"I'm not going to get to the bottom of it, but if you don't go home, won't your husband be worried? Or is it difficult for you to return home?"
"I want to go home."
Before Yun Shang could finish speaking, Shui Xinyuan rushed to answer, and Yun Shang's eyes widened slightly.
When he answered just now, Shui Xinyuan raised his head suddenly and lowered his head again.
"My husband must be very worried..."
"Does he know there's someone chasing you here?"
"I had someone with me when I came here, so they should have noticed when I went missing."
Yun Shang scratched her head in embarrassment.
It's no wonder, because she inexplicably hid a woman of unknown origin.
"I……"
Shui Xinyuan made up his mind and took a breath.
Yun Shang and I were strangers. She saw herself lying on the roadside and heard that someone was chasing her, so she hid herself here. She should be able to believe that she is a good person.
"I have been married to my husband for a year..."
"Um?"
"However, few people around agree with this marriage...because...there are still many people who want to marry my husband..."
"Oh, so everyone is jealous of your good marriage?"
"Yes, they still think I am in the way..."
Yun Shang frowned and pouted.
"Should I arrest you and kill you just because I think you are in the way?"
"..."
"Could it be...that I was right?"
"The person chasing me...has a knife in his hand..."
Yun Shang raised his eyebrows and closed his mouth, unable to speak for a while.
"Then...who is that person?"
Yun Shang couldn't help shouting and hurriedly covered her mouth with one hand.
When both people are silent, the sound of music can be faintly heard.
Is it the sound of a piano?
"...Are you kidding me?"
"I also hope it is..."
"Who did it?"
"...It should be one of those nobles who want to marry their daughter to my husband, but because there are too many suspicious people..."
If all the noble ladies present just now decided to do this together, there would be at least eight of them.
Yun Shang screamed.
"Wow...the thoughts of those big shots are really scary."
"I think so……"
Although in terms of status, he can be considered a big shot.
"...Is your husband so popular?"
"Oh, yes!"
In Lu Fusu's words, those people did not want to be Lu Fusu's wife, but they wanted to be the concubines of the Emperor of Yuan Kingdom.
"Are you the eldest lady?"
"right."
"Do those bad guys also want to be eldest ladies?"
"Originally... I wanted to be the eldest wife, but now I seem to think that the second wife or the third wife... can also be done."
Once he disappears, those colluding aristocratic daughters will not only want to be princesses, but also queens.
"So, your husband hasn't married his second wife yet?"
"right."
Yun Shang bent her body, raised her eyes to look at Shui Xinyuan, and smiled sweetly.
"It's great...he really cares for you."
"..."
There is a dull pain in the chest.
Lu Fusu loves himself very much... Yes, he knows this very well.
Because of this, I cannot die.
"You can definitely go home."
Yun Shang patted Shui Xinyuan on the shoulder.
"Don't worry, your husband will definitely come to pick you up."
"..."
"Only I know you are here, and I didn't tell anyone else in the store. Don't worry! Very few people come to this warehouse. If someone comes in when I'm not around, just say they are my friends."
"Will it cause you any trouble?"
"Although our store is small, we still have room to hide a petite wife like you."
Yun Shang stood up with a smile, then frowned.
"...But even if someone comes looking for you, I probably won't be able to tell whether that person is your husband or someone who is chasing you."
"There may be more than one person chasing me, and my husband...because of his situation, I don't know if he will come in person...I guess he has asked the censor to come to me..."
Lu Fusu shouldn't have personally led his soldiers, horses and censors into Chunhua Street like he did at Xishen Pass, right?
"Then if the imperial censor comes to visit...but, there may also be someone pretending to be..."
Yun Shang sighed, curled her lips and said: "Although I know you want to go home right away, but you have no choice but to continue waiting here. No matter who comes to you, I will tell you that there is no such person as you, so you
Can you go home safely?"
"right……"
"I'm still alive, can you continue to wait here? Although it's very dark here..."
"I'm not afraid of the dark."
"Sorry, I'll take you to the second floor after the guests leave. Ah, do you want to eat something first? Or drink some water?"
"Thank you, but it still doesn't work..."
Shui Xinyuan shook her head, she didn't want to eat.
"How much do you want to eat? Do you want to drink?"
"I can not drink."
"So that's it. I don't know if there is any fruit. I'll go check it out..."
Yun Shang seemed to be very good at taking care of others. Shui Xinyuan thought of the sour and sweet taste of the fruit and thought that he should be able to eat it.
"Then...please give me some fruit?"
"Okay, wait a moment."
Yun Shang smiled and walked out of the warehouse.
After the door closed, Shui Xinyuan let out a heavy breath.
Why...is this happening?
…
The supervisory censor and the officials of the Zhongshu Province came in and out of Zhuge's house in a hurry. Han Shizhong, eight of his nobles, were covered in cold sweat. They stood before Zhuge Ciyun, who was Zhongshu Ling and the master of the Zhuge family, and his son. Today,
In front of Zhuge Qing, who had just become the Minister of Zhongshu.
"We really don't know. We never thought that women like them would come up with such an idea..."
All eight people claimed that although they knew that their wives had invited the Queen, they did not know that the venue was at a restaurant on Chunhua Street, nor did they know that they had evil intentions to invite the Queen to attend. If they had known, they would have stopped them.
Zhuge Ciyun looked at these people with cold eyes.
"So, is your wife also planning to deceive you, saying that she has never been to Chunhua Street and has not met the Queen?"
After Chunxiang asked Li Yuezhen for help, Li Yuezhen immediately sent a supervisory censor and detained eight aristocratic ladies who were having dinner at a restaurant in Juhuafang. They are currently being interrogated in the censor's prison in Rising Sun Palace.
However, the eight ladies also insisted that they originally planned to go to a restaurant on Chunhua Street, but later thought it would be better to go to Juhuafang instead, so they changed the location temporarily.
They sent someone to notify Chunying Palace, and they went to the restaurant in Juhuafang, but after waiting around, they didn't see the Queen.
"Chunying Palace did receive the news of the change of location, but it was received long after the Empress left."
Zhuge Qing, who was standing diagonally behind Zhuge Ciyun, shrugged, and Zhuge Ciyun also deliberately sighed heavily.
"In short, you and your wife will be handed over to the Censor..."
"Us too?"
"certainly."
"But, as I said just now, we don't know anything..."
"Having said that, it was your wives who caused this incident."
Several nobles looked at each other in horror and asked Zhuge Ciyun: "Please let us see the emperor. We want to talk to the emperor directly."
"But the emperor doesn't want to see you."
"The emperor is very angry and says that he doesn't want to see your faces until the queen returns to the palace safely."
Zhuge Qing brightly supplemented Zhuge Ciyun, and the originally hopeful expressions of several nobles turned into despair.
Zhuge Ciyun deliberately teased in a sympathetic tone: "If you want to explain anything, you can tell the censor."
"..."
The eight nobles were speechless and left with the censor.
"Do they really know nothing?"
After the nobles left, Zhuge Qing looked back at his father.
"Even if they don't know what happened today and they haven't let their young daughters get married yet, they still hope that their daughters will have the opportunity to become queens or concubines, right?"
"So, whether you know it or not, you are all guilty?"
"Having said that, those nobles are usually closely watched by the emperor and do not dare to act rashly. Their wives only know the queen who quietly listens to their sarcastic remarks. I always feel that they are more likely to be behind the scenes... but these women are not enough after all.
Smart, screwed up."
With that said, Zhuge Ciyun sat on the bench and took a sip of the hot tea brought by the maid just now.
Zhuge Qing stood there, looking up at the ceiling.
"...Father, although this is just a hasty plan that will soon reveal its flaws, is it too high a risk for them to take action against a country?"
"Indeed, whether they try to kidnap or kill people, after all, there is a precedent of the Xishen Pass rebellion, so they should not do such a reckless thing."
In the Xishenguan Rebellion, the leading nobles lost their status and property.
Unless these nobles were mentally prepared to suffer the same punishment, they would not be able to attack Shui Xinyuan easily.
"In this case, the gardener's matter cannot be explained."
"I feel so too."
If the purpose was to assassinate Shui Xinyuan, there was no need to go out of his way to find Ziwei to join in the fun.
Zhuge Ciyun raised his chin.
"He said he was the Queen's childhood sweetheart. Did he ever propose to the Queen?"
"He himself preaches it everywhere. I don't know whether he likes to brag or borrows the courage from heaven..."
"Is it because I can't remember my old love for the woman I once proposed to marry?"
"I don't know. I heard from Qing'er that the queen had never mentioned that someone had asked her to marry him. She didn't recognize him at all at first, or at least he wasn't that familiar with her at first."
"For a gardener, it would certainly be unpleasant to hear that a fellow countryman who grew up with him has become a queen."
Zhuge Qing still raised his head and slowly folded his arms.
"Is it because you feel regretful that now that things have happened, you still want to keep it as your own?"
"Maybe the more you know you can't get it, the more obsessed you become."
"This... indeed, not getting it is always the best..."
If someone adds fuel to the fire at this time and tells this sentimental man that the woman he loves is in misfortune, it will make him even more unable to extricate himself.
Hearing these words from a fellow countryman who grew up with him, if the queen hadn't kicked him down in time, he might have faced another danger.
"..."
"..."
Zhuge Qing and Zhuge Ciyun looked at each other in unison.
"Could it be...that this is the purpose?"
"It's not impossible. The gardener expressed his feelings to the queen, and the place was in a restaurant on Chunhua Street. Although the queen would of course flatly refuse, the boastful gardener would think that the queen was just considering the emperor's favor and refused him. When the time comes,
They will spread the news about their secret meeting in Chunhua Street around the palace..."
"Oops..."
Zhuge Ciyun analyzed calmly with a serious face, while Zhuge Qing pressed his forehead.
"Are they going to all this trouble just to fabricate the affair between the Queen and the gardener on Chunhua Street?"
"I'm going to ask those dumb ladies, but if that's the case, it's really going to be a lot of trouble."
It is true that Shui Xinyuan and the gardener met on Chunhua Street. If rumors are spread, these rumors may indeed be detrimental to Shui Xinyuan.
"Even if the gardener spreads his word, no one will believe him..."
"As long as anyone who knows the Queen a little bit, it's impossible to believe her, including the Emperor of course."
However, this can become a new topic of cynicism for those nobles.
Zhuge Qing thought of Shui Xinyuan's gentle smile and couldn't help but sympathize with her.
"I will report to the emperor..."
"There is no need to report our inferences in detail. Once it is confirmed that this is the case, I will ask the censor to write a document... Moreover, if it is just to fabricate false news about the queen's affair, the queen cannot disappear, and there is no way that an unknown man will pursue her.
she."
"ah?"
Yes, things got more serious after the gardener was kicked down.
"The Queen ran very fast, I don't know where she escaped to..."
Although I don't know if Shui Xinyuan escaped successfully, I at least hope that she can escape from the clutches of the devil and hide somewhere.
Maybe ordinary rich ladies can't do it, but Shui Xinyuan is very hopeful.
However, it is already midnight.
"...I wonder if the queen will get lost."
"Not impossible."
The Queen looks smart and capable, but sometimes she is confused in certain places.
At this time, several footsteps were heard in the corridor.
After knocking on the door, two officials from Zhongshu Province came in.
"Excuse me, let's report the situation."
"good."
"As for the fact that someone made false claims about the gardener, we have already found someone to draw a portrait of the messenger. He should not be a soldier of these eight nobles."
"……What?"
"I have shown the gardener the armors worn by the soldiers of various families, and he said they are not..."
"Could one of those eight people be lying?"
Zhuge Qing asked, and the two officials shook their heads.
"It has been confirmed that when the gardener was talking to the masked man, all eight people were in the office. In addition, there is another incredible thing..."
"What's up?"
"According to the confirmation of the maid who accompanied the Queen to the invitation location..."
"Chunxiang?"
"Yes, she said that there was still an empty seat in the box in the Hongyuan Building. The Queen asked whose seat it was, and someone answered that it was the seat of Mrs. Ma Shilang of the Ministry of Etiquette, but because she was feeling unwell, she canceled it temporarily..."
Zhuge Qing turned around and found that Zhuge Ciyun's expression was also a bit solemn.
"...Speaking of Minister Ma, didn't his son also participate in His Highness Lu Wuxian's rebellion before?"
"I just followed the drums and did not actually participate, so I was not severely punished..."
"But because he rebelled just when he was about to be promoted to Minister of Rites, Ma Shilang could no longer be promoted. His father, who was originally a minister, also resigned."
"..."
Revenge...the word appeared in Zhuge Qing's mind.
No, or is it that Ma Shilang also has a daughter who wants to enter the harem?
"Just in case, we will also investigate the situation of Ma Shilang's family at the same time."
"The censor has gone to Ma Shilang's house and has completed the report on the current situation..."
"excuse me."
At this time, there was another rapid knock on the door, and a supervisory censor rushed in.
"I just received news that besides us, there are people looking for the Queen's whereabouts."
Zhuge Ciyun stood up.
"what happened?"
"We went to various restaurants separately to search and asked if we saw any beautifully dressed young women. Several people from the stores said that men had also come to inquire about her just now."
"...Is it the man the gardener said just now who is chasing the Queen?"
"It can't be confirmed yet, but it's very possible."
Zhuge Qing smacked his lips, and Zhuge Ciyun also frowned deeply.
No matter who that person is, it would be bad if he finds the queen first.