Pei Gonggui

The three of them finished asking questions in Cui's mansion, and when they came out, they saw a white moon hanging on the zenith.

Fang Mingjue exhausted himself and sat on the frame, his eyes were filled with puzzlement and disbelief.

Pei Jun stood in the street with Yan Yuliang for a long time, and at this moment, because of Cui Yu's death and Shen's escape, he felt an indescribable emotion. And the wine that I drank, the incidents of mutual support among the officials, the past ten years and this absurd and unpredictable parting of life and death suddenly seemed extremely desolate and empty.And the friendship between the four of them, which they thought was unbreakable, began to take a turn for the worse when Cui Yu was released from prison, but it was only now that they realized that it turned out that they had studied in Cui Yujing Middle School and entered the Shen Mansion as early as Cui Yu had been with them. When they reunite after a long absence, all disasters have already been laid.

At this moment, Pei Jun recalled that a few days ago, Mrs. Shen cried in his mansion about how she should live when Cui Yu left, and now he felt chills in his heart. swirling.And among them, the one who was always crying about what to do and how to live, searched and entangled until the end, and when he saw that it was irreversible, he finally turned around and left, and after leaving, he was still able to live well...

A sigh lingered among the three of them, they could not say a word for a long time, only sharing the grief of losing an old friend under the quiet night and moonlight, but there was no more crying and frantic questioning, no more eager but useless Tears, but just silently facing the void, without saying a word, motionless, until Yan Yuliang said in a hoarse voice:

"In the end, this old Cui didn't fail us."

Pei Jun couldn't speak, and just nodded in the dark night, but he didn't know if Yan Yuliang saw it.

Fang Mingjue began to talk about going to Dali Temple to rescue Cui Yu's body, and the three of them mourned silently, and then each gave some money, and decided that Pei Jun would find Mei Linyu and find someone to bury Cui Yu in the future.

"Then what about Shen's?" Pei Jun finally opened his mouth.

Yan Yuliang and Fang Mingjue thought about it together. They expected that since Mrs. Shen had just left, she might not have gone far. If they could chase her back and identify Mrs. Cai, they would be able to pull down one by one, and at least Cui Yu would not die in vain.Thinking about it, Yan Yuliang and Fang Mingjue were worried that the Shen family still had Cui Yu's child in their hands. If they chased them back, they would also involve the innocent young child, and locked them in the capital to see their parents in trouble and their family withered.They really couldn't bear to see such a situation.

"Sometimes I really admire the surname Cai..." Fang Mingjue sighed, raised his hand and wiped his eyes, "Look, they can do things that we can't even think of, but they can do it time and time again." Come out...wouldn't you be afraid of being punished by heaven?"

"How many people they have harmed in this life, it should be enough to be punished by God." Yan Yuliang also sighed, and frowned in annoyance, "Forget it, since we can't do that, we have to let Shen Let's go. At any rate, Lao Cui's son has to go out, so what happens in the future... depends on their own fate."

At this time Fang Mingjuan saw that Pei Jun was silent, looked down and thought, raised his hand and patted his arm: "Hey, Daxian'er, it's just sad to think about you today. Li Cunzhi died early in the morning, and Lao Cui was gone. Even Prince Jin was poisoned to death... Sigh, I don't know what kind of unlucky day it is."

Yan Yuliang also looked at Pei Jun when he heard the words: "I heard that you are talking about Cai Yan again in Dali Temple today, so sooner or later Cai Yan's hand will reach out to you. I think you have to be more careful recently .”

"It would be fine if he just reached out to me, how could there be such twists and turns..." Pei Jun sighed wearily, raised his hand and pinched the bone of his nose, and said with a frown, "Come on, I've run enough for today, let's go first Let's go back and rest. When it's dawn, I'll go find Mei Liu... I have to go to Prince Jin's mansion to guard the Hongyuan Temple, it's a shitty thing."

He was busy, Yan Yuliang and Fang Mingjue were not relaxed, the three of them talked for a while, but they had to say goodbye to each other and broke up in front of Cui's residence.

But after Pei Jun got into the car, he turned around the corner of the alley and could no longer see Yan Fang's car, so he suddenly told the driver: "Turn around and go to Jingzhaosi."

Qian Haiqing, who had listened to their conversation in the car, was taken aback when he heard the words, and immediately asked him, "Master, didn't you tell them that you wouldn't chase after Shen——"

"I didn't say that." Pei Jun interrupted him lightly, leaning back against the wall of the car.

Qian Haiqing was stunned, and after careful consideration, he realized that the people who spoke just now were Yan Yuliang and Fang Mingjue, and after Pei Jun asked that question, he remained silent from the beginning to the end.

At this moment, he couldn't help but feel a little cold in his heart, looked at Pei Jun and said, "Master is chasing Shen Shi back like this, then Master Cui's son—"

"Do you think the two children are more important, or taking down the Cai family?" Pei Jun turned to look at him indifferently.

Qian Haiqing didn't know how to answer for a while, but Pei Jun continued: "I thought it was the latter."

Qian Haiqing's brows tightened: "But——"

"You can also think of it as the former."

Pei Jun didn't seem to want to argue with him on this issue, so he just continued to interrupt him, and sighed slowly:

"For officials and rulers, what you need is to choose a side, not to weigh it all the time. Often there are several choices, each has its own reasons, and it doesn't mean that it is really wrong to choose one side, just like today. Old Cui His children called me uncle when they were young. Of course I know that the children are innocent, and I know that I should take care of them for Lao Cui, but if I don’t hold Mrs. Cai accountable because of this, then I think it’s a woman’s benevolence. But seniors and the others are thinking about their old love. There is nothing wrong with doing this benevolence and justice for old Cui... That's why they don't go after Mrs. Chen. They chose it, and I chose it too."

Qian Haiqing's eyes flickered when he heard the words, he was silent for a while, and finally said: "Yes, master, the students remember."

The carriage arrived at Jingzhao Division in a short while.When Pei Jun entered the main hall, he immediately issued a decree, ordering more than [-] guards to chase out of Beijing to patrol the Shen family, but when he survived the embarrassment in the hall, he waited for the first group of people to come back and say that they had chased them to Beijing. Zhaojie did not catch up with Shen Shi either, and saw that she had escaped under the protection of her natal family under the deliberate help of Cai Shi.

Therefore, Pei Jun's choice or not choice is meaningless. After all, as soon as a person leaves the boundary of Jingzhao, it is like a drop of water flowing into a river.In this way, the death of Cui Yu and the betrayal of Shen's family seemed to have just added another blood debt to Cai, and if he wanted to pay it back in the future, he still had to wait for the time.

On the way back to Zhongyihou's Mansion, Pei Jun sat in the car and remained silent.It was already dawn when we got off the car, and Uncle Dong hadn't gotten up yet, so Liu Jin was guarding the porter and opened the door for him.

Pei Jun handed Liu Jin the pine green robe that he took off from the car, and asked, "What time is it?"

"Yin time is almost over." Liu Jin took the clothes with both hands, and trotted after him, "Sir, do you want to eat or—"

"Get water, I'll take a shower." Pei Jun pulled off the mending gown whose cuffs were torn off as he walked, and handed it to Liu Jin, "When your mother gets up, ask her to mend the clothes for me. There is no need to unload the horses for the cars outside, I will stay out later."

Liu Jin was in a hurry, and immediately went to boil water and fetch water with a few maids who got up early.After Pei Jun washed up and came out, Uncle Dong also got up, supervised the kitchen and brought a bowl of hot vegetable porridge, and told Pei Jun to sit down immediately.

Pei Jun experienced a whole day and night of upheaval, absurdity and exhaustion, and now he has no appetite at all.It can be seen that Uncle Dong looked worried, so he had no choice but to sit down and take the spoon, thinking to use it more, and explain to Uncle Dong what was going on outside.

Unexpectedly, before the words were spoken at this time, someone outside the door suddenly reported: "My lord, there are people from the palace, who say they are here to preach the imperial decree."

"Imperial decree...?"

Pei Jun put the spoon in the porcelain bowl, his brows sank, he got up quickly and led the whole house to the front yard, only to see that there were indeed three eunuchs who were in charge of ceremonies with a scroll of imperial edicts, and when they saw Pei Jun , unfolded the long scroll in his hand and read it aloud: "Loyalty Marquis Pei Jun listens to the decree."

Pei Jun had no choice but to knelt down with a frown.The eunuch continued to read:

"Following the fate of heaven, the emperor said: Jiang Xuan, the son of Rui Wang, is sensitive and kind-hearted, intelligent and eager to learn. I feel that he lost his father when he was young, and his mother did not support him. He is very sad and cannot bear it. I will follow my brother's last wish. , kindly accept this son in the palace, and raise him as a heir, so as to show his potential virtue. Appreciate this."

As soon as the words fell, Ming Huangxiulong's imperial edict was handed to Pei Jun.As soon as Pei Jun raised his hand to take it, Uncle Dong was already slumped on the ground behind him. Seeing that the supervisor of ceremonies bid farewell to Pei Jun and left, he finally let out a whimper: "I dare to pick up the doll from the palace... not to pick it up for fun. My son, I am taking over to be the emperor's son...My lord, when the young lady comes back, how shall we explain to her?"

Holding the imperial decree in his hand, Pei Jun's intuition was heavy, and thinking about the tragic situation when he parted with Jiang Xuan on the first day, his heart ached even more.

He bent down to support Uncle Dong and persuaded him: "Don't worry about that child, there are always troubles going on in and out of the house right now, it might be safer for him to stay in the palace. Wait for the opportunity in the future, I'll take him out again."

Hearing this, Uncle Dong could only nod his head when he thought about it carefully, and then he nodded his eyes and sighed: "I went to see the eldest lady early in the morning, but when I went to the street, I heard that Prince Jin is gone. I think I saw him at the mansion a few days ago. , Seeing that you are in a good mood, how would you know that you will..." As he said that, he suddenly held Pei Jun's arm tightly with his backhand, and earnestly persuaded him: "My lord, you must be very careful now, and everything should be taken care of. !"

Pei Jun patted his arm and was about to comfort him again when the concierge brought two more people and said to Pei Jun, "My lord, the two chiefs of the Ministry of Rites are here."

Afterwards, the two who were brought in also hurriedly said: "Master Pei, we are here to pick you up to the posthouse."

"The post house?" Pei Jun frowned slightly when he saw that the people behind the concierge were actually following the Ministry of Rites, "What post house?"

One of the principals suppressed his expression and said: "My lord, I am afraid that I have forgotten it in a hurry. Today is the day when the princess of the Haring tribe enters the capital. The team to see off the relatives has already arrived at the post house in the north of the city. Why don't you go and see the marriage?"

Pei Jun listened to the words and said in his heart: The princess of the Haring tribe has arrived at the post house, and she will be taken care of by Honglu Temple, and the marriage agreement and bride price have been negotiated long ago, so the board and lodging expenses of the group are all counted The affairs of foreign guests are not under the management of the Ministry of Rites, so why did you suddenly find him for this matter?

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but look at the two of them: "What, something went wrong?"

Those two people glanced at the servant next to him, but they didn't dare to nod their heads, and they didn't dare to answer, they just hurriedly urged him: "Your Excellency, you will know when you go."

Seeing this scene, Pei Jun expected that making an appointment would not be a trivial matter, so he stood up and agreed to go.

When the two people in the Ministry of Rites heard the words, their faces immediately relaxed, and they hurriedly said that they went out to wait for Pei Jun, and went out without even having tea.

At this time, Mother Han hurriedly mended Pei Jun's patched coat, and Uncle Dong hurriedly fetched it for Pei Jun to change into. When sending him out, he remembered something, and suddenly said:

"By the way, my lord, you asked me about Mr. Cao... I went to inquire with some heads of the Mei family. They all said that Mr. Cao seems not to be very interested in business recently. He rushed away before finishing helping with the matter, saying that there was an urgent matter, and there was no one to find him later. Master Mei went to Cao's mansion after hearing your words, but he didn't see Mr. Cao, so he came out and said It seems that something is wrong, he plans to go directly to Mr. Cao and ask, and report back to you later."

Hearing that, Pei Jun's figure paused, and he lowered his head for a moment to think for a while, his brows frowned, and a lot of doubts indeed arose in his heart.But at this time, someone from the Ministry of Rituals came to urge him again, so he only knew it first, and asked Uncle Dong to tell Mei Linyu to come to see him when he was done with work, and then went out and got into the carriage to follow the Ministry of Rites.