Feng Jin struggled with this for a long time, but could not come up with a satisfactory answer, so she finally closed her mouth and remained silent.
A silence fell over the room. After a moment, Gu Beichen stirred his dry, cracked lips, and his hoarse voice squeezed out of his throat: "Is it true?"
It was the same question as last time. If he didn't know the truth, he would never give up.
Finally, Ling Mohan couldn't stand it any longer and told Gu Beichen the truth: "Everything you heard just now is true. Murong Jinyun and all the Xiliang people who came to Dongchu this time are Xiliang spies..."
Fearing that Gu Beichen couldn't bear it, Ling Mohan paused halfway through his speech. Seeing that Gu Beichen's expression was still somewhat normal, he continued: "And Murong Jinyun approached you and married you in order to legitimately stay in Dongchu. Only then could they continue their plan..."
It was as if lightning had struck Gu Beichen's head. He froze on the spot, unable to react.
"Actually... actually, I think Murong Jinyun does have feelings for you. It's not entirely exploitation, and perhaps she has no choice. This matter..."
"Don't try to persuade me! She approached me with a purpose. Everything she did was for her country, for Xiliang!"
Gu Beichen's eyes were filled with hatred. His feelings for Murong Jinyun were unfathomable, a mixture of love and hate, constantly warring within him, leaving him unable to understand his own emotions.
"Don't think that way either. There are reasons for some things to happen. I think you should have a good talk with Murong Jinyun. Perhaps... perhaps this matter is not as you think."
Feng Jin advised him kindly, not wanting to see their hard-won fate fall apart. Regardless of the outcome, she had to try to persuade him.
But Gu Beichen seemed determined and refused to listen to advice: "You don't need to persuade me anymore. Whatever has happened is my own doing. Perhaps we were never meant to be. Forcing ourselves together will only lead to mutual suffering. I have already decided to cut off our marital ties with a sword. From now on, she and I will have nothing to do with each other."
"I will request the Emperor to cancel this marriage, so that the Xiliang people will have no reason to stay here, and we can use this as an excuse to drive them away."
He thought carefully, and this was the best solution. Xiliang wanted to use this as an excuse to stay in Dongchu. Once the Xiliang people had no excuse, they would have no reason to remain.
Ling Mohan was so angry with Gu Beichen that he slapped him hard: "You damn idiot, has your brain been kicked by a donkey? I told you to think carefully earlier, and you were the one who said you would only marry the Xiliang princess in this life! You gave them the rope to stay here!"
"Now that you know the truth, you're acting like you're going to die if you don't marry her, and you want to use this to drive away the Xiliang people. Do you really think this will stop Xiliang's conspiracy? I'm telling you, it's completely impossible. Even if you don't marry the Xiliang princess, there are plenty of men in this world who can marry her, and Xiliang's conspiracy will continue!"
"When Xiliang's army breaks through the city, thousands of people will die because of you. At that time, you will still be a sinner of Dongchu, a sinner of the Zhennan King's mansion. How will you have the face to face the people of the world, how will you have the face to face the ancestors of your Gu family!"
Ling Mohan was furious, wishing he could pry open Gu Beichen's head to see if it was filled with brains or paste. Only he could say such thoughtless things so openly.
The current situation was already precarious. They had put in so much effort to barely keep track of the Xiliang people's movements, and it was almost ruined by Gu Beichen's misguided decision.
"I... I..." Gu Beichen was filled with remorse, and he punched himself twice in anger: "Then what do you want me to do now? With things having reached this point, and you only telling me the truth now, how am I supposed to make a choice? I'm in a dilemma!"
They were about to get married, and he had just learned the truth. Why didn't they tell him everything sooner? Why did they have to let him know all of this just as they were about to get married? With things having reached this point, how was he supposed to make a choice?
"Alright, both of you calm down. No matter how regretful you are, things have already happened. It's best to calm down and think about how to resolve this."
Feng Jin calmed the two of them, made them sit down in chairs, and handed them two cups of tea: "Drink some tea to calm your nerves, and then we can talk slowly."
Gu Beichen picked up the teacup and drank it all in one gulp. After a moment, he looked at the long-silent Ling Mohan: "Tell me, how should we resolve this now? What should I do?"
Ling Mohan gave Gu Beichen a disdainful look, not intending to pay attention to him. Finally, Feng Jin stepped in to mediate: "Earlier, we planned not to tell you the truth and let you continue to act with Murong Jinyun."
"From what you're saying, you already knew about this?"
Gu Beichen finally understood a little. These people actually knew about it long ago. It turned out that he was the only one kept in the dark, and he was the clown.
"Who's as stupid as you, not noticing even the slightest clue!" Ling Mohan said irritably, wishing he could pour out all the curses he had accumulated over the past twenty years.
"You... when did you know?"
Why hadn't he noticed anything at all? Was it a problem with his intelligence, or was Murong Jinyun's acting so good that he couldn't distinguish the truth from the falsehood?
Ling Mohan sighed slightly and decided to tell the idiot Gu Beichen the truth: "Xiliang and Dongchu have been at odds for a long time, with countless conflicts of various sizes over the years. Moreover, the Xiliang Emperor is a narrow-minded and malicious person. This alliance with Dongchu is naturally not that simple, so we have been investigating in private."
"So that's how it is... I never doubted it much. Now that I think about it carefully, Murong Jinyu did have many suspicious aspects, but I never thought about it deeply, and I almost made a big mistake."