Duanmu Xihua took a long detour and deliberately avoided the Nan'an Palace. She took Shi Wei along a small alley and came to the backyard.

Usually, except for Kiyono, who occasionally guards the door and waits for her to come back, there will be no one else. The rest of the attendants were all in their own duties, and they didn't dare to approach her.

So, she pushed the door open with confidence. I didn't see Qingye in the next second, but it was the king of Nan'an who stood with his hands in his hands.

Duanmu Qinghe heard the sound of the door opening and turned to look at the girl.

"Zhuzhu'er, you're back."

She was stunned for a moment, subconsciously blocking in front of Shi Wei.

"Hmm."

His tone was gentle.

"I have something to talk to you about."

She looked at King Nan'an and felt that there seemed to be something wrong with him. Compared with the previous indifference, it seems that there is something obsessed in my heart.

"Daddy, I promised my friend to take him to Baili's house. Otherwise, wait until I get back to talk? ”

She thought for a while, and told Duanmu Qinghe about the current dilemma of decline. Among them, he concealed the jade pendant given by Ruyu, and only said that because he didn't find Jiang Lanhe, he came back first to rest for a while.

Duanmu Qinghe looked at the young man behind the girl and stared slightly. Shi Wei's eyebrows are warm, and he holds his armrests, humble and polite.

"Uncle."

"Zhuzhu'er, it's good that you can make friends, I don't object to it. It's just that even if you go to look for Ah He after you have rested, if you still haven't found it. ”

This...... The lies she made up in a hurry were not well thought out, and they were full of loopholes.

"That's it, Yu Ying."

"Master."

The blue-clothed guard with a knife at his waist appeared behind him and waved respectfully. Duanmu Qinghe nodded and arranged.

"You personally send this son to Baili's house."

"Yes."

Shi Wei immediately smiled and thanked him, there was no different color on his face, and he was calm from beginning to end.

"So, thank you uncle for your help. Then Miss Mingzhu, we'll have a date later. ”

The blue-clad guard soon arrived in a carriage, waved goodbye to her again, and then got into the carriage.

"Let's go, Zhuzhu'er."

The shadow of the car disappeared into the alley, and Duanmu Qinghe walked towards the courtyard. She followed, a little apprehensive.

At this moment, in Baili Mansion, there was a night of trouble, and the first thing Baili Zhiheng did when he went home was, of course, to make up for sleep. Now that he was awake, he was still a little lazy. He only leaned on the soft collapse and looked through a few account books.

In addition to the Jiang family, there are also many people who want to be close to the Baili family. But there are very few people who know where the Baili Heng Mansion is.

So, unless it's what he wants to see. Otherwise, no one will be able to find him.

After he watched for half an hour, he was about to call someone in to bring some food.

The little guy took the first step outside the bead curtain, and after glancing inward, he hurriedly lowered his head. The young man on the soft collapse was wearing a bedgown, exposing half of his shoulders.

"Master, there's a son outside, who says it's your cousin."

Baili Zhiheng snorted lightly.

"Nonsense, this is a new trick that comes up with a set of close tricks? Drive away, drive away. ”

"Hey, master."

The little servant listened to the order, and immediately turned around and prepared to drive people away. But when I think of that son, I don't look like the kind of person who is close to him. By the way, he seems to have credentials.

Although this voucher looks a little shabby. It's just that if you let the master know, he can be regarded as doing his best.

"Master, he said that you once lost a sandalwood abacus to him in the past, and asked if you still want it."

"Wait, you're back, what's his name?"

"Back to the master, he only said that his surname was Zhou."

Baili Zhiheng sat up from the couch in an instant, and now his whole body was refreshed. Zhou Zhifu came to Beixiang? When was this.

"You take him to the main hall, and I'll go in a moment."

"Yes."

The little servant was about to go down, but the young man stopped him again.

"Call someone from outside in and help me pick out my clothes and hair crown."

He has always been casual, even if he treats Lu Weizhen and his party, he doesn't necessarily care so much. But at this moment, his face is very serious, as if he is facing a great enemy.

When he was in Dongyang, Zhou Zhifu was the person he had always wanted to defeat. Of course, it was his rebellious period.

When Baili Zhiheng was eleven years old, Nanzhou and Xijiangyue sent him back to Baili's house.

Although Nanzhou said that he would sever the relationship between father and son, he said that he would sever the relationship between father and son. But in his heart, he still remembers Baili Shaohuan in the end.

Every month, Nanzhou will regularly send people to carry two boxes of gold and silver to Baili Mansion. In the first year, he sent, and the prime minister threw it. Send as much as you want, and don't be soft at all.

Nanzhou also had no temper and insisted on sending it correctly.

In the second year, Baili Shaohuan still didn't accept it. His cronies persuaded him that this was a piece of filial piety for children. And doesn't it also explain that what Nanzhou said before was all angry words.

The prime minister shook his head.

"You know what."

His son knows best that Nanzhou's purpose in doing this is just to repay his nurturing grace.

Nanzhou's abacus crackled, and he was very shrewd. He wants to use this trick to get along with him and completely break off the relationship.

Then he will not accept it, and he will never let him succeed.

Nanzhou left when he was not confused, and now more than ten years have passed, Baili Shaohuan feels that he is really old.

He is no longer obsessed with government politics, nor does he care about the current people's livelihood. He began to reminisce, thinking of the two children left behind by his deceased wife, his flesh and blood inheritance.

The prime minister has always known that he is not a qualified father.

After his wife died of illness, he devoted himself to national affairs and couldn't devote much attention to his two children.

Nan Su is okay, but Nan Zhou is estranged from him because of different pursuits, conflicting opinions, and a stalemate in the relationship between father and son.

He hopes that Nanzhou can gain fame, but Nanzhou has no intention of pursuing a career, he likes to run behind merchants all day long, and learn some 'crooked ways' from those people.

The prime minister regretted it a little, because Nanzhou was able to easily audit the empty numbers on the accounts when he was a child. So, he gave Nanzhou a sandalwood abacus as a reward.

But he is not encouraging Nanzhou to go down this road, in the eyes of the prime minister, this is a road of no return.

No return, no return, no return, no return, no return,

At that time, the status of merchants was despicable and lowly, and they were not taken seriously. He is often sent to prison by the government on charges of disrespecting the law of etiquette.

Of course, the prime minister can't allow such a thing to happen, and after Nanzhou weakened the crown, he did the two things the most.

One is to climb over the wall in the middle of the night to enter the room.

One is to kneel and be beaten by the prime minister.

At that time, the lights in the ancestral hall stayed up all night. The prime minister knelt quietly on the futon, staring at the tablet in the middle. The people were also on the side, silent until Nanzhou went home.

Nanzhou didn't go out to fool around, compared to his peers, he didn't have the slightest trace of fat powder and tobacco and alcohol on his body. This is also clear to the prime minister.

The prime minister first took the whip and asked him.

"Will you change it?"

Nanzhou replied to him.

"Don't change."

The prime minister went down with a few whips and continued to ask.

"You can't change it."

Nanzhou stubbornly replied to him.

"If you don't change, you just don't change."

The prime minister was angry and went to fight with his life. Nanzhou coughed up blood directly, and the attendants all ran over to stop him.

"Master, you can't fight anymore, Gongzi will die."

The prime minister stopped and asked him.

"You can't change it."

Nanzhou's body trembled in pain, but he still replied in a voice like a gossamer.

"Don't change."

……

Such a conversation is repeated every day in the backyard of Baili's house.

Once, Nanzhou did not return overnight. The people in the prime minister's house searched from house to house in a panic, screaming desperately. And the prime minister, he walked to a guild hall with unhurried steps.

It was noon, and the sun was fierce. Nanzhou slept on the steps of the hall, still holding the sandalwood abacus in his hand.

The prime minister didn't speak, and stood quietly in front of Nanzhou, covering the scorching sun above his head.

Nanzhou slept until nearly dusk before gradually waking up, and the prime minister also stood until the sunset.

Nanzhou's mouth moved, but he never said anything.

The prime minister turned around, and the setting sun stretched his shadow very long, and he disappeared step by step into the afterglow of the setting sun.

Nanzhou sat there in a daze, as if he was a child who had done something wrong, but he didn't know what was wrong.

The rift between the two has not healed over time. The prime minister only now realizes that around that time, he forced him too hard.

Therefore, Nanzhou fell in love with Xijiangyue, and it was all promoted by himself. He shouldn't blame Xi Jiangyue, it was he who pushed his son away step by step.

Nanzhou was originally a bird imprisoned in a cage, and his body was still bound by chains. Under the pressure of the double shackles, those small struggles can be ignored.

He was almost resigned to his fate, but he saw Xi Jiangyue. She lived the way he wanted, and it gave him the determination to fight to the end.

In the second year after Nanzhou left, Nan Su became the queen and the mother of the world. But the Prime Minister's Mansion is even more deserted, and his thoughts grow like weeds.

In the fifth year of Nanzhou's departure, the prime minister began to condemn himself every day. But he still couldn't pull his face and took the initiative to reconcile with his son.

However, he began to accept the gold and silver that Nanzhou prepared every month.

In the seventh year after Nanzhou left, the prime minister stopped the little guy who came to deliver money. He was given a sandalwood abacus and a handful of red beans.

In the tenth year since Nanzhou left, the prime minister was no longer the prime minister, he was just a father who wanted to see his son.

In the thirteenth year of Nanzhou's departure, the gold and silver of this month were not delivered. The prime minister breathed a long sigh of relief, Nanzhou should have felt that he had paid off the debt owed.

In the new year, the prime minister warmed a pot of wine, and he gave his subordinates a holiday. I opened the window by myself and reminisced while looking at the red plum snow outside.

The most loyal attendant who has been by his side since he was a child ran in in a panic.

"Master, outside, outside."

He couldn't tell if the prime minister's heart moved, whether Nanzhou had come back. He followed the attendants, and at that time, at the door of the Prime Minister's Mansion, a young man was standing with his back to them.

He can't be said to be a teenager, he looks like he is only eight or nine years old, and he is also very short.

It's not Nanzhou, the prime minister is disappointed. Maybe it's someone's lost child? He taught his attendants to fetch money.

The boy turned around, and the prime minister smiled. He and Tong Nanzhou were carved out of a mold, and they even held a sandalwood abacus in their hands.

The prime minister wanted to say something, but he tried to smile hard, trying to make a better impression on the boy. But smiling and smiling, the tears in his eyes couldn't stop falling.

The boy asked him.

"My father and mother said that this will be my home from now on. What am I going to do? ”

The prime minister stepped forward, and he touched the boy's hair.

"Do whatever you want."

“……”

Baili Zhiheng returned to Bailijia in this way, and the people of Dongyang were once worried that when Bailijia reached this generation, the incense would be completely broken.

Now it seems that there is an explanation.

Nan Su doted on this nephew even more, and the family transferred all their love for Nanzhou to him. Whatever Baili Zhiheng does, they are all supportive.

The young man's fame in Qudu is getting more and more popular, but when the people talk about him, they will always carry another name, that is, the child of Nanxu, the prince of the dynasty - Zhou Zhifu.

Moreover, they used words that he did not like. What do you mean-"You can compare with His Royal Highness the Crown Prince." ”

Doesn't this mean that he is not as good as Zhou Zhifu?

Baili Zhiheng has done some stupid things that are 'beyond his strength', just like Jiang Lanhe came to challenge him, wanting to prove something by defeating him.

At the beginning, he was the same as Jiang Lanhe. also went to find Zhou Zhifu and threatened to defeat him. But the prince is different from himself, he just doesn't compare with him.

No matter whether he uses the method of agitation or lures him with interests, Zhou Zhifu should not do it.

Not only should he not, but he always looked at him with the eyes of an elder. It's just a little older than him, and it's so arrogant.

Baili Zhiheng was very unhappy, he felt that the rumored prince was nothing more than that. Until the occurrence of the moat secret battle, Zhou Zhifu took the initiative to ask him to meet, and the two came to a restaurant for dinner.

Somehow, Baili Zhiheng was obviously not so hungry. And this is still in front of the 'enemy'. But after he ate three bowls of rice in a row, he was still a little unsatisfied.

Halfway through the fourth bowl of rice, Zhou Zhifu spoke.

"Cousin, the rice I've been eating lately isn't as fragrant as it used to be. The japonica rice inside is not sweet or glutinous, and it has a somewhat musty smell. ”

Baili Zhiheng put down his chopsticks, knew that this person had something to say, and waited quietly for him to finish.

"So I summoned the butlers, thinking that the attendants on the errand were lazy."

But the steward told me that the harvest was not good in the three countries this year because of drought and flood. In the past few days, the price of rice in the market has been high, and it is difficult to buy polished rice. ”

"At first, I didn't believe it, fined him for his monthly money, and urged him to do things well, but I didn't think that the taste of rice still hasn't changed. The housekeeper really didn't lie to me, and the rice from other places must taste like this. ”

So I visited many families on the pretext of studying history, and stayed there to eat. To my surprise, the same tastes like this for these rices. ”

Baili Zhiheng lowered his head dumbly, looking at the half bowl of rice that he hadn't had time to eat.

Zhou Zhifu smiled.

"I specially prepared this rice for my cousin."

He asked, after a moment's thought.

"Where did you get it?"

"Merchant ships."

"Huh?"