Episode 2: Murong Jinghe leads the marriage delegation back to Beijing

In the 14th year of Zhaoming, Murong Jinghe volunteered to retake Qingzhou, but was later accused of massacring the city and was besieged by the people, which made his legs unable to walk. In addition, due to the pain of his mother’s death, he indulged in alcohol all day and became depressed.

Until one day, Meilin disguised himself as a beggar and tried to assassinate Murong Jinghe. Even with arrows in his legs, he insisted on crawling, vowing that he would have a chance to avenge his shame.

On the eve of departure, Princess Zi Gu learned that Mei Lin stayed at the Jingwang Mansion last night, and mistakenly thought that she was bullied by Murong Jinghe, so she took her to ask for an explanation.

Murong Jinghe took this opportunity to ask the beauty of Xiyan to have an archery competition, and specially selected a soldier as the demonstration object. Because the soldier was not good at archery, he was killed on the spot by Murong Jinghe, which fully demonstrated his ruthlessness as the “human-killing general”.

However, Meilin was suspicious. She immediately recognized the soldier as the assassin from last night. She was secretly surprised at Murong Jinghe’s scheming and was afraid that her identity would be exposed.

Princess Zi Gu was simple and kind. She was always concerned about Meilin’s safety. She promised that after she entered the capital, she would protect Meilin from harm with her dignity as a princess, which deeply moved Meilin.

Now Emperor Murong Qian has allowed Murong Jinghe to return to the capital. Anyone with a discerning eye can see that his intention is to promote reconciliation between father and son. However, few people know what Crown Prince Murong Xuanlie did. Zhang Yin, the assistant minister of the Ministry of War, is one of his accomplices.

Upon learning that Murong Jinghe will escort Princess Xiyan to Zhaojing, Zhang Yin is worried, fearing that the truth will be revealed. Murong Xuanlie warns him that he is determined to take the position of crown prince.

Soon, the marriage team entered Zhaojing in a mighty manner. The people of the city stood along the streets and cursed Murong Jinghe as the “human-killing general”, believing that he was not worthy of returning to his homeland.

Children even sang nursery rhymes that belittled the Weibei Army on the streets. These voices gathered into a force of public opinion that could not be ignored. Murong Xuanlie secretly planned all this in an attempt to arouse the anger of the people.

Sure enough, the people were emotional and threw rotten vegetable leaves at Murong Jinghe. In the chaos, they opened the box containing the relics of the Weibei Army. The Weibei Army token fell to the ground, attracting Mei Lin’s attention.

Although Murong Jinghe could endure personal humiliation, he was furious when he saw the relics of the Weibei Army being trampled, which frightened the people who tried to incite riots.

He then used money to encourage children to sing another nursery rhyme to show that he was not the “human-killing general” as the world misunderstood, but the “chief of a hundred ghosts” of the Weibei Army.

Murong Qian summoned Murong Jinghe alone and reminded him that he should reflect on himself in Jingzhou for ten years and change his ways and avoid conflicts with Xiyan in the future.

In fact, Murong Qian knew that his son still couldn’t let go of the past in Qingzhou when he returned to Beijing. In response to his father’s reminder, Murong Jinghe smiled bitterly and said that the old friend was gone and he dared not mention the past again.

Liu Zhong arranged accommodation for Princess Zi Gu and the women accompanying her, and told them that today was the anniversary of the death of the late queen, and that they would have to wait until the next day to enter the palace for an audience.

Princess Zi Gu felt lost at first, but when she learned that her brother Yue Qin was nearby, she smiled brightly. At this time, a long and sad bell sounded, touching the heartstrings of everyone present, especially Murong Jinghe, who felt the most deeply, as if the bell sound had uncovered the scars deep in his heart.

Looking back, before Murong Jinghe went to Qingzhou, he made a promise to his mother that he would take off his armor and get married after his triumphant return. To celebrate Murong Jinghe’s recovery of Qingzhou, the queen prayed to the gods for an auspicious day, but unexpectedly, that auspicious day turned out to be the anniversary of the death of the late queen.

To fulfill his promise to his mother, Murong Jinghe wore wedding clothes to worship on the day of returning to the tomb, but was misunderstood by Murong Qian, who forbade him to publicly worship the late queen.

Mei Lin sneaked into the Jingwang Mansion to steal the Weibei Army token, and accidentally learned about these past events, and even ran into Qing Yan interrogating the people who besieged Murong Jinghe in broad daylight.

Murong Jinghe whispered in front of the late queen’s spirit tablet, grieving his mother’s complex emotions that she never believed that he was not the culprit of the massacre, and Mei Lin’s doubts became even greater when he heard this.

After returning to the room, Mei Lin carefully compared the token in his hand with the token in the relics of the Weibei Army, and found that the sounds of the two were different. At this time, Murong Jinghe had been alerted and personally visited Mei Lin’s room. Undercurrents surged between the two, and each tested the other’s background.

After midnight, Mei Lin received a secret order to meet the owner of the dark factory. He was severely punished again and was required to complete the assassination mission at the wedding banquet tomorrow, otherwise he would die of poison in three days. Mei Lin forced himself to leave with a weak body, not knowing that Murong Jinghe was the owner of the dark factory.