The bright bronze mirror, a few flower spikes and tangled hairpins on the dresser, still contain the breath of her before she got married. A piece of emblem paper was unfolded on several cases, Liao Liao had two lines of words, the pen was set aside, and the inkstone ink was nearly dry.

The flame in the furnace gradually faded, and the red stamen entered the room and added a piece of charcoal, the flame was flourishing, the heat was steaming, and the room was obviously much warmer. Seeing that Shen Pearl was still reading by the window, she had to speak: "Miss, the weather has been getting cold every day since the beginning of winter, so you have to take care of your body, take care of reading, and get close to the roasting fire." ”

Shen Pearl listened to the book and smiled: "Okay, good, I will obey the order!" As he spoke, he put down the book in his hand, sat down by the fire, and said, "This year's charcoal fire is good, better than last year's." ”

Hongrui paused for a moment, and Fang said, "This is ,...... His Royal Highness brought it, I heard that it was paid tribute by Xiliang Kingdom a few days ago, and there were only more than 100 in total, and it was named a thousand Gilbeli, called Ruitan; His Majesty gave His Highness more than a dozen, and His Highness brought them to our house. ”

Shen Pearl nodded silently, and went to get the book after a while. Hongrui stomped his feet and said: "His Royal Highness has been sitting for most of the day, and he is still waiting for you in the hall, such a cold day, he has worked hard every day, you have to see him!" Red Rui is upright and can't speak, you always know. According to me, there is no knot in this world that cannot be broken. This time, it is true that His Royal Highness can't stand you, but Hongrui also has eyes and ears, if you are too stubborn, don't regret it in the future. ”

Shen Pearl smiled slightly when she heard this: "Hongrui, you have grown up a lot." Turning his back, he sighed long in his heart, and said slowly: "You go and tell Your Highness, I just want to stay in my mother's house, and I will return to the palace in a few days, so that he doesn't have to worry about it, the Criminal Department is busy with official business, and he has to take care of his body." ”

"If you don't go back, don't go back!" Shen Zhu's sister-in-law, Gongsun Erniang, stepped into the door, untied the sword at her waist as she spoke, and placed it heavily on several cases. She is as fierce as fire, which is very different from the gentleness and smoothness of her sister Gongsun Auntie, and said sharply: "Why should a man with three wives and four concubines want us women to suffer that kind of grievance." Pearl, the last time you married, it was because I was not at home, otherwise I would have to stop it. Now that Li Jiao is in the Qin Dynasty, he already has a wife and a concubine, and he is also a talent like his sister, and he is not satisfied with accepting a concubine, and he can't complain that his sister is sad. Sister, you just live at home, and you don't have to pay attention to the royal family and His Royal Highness. I passed through Fanyang and Pinglu the month before last, and An Lushan raised grain and soldiers, and the opposite image has appeared, but it has only been a year, and the Tang Dynasty has been turned upside down. It's ridiculous that Chang'an City is still sluggish and luxurious, everyone is drunk and dreaming of death, I don't know whether they are deaf to or self-deception. I don't travel around anymore, I only guard my parents and your brothers and sisters at home, and with my grandson and Erniang a long sword, no one can hurt our family! ”

Although Shen Pearl knows that it is difficult to travel the world with a sword and a flute, it is rare to have this sister-in-law friendship, thinking how fortunate she is, although Hongrui and sister-in-law have different views, but nowhere is it not to put herself in her own shoes, and she said: "After my mother died, my sister-in-law treated me best." ”

Gongsun Erniang smiled heartily: "Who told me that I am the only sister of you." ”

Hongrui saw the opportunity and retreated.

At this time, Su Ci hurriedly walked in with a famous maid. Shen Pearl looked at the maid's kind face, the maid had bowed her head, and there was a cry in her voice: "Princess, princess, please save my young lady, only you can save her!" ”

Shen Pearl only then saved, this woman is one of Murong Linzhi's personal maids, named Xuancao. Unconsciously gasped, helped her up and asked, "What happened to Princess Jianning?" "I was very shocked in my heart, with the affection of Li Qi, the king of Jianning, and Murong Linzhi, no matter what happened to Murong Linzhi, Li Qi should come forward to deal with him, where would it be the turn of a little maid to run to ask for help.

Xuancao replied: "In the three days since the disappearance of the young lady, the prince of my family has drawn pictures and hung them everywhere, and sent people from the palace to search everywhere to investigate and secretly visit ......."

"Wait," Shen Pearl interrupted her and asked, "You said, your young lady has been missing for three days?" ”

Daylily looked up suspiciously: "Doesn't the princess know yet?" This matter is in an uproar, I'm afraid that the whole capital will know about it! Shen Pearl was embarrassed, only caring about her own sadness, she didn't expect such a big thing to happen outside.

It turned out that Li Qi and Murong Lin Zhi returned to Chang'an from Luoyang four days ago. The couple didn't know that Shen Pearl had returned to her parents' house to stay temporarily, and they agreed to come to Guangping Palace to visit Shen Pearl the next day. On that day, as usual, they did not use the car, dressed normally, and came hand in hand, but when they wanted to go halfway, Li Qi ran into a few old friends who were talking about sword wine and forced them to go to the wine shop. Murong Lin Zhixin Shen Pearl did not go with him, and went to the Guangping Palace alone, and when Li Qi rushed to the Guangping Palace after three rounds of drinking, he knew that Murong Lin Zhi had not come at all. Murong Lin Zhi has evaporated from the world since this day, Li Qi regretted it, and did not dare to report to the prince, and Li Li secretly helped, only saying that the maid of the Jianning Palace's maid was missing, and he was looking for his life for three days and three nights, and Chang'an City was about to be opened.

After Xuancao finished speaking, she knelt on the ground again, crying and crying, and Shen Pearl realized that the maid in front of her was outstanding. Listen to her say: "Now only the princess can save the young lady." ”

Shen Pearl smiled bitterly: "How do you say this? Isn't the prince of Jianning looking for it, and even he can't find it, so what can I do? ”

"No," Daylily dragged the hem of her skirt forward and knelt under Shen Zhuzhu, her head raised to meet Shen Zhu's drooping gaze, and her hesitant eyes swept Gongsun Erniang and Su Porcelain in the room. Shen Pearl wanted to say "It's not an outsider", Gongsun Erniang was impatient to go out with a sword, and "boom" lifted the door, and Su Ci hurriedly followed. Xuancao Fang said in a low voice: "The slave maid has been thinking about it for the past two days, and the young lady is not as the prince thinks, she was taken captive or lost. ”

Shen Zhu's heart froze, and his eyes were blazing and he asked, "What do you want to say?" ”

Daylily's body shrank, and her head was raised again, and her cautious appearance was even more pitiful: "The slave is afraid, I'm afraid that Miss is going with someone voluntarily......" Seeing Shen Zhu's doubtful eyes, she got closer and said: "The princess and the young lady are close friends, and you should know that Miss and Qingxu, the second son of An, are studying the same art, and they are very affectionate!" ”

Shen Pearl was shocked and angry, a nameless fire rose in her heart, and it caused a hidden pain in her heart, and she hated to slap the maid twice on behalf of Murong Lin. What a faithful maid, what a beautiful daylily! From the admiration for Li Qi that she inadvertently revealed when she recounted, she should have seen one or two things a long time ago. An Qingxu and Murong Lin have no selfish feelings, how could she not know? Even if there used to be, how can the two of them be involved again now? At present, it is forcibly confusing the obscure and the intentions are dangerous.

barely suppressed his anger, and said quietly: "How do you know that your young lady must have followed An Qingxu away, not for other reasons." Xuancao replied: "Princess, think about it, from our palace to the Guangping palace is only a stone's throw away, the market is full of people, my young lady has not seen the world, if the strong man comes to captive, where will not alarm others." Only those who voluntarily follow others will be so silent. Besides, during the two days of searching for ***, the slave and maid happened to hear that Anfu was also looking for An Ergongzi everywhere. ”

This is really a coincidence, Shen Pearl laughed in her heart, and asked again: "That is the case, you are looking for me, how do you want me to save your young lady." ”

Xuancao said: "The slave maid thought about it, in order to save the young lady's life, the only way was to ask the princess to find the second son of An and the young lady, and persuade the young lady to return to the palace; Second, if the young lady insists on not returning to the palace, or can't find them, I implore the princess to come out and explain to the prince of my family to understand that the young lady and the second son of An are childhood sweethearts, and the prince is reasonable. ”

Well-thought-out, she's a powerful servant. Knowing that he falsely accused Li Qi of Murong Lin and An Qingxu as his humble servant, Li Qi would not believe it in ten percent, but would be suspicious of her, so he made up a set of rhetoric for himself to tell Li Qi, Li Qi may not believe the words of others, but he will take her Shen Zhu's words seriously. This daylily is so vicious that it is really unheard of. It's just that she also underestimated her Shen Pearl, how could Shen Pearl be manipulated at will. Slowly, slowly, there is no basis for what I say, I am afraid that there is still physical evidence on this daylily, Shen Pearl has picked her up with a smile, and said: "It's just that your young lady and An Qingxu have no evidence, teach me how to talk to King Jianning in empty words?" ”

After hearing this, Daylily took out a letter from her bosom and presented it: "Here is a letter written by An Qingxu to my young lady, and the young lady will know it at a glance." At a glance, it really seems to be An Qingxu's handwriting, but it is definitely a copy, with An Qingxu's temperament, no matter how hard it is, it is difficult to have the interest of writing a letter. Nai nodded and said to Xuancao: "You go back, I'll find an opportunity to tell King Jianning." The smile on Daylilies could barely be hidden, and she kowtowed in gratitude before leaving.

"Hongrui, quick, follow her and see where she goes when she leaves the house." Seeing the figure of Daylily disappear outside the corridor, Shen Pearl hurriedly ordered the red stamen who had returned.

After sitting in the room and thinking for a long time, I still couldn't grasp the essentials. There is undoubtedly someone behind the daylily, and she was promised the benefits of entering the palace in Jianning Palace, which is right on her mind, so who is this person? What does it mean that Murong Lin Zhi and An Qingxu disappeared at the same time?

Waiting left and right, Hongrui came back after more than an hour, and reported: "After the daylily left the mansion, I made seven turns and eight turns, so that I didn't work hard to follow, and finally did not go back to Jianning Wangfu directly, but entered a teahouse in Shengyefang." I also hurriedly followed, but I didn't know that there was no trace of her in the teahouse, so I had to order a bowl of tea and wait patiently, and only after a while did I see her walking out of the inner room of the teahouse with her head bowed. Shen Pearl thought that this must be the place of the joint, so she said to Hongrui: "Let's go, let's go to the teahouse again." At this time, after listening to Shen Pearl's account, she couldn't help but be indignant, and she only hated that she didn't hear the teahouse clearly.

The two discussed briefly and changed their outfits. Shen Pearl pretended to be a handsome scholar, Hongrui changed her previous men's clothes, pretending to be a scholar, still afraid of going to the teahouse again to be recognized, washing all the lead, not to mention, and dyeing it on the stove, so that her face had the color of smoke and earth.

Starting from the back door of the Shen Mansion, it was only half an hour, and the master and servant had arrived at Shengye Fang. Hongrui pointed ahead and whispered, "Miss, look, it's this teahouse." ”

But before the meeting, the flag fluttered in the wind, the double-layer teahouse, and the three words "fragrant tea house" were written on the plaque, which was magnificent. Entering the teahouse, a warm current is coming, seeing that the teahouse is extremely large, the hall on the first floor is overcrowded, and the four corners of the teahouse are supported by charcoal fires, and the heating comes from this. I didn't see Xiao Erle running over to greet him, but it was a handsome girl who stepped forward and saluted, "Two guest officers, please take a seat." The voice was soft and delicate, forcing Shen Pearl and the others to involuntarily raise their feet and follow her inside. The girl asked them carefully if they wanted to enter the elegant seat on the second floor, and Shen Pearl thought that it was not easy to observe the movement of the teahouse in the elegant room, so she replied, "No need." In the hall on the second floor, there are only three or four tables and less than ten people, enjoying tea. She chose a seat on the second floor and sat opposite Hongrui, which was just a glimpse of most of the two floors of the teahouse.

As soon as she sat down, the girl asked, "May I ask what kind of tea do you want for the two guest officers?" Shen Pearl was stunned and asked, "But what kind of tea are there?" The girl smiled: "The two guest officers looked at the face, thinking that it was the first time to come back to our teahouse, everyone in Xijing knows, we Xiangmingju brings together the world's famous tea, from the Mengding stone flower in Jiannan, to the purple bamboo shoots in Huzhou, the Shenquan in Dongchuan, the small group, Changming, the beast eye, the Bijian in Xiazhou, the bright moon, the Fangrui, the dogwood, the Fangshan in Fuzhou, the Nanmu in Jiangling, the purple bamboo shoots in Yixing in Changzhou, the Dongbai in Wuzhou, the Jiukeng in Muzhou, the white dew in the West Mountain of Hongzhou, the yellow tooth of Huoshan in Shouzhou, the Tuanhuang in Qizhou, all of them are complete! ”

She was articulate, methodical and reported them one by one, and the words were like silver beads falling on a jade plate, like turning to listen. Shen Pearl had taken the opportunity to examine the teahouse up and down. The owner of this teahouse must be quite ingenious, all to sixteen or seventeen-year-old girls as the second child, women and tea, thousands of customs are changing freely, it can be wonderful, Shen Pearl is an expert in tea, to self-frying and drinking for fun, never out to drink tea, did not expect that there is a place to drink tea in the capital, but it is a pity to know late. Hongrui looked at her Nunu mouth, and saw a side door behind the tent on the first floor, from which all the girls of the teahouse entered and exited, and it is known that today's daylilies must have entered through this door for a long time before leaving.

After reporting the name of the tea, the girl reported the names of dozens of tea fruits like a jade, showing that she was skilled. Shen Zhunai said with a smile: "Feel free, we don't know much about the tea ceremony, it's all up to the girl." The girl said: "The child's face is as bright as the moon, why don't you use the bright moon in Xiazhou?" Seeing that Shen Zhuzhu's face was surprised, he hurriedly covered his mouth shyly: "The slave family lost his mouth, but he had a face like a son, not only men have never seen it, but even women and slave families have never seen it." ”

Shen Pearl smiled and nodded, but after a while, the girl had brought a small red clay stove, boiling water with charcoal fire, and holding salt, peppers, onions, ginger, dates, orange peel, dogwood, mint and other condiments and fruits in a small saucer, dizzying.

The side door was curtained with a thick blue felt cloth, and the girls came in and out in an endless stream, not knowing what was going on inside.

"Come on, come on, serve tea, serve tea!" There was a sudden movement in the teahouse, and a person who was banging and rushing up to the second floor was imposing, attracting the attention of others. When Shen Pearl saw this person, she couldn't help but secretly complain. Lord Dening is really going to join in the fun. This time, she was dressed in a glamorous Uighur outfit, and her hair was combed into a vertebraic Uighur bun, like a Uighur girl. Busy with a look and red rui, hanging his eyebrows to the side, fortunately, the lord of Dening seemed to have something, and he didn't notice them, so he found a seat far away and sat down, looking cramped and uneasy, as if he was waiting for someone.

Seeing this, the girl who had been with her blessed Shen Pearl and said, "Guest officer, please wait until the water boils, and the slave family will serve tea." "Let's go and greet the Lord of Dening.

Shen Pearl took care of it, and took advantage of the girl's back to stand, the wide sleeves of her robe flicked on the table, and she had already brought a plate of peppers to splash down, and the "Bang Dang" plate fell to pieces, and her robe was also stuffed with a little bit of pepper, and called "not good", Hongrui had stepped forward to help, and dragged a bowl of water down, becoming more and more busy. Hongrui shouted in her mouth: "How can this be good, we still have to visit Lord Zhu of the Ministry of Officials, this is rude." Shen Pearl sighed and said: "I can only give up, how can I go back to this appearance, and I will miss the time when I go back to the inn to change." Hongrui seemed to be so anxious that she shed tears, and the timid scholar looked: "It's all the villain's fault, Gongzi finally invited Master Zhu to meet today, how can the villain miss Gongzi's career." ”

The girl had already walked over when she heard this, and saw that Shen Zhu's robe was fine, but the right corner of the robe was wet with a piece of pepper, although it was not easy to see that it was always inappropriate. Hongrui has begged: "Sister, can you make it convenient for us to clean it." Our master and servant rushed from Jiangnan to Chang'an, and the book of sages for ten years is in this dynasty. The girl blinked her eyes and looked quite hesitant, but she couldn't stand Hongrui's pleading, and finally nodded: "Childe, please come with me." ”

Shen Pearl got up and left, and heard the stunned "puff" sound of the county lord of Dening behind her, for fear of being recognized by her, she stepped down the stairs in three steps and two steps, and Hongrui hurriedly followed behind.

The girl led the way, lifted the soft curtain of the side door on the first floor, and led Shen Pearl and the others into the inner room. Shen Pearl was extremely vigilant, but he followed the same pattern, seeing that the inner room was cramped and compact, at a glance, three or five young girls were busy washing cups and saucers, one wall was full of spare tea sets, and on the other wall were all kinds of tea leaves, all of which were filled with tea cans with their names.

was in surprise and thinking, a woman broke off from the outside, resounding through the clouds, and there was no word inside and outside, only the woman's voice was heard: "An Qingxu, you are here at the bottom!" ”

The lord of Dening, the lord of Dening, who has always been so good!

Shen Pearl suddenly felt the back of her head sink, "Hongrui", she called softly, and then fell into the darkness.