novelhk Chapter 183
Chapter 183
The painting depicted the scene when she was eighteen years old. She was in the prime of her life and everything was beautiful. A smile appeared in her eyes, but it disappeared in an instant. Looking at the man, he was not much different from the way she remembered.
"I was counting the days, thinking that you would be back soon, and sure enough you showed up." The man walked towards him, and the jade pendant on his waist made a jingling sound, and time seemed to flow back to the night before he left Beijing.
Mo Feifei's eyes gradually became cold as she looked at the man. She had thought that time could make her forget everything. She had devoted herself to her beloved career over the years just because she didn't want to remember what had happened here.
His tone was as cold as an ice cellar, and contained a hint of sarcasm: "You are the same as before, you haven't changed at all."
The man didn't seem to mind at all. He pulled out a chair and said, "Sit down. I've troubled you to come back to Beijing from Suining City. I came to you this time to explain to you what happened in the past. I think there are some misunderstandings between us that have not been explained clearly."
Mo Feifei sat down and sneered, "I didn't expect you to say there was a misunderstanding. I asked you to help my parents clear their names, but you refused, didn't you? What misunderstanding is this? Even if there is a misunderstanding, you have never mentioned it for so many years. Now you are talking about it. I'm afraid you want me to do something for you, right?"
"I really want to ask you for a favor this time. I want you to go back to the palace and continue to work for Jing'an. Although you are also working for her outside, it is different after all."
Mo Feifei laughed as if she heard a joke, "As expected of the current head of the Pei family, you are so shameless and your methods are so vicious."
The man did not respond, but continued, "That year you asked me to help your parents clear their names and escape the death penalty. But at that time I had not yet taken control of the Pei family. I had only just entered the core of the Pei family. How could I have any power?"
Mo Feifei looked at him, and her memory went back to that day.
As usual, she did those dirty things for her master and Pei. His Majesty occasionally heard about them, but he also doted on her master, so she was able to do these things smoothly.
On the way back to the palace from Pei's house, I suddenly saw a group of soldiers coming out of the palace. Leading them was the senior eunuch beside His Majesty. Feeling increasingly uneasy, I followed them and found out that they were on the way to Pei's house.
Seeing that the situation seemed not right, she hurried back to the palace to inform her master of the news. As soon as she stepped into her master's bedroom, she heard her master's pleading voice.
"Your Majesty, they must have been deceived and did such a wrong thing. Please let them go. Moreover, I have given birth to two excellent sons for you. Although it is not a merit, I am willing to make up for the stupid things my father and brother did."
"I have let you go just because you gave birth to two sons for me, especially He'er. Especially the maid under you. Don't think I don't know how many things you did to enrich yourself through her, and how you dug money out of many people's bodies to supplement your Pei family."
"Your Majesty, I know I was wrong. Pei family has been wrong all these years." The woman knelt on the ground, her long armor thrown aside, tears streaming down her face, her hands pulling at the corner of the man's clothes.
Mo Feifei was hesitating whether to go in, when she saw Zhao He rush in and sit directly in the man's arms. He said, "Father, what did mother do wrong to make you so angry? Did my uncle and the others do something wrong too?"
The woman kneeling on the ground said nothing, but just sobbed silently.
The man looked at the woman, then at the child in her arms, and sighed for a long time: "Forget it, tell the Pei family that if they want to save the entire Pei family, they should find out the person who did something wrong and give an explanation to the people and officials."
After that, he kissed the forehead of the child in his arms and said, "Father is not angry anymore. Hurry up and help your mother up. You and your son can have a good talk."
As soon as he finished speaking, the man strode out. Mo Feifei hurried in, thinking that the matter was over. Who would have thought that the scapegoat found by Pei family was her parents. As managers, her parents held a lot of power in Pei family.
Pushing them out was certainly convincing enough, but just a pair of managers was not convincing enough, so two harmless branches were pushed out and handed over to the court for punishment.
The moment she heard the news, she felt like the sky was falling. Although she had done a lot of dirty things for her master and took a lot of money from him, her parents at home had been upright all their lives and never embezzled a penny. Even if they did things, they were just following orders. How could she be considered to have instigated and deceived her master?
She begged her master, but he just kept apologizing to her, saying he was willing to let her leave the palace, give her a good status, and promise her a life of wealth and glory for the rest of her life.
But that would cost her parents' lives, and as a son, how could she be ungrateful? She rejected her master outright and ran to find him outside the palace. He said that he did not succeed in proposing marriage to her at that time, so he owed her a favor and she could ask him for it back at any time.
She stumbled out of the palace and unexpectedly met him without any hindrance. However, before she could open her mouth, the man rejected her, talking about benevolence, righteousness and morality, but he just couldn't save her parents.
Mo Feifei suddenly felt a sharp pain in her heart, which brought her back to reality. She looked at the man and said, "Pei Huai, what do you want to say? Many years later, can you just brush off the death of my parents by saying that you were not capable enough?" He sneered, "Besides, you have never even tried it."
"What I want to say is that your parents are not dead."
"What!?" Mo Feifei stood up in shock, looked at Pei Huai, and said in disbelief, "How is it possible? His Majesty sentenced them to death at the beginning."
"At the beginning, you asked me to clear the names of your parents and save them from the death penalty. I don't think I can do it. A convicted servant, no matter how capable he is, is just a servant in the eyes of everyone. How can he be cleared of the charges?" Pei Huai looked into Mo Feifei's eyes and said word by word. These were words that he had buried in his heart for many years.
He had always wanted to find a chance to say it, but for so many years, there had never been a suitable opportunity. If a person sentenced to death by the emperor appeared in the public eye, it would definitely bring disaster to the Pei family, so he let Mo Feifei misunderstand him all the time.
But after so many years, he finally waited for a rare opportunity. He pulled the scroll, and a secret door slowly opened. An elderly couple walked out, hunched over, supporting each other.
"Dad, Mom?" Mo Feifei couldn't believe her eyes.
"Fei'er, it's us." The old woman stumbled towards Mo Feifei, grabbed Mo Feifei's hand, tears streaming from the corners of her eyes, and sobbed, "We were sentenced to death that year, and it was Patriarch Pei Huai who replaced us with someone with a similar figure and was extremely vicious, and secretly rescued us."
Pei Huai stood quietly beside the scroll, watching the three people reunite: "Jing'an also knew about this matter, and she helped me. It's just that we never had the right opportunity to tell you."
Mo Feifei had been in the palace for many years and was doing black and white business outside. She immediately understood the subtlety of this and asked, "So now is the right opportunity? Is this related to my returning to the palace to help Jing'an?"