Dingjiangshan

Zheng Shaohui waited in the border town for ten days in bewilderment. The moment he saw Ning Huaijin, he realized what the "opportunity" in Ning Yanxin's vague words was.

The timing of Ning Huaijin's appearance was very unexpected. He didn't seem to know Zheng Shaohui's movements, so he didn't take the initiative to look for him. Instead, he bumped into Zheng Shaohui who was staying in the official post when he came to stay at the official post late one night. .

Zheng Shaohui was sleeping soundly at that time, only heard dogs barking and horses yelling in the yard, and the messy sounds mixed together, he woke up from his sleep in a daze, and wanted to go downstairs to take a look with his clothes on.

Unexpectedly, before he went down a few steps of the stairs, he saw two figures swaggering in from the night, one behind the other. They didn't wait for the waiter who was on duty to come out to greet him, so they familiarly locked the keys behind the wall Take a string off the board and prepare to go upstairs.

——Looking at the appearance of these two people who are familiar with the road, they don't seem to be caravan travelers who have strayed in.Zheng Shaohui thought for a while, but didn't expect any colleagues to come here recently, so he took off the candlestick from the wall, lit it with a torch, and wanted to go down to have a look.

Zheng Shaohui bent down and went down the narrow and narrow stairs, and the two people downstairs were also climbing up the stairs. The two people met on the narrow stairs, and when they saw each other, they were stunned at the same time.

"Zheng..." Ning Huaijin's impression of Zheng Shaohui was only in the hunting grounds, and he felt familiar for a while. After thinking for a while, he said uncertainly: "Zheng Shaohui?"

Zheng Shaohui was startled when he saw Prince Gong suddenly in this place where no birds shit. Ning Huaijin, who had always been prudent and polite in Beijing, now seemed to have escaped from some mountain nest. It's dust and dirt, and the clothes that are already plain and clean can't see the original color even more.Something wiped a bloodstain on the back of his left hand holding the key, and the blood had dried up, sticking dryly to the back of his hand.

Zheng Shaohui gasped suddenly.

——Who did this, Zheng Shaohui thought subconsciously, if he let Ning Yan know that his invariable little emperor made him like this outside, he might find someone to settle the score.

"That's right...it's the next official, I've seen the prince." Zheng Shaohui stretched out his hand to help him, but realized that the current situation was very embarrassing.It stands to reason that he should salute when he sees Ning Huaijin, but the stairs are narrow and long, and he is standing on the upper floor.

Ning Huaijin obviously didn't expect to meet him here, she frowned and was about to ask something, but she also felt that she was inconvenient, so she simply waved her hand, motioning for him to excuse me, and let's go up and talk.

Zheng Shaohui gave him a hand, and when he got closer, he realized that there was a strong burning smell on his body, as if he had come out of a kitchen full of smoke.In addition, there is a little flowery aroma in the thick smoke, which smells very strange.

With the light of the candle, Zheng Shaohui noticed that Ning Huaijin's attendant was also following him. The clothes on the other party's body were even more dirty, and a large area of ​​the left cuff was burnt, so no one was hurt.

The key that Ning Huaijin picked up happened to be next to Zheng Shaohui. He seemed to be in a hurry to ask something, and he didn't even care about his own disgrace. Invited into the room.

Zheng Shaohui lit the candles in the house one by one with the candlestick in his hand, then politely asked Ning Huaijin to sit down at the table and poured him a cup of tea.

"Why is Deputy Commander Zheng here?" Ning Huaijin asked.

Zheng Shaohui guessed that this was what he said, and just now at the top of the stairs, he thought about his speech, and said quickly: "Your Majesty ordered me to come and investigate Jiang Xuan's life experience."

Ning Huaijin was slightly taken aback, as if she didn't expect that Ning Yan was not dazzled by the "beauty" after all, and remembered to check these things.

But then Ning Huaijin regained his composure, took a sip of tea, and said, "What did you find out?"

Zheng Shaohui collected himself, and told Ning Huaijin what he had seen and heard these days in detail.Prince Gong has the right to assist the government, and Zheng Shaohui didn't take it too seriously when he said it, from the time Ning Yan ordered him to leave Beijing, to the situation of Jiang Xuan's family and the anomalies of the Jiang family's family.

Ning Huaijin still listened calmly, but the more he listened, the more dignified his expression became. His brows became more and more wrinkled, until he didn't even remember to drink tea.

"Wait." Ning Huaijin made a gesture: "Just now you said that you chased the Jiang family's caravan to a warehouse?"

"Yes." Zheng Shaohui said: "It's a pity that I didn't expect that there were two teams of courtyard guards at the warehouse, so I rushed in and frightened the snake. Afterwards, His Majesty ordered me to wait here, but I was thinking about it and couldn't rest assured. Thinking about choosing another day to go in and explore.”

"No need to investigate." Ning Huaijin said flatly, "The warehouse was burned by the king."

Zheng Shaohui: "..."

"But twenty miles away from here, in a small village, the first one from the east, the courtyard with two seabuckthorn trees at the door?" Ning Huaijin asked again.

Zheng Shaohui nodded blankly.

"That's right." Ning Huaijin took another sip of tea and said in a cold voice, "Half an hour ago, the house was burned down by me."

When she bumped into the chariot and horse in Anqing Mansion earlier, Ning Huaijin felt that there was a fraud in it, so she just followed it at the risk.Fortunately, in order to deceive others, the convoy did not dare to take the small road alone, but followed most of the caravans to take the official and commercial roads, which made Ning Huaijin a lot of convenience.

Probably because this batch of things was really invisible to people, after the carriage arrived at the pier, this batch of medicinal materials was mixed with ordinary grain and grass bales, and stuffed under the cabin.

This batch of goods took the waterway from Anqing to Jiangzhou before landing, and then continued along the official road.Ning Huaijin followed the man in the car all the way north, from Anqing Mansion to the border town. On the way, he changed his appearance several times, mixed in the convoy to investigate the situation, and once caught up with the lax guards, he even asked him to steal two plants of herbs.

As Uncle Rong said, he had never seen those herbs before. They looked strange and smelled sweet and greasy, very weird.

Ning Huaijin kept an eye out, and stayed in Jiangzhou for a few more days, and only asked Wei Ji to follow, then went to the inner city by herself, found a local doctor, and looked at the medicinal materials.

Fortunately, Jiangzhou is already located in the south, not too far from Yuanjiang. After searching for two days, Ning Huaijin really found an old doctor who was nearly seventy years old and knew this thing.

According to the old doctor, the herb in Ning Huaijin's hands is a common insect repellent in the south, and it is not for decoction, but for burning.The climate in Yuanjiang Mansion is humid, and there are many forests and vegetation. Various kinds of insects and snakes often hurt people. The local people picked this grass and mixed it with other medicinal materials to make a kind of sachet. When they entered the mountain, they burned it with fire and the insects As long as the snake smells this smell, it will not dare to approach it.

Ning Huaijin didn't understand what it meant at the time, and didn't understand what Ning Zheng was doing with all the fanfare to store up some deworming medicine, so she asked a few more questions carefully, whether the medicine had other uses.

At that time, the old doctor swore that this medicine was tasteless, and it would lose its medicinal properties when mixed with other medicinal materials, and there was only one use for it.

Although Ning Huaijin was full of doubts, he didn't say anything. He sealed some money and was about to leave, but the old doctor suddenly slapped his forehead and called him back.

"It's just my son, you must remember one thing." The old doctor said tremblingly: "Although this prescription is good for repelling insects, a foreigner like you has gone to Yuanjiang, but you can't use it."

Ning Huaijin thought a little, and hurriedly said, "How do you say that?"

"There is a kind of herbal tea in Yuanjiang. Its effect is similar to that of tobacco leaves. Drinking it often can dehumidify and nourish Qi. The local people often drink it, and it is also common in tea stalls and wine shops on the roadside. It is easy to eat it by mistake." The old doctor said: "But this tea and insect repellent The medicinal properties of herbal medicines collide, and if the two medicines are used together, it is easy to cause serious trouble."

Ning Huaijin's heart tightened, and she said anxiously, "What's the big deal?"

"I have never been treated, so I don't know." The old doctor thought hard, and said hesitantly: "I only heard people say that it is very easy to cause a kind of cold poison."

The old doctor's words were extremely important in Ning Huaijin's heart. He was very anxious at the time, so he had to write a letter to Ning Yan in a hurry, telling him to be careful in Beijing, and then he worked day and night to catch up with the progress of the caravan.

When the team of carriages and horses approached the border town, they no longer concealed themselves, skimmed the few grains and grass, and replaced them with horse-drawn carriages, speeding up the journey.Ning Huaijin and Wei Ji followed day and night without sleep for two days and two nights before reaching the warehouse that Zheng Shaohui had discovered earlier.

Ning Huaijin was thinking about something in her heart, so she did not have the patience to investigate slowly, ordered Wei Ji to set a fire on the stable side, and took advantage of the chaos of fighting the fire to get into the warehouse.

This warehouse is just an ordinary farm house, and there is nothing special about it except that it is tightly guarded. Ning Huaijin used a dagger to pry open the wooden boxes that arrived in the afternoon one by one, and saw a few herbs neatly stacked inside. There are also two boxes of extremely tender tea cores.

——What else is there to say, Changle Wang Qiqiao Linglongxin can even think of such a sideways method.

As soon as Ning Huaijin thought that Ning Zheng was going to send these things around to the palace, she became angry from the heart, and simply threw them on the top of the fire, burning these scourges.

Originally, it would have been burned. At that time, there were fires everywhere in the courtyard, and this place was not bad, but Ning Huaijin walked to the window and was about to leave, but for some reason, he turned back suddenly and took a bottle of fire from the wooden box. He put the package of medicinal materials into his pocket and wanted to take it away, only to be burned by fire.

Zheng Shaohui couldn't help but click his tongue when he heard Ning Huaijin finish the cause and effect of the matter in a few words——Prince Gong looks indifferent and well-behaved on weekdays, but he doesn't want to be so ruthless and so decisive, even doing things like setting fire to other people's lairs come out.

"That's right." After Ning Huaijin finished speaking, she remembered something, took a sip of tea, and asked one more question: "You just said why you stayed here."

"Your Majesty ordered it." Zheng Shaohui said, "Your Majesty asked the officer to stand still here and choose an opportunity to return to Beijing—but when he sees the prince, the officer will understand this opportunity, and I'm afraid it is the prince."

Ning Huaijin frowned, and suddenly felt a sense of strangeness for no reason, as if something was wrong right before his eyes, but he just couldn't remember it.

"Wait." Ning Huaijin said slowly, "You mean, His Majesty knew that you and I would meet here?"

"This..." Zheng Shaohui didn't dare to say whether Ning Yan really knew, so he could only hesitate and hesitate: "Or... maybe."

"It's broken." Ning Huaijin's complexion changed a few times, and after a while she stood up with a groan, and said coldly, "Quick, go back to Beijing with me."