mesbooks Chapter 1019 Chilling
Chapter 1019 Chilling
"Although the Cui family father and daughter seem to live in the court and harem by relying on the emperor's favor, they are not brainless people. Especially Cui Ling, after dealing with him in secret for several years, I have long discovered that he is not a blindly loyal person. Otherwise, he would not have been valued by the late emperor and sent to guard the pass."
He is now a high-ranking official of the first rank. If his actions of raiding Jiming Temple at night and assassinating the young son of a colleague are exposed, even the Emperor cannot protect him. He is well aware of this, so he will not take too much risk in this matter. If he is 80 or 90% sure of success and can give the Emperor an explanation, that will be enough.
As for whether there will be another night raid, that depends on how the temple and the mansion announce the news. Whether it's true or false isn't that important. As long as the child is officially dead, he won't investigate further." Crow stroked his chin and analyzed slowly.
“Amitabha, the Buddha is merciful. It’s good that everything is alright in the end. Zhang and his son were truly prescient. But His Majesty’s actions may have chilled their hearts,” Abbot Huineng chanted a Buddhist prayer with some emotion.
His connection with the Zhang family father and son began during a spring outing. During a thunderstorm, the father and son accidentally discovered this small temple in the mountains outside the city and spent the night there. After that, when they were feeling troubled, the two often came to the temple to copy scriptures and discuss Buddhism with him, and they gradually became familiar with each other.
"Thanks to the trust of Benefactor Zhang and his son, who are willing to entrust me with such an important matter. Now that the thieves have left, you should also take this child and leave tonight. I will tell the outside world that we encountered bandits tonight and that the young master of the Privy Councilor Zhang's family has unfortunately perished."
"Thank you, Abbot. We'll be leaving now. Please have someone clean the room," Niu Jiancao said politely, bowing slightly.
Even the crow, unusually serious, bowed respectfully.
The young novice monk was originally a direct disciple of Master Huineng and was a trustworthy person. Seeing that the child was about to leave, they were a little reluctant to part with him. "I have grown attached to him these past few days and I really don't want him to leave."
“Alright, let everything take its course. You are a monk, how can you not understand this principle?” Master Huineng said softly, word by word.
Niu Jiancao held the child in his arms, not even wiping the bloodstains from the swaddling clothes, and carried the child out like this. Crow followed behind, calling to the others who were with him to return to the capital together.
Some of these people were sent over from the manor by Xiao Hu; they were all the most outstanding and clever among them, and they were all very saddened to learn of the young master's death.
"So, are we going back to the manor, or are we going back to our family home in the capital?" a young boy asked timidly.
Niu Jiancao pondered for a moment and said, "Come back to the main family with us. The family will be holding a simple funeral for the young master. You can stay and help out, and we'll see how the family will settle you down."
The group left Jiming Temple under the cover of night, carrying their luggage.
The monks patrolling outside saw red bloodstains outside the swaddling clothes in the room and knew that the young master of the Zhang family had died.
The thief clearly intended to kill him; he could only blame his bad luck in divination.
Jiming Temple is not far from the capital, but the city gates are definitely not open right now, so the group went to a nearby village in the suburbs, where they also planned to switch the goods.
They replaced the living young master in their arms with a dead body and took him back.
Infant deaths were common in this era, and finding a suitable clinic wasn't difficult; the clinic had already made arrangements in advance.
"I wonder if we can really get away with it as the crow and the Zhang family father and son predicted," Niu Jiancao thought to himself.