"Marquis of Jin?" I asked.

"Well, people close their eyes before they settle."

"How did you get there?" Although the illness of the Marquis of Jin has not improved for a long time, he has never heard of a malignant change recently, why did he suddenly die?

"I heard from the palace people who served me that I ate a few sugar balls in the afternoon, and I had thick phlegm in my throat at night, and I didn't come up in one breath." Yu An picked up the flint I put next to the bed and lit a candle by the window, "The prince originally planned to recruit you and Taishi into the palace in two days to pray for the king's blessing and ward off illness, but now the prayer ceremony is no longer needed, and you are going to start the funeral." ”

"You came back specifically to inform Si'er to arrange the mansion?"

"Hmm. Taishi also got the news last night, as soon as the morning dawns, you should also enter the palace. It's just, Prime Minister, can you go away? Yu An stared at my face by the light of the fire.

I knew what he meant, so I simply made it clear: "Do you want to ask me about Prime Minister's condition?" ”

"Last time, Yu Liqing in the southern suburbs seemed to be cured, but in the past month or so, you have recruited four children into the house every day, and I am still a little worried."

"Si'er stays in front of Qing Xiang every day, why don't you ask her?"

"If you don't let her talk about Qingxiang's illness with anyone, how can she tell me?"

Yu An poured me a glass of water, I reached out and took a sip, the cold water moistened my itchy throat, and slid into my stomach but it was so cold that people shivered.

"Ah Shi, the prince will be filial piety for the first monarch for three years from today. During the period of filial piety, he didn't ask about state affairs, Zhao Ying and Zhiyao always had to choose one person to support the country. Prime minister's condition, don't hide it from me anymore. ”

"Regardless of whether the prime minister's body is good or not, he is still the secretary of the Jin State after all, and the new monarch wants to entrust the country, so naturally he can't go over the secretary and choose Yaqing, this is etiquette. If the new monarch is afraid that Zhiyao will be displeased, it is better to entrust him with many ceremonial matters before the funeral. During the national funeral, there was no serious state affairs, and Zhiyao has always been in the limelight, receiving the sons and grandsons of the princes and grandsons from all over the world, he will like it. ”

"The prince is undecided, but you have arranged everything."

"That little witch dares to ask the Asian Brigade, can such an arrangement be in line with the Asian Brigade's wishes?"

Yu An heard what I said, his eyes flashed, and he didn't respond. I then said, "I remember the last time I saw you wrapping filial piety cloth on your sword was twelve years ago, when you were lonely and desperate and fled for your life, but now you are going straight to the clouds." ”

"You're not happy for me?" Yu An reached out and stroked the hilt of the linen-covered sword.

"You don't have to do murder business, I'm naturally happy for you. But you and Xinjun are so close, if you make a mistake in the future, you will never recover. ”

"Are you afraid that I will follow in my father's footsteps?"

"Indeed, he is a lesson to be learned."

"Don't worry, I'm not him, at least I won't die that badly."

"Yu An, you don't understand what I mean."

"I understand. It's you, so I don't understand. Yu An approached and picked up the knot that hung down at my side, the knot that had been returned without shirts.

"I won't stay in the Zhao Mansion forever." My heart was weak, so I pulled the knot back and pinched it in my palm.

Yu An sneered: "You saw with your own eyes the events of that night, and you actually came back from the Qin Kingdom." I never thought you would be such a humble woman. Why did you come back when you were gone? If you don't come back, at least in our eyes, in the eyes of him Zhao Wuxian, she is still a woman with backbone. ”

"As soon as I'm gone, I'm really noble?"

"At least like you."

"No, you don't understand me. Shirtless ...... You don't understand him either. I raised my hand and unconsciously pressed my lower abdomen. Since I returned to Jin from the state of Chu, there have been too many changes in my life, and these changes have made me miserable. But now, as long as his heart is there, he is with my children, and I will never regret my decision.

Yu An's eyes fell on my hand, his eyelids trembled slightly, and his stiff lips opened several times before he hoarsely spoke: "Ah Shi, I still say the same thing, I only hope that in the future, you and I will not regret the choice now." ”

"I don't regret it, and I hope you won't either."

The dark red firelight shone on the two silent and stubborn faces. In the silence, a rooster crows to end our unpleasant conversation.

Si'er didn't sleep all night, and according to the instructions of her husband, she used plain white linen cloth that was visible all over the house to announce the death of a generation of monarchs and the birth of a new monarch they had been waiting for. Under the battle between Zhao and Zhi in full swing, Yu An's eagerness made me faintly uneasy, but this uneasiness was quickly dispelled away by the arrival of another person.

Outside the Taishi Mansion, the boy helped me out of the carriage. The sky is dawning, and Shi Mo is long gone. The entire Taishi Mansion is like an empty city, and sorcerers, witches, and witches are all called into the palace.

"What about people?" I asked the child.

"Waiting in the front hall, saying that he is from Ludu Qufu to deliver something to the sorcerer." The child trotted to keep up with me.

"When does Master want me to enter the palace?"

"It is said that it is time to enter the palace now, and no matter how late it is, it will not be past the time of eating."

"Got it, go and prepare mourning clothes for me, and we'll enter the palace together later."

"Yui." The boy had to leave in a hurry.

Because the Marquis of Jin died violently last night, the people in the Taishi Mansion hurriedly entered the palace with Shi Mo before dawn. At this time, although the morning sun had risen in the east, the row of windows on the east wall of the front hall were still closed, and the bamboo curtains on the doors had not been rolled up. There was no voice, no wind, and the death-stained morning was so silent that it seemed as if everything was so unreal.

When the bamboo curtain was lifted, a man of about forty years old came into view. In the dim daylight, he knelt on the seat, his eyes closed as if he was asleep. In his arms, he held a small green cloth bag tightly, and I thought that the reply letter given to me by Duanmu should be in this small bag.

I walked up to the man and coughed lightly. The man's shoulders shook and he looked up. He must have not slept well for a long, long time, and the two barely held up eyelids on his sleepy face seemed to be about to close at any moment.

"Is it Mr. Duanmu's messenger?" I asked.

"Are you a sorcerer?" When the drowsy man heard the word "Duanmu", he raised his hand and rubbed his face violently.

"Exactly."

The man's expression became extraordinarily serious, and his scrutinizing gaze suddenly made everything real.

Duanmu Ci really replied to me! I will be able to know the whereabouts of Gong Yining right away, and I will know the location of the secret room of the Zhifu, and I will really be able to see Ah Quinoa! The belated joy passed through like a gust of wind, sweeping away the gloom in my heart.

"Can Mr. Duanmu's letter be handed over to you?" I stared at the green cloth bag in the man's arms, and my voice unconsciously raised.

The man became more and more nervous, he clutched the burden in his arms, stared at me, and said, "Can the wizard answer the next few questions first?" ”

"Sir, it's okay to ask." I sat on my knees.

"Dare to ask the sorcerer, what is the name of the little maid that Mr. Duanmu is serving?" The man asked, observing my look.

"Maysun."

"Where is Mayyang's grandfather's house?"

"In the fishing village of Ganyuan."

"Mr. Duanmu meets the wizard for the first time......"

"At Mr. Yan's house, Mayyang asked me to see Mr. Yan. No, no, no, in the woods outside the Qin Capital, I calculated the accounts for Mr. Duanmu. "Duanmu Ci must have been afraid that the reply letter would fall into the hands of others, so he did not let the clerk of the post along the way deliver the letter, he was afraid that the messenger would recognize the wrong person, and deliberately prepared so many questions that only I knew, he acted so carefully that I was more and more anxious to see the reply, "If there is anything else to ask, just ask quickly, Xiao Wuding answered truthfully." ”

"Oh, no." The man breathed a sigh of relief, lowered his head and untied the small bag in his arms, took out a roll of bamboo slips from it and handed it to me, "This is a letter from Mr. Duanmu to the wizard, please take a look at the wizard." ”

"Thank you!" I took the bamboo slip and couldn't wait to open the wooden mud seal on it. The letter was written by Duanmu Ci, in which he wrote many things that happened in the Lu Kingdom after the death of Confucius. He said that he wanted to invite me to Qufu next year to discuss with the Confucian princes, and looked forward to seeing Shi Mo's "Cheng" of the Jin Dynasty one day. But I read the letter several times from beginning to end, but he didn't say a word about Lu Guogong's loss.

"Did Mr. Duanmu only ask the messenger to deliver this volume of letters? But what other letters? I wondered.

"Nope."

"How could it not be? Did the messenger come from thousands of miles just to deliver this volume? "I'm in a hurry.

"Oh no, and Mr. Duanmu has another cart of heavy gifts for the wizard. This is a gift list, and the items are now in the pavilion. The man took out a long wooden slip from the pouch and handed it to me.

Pearls, colored shells, corals, Yixiang, Qijin, swallow bows...... The word "public loss" in the long gift list is still missing, "There is nothing else?" I asked, unwillingly.

"Nope." The man shook his head.

Why is that? Could it be that Duanmu Ci failed to find Gong Yining's whereabouts? Or maybe he has a clue but doesn't want to tell me, for fear of blaming Zhiyao for this? Or, did he know that this matter was secretly murderous, and he didn't want me to be an enemy of the Zhi clan, so he deliberately didn't tell me? Or is it ...... I looked at the tired man in front of me, my mind suddenly moved, and I hurriedly put down the wooden stump, raised my hand and saluted the man: "Zidian, dare to ask what to call your feet?" ”

When the man saw me salute, he was stunned for a moment, and then raised his hand and saluted back: "In the next - Lu Guogong loses Ning." ”

Duanmuci's letter didn't tell me the whereabouts of Gong Yining, he actually gave me the long-disappeared Gong Yining!

Gong Yi Ning is the uncle of the Lu State Wizard Gong Lose Class. Back then, the public losing class built a secret room for Zhiwenzi to imprison my mother, but his friend stole the key to the Seven Tricks Exquisite Lock. After A-Niang disappeared from the secret room, Zhiyao no longer trusted the public loss class, so she found Gong Yin, who was ambitious and wanted to suppress the public loss class, and paid a lot of money to ask him to build a new secret room on the grounds that Jin Hou built a "Qibao car".

Three years later, the "Qibao Che" was presented to the Marquis of Jin as a birthday gift by Zhiyao's father, but Gongying Ning disappeared in the Lu State. No one knows where he went. Some people say that Gong Yi Ning was robbed and killed by bandits on the way back to Lu because he had a lot of money; Some say that when he forged a new lock, the brazier caught fire and burned to ashes along with the workshop; It is also said that he got into a sword argument with his apprentices, and both died of their injuries. In all the rumors, Gong Yinning is dead. Because if a conceited and ambitious man like him were still alive, he would never disappear and let the young public loser sit in the position of the patriarch of the public loss clan.