“Look, Squire Wen, do you know the man in this portrait?”
Wen Zhong took a closer look and felt some familiarity between his eyebrows, but could not recall where he had seen him before.
“This is ……”
“Gu Yi!”
“Gu Yi?”
Duke Qi nodded, “This is what Gu Yi looked like before he came to the capital, and then it was said that his face turned into what it is now because of the pox.”
Wen Zhong picked up the portrait again and looked at it carefully, the more he looked at it, the more he thought it looked like Gu Yi.
“It’s really him, but ……”
Before he finished his words, Duke Qi took out another portrait and placed it in front of him, “Do you see any resemblance between him and this man in the portrait?”
Wen Zhong put the two portraits together, narrowed his eyes and finished comparing them, nodded his head, “There are a few resemblances.”
The Duke of Qi pointed to the second portrait he held out, “Do you know who this portrait is?”
“Please also tell me, Your Highness.”
“The King of Qin back then.”
Wen Zhong rose to his feet with a loud movement that almost brought his chair over, “King Chin?”
The Duke of Qi sat back in his chair and nodded.
Wen Zhong was too shocked to say anything.
When King Qin assassinated the current emperor, he had already joined the Ministry of the Household. But that was when he was an odd jobber and had never seen King Qin at all, nor did he know what he looked like.
Later, King Qin was disposed of, and all the members of the King Qin’s household were punished for treason. No one, from the civil and military officials down to the common people, dared to comment on it, and naturally he was no exception.
“The only son of King Qin was sent away before he entered the palace to commit regicide, and with him disappeared King Qin’s sister, as well as the steward of King Qin’s house. For so many years, His Majesty has been sending people to search for him, but there is not a single clue. When we old ministers saw how worried His Majesty was, we wanted to help him with his worries, so we kept our eyes peeled for him. A few days ago, this portrait was sent to me, so on the day of the temple exams, I let Gu Yi into the hall on Song Si Zhi’s account, trying to get the emperor to recognise him, but unfortunately he was too cunning and was able to muddle through with a few words.”
Wen Zhong had not yet recovered from his shock.
“Your Majesty can, can go directly to Qing, Qingping County to investigate.”
“I have sent people there, all to no avail, which makes me feel more and more suspicious. Gu Yi has now climbed into the Xu family, and the slightest mistake could see me being bitten back by the Xu family, so we need to have ironclad evidence.”
Wen Zhong’s heart almost jumped out of his chest.
Back then, the emperor gave King Qin the punishment of boning, ordering the executioner to cut off the flesh of King Qin’s body piece by piece alive for several hours until he bled out and died, so this shows how much the emperor hates King Qin, if he can be sure that Gu Yi is the son of King Qin ……”
He took a step forward in excitement, “What does Your Majesty need me to do?”
The Duke of Qi beckoned, and Wen Zhong padded over.
……
A day later, Shen Yan sent a letter saying that he had found the family Huo had previously married.
Song Wan Yue stopped Xu Yan who was going to go, “Gu Yi and I will go, we are small and will not be easily suspected if we go to inquire, uncle is at ease at home with his maternal great grandfather, if we find out anything, we will immediately send someone back to tell uncle.”
If it was in the past, Xu Yan was definitely not at ease, but since he had seen Gu Yi and Shen Yan fight that day, Xu Yan was very relieved to let the two of them go to work now.
However, he still instructed, “Be careful, don’t act recklessly, and listen to Shen Yan.”
Song Wangyue agreed and rode with Gu Yi to the city gate to meet up with Shen Yan.
Seeing that it was the two of them who came in the carriage, Shen Yan frowned slightly. The family was thirty miles outside the city, so if they went there in the carriage, they might not be able to return by nightfall.
“Uncle Shen.”
Song Wangyue called out to someone.
Looking at her face similar to Xu Qingyuan’s, Shen Yan’s words to let them go back took a turn at his mouth and swallowed back, “Can you ride a horse?”
He was asking this of Gu Yi.
Gu Yi nodded his head, “Yes.”
Shen Yan had someone bring a horse over, and then extended his hand towards Song Wangyue, wanting her to get on his horse, after all, Gu Yi was still young, and it was fine for one person to ride a horse, but with Song Wangyue, it might be a little difficult.
Gu Yi pulled Song Wan Yue over and helped her onto the horse first, then got on himself, looking at him defensively and saying in an unkind manner, “This is my daughter-in-law.”
Shen Yan, ……
was angry and laughed.
He had people prying into Huo’s and Wen Zhong’s affairs in addition to Gu Yi’s these days, and learned that he had a bit of a brain problem, and wondered if he was doing it to cover his tracks, but it turned out to be a real problem.
“Then you have to protect yourself, I don’t care if anything happens on the way.”
Gu Yi proudly raised his chin, “It will be fine.”
Shen Yan instructed the coachman to wait outside the city, raised his whip and spurred his horse to gallop out, Gu Yi also shook the reins and followed him steadily.
Thirty miles away was an affluent town, where every family was in business, and people of all shapes and sizes came and went in the streets.
They entered the town without attracting any attention.
Shen Yan slowed down his horse and came to a silk shop, dismounted and went in.
The silk seller was an old couple who were very enthusiastic when they saw them enter, “What do you want to buy?”
“I want to buy a silk.”
Song Wangyue answered before Shen Yan.
“You’ve come to the right place, we’ve been operating this silk shop for many years, we have all kinds of good satin, see what you like?”
“Good.”
Song Wangyue really looked around seriously and thought that this one was good and that one was also good, so she asked Gu Yi with great difficulty, “Which one do you think is better for sister Ling’er?”
Sister Ling’er?
The old man’s heart moved and he asked, seemingly casually, “Little girl, how old is the girl you are giving away?”
“Fourteen years old. Uncle Wen has just betrothed him and I want to buy a silk to congratulate her.”
“Wen?”
The old man was vaguely excited, “What a coincidence, my surname is also Wen.”
“Is that so?”
Song Wangyue was surprised.
The old man nodded his head repeatedly.
“Then you’ll have to give me a bargain.”
“Good talk. I will give you a bargain when the girl chooses which one she wants.”
“Thank you, old man.”
The old man said no even.
Seeing Song Wangyue lower her head to pick again, she couldn’t help but go up to him, “You don’t sound like a local, are you going to the capital to visit relatives?”
“Well, I used to play with my sister Ling’er when I was a child, and when I heard she was engaged, I wanted to go and see how my future brother-in-law was doing, I think I should not be wrong, Uncle Wen is now a minister of the Household Ministry.”
Speaking of Wen Zhong, Song Wan Yue had a proud tone.
The old man’s hands were shaking as he shouted, “Wife, quickly pour tea for the guests, let them sit down and take their time to pick.”
The old woman answered, turned and went to the backyard, and quickly brought over tea.
Song Wangyue even said that she didn’t need it, she had to hurry after picking her food.
“I’m not going to hide it from you, but I still have some connections with your Uncle Wen.”
“Huh?”