"Father, do you have something on your mind?" a young man walked into Ouyang Xiu's study and asked after saluting.

Ouyang Xiu put down his pen and said, "Sit down." ”

Ouyang Fa sat down and asked, "What does my father command?"

Ouyang Xiu groaned slightly and asked, "I remember that you had a relationship with Zhao Qingyan, right?"

Ouyang Fa was slightly stunned and said: "He is a colleague of his father, and a son of his age in Beijing has contacts with each other, so he can be counted as friends." It's just that he is quiet by nature, and he won't participate in poetry meetings or flower-viewing outings, and he hasn't heard of a close relationship with any high-ranking official's children. "A noble child like him, and the elders in the family are not too restricted, and it is common for them to meet and play.

Ouyang Xiu asked, "You really haven't seen who he is close to?"

Ouyang Fa said: "My father should know this matter better than me, right? King Qi did not have much friendship with officials in the court, except for his brother's family affairs, the Qi Wangfu has always not interfered in court affairs. The little prince has been raised in the palace since he was a child, and he has never seen us play. At the age of twelve, he went to his master's place for several years, and when he returned, he was either bored in the palace, stayed in the palace and the Privy Council, and went out to play on his own. If it is said that in the capital, in addition to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and the Prince of Xinwang, only Lu Hou is friendly with him. ”

Ouyang Xiu frowned and asked, "Do you think he is really born like this?"

Ouyang said: "Probably, it may seem that he is quite gentle and talkative, but I think he is the most unpredictable and difficult to approach." ”

Ouyang Xiu's eyes froze when he heard this, and asked, "You said he couldn't guess it, and it was not easy to approach? Why? ”

Ouyang was stunned and said, "My son thinks so. If he was hurt when he was so young that he never cried or made trouble because he was well-behaved, then he was poisoned at the age of seven, and he was already so well-behaved, it was too scary. Yun Yi said that the internal skill he practiced was to force poison into his legs, and exchange the cripples of his legs for life. With this practice, every full moon will cause the practitioner to have a splitting headache, and slowly the legs will be completely unconscious. Even if it was the result of King Qi's persuasion, it was unbelievable that he would do it. What a terrible result for a twelve-year-old to know that he will never be able to walk again. I can't imagine, or even believe it, that anyone would still be like this after all they have been through so much?"

Ouyang Xiu sighed and did not speak.

Seeing that his father didn't speak, Ouyang Fa took the initiative to ask, "Why did my father suddenly ask me this?

Ouyang Xiu shook his head and said, "I don't know, I can't say." Like you said, I can't guess who he is. It gives you the feeling that it is kind, gentle, intelligent, sensible, etc., so that you can't be angry and can't hate him. However, after staying with him for a long time, I always feel depressed and afraid. ”

Ouyang Fa had never seen his father evaluate a person so excitedly, and secretly wondered what "that person" had said today, and couldn't help asking, "Father, what's wrong with you?"

Ouyang Xiu said: "Today I accompanied him to visit Bao Zheng, and then there was a little conflict, he invited us to dinner in the restaurant, and said some words. After a general description of the situation, he said, "I think he is tempting, or hinting at something, but I don't hear what he is trying to say." I came back and thought about it a few times, but I still didn't figure out the reason, so I asked you to come and help me analyze it. ”

Ouyang said: "Since you don't know, then wait for him to reveal his intentions, and before that, don't think about it." There was no direct conflict between his father and him, at most he had a conflict of interest with him. ”

Ouyang Xiu was stunned and asked, "Entanglement of interests?"

Ouyang Fa pondered for a moment, calmed down slightly, and said as instructed: "Yes." The son has an idea, and the father might as well listen to it. I think that if he, who has never approached the ministers of the court, will take the initiative to say so much to you, it means that you are useful to him, or that you are in the way. And the idea came out of nowhere, so he'll take the approach of approaching both of you at once. And the paradox, lightly clicked but not picked, may be this matter cannot be rushed, not something that can be done in a moment. In other words, if this matter is done quickly, he will be implicated. The recent major event is the West Lake Bloody Case that my father mentioned a few days ago, right? Little Prince Qi is one of the only survivors of the West Lake Bloody Case, but he left His Majesty with blood and tears. We can't know the relationship, but at least we know that there is something strange about it, and it definitely has something to do with him. Now someone is dead, and they have died from the unique secret weapon of blood and tears, so he panicked. If this matter can be known to outsiders, then he only needs to explain it to King Qi or His Majesty, and it will be resolved. So apparently not. Then I have such an assumption: he has a problem, but he can't let His Majesty and the King of Qi know, so he has to use the power of the Privy Council to deal with it privately. He himself is a privy deputy envoy, and he has a very good relationship with more than half of the guards, and King Huan is close to his age, and he is also a teacher and friend. Coupled with the fact that the imperial court does not interrogate the case, the Privy Council can be used by him. As long as this matter does not go beyond the scope allowed by the imperial court, King Huan will definitely be willing to help him. The father and Master Bao, who are also privy councillors, are afraid that they will get in the way of him. But when the two privy envoys left at the same time, it was easy for people with good intentions to think of him and the 'Blood and Tears Case', which was definitely not what he wanted to see. ”

Ouyang Xiu bowed his head and said, "Reasonable." ”

Ouyang said: "I suggest that my father observe for a few days and try it a little, if there is such a possibility, it is better to plan early." ”

Ouyang Xiu pondered for a long time, and then resolutely said: "The secretary of the Criminal Department has just returned to his hometown, and his position is temporarily free. I'll be looking for an opportunity to see if it's possible to transfer over these days. Don't wait. ”

Ouyang Fa saw that his father had made such a plan directly, and he couldn't help but be stunned, and wanted to stop it, but he couldn't find a suitable reason, so he had to give up, feeling a little inexplicably uneasy in his heart.

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The outside of the palace of the king of Qi was surrounded by the officials and the private guards of the palace, but the palace was empty, and all the subordinates were gone. Zhao Qingyan's eyes condensed slightly, casually stopped a person and asked a vague answer, and walked towards his courtyard as fast as possible.

"Father, Mother. Zhao Qingyan saluted his parents, and then he was stunned.

Seven corpses lay on the bluestone slab-paved floor, their faces distorted, but they could still be seen to be the maidservants who served him. Although she is not his close handmaid, she is also a person who has served by his side for many years. In addition to the King of Qi and his wife, there are some important guards in the mansion. Zhao Qingyan's face turned pale in an instant, and asked, "What about them?"

Princess Qi came over and took his hand and said, "I let them go back to rest, someone is protecting, they are fine, don't worry." ”

Zhao Qingyan nodded, took his mother's hand, and asked, "Where is the corpse?

Princess Qi pointed to the magnolia tree next to her and said, "Just hang on there." "She also saw battlefield killings when she was not out of the cabinet, although she has been staying at home since marrying Queen Qi, concentrating on being a good wife and mother, and has not interfered in these things, but the temperament in her bones is still there, and she has not avoided the color of timidity.

Zhao Qingyan turned the wheel and moved to the tree, pressed it on his waist a few times, fixed the mechanism that was close to his legs, patted his hands on the armrests of the wheelchair, and his body flew up with his strength, and his palms patted on the trunk of the tree one after another, bringing his body to the tree. The movements are smooth, the body is as light as a fallen leaf, and it is not dragged down by the disability of the legs. Zhao Qingyan twisted his waist, "flung his legs" onto the branch, and then grabbed the higher branch with his hand and pulled himself up. The tree of more than 20 meters soon reached the top, Zhao Qingyan reached out and touched the strangulation marks on the branches, and looked around to see if there were blood stains on the leaves, after a careful inspection, he let go, his body fell down, and when he was about to reach the ground, he slapped his palm on the trunk of the tree, stopped the speed of the fall, landed steadily, turned back to the wheelchair, and asked the guard: "Has the body been examined? When will it arrive? Tell me the situation when you found it." ”

"This ......," the guard looked at King Qi in embarrassment.

King Qi said: "I haven't moved since I put people down from the tree, and it has been more than an hour and a half since I found it." I haven't informed Ouchi about this yet, and I haven't let the yamen call you to do it, so I'm going to hear what you mean first. ”

Zhao Qingyan stretched out his hand and said, "Give me the knife." He took a short knife from the guard's hand, took off his robe and put it in his wheelchair, rolled up his sleeves, got up and walked to the corpse, and then squatted down stiffly, and slashed the corpse's chest with a single sword. The inside of his chest was empty, and only a puddle of blood flowed out. Zhao Qingyan just paused, and with a twist of the short knife in his hand, he cut the throat of the corpse, and there was a large ball of cotton in his throat, as well as in his nostrils and ears. You don't have to look anywhere else to know that the holes in the corpse's body are plugged, so the blood that has turned into internal organs is still in the body.

King Qi frowned and asked, "Mo'er, how is it?"

Zhao Qingyan threw away the short knife and got up, took out a handkerchief and carefully wiped his fingers that were not stained with anything, and said, "It's here." ”

King Qi didn't understand for a while, and asked, "What?"

Princess Qi stared at the disemboweled corpse on the ground, and said, "Crying blood for tears, puppet palace, what do they mean by this?" looked at her contemplative son and asked, "Is this aimed at you?"

Zhao Qingyan's eyes were heavy and a little flustered, and he said, "To be precise, it's a warning to me, it's too fast." ”

King Qi asked in a deep voice, "What do you mean by this?" ”

Zhao Qingyan shook his head, slowly sat back in his wheelchair, holding his head in his hands, his shoulders shaking violently, and his eyes were full of great fear and despair.

"No, no, it's not like that, it shouldn't be so fast. Zhao Qingyan was suddenly swallowed up by fear, and unexpected things made him lose his normality and be at a loss.

Princess Qi leaned over and hugged him, and said softly: "Mo'er, just say what you know, my father and mother are here." ”

Zhao Qingyan suppressed the fear in his heart and said in a low voice: "I'm tired, I want to go back and rest." ”

Princess Qi turned her head and glanced at King Qi, and King Qi sighed: "Then you go and rest first, when you want to talk to me, go over to find me." ”

Zhao Qing agreed, turned the wheel and quickly returned to the room, covering the door.

Princess Qi hesitated, and walked to Zhao Qingyan's room distressedly, King Qi stretched out his hand to hold her, and said, "Let him stay by himself, he doesn't want others to see his weakness and pain." ”

Princess Qi grabbed King Qi's sleeve, lowered her voice, and said, "I'm just such a son." ”

King Qi raised his hand to caress his wife's hair, felt the trembling of her fingers, and said with a wry smile: "I only have such a son as him, and I'm afraid of it." I'm going to have his yard protected, and there are more guards in the house. It's late today, I'll go into the palace tomorrow and tell me about it, and I won't let Mo'er get hurt. ”

Princess Qi clenched her teeth and said, "I hope there will be no problem, and we must not let Mo'er have an accident." ”

King Qi said: "No, no." ”

Princess Qi looked at the corpse on the ground, and her voice was so low that she could barely hear it: "You have tortured him for so many years, and you still won't let him go?"

King Qi persuaded in a low voice: "Don't worry, leave it to me, I will handle it, don't do stupid things." ”

Princess Qi nodded slightly, smiled reluctantly, and said, "Well, I understand." ”