Pei Gonggui

A prince died in the hunting camp where the Son of Heaven was hunting.

By the time Pei Jun and Jiang Yue hurried back to the camp, the news had already spread quickly, so the leaders of the various ministries only knew that King Rui died suddenly, and they didn't know what to do with Pei Yan, so the princess of the Jiang family was suspected of killing her husband For the time being, the scandal is still rotten in his stomach, and he still orders Honglu Temple to discuss with various ministries about war horses and trade routes as usual.

Pei Jun and Jiang Yue got off their horses and underwent extremely strict interrogation. Jiang Yue was behind, and Pei Jun entered the camp first. They saw that the King Rui's camp behind the tent of the emperor was already surrounded by soldiers and people from various ministries. The first ones were several accompanying officials from the Imperial, Li, and Criminal Divisions.Feng Jiru, the servant of the Ministry of Rites, stood on the outermost side and looked anxiously, wiping the sweat from his brow with his silk, and the first moment he saw Pei Jun, he came up to him and called, "Hey, Mr. Pei is here, what do you think now?" How are you? Prince Rui's stature, fortune, and longevity are all in the capital. Regarding his funeral, our Ministry of Rites—"

"Is he really dead?" Pei Jun lowered his voice to confirm with him again.

Feng Jiru quickly nodded his head, rolled his eyes into the tent, and said in a low voice, "Isn't it? Master Cui is leading an autopsy inside. If you don't believe me, go in and have a look." As he spoke, he saw Jiang Yue behind Pei Jun. When he came, he spoke more respectfully. After asking Prince Jin about his health, he said very worriedly: "Master Pei, this matter seems to have something to do with Princess Rui. You..."

Pei Jun raised the curtain before he finished speaking, and walked into the tent with Jiang Yue one after the other, but saw that the screen that originally separated the inside and outside of the tent had been removed to the east, and a large chair with a wide back in front of the screen Sitting next to him was Jiang Zhan, the emperor with frowning eyebrows, with a stern face. He seemed to be going to personally ask about the strange death of his elder brother, but he hadn't recovered from the shock. Seeing Pei Jun coming, he looked deeply at him with complicated eyes. With a glance, he saw Jiang Yue coming in behind him, turned his eyes away, and didn't speak.

Pei Jun and Jiang Yue simply kowtowed, and when they looked up, they saw the eunuch Hu Li and two guards standing beside Jiang Zhan, and in front of Jiang Zhan was kneeling in front of Jiang Zhan, Princess Rui Pei Yan, who was dressed in gold hairpins. She didn't tremble in the slightest, she just turned her back to Pei Jun, unable to see her face, and in the middle of the curtain five or six steps behind Pei Yan was a pear-blossom wooden table, which was empty, but there was a broken piece of paper on the ground beside the table. In the casserole, the unfinished haggis soup spilled all over the floor, looking along the direction of the flow, the corpse of Prince Rui Jiang Xixin was lying on the west side.

The dead King Rui's face was blue and purple, his eyes were bulging, and he lost half of his arrogance and domineering vigor in his lifetime. His body was unharmed except for the black and red blood gushing from his mouth and nose, which was covered by the hot stove in the tent. The fire gave off a disgusting rusty smell, and seeing it, it was hard to say that he hadn't died of poison.

Cui Yu, Shangshu of the Ministry of Criminal Justice, was busy leading people to conduct an autopsy. Seeing Pei Jun coming in, he only gave him a wink in time, but the old doctor Yushi did not accompany him. Standing beside him was the young Yushi Duancheng Zhang Sanjian. He also returned a gift from afar.At this time, in the northwest corner behind Zhang San and Cui Yu, the nanny was hugging the crying young son Jiang Xuan, coaxing her and looking at Pei Yan uneasily in front of her.

The scene here was unobstructed, Pei Jun and Jiang Yue secretly looked at each other, their eyes were serious.

All the people present came back from the polo field, and those who arrived first did not arrive for too long. At this time, the interrogation had just begun.Jiang Zhan, who was sitting in the town himself, slowly passed the heater in his hand to the side, and Hu Li took it over. Then he let out a long and low breath, and asked coldly, "Princess, I ask you, how did the emperor die?"

Pei Yan was still kneeling, didn't raise her head, just leaned over to Jiang Zhan, and said in a voice that was shallow but clear: "Returning to the emperor, the lord drank the soup and complained of abdominal pain, so he suddenly vomited blood and died."

"When the imperial brother had colic in his abdomen and called for someone to come, what was that bag of medicine powder that fell on your body?" Jiang Zhan pointed to the half of the dark brown powder in the medicine bag in the hand of the servant of the Ministry of punishment, and hung down quietly. Looking at Pei Yan, "Why did you grind the herbs into fine powder?"

Pei Yan said: "Reporting to the emperor, it is the medicine that the concubine just wants to take. Grinding powder is a way to eat it. The doctor ordered it so, so the concubine should do as it is."

"Oh?" Jiang Zhan raised his eyes slightly, "The princess is unwell? Who treated the princess?"

Pei Yan replied: "Thank you for your majesty's concern. The concubine's body is fine. It's just that during the new year's festival, several adults from the imperial hospital came to the palace to pay New Year's greetings. Someone stopped by to check the concubine's pulse. But if this person is Who... the concubine really didn't remember the name, and the medicines prescribed were nothing more than medicines for women's bodies."

The recorder of Dali Temple was standing not far from Pei Jun at this time, and when Pei Jun saw her say this, the recorder would record one sentence, and he was still circled the word "imperial doctor" heavily at this time.His heart suddenly tightened because of this, and he remembered that during the Chinese New Year, he had indeed invited Imperial Physician Wu to take the pulse of Pei Yan and Xiao Shizi. Before he could think about it, he heard Jiang Zhan say: "Brother Huang usually acts absurdly and flirtatiously, I know that Yes, there are quite a few family members in the mansion because of this, did the princess ever hold grudges against the emperor because of this?"

"Never." Pei Yan said calmly, "The lord has never treated his concubines badly because of other wives and concubines, and he often comes to them."

"So..." Jiang Zhan leaned back slightly on the back of the chair, "The emperor treats the princess very generously?"

At this time, Pei Yan hadn't spoken yet, but the sobbing of Xiao Shizi in the tent stopped.Pei Jun looked up, and saw that the nanny suddenly covered Jiang Xuan's mouth, making him so anxious that he was confused, but he couldn't say a word.

When Pei Yan heard her son's abnormal movement, she turned her head and looked at the little Jiang Xuan with a sad face. She forced a smile and shook her head at him, her mouth was soothing, but she cried even louder when she called Jiang Xuan. If you want to speak, you can't get into tune.

This cry made Jiang Zhan in the seat frown even tighter, and was about to raise his hand for someone to carry Xiao Shizi out to coax him, when someone outside the tent suddenly reported: "Report to the emperor, Qin Shi will bring it."

So Jiang Zhan raised his eyes and said instead: "Xuan."

The curtain was raised again, and Qin Shi, the last concubine of Lord Rui Jiang Xi, was escorted in by the guards and knelt down. His beautiful face was pale, and he kowtowed respectfully to the Holy Majesty whom he had met for the first time in his life, trembling slightly, to report Understand the humble identity.

Jiang Zhan looked down at the Qin family, followed the interrogation just now and asked: "I asked the princess earlier whether the emperor treated her generously, but the princess hasn't answered yet, so I'll let you answer."

Qin's back trembled when she heard this question, looked up at Pei Yan's back in panic, shook her head and said: "Your Majesty, forgive me... This concubine dare not speak about this matter, this one... is Death penalty."

Jiang Zhan frowned, and his face became colder: "I will spare you the death penalty, tell me."

The Qin family frowned and looked at Pei Yan again, probably knowing that there was absolutely no way to avoid it, so she finally sighed and said: "Reporting to the emperor, it is really reasonable for the princess to make such a bad plan... because Rui During his lifetime, the prince...had often beaten and abused the princess."

As soon as this remark came out, everyone present was shocked, even Cui Yu and Zhang San, who performed the autopsy, looked sideways.

Pei Jun's heart exploded like thunder, and he immediately looked at Pei Yan in shock, but from his position, Pei Yan's kneeling back was still weak but handsome, not moving or trembling. At that time, he neither denied Qin's words, nor did he cry and stop him. This move was a tacit consent to the shit bowl on the Jiang family's head, and all the courtiers heard: Rui Wang Lord Jiang Xi is a wife beater A coward, the one who was beaten was Pei Yan, the older sister of Mr. Pei, the head of the Six Departments who was just promoted to the position of Shao Fu.

There was no motive for a suspected husband killing, but because of Qin's words, a very reasonable motive was added, and because of this, the atmosphere on the field was immediately reversed, and Jiang Zhan in the seat frowned suddenly, looking He glanced at Pei Jun uneasily, and asked Qin again: "... King Rui beat Princess Wang? How do you know for sure? And how do you know that you didn't deliberately frame her?"

"Your Majesty, such a thing... who would want to use it as a frame?" After Qin's confession, she gradually stopped trembling.She looked back at King Rui's body, and after a moment of dejection, she slowly picked up her sleeves.

Everyone saw a few large bruises that were about to fade away on her plain white arm, and a long and thin scar that was not very obvious. Qin Shi looked at Pei Yan's back, sighed slowly, and continued: "The emperor Let me tell you, the concubine is not the only one who is beaten and scolded by the prince in the palace. Now that the prince is dead, he is asking for a coffin if his concubine is dirty. The concubine has always been very kind to the family members of our mansion, and the concubine has no face to ask for. Dirty princess... The concubine and all the family members in the mansion have been beaten by Prince Rui just like the concubine, but among my family members, Prince Rui has always liked beating the concubine the most. Take less..."

"Why?" Jiang Zhan interrupted her with a frown.

Qin looked at the ground blankly and blankly, and smiled desolately: "Because the prince said that he likes to see the princess in pain, and likes to see the princess cry."

Speaking of this, she saw that the men in the room all had unimaginable expressions, so she felt more absurd and smiled colder: "Because the princess is usually indifferent to him and rarely smiles, he doesn't know when he got up, He said that if the concubine doesn't laugh...then just cry. From then on, I love to see the concubine crying because of him. If she doesn't cry, she will beat her harder. Sometimes it happens that the crown prince comes to block him, crying and shouting to block him Can't help it, at this time he might even beat the prince together - just a few years ago, the palace recruited him into the palace because of the peace and marriage, if someone from the palace didn't pull him away in time, maybe the princess was If you want him to be beaten to death... But even if he is beaten to death, no one in the whole family dares to persuade him. If the emperor doesn't believe it, he can ask people to look at the princess... At that time, the wound the prince beat was not just a few short days. It will heal in a day."

Jiang Zhan raised his hand, and Hu Li next to him stepped forward to offend him, and he was about to pick up Pei Yan's sleeve.Pei Yan finally tried her best to stop her hand, struggled in vain, but was still pulled up by the sleeve of the silk brocade cloud pattern.

Pei Jun suddenly took two steps forward, only to see that Pei Yanhua's exposed arm was full of bruises of different lengths, and there were two scars on the upper arm that were red and blood visible, obviously they were left recently, and all of them proved that Qin's testimony.

He suddenly remembered that on the way here, Jiang Xuan suddenly appeared in front of him, and Pei Yan, who came to look for her son, showed a strange bruise on her wrist. But the current scene made Jiang Xuan's small and earnest words "Save the mother and concubine" seem to echo in his ears again, and reminded him of the warmth and coolness of Jiang Xuan's little hand on his fingers at that time, and his heart blew It was as if being grabbed and stretched by someone, and as if being scratched and twitched endlessly by a dull rusty steel knife, which made the smell of rusty blood on the tip of the nose even more pungent.

But at this time, Jiang Xuan, who was blocked by covering his mouth in the corner, finally bit the nanny's hand. When the nanny screamed and covered her hands in pain, he wiped his tears and knelt down in front of Jiang Zhan, raised his head and said loudly: "The emperor!" Uncle, Uncle Emperor, Father Wang also scolded his mother and concubine as a funeral star, saying that her mother and concubine killed her parents, and no one in her natal family cared about her, saying that she was just a dog that no one wanted, and it all depended on eating in the palace ... The mother and concubine covered the ears of the minister and nephew, but the minister and nephew heard it! The minister and nephew did not allow him to scold, and the mother and concubine also quarreled with him, but he said that if the mother and concubine made a noise, he would beat the minister and nephew to death, and the mother and concubine would kill him. , I dare not argue with him again..."

The child only knows that his mother is suffering, crying and crying just to let everyone know of his mother's suffering, and to make everyone feel pity for his mother, but at this moment when he says these things, he is astonished, astonished and sympathetic to his suffering. King Rui's cursing and insulting words undoubtedly confirmed that Pei Yan had the motive to kill her husband in front of everyone, and "there is no one in her mother's family" was like a thorny slap slapping Pei Jun's face hard, almost To bring down a layer of blood-soaked flesh, the testimony that the mother beat her son as a threat when she resisted was like a big ironic fist. On the backbone of the two present.

The child's words are the most truthful and the most blatant. Just this one word is like cutting a hole in the gorgeous brocade that the Jiang family painstakingly decorated in front of the courtiers with a sharp knife, allowing the smelly and rotten residue to flow out little by little.At this moment, all the high-ranking adults who were in charge of life and death were suddenly silent, so that the crying children just knelt down and cried bitterly.

Pei Yan no longer stopped Jiang Xuan like she did just now, as if she had given up any resistance when Qin came in to tell the truth, but her back, which had always been straight and majestic from the beginning, now seemed to be because of Hearing her son say these things in person, she truly felt the extreme pain that should have been in those words. It was only at this time that she gradually bowed her body, wrapped her son's thin shoulders tremblingly with one hand, and lifted the other hand. Covering his eyes and nose with his sleeves, his shoulders and neck trembled slightly, and finally wept helplessly, and whispered softly: "Xuan'er don't cry, Xuan'er don't cry, it's my concubine who is sorry for you, it's my concubine ..."

After Jiang Xuan's nephew Jiang Xuan's voice fell, Jiang Zhan looked at Pei Jun with more complicated eyes. After a moment of silence, he looked at Pei Yan in front of him again, and raised his hand to signal the nanny behind to take Jiang Xuan away first.

The deceased King Rui was the elder brother of the emperor, and the suspected murderer was the elder sister of the important official Pei Jun, and King Rui had a close relationship with the Cai family. Jiang Zhan felt his brows tightened upon thinking about it for a while, so he had to speak first. : "This incident is sudden, and everything needs to be verified in detail. All departments must work together to find out the case, and report directly to me if there is anything to know. As for the princess... since the previous situation is a royal family matter, first hand over the princess and all the servants involved. Shizong Pavilion is in charge of the affairs of the clan, and Emperor Lao Jin will be there."

Jiang Yue glanced at Pei Jun beside him, answered "Yes" briefly, and then Jiang Zhan said to the crowd: "This matter must not be spread to outsiders, and you must not gossip, otherwise, once found out, I will definitely punish you severely." His eyes fell again. On the side of Jiang Xuan who was sobbing, he sighed and said: "As for Xuan'er, just..."

"I ask you to take care of the prince." Pei Jun said suddenly, brushed off his robe and immediately knelt down.

Jiang Zhan paused, raised his eyes to look at him, frowned and thought for a while, although he knew it was not polite, but when it came to the end, he still sighed softly, and said along with Pei Jun: "That's fine, after all, Pei Qing He is Xuan'er's uncle, so he should be closer."

After speaking, Jiang Zhan got up, and looked at King Rui's tragic death for the last time. There was indifference and coldness in his eyes that did not seem to be desolate. He only frowned and coughed twice, surrounded by guards and eunuchs, She bent down and pulled Pei Jun up, gave him a comforting look, and left the tent with nothing to do.

At this time, the princes, Cai Yang and other talents who had just set off to continue hunting after the polo match arrived after hearing the news. The King of Thailand and several old princes covered their eyes and wept because they did not listen to the testimony. Looking at the back of Pei Yan kneeling on the ground without knowing the inside story, she had already sternly cursed out the words "a poisonous woman is harmful to others". Jiang Yue listened, raised his hand and patted Pei Jun's shoulder without a word, and went there first to share with the crowd. The prince has spoken.

Soldiers outside quickly poured in. When Pei Yan was taken away, she passed Pei Jun by the door. Pei Jun stepped forward and grabbed her wrist. I don't know what to ask her...

Asked if she killed him?What is that medicine?He even asked her why she had suffered in the palace for many years but never said it clearly?

But for the last question, he never once bothered to ask Pei Yan in the past ten or twenty years in his previous life, so at this moment and now, he has no position to question Pei Yan.

He suddenly realized that in this life after Huanyang's rebirth, there seemed to be many "whys" and "unknowns" around him that he didn't know. This made him know that it was futile to hold Pei Yan, but he didn't know how to let go.

Pei Yan, who was held back by him, had intact hair, no golden hairpins messed up, and tears had dried on her picturesque face. If one didn't look at her still red eyes, she had almost become that neither humble nor haughty, unyielding, unyielding woman again. At this time, he only looked at Pei Jun with dead eyes amidst the crying of the child behind him, kissed his red lips, and said word by word: "You are optimistic about Xuan'er."

Behind her, Jiang Xuan suddenly broke out of the nanny's arms, and as soon as he ran, he threw himself on her waist and hugged her, crying, "Mother, don't go! Mother, don't go..." He also slapped and grabbed the hands of the surrounding soldiers Shouting: "You let go of my concubine mother! This son ordered you to let go of the concubine!"

The childish and cowardly voice was like a sharp needle piercing Pei Jun's eardrums, causing him to frown cruelly, let go of Pei Yan's hand, and hugged Jiang Xuan up.Seeing that Mr. Pei did not stop him, the soldiers nodded respectfully to him again and again, then took Pei Yan and continued to leave the tent.

Pei Jun followed him out of the tent and took a few steps, letting Jiang Xuan desperately punch and kick him in his arms, hitting his arms and scratching his face, and heard the nephew cry out with all his strength: "I don't want you! I want you!" Concubine Mu! Let me go! It's all your fault, it's all your fault! It's all your fault for not wanting my concubine! It's all your fault—"

"you shut up!"

Pei Jun's mind was in turmoil, the wound on his left arm was already in sharp pain from the child's beating, and suddenly he let out an angry reprimand, which frightened Jiang Xuan instantly.

The boy's eyes were wide open and tears were streaming down his palm-sized face. At this moment, his jacket was hanging loosely in Pei Jun's arms, like a little beast that had lost its swaddle and was blown by the wind and rain.

Pei Jun's heart twisted, and he suddenly remembered that he had never said a word to this nephew—it was true that he had never said a word, but the first sentence he said now turned out to be to tell him to shut up.

He was silent, and hugged Jiang Xuan again with both arms. Just as Cui Yu was squeezed out of the tent by the prince and his party, he saw that he had to suspend the autopsy before avoiding it.Before he could speak at this time, Cui Yu raised his hand and interrupted: "That's enough, Ziyu, you don't need to say anything, as long as the investigation is in the Ministry of Criminal Justice, I will naturally have the duty to protect your sister all the way, but if this matter ends up in the end After going to Dali Temple, my hands are not long enough."

"I understand." Pei Jun nodded to him, and Jiang Xuan in his arms started to sob again when he heard that his mother and concubine were going to be in danger again, causing Pei Jun to unavoidably press the child on his shoulder and pat the child twice before continuing to talk to Cui Yu : "Old Cui, I have troubled you so many times, I really don't know how to thank you."

"Who would have expected this?" Cui Yu sighed, "Let's talk about it when you are free, you can still go to the temple?" He shook his head and turned back to look in the tent, his eyes were full of impermanence, but he still didn't say much , Just said: "This matter is serious, I have to go to the trial, so I will leave first. After your Ministry of Rites has finished measuring King Rui's body, just put it where it is. Call me when the time comes, and I will bring someone to lift it up." .”

"Okay, don't worry." Pei Jun thanked him and watched him go. Seeing Prince Jin Jiang Yue also came out, he asked Jiang Yue without delay: "What does the prince think about this?"

Jiang Yue glanced at him meaningfully, then frowned and looked at the princes and Cai Yang who gathered around King Rui behind him, and said in a low voice: "I'm thinking, if the princess has hated King Rui for many years, what would happen in the capital? With so many opportunities, how could they leave it until today? And if it wasn't her, someone else wanted to kill King Rui, wouldn't it be subtle and neat to do it while hunting, and why would they want to make trouble in the camp?...Moreover, this time If the matter is related to Cai Shi, Cai Shi won't want King Rui to die, so how could the person who drank the poisonous soup be King Rui?"

Pei Jun was thinking about what he said, but he didn't expect that Jiang Xuan, who was lying on his shoulder, suddenly raised his head and said: "Originally, the soup was not for father and king, but for mother and concubine. But the father snatched it away."