Lang Bo just rattled on like this for a whole bunch!

Like his mouth had firecrackers attached to it.

Baiyin sometimes truly wondered why there could be a grown man this nagging?

He swore that Lang Bo was absolutely the most peculiar oddball he had ever seen.

Bar none!

Facing all these questions from Lang Bo, Baiyin didn’t want to explain and couldn’t be bothered to say anything.

He simply lowered his head and breathed warm air into the blanket.

Lang Bo huffed: “If you won’t say it, then don’t.”

Waving his hand, he left.

Baiyin raised his head, looking outside, thinking of that scene when he saw Lianque last night.

Now, he actually couldn’t tell whether it had been a dream or reality?

Real and true, false and illusory.

Impossible to distinguish!

Later.

Everyone sat together for breakfast, gathered around a table.

Baiyin didn’t come.

Jingrong asked: “Where’s Baiyin?”

Song Zhi was quick to answer: “He drank too much.”

“What?”

“This morning, for some reason, he was lying in the courtyard, completely drunk and unconscious.”

Ji Yunshu frowned lightly.

Baiyin had almost never been like this before.

Moreover, being cautious in his actions, how could he have drunk through the entire night and ended up passed out in the courtyard?

Jingrong darkened his face and directed his gaze to Lang Bo, who was eating, asking: “What happened?”

Lang Bo was busy picking up meat with his chopsticks and shook his head: “Don’t know. He wouldn’t say. I only know he had a nightmare and was scared awake, then went outside.”

A nightmare?

What in this world could frighten Baiyin?

The man had gone through mountains of blades and seas of fire, through wild forests, killing and robbing… doing everything imaginable.

What could count as a “nightmare” to him?

Truly strange.

Ji Yunshu felt something was off and was just about to ask something when Li Cheng suddenly arrived.

Before seeing the person, his voice could be heard from far away.

“Why are you eating without waiting for me?”

After speaking, his figure could be seen entering from outside.

He completely treated himself as no outsider, plopping himself down at the dining table, then turning to order Jingrong’s guard: “Go get another set of bowls and chopsticks.”

The guard expressed his unwillingness to move.

The old residence had hired a cook who made meals for everyone daily, then left without staying long. Now the cook had already gone home. This matter of bowls and chopsticks was not the guard’s concern.

He hadn’t even eaten yet himself!

Moreover, the one giving him orders was an outsider!

So he didn’t move.

Jingrong looked at Li Cheng, who had arrived covered in dust from the road, sighed, and instructed his guard: “Do as Young Master Cheng orders.”

“Yes.”

The guard received the command and turned to go to the kitchen.

But Li Cheng was really too hungry and really in a hurry.

He simply grabbed the unused bowls and chopsticks placed in front of Song Zhi, and without a word, picked up food and started eating.

Song Zhi was a refined person, and also a soft persimmon.

Naturally he wouldn’t say anything.

He could only silently wait for the guard to bring new bowls and chopsticks.

At the dining table, they could only hear the sound of Li Cheng’s chopsticks stirring the porcelain bowl.

Everyone’s eyes were all staring at him.

Jingrong straightened himself and asked Li Cheng: “Coming here so early in the morning, do you have something?”

“No… nothing.” Li Cheng said unclearly with a mouthful of rice in his mouth.

“Then what are you here for?”

“I need to go to Gong Manor later.”

“Gong Manor?”

What connection did that have with coming here to eat?

Li Cheng swallowed the meat, saying seriously: “Today is Shilin’s funeral procession.”

Uh!

The dining table immediately fell into silence.

Li Cheng stuffed down some more food, feeling somewhat full, then pushed the bowls and chopsticks in his hand toward Song Zhi: “Here, returning them to you!”

Song Zhi: “…”

Li Cheng stood up, wiped his mouth and said: “I’m leaving first.”

He left hurriedly.

This person must be ill, right?

Actually running here to mooch food.

Utterly shameless.

…

After Li Cheng left the old residence, he boarded the carriage waiting for him at the alley entrance.

He instructed his attendant: “Let’s go, to Gong Manor!”

The carriage headed toward Gong Manor swiftly through the morning wind and snow.

And at this very moment at Gong Manor.

Paper money filled the sky, white banners hung high, funeral music echoed through every corner of the manor…

At the manor gate, a procession of people dressed in mourning white emerged from inside.

The people in front held white silk streamers in their hands, scattering guiding paper money.

Prime Minister Gong held his beloved son’s memorial tablet in his hands.

Compared to the day before, he seemed much more spirited today.

He didn’t need support to walk either.

That face, aged considerably, was extremely cold, showing no trace of sorrow or grief… no such emotions.

Behind him, twelve people carried a coffin covered with black cloth out from the manor.

Heading toward the Gong family’s ancestral burial grounds.

In the distance, Li Cheng sat in his carriage, lifting the curtain to look this way.

His expression was grave, his eyes tinged with red.

He came here wanting to see off Gong Shilin!

Even if only from afar.

When the Gong family procession had walked far away, the servant asked him: “Young Master, should we follow?”

“I’ll go myself.”

Li Cheng jumped down from the carriage.

Holding an umbrella, he silently followed behind.

Then he accompanied Gong Shilin all the way to the burial site.

Watching as that coffin was buried in the earth.

A Taoist priest chanted funeral music beside it.

Paper money mixed with snowflakes fell in profusion from the sky.

That scene made one’s heart feel very heavy.

But Prime Minister Gong stood calmly and indifferently before Gong Shilin’s tombstone.

Without heart-wrenching weeping.

Not knowing how much time had passed, Gong Manor’s steward finally stepped forward and said: “Master, let’s return to the manor.”

Prime Minister Gong made no sound.

The steward sighed. Actually, his eyes had nearly gone blind from crying too.

After all, he had watched the young master grow up from childhood. He was very clear about what kind of person the young master was, so even now, he couldn’t believe that Gong Shilin had killed anyone!

In his heart, besides regret, there was also resentment!

“Master, the young master has already departed. The dead cannot return to life. You must take good care of your health, and not let the young master worry.”

Prime Minister Gong breathed out deeply, gazing at the two characters “Beloved Son” on the tombstone, and said: “Shilin, you may depart in peace. For the rest of Father’s life, I will only do one thing, and that is to take revenge!”

His fists clenched tightly.

In his heart, there was only hatred!

That year, he had helped the Huyi King conquer this realm. Today, that person sitting high above had personally issued an edict demanding his son’s life.

How could he swallow this grievance?

He too would make the Huyi Prince taste what it felt like to wish for death.

…

After the Gong family departed, Li Cheng, who had been quietly following behind, walked over.

He stood before the tombstone, his heart a jumble of emotions.

He was the one who had personally arrested Gong Shilin and taken him to the City Department!

If he could have bowed his head before justice, perhaps Gong Shilin wouldn’t have ended up in such a state.

To say he felt no guilt in his heart would be a lie!

But—

If he were given another chance to choose, he would still choose the same way.

“Shilin, I know you would want me to do this too.”

Having said this, he bowed!

Looking at that ice-cold tombstone.

“Shilin, rest in peace.”