Early the next morning, Shen Ruoyu visited Fang Xiaoru as promised. After the official etiquette and greetings, Fang Xiaoru invited Shen Ruoyu to sit down and ordered his family to serve tea. Then, he looked at Shen Ruoliao, his eyes were shining, and asked:

"Ruo Xiao, if you want to be the imperial guard of the Son of Heaven, what is your intention, don't hide it from me. There are no outsiders here, so let's be honest. ”

Shen Ruoyu said: "Mr. Fang, do you still suspect that I am acting as a spy on the orders of King Yan?" ”

Fang Xiaoru said coldly: "I don't see any other motives for you. ”

Shen Ruoyu said: "Then you should ask the Son of Heaven to arrest me." ”

Fang Xiaoru said calmly: "The area along the river has now been tightly sealed by Wei Guogong with his troops, and the capital is densely packed with secret sentinels, you can't escape." But I think before that, it's better to ask the question. ”

"You're so kind. If you don't believe me, what I say is just as useless? ”

"That depends on what you say." Fang Xiaoru said.

Shen Ruoyu said: "What I said in front of the Son of Heaven yesterday is not false. King Yan wants me to do something for him; But I believe that I still have my own choice, I believe that I still have the opportunity to change my life, and I want to seize this opportunity to stay by the side of the Son of Heaven and protect the Son of Heaven, instead of continuing to deliver letters for King Yan. ”

"Protect the Son of Heaven?" Fang Xiaoru asked lightly, "Is this what you really think?" ”

Shen Ruoyu hesitated. "Not exactly. The Imperial Guard is a position where you can get close to the Son of Heaven. If I want to make a difference, I should always look for an opportunity for myself. ”

"Make a little achievement, what achievement? Is it the results in front of King Yan, or the results in front of the Son of Heaven? ”

Shen Ruoyu said: "You may think that I am in a hurry for quick success. But every day in front of the eyes of the Son of Heaven, I can learn a lot about the government and all other military affairs. It's not that I despise starting from the army, but compared to the army, the emperor can see me in front of the emperor. ”

"The normal thoughts of young people, it's natural." Fang Xiaoru said, "It seems that you are in a hurry to leave King Yan and serve the imperial court." You've already decided to oppose King Yan? ”

To his surprise, Shen Ruoyu hesitated for a moment and replied, "Mr. Fang, I haven't made up my mind yet. ”

Fang Xiaoru was slightly stunned.

Shen Ruoyu said: "You know, I also told you before that I was against King Yan's army. I really don't want to do things for him anymore, I can't stand to continue to be played with by him like this. But whether I want to oppose King Yan and his people is two different things. I can't help it, I can't decide right now. ”

"But—you came to the capital, asked to be the imperial guard of the Son of Heaven, and said that you would break off with King Yan?"

"Mr. Fang, you don't know, last time I returned to Beiping from the capital with King Yan, I passed by Jinan halfway, King Yan said that I would take a detour, I was worried about Lord Tie's friendship, and I felt that I couldn't go, so I secretly went to Lord Tie behind his back. As a result, Lord Tie led his troops to capture King Yan, and I rescued King Yan again. ”

"The imperial court has heard of it," Fang Xiaoru said coldly, "Aren't you contradicting yourself?" ”

"It seems to you that it is, but I can't help it. On the one hand, I want King Yan to be a loyal minister, and I don't want you and Lord Tie to break off relations with me, and I don't want to see the war make the people miserable. But on the other hand, King Yan is still my benefactor; Although he didn't really trust and value me, he gave me a chance after all. If I hadn't had him, I would have been a pariah who whispered his life for a few pennies all day long, and I wouldn't be where I am today. Mr. Fang, I oppose King Yan's seizure of power and usurpation of the throne in any way, but this does not mean that I oppose him personally. I know that the Son of Heaven lacks a close guard, and I want this position, just to help the Son of Heaven stop King Yan from raising troops and fighting in the same room. ”

Fang Xiaoru was a little speechless for a while. He originally expected Shen Ruoyu to resolutely say that he wanted this position because he opposed King Yan and supported the Son of Heaven; In his hand was Tie Xuan's letter to him, which recounted Shen Ruoyu's rescue of King Yan. He can take out the letter, expose Shen Ruoliao's lies, denounce his sinister intentions, and then the matter will be resolved. But now, Shen Ruoyu told him honestly that he was only against King Yan's seizure of the throne, not against King Yan himself, which was reasonable. He was a little overwhelmed for a moment.

He said slowly: "In that case, how can you let me rest assured that you are close to the Son of Heaven? You don't want to break with King Yan completely, and you still have his grace in mind all the time, how can you not be controlled by him? ”

Shen Ruoyu said: "The general is outside, and the main order is not subject to it." Since I am in the capital, King Yan will definitely not come to Yingtian, and I don't have to obey him in everything. I want to do something for the Son of Heaven wholeheartedly, make amends for my past, and at the same time try to avoid hurting the prince. Mr. Fang, because of myself, I don't want to stay by King Yan's side anymore; But for the sake of all the people of Beiping, I still love King Yan, and I must do everything I can to prevent him from rising up to seize the throne, I don't want to watch him let himself fall into the abyss of destruction, and drag the whole of Beiping into the disaster of war. ”

Fang Xiaoru sighed: "Ruo Xiao, you are too idealistic; You want King Yan to rein in the precipice, he doesn't trust you, how can he listen to your advice? Once King Yan raised an army, he broke with the court and became an enemy. What should you do at this time? Whoever you want to help has to hurt the other, how can it be the best of both worlds? Which side are you on? ”

Shen Ruoyu thought about it for a long time and said softly: "I understand what you mean." But the determination had to be taken step by step. Now I just want to help the Son of Heaven and stop King Yan from raising an army. If King Yan raises troops, the imperial court will inevitably send troops to suppress it, and at that time, whether I will also go to the battlefield with the imperial army, I can't make up my mind. However, I shouldn't need to go to the battlefield to fight as a royal guard, right? ”

"Looks like that's one of the reasons you want that position." Fang Xiaoru sighed, "You can't be too righteous as a man, do you understand?" Because sometimes people may lose great righteousness for the sake of small righteousness. I originally thought that you were a person who knew what was right and what was wrong. ”

Shen Ruoyu smiled bitterly: "It's easy to say, sir; If I go to the battlefield and see King Yan in front of me, no matter how many invincible kung fu I have, I can't bear to do it. ”

Fang Xiaoru said solemnly: "If your worries are only limited to this, maybe there is no danger in letting you get close to the Son of Heaven." But if you can't bear King Yan, you will always say good things about him to the Son of Heaven, influencing the Son of Heaven's decision. ”

Shen Ruoyu said: "The Son of Heaven has the judgment of the Son of Heaven, so he shouldn't be swayed by a small guard of mine, right?" What's more, the palace guards have no right to interfere in political affairs, I can only watch silently, just learn by myself, what can I say. ”

Fang Xiaoru held his forehead with a little headache: "This matter-let me think about it again." I'll talk to the other officials and I'll give you an answer in two days. ”

Shen Ruoyu said sympathetically: "I'm not in a hurry, and you don't need to be so anxious." ”

Fang Xiaoru said: "How can I not be anxious? King Yan will raise an army when he sees it; You suddenly ran to the Qianqing Palace with a sword alone, and no one could stop you, the safety of the Son of Heaven is really worrying. If it weren't for your relationship with King Yan, it would have been great to have you as a royal guard. I'll discuss it with Wei Guogong. ”

Shen Ruoyu stayed at the Jinghua Inn for a few days, and Zhu Yunwen would send people to greet him every day, and he wanted to pay for him, but he politely and resolutely dismissed him. Fang Xiaoru also came to see him from time to time. However, neither the Son of Heaven nor Lord Fang would say whether they could let him stay as a close guard. Shen Ruoyu began to suspect that he had made a mistake. The shop at Jinghua Inn is expensive; When Nangong Qiu couldn't bear the loneliness, he asked him to take him out to play, and he was reluctant to let her eat good things, seeing that the two ingots of money were falling away like flowing water, but he did nothing in Beijing. Shen Ruoyu was a little frustrated. If this continues, at most by the end of the month, the money on his body will be spent. He stayed in Beijing for a month, even if he didn't do anything else, he had to find a way to get the three princes back to Beiping anyway, otherwise he would go back to Beiping in such a gloomy way, and he would not be skinned and cramped by King Yan.

At this time, there was another big event in the imperial court. Someone secretly accused Zhu Bai, the king of Xiang, of rebellion. Zhu Yunwen sent a special envoy to Jingzhou to inquire about the King of Xiang, but Zhu Bai didn't know what the reason was, he actually imitated his own Starling Tan King Zhu Zi and died in the palace. Zhu Yunwen then thought that Zhu Bai committed suicide in fear of sin, and sealed him with an ugly "戾". As soon as this incident came out, it seemed that he had got some code and half of it, and immediately reprimanded him, pointing to Zhu Rong, the king of Qi, who was also a rebellion. Zhu Yunwen treated the king of Zhou like Zhu Hu, and abolished the king of Qi as a concubine and imprisoned him in Beijing. The cutting of the feudal domain is even more out of control; Within two days, Zhu Gui, the acting king, was also convicted of being violent and killing people on the street, and was deposed as a concubine and placed under house arrest in the acting king's mansion.

The princess Xu of the acting king Zhu Gui was the second daughter of the king of Zhongshan and the second sister of the princess of Yan. The personality of this acting princess is really very different from her sister, just like the acting king Zhu Gui and her fourth brother Yan Wang Zhu Di have a world of difference. While Zhu Gui hid hammers, axes and other murder weapons in his sleeves and went to the street to kill and injure pedestrians at will, the jealous princess beat Zhu Gui's two close maids in the palace, shaved their hair, and painted them all over their bodies, causing the two unlucky women to have leprosy all over their bodies. Zhu Gui was furious and drove Concubine Xu out of the house with Concubine Xu's eldest son and his own son.

Even so, in the eyes of the world, the princess is still the sister of Princess Yan, so the vassal of the king has been cut, which has an unusual deep meaning for both the court and the king of Yan. Shen Ruoyu knew that the imperial court would inform King Yan of the matter of cutting the feudal domain as soon as possible, so he did not mention anything about this series of incidents in his secret report to King Yan, but said that Qiu'er missed his grandfather too much, and begged the prince to quickly invite Mr. Yuan Tingyu to come to Yingtian to find him, and it was best to leave the next day after receiving the letter.