This sleeve is broken secretly

It was getting late at this time, and it stands to reason that the key has been released in the palace, and the foreign ministers should not stay long.However, Xie Jin received the order of Emperor Hongwu, and led by a small eunuch, took advantage of the increasingly dark night in the palace and went straight to the Changxiu Palace of the concubine Duan.

Without lighting candles, they walked along the shadow of the palace wall without attracting anyone's attention. After arriving at Changxiu Palace, they entered through a small side door.When I entered, I saw everything was silent, only the lights in the main hall were always bright, presumably the concubine Duan had heard the news and was waiting here.

The unrelated maids and eunuchs have all been dismissed, Xie Ling strode into the hall, but saw Duan Concubine sitting restlessly on the couch, she was wearing a green short jacket and a plain long skirt, her face looked a little bit unpainted Her pale, frowned eyebrows showed her uneasiness even more.

Seeing Xie Ling coming in, Concubine Duan immediately stood up a few steps to meet her, and said anxiously: "Let him, what does the Emperor say?"

Xie Ling patted her and comforted her: "The emperor never scolded her, and ordered me to focus on investigating the relevant people."

Concubine Duan heaved a sigh of relief, and then her face turned serious, her eyebrows and eyes raised a little fiercely.She looks somewhat similar to Xie Ling. Xie's family members are all luxurious and handsome in appearance, and when they are not smiling or sad on weekdays, they can be full of lofty and arrogant attitude, but once they get angry, they will be phoenix and dragon. The roar makes people startled when they see it.

"Auntie owes you this time." Concubine Duan clasped his wrists hard, and her nails dyed with bright red impatiens sank slightly into his flesh, but she heard her say in a deep voice, "I didn't expect that this thief It actually came out of my Changxiu Palace—"

Xie Ling shook his head: "There are so many people in Changxiu Palace, and my aunt really can't take care of them all."

Concubine Duan nodded, looking at her nephew, a strange look and hesitation suddenly flashed in her eyes: "Jianzhi, you...you really—"

Xie Ling looked back at her quietly: "There are still slutty slaves who have dirty the reputation of the empress in this palace. Auntie won't let my nephew go to clean the palace gate first?"

Concubine Duan was stunned for no reason by his gaze, and subconsciously swallowed what she had just said: "That man—that man is locked in the west hall."

Xie Ling nodded slightly, and strode out.Concubine Duan clenched her sleeves tightly and wanted to follow his footsteps, but when she saw the resolute and stern back, she hesitated and stopped.

The door of the west side hall was closed tightly, and there were two well-dressed little eunuchs standing outside the door silently. When they saw him coming, they pushed open the door quietly, and then quickly lit two candles .

A strong smell of blood filled the hall, but there were two bloody people tied up on the bluestone floor, their tongues were gagged with hemp ropes, and when they saw Xie Ling and his party coming in, they wailed in fear and wailed. Keep going back.

Xie Ling sneered, nodded, and the two little inner eunuchs strode forward to remove the hemp rope that gagged, and the sound of wailing and begging for mercy was endless.

With his hands behind his back, Xie Ling looked down at the two faces that were swollen and congested beyond recognition, his face was as cold as the king of Hades, and he said coldly, "Tell me, who are they?"

A small inner eunuch bowed and replied: "The woman is a third-class court lady serving tea for the empress. According to her account, when she was walking to Changxiu Palace after receiving the monthly tea from the tea department, she saw your lord when passing by the imperial garden."

Xie Ling's eyes were as cold as ice, and his silent appearance made the two people on the ground even more scared out of their wits, tears streaming down his face.

The little eunuch continued: "According to her, after seeing the two adults, she didn't tell the people in the palace, but only told the eunuch who had married with her. This eunuch took care of the koi in the imperial garden. , not from any empress’s palace, he said that after he heard this, he never spread it to the outside world.”

Xie Jin sneered, and as soon as he stretched out his hand, the little eunuch immediately offered a sharp dagger respectfully.

When the two saw each other, they were so frightened that they wailed for a long time, shouting "forgiveness" and "forgiveness" one by one.

Xie Qin ignored them, and idly twirled the dagger at his slender fingertips. The snowy light of the sharp blade made the two of them silent and trembling like leather: "I have a bad temper and I don't have much patience. I don't want to see you two. What kind of loyal and unyielding tricks are you playing for me here... I just want to know, from which of the two of you did the rumors about me spread?"

The two stood next to each other, shivering, not daring to speak.Xie Ling played with the knife, his eyes wandered back and forth between the two of them, no matter who fell on him, the person could not help whimpering in fright.

Finally, Xie Qin set his sights on the maid.

"It should be you." His voice was very thin and light, as if talking to himself, he came to her step by step, slowly knelt down and looked directly at the terrified face, "After seeing it, tell me I am still not satisfied with the food, and spread it outside the palace..."

"No, it's not me!" The palace maid yelled sadly, "It's him! He has a cousin outside the palace, who is—"

However, before he finished speaking, Xie Ling pinched his cheeks.Seeing that his face was disgusted, he said coldly, "Stop barking here."

The maid was so frightened that she stared at the knife in Xie Ling's hand, thinking that the sharp blade would fall on her in the next second.But who knows, Xie Ling let her go without doing anything.She had just breathed a sigh of relief, but suddenly felt her neck tightened, her mouth was hot and then cold, followed by a stream of blood spurting out and severe pain struck, she didn't even cry out in surprise for the last time in her life Before it could be sent out, he fell to the ground and passed out.

The little eunuch who cut off her tongue flicked the blood off the dagger, and retreated silently.

Xie Ling looked down at the fainted maid, his eyes were full of disgust—this kind of lowly servant, let him execute the execution himself to dirty his hands.

Seeing this scene, the counterpart next to her was so frightened that she rolled her eyes and was about to faint, but was grabbed by the back of the neck by another inner eunuch, and was lifted up like a dead pig waiting to be slaughtered.

Xie Ling played with the dagger, walked slowly in front of him, and said with a sneer, "Why, why don't you say anything?"

The pair were trembling, and slammed their foreheads on the ground crazily: "My lord, my lord, spare me, the little one really didn't talk nonsense, and I don't know how the people outside know—"

A cold light passed by.

The voices of the food couple suddenly raised their voices, and they seemed to cry out in a different tone, and cold sweat poured down like a waterfall.When he took a closer look, the little finger of his right hand had been chopped off by Xie Ling.

A small inner eunuch frowned, stepped forward and said softly: "My lord, it's better to let the younger one—"

As soon as Xie Ling raised his hand, he only stopped the words of the little eunuch.But he saw the blood-stained dagger in his hand, and slowly rubbed the snow blade against the cold and sweaty face of the pair, and said with a low smile: "Do you all think I'm a fool—how long has it been since the Mid-Autumn Festival, most of the In less than a month, how did this rumor spread to everyone in the capital? How could it spread so quickly if no one was behind the scenes to fuel the flames?"

The pair looked at him in horror, Xie Ling Senhan's face was reflected in their eyes.

"Tell who your master is, and you can still save your life. Otherwise—" Xie Ling slowly put the sharp edge of the dagger on his ring finger, "—you lost all ten fingers, I Just cut off the toes, and if the toes are gone, I will slice your flesh. How long do you think you are fat enough for me to cut?"

The demonic whispers and the cold chill of the dagger forced the pair to collapse, and finally howled: "Don't, don't! I said I said-I really, really told no one, just told My cousin is alone..."

"Who is your cousin?"

"I, my cousin is a small hundred household in the Imperial Army..."

Xie Ling sneered and said, "I don't care about your thousands of households. You know what I want to hear, so explain it quickly."

"Yes, yes... My cousin and his sister married an adult as a concubine. If it really came from them, his sister must have told the inner family—"

"Who is that lord?"

The pair swallowed, and said in a hoarse voice: "It is said that he is a book repairer in the Imperial Academy, what is his name Liu Tan..."

----

This time, the night is dark and there is no moon, and the autumn wind is howling. If you stand outside for a long time, you will feel cold all over your body.

Inside Shen's house, the old servant was standing on the porch with a bowl in his hand, hesitatingly looking out into the yard.However, there was still a bench under the bare laurel tree in the center of the court, and a person was lying motionless on the chair, and a few messy letter papers and wine bottles were scattered on the ground beside it.

But...if you lie down in this weather, you will definitely get sick...

The old servant sighed repeatedly in his heart, hesitated for a while, and then walked over quietly, calling softly: "Big—"

"doing what?"

The voice from the bench is no longer as clear and soft as before, but has become dry and hoarse.Sad in his heart, the old servant held up the soup in his hand and offered it to him, and said softly, "My lord, have some soup. You haven't eaten all day, and you just lie down and drink, how can you—"

"Go back."

"grown ups……"

"Didn't hear what I said?"

The old servant choked, sighed in his heart, and finally swallowed the rest of his words.He was holding the soup and was about to leave, but he saw the silhouette of the person on the bench—this year, Feng Yun managed to gain some stature, but now he has lost weight rapidly in a few days, and now the autumn wind is blowing his robes together Sleeves, the lonely wrist bones and neck line are shocking to look at.

"At any rate..." The old servant couldn't help but said, "At least go back to the house and lie down..."

But no one answered him anymore.

The old servant sighed and retreated to the corridor.At this time, a big head was peeking out from the corner of the wall, but it was Shen Bing's little book boy.

The half-grown child didn't know what was going on outside, but just realized that Master Xie, who called himself "the insider" recently, hadn't come for a long time, and his son also closed the gate of the courtyard, and laying down under the tree every day was just Drunk in a daze.

Don't you need to go to court now?

"Old man." The little book boy wrung his fingers, worried for no reason but didn't know what happened, "Master, isn't he still eating? How about I go and persuade him."

The old servant sighed: "Don't go over and cause trouble for the adults. Go and play by yourself."

The little book boy pouted.In fact, he didn't want to go out to play recently. There were many strange strangers outside Shen's house, pointing and pointing at their house.The children in the neighborhood who usually play with him don't want to come to him anymore, and when they see him from a distance, they yell "Master Rabbit" and "Master Rabbit". .

He secretly went to ask the cook at home, but was severely hit on the back of the head by the strong arm that threw the spoon, and ordered him not to say such dirty words again.

The little book boy felt that something important happened at home, and everyone was frowning. He was full of confusion, but he didn't dare to ask more questions to make the elders worry.

The old servant sighed and felt something, and handed him the soup bowl in his hand to send him back to the kitchen.The little book boy obediently agreed, and walked out with the bowl in his hand.

The yard was quiet, and there was no one. It looked a little ghostly, but the little book boy was not afraid because the young master had told him that there were no ghosts in this world.As he was walking alone, he was thinking about the recent accidents at home. After a while, when he passed the hanging flower door on the side of the front hall, he suddenly heard a strange noise.

The little book boy stood still and looked back suspiciously.The front hall was obviously dark, and there was no one there—could he have heard it wrong?

However, in the next moment, as if answering his question, a slender and tall figure separated from the thick night and quietly appeared in front of him.

The little book boy exclaimed with great joy, "Thank you—"

"Shh." Xie Qin pressed the door on his forehead, smiled and gestured for silence.

The little book boy shut his mouth obediently.He keenly noticed that Mr. Xie was a little strange today - although he was smiling, the expression on his face was a little scary, and he always felt that he was not as friendly as before.

And what does it smell like on an adult?The little book boy sniffed, feeling a little puzzled.Like——like the smell of rust, fishy and astringent, very unpleasant.

"My lord, why don't you go to see the young master?" The little book boy asked sideways, "The young master hasn't gone out for several days, and he doesn't talk to others. Is it because you don't play with the young master?"

Xie Jin smiled and said: "Even if no one else plays with your young master, I will always be with him." He paused, then asked, "How is his meal? Is he healthy these days? "

The little bookboy replied honestly: "Not too good. At first, I ate and read, and asked me to study ink. But the day before yesterday, the young master received a letter from my hometown, and then the whole person just lay under the tree and drank in a daze. I don’t know what I wrote in my heart, but the old man still blames me, I shouldn’t have sent the letter to the young master directly after receiving it.”

Xie Jin's expression was a bit gloomy, he raised his eyes to look into the depths of the courtyard, and sighed softly for a long time.

"Thank you for taking care of him." At the end, he raised his hand and rubbed the little book boy's head, and said softly.

"Aren't you going to see the young master?" The little book boy asked hurriedly, "If the young master knows that you are here, he must be very happy."

Xie Ling smiled and shook his head: "Not today, I didn't take a shower, and my body smells bad. Your son will definitely dislike me when he sees me."

The little book boy said anxiously: "No way! Young Master never dislikes people, you should go and have a look—"

Xie Ling put his hand on his forehead and pressed it.That movement seemed to contain infinite forbearance and restraint, as well as complex sadness and anger, but the child was too young to recognize the complex emotions of adults.

"Soon." Xie Qin whispered, "Take care of him. I'll take a shower some other day, and then I'll come to see him clean."

After all, he turned around without hesitation, and quickly disappeared into the shadow of the eaves of the house.The figure was swift and silent, as if it had never been there before.