Tian Qi sat back on the chair and straightened up, but he quickly sank down a little weakly as he clinged to the back of the chair. After pondering for a moment, he calmly spoke, "I don't quite understand what you mean by that. ”

Feng Jiu sighed and said, "When a person's ability is too much higher than where he is, it will always feel a little abrupt, and there will always be a reason. ”

After hesitating for a while, he finally said all the doubts in his heart: "I don't think that if Xiangye becomes a commoner one day, he will be willing to be a commoner who plows the fields and fishes for a living; I also don't think that if one day the dynasty changes hands, and His Majesty the Emperor hides in the mountains with the remnants of his army, he will always be willing to live an ordinary life with the purpose of hiding and saving his life. ”

Tian Qi's eyes widened slightly when he heard this.

Take the analogy between the head of his own family and the supreme of the whole country, even if this analogy is only virtual, but Feng Jiu can say this, it is not arrogant. However, Tian Qi did not say the word "lie" with rebuke as before, because he was also faintly aware of a problem and waited for Feng Jiu's next revelation.

"The strength of power increases a person's confidence, and it is pride that is always accompanied by faith." Feng Jiu said calmly, "I don't believe that a person with such strong martial arts and who has not yet reached the age of decay would be willing to shrink into such a small temple and do the thing of ringing bells and reciting scriptures for the rest of his life." In addition, he was able to get the closeness of Cen Chi, a talented and arrogant person who treats anyone well, but at the same time keeps a distance from anyone, or that the two have the same smell as each other, which shows that his heart is not as plain as that of ordinary monks. ”

After a slight pause, he said in an emphatic tone: "This is my hypothetical inference that I suspect that he is not a monk in the first place. ”

"Your inference is very absurd until it is supported by actual evidence." Tian Qi first denied Feng Jiu's sentence. Touching the hilt of the saber at his waist, he pondered for a moment, and then said in affirmativeness: "But if your inference is correct, then this inference will be extended to bring more things that are difficult to determine and doubtful. ”

"If you want to seek evidence, you can only report the inference process of this matter to Xiangye and Gongzi, and they are the ones who have the means, it only depends on whether they are willing to investigate." Feng Jiu said in a steady voice: "No matter what, as a member of the Ten Generals, I will speak up bluntly about anything that may endanger the interests of the Xiangye." ”

"Don't be impulsive just yet." Tian Qi turned his head sideways. Stretched out two fingers and shook Feng Jiu, and then said softly: "You said this to Xiang Ye at this time, have you considered what Xiang Ye will think of you?" ”

Feng Jiu was slightly stunned. Then he said slightly anxiously: "I can't ......"

Tian Qiping stretched out a palm and pressed it on the table without strength, although it only made a slight sound, he suppressed the words that Feng Jiu wanted to rush out of his throat.

"Xiao Jiu, just now you also said that you might be dragged down by your own fast mouth. Tell me to remind you more, and listen to my brother......"

Tian Qi coughed dryly, clearing his mind because he had said too many things that should not be talked about at this time, and he felt slightly nervous, so his throat was a little dry, and his mind was also calm. Then he continued slowly: "It's not that we have lost Xiangye's favor for our own selfishness, it's just that now Cen Chi is being reused by Xiangye, and at this time you go to tell him these unfounded words." To deny Cen Chi, Xiangye may not believe it all. You told Xiang Ye these things, in order to make Xiang Ye wary, but if you can't achieve this goal, Xiang Ye will annoy you. Isn't it too much to lose? ”

Feng Jiu fell silent and calmed down a bit.

"Let's keep an eye on it first. You don't have to worry. Although Xixin's martial arts are strong, the strength of one person is not the opponent of the sum of the strength of a legion after all. As for Cen Chi's side, if there is any abnormal movement, only one of the ten generals will be able to completely control him. He has great things, but his weaknesses are also obvious. ”

Tian Qi suddenly sighed when he said this, and said quietly: "However, my attitude towards this matter is that I don't want things to deteriorate in this direction. If these things do not exist, Cen Chi should be a perfect person in terms of wisdom and character, and the attitude of Xiangye and Gongzi towards him is not false, and it is not without reason. What's more, such people are rare in this world after all, and they are all opportunities, and it will always be a pity to lose them. ”

Feng Jiu understood the meaning of Tian Qi's words, and also deeply understood that his inference just now was really too impulsive. And his ability to weigh the benefits and disadvantages is very narrow, and he is not as good as the seventh brother who sits opposite him.

Therefore, Feng Jiu was still a little skeptical that his speculation that had not yet been implemented was false.

However, when he fell into silence, Tian Qi had a trace of curiosity in his heart. After a long silence in this corner room, he suddenly opened his mouth to break the silence, and the curiosity in his heart was not concealed.

"Xiao Jiu, I listened to the meaning of what you said just now, it seems that you have your own inferences about Xixin's things that may affect Xiangye's interests?"

Hearing this, Feng Jiu raised his head slightly drooping, thought about it for a moment, hesitated for a moment, and finally said softly: "This idea is still very vague, if it ......"

Before he could finish his sentence, he suddenly shut up a little abruptly. Seeing this, Tian Qi didn't ask, but as if he felt something, he immediately turned his head to look out the door.

It didn't take long for a figure to appear on the gravel road outside the door.

Tian Qi easily recognized that the woman who was walking with broken steps was the girl ring beside Cen Chi, and so was Feng Jiu. The two looked at each other, then stood up together and walked out the door.

The two thought that Cen Chi and Xi Xin's afternoon meditation activities had ended and were about to go back, but when the two of them walked out of the corner room, they didn't see Cen Chi's figure. After chatting a little, they realized that Cen Chi should not be able to go back for a while, so the three of them went back to the corner room together to rest.

These three people have not been in the Xiangfu for a short time, and in the eyes of Tian Qi and Feng Jiu, Xiao Qiang, who was only a few years old and sold herself into slavery in the Xiangfu, is easy for them to see their former shadows, and they are also prone to common topics when they are not much different in age. Although in the past in the mansion, Tian and Feng were in different positions with Xiao Qiang and did unrelated things, but the two of them still had a different affection for Xiao Qiang than they did for other servants of the Prime Minister's Mansion.

So these three people are willing to sit together to pass the boring time, during which the atmosphere is not too monotonous, and they can always talk about something.

And when Xiao Qiang naturally talked about the process of listening to Xixin and Cen Chi talk about Zen in the meditation room, and finally talked about the past when she actually fell asleep on the futon, Feng and Tian both laughed lightly with her. That kind of laughter did not have the slightest hint of frivolity, and the three of them were as harmonious and natural as brothers and sisters with different surnames chatting about family life.

Xiao Qiang's Zen preaching process also felt boring to Feng and Tian, but their inner cultivation was exquisite, and their minds were much more determined than ordinary people, and they would not fall asleep like Xiao Qiang did when she was in the meditation room. But if this is left to others, maybe they won't have the patience to continue listening as well as the two of them.

In such an afternoon chat, neither Toufeng nor Tian interrupted Xiao Qiang's words. In addition to the fact that they have some familiarity with Xiao Qiang that have accumulated over time, it is also because of the conversation between the two of them just now.

The suspicion and speculation made the two of them faintly try to catch the clues in Xiao Qiang's words and the evidence they wanted.

……

Ye Masa's residence is located in a secluded alley southeast of Kyoto, and the architectural nature of this urban area is also dominated by small individual residences. Just after midnight, when Kyoto residents generally start making lunch, smoke rises from the chimneys on the top of the kitchens of the small houses lined up in the city. Some of the living habits of ordinary people formed by ordinary people's ordinary lives are as if they have been trained in military discipline.

Therefore, when the time moved back an hour and a half to this hour, and all the families had finished their lunch, and most of them were taking a nap, in the chimney phalanx that had quieted down, a thin wisp of smoke slowly rose from the chimney of Ye Zhengming's kitchen, which looked a little abrupt...... And a little lonely.

But in this lazy afternoon, I'm afraid few people will pay attention to this anomaly!

For the servants in Yefu, the advance or delay of the time to cook is not a big deal. This is already the norm in Ye Mansion in normal times, not to mention that there are guests here today.

It's just that the guests who came here today are so strange. There are guests with unfamiliar faces, and this is not a strange place for people to visit. What made the few servants of the Ye Mansion so strange that they couldn't help but talk a few words was the extremely ugly face of the guest.

There was also a servant woman who was in charge of washing in the mansion mentioned that when she saw the sick child brought by the strange-faced guest, her appearance was somewhat similar to the portrait of the woman hanging in the small ancestral hall at the end of the Ye Mansion.

However, the servant's words were only a person's uncertain speculation, but the strange appearance of the ugly young man's face was obvious to all, and the comparison between these two passages made it easy to ignore the servant's reasoning.

In fact, if you seriously investigate the inference of this servant woman, it can really be regarded as a major incident in Ye Zhengming's family!

However, ordinary people are accustomed to concentrating most of their attention on the most conspicuous brilliance of the matter, and since there is not even a single servant in the palace who knows the origin of the portrait, there is naturally no reason to pursue this vague discovery, and the matter is naturally omitted with great lightness.