In the evening, in the cold palace, Lin Zheng and Jiang Ning stood opposite each other across the gate of the cold palace.

Since Mu Jingzhao told him to strictly protect Jiang Ning, outside the walls of the Cold Palace, the Praetorian Guards guarded by Lin Zheng were guarded every day.

Lin Zheng stood outside the door, and the forbidden troops stationed around him were all attracted to the side door by Jiang Ning's sonorous and powerful voice.

The slight sideways of the two attracted Lin Zheng's attention, he lowered his voice, leaned into Jiang Ning's ear and whispered.

"Niangniang, this matter should not be publicized."

Jiang Ning was stunned, and then led Lin Zheng into the courtyard with understanding.

The two of them stood still at the edge of a vegetable patch, this is the cabbage that Jiang Ning just planted some time ago, the leaves of the cabbage are slightly curled, forming a small bag the size of a fist in the center, and it will be fully ripe in a few days.

Lin Zheng looked at the tender cabbage at his feet, and slowly moved his gaze away, throwing it to all corners of the cold palace.

There was a bit of undisguised admiration and praise on his face.

However, Jiang Ning didn't realize his expression at all, at this moment, she had no time to care about anything else.

"Lord Commander, this palace needs a truth." Her gaze was indifferent, but her tone was cold as she had never been.

"Mother." Lin Zheng's tone gradually sank, and the joy on his face gradually hidden, "The minister doesn't know the truth, and he doesn't dare to say anything." ”

This sentence seemed to instantly wear out all Jiang Ning's patience and good temper, and she turned around and turned from standing side by side with Lin Zheng to standing opposite each other.

"I don't know, or I don't dare to say."

"I don't know."

Jiang Ning was unrelenting, and his tone gradually became aggressive, "So the Lord Commander thinks that three years have passed anyway, as long as you don't know a word, you can offset all the sins you have committed?" ”

In the face of Jiang Ning's tough reaction, after Lin Zheng's brief consternation, a deeper compassion appeared on his face.

Jiang Ning hated such an expression very much.

Whenever he looked at her with this expression, she would feel that it was the mercy of an executioner's livestock, condescending and derogatory.

She grew angry, stepped forward in two steps, her toes almost touched Lin Zheng's, and she looked up at Lin Zheng, forgetting in her heart that there should be a balance between the concubine and the guards.

"Why don't you dare look at me, oh? Do you also know in your heart that you have committed a heinous crime with the lives of 230 people in my family on your hands? ”

Lin Zheng didn't speak, just turned his face away lightly, avoiding looking at her, "Niangniang, things are not as you see." Lin Zheng took a deep breath and reluctantly pressed down the dull pain in his heart, "Over the years, the minister has also been investigating, and he has always wanted to find out the truth of the year, but ...... It's the incompetence of the ministers. ”

Jiang Ning smiled, his face was undisguised with mockery.

"Can't find it? Okay, I'll tell you the truth. Her eyes gradually became scarlet, "Back then, the newly ascended emperor wanted to stabilize the city-state and show his talents to the people, so he ordered drastic reforms and implemented the salt and iron official camp, wanting to take this opportunity to nationalize the industry that my father had painstakingly operated for decades. ”

"He openly issued a public announcement, informing all salt merchants that after nationalizing the industry, they could not only continue to operate locally, but also receive a very objective compensation."

Jiang Ning said word by word, and every time she spit out a word, her face showed undisguised hatred.

But none of us thought that this was just a means for him to deceive the people. His real purpose was to turn all the people who managed the salt and iron business in the country into his confidants, so as to become a real official business. ”

"So..."

"So..."

Jiang Ning's voice trembled, tears slid down, and a drop happened to fall on the small fleshy mole under her eyes, as if it was integrated with it.

"Therefore, he secretly sent you to slaughter my whole family, creating the illusion of being avenged by the enemy, and without much effort, he pushed away his responsibilities, and pretended to be his own emperor with the appearance of a virtuous monarch."

"Do you think that if you let me live, I will cry and thank you? No, I have to remind you all the time, remind you of the two hundred and thirty lives you carry, and you will never have peace of mind in this life! ”

Jiang Ning said this sentence intermittently, and her pale face was already full of tears.

Despite this, her back and neck were stubbornly stalked, and there was no half of retreat or concession.

"You, and Mu Jingzhao, the two of you, you are both executioners, you are going to the eighteenth layer of hell!" She gritted her teeth and cursed, "Don't think that you have disguised some clumsy drama of kidnapping and assassination, I don't know, everything you did was to control me, let me die quietly in the palace and completely erase everything you did back then." ”

She confided everything in one go as if she was venting, and every word was complaining about everything that she could never forgive anyway.

Jiang Ning gasped heavily, and with every breath she exhaled, she felt that the cold wind of early spring was unscrupulously poured into her throat, stimulating her throat dry and painful.

She despised Lin Zheng, and always despised Lin Zheng, as if she wanted to find some expected remorse or ridicule from Lin Zheng's face.

However, it didn't.

Lin Zheng always looked at her quietly, his eyes were slightly red, and those eagle-eyed eyes were sharp enough to indulge in all the distress and sadness.

"Mother." Lin Zheng's voice trembled slightly, he exhaled heavily, his chest rising and falling violently, "Have you ever thought about why the emperor would let you go if it was really the emperor who wanted to slaughter your whole family, and why he wanted to bring you back to the palace to raise tigers." ”

"Why bother so much to do such a pointless thing."

He spoke slowly, slowly, but still, it didn't dissipate the trembling in his words.

He looked at Jiang Ning, and a kind of sadness appeared on his face that was as cold and resolute as iron and stone on weekdays, as if he would be half destroyed at any time.

Jiang Ning was stunned.

"Have you ever thought that if the emperor is really for your family's salt business, then why are there tens of millions of salt merchants in the world, and only the salt merchants in Li County, where your home is located, have been wiped out."

These two short sentences seemed to destroy all of Jiang Ning's stubbornness and mental defense in an instant.

Her neck slowly drooped, and her thin shoulders twitched violently, "I don't know, I don't know, so I want you to tell me the truth, can you tell me?" ”

With her bending movement, the top of her hair rubbed against Lin Zheng's shoulder appropriately.

The soft, slightly numbing subtle touch made Lin Zheng stiffen instantly.

After a long time, Lin Zheng finally raised his hand hesitantly and covered Jiang Ning's shoulder, "When the minister arrived, the evil man was long gone, and after so long, there was no human and material evidence..."

Jiang Ning was still sobbing intermittently, like a wronged child.

Outside the cold palace, on the palace road, Mu Jingzhao walked towards the cold palace with sesame pills.

"Your Majesty!" All the guards stationed at the gate of the cold palace bent down to collect their luggage.

"Is Niang Niang here?" Mu Jingzhao asked, but the Praetorian Guards all looked at each other, and no one said a word.

Mu Jingzhao didn't mind, after being with Jiang Ning for a long time, he found that he didn't care too much about those rules and regulations.

He stepped forward in two steps, walked to the gate, and instantly saw Lin Zheng standing in the corner of the courtyard, and the woman leaning on his arms and sobbing.

Mu Jingzhao stopped, took out a sesame pill from the plate and stuffed it into his mouth, hesitated for a moment, he finally turned around and returned to the imperial study.

In the cold palace, the farce between Lin Zheng and Jiang Ning continued.

"If you can't find it, then the palace will check it yourself!" Jiang Ning let out a low roar, turned around and entered the hall, and didn't look at Lin Zheng again.