After sending off Steward Xu, Zhou Zhong looked at the box on the table, and thought for a long time to come up with an assumption, this assumption is that the Jinyiwei token and waist knife in the box are Zhou Hai's, and Zhou Hai's original name is Wang Hai, originally a thousand households of Jinyiwei, who participated in smuggling under the orders of the above, and then developed rapidly with the support of Jinyiwei, making the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce one of the four major chambers of commerce in Shuangyu Port.

Zhou Chong's assumption seems very reasonable, and it also explains many mysteries about Zhou Hai, such as the rapid development of the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce and the whereabouts of the huge profits and money. But after thinking about it seriously, Zhou Chong felt that this assumption was not valid, if Zhou Hai was really Jinyiwei's person, then after his death, I am afraid that Jinyiwei would have come to the door a long time ago.

Thinking of this, Zhou Chong couldn't help but shake his head in distress again, it seems that Zhou Hai's true identity may not be as simple as he thought, and there are a total of three things in the box, the embroidered spring knife and the token must be the same person, but who is the jade longevity lock? This thing is generally only worn by children, and looking at the style and material of the longevity lock, it is definitely not something that ordinary people can wear.

Bang'er inadvertently found these few things in the ancestral hall, which brought great trouble to Zhou Chong, and even didn't sleep well for a few nights for this, firstly, he was very curious about what Zhou Hai's identity was, and why would there be these brocade guards at home, and secondly, he was also worried that one day, suddenly a group of brocade guards broke into the house, and then arrested the whole family and threw them in prison.

It was precisely because his mind was full of the above two questions that Zhou Chong couldn't sleep, but as time went by. Everything is normal at home. That's what put him at ease. In addition, he had another thing to deal with, so he slowly put this matter behind him.

After meeting Xie Da last time, the other party asked him to withdraw from the marriage of the Wang family within a month, but thinking of the last time he met Wang Lun, the other party showed concern for him, and now the house he lives in still belongs to someone else, this kind of favor is too big, if he comes directly to withdraw from the marriage. That's so inhuman.

However, just when Zhou Zhong was worried about the marriage of the Wang family, Daming suddenly broke out a major event, and it is not accurate to say that it broke out suddenly, because this incident actually broke out last year, and it was related to Xie Lingyun's uncle Xie Qian, and it was this major event that implicated Wang Lun, who was relegated to the family.

The cause of the matter is this, Xie Qian and Liu Jin fought at the beginning, and after the failure, he resigned at home, and if he was a person with some measurements. Seeing that the other party failed, he wouldn't pursue it anymore, but Liu Jin was a eunuch. The mind is similar to that of a woman, she likes to hold grudges the most, and she has always held a grudge against Xie Qian, and Jiao Fang, who was a cabinet scholar at the time, also looked at Xie Qian unpleasantly, so the two joined forces to attack Xie Qian together at the beginning of the fourth year of Zhengde.

Jiao Fang is different from Liu Jin, he and Xie Qian actually don't have much of a holiday, it's just that he is a northerner, and he was very talented when he was young, but most of the important ministers in the court at that time were southerners, and when they promoted officials, they naturally took care of their fellow countrymen, after all, this is also human nature. However, Jiao Fang suffered deeply, although he was very talented, but he was not promoted for a long time, and his temperament was extreme, so he simply hated all the southerners, it can be said that as long as he is an official in the south, he will not like it.

It was also in this situation that Jiao Fang found that when Xie Qian was in office before, the talented people in Zhejiang recommended were all from Yuyao, that is, Xie Qian's hometown, which reminded him of what happened when he was young, so he and Liu Jin jointly wrote a letter to impeach Xie Qian for forming a party for personal gain, in an attempt to convict Xie Qian.

Speaking of Zhengde, the fourth year of Zhengde was the period when Liu Jinquan leaned towards the government and the opposition, Emperor Zhengde was not in charge of affairs at all, and Jiao Fang, the first assistant of the cabinet, also followed Liu Jin, so the two of them joined forces, and Xie Qian could almost be said to be dead. But fortunately, there is also a Li Dongyang in the court, after his persuasion, and Emperor Zhengde still has some incense for Xie Qian, so the last only dealt with some relevant officials, and at the same time stipulated that Yuyao people were not allowed to enter Beijing as officials, but could only be sent as county commanders, but Xie Qian was spared.

But it's still that sentence, Liu Jin is a eunuch, he likes to hold grudges more than women, and at this time his ambition is inflated, and he dares to tamper with Emperor Zhengde's orders without authorization, for example, at the end of last year, he ordered to recover the knighthood and official titles on Xie Qian, Liu Jian and others, and even some jade belts and official uniforms awarded to them by the emperor must be recovered.

At the beginning, it was only a matter of retracting the knighthood and conferring the knighthood, but then it didn't know how to get bigger and bigger, and even the most recent one involved more than 670 people, and among these nearly 700 people, Wang Lun happened to be one of them, and he was also the one with a relatively high ranking.

Originally, Wang Lun only had to be the same as others, and handed over the rewards he had received before, but he met a villain, and in the process of handing over the rewards, the eunuchs who came to collect them had to say that they were missing an official uniform after receiving things, but Wang Lun didn't remember that he had been rewarded with such an official uniform, but the other party just bit him to death, and he also took out the records in the palace, which did say that His Majesty Xiaozong had rewarded him with an official uniform in a certain year and month. Now Wang Lun finally understood that the other party must have been bribed by some people and was ready to rectify him, and as for the palace records, they could be fabricated casually.

Although Wang Lun has been dismissed, he is not a soft persimmon to be kneaded, so he had a big quarrel with the eunuch from Beijing on the spot, and immediately contacted some relatives and friends to prepare for self-protection after returning. After all, now Liu Jin's power is monstrous, and he has offended the other party before, even if this incident was not instigated by Liu Jin, I am afraid it will not be able to get rid of him. With his strength, it is impossible to fight with Liu Jin, at most he can only find a way to protect himself.

It was also under this premise that Zhou Zhong received a message sent by Wang Lun and asked him to go to the palace. Zhou Zhong also heard about Wang Lun's experience at this time, and he was also very anxious about it, so after receiving the news, he immediately rushed to the palace.

Wang Lun lives in the north of the city, just far away from Zhou's mansion, and when Zhou Chong hired a carriage to rush over as fast as he could, he happened to see Wang Lun saying goodbye to people, and the person who left, Zhou Chong, also knew that it was Lord Xu, the prefect of Songjiang Mansion, that is, Xu Shenzhong's father, Zhou Chong had seen it twice before, so he hurriedly stepped forward to salute.

However, Xu Zhifu seemed to have some things, so after a polite few words with Zhou Chong, he immediately got into a sedan chair and left, and then Zhou Chong entered the palace with Wang Lun.

The architectural pattern in the palace is similar to that of the Zhou Mansion, and it is also a very large mansion, but there are differences in some decorations and details, such as the hall of the palace is much more elegant than the hall of the Zhou Mansion before, there are some literati calligraphy and paintings hanging on the walls, and there are also a lot of antiques and jade on the shelves on both sides.

Wang Lun and Zhou Chong sat down as guests and hosts, and a servant brought tea, and then saw Wang Lun speak: "Zhou Chong, I heard that something happened to you some time ago, and you didn't even go home for the New Year, what is going on?" ”

Others may not know about Zhou Chong's disappearance before the year, but Wang Lun, as his quasi-father-in-law, has a wide range of people in Songjiang Mansion, so he must know that Zhou Chong had guessed this before, so now he was not surprised to hear Wang Lun's question, and directly told what he had deceived Aunt Wang and Bang'er before, just saying that he and the Xie family joined forces to do business, and then were trapped on the island by encountering wind and waves.

However, Zhou Chong's words can deceive Aunt Wang, but he can't deceive Wang Lun, who has been rolling in the officialdom for many years, only to see him glaring at Zhou Chong after hearing it and saying, "You still want to hide it from me at this time?" Tell me, have you already taken over your father's chamber of commerce? ”

Zhou Chong was also shocked when he heard this, and looked at Wang Lun with consternation: "Uncle Wang, you ...... How do you know about this? ”

"Hmph, how do I know that you don't care, now I want to ask you a question, do you plan to get fame in the future?" Wang Lun seemed to be very annoyed that Zhou Zhong had taken over the Chamber of Commerce, and his speech was no longer as kind as before.

"This ......" Zhou Zhong saw Wang Lun's angry appearance, and he didn't know how to answer for a while, but after thinking about it, he gritted his teeth and said, "Uncle Wang, it's not that the little nephew doesn't want to gain fame, but now the family is in the middle of the road, and I am the only son in the family, and the two younger sisters still rely on me to support, so I can only take over the property left by my father first, and as for the matter of studying, I really can't spare energy!" ”

Zhou Chongzhi said that he could fool others, but he was afraid that he couldn't lie at all in front of Wang Lun, so he had to tell the truth. But what he didn't expect was that after Wang Lun heard his words, a complicated look suddenly appeared on his face, first looked at Zhou Chong for a while, and then lowered his head and pondered for a moment, and then finally spoke: "Now that the eunuchs are in charge, the officialdom is also full of smoke and miasma, and His Majesty the Emperor is even more deceived by these people, and even the old man can't see any hope, since you don't want to get fame and enter the officialdom, the old man won't force you." ”

Zhou Zhong was also stunned when he heard Wang Lun's words, he didn't expect the other party to be so open-minded, and when he heard that he was unwilling to participate in the imperial examination, he didn't even object, and even used the darkness of officialdom to help him find a reason.

"Thank you Uncle Wang for your understanding, the little nephew is also grateful to me for the eunuchs in the Ming Dynasty, these eunuchs try their best to loot the people, even the officials do not let go, I heard that Liu Jin has come up with a lot of names, as long as the official is promoted, he must send him thousands or even tens of thousands of taels as a thank you gift, with the current net worth of the little nephew, even if he is famous, I am afraid he will not be able to get the money for these gifts." Zhou Zhong also pretended to smile wryly, since Wang Lun had already helped himself with a good reason, then he naturally borrowed the slope to get off the donkey.

But before Zhou Chong could relax for a while, he saw Wang Lun suddenly sigh and said: "Zhou Chong, since you have no intention of officialdom, the old man doesn't force it, but I have a difficult thing to ask you for now, I hope you can help the old man once!" (To be continued......)