The morning glow is always short-lived, and it doesn't take long for the brilliant glow to fade, and heavy dark clouds appear on the horizon, rolling, and the black pressure presses from west to east.

Before parting, a faint sadness could not be eliminated in Cui Ning's beautiful eyes, although it was only one day and one night, but the fear and troubles in the meantime, and the happiness and sweetness in the meantime, were ten times thicker than the sixteen years she had lived combined.

Cui Ning sat in the carriage and was silent all the way, Zhang Huan sat beside her, and did not say a word, the two of them seemed to have returned to the world from the fairyland, and everything that had happened became unreal.

The carriage entered the Chunming Gate, and Cui Ning suddenly whispered, "You can send me another way, okay?" ”

Zhang Huan hesitated, but finally nodded, the carriage fell silent again, the carriage passed diagonally through the East City, drove into Xuanyangfang, less than half a mile away from Cui's mansion, Zhang Huan pushed the car door, he took a deep breath and said to Cui Ning: "Miss Cui, please take care!" ”

But Cui Ning still bowed his head and remained silent, as if he hadn't heard Zhang Huan's farewell, Zhang Huan jumped out of the carriage, looked around vigilantly, put on a bamboo hat, and quickly ran towards the street corner.

At the moment of entering an alley, Zhang Huan couldn't help but look back at the carriage, and suddenly, he saw a face appear on the window, what an unforgettable sadness, her lips trembled slightly, and tears slowly slid down her face.

Zhang Huan silently pulled down the bamboo hat to cover his face, and resolutely turned away.

There was a lot of chaos in front of the door of Cui's mansion, and the servants rushed to tell each other that the young lady was back! Several maids stepped forward to help Cui Ning out of the carriage carefully, her mother, sister-in-law, nurse, aunt, almost all of them rushed up to surround her, shush long and short, Cui Ning turned his face pale and glanced back at the corner of the street in the distance, only to see a lonely back gradually disappearing into the street.

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Approaching the New Year, Xuanyang Fang is very lively, there are many small shops, every household is full of New Year's goods, and the flow of people around is endless, Zhang Huan slowly walked forward with the crowd, he walked vigilantly while paying attention to the surrounding situation.

Although he couldn't see anything abnormal, Zhang Huan had an intuition that Cui Yuan would not be without arrangements, he pondered, turned around, and turned into a small shop on the back street, which was a small shop selling groceries, and the owner was a middle-aged man about fifty years old, who could see that the business of the small shop was not good, and he was looking at the street with a sad face.

Zhang Huan entered the shop, and the owner immediately greeted him with a smile, "What do the guests want?" ”

Zhang Huan smiled slightly, and took out a 100-guan flight ticket from his waist bag, which was issued by the Zhang family to every child who participated in the imperial examination to enter Beijing, soaked in water and dried up, looking a little wrinkled.

However, this did not affect the shopkeeper's worship of it, which he could only earn in a year, and he swallowed, "What are you...?" ”

Zhang Huan tore the ticket in half, handed half to him, and said with a smile: "Send me a letter, and the other half will be yours." ”

The shopkeeper froze, he pinched half of the ticket, looked at Zhang Huan at a loss, Zhang Huan smiled, no longer explained, he picked up a piece of charcoal, quickly wrote a few words to Zhang Ruohao on a piece of paper, and handed it to the shopkeeper: "Send it according to the address above, after the matter is completed, the other half of the ticket will belong to you." ”

After speaking, he flashed out from the back door of the shop, and passed through a few alleys, Zhang Huan gradually approached the gate of Xuanyangfang, and many soldiers had appeared at the gate, each holding a portrait in his hand, and checking the people who entered and exited one by one, a Cui Yuan's guard suddenly saw Zhang Huan, and his eyes flashed a different color.

Zhang Huan turned around and left, and quickened his pace, at this time he already felt that someone was staring at him behind him, following closely like a shadow, he began to run with strength, the speed was getting faster and faster, as fast as thunder, at this moment there was not only one person running with him, but twelve people, all of them were strong in martial arts and agile in their steps, they were like a net spreading, intercepting Zhang Huan from all directions.

Zhang Huan was unfamiliar with the terrain, he rushed out of an alley, turned and ran towards a wide road, but after only running a hundred and ten steps, he stopped, and there was a dead end in front of him.

Without waiting for him to turn back, people jumped out of the wall, from behind, from the store, from all directions, everyone held sharp blades, surrounded him, the knife had been lost in the river last night, and Zhang Huan had no basis for the final fight.

At this time, a middle-aged man arched his hand to Zhang Huan and said, "Xiangguo commanded, if you are obedient and do not resist, you can take it away according to the courtesy; If you resist, hum! ”

Zhang Huan raised his hand and smiled: "Since you can treat each other politely, why don't I obey?" ”

At this time, hundreds of cavalry also rushed over, and Zhang Huan was blindfolded, escorted into a carriage, and under the strict escort of twelve swordsmen and hundreds of cavalrymen, he was taken away.

Instinctively, he didn't go far, but soon got out of the carriage and was taken into a room where he was locked up, and the room was actually a huge iron cage, sealed with iron bars as thick as an arm, and the gap was only two inches wide. The iron door slammed shut, and the room was pitch black, and the lid of the iron cage creaked and fell, and when it pressed itself to the height of half a man, it finally stopped, and the people in the iron cage could no longer stand upright.

Zhang Huan hadn't closed his eyes for two days and two nights, and at this moment he was finally able to lie down without worry, and after a while, he fell asleep.

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It was getting dusk, and when Cui Yuan heard that his daughter was back, he immediately put down tonight's entertainment and hurried home. ”

Everyone knew that the eldest lady was more precious than the lord's eyes, and when she rushed to the backyard, Cui Yuan couldn't help but shout loudly: "Ning'er, where are you?" ”

Hearing her father's shout, Cui Ning, who had already taken a bath with incense and changed into a new dress, ran down from the embroidery building, she ran to her father and knelt down, crying silently.

Cui Yuan helped his daughter up in distress, seeing that her face was thinned and there was a thin circle of blood on her neck, he hated it in his heart, and couldn't help gritting his teeth and said: "I dare to kidnap my daughter, I will definitely break that thief's body into ten thousand pieces!" ”

Cui Ning was startled, she hurriedly waved her hand and said, "Father, Zhang Gongzi is my savior, don't blame him!" ”

Cui Yuan looked her daughter up and down suspiciously, the scar on her neck was still visible, but she wanted to say that Zhang Huan was a life-saving benefactor, what was going on?

"Why are you protecting him like this?"

"Father, Uncle Wei Shi who really wants to attack me!" So, Cui Ning told Zhang Huan how to let her go, and later met Wei Ge who wanted to kill her, but was simply told to his father about Zhang Huan's timely rescue, and finally begged: "Although Zhang Gongzi kidnapped me, he also saved me, it can be said that the merits are worth it, father, you can spare him!" ”

"Weyg?" Cui Yuan smiled coldly, Wei Ge will turn his face with himself, which is what he expected.

"Father, please let him go!" Cui Ning saw that her father's face was cloudy, and she begged again.

Cui Yuan looked down at his daughter, he was from here, how could he not hear Cui Ning's partiality towards Zhang Huan in his tone, he snorted heavily, "I see you are dizzy!" ”

Cui Yuan turned around and left, took two steps, and then turned back and said, "From now on, you are not allowed to go anywhere, rest for two days, and then go to the banquet held by the Chu family just for you." ”

"And you, if any of you dare to let Miss out of the mansion, I will break your legs!"

Cui Yuan glanced coldly at a few maids, and then strode towards the front yard.

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Cui Yuan returned to the front yard, he did not enter his room, but walked briskly towards the east courtyard, through a few doors, he came to a heavily guarded small courtyard, as soon as he entered the door, the middle-aged swordsman immediately knelt down to him and saluted: "Back to Xiangguo, Zhang Huan has been caught, and he is locked in the iron room." ”

"I already know, you go and get the reward!"

"Xie Xiangguo!"

Cui Yuan's footsteps did not stop, and he walked directly into the outer room of the iron room, and several guards of the iron room hurriedly stepped forward to salute: "See Xiangguo!" ”

Cui Yuan nodded and asked, "How are the others?" ”

"Back to Xiangguo, since I arrested him in the morning, he has been sleeping soundly, and he has not woken up yet!"

"And that kind of thing?"

Cui Yuan was very surprised, locked in the dark iron cage house, many people quickly collapsed, even if they could hold on, they were extremely nervous, and Zhang Huan actually slept in it, this was the first time he heard of it, no wonder he dared to sneak attack the military food of the Hui people, it was really a little unusual.

He saw a plate on the table next to him, and there were some odd things in it, so he came up to him and asked, "Are these his things?" ”

"Yes! It's all here. ”

There were some copper coins on the plate, Cui Yuan flicked it, and picked out a small copper medal from it, with the word 'Hedong' on the front and the word 'Zhang Huan' engraved on the back.

"Sure enough, it's a child of the Zhang family, but it's just a concubine!" Cui Yuan said to himself with a smile, the Zhang family's sister-in-law is a silver medal, and the eldest son is a gold medal, and only the concubine uses a bronze medal.

Cui Yuan threw the bronze medal back on the plate, he suddenly saw that there was a piece of jade inside, it was not ordinary, he picked up the jade, and the hand was warm and delicate, there was no trace of variegation on it, it was indeed a piece of superb jade, he turned the jade over, only to see a small gold medal inlaid on the back, and the gold medal was engraved with two small characters of 'Banglan'.

"Chu Banglan!" Cui Yuan blurted out that Chu Banglan was Chu Xingshui's own sister, known as the first beauty in the family back then, and he Cui Yuan also had a favorite, but twenty-three years ago, she suddenly disappeared, and even the Chu family did not know where she was, becoming a headless public case at that time, which made countless people, including Cui Yuan, saddened, but later Cui Yuan slowly understood that something must have happened within the Chu family, so he concealed the news.

The sudden appearance of this jade plaque shocked Cui Yuan, 'How could Chu Banglan's jade plaque be on Zhang Huan's body, and what is the relationship between them?' Could it be .....'

Zhang Huan is in his early twenties, and Chu Banglan disappeared twenty-three years ago, "Are they mother and son?" But Zhang Huan is the concubine of the Zhang family, what is going on? ”

The mood that had originally planned to come over to teach Zhang Huan a lesson was replaced by a strong curiosity, Cui Yuan put away the jade card and hurriedly walked to his inner study.

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