Xuan Shaoning expected that the person in the sedan chair was King Ling, and at this moment he was closing his eyes and reminiscing about what happened half a day ago: Lin Kun came to report the progress of the case, and when he heard that the Wu father and son pointed out that the person who agreed that Lu Yanhui was the head of the prince's mansion, the waves in King Ling's heart were suppressed by his own efforts and did not show it, especially after receiving the portrait sent by Lin Kun and Shen Qianji's clear identification, King Ling had already calculated a plan in his heart.

"His Royal Highness the King of Ling, please come here!" The old man of the prince's mansion respectfully led him to the main hall of the prince's mansion.

"Big brother!" Seeing the crown prince from afar, King Ling immediately put on a warm smile and walked up the steps quickly. And the prince slowly stepped forward with a flat expression, and asked a little inexplicably: "Why did the seventh brother come to me so much today?" ”

King Ling continued to smile and said: "Big brother, the greedy ink stone case caused by the previous Chinese New Year's Eve bloody case has now appeared important clues, and the courtier brother will inform the eldest brother as soon as possible!" ”

Compared with King Ling's excitement, the crown prince seemed a little restrained, "My father has appointed you to be in charge of this case, even if there is a breakthrough, you should report to your father as soon as possible, what is it to come to me?" ”

King Ling looked around: "The eldest brother is going to let the younger brother stand at the door of this hall and talk about something?" ”

"Oh, it's the palace that ignored it, and the seventh brother came in to speak." As he spoke, the prince turned around and walked into the main hall, and King Ling also followed, and at the moment the door was closed, King Ling took out a portrait from his sleeve and handed it to the prince and said, "Big brother, this is the person identified by the Wu family and his son who will connect with Lu Yanhui!" ”

As expected, when the crown prince stared at the portrait, his expression of surprise, fear, and nervousness was clearly seen by the king of Ling.

"This ......."

"That's right, it's this person, the younger brother is going to tell his father, but although the younger brother has the order to comprehensively and thoroughly investigate the case, the only one who can use it is Dali Temple, if you want to search the capital, this person's Dali Temple is obviously insufficient, this is the reason why the younger brother came to inform the eldest brother first." King Ling said quietly: "Big brother, you know your father, if you want to use the royal forest guard's younger brother's confidence, I hope that the eldest brother can help the younger brother!" ”

The prince swallowed his saliva, obviously not coming back to his senses, and said a little blankly: "This matter..... I'm afraid of this...... Or the seventh brother...... You'll take care of it yourself, I'll ...... I'm feeling a little unwell. ”

"Big brother, what's wrong with you?" King Ling held the prince in a panic and asked with concern.

The crown prince pushed away King Ling and shouted, "Someone! After the old and young ran into the palace, the prince ordered: "Send His Royal Highness King Ling back first, the palace is unwell!" ”

"Big brother, otherwise, let's ask the imperial doctor to come for diagnosis and treatment, it's all the younger brother who is not good, I don't know that the eldest brother is unwell, and he still comes to bother!" The Ying Ying concern revealed between the eyebrows of the King of Ling, no one could see that it was pretended.

"It's okay, you don't need to ask for a doctor, the seventh brother will go back first!" After speaking, the prince had already turned his back to King Ling, and King Ling no longer insisted, and walked out of the hall with the old man after saying "take care".

Seeing King Ling walking away through the window, the prince immediately shouted: "Someone, someone!" Hurry up and invite the crown princess, and let the palm book come to see you immediately! ”

When the head of the prince's mansion walked into the hall in a panic, he saw that the prince and the princess were already standing solemnly in front of him, "See His Royal Highness the Prince, see the princess!" ”

"What are you going to do? Now you have been identified by the Wu family and his son! The prince roared. Zhangshu knelt on the ground, looked disbelieving, and hurriedly explained: "No, every time I trade, my subordinates are masked, whether it is the Wu family father and son, or Lu Yanhui, I have never seen the face of my subordinates, His Royal Highness the Prince, this is ..... How can this be recognized? ”

"Are you sure you've never missed a shot in all these years? If it weren't for your own mistakes, how could the Wu father and son confess your portrait? "The prince's eyes will burst into flames. The palm of the book kowtowed vigorously and begged for mercy, constantly explaining that he had been extremely careful and had never made a mistake.

The crown princess soothed: "Your Highness, Fang Cai's portrait has been carefully looked at, and it is sure that it is the appearance of the palm book?" ”

"Naturally! King Ling unfolded the portrait and placed it in front of the main palace, and the main palace recognized it at a glance! The prince no longer looked at the palm book kneeling on the ground, but asked the princess, "How is this good?" King Ling has already entered the palace to ask for a search for the whole city, so the book is in charge....... It's a must-stay! ”

As soon as he heard this, he was so frightened that he kowtowed desperately and begged for mercy, until he knocked the bleeding on his forehead and did not stop, and the princess stopped: "The old man of the family should not stop him quickly!" Zhangshu, no matter how you explain it now, the fact that you have been recognized by people will not be able to escape, if you are caught, it will definitely affect the prince's mansion, you know how to do it!"

"Yes, you should cut yourself off quickly!" The prince said categorically, but was stopped by the crown princess, "No, the palm book has been in the prince's mansion for so many years, and there are not a few people who have seen him. ”

Hearing the crown princess say this, the prince panicked, "How is it?" Why didn't I think of it, it's going to be a problem now! ”

"Zhangshu, this matter is enough for you, and your family will definitely have a good life and settle down in the Prince's Mansion." The crown princess said calmly to the palm book. At this moment, the palm book had tears in his eyes, nodded unwillingly and shook his head.

"You must die! But you must not die in the prince's mansion, you must be escorted by the prince into the palace to face the saint! ”

"What?!" The crown prince and the palm secretary looked at the crown princess incredulously at the same time.

"Your Royal Highness, now we can only retreat as advance, go to our father and admit our mistakes, admit that we are negligent in disciplining our subordinates and letting our subordinates do it, and the greed for ink and stone is all done by the palm secretary in the name of the prince in private!"

"I'm afraid this is very difficult to convince, my father will definitely track down the whereabouts of Yinliang!"

"This can only be sacrificed to Zhou Xunliang, the Ping An Army's expenditure is a lot of expenses, and the regulations, subordinates, and salaries of the Ping An Army are higher than those of other armies, so it can be explained."

"No! No way! Zhou Xunliang is my support in the army, but the Ping'an Army is the prince's army, wouldn't this bury them? ”

"It's better than burying Your Highness! The importance of the Peace Army, how could the concubines not know? But now we must save His Highness, without Zhou Xunliang, without the Ping An Army, His Highness still has the concubine's mother's family, and the power in Donghu, it will not be difficult to make a comeback at that time! Now that the Chinese New Year's Eve bloody case and the greedy ink stone case have arrived in this field, it is not clear that the father and emperor will not stop, Your Highness, don't forget, King Ling and King Xiang are all eyeing your position! What's more, there is King Yu, who has been in the limelight recently, and they will not fall into the ground at that time? If we lose the position of the crown prince, Your Highness, we will never recover, and there will be no future of success! ”

The crown princess's painstaking analysis did make the prince realize the seriousness of the incident: "Is it the only way?" There's no room for anything else? Seeing the crown princess shaking her head, the crown prince covered his chest with one hand, his thoughts were struggling, but he heard the crown princess continue: "Ye Rongxuan is afraid that he won't be able to keep it." ”

"What?" The prince's eyes widened. "He's the only one of the six who can be controlled by the main palace!"

"Your Highness, you are really confused, when the Wu father and son were on death row and prisoners, how could they do it with one of his palms? In the eyes of my father, even if the Shangshu of the Criminal Department did not participate directly, it would be difficult to escape the responsibility of poor supervision! ”

"Yes, yes, but ......."

Before the prince finished speaking, the princess made a silent gesture, turned to the old man and said, "Take the palm book down, take care of it!" ”

"Yes" The old man said yes, and went to help the palm book who was already limp on the ground, and helped him walk out of the hall step by step. Until the two disappeared completely, the crown princess comforted: "Your Highness, don't worry, this matter has not reached the point where it can't end, the concubine has a way." The crown princess began to whisper to the prince, and the prince's expression finally began to change his mind.

In the following two days, King Ling really borrowed the help of the royal guards to search the capital, but the prince's mansion was calm as usual, until the third day, a troika hurriedly drove out of the prince's mansion in the direction of the imperial city.

On this day, Emperor Liang felt unwell and was enjoying a massage at the Yingshu place, but he saw Gonggong Zhang quietly walking in and saying, "Your Majesty, the prince is asking to see you in Chengyuan Palace." ”

Emperor Liang was a little impatient, and just wanted to wave his hand and disappeared, but Yingshuren stopped in time and said: "Your Majesty, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince must have something important to meet at this time, Your Majesty should see it, and the concubine guarantees that Your Majesty will be more comfortable after seeing His Royal Highness the Prince." Emperor Liang gently pinched the face of the lady Ying, and said dotingly: "It's up to you, drive!" ”

"Your Majesty is wise" Lady Yingren packed up her dress and slowly withdrew, but Emperor Liang kept looking at the direction she left with a smirk, and her mind was full of aftertaste. When Emperor Liang came to Chengyuan Palace on a dragon ride, he saw two people kneeling in the main hall, and the prince was in front of him, and one behind him was tied up with five flowers.

"Son-in-law, see father!"

"Prince, who is the person behind you?"

Hearing Emperor Liang's inquiry, the prince was extremely ashamed, buried his head lower, and said with a crying voice: "It's hard to say goodbye to the son's minister, please don't be angry, listen to the son's minister!" ”

Emperor Liang couldn't help frowning, and said with some anger: "What the hell, don't sell it in front of me!" ”

"Yes, this person brought by the retainer is the secretary of the retainer's house, this person...... This person is the most wanted criminal in the city! ”

"He is the prisoner who was seconded by the King of Ling to guard the whole city?"

"Exactly!"

"King Ling told me that the person to be arrested is the person who traded with Lu Yanhui in the case of embezzlement of ink and stones, could it be that this person is the crown prince?"

"Father's anger! Erchen also heard the subordinate report that he saw the portrait in many places in the capital, the portrait is very similar to the palm book, and happened to meet the palm book and wanted to escape and was arrested by the son, under the pressure of the son, the palm book confessed that he was indeed the person on the portrait, so the son did not dare to deal with it in private, and immediately tied up to meet his father. ”

"Prince, get up, let me take a good look at this person!"

As the crown prince got up, Emperor Liang saw that the palm book was tied and kneeling on the ground, but there was not the slightest nervousness on his face, and he was afraid of the frightened expression after such an incident in the east window, but calm.

"What the prince just said is the truth?"

After waiting for a while, but without getting any answer, Emperor Liang was furious, slammed the armrest of the dragon chair, stood up and asked: "Boldly Diao Min, you actually ignore me!" Someone! At the sound of an order, the two royal forest guards walked into the main hall menacingly, and were about to listen to Emperor Liang's orders, but when they saw the palm of the book, they suddenly laughed: "Hahaha, I have a cheap life, but I am just a chess piece, I have been working for the prince for many years, and in exchange for this is just this end!" I deserve it, I deserve death! ”

These words obviously caught the prince off guard, and before he came back to his senses, he only listened to the palm book and continued: "Your Majesty, it is indeed me who will connect with Lu Yanhui, and I am also greedy for ink and stone, but how can I be in contact with the court officials and how can I swallow such a huge amount of silver taels, I have been working in secret for eight years, Your Majesty!" ”

"You, you, you Hugh is talking nonsense!" The prince was already blushing to the base of his neck, his eyebrows were angry, and he gritted his teeth and squeezed out these words, "Father, father, this person has a vicious mind, didn't you say that in my mansion just now!" ”

Emperor Liang squinted at the prince and said, "Whether this person is squirting blood or has ulterior motives, I want to take a good look today!" Then he commanded in a loud voice: "Come! Immediately spread the King of Ling, Lin Kun, and Mu Jin into the palace! ”

As Chuanmenlang left, Emperor Liang sat on the dragon chair, staring at the prince with a pair of eyes, and the prince stared at the traitor kneeling on the ground, hating itchy, but he didn't dare to look back at Emperor Liang's gaze, thinking in his heart that once King Ling came, his situation would only be more dangerous, but now Xiru was not around, and he could only deal with it, thinking that the sweat had quietly wet his clothes.

"Prince"

"Erchen is here!" Hearing Emperor Liang ask himself, he hurriedly turned around, still dodging his gaze.

"I ask you, are you involved in the Ink Stone Case?"

"Erchen never dare! This slave didn't know who was bewitched and actually bit at will! ”

"This house slave is already a dead man, and now there are only you and me, father and son, I hope you can tell the truth."

"How dare the sons and daughters expire their father's reign? Erchen has indeed never participated in this case, and Erchen is willing to fully cooperate with the seventh brother in the investigation of the case! ”

"Prince, don't meddle in this case." After Emperor Liang finished speaking, he didn't wait for the prince's reaction, and closed his eyes until he heard the voice of asking for peace.

"Son-in-law, see father!"

"Ministers see the saint!"

The prince quietly wiped the sweat beads behind his ears with his sleeves, and when he opened his eyes, he saw that the people who came were King Ling, Lin Kun and Mu Jin, only to see the three of them get up after saluting and wait for Emperor Liang to speak, and King Ling saw some incomprehensible surprise in the prince's eyes.

"King Ling, can you see clearly, this person kneeling on the ground is the key criminal you are arresting?" Emperor Liang opened his eyes and asked.

King Ling approached and took a closer look, only to see this person kneeling on the ground, expressionless, and his appearance was very similar to that painted by the painter, and he couldn't help but reply quite unexpectedly: "Back to my father, this person should be the important criminal that Erchen has been arresting!" After a pause, he continued, "But, but, how could this person ........"

Without waiting for King Ling to finish speaking, Emperor Liang answered: "The key criminal you are searching for all over the city is the head of the Prince's Mansion!" As soon as these words came out, King Ling hurriedly knelt down and looked at the prince and said: "The son has no intention of slandering the prince, and he also asks his father to find out!" There must be something hidden in this, Erchen absolutely believes that the prince is innocent! ”

"You believe it?" Emperor Liang asked coldly: "But this person has just identified the crown prince as his mastermind behind the scenes!" ”

"Father, this person can't be trusted just because of his empty mouth and white teeth, please hand it over to Dali Temple for careful review!" King Ling said righteously, Lin Kun and Mu Jin could only speak the same way, "Ministers, please!" The minister must assist His Royal Highness the King of Ling, and make every effort to find out the truth! ”

"Prince, what do you say?"

"Erchen has already made it clear that he will cooperate with the seventh brother's investigation and clear his suspicion!"

"That's good, King Ling and Dali Temple will try the case well, and the prince will go back to the house to avoid suspicion."

As soon as Emperor Liang's words came out, the prince hurriedly knelt down, "Erchen knows that he is wrong, although Erchen doesn't know about it, but his subordinates have done such things because Erchen is not able to control them, so Erchen will go back to the house and think about it!" ”

Hearing the prince's answer, Emperor Liang's face became a little warmer, and his tone softened a little, "The prince still knows the general situation, and he will have to work hard for King Ling next." ”

Hearing Emperor Liang talk about himself, King Ling knelt down and said: "The prince has always been an example for his sons to learn, and his sons will definitely live up to his father's expectations and investigate this case clearly!" The last few words are loud and clear.

Sitting in the carriage leaving the palace, King Ling slammed his thigh with a clenched fist but didn't feel the slightest pain, "Father, father, at this point, you are still protecting the prince like this!" are also sons, how can you be so partial! Prince, don't blame me this time, it's okay if your father doesn't protect you, the more he does this, the more I want to bring you down! ”

In the blink of an eye, it has been several months since he came to Beijing, and after experiencing some things, Xuan Shaoning also realized the mixed nature of the capital, and he couldn't help but start to miss the boldness and simplicity of Mobei. But after thinking about it, the days before leaving Beijing are numbered, and my heart can't help but become clear, and my steps on the heavenly street are also brisk.

A shop called "Yan Xiang" in the middle of Tianjie is Xuan Shaoning's target, at first glance it sounds like this is a shop that sells the four treasures of the study, but it is actually a pastry shop, the most famous is Yan Mo Crisp, which can be regarded as one of the best spots in Beijing, Xuan Shaoning thought about buying some Yan Mo Crisp and went to Qingshan Academy to see the master. It wasn't until I walked closer to the store that I found that there were still a lot of people waiting, and the back of one of them was very familiar, Xuan Shaoning was still searching in his mind, and it happened that the person would turn around, but that plain face couldn't hide the light shining in his eyes, who was it not Jiang Weizhen? Compared with the despair and shabby when they first met, Jiang Weizhen at this moment is still dressed plainly, but it is cleaner.

"Brother Jiang!"

"Hey, it's Brother Shaoning!"

Jiang Weizhen saw this brother who helped him in a difficult moment, his eyes became hot, and he walked over quickly to hold Xuan Shaoning's hand and said: "After the Beijing Entrance Examination, the number of times we have met is only a handful, and I haven't been able to find time to come to the door to thank you, it's Jiang Mou's mistake!" ”

"Where did you come from? Brother Jiang is now in the household department, and there are a lot of things, if this can't be understood, then it's a brother in vain. ”

"Haha, yes, yes! The virtuous brother also came to taste this inkstone crisp? I've always heard how delicious this inkstone crisp is, I don't want to come to taste it, don't really say it, don't mention the taste, just look at the waiting crowd, I think the taste must not be bad! ”

Xuan Shaoning looked at the small box of baskets that Jiang Weizhen was carrying, nodded and said: "I was guessed by Brother Jiang, I really came here for this inkstone crisp, I wanted to go back to Qingshan Academy tomorrow, thinking of bringing some snacks to the master, his old man is a good life is a delicacy in this world." ”

"Okay, okay, this freshly baked inkstone crisp has been sold out, why don't I accompany you and wait for the next one?"

"That's just right, I just happened to have a good chat with Brother Jiang!"