Li Mingchen put the teacup in his hand on the table, the tea was newly added, the hot water was sprinkled on the back of his hand, and his white and slender fingers were burned red.

"You speak with some measure, what you can say and what you can't say, you are a junior, and you have repeatedly contradicted your parents in the past two days, and you have spoken disrespectfully."

Li Yirong knew that he had lost his words and affected his brother, so he bowed his head and was silent at this time.

The old county king cleared his throat and put on the posture of an elder, but he was holding Bao'er with heavy makeup in his arms, and he still looked a little nondescript.

"When you reach my age and become parents, you will understand my hard work and hardship. Your father is not a lustful person, as the saying goes, more children are more blessed, our family is prosperous, and your many brothers and sisters will also help you in the future, right? For the Father, we are also thinking about you. ”

Li Mingchen took out a handkerchief and wiped the water stains on Yuebai's sleeves, looking at his father without a trace of guilt on his face, and he was ashamed.

"If there is no shame, one can live in peace, but if there are too many rules, but too many thoughts will become a disease. It is a blessing for the family that my father is in good health, and it is also a blessing for us to be children. ”

Listening to his son's cynicism, King Anchang was not polite, pointing to his children and saying, "Who is this family without rules?" The eldest son, who covets his father's wife. The eldest daughter reprimanded her father for accepting a good concubine who entered the door. Do you, as children, still consider me as a father? ”

"Good concubine?" Li Mingchen stood up, took out a folded piece of rice paper from his arms, and threw it in front of the county king, "This is the old case file I transcribed from the Criminal Department yesterday, the bitter master is a woman who was tied up in the Qinglou, this woman is a lowly person, you look at her portrait on the case file, is it exactly the same as the 'good concubine' next to you?" ”

The old king picked up the rice paper that had been worn out at the edges, glanced at Bao'er beside him, unfolded the paper, and after a while, he waved his hand and slapped Bao'er in the face.

This palm was so powerful that Bao'er was knocked to the ground, and her cheeks immediately swollen high, and a clear five-finger print could be seen on the left side of her face.

"See for yourself!" The old county king threw the piece of rice paper on the ground, and said hatefully: "Why do you want to disguise yourself as a musician of Liu Shangshu's family? Did he teach you to do that? ”

In the backyard of the Houmen Palace, no one or two people have died for no reason, but no man's family will welcome a lowly woman into the door. Even if you like it, it's just to find a house and redeem her as a nameless and shareless outer room that even children can't have.

The "Dafeng Statute" clearly stipulates that the royal family is not allowed to accept lowly women as concubines, and violators are dismissed and dismissed, and the three generations of the family are not allowed to hold official positions above the fifth grade.

The old county king is usually absurd and absurd, but he has never fallen into such a handle.

Although he is discouraged by his own playthings and has no official position in the court, his children are very promising.

Although the eldest son Li Mingchen is not in a high official position now, he is a clan relative but not a powerful person, and he has handled many big cases in the Criminal Department, and it is only a matter of time before he rises to the top.

Although the eldest daughter Li Yirong is not favored by her husband, she is married to the Xiao family who has made great achievements in war, and if the son of Concubine Xian really becomes the prince one day, then she is the cousin-in-law of the Son of Heaven.

If this matter is made big, not to mention ruining Li Mingchen's career, and implicating the Xiao family, even if he gives him ten heads, it will not be enough to compensate.

Xie Hanci glanced at the portrait on the ground, the person on the portrait was very similar to Bao'er, there was a mole in the left eyebrow, and even the location of the mole was exactly the same.

Bao'er covered her face and knelt on the ground and kept kowtowing, crying.

"King of the county, it's me who is dizzy. On that day, I was invited to Liu Shangshu's house to sing and dance, and during the banquet I heard that he was going to send two musicians to your house, and the next day the musician happened to be sick, so I bribed the housekeeper with a silver hairpin to go up, at first just to see the world, get more rewards, and never designed to frame the heart of the county king. ”

"In the beginning? Then why didn't you say it later? The old county king asked sharply.

Bao'er raised her head slightly, and a pair of affectionate phoenix eyes swirled on the old county king who was old enough to be his father, tears and panting slightly.

"Later, fortunately, the king of the county was willing to give me a stable place to shelter from the wind and rain, so that I would have no worries about food and clothing in the future. No one has ever been so kind to Bao'er, and by the time I realize that I made a big mistake, I can't live without you. ”

She kowtowed deeply, and the floor tiles made a dull sound, "Bao'er is happy with the king of the county, begging the king of the county not to let Bao'er leave, even if it is a maid who does sprinkling and sweeping." ”

The old king watched her strands of hair scattered from the bun and draped on her snow-white neck and shoulders, looking pitiful, which was extremely pitiful, and the words were so affectionate and meaningful, he couldn't help but feel ape again.

Just as he was about to reach out and lift Bao'er up from the ground, someone suddenly spoke.

"Who can testify to what you say, and how much is true?"

Bao'er glanced back at Xie Hanci, who was gobbling up bamboo shoots and noodles, and didn't understand why she asked. Biting his lip, he said, "The musician who traveled with me that night can testify for me." “

"Let a dead man testify for you, and you can say it, maybe you pushed her into the lake in order to shut her up." Li Yirong said coldly, the corners of his mouth hooked up a sarcastic smile.

Xie Hanci looked at Bao'er's face with a very complicated expression, with anger, fear, and uneasiness, but there was no surprise.

"Actually, it's not difficult to confirm your words, after a while, Lord Li prepared some gifts and went to Liu Shangshu's mansion to sit, and by the way, ask the housekeeper who received your silver hairpin, and you will know the truth immediately. Now, though, there's something more important. ”

Xie finished the noodles in one bite and rested the chopsticks on the edge of the bowl.

"The murderer of the musician is among you."

It was obviously noon, the summer sun shone on the crimson painted floor tiles, dividing the ground into several areas of light and dark, and the cicadas were singing non-stop, but Yihuan didn't feel the scorching heat that this season should have, but because of a breeze coming in from the window lattice, there was a cold shiver, and even the cold hairs on his back stood up.

"What do you mean by the Xie girl?" King Anchang got up from his chair, and although he was asking Xie Hanci, his eyes swept around the room.

Xie Hanci drank half of the tea in the teacup in his hand, cleared his mouth, stood up and saluted before replying.

"The king of the county, the little girl has discovered a very interesting thing. This morning, Chen Chengzuo and I stayed for an autopsy, and when you left, the body had not been dug up from the soil, and the final result was that I did not communicate with you. “

She got up and walked slowly towards Li Yirong.

But the eldest lady just blurted out that Rakki was pushed into the lake and drowned. Even if the body is found in the water, there are many ways to die, it may be a misstep, it may be killed and then thrown into the lake, but why is the eldest lady so sure that she was pushed into the lake? Could it be that the eldest lady has the ability to calculate? “

Xie Hanci walked up to Li Yirong, looked at her four eyes, and said word by word.

"Or you were there."

Li Yirong bit her lip uneasily, and the honey-colored lipstick was all sparked by her.

"I'm just guessing, you don't have to choke me with words, I'm the eldest daughter-in-law of the Xiao family, and there's no reason to kill a little Leki. On the contrary, she must have many tricks in the hands of that person, in order not to expose her lowly background, it is not impossible to kill the killer and cut the grass to the roots. ”

Bao'er looked at the king of Laijun in a panic and shook her head like a rattle.

"I don't. I've only had a few encounters with Narakuki, and she doesn't know it, so I'm ......."

"You're lying!" Li Mingchen walked quickly to the old county king's side, and looked at Bao'er who was kneeling at the feet of the county king, "You said at the beginning that the musician could testify for you, but now she has changed her words and said that she doesn't know your details." ”

As he spoke, he picked up the file on the ground and dusted it off.

"It is clearly written that you were kidnapped by a few down-and-out scholars before, and you escaped by cutting the rope with a small blade hidden in your shoe. If you weren't familiar with her, would you teach her this way to save your life? “

Seeing that everyone in the front hall was staring at her, as if she had been condemned, Bao'er looked up at King Anchang like a drowning man grasping driftwood.

"King Jun, Bao'er has something to say! Please also ask the king of the county to block the left and right first, and listen to me for the time being, if the king of the county still wants to send me to the government after listening, I will leave at that time, and I will never say anything more. “

The king frowned, his face was pale, he half leaned back in the chair and held his head, feeling that the green tendons in the corners of his forehead were about to jump out, and he just wanted this matter to settle down as soon as possible, and not to make more and more trouble.

He looked at Bao'er's autumn-like eyes, he didn't want to hear a word of what this woman said now, but his intuition told him that the woman in front of him seemed to know something, and if she was sent to the government in a hurry, it would cause other troubles.

"You all go out first, come and put up the screen."

The group had no choice but to retreat to the porch. After a while, the housekeeper trotted into the front hall, followed by four family members, carrying a piece of rosewood ivory carved five hundred arhats around the screen.

Yi Huan took Xie Hanci's arm and whispered in Xie Hanci's ear: "She should be the murderer, send her to the government, is this case over?" I've really had enough of these two days. ”

Xie Hanci looked up at the sky, the sky was still blue just now, and in a blink of an eye, the sky was getting darker and darker, and the clouds were densely accumulated, and two or three dragonflies flew low at her feet, with a boom, and there was a thunderclap in the distance.

"The storm is coming."

After the time of a pillar of incense passed, the housekeeper took the family to carry out the screen and said to everyone: "The king of the county, please let everyone in." ”

When he went in again, Bao'er was already calmly holding a wine jug and pouring wine for the county king, but the county king's face was even more ugly than Fang Cai, and he barely squeezed out a little smile when he saw everyone come in.