Chapter 699: “Fan Qi’s Death (2)”
Ah Jing knelt nervously before Jun Wu Xie, trying very hard to say something by gesturing anxiously with both his hands, and making increasingly desperate sounds with his mouth. Ah Jing was trying to say something, but with his tongue cut off, his mouth was no longer capable of speech and only unintelligible sounds came out of it.
“Ah! Ah! Ah!” Ah Jing pointed outside the door, and just hit his head repeatedly on the floor kowtowing. The dull thuds sounded from the ground, one after another till the skin on his forehead split. Blood flowed out from the wound but Ah Jing did not stop and carried on persistently, using whatever strength he had left.
“You are not mad.” Jun Wu Xie said, looking at Ah Jing calmly.
Ah Jing raised his head and the blood flowed down over the bridge of his nose. His face lit up with joy as he nodded his head vigorously.
“You have something you want to say to me?” Jun Wu Xie continued to ask.
Ah Jing nodded once again.
“Get up.” Jun Wu Xie went to sit down at the side and took out a brush and parchment to put on the table.
“If you can’t speak, write.”
Ah Jing did not get up, but knelt beside the table. He held the brush in his hand and quickly wrote down lines and lines, filling the pieces of parchment with closely written characters. The hand holding the brush was trembling slightly, but it was not known whether it was from agitation or from any other reason.
In a very short time, Ah Jing had filled up a good three pages and he placed them before Jun Wu Xie’s eyes. He then immediately went back to kowtowing by hitting his head on the ground once again, begging as if Jun Wu Xie was his last and only hope.
Jun Wu Xie picked the pieces of parchment and swept her eyes over them. With just one look, her pupils dilated slightly.
The reason that Ah Jing had fallen into such a state, was not due to Gu Ying’s torment out of boredom. It was because….. Ah Jing knew of a secret.
The secret behind Fan Qi’s death!
That day, in Fan Qi’s office, besides Fan Qi and Fan Jing, there was one more person in there, and that was Ah Jing!
Ever since Ah Jing was driven out from the little bamboo grove, he had been out of sorts and dispirited. He had always wanted to make Jun Xie leave the bamboo grove to protect Fan Zhuo, and had always harboured great animosity against Jun Xie. It continued on until the day Gu Li Sheng gathered everyone in the Zephyr Academy and revealed Jun Xie’s real identity before everyone and at that moment, all the rumours that blemished and tarnished Jun Xie were completely dispelled and Jun Xie was cleared of all the fraudulent claims made against her. Ah Jing had been present as well on that day and when he heard everything that was being said, his heart was completely filled with undeniable guilt and self loathing.
There had been countless times that he felt like running to the little bamboo grove to apologise to Jun Xie but he felt that he did not even deserve to be able to apologise.
Jun Xie had never been a despicable person like those rumours claimed. He had never committed any of those immoral deeds. He had genuinely put in all his effort to treat Fan Zhuo’s condition. But Ah Jing now realised he had been blinded by those malicious rumours and believed them easily, resulting in him wrongly accusing a good person.
Shame and self loathing had tormented and eaten at him endlessly. Ah Jing wanted to salvage everything but felt he did not deserve to be forgiven and he could not face Jun Xie anymore.
The guilt that gnawed at him had grown as the days passed. His thoughts were noticed by Fan Qi and Fan Qi had always thought of Ah Jing as an honest and dependable child. Although he had committed some wrongs in a moment of blunder, but he had no malicious intentions at heart. Seeing Ah Jing so depressed and dispirited, Fan Qi intended to give him a hand in resolving the matter.
Coincidentally, that was at the time that Jun Xie and Fan Zhuo was not at the Zephyr Academy and hence Fan Qi made Ah Jing hide within his office and summoned Fan Jin to come to his office. He wanted to hear his son’s views on the matter and wanted to see if it was possible to convey Ah Jing’s regret and apology to Jun Wu Xie.
However…..
That day, Ah Jing had been hiding in a hidden compartment in the office. He had peeked through a little hole in the compartment to see everything that happened within the office.