Zhao Wangshu's eyes narrowed slightly, and he suddenly spoke: "Where did Zhao Chen'an get the Ruomu flower juice?" ”

Zhao Wanning shook her head, how did she know. This Zhao Chen'an originally appeared suddenly, when she took a silk handkerchief, the eldest princess recognized her.

Several people looked at Qi Zhen at the same time.

Qi frowned, his expression was painful, and he looked at the pink on the ground in a daze, and the curvature of the corners of his lips brought a faint self-deprecation and bitterness.

It was he who mistook the fish eye for a pearl.

really responded to the signature, "mistakenly taking the fish eye as a pearl".

"You escorted Zhao Chen'an all the way to Beijing, do you know what her background is?" Zhao Wanning asked.

Hearing this, Qi Chuan seemed to have woken up from a big dream. He shook his head, his expression grim.

"That day, I attacked the cottage and arrested all those thieves before I found Zhao Xiao...... Chen'an. She was so frightened that she was trembling all the time, and said that those thieves were murderous and wanted me to kill them all. ”

"Now that I think about it, Zhao Chen'an is indeed a little strange. She seemed to be so afraid of those thieves that she didn't even dare to see them. ”

"And in the end? You killed those thieves? Zhao Wanning asked.

Qi Shen's thumb gently rubbed the hilt of the sword, his face was solemn, and his voice was a little complicated when he spoke: "They committed suicide by taking poison." ”

"Huh?" Zhao Wanning frowned and looked at Qi Yan, her heart trembled slightly, and she instinctively felt weird: "How could you commit suicide by taking poison?" ”

"According to the law of the Great Zhou Dynasty, they occupy the mountain as the king, rob the property, if they do not hurt the lives of the people, they do not have to behead, even if they kill someone, they will be tried according to the responsibility of the main culprit and the accomplice, not all thieves have only one way to die." Zhao Wangshu's voice was low.

"If, as you said, all the thieves committed suicide by poisoning, either they committed the Monkey King and were sent to the official office and were sentenced to death, or they ......" Zhao Wangshu paused, glanced at Qi Shen, and saw that his face was as usual, as if he was faking.

Zhao Wangshu continued: "Either those thieves didn't want to take poison themselves, in other words, they were poisoned to death. ”

Zhao Wangshu pointed out that the person who poisoned him was probably Zhao Chen'an, who did not dare to see the thief.

A long time has passed, and Qi Zheng can't remember the details of the scene at that time. They were still in a hurry, originally wanted to send the thieves to the nearby county office, but on the way to the bandits suddenly died, the military doctor said that they were poisoned, and the general who led the troops did not want to cause more trouble, so they buried the thieves on the spot.

The matter is also over.

Qi Wei was a little at a loss, he opened his mouth but didn't know what to say.

"Forget it, don't ask about that. So far, we still have to find a way to figure out how Zhao Chen'an got the Ruomu flower. Zhao Wanning concluded: "This wood flower is something from the western realm, and Luochuan is not far from the western realm, maybe she picked it herself?" ”

Zhao Wangshu frowned, and she said, "If it was really picked by herself, then it would be fine." I'm afraid that she is colluding with the people of the West, and now she has always wanted to enter the palace......"

"No, I'll have to hand the saint a fold." Zhao Wangshu said.

"What did she do in collusion with the people of the West?" Zhao Wanning was a little puzzled: "She has won the love of my mother's eldest princess, and with my mother, she is now equivalent to half a county lord." With my mother's nature, I will definitely find a good family for her. What more could she want? ”

"People have their own aspirations, some people are greedy enough to swallow elephants, and they are only county lords, I'm afraid people don't look down on them at all." Zhao Wangshu took a sip of tea, she originally felt that Zhao Chen'an's identity was suspicious, but now she got corroboration from Qi Chen, it seems that this Zhao Chen'an does have bad intentions.

"That's right," Zhao Wanning suddenly said: "I remember, she once asked me about His Royal Highness the Crown Prince." ”

"Prince?" Zhao Wangshu snorted coldly, "Could it be that she still wants the position of crown princess?" ”

"I don't know, when it was autumn before, she asked me to take her to the Tribute Academy, and when she came back, she asked me what His Royal Highness the Crown Prince liked."

Zhao Wangshu's fingertips rubbed the teacup, she thought for a while and said: "On the day of the autumn season, the prince went to the tribute courtyard for the saint to inspect, presumably Zhao Chen'an knew the news, so he would go to the tribute courtyard in advance." ”

Originally, Emperor Shengde was going to go to the Tribute Courtyard in person that day, but when he went out, he was called away by the Jade Concubine Niangniang, who had just had a body, and the imperial doctor said that the fetal image was unstable, and the saint was afraid that she would be too worried and accompanied him, and then sent the prince to inspect the Tribute Courtyard for Emperor Shengde.

This matter is considered a temporary initiative of the saint, how can Zhao Chenan know that the saint will let the prince go to the tribute court for him? Could it be that there are people in the palace who collude with Zhao Chen'an?

"Zhao Chen'an wants to marry His Royal Highness the Crown Prince?" Zhao Wanning glanced at Qi Li in surprise, and then said, "But this can also make sense, why does she desperately want to go to the palace banquet." ”

Qingzhou City.

Pei Yue and the others rented a two-entry courtyard near the Qingzhou Mansion.

This position was chosen to facilitate the supervision of Wu Daoquan's disaster relief work and to facilitate their investigation of the case.

Several stalls were set up in front of the government office, and porridge was distributed on time every day.

On the first day they moved over, Pei Yue went into the shadows and secretly observed the situation of the government government's soup kitchen.

There are a total of ten cauldrons at the entrance of the government office, and there are many people who come to receive porridge, whether it is a young and middle-aged man, or the old, weak, sick or disabled, they can all receive a bowl of porridge. Pei Yue also mixed into the crowd and queued up to receive a bowl.

The porridge looked very thin, there were only a few grains of rice in a large bowl of porridge, and the rest was some rice bran, and there were even small pebbles in it.

Pei Yue tasted it, it was really hard to swallow. Probably because of the flood, the rice was soaked in water, some moldy, and the porridge also had a musty smell.

The young man behind Pei Yue drank up the bowl of moldy porridge in a few bites, and when he saw Pei Yue holding the bowl but not eating it, the man stared straight at him.

"Aren't you going to eat?" The young man couldn't help but ask.

Pei Yue was stunned for a moment, and then said, "I suddenly found that my stomach was a little uncomfortable, I'm afraid I can't eat." Brother, if you don't dislike ......"

"Don't dislike it, don't dislike it!" The man interrupted Pei Yue without waiting for him to finish, and then snatched the bowl from his hand, as if he was afraid that he would regret it, and the man drank all the porridge in a few bites.

Pei Yue looked very sad.

Probably because the cannibal mouth is short, and the person has soft hands. Pei Yue then asked the young man about something, and the man told him the truth.

It turns out that this soup kitchen has only started recently.

After the minister in charge of this disaster relief came to Qingzhou, he first arrested Huang Yi'an, the former governor of Qingzhou, and then sent officials from the yamen to invite the county magistrates of various counties, saying that they wanted to understand the people's feelings.

"Which official dares to tell the truth, they are all dog officials who deceive their superiors and subordinates! In addition to slapping the minister's ass, what else will he do! The young man said indignantly: "I happened to see it when the county magistrates came, where did they come to report the people's situation, they brought chickens, ducks, fish, meat, wine, tea, and even female dependents who didn't know where they came from, who knows what they did after they entered the government?" ”

"Our people's homes are gone, our crops are gone, how can we live!"

"That is, five days ago, the government suddenly began to make porridge."

"Did anything happen five days ago? Why did the government suddenly start giving porridge? Pei Yue asked.

The young man looked left and right vigilantly, and saw that no one was paying attention to the two of them, so he beckoned to Pei Yue.

Pei Yue followed the young man and sat down under the eaves.

"I'm telling you, don't go out and tell anyone." The young man said.

Pei Yue nodded and said, "Brother Tai, don't worry, I will keep my mouth shut." ”

The man was relieved, and he said: "I also heard that a few days ago, a man in black sneaked into the palace, and I heard that he killed a person next to the minister, and cut off the person's head and hung it at the head of the minister's bed. ”

"The next day, when the minister saw the head of the person who was sticking out his tongue in front of him, he was so frightened that he moved to the main hall of the government overnight, saying that there was a plaque of righteousness and brightness there, which could suppress this grievance."

The next day, the government began to give porridge. In order to protect himself, the minister also deliberately took people to the Qingshan Temple outside the city. I'm sorry, if the official doesn't make decisions for the people, he will fish the people, and this kind of person dares to go to the temple to worship the Buddha, and he is not afraid of retribution! ”

When Pei Yue heard that the people around the minister had been beheaded, his first reaction was Lu Chunzhi. He and Lu Chunzhi have also been friends for many years, and it is unbelievable at the moment.

Pei Yue asked with difficulty, "...... Dare to ask Brother Tai, do you know what is the name of the person who was cut off by the head? ”

"How do I know, they are all big officials from the capital, where do you and I know a little people." The young man said, "However, it was the corpse that I went to collect at that time, and the man was not too young, and his hair was gray. ”

Hearing this, Pei Yue suddenly relieved his heart, since his hair was gray, it was naturally not Lu Chunzhi.

Pei Yue returned to the small courtyard with what he had seen and heard today.

When Pei Yue went back, Lu Chunnian and Li Wei had not yet returned, and only Pei Zhen was busy in the kitchen. As soon as he saw Pei Yue, Pei Zhen drove him out: "Gentleman is far away, son, go out quickly." Here's what I can do. ”

"What's with you?" Pei Yue could already smell the mushy smell coming from the pot, he rolled up his sleeves, pushed Pei Zhen away, and lifted the lid of the pot by himself.

I saw a black lump in the pot, and I couldn't see the original face clearly.

"...... are you?" Pei Yue picked up the spatula and shoveled a piece in front of him, can that black thing really be called food?

"Stir-fried radish." Pei Zhen was a little embarrassed, he stood there helplessly, like a child who made a mistake.

This is not to blame him, he and Pei Yi usually have a clear division of labor, Pei Yi is responsible for cooking, and he is responsible for washing dishes. It was Pei Yue who left Pei Yi in the capital, and when he saw that Pei Yue and the others had gone out to investigate the case, he consciously took on the matter of cooking.

It's just that he really has no talent for cooking.

Pei Yue can't say anything, the person is chosen by himself, what else can he do?

Pei Yue scooped up the black mess in the pot and poured it out, and then washed the pot with water.

"You...... Let's start a fire. Pei Yue said, he looked at the ingredients that Pei Zhen got back, and decided to make his specialty dish-Jinyu tofu.

After simply preparing the meal, Lu Chunnian and Li Wei have not come back yet, and it is not easy for the two of them to eat first.

Pei Yue took off his apron, picked up two pieces of tofu and went back to his room.

The bedding on the bed is freshly changed, soft and warm.

As soon as Pei Yue entered the door, two little heads came out of the quilt.

It's the two kittens.

Pei Yue named the two of them, the slightly larger one was covered with yellow fur, only the belly was white, like a gold quilt and silver bed, called "gold and silver", and the smaller one was mostly white fur, unevenly distributed with deep and light yellow, like an embroidered tiger, called "A Tiger".

The two kittens have been taken care of by Pei Yue these days, and they have become close to him, and when they heard the footsteps, they knew that Pei Yue was back, and brought them food.

Pei Yue held the two kittens into his arms one in one hand, and then put the food on his lap.

The two little ones rushed over and feasted.

"Good."

These two kittens, like her, love to eat Jinyu tofu.