Chen Mianzheng's eyelids trembled slightly, and he glanced at Shang Shixu with squinted eyes: "What do you mean?"
Shang Shixu calmly replied: "I have repeatedly written to raise taxes. Now that people are angry and resentful, it is difficult not to be suspected of harboring evil intentions. It has always been King Zhao who has benefited, and I have been the one who has broken faith in the world. Finally, Your Majesty descended.
The blame will only fall on me, the scapegoat as the Minister of Household Affairs."
Chen Mianzheng's tone softened slightly: "You are my adopted son. If anything happens to you, I will not be able to escape my involvement."
"It's just... an adopted son!" Shang Shixu raised his eyes and looked at Chen Mianzheng coldly. His face was pale, scarlet blood kept flowing down, and his dark pupils quickly ignited cold flames: "But I am really Lin Shangshu's son-in-law.
!"
Chen Mian faced his cold look and said sternly: "That's what you think?"
However, Shang Shixu suddenly put away his negative attitude, curled up the corners of his mouth and said with a smile: "How could it be?"
Chen Mian frowned and looked at him.
Shang Shixu's face returned to indifference again: "Although I am Lin Shangshu's son-in-law, I have no affection for his daughter. He prides himself on being a clean figure in the court, and he has never had political ties with me. The reason why I consider you as my foster father
, I really want to cling to the big tree of Your Majesty, and even tell the truth about my identity and hand over my weaknesses to Your Majesty. I just hope to get Your Majesty's blessing, and I will naturally be loyal to Your Majesty. How dare I deceive you. What happened in Nanling is also
Okay, regardless of the matter in the north, if the matter is really exposed, Zhongshu ordered you not to say anything, Shang will take full responsibility for it, but this time the situation is urgent, and I did not have time to report it to my adoptive father."
When Chen Mianzheng heard this, he straightened his brows, raised his chin and observed Shang Shixu from top to bottom.
Shang Shixu continued: "The matter of Nanling can no longer be concealed. Now we can only hope to cover up the matter of the Northern Territory. Your Majesty will definitely send people to the Northern Territory to investigate personally. Rather than being recommended by my adoptive father, it is difficult to avoid suspicion. It is better to
Only if His Majesty personally assigns Shang to go can we stop the crowd, right?"
Chen Mianzheng felt it was reasonable when he heard this, but still didn't trust him: "You mean you have a way to suppress the incident in the north?"
Shang Shixu chuckled softly and replied: "I will prove to your lord that Shang's role is not just a scapegoat. He can only find a reason to make an unknown person in the north be convicted.
Your Majesty is all about peace on the border, so why would you care about where the extra bags of food sent by a few Nanling people went?"
Chen Mianzheng smiled: Yes, he holds the secret of Shang Shixu, how dare he betray himself?
He stood up, walked to Shang Shixu, and warned with a half-smile: "My son, show your sincerity. I won't treat you badly when the matter is settled. Don't make your own decisions anymore."
, and added another sentence: "If the male bird is useful, I will naturally keep it. If it is addicted to the female bird, in order to let the male bird concentrate more, I can get rid of the female bird if necessary!"
Shang Shixu's face immediately turned cold, and the waves in his eyes quickly returned to calm, and he just replied lightly: "Yes."
……
Lin Jingmo was lying on the soft table embroidering a purse. Before she was halfway through the embroidery, her upper and lower eyelids began to fight. In the end, she just gave in and fell asleep on the couch.
When Shang Shixu came back from Zhongshu Ling's Mansion, he saw Lin Jingmo still holding the embroidered noodles in his hand. He took Lin Jingmo's hand away and took out the unembroidered noodles. A smile appeared on his face: the embroidered noodles were really genuine.
Ugly!
He turned to look at Lin Jingmo, who was sleeping soundly, and remembered what Chen Mianzheng said just now. Although he was a so-called foster father, it was just a compliment on the surface, and they were holding each other in check internally. In order to gain his trust, he would have given up anything.
But now...
Shang Shixu stretched out his hand and gently caressed Lin Jingmo's little hand on the side: What should I do if my wife is really implicated?
Thinking of this, he let go of Lin Jingmo's hand.
……
Mother Li walked into the room holding a candlestick. She saw that Lin Jingmo was still sleeping, so she put the candlestick on the table and gently pushed Lin Jingmo: "Girl, go to bed and sleep. Isn't it too much to sleep here?"
It’s so comfortable.”
Lin Jingmo opened his eyes in a daze and saw that it was Mother Li, so she turned over again and murmured: "My husband is injured, let him sleep on the bed. Mother Li, please bring me the little one, I will sleep with you"
On the couch."
Mother Li shook her head, took the small table away from Lin Jingmo, and continued to push Lin Jingmo: "My uncle has gone back to the side courtyard to sleep. He has taken care of my old lady for the past few days. You are also tired. Today, the girl will sleep on the bed.
Mother Li slept on the couch with the girl."
Lin Jingmo suddenly sat up: "Has your husband returned to the side courtyard?"
Mother Li pointed to the desk and said, "Look, even his official documents have been taken away."
Lin Jingmo looked at the empty desk, frowned and pursed his lips, and said unhappily: "He's not fully healed yet! Why did he just...move away without a word...besides..."
She lowered her head and looked at the embroidered surface that she had not finished. Fortunately, she was still thinking that the Qiqiao Festival was coming, and she wanted to embroider a purse for him with her own hands to pray to the Weaver Girl for his marriage... Moreover, she also wanted to arrange a date for the Qiqiao Festival on the day of the Qiqiao Festival.
Let’s go to the lake to put out lanterns and pray for blessings.
Thinking of this, Lin Jingmo quickly got up from the couch and trotted all the way from the main courtyard to the side courtyard. As soon as she arrived at the entrance of the courtyard, she saw that the lights in Shang Shixu's room were still on. She happily went to the door of the room again. How could she
Before I even took two steps, the lights in the room went out.
Lin Jingmo pursed his lips, thinking that he was just recovering from his serious injury and did not want to disturb his rest, so he turned around and walked back towards the main courtyard.
What she didn't know was that Shang Shixu had been watching her all the time. When she came, he put out the candle, and when she left, he lit it again.
He looked out the window. Although Lin Jingmo's back had disappeared long ago, he still seemed to see her smiling clearly standing at the door. Seeing her smile, he gradually curled up the corners of his mouth, but recalling Chen Mianzheng's male
When he was alone in the picture of a thrush, he returned to his usual serious look, but there was an extra hint of sadness in his eyes.
He reached out and opened the account book he got from Lin Jingmo. This account book recorded that in the past two years, King Zhao Qi Xuanyi instigated the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Northern Territory to submit a letter to increase the tax on Nanling.
Thus, they embezzled food and wages. They did this not only to occupy more money and food, but also because Nanling was rich and the local gentry were not idlers. They wanted to use this to instigate the Nanling gentry to achieve their own goals.
However, because of the deception of the Ministry of Revenue, the emperor believed that Nanling was already rich and it was understandable to contribute more to the war in the north. In addition, the general in the north was his most trusted uncle, so the war in the north was exaggerated, and he was convinced that it was not true.
Suspicious. But he didn’t know that there were people in the north who had fornicated with the enemy country, and they were just using the war to divide the money.
Thinking of this, Shang Shixu opened the secret compartment of the study and locked the account book inside together with the phoenix hairpin that almost stabbed Lin Jingmo to death.