RPAGF Chapter 140 Confession
Chapter 140 Confession
"What's wrong?"
Hearing Xie Wenyu's scream, Zhong Mei peeked over cautiously.
"Why did you let her go?" She frowned.
Li Chong waved his hand: "You don't need to worry about it, I have a plan. You just go outside and keep an eye on things."
"Hmph, don't make me come back to save you later." Zhongmei twitched her nose and turned to stand outside the door.
Xie Wenyu watched the interaction between the two and felt something.
"Who is she? It seems you and she aren't accomplices?"
"You mean Zhong Mei? She's a heroine who's just as capable as any man," Li Chong said with a smile.
Curiosity is a good thing. The more curious Xie Wenyu is, the more it proves that she is starting to hesitate. Maybe she can really be persuaded not to expose him.
Li Chong cheered himself up and told Xie Wenyu about the origin of Zhongmei.
After a while, Xie Wenyu's mouth was slightly open as she stared blankly in the direction of the door.
"That little girl, she really dared to kill someone?"
Zhong Mei's voice drifted over from afar, tinged with smugness: "So, I was actually holding back just now. Otherwise, do you think you'd still be standing there?"
"Alright, keep your voice down. Everyone's asleep, don't disturb them," Li Chong said with a smile, stopping Zhong Mei.
He then lowered his voice and explained to Xie Wenyu, "Actually, she was also a pitiful person. She only killed to avenge her father, not to kill innocent people indiscriminately. Otherwise, she wouldn't have shown you mercy just now."
Xie Wenyu remained silent; of course she knew this.
Zhong Mei didn't even touch her when he had a dagger to her neck, so he can't be considered a vicious person.
Xie Wenyu looked up and around. The room was simply furnished, with nothing luxurious about it.
She looked at Li Chong with a complicated expression: "What exactly do you want?"
A man took a huge risk by impersonating an official to take office, but he neither amassed wealth nor indulged in lust. Instead, he sincerely served as an official and brought benefits to the local people.
Xie Wenyu really couldn't understand why Li Chong was doing all this.
"With your talent, passing the imperial examination shouldn't be difficult. Why stoop to impersonating someone else? Wouldn't it be better to serve as an official based on your own identity?"
Li Chong was speechless: "My talent? What talent do I have? Don't make it sound like passing the imperial examination is so easy."
Xie Wenyu was somewhat excited: "That Lantern Festival poem! Among all the poems I've heard before, few can compare to it. In my opinion, only Su Shi's 'Prelude to Water Melody' can rival it. You could write such a poem; didn't you ever consider taking the imperial examinations and entering officialdom?"
"Well……"
If I tell Xie Wenyu now that I plagiarized, will she feel like she's been deceived again?
Li Chong hesitated for a moment, then didn't dare to admit it.
"Ha." He smiled helplessly. "The art of poetry can't prove anything. If we're talking about talent, wasn't Liu Yong (Liu Qi) from the Renzong era considered talented? But what was the result?"
"In this Song Dynasty, the court is filled with incompetent officials, and beasts feast on the throne. Talent? What good is it? Even my current position was only obtained through your father's connections!"
Xie Wenyu was speechless.
She couldn't express it, but Li Chong got more and more carried away as she talked.
"In the grand scheme of things, the most capable should rise and the incompetent should fall. But what about now? A former football-playing boy is now the Grand Commandant of the Song Dynasty, and there's Grand Tutor Cai Jing, who's blind but still clings to power, harming the country and its people!"
"The heavy taxes have led to the people of the land flocking to become thieves, yet the government still wants to build gardens and carry out some kind of flower and stone tribute, causing countless families in Jiangnan to be ruined and people to die! They are being coaxed by a eunuch and now they want to come to Shandong to seize land, leaving the fishermen in Liangshan Marsh with no way to make a living."
"With such an immoral ruler and his ministers, how can the world not be in chaos?"
Seeing Xie Wenyu's expression, Li Chong's tone softened: "If I were to seriously attempt the imperial examinations, whether I passed or not is another matter, but just waiting for an official position would take several more years. I can afford to wait, but the world can't!"
"I want this official position; I want to climb the ranks step by step. I want to go to Bianjing (Kaifeng) and ask the Emperor if he still cares about the Song Dynasty."
At this point, Li Chong certainly couldn't say that he harbored thoughts of changing the dynasty, so he could only deceive her like this.
And the results are noticeably better.
Xie Wenyu stood there, stunned, her eyes vacant.
She wouldn't have believed it if someone else had said that, but everything Li Chong did was right under her nose. He was truly serving the people wholeheartedly, without any regard for his own enjoyment.
Compared to her original husband, Xie Wenyu herself felt that he couldn't do what Li Chong did.
This only made her feel more ashamed.
"What's wrong with this world? A bandit who has impersonated someone else is more concerned about the country and its people than the officials in the imperial court."
Thinking of this, Xie Wenyu couldn't help but shake his head and smile bitterly.
After laughing, she looked up at Li Chong: "So what do you want? To continue serving as this official?"
Li Chong said earnestly, "If possible, then so be it. Not to boast, but I think I'm a good husband. If you don't mind, we might as well spend some time together. If it's feasible, then let's make this relationship official."
Xie Wenyu blushed: "You..."
If we're talking about whether Li Chong was a good husband, Xie Wenyu is naturally the most qualified to speak on the matter.
The reason she saw through Li Chong's identity was because Li Chong's attitude towards her changed.
Previously, because the original owner of this body was chosen by his father-in-law to be his son-in-law, he didn't care much about this wife.
After taking office, Yuan Shang was cunning and ambitious, eager to achieve political success and get promoted. He treated Xie Wenyu with indifference.
Later, his father-in-law helped him pull strings and get him the position of county magistrate. Feeling that he couldn't lower his head in front of his wife's family, the original owner of the body became even colder towards Xie Wenyu.
Xie Wenyu realized this, which is why she went back to her parents' home when he took office, wanting to ask them if they had any ideas.
After meeting Li Chong, she noticed that he treated Zhong Mei differently. In order to please her husband, she suggested that he take a concubine.
All of this stemmed from the original person's inferiority complex.
His emotions were unknown not only to Li Chong, but even to Cui Shi; there was no way he could fake them.
At first, Xie Wenyu thought her husband had changed his mind and didn't think much of it. Later, she discovered the flaws and compared the two accounts, and the suspicions became clear.
Seeing Xie Wenyu's rosy complexion, Li Chong was overjoyed.
"There's hope!"
He leaned closer and said in a deep voice, "Wenyu, we haven't known each other for long, but I've truly come to regard you as my wife. Otherwise, why would I willingly let you control me? Although this is sudden, I still have to ask..."
"Can you entrust the rest of your life to me?"
Having exhausted all the emotional intelligence Li Chong had learned from his previous life, he uttered this statement, which was tantamount to a confession. Now, all that remained was to see Xie Wenyu's response.
Li Chong's heart was pounding; he hadn't been this nervous even when he received his college entrance exam scores.