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  Chapter 12: The Cost

  Zhu Yingtai guessed it was not, exchanging children's affairs, Che Gui indeed.

  He told him about it after switching the child, and Chegui was indeed knowledgeable, but he was so scared that he almost peed his pants when he heard it! The Duke's Mansion is a royal family! Confusing the royal bloodline is enough to kill the head of the family!

  Chegui's family was also frightened after hearing the news, and the couple lived in fear for a period of time. Seeing that neither side had taken action, they finally gave each other a death command: this matter must not be spoken of even until death!

  It's been so many years, and almost everyone has forgotten about it! Today, I suddenly heard someone ask, and was scared out of my wits! Next thing I knew, I was being subjected to a severe interrogation!

  He, a man who had been a slave for half his life, had never experienced such things and could not withstand the professional torture of these guards. In just a short while, he was talking with a loose tongue.

  "...At that time, a girl was born, but she was dead... My son is not thick-skinned, and he actually exchanged the boy born to Liu Niang for her..." Che Gui said with tears in his eyes.

  Zhu Yingtuo looked very calm, but his hands in the wide sleeves were tense and trembling constantly! He walked out of the house and whispered to the guards who followed him: "Take good care of them, feed them well and make sure they don't die!"

  The guard immediately responded and hastily went in.

  Zhu Yifei's deep eyes stared ahead, still shining with a profound and incomprehensible light.

  ……

  August and September passed quickly, and before I knew it, October 18th had arrived.

  Starting from the 16th, a big snow fell around Beijing.

  The world between heaven and earth has turned white, a clean and refreshing world.

  On the eighteenth day, this day, Beijing city was filled with deafening firecrackers, from the gate of the city, a team of people sending betrothal gifts, all wearing red clothes, in the snow-white world, looked so bright and joyful.

  Zhu Yichan's side prepared the engagement letter, gift letter, brought betrothal gifts, gift money, and came to the Chu family with two relatives, Mrs. Fu, after firing crackers and completing the grand ceremony.

  The wedding procession stopped at the entrance of the alley, waiting for the music to finish before proceeding. The front row stopped, and the back rows followed suit, with the tail end of the procession exactly at the other end of the street. This attracted countless onlookers, all asking whose wedding procession this was, taking up an entire street!

  "I heard he's a young master! The betrothal gift is naturally more generous."

  "Oh..."

  "Whose family is she from?"

  "After all, this alley is full of big officials' homes!"

  Many people around pointed and watched, children surrounded the gift box and played, laughing and having fun, it was as lively as a wedding.

  After the joyful music faded away, another round of deafening firecrackers sounded, and only after that did the wedding procession slowly move towards the mansion.

  Across the street from Chu's Hutong, there was a wine tower. At this time, on the second floor of the wine tower, in a window of a elegant room, stood a man. In broad daylight, this man was wrapped in a dark-colored cloak, with a hood on his head. Under the hood were a pair of deep and mysterious eyes, shining with an unusual light, staring intently at the entrance to the hutong where the wedding procession had just entered...

  ……

  Chu Xue's maids were so excited that even the normally calm Jing'er kept running back and forth to the front yard, reporting to Chu Xue about how many large trunks had been brought in.

  Chu Ke's face was slightly flushed, and she silently wrapped the finished handkerchiefs, towels, etc. in red silk and placed them in a red lacquer box in the middle of the room, only covering the box after that. After thinking for a moment, she also took out several embroidered sword holders, wrapped them in red silk, and put them separately into the box.

  Jing Er immediately used a big red ribbon with large red flowers to tie the box around in a circle. There were two such boxes in the house, both of which were gifts from the bride's family and were embroidered by Chu Xiao Qi.

  On the other side of the house, several such trunks were also placed, which were Chu Xue's dowry. The trunks were still open, some were almost full, and some were half empty. Nowadays, Old Lady didn't care about her affairs, so even Chu Gao Shi rarely came to see her. These were all prepared by Chu Xue herself, lacking nothing. She could only think of what her mother Liu Lian Su had said was needed, slowly pondering, fortunately, Chu Nan was very generous with money, and anything she wanted was fine.

  After a while, several robust women came in and carried out the boxes that had already been wrapped with big red flowers in the house, and put them together with two boxes outside the yard.

  In front of the courtyard, Zhu Yichen wore a crimson red familiar Luo dark patterned robe, followed by the housekeeper into the main room, and gave a bow to his elders.

  Because the groom-to-be was not a local, he had to stay in the city for one night. To avoid suspicion, the groom-to-be could not stay at the mansion, so Zhu Yingtian found a separate courtyard in the city's government hostel where he stayed overnight, while the two Mrs. Fus stayed at the mansion.

  ……

  The heavy snow in Chengde finally stopped slowly by morning, Zhu Yuhuan came out of the house and saw a silver-clad outside, his mood improved a lot, he smiled and stood under the eaves to admire the snowy scene for a while, then went back to wash up, changed into a brown-red long gown, tied on the five-color auspicious belt made by Chu Keqian, with a sheep fat jade pendant hanging below, and took some silver out of the door.

  Today is the day Chu Ke'er and Zhu Yuchen get engaged, although he can't go to Beijing, but wants to take a look at the nunnery on Qingyun Mountain, his mother must also be happy today.

  Riding his horse towards Qingyun Mountain, Zhu Yuhuan admired the snowy scenery all along the way, feeling a sense of relaxation and joy he had never experienced before. His innate broad-mindedness allowed him to find happiness and ease even when alone.

  Arriving at the foot of Qingyun Mountain, he narrowly avoided a speeding horse carriage. The carriage was running extremely fast, causing Zhu Yuhuan to look at it in surprise and think to himself, "The road is covered with snow, how can they run so fast without worrying about sliding into the ditch on the side of the road?"

  He dismounted his horse and jumped up the steps to climb the mountain. Just as he reached the middle of the mountain, he heard someone shouting from above, which sounded like a familiar voice. Zhu Yuhuan stopped for a moment, looked up in surprise, and saw people rushing around in front of the temple, running back and forth as if something had happened.

  He panicked and ran up the mountain in one breath. When he was almost at the top, he met several nuns walking down. Seeing his panic, they grabbed him and shouted: "Liu Shizhu... Liu Shizhu has been taken away!"

  Zhu Yuhuan's mind was in a daze, and he exclaimed in surprise: "!!"

  "A group of mountain bandits has just arrived and taken Liu Shi's master away!" The nuns were shouting in a flurry, one of them lost her footing and slipped.

  Zhu Yan suddenly remembered the horse carriage that had fled in a panic just now! He didn't ask any questions, turned around and ran down the mountain! When he reached the foot of the mountain, he jumped onto his horse and followed the wheel tracks in the snow to pursue it.

  Fortunately, it had just snowed, and the auspicious time was still there. There were not many people on the road, and the wheel tracks were still clear. Zhu Yuhuan's heart grew more frightened as he chased after them - this direction was clearly heading towards Beijing City!

  Who would have a deep grudge against her? She's just an ordinary housewife.

  When I arrived at the Beijing suburbs, the footprints on the road became very messy. There were many people living here, with horse cart tracks, small pushcart tracks, and footprints all over the place, making the road surface a mess. In some areas, there were even people living on both sides of the road, and they had even swept away the snow.

  Zhu Yuhuan had to dismount again and again, carefully identifying the traces, and searching forward. He came to a small town in the suburbs of Beijing, completely lost the trace, he could only ask the roadside vendors or playing children, all the way into the city of Beijing, arrived at the northernmost part of the city, which was relatively desolate, stopped in front of a house.

  Zhu Yuhuan tied his horse far away and quietly approached the mansion, circling it twice. The mansion seemed strange from inside to outside, with a lock hanging on the front gate, yet footsteps could be heard coming from within. When he turned to the back door, there were signs of snow being swept at the entrance. Sweeping snow usually clears everything, revealing the muddy ground beneath, otherwise what's the point? But the snow here was only swept once on the surface, as if not to clear away the snow itself but rather some traces on top of it.

  ……

  The sky had darkened, and the Chu estate was as lively as a wedding banquet. Today, many guests arrived uninvited, most of whom were officials who served with Old Master Chu. The third daughter of the Chu family, who was betrothed to the second son of the Duke of De Fu, came to offer congratulations in advance.

  The Chu family is now also showing some overbearingness, and they are relatives of the Duke of De Xing for two generations. A granddaughter has entered the palace again, although she has not yet taken office, but with the temperament of a Chu family girl, taking office is only a matter of time. Now they have become relatives with the Duke of De Fu, this Chu family is heading in the direction of becoming an imperial clan by marriage.

  The astute courtiers naturally would not let this flattering opportunity slip by and offered their premature congratulations.

  Zhu Yichan really wanted to see Chu Keqi, it's been two months since they last met, and he couldn't help but wonder how she was doing. Although the wedding preparations were underway, he hadn't seen her or had a chance to talk to her, and he felt like something was missing this time around, leaving him with an empty feeling in his heart.

  Only the new bride-to-be can't be seen casually, and she can't meet with the new groom. Zhu Yuheng turned around in the front yard for a while, but didn't even see those few maids.

  He was just turning around when he was found by an old lady's servant girl, who asked him to go over to the old lady's place for a visit.

  After this marriage was settled, the old lady never found Zhu Yuxuan alone. When he paid homage to Lao Yezi and Chu Nanchen during the day, both the old lady and Chu Gaoshi were present. However, in front of everyone, the old lady still behaved naturally. Now that she's looking for him, she doesn't want to say anything.

  Zhu Yichan thought for a moment and followed the maid to the old lady's courtyard, waiting at the door until the maid reported back before going in to pay respects to the old lady and Chu Gaoshi.

  The old lady found him, and there was nothing special about it. As Chu Ke's grandmother, she had to put on a show, so she said some words to Zhu Yi Chen in a slightly severe tone. (If you like this work, welcome to subscribe, reward, your support is my greatest motivation.)

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