Let Me Pursue You

Early the next morning, the news that the King of Diannan was assassinated in the north of Jiannan Road shook the capital. Hearing that the assassins were coming fiercely, there were hundreds of them. The King of Diannan was assassinated in order to protect the princess when he was facing the enemy. He was heavily injured and his life was in danger.

This was a plan agreed upon by Yuan Cixian, Zheng Zhuo and Xu Shan in advance. When she got the news, she was naturally calm, but she also knew in her heart that if the play was to be realistic, Dad would inevitably suffer from flesh and blood. It's all an illusion.

She immediately pretended to be in a panic and rushed into the palace, begging the sage for help, and performed a performance in the Zichen Palace with tears in her eyes, so that Emperor Huining, who was still in a panic, had to quickly issue an order to make the whole sword South Road was under martial law and patrols were strengthened. At the same time, officers and soldiers from surrounding states and counties were sent to **** Yuan Yizhi and his wife to the south.

At this point, King Ping's strategy was self-defeating, and Zheng Zhuo barely managed to win a round after injuring Lu Shiqing and Cai He one after another.

When Yuan Cixian performed passionately in the Zichen Palace, Lu Shiqing accompanied the saint by the side. Emperor Huining comforted her a few words, but seeing that it was of no use, he simply handed her over to him and told the young couple to go to their own place.

King Ping had already set off for Huainan early in the morning, and Lu Shiqing's crisis could be considered to be temporarily resolved. He originally thought that maybe he could confess his identity to Yuan Cixian as soon as possible, but unexpectedly she still entered the play after she came out of the palace, looking very worried about Yuan Yizhi The appearance, even he can't tell the truth.

With his heart blocked, he didn't speak up, pretended not to know, and analyzed the possible identities of these assassins with her in detail. Yuan Cixian also nodded like a pounding garlic, expressing agreement with his point of view from time to time.

The two fought their acting skills all the way back to Shengyefang, Yuan Cixian said goodbye to him at the gate of Yuanfu, and then hurried back to the study in the courtyard. Picking branches is waiting for her there.

There is basically nothing to worry about on Dad's side, but there is something in her heart that has been on her mind since yesterday, and she urgently needs an answer.

Near Hanliang Hall yesterday, King Ping mentioned Cai Siqing to her. She had no relationship with Cai He, so she was subconsciously taken aback at the time, but she quickly sensed King Ping's intention to spy on him. Dealing with this kind of old and cunning politician, even if he shakes his beard, there may be deep meaning, not to mention the personal affairs that come from his mouth.

This morning when Prince Ping left the capital, Chang'an's eyeliner was withdrawn a lot. Seeing that the situation was safe, she sent Caizhi out to inquire about it. Now I think there is a result.

Seeing her return, Caizhi stepped forward and said, "Little lady, there are a lot of information about Cai Siqing, but there are a few that you should be interested in." She picked the point and said, "This person is thirty-one years old. He was born in the common people, his parents died early, he used to work in the local area, and he only entered Beijing as an official four years ago."

Yuan Cixian really froze after hearing this.

This introductory statement is a bit familiar, except for the fact that he is an official, the rest can be roughly consistent with Xu Shan.

She went on to ask, "Anything else you've found?"

Picking branches and nodding: "The servant girl squatted near Cai's mansion all morning, during which time I saw Cai Siqing go out once, so I noticed that his right palm was wrapped with a bandage, and it seemed that he had suffered a lot of injuries."

Yuan Cixian blinked slowly three times, a scene flashed through his mind in a flash.

On the top of the cliff on the Huachao Festival, when Xu Shan was plotted against, he had a chance to block the blade with his hand, but after he stretched out his right hand, he stopped abruptly halfway, so he suffered the knife for life.

She did find it strange at the time, but seeing that he was seriously injured and unconscious later on, she naturally couldn't bother him with such meaningless questions, and only thought he was a momentary miss. Hearing what Caizhi said now, he became suspicious again.

She suddenly had an incredible idea: Xu Shan might be more than Xu Shan.

It's not that he can't stop this knife, but that he can't. Because besides the commoner counselor, he has another identity. Once he was punctured in the palm of his hand, leaving a wound in such an obvious place, his identity was exposed. And this is also the reason why the assassin sent by King Ping desperately stabbed this knife even though he knew he was powerless to kill—he wanted to drag him out of the dark.

But Xu Shan is definitely not this Cai He. She saw with her own eyes that the dagger was stuck in his chest instead of his palm, so his right hand was injured, and Cai Siqing, who matched Xu Shan's age, background, and timing of entering Beijing, could only be his substitute, a fake bait thrown by Zheng Zhuo to King Ping.

So, thinking about it the other way around, since King Ping can believe that Cai He is Xu Shan, it means that he has placed the object of suspicion in the court in the first place. In other words, Xu Shanji may be an official in the DPRK.

Thinking of this, Yuan Cixian couldn't help but widen his eyes, as if he was a little dizzy from shock, he stretched out his hand to support the edge of the desk.

Her head turned quickly, and she kept thinking about the encounters with Xu Shan in the past six months, and finally stopped her thoughts on the night when he came to the Yuan Mansion for a banquet and she pretended to be drunk and lifted his mask.

A large part of the reason why she dispelled her suspicion and guard against him was because she saw the mottled face behind his mask that night. But now looking back and re-examining, she found that there was actually a loophole in this matter—that is, she gave him time to hide his true colors.

She underestimated Xu Shan's grasp and calculation of people's hearts. In fact, maybe, when she invited him to play chess and asked him to give him a chess game earlier, he had already guessed her thoughts, and when he went to the banquet later, he naturally expected that she would make a move, so he made such a terrifying face in advance Be prepared.

The wounds on his face are fake. He lied to her.

Seeing her frowning, her eyes flickering, Caizhi asked hesitantly, "Little lady?"

She came back to her senses and responded, then suddenly asked, "Did any officials take sick leave or personal leave at the court meeting yesterday?"

"My maidservant doesn't know, can I go and investigate for you?"

Yuan Cixian nodded with a serious expression, and said: "If not, please draw up a list of officials above the fifth rank in the court and give it to me."

Yesterday's court meeting was not a big court, according to regulations, only officials of rank five and above could participate, as she expected, Xu Shan was among these people.

After a round of picking and checking, it was found that an old official from the Ministry of Officials did not go to the court yesterday due to illness, but Yuan Cixian immediately ruled out the possibility after seeing his age, and then screened the list.

Officials above the fifth rank are considered not small officials, except for the youngest Lu Shiqing, most of them are above 30. As for the occasional few who are 27 or 8, they are not much different in stature. Therefore, she only deleted some who were too old, and then picked out military officers and a few who were born and raised in Chang'an, and finally listed about twenty key suspects.

However, there was no progress after that.

None of these high-ranking officials are easy to fool. In her capacity, it is impossible to visit her home, and she cannot go to the Xuanzheng Hall to watch the court, and she cannot get close to them at all. He asked Caizhi to risk squatting in the mansions of several officials, but no one was injured or ill. I asked Lu Shiqing side-by-side, but saw that he looked uncomfortable, as if she felt that it was not enough for her to climb this "high branch" of him, and she had to go to another branch.

She had no choice but to wait until the first day of March, when brother went to court, and asked him to help and pay attention. But at this time, half a month had passed since Xu Shan's assassination, and it was really difficult to take the opportunity to discover something. Yuan Yu picked out a few people on the list who wanted to get close to them, calling them brothers and beating their chests one by one, but naturally he didn't notice any difference in expression.

By March 15th, the wound had initially healed, and the chances were even slimmer. Yuan Yu returned without success again, but brought back another piece of news that had nothing to do with Xu Shan, which diverted Yuan Cixian's attention: According to rumors, Prince Xiju of Nanzhao was going to visit in April. Beijing.

After the war in the first month, Nanzhao retreated abroad in peace and did not harass Da Zhou again. For some reason, the Prince of Nanzhao changed his strategy of being hostile to the Great Zhou in recent years, and turned to show his favor to the court. He seemed to have the intention of bowing his head to the Emperor of Zhou. Recently, he even proposed to resume the mutual trade between the two countries that had been cut off for many years.

Emperor Huining was a vain and good-looking person, and he always valued the so-called "posture of a great power". If Nanzhao is sincerely willing to surrender, on the one hand, all the foreign races in the south may follow suit one after another, and Dazhou, which has been weak for many years, will have an unprecedented opportunity to revitalize; Weaken the power in southern Yunnan and eliminate the confidant's troubles for many years.

So when Xiju showed his favor to the court in this way, even though there were many opposing voices in the court, thinking that something abnormal must be caused by a demon, Emperor Huining still accepted his attitude and claimed that he was willing to talk to him face to face.

In the first ten days of April, Xiju went north in the name of an envoy from Nanzhao, and arrived in Gyeonggi at the end of April, where he was welcomed into Chang'an by Emperor Huining as a great country. On that day, the Daming Palace held a reception banquet, and all the officials attended. From noon to night, there was extravagant singing and dancing with wine, meat, silk and bamboo orchestras, qin, se and flute, which never stopped for a moment.

At the banquet, Xiju presented the treasures he had brought with him during the trip, mostly jade and pearls, as well as gold artifacts from the Pyu Kingdom, which borders Nanzhao to the southwest. After Emperor Huining accepted it, he naturally waved his hand and gave him a more expensive gift in return to show the great country's kindness to his subjects.

When the banquet was finally over, many officials who opposed the friendship with Nanzhao shook their heads one by one, and stepped out of the palace door helplessly.

Lu Shiqing was not a person who showed joy and anger, but at the table, Xiju, who was seated second only to Emperor Huining, exchanged friendly official accents a few times. Before leaving, he smiled and praised the little finger he wore He thought it belonged to Yuan Cixian's jade ring.

Xiju also hadn't seen him for more than three months, as if it had been more than two hundred autumns, and greeted him kindly in not-so-fluent Chinese when he was going to get married, claiming that he hoped to have a glass of wine during this trip.

After the banquet was over, Lu Shiqing left the palace calmly, scoffing at his face as big as a basin in his heart. When he returned to the mansion, he was ready to rest after taking a bath, but he heard Cao An hastily reported the news, saying that the spy had found that Xiju had left the Daming Palace. Drunk and lost his way, he is now one mile away from Shengyefang.

Lu Shiqing immediately lost his composure.

Can get lost while drunk, can get lost just right, perfectly dodge the Jinwu guards who are watching the night, and get lost in Shengyefang where the Yuan family is located? Why doesn't he come to his Yongxingfang as a guest?

Lu Shiqing rolled back and forth on the bed twice, stood up resolutely, and said, "Tell the saint that Prince Xiju's whereabouts are suspicious, and I'm going to keep an eye on him for the old man myself."