【February 20, 71st year of the Great Qiankang Yuan, Chenshi, the back garden of the Han Wangfu】

Today is the tenth day, according to the official system of the big cadres, ten days off, Han King Li Zuo does not need to be in the early dynasty. After breakfast, he had nothing to do, so he called a few of his subordinates and set up a weaving field in the back garden. According to common sense, fighting crickets are generally in autumn, but Li Zuo is good at the way of cricket breeding, until this winter, there are a few "pipa wings" and "plum blossom wings" at home are still in good spirits.

"General, give it to me!" Li Zuo shouted with his eyes fixed on a cricket with a thigh-length head and slightly golden skin in the clay pot. The onlookers of the royal family, seeing that the master was having such a good time, also cheered and cheered. At this time, in Li Zuo's heart, even if the sky falls, it has nothing to do with him......

"Lord Wang...... Lord Wang!" The head of the Han Wangfu hurriedly ran behind Li Zuo and shouted a few times, seeing that Li Zuo was unaware, he had no choice but to pull Li Zuo's sleeve and tell him eagerly.

"You're looking for death! dare to disturb Lao Tzu's fun!" Li Zuo turned around abruptly and slapped the manager so hard that he fell to the ground......

"You're blind, I didn't see Lao Tzu ......," Li Zuo was still about to loudly reprimand his subordinates. In his heart, when he is playing, no one can disturb him.

However, Li Zuo turned around to take a closer look, and when he saw the cold figure standing behind him, he immediately put away his anger, replaced it with a humble and kind look, and said with a smile: "Roar...... It's the fourth brother, why do you have time to come to me?"

"Today is off, so I'll come and see you, what's going on...... Isn't the sixth brother welcome?" At this time, Li Zhen stood leisurely in front of Li Zuo's eyes and said with a calm face.

"How can the fourth brother come to see me, it's too late for me to be happy!" Li Zuo hurriedly replied. He looked at the chief of the palace who had just gotten up from the ground and said angrily: "You short-eyed minion! My fourth brother is here, and you don't say a word!"

Li Zuo was naturally angry in his heart, and he hid in the palace to play the scene of "promoting weaving", if it was spread out and his father knew about it, it would naturally be difficult to escape the reprimand of a "plaything". At such a critical time, the king of Wei suddenly killed, and you, the head of the palace, have to stop it, so that you can be prepared!

The head of the Han Wangfu was slapped by his master and scolded for no reason, and he was also aggrieved in his heart. He said in his heart that the King of Wei had arrived, and before I could speak, he went straight inside and broke in, and I couldn't stop it even if I wanted to! Besides, as the Prince of Jiuzhu of Wei, who would dare to come out and stop it......

"Sixth brother, I insisted on coming in, don't blame these subordinates. The sixth brother is so 'busy' in the mansion today, has the fourth brother intruded on your 'Yaxing'?" Li Zhen said slowly. His face was deep and straight, and he was still expressionless at this time, not angry, let alone happy.

"Where did the fourth brother come from! The fourth brother is here today, and the brother is shining here! It's windy outside, so the fourth brother should please sit in the house!" Li Zuo replied diligently. As he helped Li Zhen to his study, he turned around and waved continuously at the men who were dumb and dumbfounded. Only then did those subordinates come to their senses and hurriedly cleaned up the "evidence of fighting crickets" at the scene.

Li Zuo led Li Zhen to the study and took a seat. He personally helped Li Zhen to sit on the top, and he only picked up a square stool next to him and sat down. Before long, the maid of the palace sent two cups of Longjing tea from Hangzhou.

"Fourth brother, I know that you like Longjing in Hangzhou, and this was brought to me by the people below from Jiangnan Province last summer. Fourth brother taste it, does it taste authentic?" Li Zuo pointed to the teacup and greeted Li Zhen warmly.

Li Zhen sat upright, picked up the teacup, slowly bleached the tea powder with the lid of the bowl with his right hand, took a sip, put down the teacup, and said directly:

"Sixth brother, I heard...... Are you checking on me?"

Li Zuo was slightly stunned, he didn't expect his fourth brother to speak so straight to the point. He hurriedly replied: "What's the matter! Fourth brother must not listen to the rumors of people outside! These people are not at ease! They are thinking of ways to separate us, and they wish that our brothers would turn against us...... Don't hide it from the fourth brother, brother, in the past few days, although I have been following the will of my father, I have pursued the cases of Xiao Yihong and Qiu Mingli. But I've checked and checked, and it's all Xiao Yihong and his eldest brother......! Because of the case I investigated, my eldest brother was deposed by my father and became a commoner. In the past two days, as long as I think of my eldest brother, I feel uncomfortable, from yesterday to today, I have not been able to eat and sleep. I...... How could I possibly go to check on you, Fourth Brother?"

Li Jin's face sank, the expression on his face became even colder, he snorted and said: "Sixth brother, I don't care if you investigate the matter of the eldest brother, but you instigated Pei Caibao to break into Mr. Qiu's thatched cottage early yesterday morning, arrest one of his girls and go back, and torture him to extract a confession without permission......, what is the matter? Aren't you checking on me?!"

"This ...... This...... I ...... I don't know!" Li Zuo couldn't help but panic. But he was not lying. He waited for half the night last night, and Pei Caibao neither went to Cuiyun Tower to have a "secret meeting" with him, nor did he come to the palace to report to him. Therefore, he still has no idea what Pei Caibao has done and how it is progressing.

Li Zhen ignored Li Zuo's panicked expression, and said coldly: "Sixth brother, if you want to check on me, why don't you come to me directly? What do you want to do when you go to Mr. Qiu? Everyone knows that Mr. Qiu is my teacher, he has been an official for more than 30 years, he is honest and honest, he has worked hard and done his best for me day and night, and he is the person I respect the most! If you have the ability, you can come to me! Why do you want to go to Mr. Qiu's troubles! What do you want to do with such a stirring up of teachers, unscrupulous, and indiscriminate arrests!"

"This ...... This was all done by Pei Caibao!Fourth brother, you have wronged me in this matter, I really don't know!" Li Zuo hurriedly defended himself. Li Zhen's sudden visit was more or less unexpected for Li Zuo. He was thinking at the moment, that Pei Caibao had obtained his own order, and naturally he had already gone to Qiufu to arrest someone, but he didn't expect that Pei Caibao's confession had not yet arrived, and the rumors had not yet risen, you

The fourth brother has already come directly to me to ask the teacher for guilt. You are a prince of Jiuzhu, of course I can't afford to offend, but if I don't admit it to death, what can you do to me! At this time, Li Zuo was in a hurry, so he had to come up with a trick of "denying his account to death......

Li Zhen finished drinking a sip of Longjing tea, but put the tea cup on the bookcase. He got up, walked in front of Li Zuo, snorted in his nostrils, and said:

"So far, do you still want to deny it? Sixth brother, even if you want to find trouble with Mr. Qiu, you should come clearly. You took Zhao Yu, the maid in his thatched cottage, and tortured him, what the hell is going on?! That Zhao Yu is just an orphan I rescued from the disaster area and gave it to Mr. Qiu to make a maid to wash clothes. I want to ask you, are you trying to force Zhao Yu to confess what she had with this king, and this king rescued a disaster victim, just to take advantage of the danger of others and take her as a concubine?!"

Li Zuo also stood up in a hurry, stretched out his hands to hold Li Jin's right hand, and hurriedly excused himself: "Fourth brother, you really wronged me! I don't know who Zhao Yu is, let alone if she is an orphan you rescued from the disaster area...... If it weren't for the fourth brother telling me today, I wouldn't know anything about these things, what should I do to arrest that Zhao Yu? There must be a misunderstanding in the middle, the fourth brother must not be angry, when I see Pei Caibao, I must ask clearly......

Li Zhen shook off Li Zuo's hands and said coldly: "Sixth brother, you are a big man, if you really want to do something, you should come openly, and the fourth brother will still treat you as a good man! You are sneaking around and torturing a weak woman behind your back...... Is it a person?"

Li Jin's question, although the voice is not loud, the weight in the words is really not light. When Li Zuo heard this, his face also changed. He sat down in front of the stool with a gloomy face, and replied coldly:

"Fourth brother, if you want to talk like this, brother, I will have nothing to say. At the behest of my father, I investigated the case of Qiu Mingli's private release of a female death row prisoner, and even if one or two of her prisoners were arrested, it would be for the purpose of trying the case! As for whether Pei Caibao was tortured to extract a confession, and what was the woman's name? I should ask myself later. If Pei Caibao really caught the 'Zhao Yu' you said, I would naturally let him go. But if that woman is a death row prisoner brought back by Qiu Mingli without permission, and my brother and my emperor are in his body, then he can only find out to the end! If the fourth brother is very dissatisfied with me, he can just go to his father and make it clear!"

Li Zuo sat on the stool with a dark face, picked up the tea cup on the desk, and he was already extremely angry in his heart at this time. He said in his heart that since I have torn my face with you Li Zhen today, don't blame me for being a brother and not being affectionate. Originally, if Pei Caibao really arrested Zhao Yu, I would have asked him to release him. But you are so domineering now, you don't give me any face, hum! I will let Pei Caibao do his best to tell Pei Caibao what you just said, so that Zhao Yu can confess all of them, and damage you and stink you in the court! See if you can be so aggressive next time?

Unexpectedly, when Li Zhen saw this, instead of being annoyed, he turned his back to the sky and said with a smile: "What do you want the fourth brother to say with his father? Tell me about opening a brothel in Chang'an City...... How?"

Li Zuo was drinking tea with a teacup, and when he heard this, he was so frightened that the teacup shook and splashed a lot of tea powder on his hands. He didn't care about burning his hands, so he hurriedly got up again and said, "Fourth brother, are you ...... Who did you say that? How did I ever run a brothel?!"

Li Zhen slowly paced to the Taishi chair and sat down again, took a sip of Longjing, and said with a smile:

Let me ask you, the Cuiyun Building in Pingkangfang, Chang'an City, the nominal proprietor's surname is Li Mingqiu, isn't he one of your doormen?"

Li Zuo hurriedly ran to Li Jin's side, and said in a trembling voice: "Fourth brother......! This is no joke! That Cuiyun Building is Li Qiu's industry, what does it have to do with me!"

Li Zhen stared at Li Zuo's flustered eyes, and said with a smile to himself: "Is Cuiyunlou opened by him Li Qiu or you Li Zuo, don't you know if you ask? Do you want Tsing Yiwei to also arrest that Li Qiu and ask? The bald Pei in your hand has told you all these years." Few of the torture instruments in my Daqian Tsing Yi Wei can carry it for more than half an hour. Sixth brother, do you think Li Qiu can carry it for a few hours?......"

Li Zuo's face was already dead at this time. He staggered and nearly collapsed to the ground. He had to lean over and hold up the bookcase in front of Li Jin, lowered his head and pleaded softly:

"Fourth brother, the sixth brother is wrong! I immediately asked Pei Cai to release the people, and from then on, no matter what the fourth brother does, I will not ask anything, and I will not move any of the people under the fourth brother...... Okay?"

Of course, Li Zuo is also very aware of the strength of the fourth brother in front of him. Not to mention anything else, the hand-picked hundred households in Tsing Yi Wei who moved the capital were his Li Jin's cronies. If his disciple Li Qiu is really arrested in the Bei'an Ping Division, God knows what he will confess......

Li Zuo couldn't help but recall that he had been playful since he was a child, didn't like to study, didn't do his job, and suddenly became whimsical when he was young and opened a brothel in Chang'an City. At the beginning, it was just a joke, I didn't want to, my subordinates were too good at management, and in less than 20 years, the scale of this Cuiyun Building was actually opened to the first in Chang'an City! Seeing that there was a lot of silver coming into the account every day, how could Li Zuo be willing to close it?

However, what made Li Zuo die couldn't figure it out was that he was extremely secretive about this matter, and he didn't even know about his cronies Pei Caibao, how did he know about Li Jin, the king of Wei?

At this moment, Li Zhen picked up the teacup again, slowly brushed the tea powder with the bowl lid, and slowly tasted a sip of Longjing tea. He closed his eyes and pondered carefully for a moment before sighing:

"Hmm...... It's really a Longjing before the Ming Dynasty! I can't imagine that after more than half a year, it can still be preserved so well, and the tea tastes the same as it was at the beginning......

"Fourth brother...... Okay?" asked Li Zuo softly again. His mind at the moment, as long as your fourth brother promises not to investigate the matter of Cuiyun Tower, let me buy you all the dragon wells in the world, and I will also promise!

Li Zhen put down the teacup, faced Li Zuo, who was leaning over and bowing his head, and said with a pleasant face:

"Sixth brother, you know, my father is jealous and hateful, and the most hated in his life are those who are disloyal, unfilial, incorruptible and shameful

Person. According to our great law, no official is allowed to accept prostitutes and stay with prostitutes! Those who violate the law will be removed from the official position and confiscated at the worst! I still remember that two years ago, an envoy of Huaiyang Dao went to Beijing to report on his work, and because he stayed overnight in your Cuiyun Tower, he was cut to civilian status by his father the next day. Now, my father has just deposed my eldest brother, and I must be angry, so I will go and tell my father again, how did you manage this Cuiyun Building to be the best in Chang'an and famous in the world...... Let's see if my father will pass on another will and give you a good 'reward'?......"

"Fourth brother!" Li Zuo knelt down in front of Li Zhen with a "poof", his face was as white as paper, his forehead was sweating, and he cried bitterly: "I was wrong! I am not a thing! I beg the fourth brother to bypass me for the sake of his own brother...... It's all Pei Caibao, a minion who arrests people indiscriminately, I really don't know......! I'll rush to Nan'an Pingsi and ask him to release Zhao Yu immediately, if Miss Zhao...... Miss Zhao was injured, and I went to the best Langzhong in Chang'an City to treat her! Fourth brother rest assured...... From then on, I did whatever the fourth brother asked me to do......"

"Sixth Brother...... Get up!" Li Zhen saw that Li Zuo actually knelt down to him, but he couldn't bear it. At that moment, he hurriedly stood up and walked to Li Zuo, slowly helped him up, and said warmly:

"Sixth brother, after all, we are brothers, how can I, the elder brother, harm you? Now that the eldest brother and the second brother have been abolished, you and I brothers should be more sincere and united, and think about sharing the worries of our father and the emperor and contributing to the society!

"The fourth brother is being trained, and the sixth brother has remembered!" Li Zuo muttered. He slowly returned to the stool and sat down, took out a brocade square scarf, wiped his forehead and eyes, and did not know whether it was sweat or tears......

"You don't have to go to Tsing Yiwei, Miss Zhao Yu...... She had already escaped and returned to the cottage on her own. She ...... too. No big deal. I came here today to remind you that in the future, you must not disturb Mr. Qiu again!" Li Jin's expression changed slightly, and he said in a deep voice.

"Yes, yes, yes! The sixth brother knows! The fourth brother ...... That...... What about Cuiyun Building?" Li Zuo finally didn't forget to ask again.

Li Zhen took his hands proudly, strode out of the study, and left a resounding sentence: "Cuiyunlou, there is nothing wrong at all!"

Li Zuo looked at Li Jin's back in a daze. At this time, it was noon, the sun was shining directly on the walkway outside the door, and it was the warmest time of the day, but Li Zuo still felt a chill in his heart, and he couldn't help but shudder. After thinking about it, he felt remorse and horror in his heart, and in the end, he vented his anger on Pei Caibao for no reason. As soon as he thought of his only cronie, he couldn't help gritting his teeth and secretly scolded:

"Okay, you Pei bald, what are you doing for me! I obviously asked you to arrest Yao Zibei, but you caught a Zhao Yu back. It must be that you saw that girl's beauty, and your lust was uplifted, and you pretended to be a public servant! When I saw you in a while, I had to peel off your skin!"

......

At this time, Pei Caibao was no better. He was lying on the bed in his inner room, his face pale, his eyes sunken, his expression abrupt, and his chest covered with bandages. As soon as he moved slightly, he would cough repeatedly, and each cough would bring a look of pain to his face. Just because his sternum was broken, he was only slightly involved, and there were bursts of pain.

However, what was more severe than the pain in his chest was the pain in his heart.

He practiced the Pei family's knife technique since he was a child, and created his own double swords, although he didn't dare to say that he was alone in the capital, but in this Tsing Yi Wei, he was also ranked first. Who would have thought that a weak girl would break the double knife, break the sternum, and faint in just one move......

Yesterday, after Zhao Yu left, it wasn't until Shen Shi that Pei Caibao woke up from the secret room of Nan'an Pingsi. Seeing the dead bodies of the seven guards in the room, and thinking back to the scene in the morning, he was suddenly terrified.

"Enchantress!" was the first reaction in his mind.

But this incident is too weird, and now that the prisoner has escaped, it is even more difficult to explain to the outside world. Pei Caibao didn't want to make a public announcement, so he secretly called two henchmen and asked them to secretly dispose of the bodies of the guards, and only said that they were "killed in the line of duty" to the families of those guards.

Pei Caibao breathed a sigh of relief, reluctantly returned home, and hurriedly ordered someone to invite a famous doctor to treat him. Na Langzhong inspected his injuries and diagnosed his pulse, and said that he had suffered a strong external injury, and during this period of time, he had to recuperate at home, and prescribed him several medicines to treat his injuries.

At this time, the maid of Pei's Mansion brought him the decoction that his wife had just cooked for him. He tried to pour all the bitter medicinal soup into his stomach, sighed, and turned to lie down again.

The maid waited for Pei Caibao to lie down, turned around and wanted to leave, but heard Master Pei suddenly order: "Xiaocui, you go and call Steward Liang to me!"

The maid named "Xiaocui" took the order, and after a while, Steward Liang of Pei's Mansion ran to Pei Caibao's bed, bowed down and said, "Master, what do you command?"

"Lao Liang, you go to the account room to get a thousand taels of silver, and go to the Agarwood Courtyard...... Go and redeem the two women for me. Remember, don't let Madame know about this!" Pei Caibao commanded weakly.

"Do you know what are the names of these two women?" asked Steward Liang.

Pei Caibao thought for a moment, and then said: "You just need to ask the old bustard of the Agarwood Academy, there are two bearded girls, who came from the house of Xiao Yihong, the secretary of the Criminal Department, and their names in Cuiyun Building before, one is called 'Frost' and the other is called 'Bai Xue', both of whom are about eighteen years old, and they are very good-looking......

Steward Liang nodded hurriedly and replied: "The little one knows, the master just rest assured, after the little one redeems the two of them, she will be secretly placed in a foreign house in the west of the city." After the old man recovers from his injuries, he can ......"

"Let's go!" Pei Caibao waved his hand.

Steward Liang didn't dare to slack off, so he hurriedly turned around and went out, and went out in a hurry.

Pei Caibao was left alone, lying on the bed alone, and couldn't help sighing.

......