After the attendant left, Jun Jingxing gathered his sleeves and entered the inner room.
Sui Yan glanced up at him but didn’t say anything.
Jun Jingxing put some soothing incense into the small incense burner. The two of them were silent, and the sound of the crackling flame in the charcoal basin filled the room.
After a while, a servant came to bring fresh charcoal, and Sui Yan felt much better. He silently let out a sigh of relief.
Jun Jingxing stood up to close the window. Sui Yan kept staring at him, and when Jun Jingxing sat back down, Sui Yan asked, “I heard you were exiled to the borders after Lord Yin was convicted of that crime. How did you escape?”
Jun Jingxing’s hand shook. He raised his head, and his lips curled into a smile, “Why are you asking about this?”
Sui Yan answered, “I’m curious.”
In his previous life, no matter how much Sui Yan badgered him, Yuejian had never answered this question.
Jun Jingxing smiled as he replied, “It was simple. I committed suicide.”
Sui Yan: “……” How was this simple?!
Even criminals sent to prison usually had their hands and feet bound and could not move, much less those sent into exile. The only way in which they could commit suicide was to bite their tongues, but with how glib Jun Jingxing’s tongue was, he didn’t seem like someone who had used this method to commit suicide.
Sui Yan became increasingly curious.
Jun Jingxing fiddled with the ashes in the small incense burner and lightly remarked, “In the backstreets near Chenghuang Temple……Oh, nobility like you would not know, but there are slums full of desperate people who would do anything for money. Children, adults, women, the elderly. You name it.”
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Jun Jingxing spoke apathetically, as if he were talking about someone else. His lips curled, “If my father was sentenced to death, I would have been the only male left in the family. Moreover, the emperor knew that my father was innocent, so he definitely wouldn’t have gotten rid of our entire family. I would have been an eyesore if I stayed in the capital, so naturally, he wanted to send me as far away as possible.”
Sui Yan was surprised. He thought, If a man like this had been born into a prince’s family rather than a household as powerless as the Yin Family, he definitely would have become powerful.
Jun Jingxing brushed a hand through his unbound hair and carelessly said, “I hired a few children to act like beggars and mix into the crowd before I left the city. In the chaos, they stabbed my chest with a dagger.
Sui Yan was so shocked that even though he knew Jun Jingxing had ultimately survived, he still felt cold sweat.
Jun Jingxing saw Sui Yan’s pale face and smiled lightly, “I followed my father and learned to practice medicine from a young age, so naturally, I knew how to avoid any deadly locations. As long as I didn’t die, it was fine.
Jun Jingxing laughed at how idealistic he was, “How could it have been that easy? I took a potion to fake my death ahead of time. Even though the dagger didn’t hit any vital points, I was still stabbed.”
Jun Jingxing was badly injured, and blood dripped all over his body. The soldiers escorting him took a look and directly threw him onto a cart carrying rations, letting him bleed all the way out of the city.
So many of the exiled criminals died along the way that the men escorting them had long become used to this sight.
After two hours, a timid soldier carefully put his hand under Jun Jingxing’s nose. He was horrified, and he immediately shouted, “My lord! My lord, this person isn’t breathing anymore.”
The soldier driving in front casually replied, “This must be your first time escorting criminals. Don’t make such a big fuss. Even though we are currently escorting dozens of people, how many of them can really survive the journey to the frontier? Get used to it. If he’s not breathing anymore, just toss him off. Don’t waste space…..Tsk, he’s quite heavy.”
The young soldier was so scared that his face paled. As he looked at Jun Jingxing’s ashen gray face, he put his palms together and silently recited “Amitabha” before he threw Jun Jingxing off of the cart with shaking hands.
The cart was still moving. The injured Jun Jingxing was directly thrown off, and he tumbled on the ground for a while before stopping.
Because of this, the effects of the fake death potion wore off, allowing him to wake up.
However, Jun Jingxing had already lost too much blood, and he nearly passed away.
Sui Yan was frightened. He sat on his bed and hugged his blanket as he stared at Jun Jingxing with wide eyes.
Jun Jingxing shrugged, “That’s it. Anyways, it was easy.”
Sui Yan, “……” Which part of it was easy?
Sui Yan suddenly thought of something and asked, “You were only saved after leaving the city. Then what about the tattoo? You didn’t have to get it?”
Jun Jingxing froze before he looked down.
Sui Yan noticed that he had misspoken and quickly added, “I seem to have asked too much.”
Jun Jingxing smiled and said, “It’s alright.”
He lifted his sleeve and placed it over the hot charcoal basin for a while. When the cloth was burning hot, he used it to gently wipe at the left side of his face.
Jun Jingxing’s face was originally pale, but as he moved, his skin tone became increasingly weird. When he put his sleeves back down, there was an ink-black mark on his face——it was the tattoo carved on the faces of those who were sent into exile.
Someone seemed to have slashed at the mark several times so that it was impossible to see what words they formed.
Jun Jingxing dusted the rouge powder from his sleeve and smiled, his eyes curling, “Look, I even know how to apply disguises.”
He smiled gently, as if the one who had experienced all of that tragic suffering wasn’t him.