The Duke of Qi was sitting in the parlour of the Wen House, and after listening to the report of his subordinates, he did not even have the heart to drink his tea and put it on the table.
If Song Wangyue and Gu Yi were caught by the people last night, someone would send the letter to the Duke of Ding’s residence, and if they were not caught, the people would also sue the capital government, and then Song Wangyue and Gu Yi would also be summoned to the court, they set up such a big game to see the reaction of the Duke of Ding’s residence after hearing about Gu Yi’s accident.
But now the Duke of Ding has not come out at all, only Xiao Zheng and Xiao Yao have gone, which does not mean that Gu Yi is the son of the King of Qin.
“There is one more person.”
The Duke of Qi looked to Wen Zhong.
“The one from Kunli Palace, if Gu Yi is really the son of King Qin, she should know about it too.”
Duke Dingguo narrowed his eyes.
After a long moment he called his personal servant in and gave a few instructions, who quickly left the Wen Mansion.
……
The lobby of the Capital Mansion.
After some deliberation, the capital’s governor favoured Song Wangyue’s statement that they had no grudge against the deceased, so why did they want to kill him? It was obvious that someone had set up a trap to frame them, or to blackmail them.
When he thought of this, he slapped the wood heavily and asked the man, “Let me ask you, when you heard the noise and ran out, were you sure that the deceased had been smashed to death?”
“No, not sure.”
Sweat broke out on the man’s head.
“If you weren’t sure, why didn’t you rush in to save the people in the first place? Was it a trap you set up to blackmail them out of their silver, as the accused said?”
“No, absolutely not.”
The man waved his hands in panic, and the people kneeling next to him followed suit and denied it.
“Then explain to this officer why you didn’t rush in to save the people at the first opportunity, since you have been neighbours for many years?”
“I, we ……”
The man’s beads of sweat dripped to the ground.
“We were so focused on not letting them get away that we didn’t, didn’t, didn’t think, didn’t think about it.”
“You’re full of sh*t, come on, pull them down and serve them up.”
“Someone gave me money and told me to go out and stop them when I heard the house collapse, and if I couldn’t stop them, to shout for help.”
……
Kunli Palace.
Two palace maids were “whispering” in the courtyard, “Have you heard? Xu Qingwan’s daughter killed someone with her fiancé last night in order to investigate what happened back then, and was taken to the Capital Palace this morning.”
Xiao Xianfei heard it clearly, and her hand, which was embroidering, shook, and the needle stuck in her finger, and bright red beads of blood emerged.
“Your Majesty.”
Sister Liu exclaimed and took a handkerchief to wrap it.
“I’m fine, you go to ……”
The words stalled in mid-sentence.
“What does Your Majesty want to say?”
“Nothing.”
Consort Xiao Xian gestured for her to remove the handkerchief and signalled for the palace maid to bring a basin of water for her to wash her hands and continue her embroidery.
A short while later, one of the palace maids quietly exited Kunli Palace.
……
“Yue’er, is everything all right.”
Just as she walked out of the Capital Mansion, Xiao Yao came up and sized her up carefully.
“It’s fine, thanks to Uncle Shen.”
It was only with Shen Yan present that the capital magistrate favoured them, otherwise he would not have moved against the man so quickly.
“It scared the hell out of me, I ran back to the house and called my father over, it’s good that you guys are okay, it’s good that you’re okay.”
“Brother Xiao.”
Shen Yan spoke first.
The two used to be the same Shishu, and had played together before. Later, because of the matter of the King of Qin, the Duke of Ding’s House was implicated, and the Duke of Ding asked the Emperor to accept Xiao Zheng’s position as Shishu, and Shen Yan was stationed at the border all year round, so there were very few opportunities to meet each other.
“Shen Shizi.”
Shen Yan did not mind his address, “I happen to be free today, can I invite Brother Xiao to have a small drink.”
Xiao Zheng pondered in his heart the purpose of his invitation to drink, but on his lips he said, “I am naturally grateful for the invitation from Shizi Shen.”
“Please.”
The two men left.
Song Wangyue said, “Gu Yi and I also have to go back to the house, will Sister Xiao go to South City or go home?”
“I’m a bit unwell, so I’ll go home first and then go to South City in the afternoon.”
“Hold out your hand, I’ll take your pulse.”
Xiao Yao helped her to straighten the hairpin on her head, “No need, I was just scared by you guys, I’ll be fine when I go back and lie down. When you guys go back, give it to your aunt at your discretion, don’t let her worry.”
Song Wan Yue responded and got on the carriage with Gu Yi, waving goodbye to Xiao Yao.
Xiao Yao smiled and waved her hand, waiting for their carriage to go far away before she turned around and got into her own carriage, instructing the coachman to return to the Ding Guo Mansion.
……
The carriage stopped in front of the Xu Mansion, and Song Wan Yue and Gu Yi had just gotten down when they heard a rush of footsteps from inside, followed by Xu Yan, Xu Shi and Song Lin appearing at the door, and when they saw them, the three of them quickly stepped forward, Xu Shi asking eagerly, “Yue’er, Yi’er, what happened?”
The servant who had just gone out to buy vegetables had run back to the house in a panic, saying that the two of them had been arrested and taken to the Capital Mansion, and the three of them were about to go there.
“We were careless.”
Song Wangyue didn’t want to hide it, but the doorway wasn’t the place to talk, “Let’s go into the mansion and talk.”
The crowd went to the old gentleman’s house.
What had happened could not be concealed even if they wanted to, so instead of worrying the old man, it was better to tell him the truth.
Song Wangyue told him what had happened
All the people in the room were scared afterwards. If Song Wangyue had not asked Xiao Si to send a message to Shen Yan in advance, the consequences would have been unthinkable if the two of them had been caught last night.
“At first I thought they were trying to capture me to negotiate terms with the family, but I thought carefully all night last night, Wen Zhong is not someone without a heart, he couldn’t have messed up without evidence from the Xu family and kidnapped me to negotiate terms with the family, plus with what happened in the lobby of the Capital Mansion today, I felt as if he was testing something. ”
Gu Yi sat on the side, listening to Song Wan Yue’s words, his eyebrows were calm, but in his heart, he thought of the biggest possibility, this was all aimed at him, they were using him to force the Ding Guo Gong House to take action so that they could prove his identity, Wen Zhong should have joined hands with the Qi Guo Gong.
The Duke of Qi?
Gu Yi thought of Zhang Huai.
“What are they trying to test?”
Song Lin asked anxiously.
Song Wangyue shook her head, this was what she couldn’t understand.
The old gentleman and Xu Yan were also deep in thought.
……
Inside the elegant room of the tavern.
Shen Yan and Xiao Zheng had already drunk a few glasses of wine, but the dishes on the table had barely been touched.
Shen Yan put down his cup and said without moving, “That day when Wan’er remembered the truth about that year, Brother Xu told me that I was going to take Wen Zhong’s life right away, but was stopped by one person ……”
Not hearing his following words, Xiao Zheng also put down his wine cup and was slightly curious, “There are not many people in this world who can stop the Shen Shi Zi.”
Shen Yan lazily leaned back in his chair, but his sharp eyes were fixed on Xiao Zheng, “Yes, I also didn’t expect a kid in his early teens to have such high martial arts skills, and I was very familiar with his martial arts path.”
Xiao Zheng’s heart sank fiercely, and his face tightened up a bit.
Shen Yan saw it clearly, and the suspicion in his heart was confirmed. He poured himself a glass of wine without slowing down, but did not drink it, but wrote a few words on the table with a dip of his finger.
Xiao Zheng’s face changed greatly.