Loyal heart travels a long way

It was already mid-February when the group arrived at Xiapi. Qin Yong secretly confirmed his conjecture in his heart by searching for news along the way: If nothing happened to Princess Ruo Jingming, it was likely that she was in Xiapi.

Xiapi is much warmer than Beijing and Qizhou. There is neither a thick layer of snow nor icicles hanging from the eaves. You don’t have to hide from the eaves like in Beijing, for fear of being caught by icicles that suddenly fall Smashed his head.

The wound on Qin Yong's forehead had scabbed over, and now that the cloth strip was removed, a red, black and black mass was laid on the white skin, which looked very bluffing.

Fortunately, before Qin Yong left home, he had just had his hair tied up, and there was still a lot of fluffy hair on his forehead, which could barely cover the wound on his forehead. If he didn't look closely, he thought it was a birthmark.

Xiapi City is far less prosperous than the capital city and Qizhou. Horse-drawn carriages wander into the city. The yards on both sides of the road are not big. The houses are built of blue bricks. There are some moss in the cracks between the bricks near the ground. into.

Most of the courtyards in Beijing have wide gates and deep courtyards. People in Beijing like to paint the gates and gateposts red. If it is a courtyard of an aristocratic family, there must be two stone lions or a unicorn town house at the entrance.

Xiapi is different. The yard is narrow and the gates are also small. Some of the courtyard walls are low walls made of blue bricks, and some are made of bamboo fences, and the gates are scattered in different places.

If you don't look at the vendors doing small business on both sides of the street, you will think it is a piece of countryside.

In the end, they settled down at Yunxu Pavilion, the largest inn in Xiapi. The group packed their bags, had a light meal at noon, and left the inn.

There are three kinds of people who are most well-informed: brothel girls, market vendors, and beggars.

Qin Yong was the most impatient to go to places like brothels to provoke a whole body of powder, so he decided to go to the street to inquire first, took a few people and went to the street.

The whole afternoon passed quickly, and Qin Yong didn't get discouraged when he didn't find out any useful new news. Pace back in direction.

After walking not far, I saw a house that was three times larger than the other houses, with green brick walls and stone carvings of town house beasts at the gate. It seemed to be the richest man in Xiapi City. There was a circle above the gate border Between the eaves, under the eaves and the gate is a bluestone carved sign - Song Mansion.

In fact, the courtyard and the big house are nothing. If you grab such a house in Beijing, the houses of the aristocratic families will be much larger, but the Song Mansion is a little different:

Xiapi is a bit humid, even on a sunny day, the sun does not crack, and the brick joints are prone to mold.In the courtyard seen in front, there is only some moss in the cracks between the bricks near the ground, but the brick surface is wiped clean.And the brick surface of the Qin Mansion was also moldy.

No matter how much you pamper the servants, the main family wants to save face, there is no reason to let the outside of your yard be so dirty.

Maybe he was already in despair, Qin Yong shook his head.

As he walked forward, he reached the small road next to the Qin Mansion, which was actually not considered a road. He could barely pass an adult. Qin Yong casually glanced at it, and couldn't help but stop.

A little boy, probably a girl, about five or six years old, wearing a double bun, thin and thin, the clothes are a bit old and don't fit well, the sleeves are rolled up because they are too long, revealing the wrists that are not fair, the skirt is because The ankle is too short, and the ankle bone is very prominent. Generally speaking, it should be a child of a poor family, or a beggar.

But the little beggars are all on the main road, there are no passers-by in this kind of alley, and beggars generally don't come.

The little girl stood tall, muttering to the courtyard wall of the Song Mansion, and then lifted her skirt.

Lift up your skirt?Song Yong's forehead twitched, vaguely feeling that he would see something beyond his knowledge.

The little girl lifted up her skirt, but she didn’t wear midi pants or midi skirt under her skirt——Although Xiapi City is much warmer than the capital city, it is cold and gloomy, which is different from the coldness in the north. Qin Yong feels that Xiapi City is colder It's more unbearable, it's the coolness that seeps into the bones.

It is definitely not enough to wear only one layer of unlined clothing in this season.But this little girl didn't seem to feel the cold, she lifted up her skirt and took off her panties, and then a stream of yellowish water flowed into the soil under the wall of the Song Mansion courtyard.

——It seems that it is not a little girl, but a boy.

Qin Yong's ears are a little hot. Although Qin Zhengqi seldom cared about his homework in the Qin Manor, he has also studied benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and trust seriously, and it is the first time to see others relieve himself.

That kid, after peeing, picked up his pants, muttered again, this time a little louder, Qin Yong could hear him clearly, and the kid actually cursed at a wall.

The little boy straightened his skirt and cursed a few more words. Qin Yong could see clearly that the other party even spat at the blue brick wall. Then the little boy turned around and saw Qin Yong at the small intersection. He became like facing a big enemy: "You, where did you come from as a disciple? Why are you standing here secretly watching the little girl relieve her hand? How shameless you are?"

There was no sunlight in the alley, and the boy's face was covered with dirt. Qin Yong couldn't see what he looked like, but only felt that the boy was delicate and aggressive, he looked flustered and calmed down quickly.

It's not that he doesn't know whether he is a man or a woman, it's more like concealing it intentionally, hoping that he will treat him as a girl.

Qin Yong raised his eyebrows and didn't answer, but the little boy suddenly laughed: "Hey! He's quite handsome, but it's a pity that his appearance is just doing some dirty things."

Qin Yong said slowly: "Don't look at indecent people. There is no indecent behavior in the alleys. It's because you have no sense of shame to relieve yourself in public, right?"

The child is quite angry, and when he heard Qin Yong stab him with words, he immediately became unhappy, and hated him: "My latrine is here, what does it matter to you? Take care of your own eyeballs. It's not my father, I don't care if I know how to be ashamed!" After saying that, he didn't feel relieved, he lowered his head to pick up a stone and threw it over.

When Qin Yong was at home, he had to face various objects thrown by Qin Zhengqi from time to time, and easily dodged the stones.

Chi Yuqian, who was affected by his master's sideways movement, covered his forehead and hissed a lot, looking at the perpetrator innocently with grievances.

The child turned around and ran, swearing while running, leaving a string of obscenities in the path.

After all, he was a child, not very strong, and a small bag was placed on his forehead, but it was not smashed.

He rubbed himself twice, and muttered: "Run faster." Qian Duoduo didn't speak, but silently clenched his hands in his sleeves.

"Ying Er, follow up and see who's fake lady is.

Ying Er responded, jumped out, and disappeared in an instant.

—— Today's Ying Er is a middle-aged man with a sloppy beard, and everyone doesn't really want to look at his face carefully.

Back at the inn, Qin Yong didn't act like a young master for the meals in the room, and he didn't like to let his servants help with the trivial things in life, so he took Qian Duoduo and Qian Manman back to the brothers' own room.

Qin Yong didn't want to lie down just after dinner, so he asked the waiter to remove the bowls and chopsticks, and sat on the small bed by the window to recall the clues he got today.

After thinking about it, I always thought of the child who relieved himself everywhere, so I simply followed the train of thought:

Today, the child clearly knows that he is a boy. A child of this age can already tell whether he is a boy or a girl. Besides, except for little beggars, girls generally don't go out.

Today I saw his arms and legs, he was pitifully thin, Qin Xian was carried back by Qin Zhengqi when he was about the same age as him, he looked much stronger than the kid today.

Perhaps this child has some unspeakable secrets and has to pretend to be a little girl. Qin Yong thinks that this unspeakable secret is mostly related to the Song Mansion—after all, the child is urinating and spitting at the bottom of the wall today. Arrived.

Every family has scriptures that are difficult to recite, and the deeper the house, the more confounding the reasons. Qin Yong thinks of his miserable old man and father, and feels sympathetic to each other.

If it weren't for the gentleman's etiquette, he would really like to run outside Qin Zhengqi's bedroom, just under the window, urinate and spit, and then point to Qin Zhengqi's nose and swear a word or two. Degas.

It can be seen that sometimes, people can only live happily if they are shameless.

However, it is not enough for Qin Yong to send Ying Er to find out about this child just because of the same illness. There are tens of millions of miserable people in the world. Qin Yong is not a compassionate person, and his own family still has a bad debt. How much do you care about helping others?

He just had a vague feeling that the matter of this child might have something to do with Princess Jingming.

It’s not entirely intuition. Princess Jingming and nurse Chang’s are most likely to be sold to Xiapi. It’s been more than ten years, and there are very few clues left. These unusual things are worth investigating. Fan.

What if this child is the son of Princess Jingming?

Qin Yong couldn't help laughing, laughing at himself thinking wildly, Mrs. Qin had told him about Princess Jingming's demeanor back then, she was an extremely intelligent and dignified person, even though she was a princess, she would never neglect the young ladies of the aristocratic family She was unreasonable, and treated her servants like a princess, and all the court ladies and eunuchs respected her very much.

I heard that Princess Jingming was the only concubine daughter of the sixth prince back then. The prince died in battle and the princess committed suicide by crashing into a coffin, leaving behind a daughter who was sent by the former emperor to be raised by the present empress dowager. She really liked the empress dowager.

If it is the son of Princess Jingming, Princess Jingming will definitely teach him carefully, and will not let him grow into a little boy who talks dirty and wears skirts.

It's a pity that such a dignified and intelligent person is now missing, and it is unknown whether he is still alive.

Qin Yong was thinking wildly, and an hour passed before he knew it, when he heard some noise from the window, he got up and stepped aside, and sure enough a figure flashed in and knelt on the ground on one knee.

"master."

Qin Yong returned to the table and took a sip of cold tea: "Did you find it?"

"Returning to Master, that child is very clever. He was afraid that you would send someone to follow him, so he purposely wandered outside for more than half an hour before returning home. He is from the Song Mansion. My subordinate squatted on a tree outside the courtyard and saw it. He entered through the main entrance, and a woman pulled a cane when he entered the door. At first he thought it was a servant. Later, when he slept in the woodshed, an old woman called him Miss. Then the subordinate went to the street to inquire, and it was The third lady of the Song family, born of a concubine, is named Song Zhiyao."

Qin Yong nodded: "Okay, it's none of your business, Xiaoduo Xiaoman left some food for you, go use it."

Shadow Two clasped his hands together and backed away.

Song Zhiyao... that's fine, tomorrow I'll go meet the concubine of the Song family.