Pei Lian's sudden death made Li Xiu's heart also a mess, especially when he thought of Pei Lian's help to him, it made Li Xiu feel extremely sad, he only hated that America was too far away, and Li Xiu couldn't go to Pei Lian's tomb to mourn in person, but he took Li Ke with him and accompanied him to Pei Lian's courtyard in Nanshan.

Pei Lian's courtyard was originally Li Yuan's palace in Nanshan, and later rewarded Pei Lian, after Pei Lin resigned, he also lived here to retire, and Li Xiu often came here to play at that time, because the area of this courtyard is quite large, there are small lakes and hunting grounds in it, and even when Li Yuan escaped from the palace by fraud, he also hid here.

Since Pei Lin left Chang'an, this Nanshan Villa has been vacant for a long time, although Pei Lin has a lot of children and grandchildren, but they are all officials in other places, among which the most promising one is named Pei Lawyer, who married Li Yuan's sixteenth daughter Princess Linhai, who is Li Xiu's brother-in-law, but he has been serving as a assassin outside, and he rarely returns to Beijing.

It is precisely for this reason that when Pei Xiu left Chang'an, he entrusted this courtyard to Li Xiu to take care of, and there are many subordinates here who are responsible for management, and Li Xiu also comes and goes from time to time, and sometimes lives for a few days, so when Li Xiu brings Li Ke here, the scene he sees is almost not much different from when Pei Lin was there.

"Here...... Is it Pei Gong's other courtyard? Li Ke is no stranger to this courtyard, because he used to be here when he was in Chang'an, but he didn't come back for many years, and some of his memories were blurred.

"Yes, this is the Emperor Taishang's reward to Pei Gong, and it is also his favorite place, if that incident hadn't happened at the beginning, I'm afraid Pei Gong would have been sitting here for the rest of his life." Li Xiu also said with emotion at this time, as for the "incident" he said in his speech, it naturally referred to Li Yuan's fraudulent death, and Li Ke immediately understood it, and did not discuss this matter too much.

At that moment, Li Xiu took Li Ke into the other courtyard, and every grass and tree in the courtyard was so familiar, but unfortunately their owners were no longer there, which made Li Xiu sad again.

As the so-called seeing things and thinking about people, Li Xiu walked around the courtyard a few times, thinking that Pei Lin was also fishing and hunting here at the beginning, but now this old friend has been sleeping thousands of miles away, and it is impossible for him to go to his tomb to worship, which makes him even more sad.

Li Xiu lingered in the courtyard until it was getting late, and then he took Li Ke to prepare to go back, and Li Ke had been comforting Li Xiu along the way, which made Li Xiu feel better.

However, just when Li Xiu and Li Ke came out of the courtyard, they suddenly saw a carriage rushing from the bottom of the mountain, and when they passed through the courtyard, the carriage suddenly stopped, and then a delicate girl jumped down from the carriage and shouted happily: "How can Mr. be here, he must have been lazy to hunt again, no wonder I haven't seen you all day!" ”

The girl is Wu Mingkong, she also just came back from Li Xiu's house, but she didn't expect to see Li Xiu and a young man in front of the courtyard, although she had seen Li Ke before, she was not very familiar with it, plus Li Ke had been in Yangzhou for so many years, and her appearance had changed a lot, so she couldn't recognize it for a while.

"Mingkong, you came back so early today, didn't you have dinner at home?" Li Xiu smiled reluctantly at this time.

"Sir, you have something on your mind?" Wu Mingkong was extremely smart, and immediately noticed that there was something wrong with Li Xiu's expression, which made her look at Li Ke behind Li Xiu suspiciously, she felt that this young man was a little familiar, but for a while she couldn't remember where she had seen it.

"It's nothing, this is Li Ke, the king of Wu, you have met before, and he is also Jin'er's cousin." Li Xiu was strong at this time, first helped Wu Mingkong introduce Li Ke, and then helped Li Ke introduce, "Ke'er, this is Wu Mingkong, you should remember her, in addition, she is also Jin'er's fiancée, and the two got engaged a few years ago!" ”

"Naturally, I remember that last time Mr. said in the letter that Brother Jin was engaged, it turned out to be engaged to Mrs. Wu!" Li Ke also smiled at this time and stood up to salute Wu Mingkong, although Wu Mingkong was younger than him, but Wu Mingkong entered Li Xiu's door much earlier than him, and he was still his senior sister.

"It turned out to be you, I haven't seen you for a few years, I don't dare to admit it, but what are you doing when you go back to Chang'an, do you think you have lived too long?" Wu Mingkong heard that the other party was Li Ke, but he asked unceremoniously at the moment, don't look at her as a woman, but she knows the situation in Chang'an better than anyone else, especially when she sees Li Xiu's face a little strange, she suspects that Li Xiu is worried about Li Ke's return to Chang'an, which makes her have no good impression of Li Ke.

Li Ke didn't expect Wu Mingkong to speak so unkindly, and he couldn't help but smile a little bitterly at the moment, wanting to explain but not knowing how to explain, after all, it was impossible for others to know about Pei Mingkong's death in the Americas.

"Mingkong, this matter has nothing to do with Ke'er, and he came to Chang'an to receive a summons from His Majesty, and he wants to come to celebrate His Majesty's birthday, and when the birthday is over, he will leave soon, not what you think!" Li Xiu also hurriedly helped Li Ke explain at this time that Wu Mingkong's grasp of the situation was so accurate that sometimes even he was willing to lose.

"It really doesn't matter?" Wu Mingkong asked again with some suspicion at this time, she is a smart person, and naturally she also has the problem that smart people have, that is, she is too suspicious, and she found that Li Xiu's mood was very wrong, and it seemed to be full of sadness, which also made her even more curious, if it wasn't for Li Ke also there, she would have to ask to understand.

"Okay, don't ask again, I'm very tired today, I want to go back and take a rest, you should go back early!" Li Xiu was really in no mood to explain again, so he said a perfunctory sentence at the moment, and then left with Li Ke, leaving Wu Mingkong standing there sulking.

In the next period of time, Li Ke really lived in seclusion every day as promised Li Xiu, and rarely had contact with the outside world, at most, he went to the palace to visit Concubine Yang, or went to Li Xiu, but the number of times was also very limited, but even so, there were still rumors in Chang'an City, saying that Li Ke's purpose of returning to Beijing this time was not simple, and some people even said that Li Shimin specially summoned Li Ke back to Chang'an, probably to replace Li Chengqian.

Although the above rumors do not have any empirical evidence, but in this delicate situation, it immediately spread throughout Chang'an, and it is estimated that there are many people behind this who are secretly pushing, after all, taking this opportunity, not only can muddy this water, but also pull Li Ke into this muddy water.

For the turmoil in Chang'an City because of Li Ke, Li Xiu was indifferent, because he had long expected this situation, so it was not surprising that he had asked Li Ke to live in a simple place and try not to contact outsiders, just to prevent this situation, because the more he went out, the easier it was to be caught.

After all, Li Ke is still a little young, and in the face of all kinds of rumors from Chang'an City, he was a little frightened at first, and even wanted to leave Chang'an immediately, but he was dissuaded by Li Xiu, because the more he was in this situation, the more he had to calm down, and if he left now, he would seem weak-hearted.

However, what is even more strange is that Li Shimin turned a deaf ear to the rumors about Li Ke outside, and did not say anything, which surprised Li Xiu, but Li Shimin's current mind is difficult to guess, especially when it is related to the throne, his attitude has always been very incomprehensible.

With the passage of time, Li Shimin's birthday is getting closer and closer, and Li Ke has already prepared a birthday gift, and even Li Zhi, who is far away in Bingzhou, also sent a birthday gift, but at this time, Li Tai, who had gone to Luoyang, finally came back in the name of celebrating his father's birthday.

Li Tai's return immediately attracted the attention of countless people, and Li Ke finally took this opportunity to breathe a sigh of relief, because the people who paid attention to him before are now paying attention to Li Tai, and there are even a lot fewer rumors about him.

However, others no longer pay attention to Li Ke, but Li Tai remembers the third brother, because when he was in Luoyang, he heard some rumors about Li Ke, which made him very anxious, for fear that his father would really pass the throne to his third brother, so he hurriedly ran back, and on the third day of returning, he personally went to Li Ke's house to visit, but the two brothers did not seem to be speculative, and it is said that when Li Tai left, his face was also very ugly.

"Hehe, you had a big fight with Li Tai?" Li Xiu looked at Li Ke, who looked depressed in front of him, and couldn't help but smile.

"Yes, I used to think he was too selfish, so I don't usually communicate much, but I didn't expect to see him for a few years, he has changed from selfishness to arrogance, and he can even say that there is no one in his eyes, and there are thorns in and out of his words, and in the end I was really angry, so I had a big fight with him!" As soon as Li Tai was mentioned, Li Ke immediately said angrily.

"Haha~, you are arguing, Chang'an City is probably full of rumors again, saying that your brothers are not in harmony because of the competition for the throne." Li Xiu laughed out loud at the moment, in fact, he felt that it was a good thing for Li Ke and Li Tai to quarrel, because at least he didn't have to worry about being implicated by Li Tai in the future.

"I ......" Li Ke also smiled bitterly when he heard Li Xiu's words, and then shook his head and said helplessly, "Forget it, anyway, after celebrating my father's birthday, I will go back to Yangzhou, and I will never see him again in the future, and it doesn't matter if I have a good relationship with him." ”

"It's not bad that you can think like this, your younger brother has been fascinated by the throne, and I'm afraid that he will suffer in the future." Li Xiu spoke again at the moment.

However, as soon as Li Xiu's words fell, he suddenly saw someone rushing over, and then whispered a few words in Li Xiu's ear, which made Li Xiu's face change greatly, and even the teacup in his hand was knocked down by him without knowing it.