After sending Dao Yan away, Yao Biao returned to the study, a little upset. He sat down, and the tea servant was to serve lunch; He waved his hand, motioned for the tea servant to leave, and ordered no one to come in and disturb him.

He opened a book, turned a few pages, but couldn't read it. Dao Yan's arrogance and aggressiveness seemed to be a dark cloud lingering in his heart. This is not the first time. Yao Biao and Dao Yan have worked together with King Yan for fifteen years. In the past fifteen years, Master Dao Yan has been polite to himself, but Yao Biao can always and everywhere strongly perceive the blatant pickiness and contempt under the cover of politeness, as if the other party has too many past personal enmities with him. Yao Biao is cautious and introverted by nature, generous and fair, and more transparent, knowing that the fight between the two tigers is extremely unfavorable to King Yan, so he has always avoided and forbearance to Dao Yan. And through the other civil and military ministers around the prince, Yao Biao also learned from the side that no matter in the eyes of King Yan or in the minds of others, Master Daoyan is as virtuous and respected as himself, and he is definitely not a person who is jealous of the virtuous and jealous and will repay him. In this way, it can only make Yao Biao more and more inexplicable, and he can't figure out where Dao Yan's antipathy towards him comes from.

What's worse is that the perceptive Yan Wang also seems to have keenly captured the subtlety deliberately concealed between the two. King Yan, who was well versed in the art of power, became more and more important to Yao Biao, so much so that it was difficult for Lord Yao to recall the last time his words were not adopted by King Yan. And Master Daoyan's status is constantly rising like Yao Biao, and he has become the master of the prince in a grand manner.

He was disorganized by his thoughts. The tea servant walked in hesitantly at this time, carefully handed over an envelope, and said softly:

"Master, Lord He Zhai has sent a letter again."

Yao Biao couldn't help but have a headache; He frowned, didn't make a sound, ordered the coffee table next to him, and asked the tea servant to put down the letter and go out, leaving him alone to rest.

As soon as the tea servant put down the letter, the voice of the housekeeper Yao Gui sounded outside the door, and in the blink of an eye, the housekeeper himself had already broken in and rushed to Yao's surface.

"Master, master, Young Master Zhu-"

He suddenly stopped and saw the tea servant standing there. Yao Biao waved his hand and motioned for the tea servant to go out and bring the door.

Yao Gui lowered his voice and said:

"The villain just came back from outside, and the street is full of legends that the grandson of the Yao family drove into Wanliu Hutong......"

Yao Biao was slightly stunned, and subconsciously asked:

"When? What was he doing there? ”

As if to answer his words, the eldest grandson Yao Jizhu suddenly shouted from afar outside the door:

"-Grandpa! Grandfather! Oh no! Something is wrong! ——”

The voice blink to the door. Yao Gui opened the door, and Yao Jizhu rushed in sweating profusely, panicked from head to toe, out of breath:

"Grandpa, no! Hongjia Hotel ...... It was served by the king's own soldiers! Aunt Hong and Ruo Xiao were all arrested and put into the palace! The second prince said that he wanted to ...... Let's talk about the sky lantern ......"

Yao Biao was silent for a moment, and said quietly: "What the hell is going on, talk slowly." ”

Grandfather's waves calmed Yao Jizhu. He was much more focused, and his tongue suddenly sharpened, and he said clearly:

"The child just went to the pharmacy to see the business, and the people on the street saw me and hid. When I arrived at the pharmacy, I heard the guy and Lang Zhong say that Ruo Xiao had caused trouble again, and this time he somehow provoked the second prince and the third prince on the street, and the second prince swore to the sky that he would peel Ruo Xiao and cramp it, and light the sky lantern for the living, and ordered the royal army to arrest people, and even brought the Hong family hotel to the end, and Aunt Hong was also arrested. ”

"When?"

"Just now, the child heard the news and rushed back to you. Grandpa, go and plead with the prince to save Ruoxiao! ”

Yao Biao pondered for a while, and said lightly:

"That's what you're going to do here? Presumably Miss Xiang'er was present at the time; How did you meet her? Why don't you bring her back to me? It's the first thing she knows; I figured out what was going on so I could talk to the prince. ”

Yao Jizhu couldn't hide his surprise and embarrassment.

"You...... How do you know? …… It was the child who met Ruo Xiao and Miss Xiang'er halfway, and Ruo Xiao asked me to send Miss Xiang'er home, and he knew that he had caused a big disaster. ”

Yao Biao turned to the butler, did not change his always calm tone, and clearly ordered:

"Yao Gui, you go to Huiying Building immediately now and bring Miss Xiang'er back. When I went directly to see their shopkeeper, I said that I had something important to ask Miss Xiang'er and asked her to come and sit at home. ”

“…… This ...... "Yao Gui stood in place incredulously, unable to digest his master's command; Lord Yao, who has always been alarmist and self-conscious, ordered his master to go to the Qinglou to ask for a little girl?

Yao Biao saw him in a daze, and urged: "What are you doing in a daze?" Don't go yet! ”

Yao Gui bowed, stopped talking, turned around and took the order. Yao Jizhu watched the housekeeper leave, and asked a little unwillingly:

"Grandpa, why don't you let me go? Uncle Gui is unfamiliar with that side, and he doesn't know Xiang'er—"

Yao Biao glanced at the eldest grandson and asked coldly, "He is unfamiliar, are you familiar?" ”

Yao Jizhu's face was immediately purple, he lowered his head, and muttered:

“…… The grandson was going for the first time just now, but because he was entrusted by Ruoxiao, he should send Miss Xiang'er home......"

Yao Biao sighed quietly and said, "You go out, what should you be busy with." ”

Yao Jizhu still stood hesitantly.

"But...... What if little? ”

"I'll just worry about it; I have to listen to Miss Xiang'er in detail to determine what the situation is. It's useless for you to worry. Let's get out. I'm tired all morning and want to be quiet for a while. ”

Yao Jizhu was a little reluctant and a little ashamed, stopped making a sound, and left the study obediently, carefully closing the door.

Watching his grandson leave in a panic, Yao Biao couldn't help but vividly think of the appearance of Shen Ruoliao, who was the same age as his grandson, but it was not the little boy half a year ago - that unruly, rude, and wilted wild boy, stealing chickens and dogs, causing trouble, and running away at every turn, causing the whole family to speak ill of each other, and making himself suffer from headaches everywhere. What he remembered at this moment was a year and a half ago, when the sixteen-year-old boy left the mountains for the first time with the patriarch and came to visit the vast and strange world outside the mountains; The one who blushes when he sees someone, and his name is not good; The little one who was cared for by Zhu'er for two sentences, and was so frightened that he ran away with chopsticks.

He sighed slightly and picked up He Yu's letter in his hand. He didn't need to open it, he also knew what the letter was about. However, in the end, Yao Biao still opened the letter, and looked at the few words on the letter paper with some boredom that he could already recite backwards:

…… Everything in the village is the same as before...... How are things going on in the house? …… Is there any news from the past? ……

A year ago, on the same autumn day, He Yu, who had just become the owner of Zhenshui Village, stood in his study for the first time and told him face to face everything that had happened; Every word, how clear, as if it were still yesterday:

“…… At first, he wanted to deny it, but he saw that there was no room for defense, and finally admitted that he held a grudge against the patriarch's punishment and took the opportunity to poison and retaliate. I locked him up and prepared to dispose of him the next day. As a result, that night, he used Qing'er to steal the key from me; The swing was also deceived and used by him, helping him hide his eyes and ears and escape in the night. It took me three months to comb the whole night mountain with a comb, but I didn't find his shadow, and I thought he must have escaped from the mountain. So I'm going to find you, brother, to see if he came to the house and tricked you into taking him in. ”

Yao Biao replied, "I really just learned about such a thing; I haven't heard from you since Brother Yang went back for the New Year's goods a year ago, and I didn't expect such a big thing to happen. Look at that kid, it really doesn't look like that-"

He Yu sighed: "If there is a father, there must be a son." Didn't the second brother rely on his appearance to deceive people back then, and ruined the innocence of many girls, he never thought about it. My second sister-in-law died early, which is really a blessing for her. ”

Yao Biao said: "Although Shen Rufeng has a bad reputation in his life, after all, he still has righteousness and faith in the face of his fellow brothers. Xiao'er, this child is young and ignorant of the world, how can he do such a hurtful thing and deliberately poison his uncle. - So, did Lord Yang Zhai really abolish his martial arts with his own hands? ”

He Yu said: "The eldest brother is a benevolent person; In anger, he abolished his martial arts with his own hands, and then relented and regretted it, so he asked Zhang Luo to have a happy event, fulfill Xiao'er, and marry Qing'er to him; Who would have thought that the beast was not only ungrateful, but also held a grudge and did such a rebellious thing. - Alas, there will be no more to say about what has already happened. The younger brother just asked the elder brother to help keep an eye on it, and if he found out about the whereabouts of that kid, he must inform me as soon as possible. ”

I can't remember the letters from Uncle He in my hand. Yao Biao doesn't reply to every letter. He didn't have time; I'm not good at talking nonsense. Before Yang Zhiding died, he had only dealt with He Yu once, and that was already a dusty old thing twenty years ago. For the old things, Yao Biao has always been neither forgotten nor worried. For twenty years, he had no contact with He Yu; Suddenly, Uncle He sent him half a dozen letters within a year, repeatedly asking him and his family how they were doing.

He refolded the letter, put it back in the envelope, and threw it into the pile of waste paper waiting to be burned by his desk, and smiled faintly; Then he sighed helplessly, shook his head and smiled bitterly, and said to himself:

"It's not good to mess with anyone, but I want to mess with the second prince - if there is a father, there must be a son, this is true."