Chongzhen Sunset Song

?one

"What? Did you say that in front of the emperor?"

In the supervisor of ceremonies, a trace of surprise flashed across Li Quan's eyes, but this surprise was fleeting, and it returned to a pool of calm deep water in a blink of an eye.

"Even though the father-in-law confiscated Qian Qianyi's money, it is true that he entrusted him. If the father-in-law made such a promise in front of the emperor, he must have other plans." Li Quan lowered his eyes and said.

"Hmph, you do understand, kid." Wang Chengen flipped up his clothes, sat down in the upper seat, and stretched out his hand to beckon Zhou Xi to come over and give him a shoulder tap.

"I would like to listen to my father-in-law." Li Quan also sat down.

"Hey, if there are other plans, it's nothing new. It's just a false move on the emperor's part for self-protection."

"Oh? A false move?"

Wang Chengen hummed, moved his stiff shoulders and neck again, and said lazily: "Whether Qian Qianyi lives or dies, it is up to the emperor to decide. If the emperor is determined, even if our family loses his words, the emperor will not." It may not be able to listen. Besides, if our family gets in first, how can we take care of him, and it would be a good idea to settle ourselves first."

"What father-in-law said makes sense." Li Quan nodded.

Wang Chengen twitched his lips, squinted his eyes, and continued: "So, our family is betting on the treasure behind. This Qian Qianyi was sued by Wen Tiren. If we can see the opportunity and close Wen Tiren, Qian Qianyi's case will be settled." It will be solved immediately; but if the old boy hides this time, then our family can only say that we have tried our best, life and death are fate, everything depends on Qian Qianyi's fortune."

"It's over..." Li Quan murmured, then suddenly fell silent, leaned closer to Wang Chengen, and said in a suppressed voice, "Could it be that the father-in-law wants his life?"

"I'm afraid I'll lose my life." Wang Chengen opened his eyes slightly, curled his lips downwards, and shook his head, "This Wen Tiren has been entrenched in the court for many years, and he has always acted secretly. Not too much. But at least let him get out of the court this time, and don’t hang around in front of our house again.” As he said, he gritted his teeth again, “Hmph, if you’re playing with our family, then let’s play big. If he is not benevolent, don't blame our family for being unrighteous!"

Wang Chengen's tone was so vicious that Zhou Xi, who was hammering his shoulders behind him, couldn't help trembling.Wang Chengen glanced back, suddenly smiled inexplicably, and said to Li Quan: "Hey, you know, there is another bad thing today."

"what's up?"

"Our family went to the Hall of Martial Arts to file a complaint today, asking the emperor to back off from the left and right, in order to prevent rumors from spreading, so that the surname Wen was on guard. The emperor actually pushed back others, but left Zhang Dexiu alone, and said that he is fine." Wang Chengen faced Li Quan, but his eyes flickered back and forth, apparently looking elsewhere. "What kind of ecstasy soup did this Dexiu pour into the emperor? The emperor actually believes him like this. You say this, it makes people feel bad."

"Well... yes." After the conversation during the day, Li Quanzi knew the meaning of Wang Chengen's words. He couldn't answer for a while, so he forced a smile and subconsciously glanced at Zhou Xi who was behind Wang Chengen. .Wang Chengen pretended not to notice, and while thinking about how kind the emperor was to Zhang Dexiu, he closed his eyes again, feeling the fists on his shoulders rushing and slowing down, the force became more and more perfunctory, and his face gradually floated up. A smug smile.

two

A crescent moon hangs in the sky, and the night is already deep.He missed the call twice, but the candles in the study at the back of Wen's mansion were still glowing.

"My lord, it's so late, I haven't rested yet."

The door creaked, and Wang Cong walked into the room carrying a bowl of porridge.

"This is the lily and lotus seed porridge my wife prepared for you. Would you like some?"

"Well, I happen to be a little hungry too." Wen Tiren nodded, put down his pen, picked up the porridge bowl and drank two spoonfuls.

Wang Cong sat by the window, put the porridge bowl on the coffee table, rubbed his hands a little uneasily, hesitated for a long time, and then asked, "My lord...the report on exposing the prince...can you write it down?" gone?"

"Well, Chen Lvqian just finished writing and delivered it in the evening, and I will present it to the emperor tomorrow." Wen Tiren finished a bowl of porridge, wiped his mouth with a handkerchief, threw the handkerchief aside again, and sneered, "This Wang Cheng'en wants to play tricks on me, but this time I will teach him to see who punishes whom."

"Uh, yes..." An unnatural embarrassment flashed through Wang Cong's eyes, and he coughed twice to cover it up. "My lord, the late student... There is a saying, I don't know if I should say it or not."

"You said."

Wang Cong stood up, collected himself, and bowed solemnly.

"Your Excellency...have to forgive others and forgive others... breaking up with the prince will be harmful and not beneficial to Your Excellency. You should not take this book!"

"Why are you still talking about this?" Wen Tiren frowned, showing displeasure, and lowered his head to arrange the papers on the table, ignoring Wang Cong's earnest eyes, "I've made up my mind, you don't need to say more .”

"Hey..." Wang Cong sighed quietly.After going back and forth to the end, I finally lost my last thought.So he was heartbroken, took a step forward, and cupped his hands.

"My lord, Wansheng received a letter from his family before dinner today, saying that his mother was seriously ill, so he called Wansheng to return to his hometown, and then he will be filial in the end..."

"Oh, you should, you should. You just go." Wen Tiren stopped his hands, raised his head, and readily agreed.

"Thank you, sir. That night's birth will start tomorrow, and I will return in a few days." Wang Cong saluted sadly, turned around and was about to leave, when Wen Tiren said again behind him: "Wait!"

"What other orders do you have?" Wang Cong turned around.

"Well, before you leave, go to the warehouse to pay 50 taels of silver, and temporarily supplement your mother's medical expenses."

"How did this happen!" Wang Cong was startled, and quickly waved his hands.

"Why can't it be done? Take it." Wen Tiren said with a slight smile.The candlelight softly reflected that familiar and old face, the usual scheming and calculations gradually disappeared between the gray beard and hair, leaving only the peaceful expression precipitated by the years, no different from ordinary old people.Wang Cong felt a pain in his heart, bent his knees, and knelt on the ground with a plop, but remained silent.

"What's the meaning of this? Get up, get up!" Wen Tiren was startled by Wang Cong's sudden action, and hurriedly greeted him.

"...This... The adults have treated me very well these years, and I really can't repay you for my late life..." Wang Cong lowered his head, and managed to utter a sentence, and then fell silent in the middle of the sentence.

"Hey~ why did you say this suddenly. Get up quickly." Wen Tiren smiled and waved to Wang Cong again.

Wang Cong opened and closed his lips several times, but the thousand words in his heart could not be uttered in the end.He was silent for a while, took a long breath, stretched out his arms, and bowed deeply to the ground.

"Late birth... Farewell."

three

Today, the court has been discussing for a long time, and by the time of the next court, it is already three poles in the sun.

"I saw Ai Qing hesitated to speak at court, did you have something to say?"

The dragon chariot stopped at the entrance of the Hall of Martial Arts, and Chongzhen got out of the car holding Xi Zhao's hand, and said to Wen Tiren who came along with the car.

"Your Majesty is wise." Wen Tiren bowed humbly.

With his hands behind his back, Chongzhen stepped into the gate of the Hall of Martial Heroes, walked straight into the main hall along the central corridor, entered the Nuan Pavilion after a corner, and took a seat behind the dragon case.

"What's the matter, tell me."

"Yes." Seeing that the emperor was sitting upright, Wen Tiren took out a khaki envelope from his sleeve, held it in both hands, and presented it respectfully.

"This is an anonymous post that Wei Chen received last night. It was supposed to be sent to the Supervisor of Rituals together with other memorials, but the content..." Wen Tiren deliberately paused, "The content involved the Supervisor of Rites I'm afraid it's inappropriate to hand it over directly to the Supervisor of Rituals, so I made my own proposal and submitted it to the emperor for review."

"Hmm..." Chongzhen glanced at Wen Tiren, remained calm, just took the anonymous post from Xizhao, and started to read it.The handwriting is indeed unfamiliar, and the writing is not as smooth and sophisticated as those who have lived in the court for a long time, but the content is not much different from the rumors that Wang Chengen said yesterday.After reading it over and over, Chongzhen closed the Jietie and tapped it on the palm of his hand, thought for a moment, and inserted the Jietie into a pile of memorials.

"I know, you should step back."

"Your Majesty?" Wen Tiren was taken aback for a moment, and his mouth froze for a moment.The emperor has always been jealous of evil, and he knows this best.But now that the post reported such a big crime as Wang Chengen, the emperor's reaction was so flat, which greatly exceeded his expectations. "Your Majesty means...?"

"Zhen will send someone to check this matter, so you don't have to ask." Chongzhen still had no expression, but his eyes were pitch black and bottomless.

Chongzhen's attitude made Wen Tiren feel very uncertain, but the emperor didn't ask any more questions, and he couldn't say anything more. After dawdling for a long time, he had to follow the emperor's wishes, bowed and saluted, and left the Hall of Martial Arts.

After returning to Wen's mansion, Wen Tiren became more and more suspicious, so he called Chen Luqian, and asked the reporter at that time, both of them insisted that they never leaked the news.I wanted to call Wang Cong to ask again, only to realize that he had already left for his hometown this morning.

"It seems that this hand has to be played harder." Wen Tiren squinted his eyes, as if speaking to Chen Luqian, or talking to himself.How could Chen Luqian have Wang Cong's understanding of this lord's mind, he only said that the first assistant wanted to deal ruthlessly with Qian Qianyi, he kept flattering and agreeing, but he couldn't agree with the point.Wen Tiren was a little annoyed, so he waved him to back off, thinking about it by himself.

four

A few days later at noon, a man of medium build with a beard suddenly broke into the lobby of the Ministry of Criminal Justice. Regardless of the officer's obstruction, he yelled that he had something urgent to report to Lord Shangshu.The officer yelled a few words, but he was also afraid in his heart that if he really had something important to do, he didn't dare to drive him out of the lobby. Ying invited out.

"Who are you and what's the matter, tell me quickly." Just after lunch, Feng Ying was taking a nap, but was disturbed by this unexpected guest, naturally upset, and her attitude was very rude.But the people in the hall stood with their feet apart, their arms crossed in front of their chests, and before they could say anything, they raised their chins, showing an arrogant look.

"The villain Wang Fan is the prison officer of the Ministry of Criminal Justice. This time he surrendered himself."

"Surrender yourself?" Feng Ying frowned.Seeing Wang Fan's disrespectful appearance, Feng Ying was of course annoyed, but she couldn't help but ask the matter clearly, so she suppressed her anger and asked, "Why did you turn yourself in?"

"The villain is corrupt and breaks the law, taking bribes privately."

"Corruption and breaking the law, taking bribes privately?"

"That's right." Wang Fan replied affirmatively, looking straight at Feng Ying in the hall, "The villain is greedy for money, and has secretly helped the prisoner Qian Qianyi and the supervisor of ceremonies to exchange letters with Wang Chengen, Prince Wang Chengen many times. He handed over Qian Qianyi's 4 taels of bribe money to the prince himself. After realizing it, I regretted it very much, so I surrendered myself!"

"What?!" Feng Ying's eyes widened, and the exhaustion of being half awake just now was swept away.There was a post to accuse Wang Chengen of accepting bribes, which has been widely known in the past few days, but the emperor stayed without trial and ignored it. This strange attitude made all the officials discuss and speculate constantly.Just when the incident was complicated and confusing, now there is such a person who proved that he came to the door.This matter cannot be taken lightly.So Feng Ying pondered for a moment, and ordered loudly:

"Come here, first imprison Wang Fan, and wait for the official to report to His Majesty, and then release it."