EMPRESS LIU

~THIRTY-SIX~

Liu Changsheng had been keeping away from going out for a few days. In fear of being confronted by someone he doesn't want to have a confrontation with.

He hated this place with his guts. And somehow Ying Lianying could feel it.

So one day Xiao Hua enters the small room of her brother Xiao Long and surprises him with a statement.

"Today let's go out to the market together."

Liu Changsheng was reminiscing past memories looking at a jade peony tree he remembered from a lifetime away.

"Huh? What?"

"Let's go to the market together."

Liu Changsheng looks at her dumbfounded. He didn't realise the motive behind her sudden offer.

"Liu Changsheng. You have been keeping in to the room for ages. Don't you want to go out?" She sits by his side. "Don't you want to find out about those rumours?"

Liu Changsheng's eyes lit up. He had to clear his name. So he agreed.

They both went to the market together. Xiao Hua went to buy necessities and Xiao Long went to Fu laobai's teahouse. His disguise didn't have to work here. But his face was well known. Being famous for his beauty. So he coated his face with a skin mask to hide his identity.

Ordering a cup of tea he sat in one of the most crowded side of the teahouse. This is where the most gossips are.

"Xianshang. I think I recognise you." A young man sits in front of him. With his own cup of tea.

Liu Changsheng looks up only to find out it's He Lian. The person who gave him the peony after rebirth into the past.

"We met in Lingshui, didn't we?"

"I don't think I recognise you." Liu Changsheng denies the claim. He can't rashly give away his identity to anyone. Now that the emperor's decree is still in order. He didn't want anyone to tattle him to the emperor and get him killed.

"You're Liu Xianshang." The man in front of him nods frantically. "Right. You're Liu Xianshang. We met in Lingshui. We commemorated our friendship with a peony I gave you. Remember?"

Liu Changsheng didn't know how to answer to that. He just looks blankly at the man sitting opposite to him.

As if suddenly realising He Lian looks around and moves closer to whisper to him.

"Do not worry. Fu Laobai is my acquaintance. No one here will rat you out. I have something to talk to you about. Can we talk?"

Finally Liu Changsheng relaxed even just a little. Even though he knew this man was who ruined his family first but right now he had no other options. If He Lian keeps insisting that he recognises him and he's Liu Changsheng then he has to know what he has to say. If anything happens he has his dagger with him. Using his Martial arts won't be a hard task.

And so Liu Changsheng nods.

In a more quite corner the two sat face-to-face. And He Lian starts speaking.

"After you left Lingshui, Monk Han came to find me. He said you were going to jump from the Xuanhua cliff. I didn't know why or when. He didn't tell me. So I immediately came here. But then after coming here I couldn't find you. Few years later I got to know that you had married the fourth brother of the emperor.

"I was not allowed to meet you. But then one day I was called in to the palace. And I had to identify a man. I don't know why but I identified them as someone who came to Lingshui as a merchant. But truth is I don't even know that man.

"Later I got to know that he's your father. And I heard about the massacre that happened to your family.

"And then a year and a half back I heard about you jumping into the north sea. The emperor spread the news in the imperial city.

"Liu Xianshang. Tell me how did you end up here? Do you need any help from me? I will do everything."

Liu Changsheng thought his decisions through and then decided on asking He Lian instead.

"Can you tell me about the rumours about me spreading around in the imperial city?"

He Lian looks at him for a moment. He didn't think Liu Changsheng would ask him of all people. He could tell that Liu Changsheng didn't believe him enough. But suddenly he remembered a word from the fourth prince. 'He is a changed man. And I drove him into that.'

"After the news of your death spread around the imperial city a part of your hometown was in chaos. So I went there with Monk Han. And there I found a lady. A shadow guard. She told me to come back to the imperial city and find the fourth prince.

"So when I did the fourth prince told me to spread rumours that you were not the one who poisoned the emperor's grandmother. It was some lady Du from the second prince's palace.

"I just did that. But I don't know about who started the rumour about the emperor killing the witness of his assassination."

This made Liu Changsheng think hard. How would the fourth prince know about the harem affairs? He was not even there when he presented the tea to the empress dowager. He thought hard on who were there and remembered only him and Duan Jiali and some maids were there. Was it one of the maids. Just like Xiao Lu, there was a maid in his harem as the fourth prince's informant? But who? Who can work for concubine Du and who can work as the fourth prince's informant?

"He Xianshang. How do you think Wangye knows that it wasn't me, but concubine Du?"

He things for some moments and then replies. "I don't know. When I met him there was no one else in the study. But when I got out I heard him talk to someone. That they could have saved you. If they knew sooner."

"Nothing else?"

"No." He thinks more. "Wait. It was a woman who replied that it's the Xiang Wangye who pushed you at the Xuanhua cliff."

"Duan Jiali?"

Hello Hello Hello!!! I'm back with a new chapter! And this chapter revealed some things! I don't know what would happen next! Or maybe I do!

So practically I have the whole book finished in my draft already! So I'll update one chapter a week! Stay tuned and support Liu Changsheng on his journey to happiness!

That's it for today! See you in the next chapter!

All the love
C 💕

Also please don't forget to vote!! ⭐⭐