roccoschili Chapter 198 My Body Is Dirty
Chapter 198 My Body Is Dirty
Liu Yue entered the room and handed the letter to Shen Qingtan.
Shen Qingtan held the letter; there wasn't a single word on the cover.
She opened the letter and took out a piece of paper.
There was only one sentence on the paper.
Sister, I'm sorry.
These words instantly touched Shen Qingtan's tear ducts, and her nose tingled with emotion.
Her third brother loved to make her angry. But when she pretended to be angry, he would act guilty and uneasy, scratching his head and trying to coax her in various ways.
Of all the people in the Chengen Marquis's mansion, only her third brother had the purest feelings for her.
She went to see her third brother today, but he refused to see her.
She thought her third brother resented her, resenting her for conspiring with Old Madam Shen to denounce the Marquis of Chengen.
The contents of the letter told her that her third brother did not resent her.
Shen Qingtan couldn't help but recall Shen Shaobai returning from Guanzhou, his hair disheveled and face dirty, squatting at the entrance of the Duke's mansion waiting for her.
At that time, he thought she had suffered a lot of injustice, so he did everything he could to come to her and try to take her away.
But now, he is imprisoned.
Those distant, long-ago, and blurred memories flashed through my mind frame by frame.
"Sister, the almond milk at Xiangmanlou today was terribly bad, so I brought you a special portion."
“Sister, I’m not making friends with these scoundrels because I’m having fun, but because I’m thinking of you. Your future brother-in-law is someone ordinary people wouldn’t dare mess with, right? We spoiled brats dare! If he bullies you, we’ll put a sack over his head and break his legs.”
“Sister, don’t be angry. Let me do you a magic trick.” He took off the veil on his head, revealing his lips swollen like sausages. He said pitifully, “I heard that if you put honey on your lips, your words will be sweet. I put honey on my lips to make you happy, but when I passed by the garden, a bee stung my lips.”
She couldn't help but laugh when she saw his chubby lips, swollen from bee stings.
The day before her wedding, he sat at the gate of the courtyard all night.
When he saw her, he said dejectedly, "Sister, if only I had studied more. If I had won against my second brother, I could have carried you to your wedding today."
Every frame is so clear, it's as if it happened just yesterday.
Shen Qingtan's tears welled up and fell onto the letter.
The letter was crumpled and covered in creases, revealing the writer's complex emotions.
I was very hesitant and indecisive.
“Shaobai is very sensible and won’t hold a grudge against you.” Zhao Yi took out a handkerchief and gently wiped away her tears. “He just doesn’t know how to face you.”
The more reasonable and understanding Shen Shaobai was, the more guilty Shen Qingtan felt, because he was always thinking of his older sister, while she was the one who caused him to suffer imprisonment.
However, as long as the Marquis of Chengen's mansion remains standing, it will be difficult to quell the hatred in her heart.
“He once said that no matter whether I was right or wrong, he would always be the first to back down, because I was his older sister.”
Shen Qingtan clenched the letter in her hand: "The person he regarded as his own sister was kidnapped by his parents. It was also the person he regarded as his own sister who pushed him to be exiled to the frontier. He will probably find it hard to accept the truth and will feel a lot of pain. Even so, he was worried that I would overthink it, so he still wrote this letter to me."
Zhao Yi watched as her tears slid down her cheeks, seemingly lost in a rut, and reached out to pull her into his arms.
"The crimes committed by the Marquis's family will be exposed sooner or later, and their fate has already been sealed. Now that you are looking after them, Shen Shaobai will not be sent to a desolate place, and he will even have the opportunity to make a contribution."
Zhao Yi comforted him in a low voice, "He is still young. Going to the frontier to temper him is not necessarily a bad thing."
Shen Qingtan rested her chin on his shoulder and wrapped her arms around his waist, without responding to his words.
-
Emperor Jing'an personally tried the Cheng'en Marquis's family, and Shen Shaobai and Shen Shaoheng were soon exiled.
The sky was overcast that day, which inexplicably made people feel depressed.
Shen Qingtan and Zhao Yi left the capital in a carriage, and she personally escorted them for a while.
As she stepped down from the carriage, she saw Shen Shaobai and Shen Shaoheng dressed in prison clothes, their hands and feet shackled, walking towards her.
In just a few days, Shen Shaobai had lost a lot of weight, and his eyes were dull and lifeless. When he saw her, a faint light flickered in his eyes, but it quickly went out again.
The once unruly and fiery young man is now expressionless and lifeless.
"Third brother." Shen Qingtan walked over.
The escorting officers and soldiers were bribed, and when they met Shen Qingtan and Zhao Yi, they were allowed to meet.
Shen Shaobai took a step back: "Don't come any closer."
He hadn't spoken for a long time, and when he did, his voice was hoarse.
Shen Qingtan stopped and stared at him blankly.
Shen Shaobai saw her tear-filled eyes and pursed her dry lips, "I'm dirty."
Upon hearing this, Shen Qingtan felt a pang of sadness in her heart.
“You’re not dirty.” Shen Qingtan walked towards him. “In my eyes, you’re no different from before.”
Shen Shaobai stopped in his tracks, watching Shen Qingtan walk towards him step by step. His eyes seemed to be filled with sand, and slowly they reddened.
When the Marquis's mansion was raided, he was imprisoned and heard the jailer say that it was his elder sister who had reported him. As for the reason, he knew nothing.
He didn't believe his sister would do such a thing; if she really did it, she must have had a reason.
He waited for Zhao Yi, who told him, one by one, the crimes his parents had committed. He also mentioned how his parents had kidnapped his older sister, raised her as their own daughter, and then, after their biological daughter was found, cruelly murdered her.
Upon hearing this news, he found it difficult to accept.
The most important family members in one's life fight each other to the point of life and death.
He didn't know who to blame or who to hate.
Do you hate your older sister?
Because it was she who led the Marquis's mansion to convict her.
But she was innocent. After all, it was her mother who abducted her, causing her to be separated from her biological parents, and then framed her at every turn, trying to kill her.
If she doesn't bring down the Marquis's mansion, then she will be the one who dies one day.
What reason did he have to hate her? To resent her?
If the Marquis's family hadn't been corrupt and lawless, how could they have fallen to this state?
He simply deserved it.
Shen Shaobai had no face to see Shen Qingtan, and he didn't know how to face her.
He was afraid to see the resentment in her eyes.
But she didn't resent him. Instead, she said, "In my eyes, you are no different from before."
Shen Shaobai's defenses crumbled, and he choked out, "Sister, I'm sorry, our family has let you down."
Shen Qingtan stood in front of him, looking up at him, and reached out to wipe away his tears: "The most useless thing in this world is the three words 'I'm sorry.' If you really feel sorry for me, then you should come back alive and make amends to me."
Shen Shaobai turned his face away, and the more he tried to hold back, the more tears rolled down his cheeks.
Shen Shaoheng, who was standing to the side, clicked his tongue and said in a nonchalant manner, "Little sister, do you only have eyes for your third brother and not for me, your eldest brother?"
Shen Qingtan looked at Shen Shaoheng, who had a smile on his face. Even though he was being exiled, he still maintained a composed demeanor.
However, he looked haggard and lacked his former dashing and carefree demeanor.
"Don't try to comfort me." Shen Shaoheng had avenged his great enemy and comforted his parents in the afterlife. He had lived a dissolute and unrestrained life in the first half of his life, with no attachment to this world, only feeling guilty towards his grandmother.
He smiled and said, "Brother, you've never been to the frontier, but I've heard the scenery there is quite beautiful. I've been in the capital for over twenty years and I'm already tired of it. I can't stand it for another second."
Shen Qingtan saw a sense of relief in his eyes, as if having avenged himself, he no longer cared about life or death. Whether it was beheading or exile, he didn't care.
"Big brother..."
"gone."
Shen Shaoheng waved to her and swaggered forward, wanting to leave in a carefree manner.
With heavy chains shackled on his feet, he struggled to even lift his legs, dragging the chains as he walked forward with a clanging sound.
Suddenly, he stopped in his tracks, looked at the hill in front of him, and the smile on his face slowly faded.
My darlings, there's one more chapter, probably going to be quite late, muah~