Half of the moon has passed, and there are less than two hours left before the day of the dragon's face. No matter what rhetoric is used to praise the importance of this once-in-a-century festival, it is an honor to live to experience the day of the dragon's face, and no one will want to miss it. Those who missed the event may have to listen to Grandpa or Grandpa's grandfather tell how great the Day of the Dragon Faced was.

Xia Quan doesn't have the slightest good mood now. He was about to witness the glorious festival as a member of the cabinet, but his heart could not be at peace. Not because of excitement, but because of anxiety and some other emotion.

He still lives on Hulin Street, and has not moved to Temple Street, where high-ranking officials gather, and his former boss, Zheng Kuan, has talked to him about moving, and Wess has assured him that there will be no financial problems with building a new mansion worthy of his position, but he politely refuses. For him, the closer he is to the holy mountain, the closer he is to the dragon god, the easier it is for his prayers to be perceived, and the easier it is for him to attain peace of mind.

He longs for peace. Calm down. This is more important than anything else, even more important than the day of the dragon's face.

There are two troubles in front of him right now. The first, from the message he had just received.

The hunters of the Torture Pavilion went to Sanqing Village in Baihua Province, and the news that they came back was that there was no news about the boy in this small village on the edge of the Sanqing River, and no one saw that the boy had returned to his hometown.

This made Xia Quan feel very bad.

In fact, this matter has nothing to do with him. The attendant of the former Dragon Monarch's chief guard was not missing during his tenure, it was the matter of his predecessor Zheng Kuan.

The peasant boy named Xiao Zhi disappeared after his master was imprisoned. According to the rules, the attendants will not be able to escape punishment after such a serious thing has happened to their masters, and will be imprisoned together, even if there is evidence that they are not involved in those troubles, unless a powerful person is willing to become their new master, they will also be automatically suspended, and they will have to go to the minister's copywriter to cancel the identity of the royal court, and then they can leave the palace.

But the strange thing is here, there is no record of Xiaozhi's cancellation in the copy of the Prime Minister, which shows that the boy did not leave the palace through legal means, and in fact he could not have obtained permission for cancellation, because he should have been imprisoned with his master. However, no one in the royal palace claimed to know where he was, or where he went.

Maybe someone knows but won't say it. Maybe they hid him. They wanted to protect their teacher's attendants.

Not only did he think so, but Zheng Kuan also thought so, but at that time, he didn't find any clues related to Xiao Zhi in the Qingfeng Hall and the Peace Hall. The other princesses' dormitories were still afraid to openly search the palace, so they had to think of other ways.

When the hunters sent out to investigate returned, the Torture Pavilion had already changed owners, and the matter of tracking down the boy's whereabouts inevitably fell on Xia Quan's head. Of course, even if this matter is found out in the end, Long Jun will not remove him, after all, the life and death of this boy does not affect anything, Long Chengtian has ascended the throne as he wished, Yu Jian was divided by five horses, the unlucky eldest princess is still locked in prison, and the fourth princess handed over the inheritance in exchange for her sister's life, and is currently under house arrest. In short, everything is under Long Chengtian's control.

But it is impossible for a big living person to disappear into thin air in the palace, and he must see people alive and corpses when he dies. If this matter is not properly resolved, it will always become a stain on his official hat. Just like the bridge of his collapsed nose, he will be talked about behind his back.

Since the boy did not return to his hometown, this matter is destined to have no good solution in the short term, and can only be put on hold for the time being. He had no choice but to find a suitable time after the day of Longyan to report to His Majesty and see how he reacted.

Compared to the second trouble, Xiao Zhi's matter can only be said to be insignificant. The first trouble will make him scolded and scolded in front of Long Jun at most, and the second trouble may make his head fall to the ground.

"The Spirit Dragon has taught us one thing: sacrifice. The life and death of an individual is not always the most critical matter, and there are some things that are more important than that. ”

His father taught him this, and he has always agreed with it. The life and death of an individual is not the first thing, the safety of the entire Xia family is the most important thing.

He needed to go there in person, face to face, before he could make up his mind about how to solve the problem. These days have been busy, and he has not had enough time, and even if he has, he can't deny the timidity in his heart. He wants to solve it, but he is afraid to face it.

There is no longer any escape, the road to escape is dark and deep, and there is no hope in sight. Thinking so, he took the first step towards the Xia family's cellar.

The palaces of the eunuchs are equipped with cellars. Generally speaking, the rank of official is directly proportional to the size of the cellar. Xia Yanggui is a veteran of the two dynasties, a very popular minister, highly respected, and the scale of the cellar is naturally quite large. Most of the cellars were used for storage, and food, wine, and curiosities filled the cellars of officials, and some of them were used for other purposes, such as imprisonment.

The Xia family's cellar was also used as a storage point when his father was still alive, and it was stacked with the rewards he had received, and Nioh had always relied on his father for rich rewards, and the cellar was filled with silk and satin, gold and jade, and rare treasures from foreign countries, which took up a large part of the space. After the death of his father, the remaining part of the space was transformed into a dungeon. Because on the day he passed away, the Xia family welcomed two special guests.

These two people, of course, are Xia Quan's childhood playmate Gao Wenmo and his daughter.

Gao Wenmo's father, Gao Han, was a colleague with Xia Yang back then, and both worked as copywriters under the account of the Prime Minister, and the two had similar personalities and a good relationship. Xia Quan heard his father mention that the two families had made a vow that if they had children in the future, they would become husband and wife, and the two families would become in-laws. This is a baby pro. However, the two families later gave birth to sons, and this family affair did not come true. But naturally it did not affect the relationship between the two families, Gao Wenmo and Xia Quan have been very close friends since childhood, the two grew up together, participated in the national exam invigilated by Dazai together, and became a member of the Longjun courtiers. A few years later, Gao Wenmo became the copywriter of the Rite Pavilion, and he was a higher official rank, the judge of the Criminal Pavilion.

Gao Wenmo has been ambitious since he was a child and has a proud personality. Dare to admonish in front of the first king dragon Xingtian. But he was eventually convicted of it. He was deeply dissatisfied with the gradual weakening of the belief of the boxers, and heard the rumors about the dragon monarch among the people, so he submitted a proposal to the former king Long Xingtian to add a national teacher. But no one expected that this advice caused Long Xingtian to be furious, Long Xingtian did not accept Xia Lao's hard persuasion, and the court announced that Gao Wenmo would be dismissed, demoted to a commoner, and never hired. Since then, Gao Wenmo has disappeared from the dragon, no one knows where he has gone, and he has not kept in touch with any of his colleagues, including the people of the Xia family. Xia Lao and Xia Quan searched for his whereabouts many times, but to no avail.

But Gao Wenmo actually stayed in the royal capital, incognito, and became a farmer in the red wine mill. Xia Quan couldn't understand this matter, just as he couldn't understand why Gao Wenmo took the risk of admonishing back then. At that time, Queen Yongya had just died, and the first king was in a very bad mood, so Gao Wenmo wanted to put forward that kind of advice...... The trouble is self-inflicted.

The dungeon of the Xia family is much cleaner and tidier than most dungeons because it is temporarily rebuilt, and under the careful care of the housekeeper, the cellar ensures that there are no rats and bed bugs, and the silk and satin are well cared for without the slightest damage, which is also something that my father will never allow to happen.

The whole cellar is laid out in a square, divided into multiple storage rooms of different sizes, a cross-shaped limestone fork connects all the rooms, the innermost one in the southwest corner of the cellar has been temporarily converted into a cell, surrounded by an iron grid, and four torches are inserted in the door and the outer wall to ensure that the detainees can read inside, and it has always been Gao Wenmo's habit to carry books with him.

Xia Quan had to admit that this was a good habit that he envied but had lost. For many years, he was no longer at ease immersed in books. They used to share with each other a lot of what they had learned from books, and what a happy time it was. He can't forget the fierce argument with Gao Wenmo when he first read "The Blood of Iron Tree City", which lasted for a long time until they reached adulthood and embarked on a career in office, and Gao Wenmo got married and had children.

The story of Iron Tree City takes place in the era of the city-state, when Yu Sheng, the king of Daping Fort and who had never broken his promise in his life, made a blood oath not to be an enemy of the neighboring Ice Spring City. When the army of Ice Spring City broke through the Iron Tree City of Yu Sheng's wife and brother, the seventy-two-year-old Yu Sheng kept his promise and did not send troops, and watched his wife and brother's city ruin. Afterwards, his wife was angry that he did not move and cut herself off in front of him, but Yu Sheng still did not choose revenge, but climbed to the ruins of the tower of Iron Tree City to kill himself and apologize for his wife and brother's family. This incident caused great controversy in later history. Whether what Yu Sheng did was right or wrong has been hotly discussed in the Xianglong Kingdom for generations. The god of the earth favors those who keep their promises, but the god of the earth also emphasizes the perfection of the family, and it is a man's duty to protect his wife and children. Even the great elders of the temple did not give a conclusive conclusion on what Sheng did, and the dragon monarchs of the past dynasties praised Yu Sheng, but also tactfully criticized him for the mistake of witnessing the death of his wife in front of him, and some accused Yu Sheng of being too pedantic, but they also had to agree that keeping promises is a valuable virtue.

Presumably Wenmo still supports Yu Sheng now, he has always been the kind of person who is a little stubborn. And I don't agree with Yu Sheng's approach, if I were the king of Dapingbao, I wouldn't watch my wife die in front of my eyes, but would take revenge, even if I had to trample on my promise. This is perhaps the fundamental difference between the two of us.