Detective in the Red Chamber

With a spoon, Sun Shaozong pressed the cornel floating on the surface into the bottom of the soup, crushed out the crispy cornel seeds inside, picked out the softened cornel one by one, and put a small pile on the round table, and then I had a great time eating sesame seed cakes.

Seeing that a bowl of mutton soup was drained quickly, Sun Shaozong was about to call Pomegranate to add another bowl, when he suddenly found Ruan Rong on the opposite side, who were stirring back and forth with a spoon, as if they were looking at the mutton soup. like.

He took Ruan Rong's bowl without hesitation, and asked while adding seasoning, "What's the matter? This mutton soup doesn't suit your appetite?"

"It's not that I don't like my appetite, it's just too greasy."

Ruan Rong said, then raised her chin to Xiang Ling and Second Sister You, and said, "Okay, I really can't eat it, so I'll ask someone to exchange two bowls of rice porridge."

Next to Shiliu hurriedly took the two bowls of mutton soup away and replaced them with two bowls of porridge cooked with green rice.

This is obviously caring for the second daughter, but Sun Shaozong and Ruan Rong get along day and night, so how can he not know the small calculation in her heart-she really wants to enjoy this intimacy to herself, and she doesn't want Sun Shaozong to eat the mutton soup left by the second daughter.

However, Sun Shaozong would not expose such innocuous little thoughts.

In the same way, I pressed the cornel to the bottom of the bowl, looked at the golden cornel seeds, and slowly surfaced with oily stars, and said casually, "The flower party just started at the Temple of Hell, if you guys are at home I'm bored, why not go and have a look together."

Second Sister You was fine, but Xiangling jumped up for joy, but she didn't dare to answer, and just looked at Ruan Rong eagerly.

Ruan Rong hesitated for a while, but still shook her head and said, "Let's forget it, my nephew and the others will move out in the next two days. Although we may not be needed, it's not good to go out and play around at this time."

"Then go in two days."

Sun Shaozong took a bite of the biscuits, and said vaguely, "This flower fair is supervised by the Prime Minister of Jia's Mansion, and it will last until the tenth day of September."

Ruan Rong just nodded her head, took advantage of the opportunity to pinch Xiangling's face, and said with a smile, "This is taking advantage of you, don't forget to write more poems for the master to see, and let him I know that the female gentleman of our family did not invite her for nothing."

Hearing this, Xiangling immediately remembered the task assigned by Sun Shaozong yesterday, her cheeks were hot for a while, and she hurriedly lowered her head to cover it with the rice porridge.

The family chatted and laughed and ate breakfast, and Sun Shaozong asked Ruan Rong again, and learned that Sun Chengye and Yu Qian planned to transport their luggage to the new residence today, and officially move there tomorrow morning.

He left Zhang Cheng and the carriage at home, and rode alone to the prince's mansion.

Because of the heavy rain yesterday, the street was still slippery and muddy, Sun Shaozong didn't dare to gallop his horse when he left the house—fortunately, he was not far from the Prince's Mansion, so he simply reined in the horse and let the horse Tapping and treading on the street to measure.

Although the current Great Zhou Dynasty can be called internal and external troubles, but if you only look at the street scene of Shuntian Mansion, it is much more prosperous than in previous years.

This is actually the follow-up effect of the flood last year. First, many Zhili people stayed in the capital to work hard; In the past year, the weather around Gyeonggi has been favorable, and the common people have received a few shi more grain, but the price of grain has risen instead of falling because of the disaster victims.

To put it bluntly, the current prosperity of the capital is actually based on the suffering of hundreds of thousands of people in Zhili who were affected by the disaster.

"Hail my lord, my lord, my lord!"

Just getting used to feeling the sufferings of the people, suddenly heard a few strange accents, looked up, but it was a peddler who was selling a few birdcages hanging by the roadside.

Thinking of the many birds in the corridor of Rongguo Mansion, Sun Shaozong couldn't help feeling a little bit moved, so he stepped forward to look at it.

When the peddler saw the business coming, he rushed forward with a smile on his face, cupped his hands and said, "Grandpa, just look at it, it's all done with great effort, and everyone's mouth is clever! Come on, give it to this grandpa!" All the best!"

As he spoke, he took off an ebony cage and teased the parrot with a red collar and green hair inside.

"Hail my lord, my lord, my lord!"

The bird fluttered its wings and called twice, but it was the one just now.

"you……"

Sun Shaozong was about to ask the parrot if he would say anything else, when he suddenly saw a gray sparrow in one of the cages, he couldn't help wondering, "Why do you still have a sparrow here? Could it be it?" Can you also learn how to speak?"

"That's what makes it difficult for you."

The peddler laughed and said, "Although it can't speak human language, it has a novel ability."

As he said that, he took off the cage, caught a sparrow from inside, quickly tied it with a thin thread, and threw the sparrow to the ground. The sparrow flapped its wings and picked up a small bird from the ground. The flag of the grimacing face, the neck swings up and down, and it looks like a tiger and a tiger.

It's a good look, and it's more pleasing to children than the talking parrot.

Sun Shaozong asked the price, and seeing that it was only two taels of silver, he pointed to his home and asked the peddler to send Que'er home, and then asked Zhao Zhongji for the silver.

The peddler heard that Master Qingtian was in front of him, so he didn't dare to neglect, he hurriedly entrusted the stall to a neighbor, and flew away with the bird in his hand.

But Sun Shaozong went on the road again, and not long after he arrived at the gate of the Prince's Mansion, he was about to get off his horse when he saw a young man in a python robe and jade belt coming out of the Prince's Mansion.

King Xinyang?

How could this fellow dare to come to the Prince's Mansion to find pleasure?

Sun Shaozong hastily led his horse to the side. After the king of Xinyang went out, he glanced at Sun Shaozong for a while, but he probably didn't recognize Sun Shaozong's identity, so he got on the eight-carried sedan chair and walked away.

Watching the sedan chair of King Xinyang go away, Sun Shaozong arrived in front of the corner gate wonderingly, and while handing over the reins to the gatekeeper Xiaoxiao Longjianwei, he wondered, "Why is this King Xinyang coming again? Isn't His Royal Highness strictly forbidden?" Did he step half a step into the gate of the mansion?"

"I heard that Uncle Guo helped smooth things over."

How could Uncle Zhao Guo smooth things over for King Xinyang?

Sun Shaozong was even more puzzled, but the details were not something a gatekeeper could know.

So he stepped over the threshold and entered the mansion, asked the steward on duty in the front yard, and learned that the prince was having morning tea in the flower hall in the back yard, so he rushed over.

He is now the number one confidant of His Highness the Crown Prince, so the journey has been unimpeded, but when he got to the door of the flower hall, he saw that the Crown Prince was not the only one inside—the Crown Princess was also sitting beside him.

Sun Shaozong was hesitating whether to let people in to report, but the prince inside had sharp eyes, but he had seen his majestic figure, and immediately got up with joy and said, "It's just right for Aiqing to come! Qing helped analyze and analyze."

Seeing that the Crown Princess remained silent and retreated behind the screen, making it clear that she wanted to 'listen to the government behind the curtain', Sun Shaozong also strode in, bowed and said, "I have seen Your Highness."

Immediately afterwards, he bowed his body and tilted his head slightly, looked at the crown prince and asked, "But I don't know what difficulties your Highness has encountered."

"Isn't it just Wu Chengxun, the king of Xinyang!"

Speaking of the name of 'Wu Chengxun, King of Xinyang', the prince's face flashed with contempt, and then he dragged Sun Shaozong to the table, "Aiqing, sit down first, and then I will listen to Gu Tong to explain the details to you!"

Sun Shaozong refused a few words according to the rules, and sat down at the table honestly, and said curiously, "I heard that King Xinyang said that Uncle Guo came forward to intercede. What's going on?"

"Humph."

The prince sneered, "Ai Qing really confirmed that Wu Chengxun's concubine was seriously ill, and it is said that she died not long ago—but this guy is more shameless than you think!"

But it turned out that after the King of Beijing Jing wrote the letter "Falling the Bull" a few days ago, the King of Xinyang finally recognized the situation after some struggles - so Princess Xinyang, who was fine a few days ago, suddenly became seriously ill yesterday.

This is nothing, the king of Xinyang immediately found Zhao Guojiu, expressing openly and secretly that he was willing to marry Zhao Guojiu's concubine after the funeral of the daughter of the Niu family.

And the only request he made was to hope that Uncle Zhao Guo could speak a few words in front of the prince to resolve the misunderstanding between the two brothers.

Uncle Zhao Guo was originally shallow-sighted—otherwise he wouldn't be in the court, and he hardly had any sense of presence.

Therefore, after learning that the concubine's daughter could become the prince's royal family, and even had the slightest chance to get her hands on the throne of the mother's world, he was immediately moved.

This was the scene of King Xinyang's return to the Prince's Mansion this morning.

Hearing this, Sun Shaozong couldn't help taking a high look at the Xinyang King—it seems that the Xinyang King didn't have a city, but he was dizzy by the pie falling from the sky, so he acted impatiently. stupid behavior.

"But I don't know what King Xinyang said to His Highness just now?"

"What else could it be?"

The emperor snorted and said, "Left and right are just begging for mercy in front of Gu. With this little courage, I actually had the face to compete with Gu for the reserve position. If it wasn't for my uncle's face, I would have driven this shameless person out!"

hehe~

He killed his wife in pursuit of power. He is certainly a standard scum, but didn't you also sleep with your uncle's concubine?

Sun Shaozong slandered in his heart, but on his face he said solemnly, "Your Highness must not underestimate the enemy! From my humble minister's point of view, this King Xinyang may still have some scheming."

"Of course he has a scheming heart!"

The prince sneered, "Otherwise, the Niu family daughter would not have settled for uncle's daughter before she died!"

Having said that, he rolled his eyes behind the screen in disdain, and said angrily, "Such a shameless and courageous bandit, it's lucky that someone has the nerve to persuade Gu to buy a horse bone with his daughter."

Sun Shaozong knew that he was satirizing the princess, how could he dare to echo this topic?

Pretending to be ignorant, he grinned and asked, "Is it really settled?"

"what?"

"I mean, is the marriage between King Xinyang and Zhao Guo's uncle and concubine really settled?"

"Naturally..."

Halfway through the prince's speech, he felt that Sun Shaozong would not be aimless, so he frowned and said hesitantly, "Could it be that he still dares to go back on his word?"

Sun Shaozong said, "After all, the Niu family's daughter is not dead yet, not to mention that he has to wait for the Niu's family's daughter's funeral before she can be hired. How difficult is it to delay it for two or three years?"

"And during this period, for the sake of his family's reputation, Uncle Zhao will definitely not spread the word about the engagement."

"If His Highness is in sight at that time, he will naturally not regret it, but will wantonly organize this marriage."

"But if the concubine in the palace gives birth to another prince..."

At this point, Sun Shaozong paused for a moment, and after the crown prince suddenly changed color, he continued, "Since he can shamelessly marry a concubine daughter from the Zhao family, he can also secretly seek employment from girls from the Wang family, Li family, and Liu family!"

These three families plus the Jia family of Rongguo Mansion are the natal families of the four 'seeded contestants'.

"What a thief!"

The prince patted the table and jumped up to talk, pacing and cursing angrily, "Gu Huan thought that he had a heart of repentance, but he never thought that such a calculation would be made!"

The more he talked, the more annoyed he became, he kicked the spring stool over suddenly, and greeted in a hateful voice, "Come on, hurry up, Uncle Guo...!"

"Hold on, Your Highness!"

Sun Shaozong hurriedly stopped him, "This is just my conjecture, and he may not..."

The prince raised his hand, and said unquestionably, "Ai Qing has always been very accurate in her predictions, so she must be right this time! What's more, with that guy's shamelessness, he can definitely do such a thing as selling his goods to several companies." !"

As he said that, he was going to order someone to invite Uncle Zhao Guo, so that he could expose King Xinyang's face face to face.

"Your Highness."

Sun Shaozong stopped again and said, "The reason I made this inference is not to want you to break with King Xinyang, but to hope that you can use your plan and tie him to us!"

"Bound to us?"

The prince asked suspiciously, "What do you mean by that?"

"Although King Xinyang was launched by His Majesty to divide the chess pieces of the kings and the Niu family, he does not have any real power in his hands, but after all, he is a noble person. If he can be accepted as a lackey, first, it will strengthen His Highness's momentum; It can also demonstrate His Highness's ability to control people; the three..."

Sun Shaozong said with a sinister smile, "If there is any danger, you might as well use King Xinyang as a shield and ask the waystone!"

This comes down to the bottom line. In fact, it is recommended that the prince's daughter buy a horse bone and agree to take refuge in King Xinyang.

However, in the eyes of the crown prince, Sun Shaozong's rhetoric was more pleasing to the ear than the crown princess's, so he asked without thinking, "Then how should the orphan follow the plan?"

Sun Shaozong laughed and said, "First send people to monitor every move of King Xinyang. If King Xinyang is as expected, and secretly connected with the natal families of the four concubines, His Highness can rely on this to make King Xinyang obediently obey."

"If the King of Xinyang has never had such thoughts, we might as well use his name and secretly lead a red line for him—anyway, with Uncle Zhao here as evidence, he can't explain it clearly even if he is full of mouth."

"Hahaha!"

After the prince heard it, he couldn't help laughing, and poured a cup of tea for Sun Shaozong himself, and praised, "Aiqing is indeed my son-in-law! Come, come, replace wine with tea, let's drink this cup to the brim!"

As he spoke, he raised his head and poured the tea in.

After both of them put down their teacups, the prince found another spring stool and sat down, and asked casually, "By the way, why did Ai Qing come by such a coincidence?"

We can finally get to the point!

Sun Shaozong stood up immediately, and said solemnly, "Actually, I came here to accuse Your Highness."

"Confession? What crime?"

The prince was confused.

However, Sun Shaozong bowed and said, "The minister of the day before yesterday used His Highness's name privately to reject King Zhongshun's order to assist and frame the Niu family of the Zhenguo Mansion."

"what?!"

The prince's face suddenly sank, and he said angrily, "Don't you know that Gu now wishes to tear that Niu's family into pieces?!"

Chapter 518

As expected, like an uncle, like a nephew!

He just said something about 'my son's house', but when he heard that he didn't agree to deal with the Niu family, and didn't even ask about the cause and effect, his expression changed immediately!

With such a city and such a mind, he is definitely a dou who cannot be supported, and this is why Sun Shaozong always wanted to keep a distance from him.

But now being forced by the situation, he can only choose the lesser of two evils - at least this useless prince is much easier to fool than King Zhongshun.

"His Royal Highness accepts."

Because before coming to the Prince's Mansion, Sun Shaozong had already prepared a plan to deal with it. At this time, facing the Prince's sudden change of color, he didn't feel flustered at all. It can be said that everyone has betrayed relatives, and the trend of decline is a foregone conclusion. If you rush to start now, it may actually come true..."

"What are you afraid of if you fall into the trap?"

The crown prince interrupted Sun Shaozong's words sharply, and said angrily, "Uncle Wang took the lead this time, and it can't be blamed on Gu!"