. Tong'er and Bai Xue looked at each other, neither of them knew what had happened, they just felt that the atmosphere between Situ Jiuyue and Jiang Li was a little strange and unusually quiet.

The carriage stopped at the gate of the Ye Mansion. Jiang Li and Situ Jiuyue jumped off the carriage together. Perhaps because it was too cold, the servants at the gate of the Ye Mansion were not there. Tong'er stepped forward and knocked on the door with the door handle of the bronze lion of the Ye Mansion.

No one answered for a while.

Jiang Li felt a little strange. Could it be that Ye Mingyu was not here? But even if Ye Mingyu was not here, the servants of the Ye Mansion should have stayed in the mansion. It was impossible for such a huge mansion to be empty. Jiang Li wondered if Ye Mingyu was practicing sword or something in the mansion. She didn't hear anything, so she took a few steps forward and was about to knock on the door again. Suddenly, her eyes stopped.

A hint of red escaped from the crack of the door at the main gate of the Ye Mansion. The red was very thin, and the weather was too cold, so the blood solidified in front of the door. If you didn't concentrate and look carefully, you would almost think it was an illusion.

Jiang Li's gaze froze, and Situ Jiuyue also noticed something was wrong. She walked forward to take a look, frowned, and pushed the door open without saying a word.

There was a "clang" sound.

As soon as the door was opened, a gust of wind mixed with a strong smell of blood blew in his face. Not far from the door, the servant who always greeted Jiang Li with a smile was lying in a pool of blood, with one hand reaching out to the door, as if he wanted to open it, and then, his life was frozen here forever.

Tong'er screamed, and Jiang Li was flustered. She lifted her skirt and ran inside. Along the way, there were servants and guards of the Ye family lying in all directions. These people were killed by a single knife, and the wound went from the chest to the back, which was extremely miserable. Jiang Li couldn't help but say, "Uncle! Mr. Xue! Ah Zhao! Cousin Ye! Haitang!"

Situ Jiuyue followed closely behind, but did not hear anyone's answer. Jiang Li was so shocked that she almost cried and almost fainted. Ye Mingyu and Ye Shijie treated her as a relative, needless to say, Xue Zhao and Xue Huaiyuan, their family had just reunited, could they suffer such misfortune again? Was God playing a trick on them?
Jiang Li was going crazy. She looked around but didn't find the bodies of her relatives. She didn't know whether it was a good thing or a bad thing. Then, she heard Situ Jiuyue shouting, "Xue Zhao!"

Jiang Li's heart skipped a beat and she ran over without thinking, only to see Situ Jiuyue standing blankly in the yard. The yard was in a mess, with the bodies of several guards lying on the ground, Xue Zhao's wheelchair overturned on the ground, and a whip broken in half, buried in the snow.

Situ Jiuyue picked up the whip, her hands shaking a little.

The entire Ye Mansion was searched inside and outside, but there was no trace of them. The rest of the people were gone, it was like a hell.

"Girl, what should we do? Let's call the police first. It's not safe here. What if those bad guys haven't left yet and hurt you?" Bai Xue was a little scared.

Jiang Li took the whip from Situ Jiuyue. Without seeing the bodies of Xue Zhao and the others, her heart gradually calmed down and she was able to think clearly about some things. She shook her head, "Those villains are not here."

Situ Jiuyue and two maids looked at him.

"All the servants of the Ye family are dead. My uncle and cousin are missing. If it was done by an enemy, why would they bring along Mr. Xue and Xue Zhao? Haitang is also a servant. These people are obviously closely related to me. The person behind this is probably not coming for them, but for me."

Situ Jiuyue asked: "What does this mean?"

"They didn't kill Mr. Xue's uncle and the others because their bodies are not here. If they were dead, they could have been left here. It's clear that their purpose was not to kill them, but to take them away and hide them to threaten me."

"Threatening the young lady?" Tong'er asked, "Threatening the young lady with what? Do you want the young lady to do something for them?"

Jiang Li said: "Miss Jiuyue, come here first."

Situ Jiuyue and Jiang Li walked to the side and frowned at Jiang Li: "What did you think of?"

"If someone wants to deal with the Jiang family, they don't have to start with me. I don't have much effect on the Jiang family. If they want to use me to threaten my father, my father will never compromise. So I think it may not be the Jiang family's problem, but..."

"Are you talking about Ji Heng?" Situ Jiuyue asked immediately.

Jiang Li nodded. "Since you said Ji Heng was going to do something very important, it might be the same for the other party. I think their purpose is to threaten me with the lives of the people in the Ye Mansion, and then I will threaten Ji Heng."

"What...are you going to do?" Situ Jiuyue asked hesitantly.

Jiang Li said: "I think they will send me a message soon to tell me what to do. I will just act according to circumstances."

(End of this chapter)