Dingjiangshan

When meeting Jiang Ling on the palace road, Shu Qiuyu was shocked.

Jiang Ling wore a neat red coat today. The three-finger-wide leather girdle added a bit of wildness to her slender figure. The frost-colored long sword was on her left hand, and the hand-woven tassel of the Pixiu sword was following along with her. The movement of walking down the ground dangling in the air.

Jiang Ling's mind was obviously not on the road. She was pulling the leather rope on the arrow sleeve tightly with one hand while thinking about something absent-mindedly. It wasn't until Shu Qiuyu walked directly opposite that she suddenly realized that there was someone more not far in front of her.

Two respectable ladies in Beijing met on the deserted and remote palace road, and felt guilty for a moment when they looked at each other.

It's just that Shu Qiuyu can occupy the title of "righteousness" better than Jiang Ling, and he can recover faster, and asked in a warm voice: "Why is the second girl here?"

"This..." Jiang Ling scratched his face guiltyly, and quickly smiled begging for mercy: "Sister Shu, I came to play with my brother yesterday afternoon, and accidentally missed the time to play the key at the palace gate when I was playing chess with him , stayed overnight at the National Teacher's Mansion."

"I see." Shu Qiuyu said.

"That's right." Jiang Ling said with a bitter face, "Now I'm planning to return home while my father is in court, or if he finds out, he will scold me again... Sister Shu, please don't go out and talk about it."

"I won't." Shu Qiuyu smiled and comforted her, "Second Miss, don't worry."

"I know, Sister Shu is a very good person." Jiang Ling smiled with her hands behind her back, and winked at her mischievously: "This is our little secret."

Shu Qiuyu nodded happily.

Shu Qiuyu knew in her heart that even though Jiang Ling was so cautious, even if she stayed in the palace overnight and spread the word, it would be fine.Such a big matter of damaging the reputation of the girl next to her, if it was put on the second girl, it would be nothing more than a trivial sentence of "spoiled, I don't know the rules".

Jiang Ling got her promise, smiled contentedly, pointed in the direction of the palace gate, and said, "Then I'll go first, Sister Shu, I have to go back quickly."

Shu Qiuyu rushed to Ruan Yin Palace to accept the cart of "cabbage" with her, and nodded when she heard this, but didn't say much.

Jiang Ling nimbly tied the leather strap around his wrist and passed Shu Qiuyu. He had just walked a dozen steps away when he suddenly remembered something and turned around to stop her.

"Sister Shu." Jiang Ling said.

Shu Qiuyu was startled, and subconsciously turned her head to look at her. She didn't turn around, but turned slightly sideways, tilting her head to look at Jiang Ling.

It was a subconscious posture of defense, but Jiang Ling didn't care.

"Sister Shu, do you know the new Jiang Zhaoyi?" Jiang Ling asked.

Shu Qiuyu breathed a sigh of relief, she thought, and instead of answering directly, she asked softly, "What's the matter?"

"I saw her in the Royal Garden yesterday afternoon." Jiang Ling said, "I looked at her very uncomfortable, but I couldn't tell why. It must be a bad thing."

"Sister Shu." Jiang Ling said seriously: "You should stay away from her."

—stay away from her.

The second girl Jiang spoke lightly and frankly, as if she didn't know how to write the word euphemism, likes and dislikes can be put into words so easily.

Shu Qiuyu's heart suddenly and secretly steamed with unreasonable anger, which seemed to come from Jiang Ling's easy kindness, and also seemed to come from her magnanimity.

But immediately afterwards, she herself felt that this anger was really unreasonable, and that emotion was like a misty rain, which was wiped away by Shu Qiuyu before it took shape.

She just——Shu Qiuyu thought, she just couldn't get used to it.

But in fact, Miss Jiang's temperament has always been like this, and it has not changed in the past ten years.For so many years, no one has framed her temperament, insisting on forcing her to grow up like a benchmark.

This is not only because Jiang Ling has a brother who is famous all over the world as a national teacher. Everyone in the capital knows that the girl from the Jiang family is extremely skilled in martial arts. Follow her every move.Even if she was out of line occasionally, for Jiang Xiaohan's face, everyone would tacitly classify her as "young", and few people would really blame her.

Shu Qiuyu's eyes subconsciously fell on Jiang Ling's sword hilt, looking at the dangling sword tassel above it.

——I heard that her father made it up for her, Shu Qiuyu thought for no reason.During the last flower viewing party, I overheard Jiang Ling saying that her father couldn't resist her begging every day, and there was nothing he could do, so he reluctantly made one for her. Because of the unfamiliar craftsmanship, two silk threads on the inside were unbuttoned. , so it looks a bit distorted.

Not only that, but Jiang Ling was the only one who was allowed by Ning Yan to bring sharp weapons into and out of the palace, except for the imperial guards and bodyguards. The reason was that she was "used to carrying them" and often forgot to take them off when entering the palace.

She was obviously the only daughter in the capital who was born in a prime minister's mansion, but she and Jiang Ling seemed to be leading diametrically opposite lives.

Jiang Ling's swordsmanship is superb, and his riding and archery skills are not bad. He once shot two birds with one stone in the imperial garden.Compared with the Shu Mansion, the Jiang Mansion was less well-connected, but it was still clean and less troubled.In addition, the adults in the family are protecting her, so the little girl who has been raised for so many years is free and easy, pampered and not overbearing, she has a personality that is easy to like, and she even coaxes everyone when she sees her, even Ning Yan is no exception.

Since Shu Qiuyu can remember things, she has to obey the rules and be reasonable, learning piano, chess, calligraphy and painting with the "queen" as the benchmark, and framed it in a frame, but Jiang Ling doesn't use it. Jiang Xiaohan never sticks to what she does, even Jiang Ling wants to When traveling in the rivers and lakes, Jiang Xiaohan never said anything else. Most of them gave enough money and asked the bankers from all over the country to help take care of it. She didn't even force her to take an attendant with her.

——What kind of nonsense is this, Shu Qiuyu thought.

No wonder I have grown up like this, even though I am 15 years old, I still don't even know how to hide my thoughts, offend people, and don't know what to talk about.

Shu Qiuyu couldn't tell what it was like in her heart, it seemed that some "elders" looked at the "younger" innocent and ignorant with empathy, but with a bit of sourness.These messy emotions mixed together, finally gave birth to an imperceptible envy.

She unconsciously rubbed the fingers hidden in her sleeves, and subconsciously showed a gentle smile.She didn't answer whether Jiang Ling was good or bad, she just nodded and answered her in a tactful "adult" way.

"I see." Shu Qiuyu said, "I will remember."

Jiang Ling automatically regarded it as some kind of "guarantee", smiled at her contentedly, and then continued to move forward, heading towards the palace gate.

Shu Qiuyu looked at her back with a complicated expression for a while, then turned her head in silence, held Ginkgo's hand, and walked in the opposite direction to her.

Two hours later, Ning Yan, who had left the imperial court, waited for news from He Wenting in the inner hall of Zichen Hall.

"Your Majesty." He Wenting stepped in from the door, still holding a bamboo tube in his hand: "The contents of that cart have already been delivered to the Empress Dowager's Palace, and no one else has passed through it."

Ning Yan glanced at the two letterboxes in his hand, and didn't rush to answer them.He was holding a bowl of sweet soup in his hand, which was just delivered by Jiang Xuan. The bowl was still hot, and it should have just come out of the pot.

The number of times Jiang Xuan sent him desserts recently changed from once a day to twice a day. Ning Yan counted the number of times, only to find that since the hangover soup, before he knew it, the things Jiang Xuan sent him had already changed. Been eating for almost two months.

Ten days ago, Ning Yan received a letter from Zheng Shaohui, saying that he had found Jiang Xuan's hometown, and found an extremely secret warehouse of the Jiang family there.The place was very small, with only two rooms, but there were about thirty guards. If it was in the scorching sun, the courtyard would emit a pungent aroma.

It's a pity that Zheng Shaohui wanted to find out, but because of his poor preparation, he gave away his flaws and startled the snake.

Ning Yan didn't care either, he replied to the message and asked him to stand still for the time being, and just wait for the opportunity to return to Beijing.

As for this machine——

"News?" Ning Yan asked.

He Wenting hastily pulled out the cork and sealing wax from the letter box in his hand, and handed it to Ning Yan.

Ning Yan took a sip of the sweet soup, then put down the bowl and sat up straight, and pulled out a scroll from the letter box.

He Wenting looked at him as his eyes flicked across the paper, and then smiled lightly.

"Unexpectedly, Uncle Huang's hands and feet are quite fast." Ning Yan said in a low voice.

When He Wenting heard Ning Huaijin's name, his ears moved, and he answered with a smile, "What's the matter?"

Ning Yan didn't answer in a hurry, he seemed to think of something to be happy about, carefully folded the scroll, and couldn't stop laughing.

"Uncle Huang will join Zheng Shaohui soon." Ning Yan said.

He Wenting only knew a rough idea of ​​Ning Yan's daily arrangements, and was slightly taken aback when he heard this, because he didn't match the two people up for a while.

Ning Yan didn't intend to say more, he waved his hand, motioning for the waiter to take away the bowl of sweet soup that he only took a sip of, and then took out another letter from his arms.

Ning Huaijin accidentally did Ning Yan a big favor.

Compared with Zheng Shaohui and Xie's personal guards, someone had set foot on the land of Liangzhou and border towns one step earlier than them - from the night Ning Yan accepted Jiang Xuan, Ning Yan's shadow guards had already been there for a year. The team went to investigate Jiang Xuan's background first.

Zheng Shaohui is Ning Yan's second protection, and also the target he uses to attract Ruan Yin's attention.The Shadow Guard's movements are faster and more precise than Zheng Shaohui's, so Ning Yan can always know the news over there one step ahead, including the Jiang family's business line, and the goods that flowed into the capital from that business line without anyone noticing. .

But after all, Ning Yan couldn't be distracted and scrupled on both sides. There were not many shadow guards, and he had other uses, so he couldn't be alone.Ruan Yin was staring at him all the time, and if someone like Zheng Shaohui was released, it would be more or less a target on the surface, and it would be useless to let him out.

Therefore, Ning Yan could only find a more necessary route after weighing the matter - to find out the relationship between the Jiang family and Ruan Yin, as well as the ultimate goals of these two women.

In the process, he must give up some things, such as what the goods are, where they come from, and what their uses are.

But there is no doubt that Ning Huaijin has made up for this gap for him now, and also added more bargaining chips in his hand.

It is precisely because of Ning Huaijin's intervention that Anqing and Liangzhou, two places separated by thousands of mountains and rivers, can be connected by a commercial line.Ruan Yin and Ning Zheng's gazes had already been habitually focused on Ning Yan during the half-year-long "breakup" between the uncle and nephew, so that when Ning Huaijin caught off guard and pulled a string of When she was private, Ruan Yin was left with nothing but to jump over the wall in a hurry.

And that secret line was supplemented tacitly by Ning Yan and Ning Huaijin at the same time without any discussion, and began to reveal the wolfish ambition buried underneath.