It was the time of the child, the moon was dark and the wind was high, and the willow tree swayed its branches in the wind, like the garment of a wronged ghost. In the gusts of cold wind, from time to time there were black crows croaking, and the whole city was immersed in the night, like a black veil shrouding this land, only a few sparse houses, the lights were like beans.

In a thick dark color, two black shadows suddenly crossed over the roof. Soon a man crept by, and finally three black figures gathered in front of a house.

One of them looked up at the plaque on the gate and wondered, "Isn't this the prefect's house?" ”

The smaller-looking figure next to him made a gentle "boo" gesture with his hand, and the taller figure and the petite figure jumped onto the roof with the person who had just spoken.

The three of them didn't stop until they reached a beautifully decorated wing. I saw that the thinner figure squatted down gently, and chiseled a small hole in the roof with a very light movement, and a ray of goose-yellow warm light penetrated through the small hole.

The thin figure ripped off the covering cloth on his face, revealing a bright and moving face, which was Lu Liuhui. She sat next to the small hole, took a breath, and lowered her voice: "Zhang Gongzi is quite heavy. ”

The other two also took the opportunity to tear off the black cloth on their faces. Nan Luyuan said: "This is what you said, the place where the black-hearted officials in Jiangnan gathered?" ”

Lu Liuhui smiled and said: "Exactly, the Immortal Family has quietly let the people of Qing Xiu squat for a long time, and they have come here in person, so they dare to call you like this." ”

Zhang Shenling was afraid that he would slide down from the roof tiles, and he was trembling when he walked, so he moved to the side of the small hole step by step, squatted down and looked inside, feeling that he was really uncomfortable with not touching the ground, and wondered: "But why is there nothing strange now, are you wrong?" ”

Lu Liulu raised his foot and pretended to kick him down, but his voice was very soft: "They usually get together in the second half of the night when they are ugly, and those who do this line of work, although their hearts are dark, they can't be on the stage in the end, and they don't dare to be so bold." ”

So the three of them lay on the roof and watched the dark sky whisper without saying a word, and if anyone approached, they were afraid that they would only be a few mosquitoes buzzing in their ears.

Until someone seemed to come with a lamp not far away, Lu Liuhui hurriedly asked the two to lie down. It was only a slight noise, but the man immediately raised his lamp and looked around, and after a while continued to walk inside.

One after another, fat and thin, old and young, came.

Lu Liuhui roughly counted, there were almost fifteen or sixteen, from the prefect to the merchant village head, there were people involved in this matter.

Nan Luyuan didn't care about his appearance, he approached the entrance of the cave, and formed a triangle head to head with the other two, trying to squeeze his eyebrows and make eyes to see the appearance of the people in the house.

I saw that more than a dozen people in the room were already sitting in what order, and they were sitting in the middle with a teapot in their hands to add tea to everyone, Nan Luyuan speculated that this person might be the prefect, so the people in the circle should be people with higher status.

Then there was some noise. Nan Luyuan held his breath, only to hear the person who looked like the prefect coughing, and then said: "This year, the emperor is going to allocate the silver again, do you have any plans?" ”

Someone responded: "Yes, yes, I wanted to wrap up the land in the east with my brothers, for fear that someone would rob it later." ”

The prefect nodded, and the words changed: "But I don't know if you have any news?" The person who came this time is not a persimmon that is easy to pinch. ”

A few people on the periphery looked at each other, but one of them sitting next to the prefect stroked his beard and said, "I have heard about this, and I heard that the emperor brought people down to the south of the Yangtze River in person." ”

"Emperor?" All of a sudden, it was like smashing a stone into a calm lake, causing an uproar, "Isn't the emperor an old stubborn?" And their rigid family will never take a step out of the imperial capital. Where did you get this news? ”

The prefect sipped the tea slowly, and plucked the tea leaves on the noodles with the lid of the cup: "The old emperor is dead!" Now the one who has the audacity to break the rules is a new one.,It's a hairy boy named Nan Qi.。 ”

Nan Luyuan and Zhang Shenling looked at each other, their expressions were quite complicated, the old lady was right, the nose of this group of people was spirit, if they acted according to the initial plan, I am afraid that they would have already fallen into the way, like the previous court officials.

Lu Liuyuan lightly bumped his head on Nan Luyuan's head, Nan Luyuan met her playful gaze, and as soon as his ears were hot, he lowered his head and stopped paying attention to her.

A bearded man on the side muttered: "It's so strange to die, I guess I offended someone." My lord, you said that this newly appointed hairy boy should be very easy to deceive, right? ”

The prefect was drinking tea, and he looked like a dignified and well-dressed beast. He glanced at the speaker with those small eyes, neither said yes nor said no, but said: "Don't let that kid really find out about those untouchables, a stinky boy who is not over twenty, can we still be taken away by him?" In the past few days, the official has brought something valuable to visit the old lady above, as long as he can fool her, no one else is a problem. ”

Someone whispered, "Didn't you say that you brought some people with you?" Why is there no news of those people? ”

Nan Luyuan's body tensed suddenly, although he didn't know why Zhang Shenling's identity was not known, but if someone really thought of this layer, wouldn't the plan to get the news through the old lady have to be ruined?

Then he felt that Lu Liuhui was patted lightly and heavily on his back, so he relaxed inexplicably.

Zhang Shenling said in a voice as thin as a mosquito fly: "Second brother, before I came, my grandfather had a good conversation with my aunt, and my identity and whereabouts were kept secret by the Zhang family. You came out, didn't you expect this layer? ”

Nan Luyuan knew that he was just talking about things, but it didn't sound right. is also even more annoyed that he didn't think about many factors when he came out, and let these people know their details in advance.

The prefect said: "When the time comes, if they want to see any part of the place where there is flooding, let them go to see the wind canal, the farther away from Yunlong Lake, the better." If you are more diligent, let them taste the sweetness of these low-eyed families, then they will be like trained dogs, and they still have to be obedient. ”

Zhang Shenling said: "To put it mildly, this is insulting the imperial court officials as dogs." This is a great sin, and it will be reduced by three levels in a row. ”

Lu Liuhui glanced at him and said in a low voice, "Are you naïve or stupid?" People like this are all powerful in the south of the Yangtze River, as long as they don't cut the grass and eradicate the roots, it will definitely be a spring breeze blowing and growing again, and in less than three or five years, they can climb back again, or they are still a local cancer. ”

When Nan Luyuan heard this, he quite agreed. Although he has never been in contact with these forces that collude behind his back, he is often spurred on by his father, and he has heard of it a little.

It's just that I didn't expect that the court officials could also be involved.

After listening to the house for most of the night, the three of them left at dawn. At this time, the servants have not yet risen, and they will be exposed later.

At that time, Nan Luyuan didn't expect that he would be able to face this so-called prefect so quickly.

went back to the room and slept for a while, and studied countermeasures with Zhang Shenling and Lu Liuhui in the house for a whole day. The next day, I received a message from the old lady, and Nan Luyuan and Lu Liuyu were called to the old lady's courtyard together, and they had a photo with the prefect who was full of deer antler velvet, ginseng, jewelry, and jade.

The prefect's face suddenly turned bad.

Nan Luyuan's face darkened slightly for only a moment, and then immediately returned to normal. Lu Liuhui was more calm than him, she went up to hug the old lady with a smile, and said: "Grandma, this light is called Nan Gongzi, but not Cai'er, it's really eccentric." ”

Nan Luyuan was slightly stunned, it was right for Lu Liuyu to deliberately share with him, otherwise when the prefect realized something, their plan might be difficult to implement. I just thought so in my heart, but I paid a little attention at a strange node.

Lu Liu's Lu Mingcai?

I'm afraid not, although Cai and Liuli can also match, but Miss Lu doesn't look like someone who will reveal her name in front of the prefect.

Thinking like this, he was more clever, and stepped forward and saluted: "Lu Yuan has seen the old lady. - I don't know who this is? ”

Mrs. Zhang took advantage of the situation to help Lu Liuhui get up and said, "You don't know that he should be, he is the prefect of Jiangnan." Lord Prefect, this is the emperor of the imperial court. ”

The prefect looked him up and down and said, "Rude! I don't know why the emperor is in the old lady's mansion? ”

Mrs. Zhang said: "You also know that our daughters are pampered, yesterday this colorful girl went out and met the emperor, so she introduced me to Zhang's mansion to him." This is also a great blessing. ”

The prefect said "oh-", and he didn't know what he was thinking, so he immediately bowed down and said with a smile: "That little official Zhulang dared to invite the emperor to come to the mansion to talk about it, so that the lower officials could express their gratitude to the court for caring so much about us and other people." ”

Nan Luyuan looked at him like this, thinking that he had seen his greedy face the night before, otherwise he would have been deceived by him. And at this moment, Nan Luyuan faced this human-like face, but he was extremely disgusted from the bottom of his heart.

What kind of feeling, like when he was very young, he watched the short-term job that he had killed his cat and made it into a hot stew, but he still smiled at him and pretended to help him get it back.

So he hung a more gentle smile, his eyelashes drooped, covering the ridicule in his eyes, but like a young master who was really raised in a greenhouse, with a harmless look on humans and animals, he gently replied with a salute, and said, "Then it is better to be respectful than to obey your fate." ”

He learned to pretend to be innocent to play with his expression, and very peacefully agreed with the prefect on the day of his visit.

But he gently gestured towards Lu Liuhui behind his back.

Since he and Lu Liuhui are both on the open side, someone must be in the dark.

Zhang Shenling is the best candidate.