Nanan's eyes were red and swollen to the size of walnuts, and he smiled miserably, picked up a stack of yellow paper from the ground, and put it in the brazier in front of him.

The flames licked and soon burned the yellow paper to the ground, leaving the basin with nothing but black ashes.

Nan'an picked up a piece of paper from the side, and folded the origami ingots with a wooden face: "My brother is the head of my Nan family, even if he goes to the underworld, he must not have silver in his hands." ”

The golden paper ingots were gradually burned out in the flames, and the unique aura of paper money spread in the air.

"Brother," he laughed dismally, "I know that power is not enough to make you lose your mind for it. ”

"What you want may just be able to shelter your family, but the world is ......"

Nan'an was obviously caught in a long memory, and he remembered all kinds of past events, and his expression was in a trance: "When I was a child, it was you and my mother who worked hard to raise me, and our father died too early. ”

Orphans and widows have always been the object of the world's contempt, and the South Bank has no exact memory of that difficult time, but it also knows that it was a difficult time.

His eyes were so swollen that his tears had long since dried up, and he could not shed a single tear again.

"I don't want you to work so hard for me all the time," Nan'an continued to burn the paper, he was the only one in the ancestral hall, but he was not talking to himself, but wanted to talk to the deceased deceased, "I just want you, me and my mother, the three of them to live happily together." ”

In the depths of his feelings, Nan'an closed his eyes in pain, his right hand clenched tightly, and the green tendons were faintly visible.

"Incense family, tribute to the royal incense ......" he really couldn't hold back the anger in his heart, and slammed his right fist on the ground, "Who wants this glory, who rares this glory, who covets this glory?!" ”

The wooden floor was hammered by his fist and made a dull sound, and Gu Qingzhang on the roof couldn't help but feel sad for the two brothers.

The back of Nan'an's hand had long since broken skin and blood was bleeding, but he seemed to be unconscious, and the physical pain was really not worth mentioning to him now.

He raised his head and looked at the tablets of the countless ancestors and ancestors.

"Twenty-three generations of the Nan family," he muttered, "just to protect and inherit this secret fragrance...... But I don't want incense, I just want my brother. ”

In front of each tablet there is an offering candle, and the candle flame in the sky is like the eyes of many ancestors of the Nan family in the world, looking at the only heir of the family with compassion or anger.

Nan'an picked up the letter from his brother from the ground again, and the two brothers had grown up together and were familiar with each other's handwriting.

This letter seems to be from the hand of his deceased brother Nanyue.

He read the letter again: "...... The shore is personally enlightened, and the death of the brother must not be pursued...... When confronted with people from Beijing, you must pretend that you don't know about it......"

Gu Qingzhang was lying on the roof, watching Nan'an shake his hands and lighting the letter from Nanyue with sparks, his pupils shrank suddenly, and he was about to go down and forcibly seize the letter, when he heard him speak-

"Brother," Nan'an looked wearily at the letter paper and other yellow paper ingots reduced to ashes in the copper basin, "How dare I expose such a truth." ”

He continued: "After all, who would have thought that the son of a prince of the kingdom, in order to make a lot of money, not only accepted bribes from us merchants, but also dared to sell iron tools to the Huns? ”

Gu Qingzhang even thought that he had misheard it for a moment, and he tried his best to control his movements so that the people in the room would not notice.

But on the south bank of the ancestral hall, after burning Nanyue's last letter, it seemed that the suppressed emotions of the whole person were completely released in an instant, and poured out like a fierce beast out of a cage.

He staggered to his feet from the ground, raised his arms and roared: "Son of Heaven! It is said that the Son of Heaven is the son of God, so why is our good majesty sitting in the capital, but he has never found that his subordinates are smuggling iron to the Huns? ”

"He is in the capital, but he is like having his ears and eyes cut off, and he ignores all living beings."

Nan'an had studied in the early years, because although the Nan family was very good at making incense, he also hoped that the family could produce a scholar, but he really couldn't read the Four Books and Five Classics, so he had to continue to engage in business.

What happened to him over the years, the unjust death of his brother, and the fact that he didn't dare to reveal half of the truth to outsiders were all revealed in the ancestral hall tonight, in front of his ancestors and ancestors, using the knowledge he had learned as a carrier.

"Why do orphans and widows deserve to be bullied by the world?"

When asked, it was the worldly masses who were asked.

"Why should businessmen be inferior to others and never be able to hold their heads up in front of others?"

The second question is about this pyramid-like, hierarchical society.

"Why can those high-ranking nobles end my brother's life as easily and casually as if they were trampling an ant to death?"

The three questions are about the imperial power, and the intertwined authority behind it.

Gu Qingzhang was shocked by this truth, and he was also shocked by the meaning behind Nan'an's words, and he suddenly realized that the world of this great beam may not be as peaceful as the emperor imagined.

After saying these three sentences, Nan'an, who had exhausted all his strength, stumbled against the desk and slid down like mud.

He sat on the ground, gasping for breath and laughing at himself: "In this case, I'm afraid I'll only say it this once in my life." ”

Gu Qingzhang thought for a long time, but still floated down from the roof, he deliberately put down the sound of footsteps, and pushed open the door of the ancestral hall amid the shocked questioning on the south bank.

"You've been there all along," Nan'an's heart almost jumped out of his chest, "just been there all along?" ”

Gu Qingzhang nodded.

He said: "I want to know the truth about Nanyue's killing, especially the part about the sale of iron weapons, I want you to know all the details." ”

Nan'an shook his head, he supported his body, knelt on the futon again, picked up the yellow paper and continued to burn.

"Your Excellency is just a merchant who needs to rely on Fang Zhong," he sighed and shook his head, "You and I are the same, why do such a self-killing thing." ”

"The matter of selling smuggled iron, Fang is important to pierce, even if he has ten heads, it is not enough to cut off."

Gu Qingzhang smiled slightly and said, "You also heard about Fang Chong's head loss, I did it." ”

He sat down on the futon beside him with a look of sudden suspicion or surprise on the south bank, picked up the yellow paper and threw it into the brazier.

"I have been instructed by His Majesty to investigate the annexation of land and the matter of the hermitage," he said, not looking at the South Bank, "but having discovered an account book by accident." ”

"My people didn't sleep for several days and nights, and directly sent the account book to His Majesty's table."

He smiled on his lips and asked Nan'an, "You say, do I have the ability to do this?" ”