Wei Meng hurriedly stuffed the golden leaf into his arms, wiped his hands carelessly, and turned his head in disbelief.

"Father!"

Another whisper, full of urgency.

On closer inspection, the person who was hurrying close was a slender figure of small stature, particularly eye-catching in the dark prison.

It's really his Chanchan.

Wei Meng's eyes froze, not wanting his daughter to see his embarrassment after being tortured, and was about to turn his back, but he stumbled and fell to the ground. He gritted his teeth, braced himself on the ground with one arm, and stiffened to his feet.

Wei Shuyao ran to the door, grabbed the fence with her slender fingers, and shouted anxiously: "Father, where did you fall?" ”

She ran so fast that a few strands of messy hair fell from the brim of her hat and flew on her cheeks, blocking her eyes. But Wei Shuyao didn't care about it at all, squatted down, trying to reach out to help Wei Meng, her white fingers desperately grabbed in the air, and finally barely grabbed his arm.

"Father, your leg ......"

Wei Shuyao tried her best to pull Wei Meng up, and at a glance, she saw that his calves wrapped in tattered linen clothes were bruised and swollen.

"Did they abuse your punishment?" She looked up, revealing a plain countenance, the dim light making her face pale.

Looking at her daughter's worried eyes, Wei Meng's surprise and worry turned into loving eyes, and the thousand words in his heart were condensed into one sentence-

"Father is not with you these days...... A-Yao suffered. ”

"The daughter is not bitter, isn't she standing in front of her father in a good manner." Wei Shuyao comforted softly, blinked, and suppressed the heat in her eyes.

Seeing her pretending to be strong□□ Meng was even more sad, and it took a long time before she raised her hand, slowly brushed the scattered hair on her forehead, and rolled her throat, "Seeing that you are safe and sound, I can be blind to death." ”

Wei Meng suppressed the bitterness in his heart and asked in a low voice: "I heard from the jailer that you were missing two days ago, and I was really worried. Where have you been hiding these days? ”

Wei Shuyao pursed her lips, lowered her eyes slightly, and her long eyelashes trembled twice.

She started from Dong Xing's indiscriminate killing of everyone in the mansion, until she hid in the palace and listened to Wei Meng one by one. But she didn't dare to tell the details, she didn't dare to tell her father that she had sought the protection of the prince, she only said that she had mixed into the eunuch team and was now hiding in a remote cold palace.

"I bought the little eunuch to pass the word and begged my father's old ministry to bring me to prison."

Wei Meng frowned, "Who?" ”

Wei Shuyao said the wording that she had thought of a long time ago: "Luo Huaiying, Luo Yanshi." ”

Wei Meng's frowning eyebrows finally loosened a little, and he bowed slightly.

Luo Huaiying was originally the most effective deputy general under his command, although he was young, he was appreciated by the saints for his repeated miraculous achievements, and was able to stay in Beijing five years ago. Later, by chance, he became the commander of the Jinyi Guard. This person has only followed him for two years, but he is quite grateful for his kindness, and he is also one of the few people who dares to open his mouth to intercede after the Wei family's accident.

It was precisely because of this move that angered the emperor, Luo Huaiying was belittled by Jin Yiwei, and asked Dong Xing to pick up a bargain.

Wei Shuyao hesitated for a moment, got back to the topic, and asked, "Father, what happened to the Night Palace Change?" How does King Ning coerce you to help? ”

Wei Meng's face sank, "A-Yao, what are you asking about this?" It's all a given, and you don't have to work hard. ”

"Father!" Wei Shuyao was anxious and annoyed, "If you don't make it clear, how can I save you from prison!" ”

"I'm not to blame for the fate I am in. But this case has affected you and everyone in the mansion, and my father is really remorseful......" Wei Meng said helplessly, his lips trembled violently, and he sighed heavily at the end, "Ah Yao, don't dwell on this case anymore, leave the palace quickly." ”

Wei Shuyao couldn't believe it, grabbed Wei Meng's sleeve, and tears appeared in her eyes, "Father, what nonsense are you talking about?" Don't you want a daughter? ”

The corners of Wei Meng's eyes drooped, and he held Wei Shuyao's hand with his backhand and covered her: "A-Yao, leave the capital, go to your brother, and live well." ”

Wei Shuyao was completely stunned, and it took a long time to react, her mouth opened wide, and her tongue rolled in shock, "Brother, he, he's not ......"

Wei Meng took out the gold leaf on his chest, stuffed it into Wei Shuyao's hand, squeezed her palm hard, and said, "Go north, go to Hezhou." ”

was so anxious that she couldn't say a few more words, and Wei Shuyao heard the bell of Changshun urging her.

"A-Yao."

Before leaving, Wei Shuyao raised her head and looked up at her father standing in the fence. The cold wind blew his empty sleeves slightly.

Wei Meng raised his only left arm and waved goodbye to her, "Don't ask about King Ning, there are ......"

"Be careful of Xie Mingyi, the prince of the East Palace, don't be caught by him, that person is thoughtful and very good at disguise, he is still ......"

Wei Meng remembered something, shook his head, and sighed: "That's it, you must remember, if you hear the word prince, how far you can run." ”

Wei Shuyao bit her lip tightly, her hands and feet stiffened, and her heart beat like a drum.

In the end, Wei Shuyao just clenched the gold leaf in her hand and nodded heavily, so as to reassure her father.

In fact, she already knew that the prince of the East Palace was the little mute in the past.

- The young man who was teased by her, humiliated by her, and deliberately sent by Wei Meng to go to the cold border.

Wei Shuyao followed Changshun to an interrogation room, and heard the sound of whipping and beating next door, and her little face turned pale.

"Let's sit here and wait for His Highness to go back first, and then leave." Changshun comforted her and said, "Don't worry, Your Highness has already instructed our family to take care of everything, and the girl doesn't have to worry." ”

Wei Shuyao nodded lightly and sat alone on the cold stone bench. She pinched the gold leaf in her sleeve, and there was a little worry in her eyebrows.

Where did my father get the gold leaf? Is my brother really still alive? If her father deceived her, he just wanted her to leave the capital......

Wei Shuyao pursed her lips and let go.

She heard a painful wail coming from next door, and the scolding was mixed with Xie Mingyi's name.

The fingers she stacked on her lap moved subconsciously, and her gaze fell on the glossy fingertips. Her slender fingers are very beautiful, with a shallow crescent moon on her pink nails, and the back of her hand is white and smooth, faintly revealing the thin green tendons underneath.

For some reason, she suddenly remembered when her fingertips touched Xie Mingyi's chest last night.

It was clearly just a very light press, but it touched his powerful heartbeat. The heat from his scorching chest scorched her fingertips, and his heartbeat shook the fingertips so numb that it lingered all night.

Wei Shuyao silently curled up all her fingers, tucked them into her sleeves, and shrunk her shoulders again, hiding her hands more tightly.

It took a long time for the interrogation next door to come to an end.

Jin Yiwei escorted the criminal ministers down, and Luo Huaiying, who had been guarding the hall, bowed slightly and bowed to the courtiers in the hall.

"Send your lords out." Luo Huaiying raised his eyes and glanced at His Royal Highness the Crown Prince in the center, intentionally or unintentionally.

Everyone held their breath and quietly looked sideways at Xie Mingyi.

Xie Mingyi smiled, rolled up the confession casually, and tapped his palm, "Your Excellency, you have worked hard, let's go back to the house first." ”

As if they had been granted amnesty, they all said goodbye and went out through the back door quickly.

Luo Huaiying stood in place, seeing that the crown prince had no intention of leaving, his brows furrowed slightly, and he asked respectfully: "Your Highness, does you still have something to deal with?" ”

After waiting for a long time, Luo Huaiying didn't hear the other party's response, and his heart sank.

The little military general under Shen Xingliang, he had heard of this person's name for a long time, but he had never seen it. That fatherless and motherless mute young man, who couldn't speak before the age of ten, was looked down upon everywhere, but after the age of fifteen, he was quite appreciated by General Shen, and he broke the enemy army at the beginning of his career, which impressed everyone.

Under this person's clear and handsome appearance is decisive and ruthless, and in a few years, he quelled the Haikou rebellion that had plagued Fuzhou for decades, and made the coastal thieves fearful. I don't know why, it was when the fire was cooking, but he was sent to Suzhou in the north to guard the border pass, and he couldn't return to Beijing since then.

After the emperor took him back to the palace, he performed the crown prince's canonization ceremony at the altar. On that day, the crown prince stood in front of the Son of Heaven, his dark eyes swept away the kneeling ministers, and his expression was indifferent like an absent-minded flower admirer, but no one dared to put his beak in his beak.

It was that day that Luo Huaiying saw clearly the imperative in those lacquered eyes, so she hurriedly took on an errand from other places to avoid the bloody wind of the court cleaning.

When he returned to Beijing this morning, he learned that Dong Xing had offended the crown prince, was removed from his post as a commanding envoy, and was confined to his home. Therefore, he could only drag his tired body and come to take over the task of accompanying the prince to the interrogation.

After waiting for a while, Luo Huaiying heard Xie Mingyi speak slowly.

"What has Deng Yan been doing recently?" He lifted his eyelids and looked at Luo Huaiying, "I heard that Master Lu wants to come to visit him in the Imperial Prison?" ”

Luo Huaiying sighed in his heart, and hurriedly said: "This is true, but Deng Yannai is a key offender, and the ministers and others resolutely dare not do anything beyond the norm, so they sent Master Lu a few words, and he left." ”

Lu Taifu's eldest son, Lu Qingze, was originally a bachelor of the Hanlin Academy, and recently with the Lu family's gradual gain, he will soon be in the sixth department. At this juncture, he made a fuss about what he was going to commit when he came to visit, I don't know if he was too innocent or intentional.

Xie Mingyi was silent for a moment, and then responded lightly, "Hmm." ”

In the end, he said again: "Take Gu to meet Deng Yan." ”

Luo Huaiying had to take a few Jinyi guards to escort Xie Mingyi to the Tianzi cell.

Soon, I heard invective from time to time in the prison in the distance, and Deng Yan, the former secretary of the military department, was imprisoned. His hands and feet were chained by the thick iron chains at the mouth of the bowl, and he was huddled in the grass nest, angrily scolding the emperor.

Xie Mingyi, who was walking in front, didn't say a word and walked slowly.

Deng Yan saw the person who was coming, and he rushed to the fence, holding the wooden fence with both hands, staring at a pair of big eyes like copper bells, his beard trembled, and he scolded even more vigorously.

Xie Mingyi suddenly stopped, slowly lifted his eyelids, and looked at Deng Yan with an indifferent expression.

Seeing that Xie Mingyi had no reaction, Deng Yan suddenly found a wooden stick out of nowhere and threw it hard.

The sound of the wooden bars clattering to the ground was very harsh in the claustrophobic prison.

"What kind of prince are you, but you are just a pawn used by the Dog Emperor to deal with King Ning! His kindness to you lies to you! You have been kept in the dark to do dirty things for him, to play for the tiger! ”

Luo Huaiying immediately stepped forward and raised his arm and waved it away, frowning, and glanced at the Jin Yiwei beside him.

But I saw a slender and well-proportioned hand stretched out in mid-air, raised his index finger and shook it slightly.

"Let him speak." Xie Mingyi's voice was flat.

Everyone held their breath, shivered, and stood in place with their heads bowed. They have all seen the methods of the crown prince, if it weren't for the emperor to keep Deng Yanqiu and carry out the punishment of Ling Chi, where would Deng Yan still have the life to make a big fuss here.

"Your father, the emperor, brutalized Zhongliang, was violent and murderous, and he didn't even let go of his siblings! He should have cut off his children and grandchildren, knowing that his sins would not be repaid on you! ”

"Haha, kill your sister and kill your brother, your father's heart is dirty when thrown out! Such a person can actually sit firmly on the dragon chair! The sky has no eyes, no eyes! ”

After a burst of crazy laughter, Deng Yan laughed and cried excitedly, and the chains on his ankles rubbed on the ground, making a sharp friction sound.

Wei Shuyao, who was guarding at the end of the corridor, heard the movement, hesitated for a while, quietly half-squatted down, and looked through the crack in the door.

At that moment, Xie Mingyi's expression was indifferent, and the corners of his lips even curved a little.

Deng Yan saw that he couldn't be stimulated, his cloudy left eye stared at Xie Mingyi, and suddenly laughed again, "Don't you want to know, how did Concubine Cui die?" ”

Xie Mingyi's face finally showed a crack.

Cui Concubine is the prince's biological mother.