The sun rises later in winter, and it’s not yet dawn, but the long night is finally over.
Xue Bai rushed from Daozhengfang to Pingkangfang, preparing to face Li Linfu.
On the way, he also met You Xiaowei holding the right prime minister's hand order to summon him back to resume his duties. He didn't know if Li Linfu blamed him for giving orders everywhere in the name of the right prime minister's mansion, and he felt uneasy.
Because of the unforeseen consequences of the Xin Twelve Festival, he has done too much tonight, and the more he does, the more mistakes he makes.
If you can't pass this next step, it will be useless no matter how well you did before; but as long as you can win Li Linfu's trust, even if there are some omissions, it doesn't matter.
In the power arena of the Tang Dynasty, everything depends on "one person's heart".
Xue Bai was not very sure. He was not sure whether the Longyou veterans could escape from the heavy manhunt; nor could he guarantee that all the insiders had been silenced.
Although the gambling house was destroyed, the gambling continued.
~~
The Right Prime Minister's Mansion is right in front of you. The side door is open and the door is heavily guarded.
Xue Bai turned over and dismounted, and suddenly Du Jin's worried words echoed in his ears.
"Li Linfu had many enemies. He worried about assassins day and night. He moved his bed several times every night as if to guard against the enemy. Although his family did not know where he was staying. If you are a person like this who suspects that there is even the slightest possibility that you are the son of an enemy, you will die without a burial.
Land."
After hearing it before, he thought that Dong Gong might have considered assassinating Li Linfu before he knew this, but now he gradually felt a severe tightness in his chest.
Meeting Li Linfu felt dozens of times more dangerous than killing people under the arrest of the Sixteenth Guards of Nanya.
……
The atmosphere was solemn, and the concierge had no expression on his face. He did not say much to Xue Bai, and acted cautiously as he led everyone inside.
Xue Bai glanced at the concierge and thought that it was probably okay for Xin Twelve to tell him that he was an official slave, but there were too many unknowns and he couldn't be sure.
He, Wang Zhun, Li Xiu, Jia Chang and others were taken to the second courtyard and each entered a veranda room. Everyone waited alone.
Li Linfu actually called people to ask questions one by one, without giving them a chance to cover up each other or help block the words. In this way, Xue Bai's method of guiding others to talk was useless.
From this point of view, there are two hurdles today. I will meet with Li Linfu alone, and then there will be a confrontation. You have to pass both hurdles to be safe.
The purpose of meeting alone is to lay a foundation of trust and see who between him and Jiwen can win more trust from Li Linfu; the confrontation is to criticize each other and make the other party lose Li Linfu's trust.
Xue Bai knew that he was more trustworthy in terms of ability, but what was worse was his loyalty.
After waiting for nearly a quarter of an hour, someone pushed the door open and came in. It was not the cute and cute maid before, but the cold-faced maid wearing a Hu robe beside Li Linfu.
"Xue Bai, Alang calls you, let's go."
Xue Bai stood up and followed without saying a word, entering the meeting hall in the west courtyard.
There are no small windows on the wall, only the guards of the Prime Minister's Mansion standing on both sides with swords in their hands, looking murderous. There is no screen in the hall, and a bamboo curtain hangs there. The candlelight is bright outside the curtain, but the candlelight is dim inside. Li Linfu does not even show his figure.
, but you can see the expressions of others through the gaps in the curtain.
This arrangement was probably because Li Linfu was suspicious of his subordinates and was afraid of being assassinated. In short, it made people feel eerie.
"I have seen the right Prime Minister."
Xue Bai crossed his arms in salute, with all kinds of sophistry stuck in his throat, and finally faced the curtain with an indignant look on his face, and complained angrily.
"Right Chancellor, I finally found out that it was all caused by Ji Wen!"
If you want to frame Ji Wen, it would be wise to just calmly remind him and let the superiors think about it for themselves, but this would be too mean.
But he has considered that young people do not always have to be too mature. Even if he is angry tonight, it is more loyal to express his unhappiness directly.
"Continue talking." Li Linfu said calmly.
Xue Bai suddenly felt stressed.
Only when Li Linfu asked questions could he determine what the other party knew and then take advantage of them.
If you let him speak for himself, it will be easy for him to make mistakes.
"In the afternoon, I reported to the right minister that the dead man in the East Palace might be at Wang Weng's villa or Yang Shenjin's villa. I needed to defraud Wu Kangcheng, so I went to Jingzhao Mansion."
Xue Bai organized his thoughts and started with a nonsense sentence to make sure there were no mistakes.
Afterwards, he felt Li Linfu's aura and continued his speech.
"I deceived Wu Kangcheng, and I was 80% sure that the dead men of the East Palace were hiding in Wang Wen's villa. But for some reason, Jifa Cao sent people to trap me in Jingzhao Mansion. Even though Jiaonu revealed the identity of the right minister's female envoy, those officials
He refused to let me go, so bold."
He had calmed down and used the words "I don't know why" to deliberately betray some of his thoughts, waiting for Li Linfu to question him, "Don't you really know?"
But there was no sound behind the curtain.
Xue Bai felt a sense of emptiness, as if he had punched everything empty.
He hesitated, thinking for the last time whether he could hide the fact that he went to Xuanyangfang to rescue Du Wei, and at the same time he realized the first mistake he had made - using Han Chaozong to leave Jingzhao Mansion in advance.
If he had followed the original plan, he only needed to wait in Jingzhao Mansion until Li Linfu summoned him. But at this time, he could only believe in Han Chaozong's character. He only hoped that Li Bai would not be granted the title of Marquis of Ten Thousand Households in his lifetime, but he would like to get to know Han Jingzhou once.
Virtual.
After a moment of silence, Xue Bai was about to speak when someone outside the hall suddenly spoke loudly and helped him out.
"Reporting to the right prime minister, we have found out that the murderer went from Xuanyangfang to Pingkangfang, and then from Pingkangfang to Dongshijiekou, and then to Daozhengfang!"
Xue Bai thought to himself, it seems that there is no slave in Ji's villa in Xuanyangfang to identify him.
There was just a hint of luck in his heart, but his nerves froze and he admitted directly: "Right Prime Minister, I broke into Jiwen's house in Xuanyangfang."
The atmosphere in the hall suddenly froze.
"You dare to go to the official residence to kill someone?" Li Linfu finally spoke, his tone serious.
“Kill someone?”
Just snatch the eldest sister back from another house!"
Li Linfu remained silent.
Xue Bai said anxiously: "You Prime Minister Mingjian, I just heard from Du Erniang that the eldest sister was kidnapped, so I quickly led people to snatch her back. At that time, the servants in the Ji family's house were very surprised when they saw me coming. I scolded them angrily.
He and Ji Wen both worked for the right minister, so he wanted to compete for credit too much, so he took away the eldest sister. How could I dare to touch the people of the right minister's family without the right minister's instructions? I still understand this truth."
The reason why he asked the Tian brothers to kill him was because Xin Twelve and others identified him as Xue Xi's son and thought he was dead, so they acted unscrupulously. At that time, Du Wei could not be saved without using a knife.
Xue Bai must get out of this thinking framework. He is not the son of Xue Xiu who is destined to die. He has never heard of this matter. He is a loyal and loyal retainer of the right prime minister!
Then why did Jiwen take Du Wei away? I don’t know, that’s Jiwen’s problem. Maybe he wanted to gain credit, maybe he was sick. Xue Bai was not willing to be outdone and went to snatch her back.
Normal situation.
Li Linfu remained silent and signaled his maid to ask: "The nine slaves who died in Xuanyangfang Villa were killed by a young man and woman with two armored guards. Who could they be if they weren't you?"
The first half of the sentence was stiff and she obviously read it while reading the message.
"This testimony!" Xue Bai was surprised and confused. "It sounds very much like what I did. I led Du Erniang and the Tian brothers to snatch the people back. But we didn't kill nine people. Why did they say that? Why?
?"
He waited for a while before coming to a conclusion, giving Li Linfu time to make his own guesses.
"Right Minister, I really didn't kill anyone. This must have been done by the dead man in the East Palace... No, he just wanted to frame me. Could it be that Ji Wen did it on purpose? Why did he do this?"
"Presumptuous!"
Li Linfu scolded.
Xue Bai quickly performed the ceremony, but his heart relaxed a little.
If he can't fix this first big omission, then he won't fix it. What he wants to prove is not his ability, but his loyalty. Only loyalty is the key, and everything else is trivial.
Then tell the truth and win Li Linfu's trust with sincerity and openness. It doesn't take much, as long as you are more trustworthy than Jiwen, you can transfer the suspicion.
Therefore, a living Ji Wen must bear this burden. Only if he is alive can he arrange for Ji Wen's servants to give perjury, which will then lead to various conjectures.
"Keep talking."
"After snatching away the aunt, I rushed to the Youxiang Mansion. I heard that Ji Wen led people to the Yang family house in Changlefang to capture the thief. I hesitated for a moment if I was wrong, so I went over to take a look. In fact, there was a dispute.
The heart of merit..."
Xue Bai then only concealed the matter of contacting the dead men in the East Palace, and described in detail how he ran around all night and how he worked hard to save the huge trap that Ji Wen had poked.
Compared with the death of several slaves in the Ji family house, Ji Wen's most critical and serious mistake was to let the dead men in the East Palace kill people and escape. He wanted Li Linfu to always focus on business.
After he detailed what he saw and heard in the secret gambling room of Daozhengfang, he made a final summary.
"Right Minister, I thought that the East Palace sent two groups of dead men to intercept and kill Jiwen, Jixiang and his son respectively, or to take revenge on Jiwen."
He buried a lot of words and let Li Linfu think about it by himself.
For example, he said that Donggong was taking revenge on Ji Wen. If the investigation was wrong, why should he take revenge?
Then why do you still want to kill if you check wrongly?
Silence?
~~
Xue Bai's solo speech has ended.
If the original plan had not left so many flaws, maybe Li Linfu had given him a few words of encouragement, promised to marry his daughter, and then blamed Ji Wen to settle the matter. From then on, he settled down in the Tang Dynasty.
But it's quiet behind the curtain.
Just when Xue Bai began to wonder if he could not even pass the first level, Li Linfu finally spoke.
"Go down and wait."
"Here."
Xue Bai returned to the veranda and sat alone. He could neither ask for information nor talk to others.
The Sixteenth Guards of Nanya are still searching for those Longyou veterans, but we don’t know what the result will be.
Xue Bai could only deduce in his mind how Li Linfu asked everyone individually.
What Yang Zhao will say, what Wang Zhun will say, and Ji Wen will definitely insist on the matter of Xuanyangfang Villa and pass the responsibility to him.
What's even more disturbing is that if an insider is missed and Ji Wen gets a report, or Ji Wen can guess that Xin Twelve's death is related to his life experience, then the situation will suddenly become clearer. p>
No matter how likely it is, he hates the feeling of having his fate decided by others.
Xue Bai had to tell himself to calm down. As long as Li Linfu believed in his loyalty, there would be no need to be afraid of Ji Wen in the subsequent confrontation in court.
Looking back on the individual interview just now, he felt that he performed well. Jiwen, on the other hand, has been passive and has no time to sort out the whole situation. It is difficult to do better than him.
……
Time passes very slowly, which is excruciating.
Birds chirped first outside the window, and then the morning light gradually appeared on the window paper.
Finally.
The door of the room was pushed open, and someone stood in the morning light. It was still the female envoy, not the guard holding the knife. It can be seen that Ji Wen failed to bite him to death when he reported alone.
Xue Bai walked towards the lobby.
He suddenly recalled that when he was responsible for the first case in his previous life, he was so angry that he couldn't sleep because of a villain, and he was determined to send him in.
At that time, he used the law as a weapon and was upright.
Now, what he is delving into is the dirty power and human heart, struggling to survive.
But in this life-and-death situation, he just wanted to defeat that cruel official and survive.
"Boom."
The morning drums of Chang'an sounded in the distance.
Xue Bai's waist was straight, his steps were calm, and he became calmer. Confrontation in court was once the battlefield he was most familiar with.
