In the temple of Zhiyun.

"It turns out that it was not so easy to open a shop in ancient times." Gu Qing looked at the account book and muttered to himself quietly.

From its opening to the present, all kinds of games have been sold very rarely, and even if they are sold, they are all C-grade, which is completely unexpected by Gu Qing. She originally imagined that the ancients, whose lives were so boring, would be extremely interested in seeing these games, even if the first-class ones didn't sell much, the C-class ones would be sold out of stock.

What went wrong? Too expensive? No, she also inquired in all directions, and the price is definitely reasonable.

That is, not enough popularity? Do you want people to go out on the streets and hand out leaflets?

In this world, there are few literate people, and they may not be able to recognize them when they distribute leaflets.

"Shopkeeper Wu, look, why don't we do some activities?" Gu Qing said with some hesitation: "For example, sell at a lower price, or buy something and give something for free?" ”

Jiayun's father secretly complained in his heart. Every day when he falsified these accounts, his hair was already gray, not to mention that some family members who were running outside heard some rumors and came to ask him, he didn't dare to say anything, and he had to pretend that everything was going well when he arrived in Zhiyun Courtyard, and he was not a person with a good mind, so he was naturally exhausted.

"That's ...... Not so good. Didn't the people who bought it have an opinion? "Mama Hua has already expected that something bad must have happened in Linglong Pavilion, and this matter must be known to the Duke of Xinguo, and let the whole house hide it from Mrs. Qiu.

She felt that Li Mao should not do this for no reason, since it was for the good of Mrs. Qiu, she was willing to help one or two.

"Yes, I must be very angry when I bought it at the original price. I'm so stupid, I should have done something to attract people when I opened! Gu Qing said dejectedly, "I still think that the aroma of wine is not afraid of deep alleys, it turns out that everyone likes to play, but they may not necessarily buy it." ”

"It's not so pessimistic, and the word of mouth is out, so it's naturally easy to do." Mama Hua comforted her, "You are not short of money now, whether this shop is good or bad is to try your hand, don't take it too seriously, be careful of affecting your mood." ”

The shopkeeper nodded desperately, he often heard his daughter say that Mama Hua is a powerful person, but now he doesn't see it, he just thinks that Mama Hua is really a kind person!

Gu Qing was not distressed about losing money, but felt that he was very incompetent. In the novel, the heroine has crossed over, not to mention that she can charm Toshihiko Quartet, at least she can do a business, but when she comes to herself, she can't even open a board game room.

If she hadn't dressed as the old lady of the Xinguo Mansion, she was afraid that she would starve to death.

The shopkeeper of Linglong Pavilion went back with the account book, because the results were too dismal, Gu Qing felt uncomfortable every time he looked at it, so he asked him to come once every seven days.

Jiayun stood behind Gu Qing, his face full of shame. Mrs. Tai trusted her, so she handed over the store to her father, who expected that his father was not doing well, and there was no business in this store for so many days, and Mrs. Tai was tired to worry about it.

Gu Qing let out a long breath and decided to find something happy to divert his attention.

"Rui'er is coming back today, right?" Gu Qing pinched his fingers and calculated, "Today happens to be the fifth day." turned around and asked him to take Li Zhao to catch ducks and grow vegetables, and personally demonstrate his agile skills. The kid always thought I was fooling him. ”

Li Zhao has now followed the footsteps of his two children into the footsteps of "farming". It's just that Li Zhao is more squeamish than Li Rui and Li Ming, not only are they afraid of insects, fertilizers, but they also feel hard to dig pits and fill the soil.

On the first day of catching ducks, I accidentally stepped on duck droppings, and the whole homecoming house could hear the call. Gu Qing watched him grow vegetables every morning, as if he was acting in a burlesque, and even Li Ming had come to see the excitement a few times and gloated.

Mama Hua nodded, "I think I'm going to be back soon." I went up to the front yard and gave an order, so that Young Master Rui came back and came directly to Zhiyun Courtyard. ”

"Or don't you have to, what if he has to go back to shower and change clothes or something? Go with him, anyway, in the evening, dinner is always used in Zhiyun Courtyard, and I will see it. ”

Gu Qing thought about Li Xiaopang at first, but then he got used to seeing each other once in five days, so he slowly adjusted his psychology of gains and losses, and began to use other things to divert his loss.

"Mrs. Tai, the master is here." Qi Yun opened the curtain and entered the house.

Gu Qing and Mama Hua glanced at each other.

Didn't it mean that the ministry was busy during this time, thousands of rebels had to be resettled and dealt with, and they came back late every day?

Why did you come back so early today?

Li Mao entered the house, first took the warm towel handed over by the servant and wiped his face, and then turned around to salute his mother.

Gu Qing was taken aback when he saw Li Mao's appearance, and asked cautiously:

"You're all right, are you?"

Could it be that you quarreled with the Fang clan and couldn't sleep well at night?

"What can I do?" Li Mao's heart suddenly burst, but a smile appeared on his face, "What is my mother talking about?" ”

"Look under your eyes, it's all blue, and you haven't slept well for a few nights?" Gu Qing comforted him bitterly, "In the next few months after the pregnant woman arrives, she won't be able to sleep well at night, so you have to take care of it a little more." If Fang Wan loses her temper inexplicably, don't blame her, it's normal to be pregnant. ”

Li Mao touched his eyes.

Has he been so obvious?

Aren't Ming'er and Fang Wan, who slept in the same room with him every day, even more worried?

What do they not say?

"My son knows that the department is busy these days, and he has to be busy until late every day, and he wakes up at night after going back, so he doesn't look very good, and his son will pay attention to his body." Li Mao responded to Gu Qing's words, and then said: "By the way, mother, Li Rui asked someone to bring me a message, saying that his homework was too poor, and the palace master did not agree to him going home, so he had to finish his homework before he could take a vacation." I'll come back to the ward, don't wait for Rui'er for dinner at night. ”

"He's bad at schoolwork? Didn't Mr. Qi Yao and Mr. Du Jin say that they could already keep up with the classes of teenagers? Gu Qing's eyes widened.

In her eyes, Li Xiaopang is naturally very good, how could he suddenly become a bad student?

"Mother, I was confused in those years, and Rui'er's foundation was naturally weaker. It's enough on weekdays, but as soon as you enter the palace, which family hasn't been carefully cultivated since childhood? In such a comparison, the homework is naturally poor. "What Li Mao said is the truth, Li Rui did not be able to keep up with the course for half a month as soon as he entered the palace, and then he slowly got better.

"What's more, it's reading with the prince again. said that the homework was too bad, maybe the prince made a mistake, and there were people who wanted to stay and be punished together. ”

"Hey, people say that it is not easy to accompany the prince to study, and I can't imagine that it is not easy to accompany the prince to study." Gu Qing automatically skipped the part of "Rui'er's poor foundation", she firmly believed that Li Xiaopang was talented and intelligent, and there would never be such a situation as "I can't do my homework" or "I am at the bottom of the exam".

Li Rui must have just been affected by the eldest prince, well, definitely.

When Li Mao heard Gu Qing's words, he couldn't wait to echo them.

It's not easy! It's just not easy!

"Mother, there is one more thing to discuss with you. Wan'er is a month old now, and I'm really busy these days, you see, can I move her to your yard in a while, and I don't have to worry about waking up my wife and children too late when I go back from the study......"

Gu Qing saw that Li Mao's complexion was obviously not good for a while, and he also felt that this man was really not easy, so he hurriedly agreed.

"Don't worry, I've got the room ready, it's right next to me. I think we also have to prepare for Wenpo in advance, if we give birth early, wouldn't we be unprepared at all? ”

The nurse has already found it in advance, and there are a few mothers-in-law in the family who have just given birth, and when the Fang family is about to give birth, it is exactly three or four months, and the milk is the most sufficient.

"Everything depends on my mother, and I really can't take care of so much now." Li Mao wished that the old lady was as busy as possible, and it was best to be so busy that she couldn't see the flaws. For this reason, he had to go back and discuss with the Fang clan and the child later, so that the two of them could move to Zhiyun Courtyard together.

He now has trouble sleeping all night long, and he is really afraid of worrying his wife and children.

Gu Qing and Li Mao chatted for a while about Fang's waiting to give birth, and then led Li Mao to look at the room. This house used to be the residence of the nobles, and it was naturally built according to the pattern of prosperity of the people, although the Zhiyun Courtyard was only a courtyard, there were many entrances, and the place where the Fang family wanted to live was not far from Gu Qing's master bedroom, which was built according to the specifications of the concubine, and at this time, everything was ready, and Li Mao naturally had nothing to worry about.

After Li Mao left, Gu Qing looked at his back thoughtfully, and asked Mama Hua in a low voice: "Have you heard any bad rumors recently?" ”

Mama Hua shook her head. "No, I haven't heard that Madame has quarreled with the master."

Mama Hua is now in charge of the courtyard and outside the courtyard, and even Mama Hua didn't hear anything wrong, Gu Qing finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"I always felt like he was a little hard to say, but I couldn't see anything wrong. Let's hope it's okay. ”

Gu Qing looked at the direction of the door and sighed.

In the back house all day long, it's really aggrieved, and I can't even look at my own store.

Li Rui's affairs have reached a point where they are getting worse, during which Li Mao secretly went to see his nephew once, gave him some clothes and bedding, and found that he looked quite relaxed except that his spirit was not very good.

When asked him what was wrong with his spirits, he replied that he was bitten by insects at night and couldn't sleep well. Li Mao hurriedly asked his father-in-law to send some anti-itching medicine in.

On the fourth day after the death of the prince of Xiangcheng, Li Mao was secretly stuffed with a note when he was in the court.

Zhang Nuo, the Duke of Jin, wanted to see him.

It's finally here. If Jin Guogong didn't come to him again, he would pretend to be desperate and go to Jin Guogong.

Li Mao remembered the letter he had swallowed, looked at the note again, and was unwilling to swallow it anymore.

It's too unpalatable.

The so-called emperor stood by and threw Li Rui as an outcast, all of which were the foreshadowing of Chu Rui's doing. He had to make everyone feel that he was partial to the eldest prince, and the Xinguo Mansion once again became a person who "did his best" for the royal family in order to win people's trust.

In Li Mao and Chu Rui's plan, Li Rui went to the side of the eldest prince, and after a few years of running-in, the Zhang family and the Jiang family will try to influence the Xinguo Mansion through Li Rui's relationship, so as to achieve the goal of promoting the eldest prince as the prince.

As an important middleman, Li Rui needs to play a young man who is full of ambitions, but he is not allowed to pursue his ambition because he has not won the position of the son of the world. Li Rui, whose identity became embarrassing as his younger brother grew up, should also gradually alienate himself from the second room because of his identity.

And in order to show his ambiguous attitude towards the prince of the Xinguo Mansion, Chu Rui will not give Li Rui a knighthood too early, so that others think that he is still vacillating between which child will be the son of the world.

After all, Li Rui is following the eldest prince, and if Li Rui wins the position of the prince, he will almost announce to the world that he has chosen the eldest prince as the prince. Because only by adding help to the eldest prince will Li Rui become the son of the world.

Only Li Rui has been following the eldest prince and showing his unwillingness, so that the clan will believe that Li Rui needs them, because Li Mao will not give up his son to support his nephew, there is no such selfless person in this world, and Li Mao is not like such a selfless person.

All these plans are well planned, but at a critical time, the Duke of Jin is worried.

In the past three years, how can Li Rui enter the eyes of Zhang Nuo, who has been closed, and use him as a pawn in the game between monarchs and ministers?

Even Chu Rui was helpless.

And now the death of the prince of Xiangcheng has become a good opportunity.

When Li Mao found that there was really no way to fish out his nephew, he would compromise with the clan faction in exchange for a favor. Once Li Rui cleared his grievances and returned to the eldest prince, the Jin State Mansion would use this favor to keep dealing with Li Mao.

This gave Li Rui the opportunity to contact them, and also gave the emperor a chance to know what the Dao clan faction wanted to do.

Chu Rui detailed his concerns and thoughts in the letter, and also hoped that Li Mao could understand his approach, and his instructions to Li Mao were only one sentence:

"Whatever conditions they offer, promise it. I will protect you. ”

Therefore, Li Mao's shout of "I your ancestors for eighteen generations" is to vent his emotions on the one hand, and on the other hand, it is to say it to people who may be waiting for an opportunity to peep.

Li Mao was indeed discouraged by the emperor. He was discouraged not for anything else, but that this emperor was too risky, and even the world and his own son could be sacrificed, let alone their group of ministers.

All the emperor's plans were based on Zhang Nuo's willingness to negotiate terms with him. If Zhang Nuo was actually not interested in the struggle between the family and the imperial power, or was bent on bringing down the Xinguo Mansion and completely ignored his overtures, then Li Rui would really be thrown out.

And what will happen to Li Rui, who has no use value, Li Mao knows very well in his heart.

Therefore, the emperor forced him to do his best to gain the trust of the world, and also forced him to live a life of wrestling between the emperor and the family in the future.

His nephew is only fourteen years old, and he is about to start walking into this invisible future for his family.

In the eyes of the world, he has been firmly marked as the great prince, maybe the emperor just wants to use the battle between the princes to make the family behind several princes fight to the death, but their family agreed to assist the emperor at the beginning, did they do it wrong?

Li Mao went to see Zhang Nuo, the Duke of Jin, and Jiang Daoqi was present at the same time.

They were in a dwelling in the middle of the city, which from the outside looked like a small courtyard.

But who knew that there were two princes and a patriarch of the clan, and they were talking about such earth-shattering things.

Li Mao listened to Zhang Nuo's ideas, and couldn't help but speak:

"If you ask me to help the future prince when he needs help, I can naturally promise you now. My nephew is now the eldest prince's companion, and our family has nothing to do with the eldest prince no matter what. ”

"But...... If you want me to pretend to contradict you in the court in the future, and cooperate inside, I'm afraid I won't be able to do it. ”

If Li Maoruo agreed, Zhang Nuo and Jiang Daoqi would start to doubt his intentions. But Li Mao rejected the second proposal, but they felt that it was expected.

"Not to mention that there is no difference between the nobles and the family, and we have not forged any solid covenant through marriage or teacher-student relationship, and now they believe in me because I can bring them benefits. If I fight with you and see no good in it, and the two sides remain evenly divided, many noble ministers will be separated from me. Li Mao said quite bluntly, "But if you want to suffer all the time, you can't agree." ”

As soon as Li Mao's words came out, Jiang Daoqi said with a smile: "Li Guogong is too worried, we don't mean to let you fight with us all the time, but to seek practical benefits by 'fighting'. For example, now that the position of Zhenbei General of the Dingbei Army is vacant, we can let you get this position, as long as our clan faction shows that they are interested in this position and strives for it, His Majesty will favor you and let Xungui sit in this position. ”

"You might as well think about it, if we work together, it doesn't actually have any bad consequences for both sides, but it's a smooth road. It's just that His Majesty, he is still the king of his country, and the two of us work together, and his decrees can also be accessed, isn't it three wins with one stone? ”

Li Mao's heart was moved for a moment.

The emperor is wary of them, this is the instinct of the king, what if he creates an illusion that everything is in his hands? If he felt that everything was under his control, he would let his guard down on both the clan and the meritorious faction, and no one would need to be hounds or prey for hounds to chase.

At the thought that he could also play with the emperor on applause, Li Mao's whole person was about to tremble with excitement.

But then he thought about the Wei and Jin dynasties. At that time, the clan controlled the government, there was no fairness in the world, even if the children of the Han family were talented, they had no future, and the children of the clan in the future generations could be officials even if they were useless, it was such an absurd and unruly era, if it were not for a British lord who mastered a heavy army, and the emperor began to master the military power, I don't know when the era of the power of the Ludao clan will end.

So he can promise them to do what they do, but he can't really learn from the clan.

Li Mao felt that the Xinguo Mansion had become an important chess piece in the confrontation between the two sides. Both sides thought they would be on their side, and both sides thought they were shallow enough to be at will.

Everyone looked down on the Shinkoku Mansion and wanted to use it.

Why!

The blood belonging to the Li family in Li Mao's body boiled again, and every time he encountered adversity, he was extremely sober, and there was only one thought in his mind at the moment:

"Li Mao, let the Xinguo Mansion also give these smart people a little color, you can do it!"

You're Li Shuo's son!

He suppressed the fire in his heart, made an unwilling but helpless look, and asked Jiang Daoqi and Zhang Nuo:

"If I agree, how can I trust you? Li Rui will be interrogated by the third division in two days, how are you going to return my nephew's innocence? ”

Zhang Nuo and Jiang Daoqi looked at each other and smiled, as if they were not surprised at all that Li Mao would finally agree.

Li Mao looked at their overjoyed appearance, and sneered in his heart.

Hmph, you think I'm helpless? You claim to be wise, but you don't know that your thoughts have long been guessed by the emperor, and if you really talk about calculating people, you are still as clever as today's saints.

"Li Guogong, do you know that I have a daughter, who is fifteen years old this year......"

"I already have a wife, and it's impossible to marry again." Li Momu interrupted him with a blushing face, "No matter what the situation is, it is impossible for me to stop my wife and remarry, let alone marry a flat wife and come back." ”

"......Haha......ha He even thought we were going to marry Su Niang to him......"

Zhang Nuo also smiled and touched his nose, but he was not as out of shape as Jiang Daoqi, "I have heard for a long time that the Li family's 'family education' is very strict, and when I see it today, it really deserves its reputation, and if I want to come to your house to marry my daughter, I will be much luckier than many women." ”

Li Mao smiled when he saw Jiang Daoqi so big, even if he was sluggish, he knew that Zhang Nuo's concubine would not marry him. It's just that this girl is much older than his son, and Li Rui has already been married since he was a child, so naturally it will not be for the sake of two children.

Who, exactly, is that?

He hesitated to speak: "My son is only ten years old this year, since Miss Guifu is already fifteen years old, do you have to wait a few more years?" Wouldn't that be a waste of time? What's more, I heard that the daughter of your house has been frail and sick since she was a child, and she rarely goes out on weekdays......"

Zhang Nuo saw that they were selling Guan Zi again, and Li Mao was afraid that he would guess the child in Fang's belly, so he had to say his thoughts directly.

"I want my daughter to marry Li Rui of your mansion. As for the frail and sickly statement, please don't worry about Li Guogong, that's because my father was worried that someone wanted to make my daughter and the eldest prince together, and deliberately leaked the news. My daughter is just a little slimmer and has no symptoms. ”

"Rui'er? But my nephew has already ...... with the Lu family."

Jiang Daoqi said confidently: "I have a way to do the Lu family." As soon as this summer passes, I promise that the Lu family will retire from your family and climb another branch. ”

"I can't do this. The marriage between the Lu family and my family was decided by the emperor, and even if the Lu family came to withdraw from the family, my family would not dare to agree. Li Mao shook his head.

"What if the Holy One agrees?"

"What the hell are you up to?" Li Mao couldn't help but look at Jiang Daoqi. His grasp was so great that he felt a little uneasy.

Jiang Daoqi didn't speak, just smiled slightly. Zhang Nuo didn't speak, just looked at Li Mao, as if waiting for his answer.

Li Mao remembered the emperor's sentence "No matter what conditions are offered, promise him", gritted his teeth, and said to the two of them:

"Let me go back tonight and think about it."

Jiang Daoqi smiled more easily.

If you don't want to, you must deny it, and if you think about it, this matter has already been completed.

The author has something to say: Li Mao chose the most difficult but most beneficial path for the Xinguo Mansion. Double agent.