By dinner time, Dugujing returned home in time. Li Jiao made a banquet to entertain Shen Jiefu and his wife, she did not dare to enter the table, only to present the purchased piano score - it was actually a hand-copied "Jieshi Tune Youlan" in small Kai, this song was composed by Qiu Ming of the Liang Dynasty of the Southern Dynasty, the title of the song was named in front of the tune, which is the only one to see in the piano music, which is extremely rare, and has gradually been lost in recent years, presented to His Majesty and the concubine, and is expected to be overjoyed. When asked about its value, it wasn't expensive, but only 10,000 yuan.

Shen Pearl's father, Yi Zhi, resigned last month and returned to Wuxing, and Shen Jiefu and his wife made this trip not only to visit Shen Pearl, but also to resign. Gongsun Erniang had a deep prejudice against Li Jiao, and she didn't have a good face at the table, and only talked to Shen Zhu. Li Jiao rarely didn't mind, and frequently persuaded him to drink, and he drank Shen Jiefu, who had a very shallow amount of wine, and was very drunk, and Shang Zi had to pour it again, so anxious that Shen Pearl secretly pulled his sleeve, and then put down the golden ou with a smile, and looked back to see that although Shen Pearl only drank half a glass of wine, he was plain and jade, slightly dizzy with wine, and his face was even more beautiful, and he couldn't take his eyes off it.

"Lady, it's getting late, we have to ...... Get...... Farewell......" Shen Jiefu, who was lying in a few cases, muttered.

Drunk like this, Gongsun Erniang gritted her teeth and glared, went to pick up his right arm, and staggered and dragged out. "Bang", the stool was dragged down, and Shen Jiefu's legs were weak, and he was about to fall, but Li Jiao quickly dodged over and held him up. Shen Jiefu grabbed Li Li's hand in a daze, opened his eyes half-awake and half-drunk, and slapped the back of Li Li's hand heavily, "My only sister...... I'll leave it to you......" Before the words were finished, the soft sedan chair of the palace had arrived in the courtyard, Li Jiao took out his hand and waved it slightly, and several attendants had already helped carry Shen Jiefu onto the sedan chair.

It's been a long time. The early summer night is as cool as water, the crystal curtain moves and the breeze rises, and the shelves are full of incense. Shen Pearl still remembers that when she was a child, she liked early summer the most, the streams in the suburbs were murmuring, the frogs were croaking, she was barefoot, her brother was carrying a small lantern, and the ridges of the green fields were dark at this time. She was sharp-eyed, shh The elder brother handed her the little lantern, and tiptoed closer and closer, and the "boom" fit pounced, and the frog let out a strange cry, fluttered and kicked his feet, and disappeared in the blink of an eye. My brother struggled for a long time to get up, and when he got closer, his face and body were all muddy and very embarrassed, and she couldn't help but "giggle" and laugh......

My brother is leaving, and he will take away all her past, her childhood, her youth, all the joys of her past, the sorrows she once had, and this life is gone forever, and tears are in her eyes before she knows it.

Li Li stood behind her, casting a heavy figure under the corridor, she looked back at him, his eyes were soft and clear, as if life was always so light and light, as if the fog and smoke, the jungle ravines, and only two by two held hands and smiled. The distance between hearts and minds, from shore to shore, is so far away, and yet so close.

Li Jiao and Shen Pearl joined hands, without attendants, as if they were strolling at random, passing through the corridors, walking through the Qingyi Pavilion, pushing open the study, and closing the door again. This study is huge, and it is not the first time that Shen Pearl has come in, and he has entered the inner room, which is equipped with a bed for rest. Shen Pearl couldn't help but flush her cheeks slightly, Li Li didn't notice it, she stepped forward and groped at the head of the bed for a while, and heard the sound of rolling, and the outer bookshelf slowly moved open, revealing a dark black door. It turned out that there was a mechanism on the head of the bed.

Li Jiao lit a palace lamp, took Shen Pearl down the stairs of more than ten steps, touched the mechanism on the wall, and opened the stone door in front of him. "It turns out that he is Mu Wei, Shen Pearl looked at him, he just hung his head and did not move, his eyes were sophisticated and calm, where have he seen it, courtier? Chamberlain? Presumably, her true identity is extremely secretive, far better than Feng Shengyi, since Li Li doesn't want her to know, there must be a reason, why should she ask more. Dugujing is not an ordinary person can deal with it, and today he has to try the case again, Feng Shengyi can't get out, and only Mu Wei can deal with it.

Sure enough, I heard Mu Wei say: "After the princess left from Dongshi today, Dugujing has not moved. ”

Li Jiao said: "Oh, she is very cautious and careful, you can stay in vain for a day today." ”

Mu Wei said: "My subordinates are fortunate not to be dishonored, but they have gained a little." When she left the East City, she seemed to have unintentionally lost a handkerchief. ”

"Well," the corners of Li Li's lips sank slightly, "I knew that she didn't have such rules." What happened? ”

"The handkerchief was picked up by a young girl, who was very clever, guarded and followed all the way, and his subordinates carefully covered it, and fortunately followed her to her place." obviously made a great achievement, Mu Wei's tone was flat and colorless. Li Jiao stared at him, his eyes were deep and gloomy, waiting for him to say where to go.

"Where to go......" Mu Wei was about to say and stopped, Shen Pearl saw a trickling cold sweat pouring from the corners of his forehead, causing Shen Pearl's fingertips to tremble, and fine sweat broke out in his palms. Suddenly heard Mu Wei gritting his teeth, "Yes...... Prince Annex. ”

Li Jiao took a step back, there was no surprise on his face, only the gloom of speculation after it was confirmed.

Prince Annex. The crown prince has always lived in the East Palace, and there is no other garden outside the palace. In the year of Li Jiao's crown ceremony, His Majesty presided over the crown ceremony after the dragon face was happy, and the palace of Princess Anle of Zhongzong in Xiuxiangfang was given to the prince as a separate garden. Before Xuanzong, the princesses of Taiping, Anle, and Changning were favored, and they were all over the mansions in Chang'an City, and they did their best to do extravagant things. Subsequently, these mansions were regarded as murderous houses, and most of them were abandoned and no one cared about them. This prince's garden is only on the original basis, a little rectification, the prince temporarily lived when he traveled. However, since the Wei Jian incident, the prince has avoided taboos and never stayed outside. It is the crown prince and concubine Zhang, who often go out of the palace to live temporarily when she has nothing to do. Concubine Zhang's grandmother Dou is the sister of Xuanzong's biological mother, the Empress Dowager Zhaocheng, after the Empress Dowager Zhaocheng was killed by the Empress Wu, she raised Xuanzong with her own hands.

Li Jiao and Shen Pearl glanced at each other, and then became suspicious. The collusion between Dugujing and Concubine Zhang, and the assassination of Dou Ruzhi, can there be a connection? Concubine Zhang has a son, who is still young, Li Jiao's position as the grandson of the emperor is unshakable, and King Jianning is also loved by His Majesty, and the two of them have long become a thorn in the side of others. The coming day is long, if the second king is old and full-fledged, she will become the queen one day, and she has no choice but to start with the concubine, which not only frustrates the reputation of the second king, but also takes the opportunity to install the daughter of the Dou family as the princess of Jianning, and at the same time takes advantage of Achina's hatred and Dugujing's jealousy, and she stays out of the matter, but she is the biggest beneficiary, and her means are extremely clever! As for the matter of Xiangmingju, as Dou Ruzhi, who is in charge of the national market and trade, must have made a lot of efforts. It's just that Dou Ru knows who was killed, whether he commanded someone or not, so people can't figure it out. Dou is the general of Concubine Zhang, and there is no intention of killing and extinguishing the mouth.

Still thinking about it, he faintly heard a noisy sound above, as if many people were shouting and running loudly, Li Li's face changed slightly, Mu Wei bowed and said, "Subordinates retreat", and went out through another door.

When we reached the stairs, the shouts were clear.

"Gone out of the water-", "Gone out of the water-"!

Li Jiao walked out of the study, only to see the fire on the east side, the smoke rising, reflecting the dark night is particularly hideous, the gongs in the house are everywhere, and the attendants and maids are holding basins and buckets, coming and going in a hurry. Asked, "Where is the water?" Because the guards didn't know where Li Jiao and Shen Pearl went, they had already panicked and looked around, and several guards next to the study were like being amnestied and replied, "It's Xiuyun Pavilion." I heard the voice of a servant girl crying from afar: "Mrs. Dugu is still inside——"

The fire dragon team in the palace rushed to the news after receiving the letter, but the fire in the Xiuyun Pavilion was extremely large, and the fire dragon team did not dare to approach, and was even more afraid of the spread of the fire, so they demolished several houses connected to the left and right of the Xiuyun Pavilion to block the fire, and after the third watch of the day, the fire of the Xiuyun Pavilion was extinguished. This fire was extremely alarming, not only Jingzhao Yin Cui Guangyuan came to the scene to command, but even Xuanzong sent Gao Lishi to greet him.

On the second day, the fire was cleaned up, and four charred-shaped corpses were removed—there happened to be four people in the Xiuyun Pavilion, including the maids, and none of them were found after the fire.

He sweated through the back of his clothes, and he couldn't stop snorting: "There is no soot or charcoal in the throats of the four people. Yes, yes......" Stealing at Li Li's face, seeing that he was not moving, Feng Yu coughed lightly when he took the note, he was shocked, and said: "It was burned to death." ”

"Possible identification?" Li Jiao's real concern is this.

"The face of the corpse has been destroyed, and the small ones are shallow in their learning...... "He observed his words and looks, and told the truth with trembling.

"I feel that Dugujing is not dead." Shen Pearl looked at the ruins of the Embroidered Cloud Pavilion from afar, and spit out a sentence faintly.

Li Jiao hugged her shoulders and arms, her eyebrows tightened, although she didn't speak, she actually agreed with Shen Zhu's words. By dying, Dugujing will never die easily - neither will let others kill her, nor will she kill herself. Where did she go? She has great potential strength and unyielding fighting spirit. Although she couldn't move the business run by Li Jiao, she took away a month's income, which was a terrifying amount, enough to make waves.

Such a woman will never admit defeat and will always have a future, which is terrible and terrible. She has been hiding in the shadows ever since, and no one knows when or how she will make her next move. For such a woman, Shen Pearl didn't know whether to hate or admire.

Several maids cleaned up the scars in the courtyard, and the flower pots and plants that were trampled in the process of putting out the fire were all over the place, and it was miserable. The maid whispered, and one of the maids spoke in a higher voice, drifting into Shen Zhuzhu's ears, "It's a pity, this pot of June Snow Liu is the favorite, and it was used to serve every day, but now it is completely ruined." Another maid said: "No one is there, what kind of flowers, without this fire, sooner or later they will go, who can pay more attention to flowers and trees than Mr. Liu?" ”

The air is fresh in the morning, listening to them speak, like watching the light wind and drizzle, the high sky and flowing clouds, the original vague imprint in my heart, this time Shen Pearl suddenly met.

It turned out to be him, it turned out to be him!

Liu Run's tomb is in an empty and deserted place in the western suburbs. Shen Pearl dismounted and tied the reins, and there were only four big characters on the tablet: "Liu Run's Tomb".

She stood in front of the tomb, the sunset and the clouds returned, and the breeze blew the mountains.

"The old slave knocks to the princess." The long-awaited voice finally sounded behind her. He didn't die.

She let out a long breath and turned. Liu Run's face was distorted, with staggered scars and undulating muscles, which would have been difficult to recognize if it weren't for his voice. She had too many questions in her mind, but she didn't know where to start. Liu Run smiled and said, "The princess has something to say, but asks, and the old slave answers them one by one." With a smile, his face became even more hideous.

Shen Pearl blurted out, "Why did your face become like this?" ”

"That's when I burned my noodles with charcoal and disfigured myself."

"Just to be able to blend in with Dou Ru's prefect?"

"The old slave cheated to death and was disfigured, and there was only one purpose - to enter the Dou Mansion. His Royal Highness has eliminated the chief culprit who killed Concubine Wei's family, and only the old slave himself has been removed. ”

"Dou Ruzhi?"

"Yes, when Lord Wei Jian and Huangfu Weiming made friends, it was Dou Ruzhi who secretly told Li Linfu about it. I have been in the house for nearly a year, but unfortunately Na Dou knows that he is guilty of a deep sin, and he is very strict in his precautions, so he can't get close to him. ”

"It's just that you pushed it casually and dragged King Jianning into the game, and now that he is in prison, how can he get out?"

Liu Run knelt on the ground and kowtowed heavily: "This is indeed the old slave who made a mistake, when he saw the chaos of the crowd, he thought that he had a good opportunity, and thought that King Jianning would get the most of a crime of missing his hand afterwards, and it was no big deal." At present, the old slave does not dare to confess his guilt, but he is afraid of affecting the prince and His Royal Highness the King of Guangping. It is difficult for an old slave to continue his sin after a hundred deaths. ”

Shen Pearl muttered: "So when Your Highness wanted to try the case, you took the opportunity to escape?" ”

Liu Run said: "Yes." Your Highness is astutely astute, and though I have disfigured my face, he will surely recognize me if he hears me. ”

This is indeed a difficult thing. With what Li Li thought, if he caught the "gardener", he would be able to save Li Qi from his crime. However, Liu Run is a "gardener", he has followed the prince and Li Li for many years, even if he is willing to confess, how can others not be suspicious of his purpose, if His Majesty knows, how can he not be suspicious of the prince again?

What to do? What to do?

She looked at Liu Run carefully, and her obviously ugly face became more and more ugly, and the more she looked at it, the less ugly she felt, and even stronger than the many people she had ever seen, who were strong and middle-class, and who were extraordinary, such a eunuch, but full of chivalrous loyalty, which was really admirable. Suddenly, he bowed to him: "Manager Liu, Pearl has something to entrust." Liu Run hurriedly returned the salute and said, "The princess is a big gift, how can the old slave be unbearable, the princess, please speak." ”

Shen Pearl said: "At this time tomorrow, Pearl will wait here, and then tell me about the entrusted matter." ”

The four guards were anxious at the city gate, and only when they saw a light blue gallop from a distance, did they put their fluttering hearts back in their places. The leading guard took the reins of the horse and said in a low voice: "Please don't do this again the princess, if there is something wrong, let the subordinates follow." - Your Highness commanded, let me wait and follow the princess. If there is any mistake, the lives of subordinates cannot be saved. Shen Pearl snorted and said, "After returning home, if you dare to tell Your Highness the whereabouts of this concubine today, it will be difficult to save your life!" The guard's color changed, and he replied "yes" again and again.

Li Jiao returned home from the palace in the middle of the night. Shen Pearl and his clothes leaned on the collapse, her slightly closed eyelashes fluttered, calm and peaceful, and her breath was full of fragrance. He stared at her for a long time, then bent down to gently pick her up, put her on the bed, and carefully covered her with a thin quilt.

The second day is the concubine's birthday. Li Jiao, Shen Zhuzhu, and Cui Caiping didn't reach dawn, and they got up early to put on makeup. Entering the palace, hundreds of princes and grandchildren, princesses, princesses, and princesses were waiting outside the Xingqing Palace, and they were noisy and shouting, and they all stopped talking when they heard the inner servants shouting "The king and princess of Guangping have arrived", and they all stopped, and their eyes swept towards Shen Zhuzhu, suspicious, curious, surprised, contemptuous, and contemptuous...... There are as many kinds of hearts as there are pairs of eyes.

Shen Zhuzhu's feet trembled slightly, Li Li had already held her hand, and said as she walked: "It took half a year to go back and forth to Wuxing, and Your Majesty and the concubine must miss us very much." The voice was neither high nor low, and his eyes swept over the people on both sides as he spoke, and his momentum was compelling, subduing the eyes of others to the ground.

Li Jiao smiled a little at the corner of his lips at this time, and walked with Shen Pearl to the prince and Concubine Zhang, "The child sees his father and his mother."

The prince smiled slightly, nodded and said, "It's good to come back." Concubine Zhang hugged her young son in her arms, looked as usual, helped Shen Pearl up, and said with love in her tone: "I dare to be tired of the journey, and Pearl has lost weight." ”

Behind Concubine Zhang was the county lord of Dening, who was tied up by Li Jiao's guards and sent back to the East Palace that day, pursed her lips tightly and didn't say a word, thinking that she was angry with Li Jiao.

"Boom-" The palace door opened. The waiter in the three-pin ceremony came out of the corner door next to the hall, and sang in a low voice: "The auspicious time has come, the prince, the prince, the princess, the county lord, the concubine, and the wife enter the palace to congratulate——"

The ceremony of the pilgrimage is extremely cumbersome, and after the ceremony, His Majesty is happy for the concubine Bo, and has already set up many places to play in the palace, so that the princes and grandchildren, the princess and the princess, the princess, and the harem are happy with the concubine. The lotus flowers in Xingqing Pond are in full bloom, and there are delicious wines and delicacies to enjoy from all; Lin De Hall rehearses the song and dance prepared by the concubine, thousands of dancing girls and singers, neon clothes and feathers, singing and dancing into the clouds, the banquet in the palace is spread out, delicious and rare, there is everything; In front of the Hanyuan Palace, you can fight polo, and the team composed of two eunuchs is fighting hotly......

Li Jiao was surrounded by a group of royal and grandson brothers, and Shen Pearl quietly retired from the group of concubines and princesses who were full of pearls and jade, and came out of the most secluded Fanglin Gate, where the guards had already prepared horses.

Riding a horse and raising a whip, the sunset is still shining, Liu Run's figure was originally a small black dot, gradually approaching, and found that his back was slightly rickety, and his old state had appeared, Zhu Ma said: "Uncle Liu, Concubine Wei is waiting for you in the long pavilion three miles away." ”

Liu Run seemed to be devoured by someone, and Shen Pearl had handed him a heavy package full of gold and silver, and said: "The thing entrusted by Pearl is to ask Uncle Liu to take care of Concubine Wei Niangniang - Niangniang does not want to live in the forbidden place anymore, but only wants to wander the world and make the four seas her home." Only you are the most trustworthy person, the responsibility of guarding the mother, pearl please!" After speaking, he bowed for a long time.

Returning to Miyagi from the western suburbs, it was getting dark. The sound of the sheng flute and drum music in the palace frolicking, through the alleys, the sound booms for several miles.

Li Jiao stood at the highest point of Hanyuan Hall with his hands in his hands, heard the sound of clothes behind him, raised his eyebrows and stared at her, and slowly stretched out his hand to her for a long time......

The palace was opened in nine days, and all the nations were crowned with crowns. Daming Palace, Hanyuan Palace, prosperous and prosperous, tonight, endlessly.

Looking up, the sky was overcast, the clouds were light black, and the dull thunder was faintly rolling.