Here he comes.
Jiang Mian paused for a moment, then turned around and looked at Mo Zhizhang.
Mo Zhizhang subconsciously held his breath.
When he called out to Jiang Mian, he had already prepared himself for her to question him excitedly. He had also thought out his responses in his mind.
However, the girl just gave a faint smile, looked back at him, and said very calmly, "Okay."
This was not what Mo Zhizhang had expected.
The hand hidden by his sleeve instantly clenched into a fist.
He tried to read something from the girl's face, but all he saw was calmness.
Jiang Mian walked past him towards the stairs. After taking two steps, she noticed that Mo Zhizhang wasn't following. She turned back to look at him, tilted her head, and asked in confusion, "Aren't you coming?"
Mo Zhizhang let out a soft breath and stepped forward to follow.
There were a few persimmon trees outside the posthouse, and there was a stone table under one of them. At this moment, Jiang Mian and Mo Zhizhang were sitting on either side of the stone table. There was a pot of tea in front of each of them, which they had asked for from the posthouse.
After Jiang Mian sat down, she didn't say a word. Instead, she picked up a fallen leaf and played with it in her palm.
It was impossible for her not to be angry.
Jiang Mian hated being deceived the most in her life.
When she saw Mo Zhizhang on the road and heard him introduce himself as "Zhegu" to Xiao Tianchi, her mind went completely blank. When she came to her senses, all that was left in her heart was the anger of being deceived.
Until...
Jiang Zhiqing's reminder came to mind.
[He has never done anything to hurt you or us, so we should give others a chance to explain.]
Only then did she gradually calm down.
When a person is angry, they are most likely to say hurtful things. She herself had suffered from this. She had also misunderstood Xiao Jingcheng because of her anger, which had led to their unpleasant parting.
She was also glad that Mo Zhizhang hadn't chased after her immediately to explain. Otherwise, she would surely have said something she didn't mean.
On the way here, she had carefully thought it over. In fact, Mo Zhizhang had already shown some flaws as early as when he arrived in Dongli Town. She just hadn't noticed them.
For example, he was better at using poison than at practicing medicine. The prescriptions he wrote during his free medical consultations were different from those of others.
For example, he was extremely skilled in lightness kung fu and had martial arts skills. He could even fight on par with Xiao Jingcheng and had even injured him.
Another example was that when they were in Guangdu County, he had once revealed that he had killed many people.
All these showed that he was not a doctor. After all, no doctor could kill people without changing their expression.
She belatedly remembered that her mother and father had also hinted to her that Mo Zhizhang might not be as kind as she had imagined.
However, putting aside the fact that he had deceived her, he had taken good care of her during this journey. He had not only helped her save her mother but also taught her the art of poison.
Thinking about it this way, even though he had deceived her, he wasn't that hateful.
But what should she say to him?
Unable to bear the silence any longer, Mo Zhizhang spoke first, "Don't you have anything you want to ask me, little sister?"
In this situation, the one who speaks first loses the upper hand.
Mo Zhizhang knew this well, but he couldn't help it. He was eager to get a response from her.
"You're not my uncle," Jiang Mian finally responded. She said very firmly.
Mo Zhizhang let out a sigh of relief and replied truthfully, "Yes, I'm not."
"Then is my real uncle still alive?" Jiang Mian asked.
Mo Zhizhang said, "Yes, he is. By this time, he should have already met your master."
Jiang Mian let out a sigh of relief. "That's good."
Mo Zhizhang squinted his eyes slightly. "So, you thought I would kill him?"
Jiang Mian looked at him.
Since she had already accepted the truth, her mind had become extremely calm. "I'm not sure."
Not sure about what?
"I used to think I knew you quite well, but after today, I realize that I still know nothing about you," Jiang Mian continued to look at the fallen leaf in her hand.
The leaf had turned yellow, and the veins on it were becoming more and more distinct.
"Now that I think about it, during the time we spent together, only when I asked about your parents and your past in Guangdu County was the person in front of me perhaps the real you."
"You're the kind of person who can be ruthless enough to kill your father's old subordinates. So, the lives of others must mean nothing to you."
"I think the reason you didn't kill my real uncle is that you knew that when we left Luozhou, I would surely find out the truth and ask about my uncle's fate. If my uncle had really died, I would have hated you."
"And you don't want me to hate you."
Mo Zhizhang let out a laugh.
She was right.
All of it was right.
She had almost seen through his innermost thoughts, and she had forgiven him.
But this wasn't what he wanted!
A fire was burning in his chest, scorching his whole chest and making it ache. There was a beast roaring inside.
Why wasn't she angry? Why wasn't she crying and making a scene? Why wasn't she losing her temper with him?!
Could it be because... she simply didn't care about him?
"Is Mo Zhizhang your real name?" Jiang Mian asked.
Mo Zhizhang was taken aback. When he came to his senses, he tried his best to suppress the roaring beast in his heart and replied hoarsely, "Yes."
"Then what you told me in Guangdu County, that you were thrown to a groom by your father as soon as you were born. Is all that true?"
Mo Zhizhang said, "Yes."
Jiang Mian laughed. "At least, you didn't completely deceive me. Let's just call it even."
Why was it just going to be like this?
Why was it okay to just call it even?
Mo Zhizhang didn't realize that he had clenched his fists tightly and his breathing had become heavy.
After saying this, Jiang Mian also felt a lot more relaxed.
To be honest, she didn't want to lose Mo Zhizhang as a friend.
Moreover, she still had a lot of knowledge about the art of poison that she needed to ask him about.
"So, you knew my uncle was coming from the very beginning?" she asked curiously. "How did you know? Did the emperor send you?"
Facing her curious smile, Mo Zhizhang felt a breath stuck in his chest and couldn't let it out. After a long while, he replied,
"Yes."
Jiang Mian guessed that Xiao Tianchi must have known for a long time that there was an inside story behind Xiao Jingcheng's assassination in the south of the Yangtze River. He also knew that the body wasn't Xiao Jingcheng's. So, he had secretly arranged everything.
She thought that Mo Zhizhang was originally going to Dongli Town. It was just that her master's arrangement had given him an opportunity, so he had taken the place of her uncle and stayed by her side.
Thinking deeper, it couldn't have been a coincidence that Emperor Beisheng had come to Luozhou and visited the Li Mansion on the day of her parents' wedding.
It was because Mo Zhizhang had been passing on information to Xiao Tianchi.
"Then..." Jiang Mian paused for a moment and asked, "You recognized Xiao Jingcheng as the Crown Prince of the Sheng Kingdom a long time ago, and you also told the emperor about the fact that he was with us?"
Mo Zhizhang's dark green sleeves fluttered gently in the wind. This time, Jiang Mian didn't hear his answer. She looked at him curiously, and only then did he slowly reply.
"Yes. He has always known that Xiao Jingcheng was with you."