Chapter 604 Anqi and Long Yin

She felt a bit hungry, so she put all the dishes on the table into her storage space and heated them up in the microwave.

Only then did the two of them actually start eating.

Ji Yuntang ate while making small talk with Luo Junhe.

She asked, "A He, now that your legs are better, what's the first thing you want to do?"

She'd assumed the first thing he'd mention was going out for a walk to see the world.

After all, he had spent so many years in the mansion and had hardly ever left.

Except for the time she participated in the Canglang Poetry Talk competition, when Luo Junhe had Chen Hu carry him out.

Other than that, he had never been anywhere, so he must have wanted to go out and relax for a long time.

But unexpectedly, Luo Junhe said, "What I want to do most, besides being with you, is to save people."

"Save people? Who?" Ji Yuntang paused with her chopsticks mid-air, looking at him in confusion.

Luo Junhe looked at her, set down his chopsticks, and said, "A Tang, do you remember when I told you I have two personal guards?"

Ji Yuntang thought hard and realized he had indeed mentioned it, but it was so long ago she couldn't recall the details.

She asked, "What happened to them?"

Luo Junhe then explained in detail, "Their names are Anqi and Long Yin. They've served me since they were seven years old."

"To me, they're not just personal guards—they're my most trusted right-hand men, and also the Left and Right Envoys of the Longyue Army. We're as close as brothers."

"But three years ago, after I was severely injured and fell into a coma, they were framed and met with misfortune. Now they've been exiled to Liangzhoukou."

As Luo Junhe said this, his eyes suddenly darkened, and a storm brewed in his eyes, radiating danger.

When Ji Yuntang heard "Liangzhoukou," she paused briefly. She had seen that place on the map of the four nations.

It was located at the southernmost tip of the Dongchen Kingdom, and like the famous Ningguta, it was a notorious place of exile.

The conditions there were extremely harsh—remote, sparsely populated, with poor economic and medical infrastructure.

Emperor Jingyang exiled criminals there partly as punishment, partly to develop the region—having them reclaim wasteland, build roads and bridges, and dig canals through the mountains.

But in reality, along that twelve-hundred-kilometer journey, many prisoners died on the way before even reaching Liangzhoukou.

And as for that place, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it a living hell, because although the court could issue orders, it had effectively lost control over the region.

Even if Emperor Jingyang tried to intervene, the officials at Liangzhoukou would only go through the motions, paying lip service to the court.

Once exiled there, a criminal could basically never return.

Ji Yuntang felt a weight in her heart. She said nothing and waited in silence for Luo Junhe to continue.

Luo Junhe took a moment to compose himself before calming down. He took Ji Yuntang's hand.

"I'm sorry, A Tang. I lost control."

Ji Yuntang shook her head. She could understand how Luo Junhe felt—his most trusted right-hand men had been framed, their fates unknown, so it was only natural that he was worried.

Ji Yuntang asked, "Why were they exiled?"

In the Dongchen Kingdom, exile was second only to the execution of nine generations of one's family, and it was one of the four major severe punishments.

Unless the crime was extremely serious, with Anqi and Long Yin's martial arts skills and status, they shouldn't have been exiled.

Luo Junhe pursed his lips, calmed his emotions, and then said, "It's a long story. Let me give you the short version."

"The court prohibits the illegal salt trade, but it has never been able to stop it. Someone reported to the court that a large amount of private salt was found in my villa on the outskirts of the capital."

"But that villa—I hadn't visited it in over a decade. No one was left to clean or manage it; it was just locked from the outside."

"At that time, I had just been ambushed by a spy and injured in the legs and eyes. I had traveled back to the capital from the battlefield, exhausted, and was preparing to rest and recover in the mansion."

"But then people from the Ministry of Justice came to my door, claiming that I was smuggling salt, committing the crime of smuggling, and demanding I go to the Ministry for investigation."

"Everyone knows that smuggling salt is a serious crime—in severe cases, it could get your entire family executed. But at that time, I couldn't move easily and couldn't personally investigate the matter to prove my innocence."

"Anqi and Long Yin, to protect me and let me recover properly in the mansion, volunteered to go with the officials to the Ministry of Justice."

"I originally thought they were just going to investigate the matter and would come back once it was done. But who would have thought—the Ministry of Justice threatened them by putting my life on the line, demanding that they testify that I was the one privately smuggling and selling that batch of salt."

"Anqi and Long Yin knew I was in a difficult position and refused to compromise. So the Ministry of Justice directly locked them up, threw them into the dungeon, and convicted them on the spot."

"They publicly claimed that the salt was secretly transported by Anqi and Long Yin themselves and hidden in my villa—that I knew nothing about it and had nothing to do with it."

"When my father heard about this, he flew into a rage. He confiscated the private salt and ordered Anqi and Long Yin to be exiled to Liangzhoukou, to be sent there immediately."

"I didn't even get to see them one last time before they were exiled."

Luo Junhe's voice was filled with intense self-reproach and despair. He felt that if it weren't for him, Anqi and Long Yin wouldn't have suffered this calamity.

They had clearly been framed. The culprits had simply found private salt in his villa and then hastily convicted the two of them.

Moreover, they couldn't produce any solid evidence tying the matter to Anqi and Long Yin.

By the time Luo Junhe recovered enough to help them, Emperor Jingyang had already stripped him of his military authority. Then, at a palace banquet, a fire had disfigured his face and blinded him, leaving him paralyzed in bed ever since.

He couldn't even take care of himself, let alone help the two of them.

This matter had become a constant thorn in his side—every time he thought about it, it pained him deeply.

Ji Yuntang was lost in thought after hearing his story.

Based on what he said, the Ministry of Justice had convicted them so easily, which meant there must have been another hand behind it all.

The mastermind had originally wanted to harm Luo Junhe, but for various reasons hadn't succeeded. So they turned their attention to Anqi and Long Yin, convicting his two trusted aides and exiling them to Liangzhoukou.

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