The Stepmother is Unkind

Xie Qin was extremely rigorous in his approach to life, and he did not take any pains. Influenced by Yin Mingyu, he no longer only squeezed the trusted Chu He and his guards, but worked with Chu He to smooth the whole plan and communicated with Qi Jiedushi without error. The plan was then divided into pieces, and except for the most important parts, the rest were distributed to various places one by one.

Only Xie Qin, Yin Mingyu, and Chu He were the only ones who had a complete knowledge of Xie Qin's entire plan. The envoy Qi Jiedu only knew the outline, not the details.

The officials didn't know the inside story, and it was impossible for everyone to get together and piece together what Xie Qin was going to do, so Xie Qin only needed to control the whole situation.

The distance between the Qianzhong Army and Nanyue was not noticeable, so it was not until three days before the wedding that the Qianzhong Army disguised itself as a commoner who was recruited from outside to work, and was in charge of the road construction by the prefectural government. The officials arranged for the road not far from the Butterfly Valley.

Xie Qin planned to let the Qianzhong army enter the Butterfly Valley in the middle of the night on the third day of March, and completely capture the entire Butterfly Valley before the end of Xu.

And there were still three days before the wedding, and the officials only thought that the five thousand new strong men were really people who came to work.

The Qianzhong Army had to hide their identities, and a group of serious soldiers really built a road for Nanyue.

However, on the first day, what surprised all the Qianzhong Army was that the accountant even paid them a salary for road construction.

In addition, there is a little surprise.

The Qianzhong Army who came this time are all elite soldiers, with good physique and strong physique. It is hot during the day, and they are shirtless when they work. There are also young ladies from the nearby villages shyly sneaking in to see.

The girls in Nanyue are good-looking, and the soldiers noticed that each of them showed a more powerful side, whether intentionally or unintentionally, which made the boys in the village sour, and they also came to sign up to repair the road, not wanting to be compared.

Officials can't wait to build the road sooner. The more people sign up, the better. As long as the physique is not too bad, basically no one will be rejected.

For the state government, it can be regarded as a crooked fight.

On the first day of March, Clan Chief Fan of the Butterfly Valley Rui Clan and some other high-ranking clansmen went to the state city to prepare for the wedding of Clan Chief Hu.

The barbarians entered the city earlier.

Patriarch Hu has been thinking about Nanke for many days. His favorite concubine was pregnant again, and he entered the prefecture city early on the pretext of preparing for the wedding. However, he only participated in the trial wedding dress. Time is fun everywhere.

The third master, Hu Jin, was like a housekeeper, planning the wedding on the barbarian side throughout the whole process. If it wasn't for Patriarch Hu's idea of ​​meeting Nanke, he would have to deliver the dowry alone.

On the second day of the third lunar month, the day before the wedding, according to the wedding customs of the Han people in Daye, the dowry is to be displayed.

Of course, the wealth of the Nanmeng clan that was obtained by sacrificing the daughters of the clan, some powerful people in the prefecture did not look down on them at all, and did not make friends with them. Yin Mingyu came to see the dowry.

The house is just ordinary, with bright lights and colorful letters, red happy characters sticking on every door and window, and a pair of happy couplets at the entrance of the courtyard, which teaches people to know that they are going to get married at a glance.

This was all prepared by Nan Ke himself and his clan.

On the bright side, Nan Ke's father Nan Ke is still the Nan Meng patriarch, but in fact, Nan Ke has become the real head of Nan Meng, and his daughter's family is preparing for the wedding, Nan Ke is probably the first one in Da Ye.

Yin Mingyu fulfilled his promise and brought Xie Ce, who was making a fuss about going out to play together, to add makeup to Nanke.

Xie Ce also wanted to add makeup to the "righteous niece", and specially picked a surviving flower from the sheep's mouth from the courtyard of the prefecture's house, and handed it to her when he saw Nan Ke.

"Nanke, this is given to you by me and the sheep."

Nan Ke is so old and will get married tomorrow. He has never received flowers from his sweetheart or "fiancé", but actually received flowers from a four-year-old "uncle righteousness" and a sheep. Can't laugh or cry.

And Xie Ce also raised his hand and patted her arm, "Don't be too moved."

Nan Ke couldn't help laughing and thanked him earnestly.

Xie Ce is very proud.

Compared with Xie Ce's makeup gift, Yin Mingyu's makeup gift was mediocre. It was a set of face masks provided by Xie Qin and given to Nan Ke in the names of her and Xie Qin.

Jin'er opened the jewelry box to show Nan Ke, Nan Ke hurriedly said, "Madam, this is too precious..."

As long as it didn't come out of Yin Mingyu's private house, Yin Mingyu's distressed degree was not too deep. He waved his hand directly, and said boldly, "It's just a deputy, I'll accept it for you."

Jin'er walked to Nan Ke to show her face, and Yin Mingyu turned to look at the things in the yard.

Nan Ke's dowry box and Patriarch Hu's betrothal gift were placed in the courtyard. Nan Ke took the jewelry box and taught people to open all the boxes.

Some Nanmeng people in the yard looked at the belongings and straightened their eyes.

The dowry box is quite ordinary, after all, Nanmeng's background is ordinary.

In comparison, Patriarch Hu is really rich. When the dowry box is opened, the golden and white flowers are all gold and silver objects.

It is definitely not as precious and precious as the dowry gift that Xie Family Heping City Princess Palace sent to Yin Family, but this cheesy and real thing is completely in line with Yin Mingyu's aesthetics, and it is just right for Nanke.

"This is your future reliance, and no one can take it away."

Yin Mingyu put his hand on her shoulder, approached her, and whispered, "Don't be afraid tomorrow, everything will be business as usual, just bring some trusted clansmen to the house of Patriarch Hu."

Nan Ke nodded and clenched the jewelry box, his eyes were not timid, firm and fearless...

Yin Mingyu retreated, patted her shoulder again, and said, "I won't stay any more, see you tomorrow."

Nan Ke personally escorted them out.

Before Xie Ce followed Yin Mingyu into the carriage, he said to Nan Ke seriously: "Tomorrow, mother won't let me come, you have to be okay~"

Nan Ke was stunned, then smiled, gave him a slight blessing, and said, "Xiao Langjun is also safe and happy."

Yin Mingyu stood beside the carriage, and after the two of them finished speaking, he greeted, "Little Langjun, let's go."

Xie Ce then waved to Nan Ke, and Dian Dian'er followed Yin Mingyu into the carriage and returned to the prefecture.

That night, everything seemed to be business as usual in the state city.

In Patriarch Hu's mansion, everyone was dressed up in festive fashion. He was also full of red and beaming, holding a beautiful singer, drinking and having fun with a group of people.

Next door is the house of the patriarch Fan. The father and son can clearly hear the extravagant voice on their end, and they are all contemptuous.

"Thanks to him still being the head of the clan, he only knows the beauty of wine and meat all day long, and all the affairs of the clan are left to that Hu San, and sooner or later, he will be overridden."

Patriarch Fan glanced sarcastically at the direction of Patriarch Hu's mansion, "The more absurd he is, the better. If he really fights, we will take the opportunity to swallow the entire Butterfly Valley. In the future, Lingnan will be the world of the rogue tribe, and there will be no barbarians who will share with us equally."

The patriarch Fan Shao showed a determined smile, and when he listened to the voice next door, he didn't feel that it was noisy. Instead, it was like a song of wishes for the future prosperity of the Fuzu clan.

The father and son both looked forward to the future of the Fu clan, and they were both in a good mood. After the patriarch Fan Shao returned, he also summoned a concubine.

The state house, the main house—

Yin Mingyu and Xie Qin lay side by side on the couch. They had already communicated about tomorrow's affairs, so they did not continue to discuss them before going to bed.

It's just that Xie Qin was a little worried about Yin Mingyu's safety, and instructed: "Don't let the guards get too far away."

Nothing, even well-planned, can be guaranteed to be foolproof.

The reason is to avoid the need for the guards to be distracted to protect Xie Ce. They didn't let Xie Ce go to the wedding if there was something they couldn't take care of. They also planned to send him to the Jiedu Envoy's Mansion until things calmed down before picking him up.

Yin Mingyu closed his eyes, gave a vague "um", and said with some sleepiness: "We can't arrange all of them at the dinner party, otherwise it won't be strange to anyone watching..."

Because he wanted to return to Beijing to report his work as soon as possible after the work, Xie Qin planned to see everything in the Butterfly Valley with his own eyes, so that the current affairs could be detailed, so he could only entrust Yin Mingyu to deal with the state city.

He believes in Yin Mingyu, but believing and worrying are two different things. "If there is any accident, we will put our own safety first, and everything else will be secondary."

Yin Mingyu didn't answer.

Xie Qin turned his head and saw that she had fallen asleep, and was speechless.

After a while, he stretched out **** and gently pinched Yin Mingyu's nose.

Yin Mingyu had to slightly open his lips to breathe in his sleep.

Xie Qin covered her mouth and covered her mouth.

"Ugh..." Yin Mingyu was out of breath and woke up. If he didn't recover quickly, he would have to bite Xie Qin in return.

Seeing that she was awake, Xie Qin let go of the hand holding her nose, kissed her lightly a few times, and stood up and said, "You can always fall asleep, and I was able to speak just now, can you hear me?"

Yin Mingyu pushed him away, turned his back to him and said, "The peach wood sword is proof, I am more afraid of death than anyone else. Besides, there is also Mrs. Qi."

She turned halfway through, suddenly covered her head, and shouted softly, "Press my hair!"

Xie Qin got up immediately, waited until Yin Mingyu quickly picked up the long hair scattered on the bed, and then lay down again, and gently rubbed the back of her head behind her.

He rubbed it comfortably, and Yin Mingyu's sleepiness that had just dissipated came back. He yawned slightly, and said in a daze: "Do your best, listen to the destiny, thinking too much is useless."

Xie Qin closed his eyes as he listened to her gradually calm breathing.

In the middle of the night, a group of Qianzhong soldiers quietly got up and left their temporary residence. They were divided into two parts by the guards of the Xie family. One part quietly bypassed the Butterfly Valley and found another hidden entrance of the mine, temporarily hiding nearby. Part of it is diving into the forest not far from the mouth of Butterfly Valley.

On the second day, the working people crowing, and the road construction time also began in the early morning.

The clerk in charge of supervising the road construction came to the section under construction, expecting to see people who had already started to build the road, but there were only a few young men from nearby villages.

"Where have everyone gone? Why haven't they come yet?" The clerk said angrily, "Are you dead from sleep? Go and call someone."

The young men in the village looked at each other in dismay, and one person said, "I passed by just now, and I didn't see anyone, they were all empty."

"Empty, empty?!" The little official couldn't react, and he felt chills from teaching this weird thing, so he called out to a few young men and planned to go see it together.

At this time, a Xie family guard came over and stopped the group.

He directly took out the Xie family's pocket card and instructed: "It has nothing to do with you, you continue to build the road."

The clerk nodded and bowed to the guard, sensing that there might be something going on inside, and hurriedly called a few young men to work, and told them to "work more and talk less".

A little later, a girl from the village passed by by going to the fields to do farm work. She only saw a few people, which was a little strange, and looked around a few times.

The little official was a little clever, and shouted to the girls, "Don't look at it, I'll be transferred to another section of the road to work for the time being!"

The girls were ashamed, you pushed me to run away in a hurry.

At the same time, at another road section under construction, Yan Jun looked at the direction of the state city, and was a little lost in trance.

But he is still being punished for his crimes, and he is different from Nanke. If he can no longer hope, he will bury his head and continue to work, as if he never had that dream.

In the prefecture, Xie Qin waited until the officials were on duty and showed up in front of the officials, then pretended to go back to the second hall to handle official business, and then returned to the back house and changed into extremely inconspicuous clothes.

Yin Mingyu has just changed into a fancy dress, dressed properly, and is ready to go out to attend Nanke's wedding.

The husband and wife looked at each other, only said "take care" to each other, and then passed over each other and separated.

Yin Mingyu first sent Xie Ce to the Jiedu envoy.

She was worried that it would be too late at night, Xie Ce would be afraid at Jiedu's residence, and Yin Mingyu even brought the sheep there.

The envoy Qi Jiedu and Madam Qi were all in the mansion, and they were very cautious about their actions at night, but the couple saw that they came with a sheep that barked "baabaa", and their thoughts were broken for a moment.

Xie Ce was innocent and led the sheep to the two of them, and introduced enthusiastically: "Grandfather Qi, Grandma Qi, this is my family's sheep! It was raised since childhood."

Qi Jiedushi lowered his head and glanced at the sheep, twitched the corners of his mouth, and praised perfunctorily: "Not bad."

Xie Ce turned to Madam Qi again.

Under his expectant eyes, Mrs. Qi also nodded, and then urged Yin Mingyu: "I have to go to the ceremony, let's go quickly, it's not too late."

Yin Mingyu left Jin'er, Nanny Tong and some guards behind, and went out with Mrs. Qi.

Behind Mrs. Qi, several maidservants with straight waists, strutting heads, and extremely unusual spirits followed them out.

On the other hand, Xie Qin rushed to the Butterfly Valley from the back door of the back house in a low-key manner. Chu He presided over the state government office for Xie Qin in the state government office and handled some temporary affairs.

Yin Mingyu and Mrs. Qi first arrived at the house where Nan Ke was married, and they were amazed when they saw Nan Ke's extremely gorgeous appearance after dressing up as a bride.

In particular, Yin Mingyu loves beautiful women very much. Seeing how beautiful Nan Ke is, he thinks that he will be separated for a long time, so he stares straight at her.

Mrs. Qi said helplessly: "You are a woman, at least restrain yourself."

Yin Mingyu plausibly said, "It's a woman, so you can look at it like this. If it's a man, isn't it frivolous?"

She also likes to look at handsome Langjun to feast her eyes on. Maybe Xie Qin is the only one who is upright and has no trouble watching, but she doesn't want to see more beautiful ladies.

Mrs. Qi shook her head and ignored her.

In the afternoon, when the auspicious time arrived, the sound of firecrackers was deafening, and many people watching outside the house closed their ears, but their eyes were not separated from the excitement.

Patriarch Hu brought a group of barbarians to get married. They were extremely generous and sprinkled a lot of happy money directly at the door. The people immediately ignored the sound of firecrackers and rushed to rush to launder the money.

Patriarch Hu laughed happily, then walked into the house and shouted, "Madam, my husband is here, come out quickly."

Yin Mingyu and Mrs. Qi didn't like to see his anxious appearance, they only turned to look at the main room.

Nan Ke was not willing to have too close contact with Patriarch Hu, so he walked out directly, and Madam Xi handed the red silk to Patriarch Hu, then raised his legs and walked towards the carriage outside the door.

Patriarch Hu smiled, "Madam, don't be in a hurry." Quickly followed.

As soon as they were discharged from the hospital, they hardly stopped. The car and the welcoming team walked around the most prosperous street in the entire prefecture before heading to Patriarch Hu's house.

Yin Mingyu and Mrs. Qi did not go with the welcoming team, but went to Hu's house first.

There were many more guests in the Hu residence than the Nanmeng clan. The entire Nanyue City and even Lingnan had some famous people who were qualified to come to celebrate. All of them came, and the huge house was full of people.

But the two of them had high identities, and they wanted to be seated. From the moment they sat down, countless people came to greet them.

Yin Mingyu planned to keep people, so she naturally socialized with everyone with a smile, and because of her popularity in the state city and the Cuju competition, she even socialized with the male guests very naturally.

She did it too naturally, and everyone didn't feel anything wrong, and many people were very flattering to her. Yin Mingyu stole all the limelight before the welcoming team came back.

When the welcoming team arrived, Patriarch Hu's parents had passed away, Nan Ke's father did not dare to be worshipped by Patriarch Hu, and sat on the head with a cramped expression.

Suddenly, someone in the crowd shouted, "Since Mrs. Prefect has accepted the bride as her righteous granddaughter, she might as well be honored by the elders of the newcomer."

When he said this, many guests next to him agreed, and Patriarch Hu didn't seem to object.

Yin Mingyu really dared to sit, but there was no need to make his identity real, and he went to be worshipped by the barbarian patriarch, and directly refused: "There is the Nan patriarch, it is inconvenient for me to take the seat, salute, don't delay the auspicious time."

Her expression was no longer as friendly as before, with some majesty of the prefect's wife, and everyone immediately dared not encourage her.

The wedding continued, and after the ceremony, Nan Ke was sent to the bridal chamber.

Patriarch Hu was in a hurry to go to the bridal chamber, but Yin Mingyu didn't want to teach him to spoil Nanke, and wanted to delay the time until Xu Shi, so he stopped Patriarch Hu and said enthusiastically: "On such a happy day, it is rare to meet with you, so you must not get drunk. If I don't return, I also prepared a surprise for Patriarch Hu and everyone."

Patriarch Hu's expression was still on Nan Ke's body, and he said impatiently, "What's the surprise of Mrs. Prefect?"

Yin Mingyu clapped his hands, and after a while, a string of beautiful dancers entered, led by Nan Duo.

Nan Duo's beauty immediately attracted the attention of all the guests, and Patriarch Hu was no exception. Especially Nan Duo was sent out without touching it. He was more coveted, so he stopped rushing to leave and sat down with the crowd. Guests feast and enjoy dancing together.

Yin Mingyu did not leave the female guests behind. After the dance ended, the dancers withdrew, and a group of handsome men appeared again to perform a fancy Cuju.

After this toss, the sky gradually darkened, and it was about to enter Xu Shi.

Patriarch Hu didn't like watching Lang Jun's performance, and he wanted to leave it here and leave it to Hu San to entertain him, and also wrote that the guests planned to leave.

As soon as Yin'er waved his hand, the Langjuns retreated, and the dancers came up again. This time, they did not stop and kept dancing on the stage.

At this time, the patriarch Fan suddenly asked: "Mrs. Prefect, why didn't Sir Prefect come to the banquet? Didn't you say before that marriage between the two clans is a grand event?"

Qi Jiedu didn't usually attend the banquet, even though Mrs. Qi appeared frequently recently, he still didn't show up, so it was not surprising that everyone didn't come to him.

As soon as Patriarch Fan said this, others followed suit.

Yin Mingyu didn't panic, and smiled slightly: "I'm coming, maybe there's something to delay, everyone, wait patiently, enjoy the dance music for a while, I'll teach someone to go back and ask."

As she said, she deliberately turned her head to look at Mrs. Qi and apologized: "Aren't you in a hurry to go back? I don't know what happened to Langjun, so I'll teach you to wait."

Mrs. Qi kept her eyes on the beautiful dancers, and said unhurriedly, "There are dances to enjoy, what am I so anxious for."

Mrs. Jiedushi was waiting, so everyone could not have any more ideas, and continued to push the cups for a change.

No matter how absurd the Hu patriarch was, he knew that he could not see the governor, so he had to wait patiently.

However, for some unknown reason, Patriarch Fan always felt that something was wrong, and he couldn't concentrate on the banquet at all.

Yin Mingyu sent guards to pretend to go back to the prefecture to urge Xie Qin, but Xie Qin had already rushed to the vicinity of Butterfly Valley at this time to join the Qianzhong Army.

The time they set was to enter through the mouth of the valley in Xu Shizhong, but on the other side of the mine, when it was dark, they quietly touched the entrance of the cave.

These days, the Xie family guards have been here several times, and even sneaked in. Although they did not directly reach the mine, they were very familiar with the route in the mine.

Their group sneaked in from the entrance of this cave, and just as they walked near the stone bridge, they met a few people from Butterfly Valley.

"Are you..." Who? !

Before they could finish speaking, the guard leading the way rushed forward decisively, knocked them unconscious, gagged their mouths and tied them up.

In the mine, it was meandering and empty, making some loud noises, knocking back and forth on the wall of the cave and then sending it out, I don't know what kind of weird echo it would turn into.

Everyone hid for a while, and when no one came to investigate, they continued to explore.

When they were about to approach the mine according to the route they had mastered, the guard took out a whistle and blew it in a short and long way.

In the mine, the guards and some unidentified miners were a little panicked when they heard the slightly changed voice.

How many lives have been swallowed up in this mine, if the guards were not afraid, they would not have taught the miners to carry the bodies to bury.

After pushing and shoving for a long time, finally a few guards decided to go with them to have a look, and their movements were extremely cautious.

When the interested people among the miners heard the voice, their eyes lit up, they gestured to each other, moved their bodies slowly, and got close to the miners whom they had drawn long ago, quietly hinting that they were ready to act.

Those guards went out for a long time and didn't come back. The guards in the mine couldn't help but feel restless. When they found that the miners seemed dishonest, they immediately raised their whips like a threat and shouted, "Want to be beaten?"

The miners shrank their shoulders subconsciously, afraid to fully reveal themselves.

When the guards saw this, they laughed and suddenly heard a strange voice. They pulled out two miners and asked them to stand in front of the guards before going out to investigate.

Those people went out and didn't come back for a long time.

But the strange sound continued, but it was a little different from before. After a moment of distinguishing between the guards in the mine, they confirmed that they were planning to attack, so that they should cooperate with each other.

The guards glanced at each other, then leaped at the nearest guard.

This is a signal.