Pei Gonggui

The night in central Beijing is completely dyed, and the people in the long street are gradually thinning out.Just after Xu time, a small sedan chair with green silk and tassels was carried into Cai Taishi's mansion in the north of the city, carrying the smell of alcohol in the sedan chair.

The steward and the maid greeted him a few times back and forth, and after a while, they helped a slender young man out of the sedan chair.

This young man was about 21 or [-] years old, his face was stained with a hint of drunken red, like a piece of moist jade, he couldn't hide his smile, it hung between the almond-shaped eyes and long brows, and even more so. His face was radiant, without any slump.

As he picked up his robes and walked towards the inner courtyard, all the servants who passed by would salute him and say "Hello, Third Young Master". At the entrance of the small hall outside the meditation hall, he reported respectfully to Li: "Master, Mr. Lan San has come from the other courtyard, and I want to greet you—"

"Father! Father!" Cai Lan didn't wait for the servants to finish speaking, and walked through the corridor to the outside of the house where her father Cai Yan was. Outside the closed Yaohua partition in the meditation room, she smiled and reported the good news to the inside:

"Father, I passed the examination when I first came to Beijing, have you read the list? It's been a whole day, why didn't you call your son to say hello?"

In the meditation room separated from him, Cai Yan is leaning against the stone wall, closing his eyes and sitting cross-legged on the Nantai futon under the north mountain wall, meditating.In the animal-patterned copper stove by his hand, a piece of gold-threaded sandalwood was lit, and the blue smoke overflowed from the delicate carvings of the incense burner, fluttered to his gray eyebrows, and then lingered straight to the middle of the room. Above the sand table, hovering among the indescribable shallow ravines in the sand table, under the dim candlelight, the yin and yang hexagrams hanging on the four walls of the room look even more treacherous.

Hearing the happy news of the youngest son at this time, Cai Yan didn't even lift his eyelids, he just gave a humming hum, and while taking away the divination tool on his lap, he said flatly: "Look."

Cai Lan in the small hall was standing with her support on the table. At this time, she neither received the expected praise nor the concern from her father. It was unavoidable that she would lose face under the eyes of the servants outside, so she subconsciously straightened up Turning around, he said to the middle of the partition: "Father, my son has passed the examination and is about to face the saint. Don't you feel happy at all?"

In response to his question, only Cai Yan's old voice could be heard from behind Yaohua's partition:

"But if you pass the general examination, you will be satisfied?"

Cai Lan was taken aback when she heard the sound, and the next moment she saw the partition door in front of her babbling open, it was the old father Cai Yan who was wearing a wide shirt and stepped out of the meditation room, walked straight beside him and said: "Master Pei's senior student has also passed the imperial examination, The one in the middle is Jinke Jieyuan. He is about the same age as you, why haven't I seen someone like you who is so happy to call friends day and night, and can't leave wine and meat?"

Cai Lan hurriedly followed him out, and said in a panic: "Father, that's what they want to invite me. The people who come are all princes and grandchildren from various families, and they will be familiar faces when they join the class. How can I refuse? I'd rather be happy with them—"

"Happy?" Cai Yan paused and raised his voice to interrupt him, the old eyes under the gray eyebrows turned to Cai Lan, and said majesticly and angrily: "Now that the Tang family has collapsed, they will be killed and exiled in a short time. Your second brother was still implicated in this and before he got out of prison, your elder brother was murdered by Pei Jun for the crime of murdering the prince. Now the post calling him to Beijing for accountability has been filled with paint and flew to Fengzhou. What are you still happy about? Do you still think the fire at home is not big enough? How many major events have happened in Beijing, I think you are not aware of it at all!"

Cai Lan is not the son of his elder brothers, but the son of Cai Yan's fourth wife. Because he is much younger than his two elder brothers, he is not as close as Cai Yan and Cai Yang.In addition, he has been raised in the clan for many years, and he has received all the blessings of his father's power and power, so he only cares about growing up to be a tall and handsome Wuling boy. He is so insensitive to the intrigues in the realm that even today, he still thinks that everything can be settled by his old father, and has not yet realized that the danger of the two brothers is imminent.

After hearing these words at this time, Cai Lan finally understood the reason why her father had neglected him for several days. At any rate, she felt worried, but she was more wronged: "Second brother's crime of cheating, I heard that someone has been found to replace him." , I didn't expect the Tang family to implicate his son-in-law. Father, I didn't come here to cause trouble for you, but I just wanted to say hello to you and ask me about my admission."

"Didn't I tell you earlier?" Cai Yan raised his legs and stepped out of the small hall, asserting in an old voice, "With your temper, you are already at the end of being a member of the Imperial Academy, and you will not be able to enter the officialdom."

Cai Lan hastily stepped forward to support him, and was quite unwilling to hear the words: "Why? Dad, my brothers can all be state shepherds and cabinets, why can I only be a Hanlin?"

"Then what I said before the two of them joined the class, do you remember?" Cai Yan let go of his hand in a cold voice, not wanting him to help him, shaking his sleeves and holding his hand, and slowly walked down the stone steps in front of the courtyard, "I I said earlier that the descendants of the "Feng" generation of my Cai family have a light life and cannot afford too much wealth, so the whole family pays attention to "using the house to store". So I have warned you many times, brother, to If you are a state shepherd, you are only the shepherd of one state. I also warned your second brother that if you want to join the cabinet, you just need to occupy a seat, but they all think that one chair is not enough, so they are greedy and want to fight for it. Yes, now disasters are coming one after another, and you can't hide, isn't this a fight against life, against the sky? Now they are all reaping their own consequences, and you still want to follow in their footsteps?"

Cai Lan shyly followed behind her father, and after being scolded, most of the drunkenness that hadn't faded away, and said gloomily: "Father, when you put on a jacket, things go up and down, big brother and second brother want to fight for some fame, It is human nature to change official seals, and I am afraid that one cannot fully believe in the theory of destiny..."

"Rotten wood!" Cai Yan turned around and scolded him angrily, "Since ancient times, an official has only talked about following the trend. I have never heard that changing the way against the sky can be long-term. Now your two elder brothers have become turtles in the urn, dragging the Cai family into Dangerous situation, if you dare to act rashly again, then don’t enter Hanlin at all, just go back to Xilin and tell the elders to break your dog legs!”

"Don't, don't, don't!" Cai Lan was really scared when she heard this, she hurriedly lifted her robe, and knelt down on the ground with a plop, "Don't be angry, dad, please forgive me! I'm too drunk to talk nonsense. Since my father asked me to enter the Imperial Academy, then I will enter the Imperial Academy well, and I will not make any other plans, but... the minister of the Ministry of Rites is Mr. Pei, and he and our family seem to be at odds with each other, so this time the palace examination , will he embarrass me?"

"It's okay, just focus on your knowledge and worry about useless things!" Cai Yanzhi hated iron and steel, and sighed, "Pei Jun has handed in a post today, saying that he can't afford it. If you want to leave the capital to recuperate, you will definitely not be present in the palace examination, and your worries are unnecessary. Even if he comes back in the future, he will be too busy to take care of himself, and he has no time to take care of you, a small fish, you better take care of yourself."

"Yes, Dad."

Cai Lan didn't dare to say much, she cowardly lowered her head, but at this time she showed her severed neck, but Cai Yan saw a beautiful red mark on his neck.

Old Cai Yan's eyebrows gathered together, and then he looked down and saw the wine stains on Cai Lan's sleeves, and couldn't help sighing again. At this moment, he didn't want to scold anymore, and felt his heart blocked for a moment, and murmured: "Pei Bing Back then I was dull and died young, but I got a Liner to pass on to the next generation and rule the court. My Cai family is very prosperous, but my knees are full of things raised in these rich and noble nests... Is this so-called destiny? What a shame!"

In a blink of an eye after he finished speaking, he saw that Cai Lan was still looking at him cautiously with a look of incomprehension, so he stopped talking altogether, and he didn't bother to care what Cai Lan was going to do. Confession went out and said: "How many of you are there, you have been keeping an eye on Prince Jin's mansion for me recently, if there is anything wrong, report it immediately."

The servants have to go.Cai Lan heard this from behind him, and she couldn't explain it: "Father, King Jin is dead, why do you still—"

"You know he's dead?" Cai Yan glanced at him, "Did you see it with your own eyes?"

Cai Lan froze, hearing the meaning of her father's words, and shook her head in a daze: "Does father doubt that King Jin is still alive?"

Cai Yan said coldly: "The assassin Zhang San brought to Dali Temple was found to have been dead for four months, and his mouth was filled with pig blood. It is impossible for a dead person to jump up and kill. The purpose of the corpse is to reveal what your elder brother failed to assassinate the King of Jin years ago. At that time, I wondered why the King of Jin never attacked the assassin after killing the assassin. Now that I think about it, he must have thought about it at that time We have to settle accounts in the future, and now we are not afraid that the assassin will be found to have died a long time ago. If we say that the assassin died years ago, it means that the assassin is the murderer of the other case, and in the end the murder is confirmed. The crime of stabbing the royal family is a dead end no matter what. This is your elder brother's careless move, and King Jin counted it into the game."

"Then what about big brother?" Cai Lan asked him with a frown.

"What to do!" Cai Yan was furious when he mentioned this matter, "He listened to my advice a long time ago, he shouldn't have used his ability to leave the remnants of the border guards behind ten years ago! Now that the assassin is exposed, he has harbored soldiers for ten years. , The matter of lying about the military situation in the past will also be revealed, so even God cannot save him! If he wants to survive now, he must first return to Beijing to discuss his crimes, which is really impossible..."

"Really?" Cai Lan was startled.

Cai Yan sighed and said: "If it really comes to the point of death, then he can only plead guilty, abandon the Cai family, wait for the execution day, and then buy him out."

Cai Lan was shocked when he heard the words: "That would cut off the future of eldest brother, will he really listen to advice?" Speaking of this, he suddenly remembered something, and said to Cai Yan with a worried expression: "Father, I always feel that elder brother As if planning something big."

Cai Yan turned around and frowned at him: "What's the big deal?"

Cai Lan faltered and said: "Just... When you first came to the capital, you kept scolding me. It happened that my elder brother wrote a letter, so I... complained to him a few words. But my elder brother actually asked me if I would not take the exam. , went straight to Fengzhou to work for him, saying that in the future he would definitely be promoted higher than the Beijing officials."

Speaking of this, he lowered his voice: "Father, in terms of locality, how can he be promoted higher than the Beijing officials... I wonder if it's because elder brother doesn't like to listen to your doctrine of the mean, and wants to set aside land in Fengzhou to be king? "

"Absurd!" Cai Yan was furious when he heard this, "If he wants to claim land and become king, he will go all the way to death, he will never repent, and sooner or later he will have to suffer for himself!"

Cai Lan wondered: "But dad... the world of the Jiang family has not really depended on our Cai family for many years to keep it from collapsing? The elder brother is very talented and powerful, and he was born in the army. After so many years, his heart is only high. It's not low, maybe it's not difficult to move such thoughts, or else you can just let him go—"

"What do you know!" Cai Yan slapped him across the face with his backhand, and turned him over the head, so angry that he rushed to the top of his head, pointed at the tip of his nose and cursed: "You three are useless You bastard! You want to piss your father and me to death!"

Cai Lan didn't expect his father's move, and was beaten into a daze at this moment: "Father, I..."

"Forget it, forget it, you go to sleep!" Cai Yanzhen furiously waved his sleeves at him, "From today onwards, you will live here, and you are not allowed to go back to the other courtyard to call friends. Tomorrow morning Come to the study and kneel down for me, and tell me exactly what your elder brother said, did you hear me?"

"Listen... I heard it." Cai Lan was wronged to the extreme, and she didn't dare to explode under her father's fury, so now she had no choice but to agree, covered her face and frowned, and followed the servants to clean up and rest.

Cai Yan looked at his back all the way out of the north courtyard, and sighed in his heart: What a crime, God really treated my sons and grandchildren of the Cai family so harshly!If there is an overturn in the future, I am afraid that the entire Cai family will be destroyed by these three useless things...

Thinking of this, he closed his eyes and shook his head and said: "Forget it, now the game is full of mountains and rivers, and it is not an option to hold on to the dead chess, so let's take a step back and look at the place surnamed Pei, but there is still room for change." land..."

The next morning, the sky was sunny and the red sun was breezy.Pei Jun drove to pick up Jiang Yue, went out of the city by the west gate of Beijing, walked all the way to the southwest, met Mr. Zhao and his party who came out of the south gate, and went to Biezhuang in the southern suburbs together.

Spring is almost over, and summer's humidity and heat are approaching.A group of people arrived at Zhuangzi under the scorching sun all the way, and saw the vast fields, good trees and luxuriant trees, tenants everywhere driving cattle and sowing seeds, and a girl from a neighboring village was washing yarn by the river.After getting out of the car, Pei Jun was walking with the head in common clothes, while Jiang Yue was wearing a silk shirt with a mask carved in gold and silver, and led several people behind him into the village to settle down.

The Zhuangzi was originally set up with the help of the Mei family, and none of the people in the village had seen Pei Jun, and they all thought that he was in business like the Mei family, so they called Pei Jun the owner, and saw Jiang Yue's appearance. A mask is definitely not something that the idle people can have. When Jiang Yue entered Zhuangzi, he also called him Mr. Jiang Yue with one voice.

Therefore, Pei Jun asked Jiang Yue to sit in the hall first, saying that this young master is not only a guest of honor, but also a half-master, and asked all the servants to recognize him and obey his orders.After finishing speaking, he gave orders to everyone, saying that starting from today, the people in Zhuangzi need to report their work every day and every night, and no one less will do. Without permission, they must never go out without authorization, let alone gossip outside. The purchases are all done by special personnel, and if anyone is found to be in violation, they will be severely punished.

The person in charge was startled and fearful, and after repeated responses, he brought Zhuangzi's harvest account and handed it to Pei Jun respectfully for comparison.Seeing this, Jiang Yue asked his servants to take him to wash and change his clothes. Unexpectedly, as soon as he took off the belt of his coat, he heard someone knock on the door of the room.

So he put on his belt again, turned his head and asked, "Who?"

Pei Jun's laughter came from outside the door and said, "Who else? Me."