"Father, you know what? I will never forget the death of my second brother. ”

Wang Yu turned his head, glanced at Han Zhuo, then turned back to look at his father, and took a deep breath. The memory just now, even if it was just a memory, made his body tremble again.

"That question, I have been holding back in my heart for a long time, and I have never dared to ask you. But I think, today, I can ask. ”

Wang Yu paused, and plucked up the courage of his whole body: "Why, would you kill your own son for a servant?" ”

Wang Mang put down the wine glass in his hand, propped his elbows on the table, and gently rested his head on his clasped hands, listening to Wang Yu ask this question.

Then he laughed. Smiled indifferently.

The answer to Wang Yu was a rhetorical question.

"Answer me, then, first, my son. What makes you think that the life of Wang Mang's son should have different values than the life of a servant girl? ”

Wang Yu looked at his father's face covered by his hands, revealing only a pair of bright eyes, and froze in place.

It was not so much that he didn't know how to answer the question, but that he didn't know why it was a problem.

Of course it's different! Wang Mang's son, with a servant girl...... Of course, the value of their lives is different!

This is the truth of heaven and earth! No explanation, no reason!

Whether it was Wang Mang, the prince of An Han, the prince of the dynasty, or Wang Mang, the marquis of the new capital at that time, his identity, and even the identity of his son, were naturally different from a servant!

Even...... Neither of these two should be put together!

"That's right. Your reaction was exactly what I expected. Wang Mang smiled faintly: "You have never thought about this problem, and you have never even thought that there would be such a problem." Different origins, different statuses, and even the value of life are different. In the eyes of you, in Wang Shu, and in the eyes of everyone in this era, this is a natural and unchangeable avenue, right? ”

“……”

Wang Yu didn't speak, nor did he nod, but his silence had already given the answer.

"But I don't think so." Wang Mang looked at the glass of wine in front of Wang Mu that had not been touched, picked it up and put it in front of Wang Yu: "Do you know how I felt when I saw the corpse of that maidservant?" ”

Wang Yu picked up the wine lord and shook his head blankly.

"So, let me tell you what I saw that day." Wang Mang poured himself wine, raised his head and drank it all in one sip, only to take a breath and fall into deep memories.

"That was the first time I saw a real dead person with my own eyes. Yes, for the first time. Not only that, but it was the first time I had seen a tortured corpse in person. I still can't forget the death of that handmaiden, even though I don't even know her name. ”

"That day, I was really scared. It's true. When I watched the naked corpse being dragged out of the room by Wang Shu, her whole body was covered with rope marks and bruises, her face was so swollen that she could barely see her facial features, and her lower body was stuffed with ......"

Wang Mang took a deep breath, stopped describing, poured himself another glass of wine, and drank it all again.

"The pain she suffered before she died, to this day, still reveals in my nightmares from time to time. She died like an animal, not a human being. But the king's purpose in torturing and killing her was only for fun. That morning, when he looked at me, I saw embarrassment in his eyes, fear of punishment, but that was all. I don't see guilt, I don't see remorse. No...... None of them...... Not at all!! ”

Wang Mang clenched the wine jue in his hand tightly, his face was distorted, and he gritted his teeth.

"I know you're better than your brother. You will not torture and kill a servant girl for no reason. But I also know that it's just because you don't like it. You are a little more merciful than him, but you see their status in the eyes of your brother, and you feel that the value of life between people is different. ”

"But it's different!" The first time he heard these words from his father's mouth, Wang Yu shook his head in a trance, but he didn't know how to respond, so he could only repeat over and over again: "This is indeed a different ......"

"It's the same." Wang Mang sighed: "Although most people don't think so, the value of life has nothing to do with origin and status. Everyone's life is the same. So, when I saw the body of the servant girl, I had already made up my mind. ”

"Wang Shu, he must die."

"But he's your own son after all!" Wang Yu's brows were tightly locked, and he looked at his father, who was becoming more and more strange in front of him: "It's your flesh and blood!" Do you really even have a good hand at your own son? ”

"Flesh and bones?" Wang Mang shook his head, with a strange look on his face: "I don't care, the so-called bloodline." In my eyes, the only thing that can be inherited is the will. Not to mention ......"

"Will?" Wang Yu looked at Wang Mu beside him, his cousin: "So, the successor you chose, the one who inherited your will, is he?" ”

"Yes." Wang Mang nodded: "It's him." ”

Wang Yu laughed miserably, with despair on his face: "I see...... The second brother was wrong, and I was wrong...... In your mind, it turns out that we have never been the object of your belonging. ”

"That's right. And today's events have allowed me to verify this. Wang Mang sighed with some regret: "If you are just satisfied with being a rich man, as my son, you can live in peace and stability forever." But alas, you have chosen to take a path that is contrary to mine. ”

"So...... Am I going to die, too? Same as the second brother? Wang Yu smiled self-deprecatingly and looked at Han Zhuo on the side: "This time, he is also here to do it?" ”

Lu Yan, who had been at a loss and didn't know what was going on, finally understood the conversation between father and son at this moment, stared at his big eyes, and exclaimed uncontrollably.

"No, it's not him." Wang Mang shook his head: "In order for the Wei clan to completely disappear from this court, I need you to die even more sensationally." ”

Wang Yu looked at his father in despair: "However, I haven't killed anyone, I just did something wrong, why should I get the same ending as my second brother!" Why should I die too! ”

"For the ideal."

This time, it was not Wang Mang who spoke, but Wang Mu, who had not said a word on the side.

He was not looking at his cousin Wang Yu, but his uncle Wang Mang. His eyes shone with a frenzied glow, burning like a blazing fire.

"Yes, for the sake of ideals."

Wang Mang's eyes were burning with the same thing.

Wang Yu slowly lowered his head, and after a long time, he raised it again, and his face turned pale.

"That'...... What about her? ”

He asked Lu Yan beside him, his wife, the young woman who had completely shrunk into a ball of fear.

Wang Mang sighed deeply.

"Don't worry, I'll ...... Properly handled. ”

……

A month later, the Wei clan was wiped out.

On the same day, Wang Yu committed suicide by Wang Mang in prison, and Lü Kuan was beheaded on the streets of Chang'an and abandoned to the city.

Three months later, Lü Yan gave birth to a son for the deceased Wang Yu, who was immediately given death by Wang Mang.

……

On an autumn afternoon, the maple forest outside Chang'an City was already blood-red.

Next to the maple forest, a horse-drawn carriage was parked.

The carriage is very poorly decorated, without any markings, but the two horses that pull the carriage are both good horses of the first class.

Lu Yan was dressed in plain clothes and sat in the car with a pale face. The baby in her arms was still crying, and she looked at Wang Mang standing outside the car window with blank eyes.

"Let's go, go to Nanton. There, no one will know you're alive. ”

Wang Mang sighed softly, looked at the crying baby in her arms, and said astringently, "Put ...... He raised it well. At least, leave a bloodline for Wang Yu. ”

The coachman drove the carriage away. From beginning to end, Lu Yan never said a word.

Looking at the carriage all the way to the east, Wang Mang slowly turned around and looked at the majestic Chang'an City in front of him.

"I'm sorry, Yu'er. But there's only so much I can do. ”

Wang Mang smiled bitterly and was about to step forward, but his body tilted and he planted himself on the ground.

"Teacher!"

A pair of arms supported Wang Mang to avoid the embarrassment of him falling.

Wang Mang turned his head to look at Wang Mu, who was worried, and smiled faintly: "It's okay......" Before he finished speaking, a mouthful of blood spurted out of his mouth, and then the whole person's complexion seemed to decay a lot.

Wang Mang smiled bitterly: "People are not plants and trees, who can be ruthless." ”

Wang Mu hugged Wang Mang, as if he wanted to say something, but hesitated. In his eyes, this uncle and teacher seem to have rarely been so weak over the years, but this is also closer to the person who teased him back then.

When was that? Wang Mu narrowed his eyes and fell into memory. The Wang family is a prominent family of the government and the opposition, a big family is also happy together, the young Wang Mu got along with Wang Mang for a period of time, and Wang Mang at that time was a profligate gangster. I took Xiao Wang Mu to play around all day long, digging birds and fishing, and Wang Mang's father was so angry that he couldn't scold, only saying that you have to bring bad things to the little ones yourself. However, that time was Wang Mu's happiest days.

The change was on a snowy afternoon, Wang Mang took Wang Mu to drink in the warm pavilion. After Wang Mang drank a cup of wine, Wang Mu suddenly felt that his uncle was unfamiliar. The way he took the wine, his eyes, and the momentum he exuded as a whole person were completely different from Wang Mang on weekdays. In the following days, Wang Mu found that Wang Mang began to read, holding a copy of the "Analects" that he usually annoyed the most.

However, Xiao Wang Mu didn't care about his uncle's abnormality, and he gradually became estranged from Wang Mang. It wasn't until a few years later that Wang Mu saw Wang Mang again, when his uncle was already standing in the court.

Wang Mu and Wang Mang talked at night until the sky turned white, if he only had a little closeness to this uncle in his childhood, then after this night, he was completely impressed by Wang Mang's high opinion of the world.

The terms he had never heard before, the wisdom he had never thought of, the whimsy that he had never understood......

Wang Mu was completely immersed in it, and from then on, he dedicated his life to Wang Mang, believing that his uncle could lead him to realize the ideal he had told him, and create a dynasty without a real Han dynasty.