After the rebirth, I was picked up by the prince

The warm applause lasted for a long time, until Qi Zizhen changed back into his clothes and mask, Song Yaoxu took the lantern as a prize from the fox mask man, and handed the lantern to him, he didn't slow down.

He and Song Yaoxu obviously only made eye contact for a moment before the start, how could Song Yaoxu recognize him?

Qi Zizhen held the lantern in one hand, and was taken off stage by Song Yaoxu's hand in such a daze before he remembered to ask: "How did Ah Jin recognize me?"

Song Yaoxu stopped, looked back at Qi Zizhen who was holding a lantern full of curiosity and confusion, and smiled: "Because Zizhen looks at me differently."

eyes?

Qi Zizhen paused again before he understood.Even if he was not in the audience at the time, even if he would pretend to be indifferent, he would show some subtle nervousness more or less.

And Song Yaoxu is such a meticulous person, I'm afraid he could have guessed what kind of mood he would be at that time.

Qi Zizhen finally showed a slight smile after recollecting it, his eyes flickered a little, reflecting Song Yaoxu's figure cleanly: "Brother A Jin is still careful."

Hearing the words he added after the address, Song Yaoxu took his hand and clenched it slightly, the smile in his eyes deepened: "Zizhen is also great."

Seeing the smile in his eyes, Qi Zizhen felt something was wrong, and immediately changed the subject: "By the way, where are the children?"

"Xiao Shi can't wait, I'll ask Cui Liang to take them to play for a while." Song Yaoxu rubbed his head with a smile, and continued to walk forward while replying, "I'll meet them later."

Qi Zizhen nodded and didn't continue to ask about the child.

Although there are many people today, but everyone is wearing masks, it is difficult to tell who is who, and Cui Liang is not worried about them getting lost.

Since the children are away, they can just enjoy their two-person world.

Qi Zizhen held the lantern in one hand, thought for a while and said, "Then let's go to the moat and put the lanterns?"

Song Yaoxu had no other arrangements, he nodded in response when he heard the words, led him to turn another corner, and went to a section of the moat in the capital.

The location of the moat is relatively remote. It is not close to the National Teacher Tower and the Imperial Palace. Few people come here to play on weekdays. It will only be more lively when the lanterns are displayed on the Lantern Festival.

It has not been long since the lantern celebration started, and many people are still shopping in the market. There are not many people by the moat, and there are only a few scattered lanterns.

Qi Zizhen and Song Yaoxu didn't have much sense of ritual about putting up lanterns, and after finding a suitable place, they carefully put down the lanterns.

The exquisite and small lanterns gradually drift away along the river, floating alone on the river surface, accompanied by the vast night and few stars reflected on the river surface.

Qi Zizhen stood at the place where the lantern was let go, watching the lantern turn around the moat and disappear from their field of vision.

Both of them don't really believe in this kind of wishing, and they should work hard to get what they want.

They went through a cutscene to put the lanterns far away, and then they were going to turn around and go back to meet the children.

However, just as they walked around a corner, four or five men in black suddenly appeared around them.

Song Yaoxu immediately blocked Qi Zizhen behind him vigilantly, the smile in his eyes restrained.

Those four or five men in black were holding long swords in their hands, and they were full of murderous looks, obviously the comers were not kind.

Song Yaoxu drew his sword out of its sheath, and asked Qi Zizhen in a low voice, "Have you brought a guy?"

Qi Zizhen nodded and drew out a dagger.

Although compared with the long swords in the hands of those men in black, his short blade seemed powerless to parry, but Qi Zizhen, who was good at close combat, was not afraid, and his eyes were soaked in coldness.

Song Yaoxu was also very relieved of him, and the two of them faced the men in black side by side, ready to fight at any time.

At the same time, at a certain moment not long afterwards, the group of men in black rushed forward, the long sword in their hands and the cold white reflected in the moonlight.

Qi Zizhen and Song Yaoxu didn't show any fear at all, they followed the man in black without saying a word when he moved.

In an instant, the sound of clashing swords and swords came one after another, which was chaotic and piercing in the small dark corner.

The group of men in black obviously underestimated Qi Zizhen's strength, and only one of the five people was assigned to deal with Qi Zizhen, while the other four surrounded Song Yaoxu.

——In other words, the target of their assassination this time was Song Yaoxu.

Qi Zizhen mercilessly pierced the chest of the assassin in front of him with his sword, and was splashed with hot blood when he pulled out the dagger fiercely, but he didn't care about his own situation, and turned around to go back to help Song Yaoxu.

However, at the same time as he turned his head, Song Yaoxu happened to turn around and cut off the long sword in the hand of a man in black with his sword. Immediately afterwards, he swung his right hand and cut the throat of another man in black without the slightest hesitation.

Under the cold white moonlight, the simple and elegant white clothes fluttered with Song Yaoxu's movements, the black eyes under the silver-white rim mask were icy, and the sharp and decisive sword moves did not even stop, as clean and neat as Bai Wuchang who was harvesting human lives.

He almost forgot that today's Song Yaoxu is no longer the weak prince who still needs his protection.

Qi Zizhen was relieved at this moment, he didn't rush into the range of Song Yaoxu's aura, Hou waited for him to deal with the other four men in black, and took out a clean handkerchief to take advantage of this time to wipe the soiled shorts Wipe the sword.

However, he also noticed that when dealing with the last man in black, Song Yaoxu's aura suddenly became obviously less aggressive than before, as if he wanted to save a living to interrogate the mastermind behind them and their purpose.

Qi Zizhen narrowed his eyes slightly, and immediately reminded: "These people are dead men, Your Highness need not show mercy."

Song Yaoxu on the side heard his words, and cut the throat of the only man in black decisively the next moment.

The blood splashed into the white snow, leaving a large piece of filth.

And at this time, Cui Liang also brought two children to find him. When he saw this tragic scene, he couldn't help being a little startled, and hurriedly asked about the situation.

Song Yaoxu was bleeding from the long sword in his hand, and he still maintained an indifferent look on his face. After briefly explaining the situation, he ordered to return to the palace, and summoned officials from the Ministry of Punishment to enter the palace overnight.

After Zuo Jiayi's analysis of the child's mind before, Song Yaoxu also considered the impact of tonight's incident on the two children, and asked Qi Zizhen to bring Song Shiye back to the National Teacher Tower first, so that at least the two children will interact with each other tonight. can chat.

It happened that Qi Zizhen was going to bring Xu Xiaoqi to the palace to go to school starting tomorrow, so he nodded in agreement, watched Song Yaoxu turn back to the palace, and then took the two children back to the National Master Tower.

In the early morning of the next day, the news that Song Yaoxu was assassinated by a dead man last night quickly spread among the ministers, and it was said that Song Yaoxu summoned some officials from the Ministry of Punishment when he returned to the palace that night, and ordered them to find out who sent the murderer that night. scholar.

After all, in the Ling Dynasty, raising the dead without authorization was a felony.

Moreover, when waiting for the court in the early morning of this morning, all the officials noticed that there were no officials from the Ministry of Punishment. Obviously, they stayed in the palace all night.

Qi Zizhen stepped on the spot again because he was sending the child to school. When he arrived at the waiting place, he walked forward and observed the expressions of the surrounding officials. He roughly remembered a few officials who were obviously not right and didn't care at all.

The eunuch who was in charge of guiding seemed to be used to his stepping on the spot. After he walked to his place and stood still for a while, the eunuch on the side respectfully and politely guided them into the hall.

Qi Zizhen followed the rules and walked in. After walking down according to a set of procedures, basically all the staff were seated, and Song Yaoxu also sat upright on the dragon chair.

At the beginning of the early dynasty, the normal procedure was followed, first the ministers who had written the introductory ceremonies would play the ceremonies, and only after all these trivial matters were finished, Song Yaoxu asked the Minister of the Ministry of Punishments to come forward and talk about the assassination last night.

The servant of the Ministry of punishment is a middle-aged man of about 40 years old, who is unknown in the court on weekdays.

Qi Zizhen only knows that he is a health-preserving school, he likes to do some health-preserving things when he has nothing to do on weekdays, he rarely interferes with the affairs of the court, he looks like he just wants to relax and make a living.

After being called by Song Yaoxu, the servant of the Ministry of Punishment stepped forward respectfully, reported the clues they had found overnight, and finally came to a conclusion - the dead man who assassinated Song Yaoxu last night was among the corrupt officials in the snow disaster. sent by one of them.

After the Minister of Criminal Affairs finished speaking, Zhu Fengyu, Shangshu of the Ministry of Criminal Affairs, came forward to report the progress of today's investigation of the corruption case. He said that it was generally confirmed that there were corruption cases, but the stolen money obtained from the corruption did not match their government account books. It has not yet been found out where they used the stolen money.

Song Yaoxu leaned on the dragon chair, slightly bent his index finger, and tapped lightly on the armrest of the dragon chair.He still had that half-smile look on his face, and he didn't know whether he was satisfied or dissatisfied with the reports of the two officials.

The main hall suddenly fell into a deep silence, only the dragon chair made soft, irregular noises one after another.

Qi Zizhen estimated the situation in his heart, then slowly came out, knelt in front of Zhu Fengyu, and said in a cold voice, "It is a capital crime to be good at raising dead soldiers, but assassinating your majesty and embezzling food relief are even more unreasonable. Please execute the Chen family." As a deterrent, the remaining two continue to investigate."

Mrs. Chen is the official who was sent by the Minister of Criminal Justice just now.

The smile on Song Yaoxu's face remained unchanged, he looked at Qi Zizhen's straight waist with one hand resting on his chin, and asked indifferently: "Then according to Qi Aiqing's words, how should we execute him?"

Qi Zizhen lowered his eyes and said, "Ask to kill in the afternoon."

The atmosphere in the court hall became more stagnant because of his simple four words.

In the Ling Dynasty, most of the officials who were to be sentenced to death would be executed in the autumn, and only the most wicked people would be executed in the afternoon.

It didn't take long for the atmosphere in the court to stagnate, and soon some officials wanted to come out to refute.Among them, the one who raised something wrong was the Minister of the Ministry of Punishment who was still kneeling behind him.

He frowned slightly, held up the wooden sign in his hand and said loudly: "Your Majesty, I think the words of the National Teacher are inappropriate."

"Then what does Yu Qing think?" Song Yaoxu still looked nonchalant, like a bystander who didn't care.

Yu Feiang, the servant of the Ministry of Criminal Justice, reported all his thoughts in detail. The general meaning is that the crime is not limited to this, and why Chen was in prison and sent the dead has not yet been found out. The rash execution may lead to the interruption of clues. .

Immediately after Yu Feiang finished speaking, several officials played, some stood by Qi Zizhen, and some stood by Yu Feiang.

Song Yaoxu sat in a high position and listened to them finish speaking one by one. There was not much change in expression during the whole process, and he didn't show any obvious attitude until the last person finished speaking.

Everyone was waiting for him to speak, but after another dead silence, he announced that the early morning court would end here, and Chen's matter would be discussed at another day, and he also specified that Qi Zizhen should stay after the morning court.

Most of the officials didn't expect that today's morning court would come to an abrupt end, but they didn't dare to say anything, and they resigned politely, but most of them agreed in their hearts that he probably wanted to implement it in the way Qi Zizhen said.

Yu Feiang obviously thought so too, he frowned even tighter, and looked at Song Yaoxu as if he was trying to fight for it again, but in the end he didn't say anything and left with the ministers.

After all the ministers in the court had left, Song Yaoxu raised his hand and pushed back the servants in the hall, but he didn't rush forward to help Qi Zizhen up as usual, but continued to sit in his original position, looking deeply Glancing at Qi Zizhen, he suddenly asked, "Actually, the dead man last night was sent by Zizhen, right?"

When Qi Zizhen heard the question, he looked up at Song Yaoxu, who was in a high position, and raised his eyebrows slightly: "Why did your majesty say that?"

Song Yaoxu propped his face with one hand, and there was an ambiguous smile in his eyes: "Zizhen has revealed too many flaws, which one do you want to hear first?"

"From the beginning to the end." Qi Zizhen didn't seem to care about his attitude at this time, his back was still straight, and he seemed to be confronting him, but in fact only the two of them knew, and they had already read it from the other's expression There is a clear emotion.

Song Yaoxu didn't hide it from him, and said in a tidy way: "First, going to the moat should have been a temporary idea of ​​ours, it's impossible for someone to know in advance and lie in ambush on the way back.

"Secondly, we were all wearing masks at the time, and we were wearing clothes we didn't usually wear. Logically speaking, it is impossible for the man in black to recognize me among so many passers-by in such a dim situation.

"third……"

Speaking of this, Song Yaoxu paused, and the smile deepened on his lips: "I really didn't know that Zizhen could have such a great supernatural power, that he could distinguish between a dead man and an ordinary assassin so easily."

Listening to Song Yaoxu's little analysis, Qi Zizhen could only sigh and stop pretending: "Well, His Highness is still careful. I admit, I did it."

"So those dead men belonged to Zhu Fengyu's mansion, right?" Song Yaoxu also stood up from the dragon chair at this time, walked to him, and gently helped him up.

Qi Zizhen stood up with strength, no longer concealed him, nodded and said: "Those dead men are the handles that King Guan left with Zhu Fengyu. In order to really use Zhu Fengyu, I made a favor and helped him kill those dead men. The doctor's pot is thrown away."

Song Yaoxu also returned to his usual appearance, with worry in his eyes: "Zhu Fengyu is timid and fearful, but he must not be a stupid person to get into the position of Shangshu of the Ministry of Punishment. I am worried that he will bite you back at that time. "

Qi Zizhen heard his worry, but suddenly smiled, his eyes flashed with confidence, and his black and gold court uniform further brought out his wanton arrogance at this time.

"Who will bite back at that time, but it may not be known."

The author has something to say: Thank you [an arctic rabbit] for the nutrient solution mua!