#95: Falling Sick from Wine in Spring (Part 6)

Chang Zhao looked up at the setting sun. The sunlight cast a golden glow on the surface of the Bian River. People came and went in a constant stream, and the water sparkled with glinting gold.

He was silent for a while before walking back up to the execution platform. He took a flask of wine from a guard beside him, filled a cup himself, and brought it to Su Shiyu’s lips.

Song Lan did not kill Su Shiyu but was convinced that he had acted on Luo Wei’s orders and had him severely tortured to make him confess.

Perhaps smelling the wine, Su Shiyu opened his blood-stained mouth and drank the cup of wine in his hand.

The spicy wine slid down his throat. He forced open his blood-crusted eyes and looked at the well-dressed Chang Zhao. “Brother Pingnian...”

Chang Zhao said, “If it were overcast and rainy today, the execution couldn’t be carried out. Perhaps you could have lived for a few more days, and they could have come up with a way to save you. Ever since you betrayed me, they have been trying all sorts of ways to save you. Unfortunately, the Zhuque Office is heavily guarded and deep within the forbidden palace. Since His Majesty is so impulsive and has acted on a whim today, do you think they will still come to save you?”

Su Shiyu let out a soft laugh and did not answer.

Chang Zhao couldn’t tell if the laugh was more of a mockery or a delight. But he didn’t have the mind to care about it now. He just let out a long sigh. “It’s been raining for so long, but the weather is so nice today. What did you see on your way here from Imperial Street?”

Su Shiyu answered intermittently, “Streets, people... boats, nothing different from usual.”

Chang Zhao said, “Look at all the people watching around you. Some of them are talking about how you were so dashing in your youth and how they are amazed you fell to this state. Most of them don’t know anything and just assume that anyone beheaded at the East Market must be a heinous criminal, speculating about whether you were pretending before. Is this what you want to protect? Is this who you want to protect?”

Su Shiyu struggled to lift his head to look at him. “You... you...”

Chang Zhao met his gaze and suddenly noticed a hint of pity in his eyes.

“You’ve never said... anything like this before... Why... are you so disappointed in them?”

Chang Zhao frowned, avoiding his gaze, and did not answer.

Su Shiyu looked around and his gaze fell on the Bian River in the distance. “You also see... The sunset is so beautiful today. There are many people on the Bian River, and the streets are bustling... Is such a... such a country not worth protecting?”

Chang Zhao held the empty wine cup, as if he didn’t want to hear him speak anymore. He turned and walked down from the high platform.

A guard looked up at the sky and reminded him, “Sir, it seems the sun is about to set.”

Chang Zhao glanced left and right. The tavern was noisy. Someone in the distance was pointing at this place from behind a railing. The pleasure boats on the Bian River were coming and going, extremely peaceful. The people gathered in front of the execution ground were watching the commotion, whispering to each other from time to time.

Only he knew that countless imperial guards and the Emperor’s personal guards, dressed in inconspicuous clothes, were mixed among them. They were carefully scrutinizing the expressions on everyone’s faces, looking for suspicious characters.

“They won’t come.”

The guard suddenly heard Chang Zhao muttering to himself. Then, he threw down the verdict slip in his hand and gave the order, “Execute him.”

The executioner saw his actions from a distance and quickly took a big gulp of wine, spitting it onto the long execution sword. The sword was very sharp and so bright that it reflected the face of the executioner.

Su Shiyu saw his disheveled hair in the reflection. He quickly dragged the heavy chains at his side and tidied himself up.

The guard held his breath, about to loudly announce the “execution,” but suddenly heard the neighing of horses nearby. Someone rode a horse at full speed through the crowded streets and stopped at Chang Zhao’s feet.

“Sir, there’s a fire at the Ministry of Justice prison!”

Chang Zhao answered unhurriedly, “If there’s a fire, call the fire patrol. Why are you coming to me?”

After saying this, he felt that something was wrong. “Did a prisoner escape from the prison?”

The guard who came to report said, “That’s right. The Minister said that an important prisoner escaped. Everyone is busy fighting the fire and may have overlooked something. We ask that you be very careful, Minister Chang.”

When Chang Zhao heard the words “important prisoner,” he understood what was going on. He and Song Lan had been so focused on Su Shiyu that they had almost forgotten that there was another person in the Ministry of Justice prison who might have a connection to Luo Wei.

Today, with Su Shiyu’s execution, Song Lan had sent out all the Zhuque guards and imperial guards to patrol the East Market, which gave them an opportunity to rescue Qiu Xueyu!

For some reason, after he thought of this, his first reaction was to sneer. The affection they had since childhood was there, and Su Shiyu was willing to burn the boats and not care about his own life. But at a time like this, Luo Wei had gone to save someone else.

For a moment, Chang Zhao looked at Su Shiyu on the execution platform. Just as he was about to mock him, the smile on his face froze.

Song Lan’s decision to execute Su Shiyu today was made on a whim. After all, Song Lan’s original intention was to lure Luo Wei out, but he was too worried that the people around him were not trustworthy, so he moved up the execution date to test them. He no longer cared whether Luo Wei had time to make arrangements. He just wanted to know whether he or Ye Tingyan would leak the news from the Emperor’s presence.

Luo Wei’s rescue of Qiu Xueyu today was probably a plan she had made a long time ago. They wanted to take advantage of Song Lan’s current state of mind to create some chaos and seize the opportunity to leave the city.

But the fire at the Ministry of Justice happened to coincide with Su Shiyu’s execution. The only people who knew about the connection between Su Shiyu and Su Luo Wei were him and Ye Tingyan. The timing was so coincidental that Song Lan was probably already convinced that one of them had colluded with Luo Wei.

Chang Zhao immediately took a jade token from his waist, blew a whistle, and a Zhuque guard came to him. He respectfully took the jade token.

“Take this and go to the palace immediately to see the Emperor. Tell him...”

Chang Zhao whispered a few words in his ear. After the man left, he turned around.

The onlookers seemed to have all seen the rising smoke in the distance, but the smoke was at the end of the Imperial Street, so it was impossible to tell where it was coming from. Someone yelled, “The fire brigade’s ladder cart is coming through! Make way, make way!”

A unit of imperial guards escorting a tall ladder cart suddenly appeared from the end of the street. The people didn’t have time to get out of the way and pushed each other, creating a chaotic scene. Chang Zhao glanced at the front of the street and suddenly felt that something was wrong. “Why is the fire brigade’s ladder cart coming through the East Market? To get to Imperial Street, they always avoid the East Market.”

The person beside him replied, “Because the spring rain has just stopped today, there was a theatrical troupe opening on West Street this afternoon, and it’s several times more crowded than usual. The fire brigade must have heard about it and changed their route.”

“Afternoon?” Chang Zhao repeated, and his face immediately changed. “That’s not right—”

He turned around and was shocked to find that the executioner who was holding the saber had been silently knocked unconscious. And Su Shiyu, who was covered in blood on the execution platform, had disappeared in that short time!

Then he suddenly thought that the fire at the Ministry of Justice had just started, and he didn’t know how bad it was. How could the fire brigade’s ladder cart have been brought out so quickly?

Luo Wei’s people must have been hiding inside the tall ladder cart. Taking advantage of the chaos in the crowd, they knocked out the executioner and took the person away in broad daylight.

By the time the imperial guards in the surrounding buildings and the crowd came to their senses, it was too late. Chang Zhao gripped the sword at his waist, about to order everyone to stop the advancing ladder cart, but the words were caught in his throat.

The fire brigade in the capital would not avoid nobles or officials. If he could find the suspect in the ladder cart, that would be one thing. But if they were one step ahead and had hidden the person somewhere else, he would be guilty of a serious crime of obstructing the fire brigade in front of everyone!

Chang Zhao quickly thought through the entire situation and realized that he had fallen into their trap. With no way to stop them, he didn’t get angry. Instead, he laughed, walked down the steps, and mounted his horse. After ordering everyone to guard the area and not cause a panic among the people, he galloped away.

Luo Wei changed out of her imperial guard clothes and used a handkerchief to wipe a wound on Su Shiyu’s forearm. The handkerchief was immediately soaked with blood. She didn’t care and just said urgently, “Brother, you have to hold on.”

Su Shiyu’s mind was muddled, but he gently patted her hand to comfort her.

Someone from outside the boat came in, bent down, and asked, “Mistress Su, should we go through the city gate or the ferry now?”

He glanced at Su Shiyu and said worriedly, “If we go through the city gate, we can pretend to be a foreign merchant caravan. If we go through the ferry, we can say we are a noble family from Jiangnan coming to visit the capital. All the documents and papers have been prepared. But now... Young Master Su’s sudden appearance means we didn’t have time to prepare for him. The inspections are very strict now. They will definitely come on board to search. How should we handle this?”

Luo Wei held Su Shiyu’s hand tightly and thought quickly with her eyes downcast.

When she was hiding in the boat, she saw Chang Zhao walk up to the platform to talk to Su Shiyu. She suddenly remembered that Yuan Ming had said that the person who went in to replace Qiu Xueyu had brought flint and fire oil.

Qiu Xueyu’s disappearance from prison was a big deal and could not be easily covered up. Ye Tingyan had originally planned to start a fire at the Ministry of Justice to help them escape the city in the chaos.

This fire was supposed to be set two days from now, but the situation had changed. She had to leave the city now, so she guessed that the person who was supposed to start the fire would act soon after they left.

In a flash of inspiration, Luo Wei suddenly had an idea.

Saving someone in broad daylight was extremely difficult. The only thing she could gamble on was to create an event that would attract even more attention.

With this thought, she made a decisive decision and immediately told the boatman to go downstream along the river, straight to the city’s largest fire brigade.

If she remembered correctly, the ladder cart closest to the inner palace was there.

Luo Wei had thought she would have to go through a lot of trouble, but when she arrived at the fire brigade’s door, she saw that the ladder cart had already come out of the main gate, accompanied by a unit of imperial guards.

She and Qiu Xueyu blended in with the imperial guards and were immediately recognized by the person in charge. The person approached them without a change in his expression and told her that shortly after Ye Tingyan and Yan Ping came out of the palace gate, they heard about the fire at the Ministry of Justice and immediately sent this unit to get the ladder cart.

“The Young Master said that if the timing was right, he would definitely run into you two.”

Thinking about it now, the sudden appearance of the theatrical troupe and the crowd on West Street was probably also something he had arranged after leaving the palace.

Luo Wei came back to her senses and felt a heart-stopping fear. The imperial guards and the people were mixed together in the busy streets. If anything went wrong, they would definitely not be able to get away unscathed.

Someone had prepared another pleasure boat to meet them. She wrapped Su Shiyu in a cape and successfully brought him onto the boat.

Now the problem was how to get him out of the city.

Ye Tingyan had always been cautious. This was probably the most dangerous thing he had ever done. She wondered if it would bring disaster upon him.

Luo Wei thought it over and decided, “Let’s go to the ferry.”

Su Shiyu was seriously injured, and the small space in a carriage would definitely not be able to conceal the smell of blood. On a boat, she could at least hide him to some extent, but he couldn’t move now. Where could she hide him to avoid inspection?