Chapter 9：

After Ming Tan finished singing this big play, all he could do was wait for the good news.

But on the other side, Ming Tingyuan slammed the door and came out, Pei hurriedly chased after him, tried to persuade him methodically, and finally persuaded Ming Tingyuan who almost rushed directly to Ling Guogong's mansion.

Thinking of the letter saying that the two brothers have been brought back to the capital and can face each other at any time. The Pei family prepared a gift and a car, and planned to go to the Duke Chang's mansion with Ming Tingyuan first.

This trip to Duke Chang's mansion is of course to meet the brothers and understand the ins and outs of the matter face to face. Second, Bai Jingyuan, the Duke of Chang, is Ming Tan's uncle. This marriage was decided by his sister Bai Shi while she was still alive. If the matter of retiring the marriage can be discussed with him first, it will show the friendship between the two governments.

The Duke's Mansion of Jing'an is still completely unaware of the fact that the Hou Mansion of Jing'an intends to retire. But hearing that the Marquis of Jing'an has returned home, the Duke's wife, Mrs. Li, knows that there is no impenetrable wall in the world. If she wants to keep this marriage, she can't delay this matter in her own mansion.

She didn't say hello early in the morning, so she asked the servants to pack up the things and prepare the carriage, ready to send people to leave Beijing.

"The matter has come to this point, Zhu'er, it's not that your aunt doesn't love you, your aunt and your cousin have also thought of many ways, but..." Li Shi looked at the woman who had cried into her room and was already limp on the ground, and said pitifully, " You take Brother Min to live in Lizhou for a while, after Miss Ming's family enters the door, the husband and wife have feelings for each other, and then tell her about the matter between you and Brother Min, naturally there will be room for discussion .”

"How can the young lady of the Ming family agree to take a concubine when there is a relationship?" The woman called "Pearl" burst into tears.

"How come!" Liang Zixuan hurriedly stood up.

Mrs. Li glanced at him, beckoning him to shut up, then turned to look at Zhu'er, and said slowly: "Brother Min is your cousin's eldest son, and you are Brother Min's biological mother, how can you not remember. Now this The general arrangement is entirely for the sake of your cousin's future, your cousin's future is also Brother Min's future, don't you understand such a simple truth?"

Hearing this, Zhu'er stopped her tears, and looked at Li Shi with flickering eyes.

"Okay, everything has been taken care of in Lizhou. You can live in peace of mind. When the time comes, your cousin will take you two back to Beijing in a splendid manner."

Zhu'er wanted to fight for something more, but Li Shi lowered her eyes, picked up the teacup, made it clear that this was the end of her words, and she didn't want to discuss any further.

Seeing this, the servants at Hou's side stepped forward to grab Zhu'er, held her down one by one, and half dragged and half held Zhu'er out.

"Cousin! Cousin..."

Zhu'er looked at Liang Zixuan reluctantly, and called him out.

Liang Zixuan couldn't bear it, no matter how affectionately they slept together for quite a while, when Zhu'er left the yard, he couldn't help but intercede: "Mother, is there no room for change in this matter? Cousin she..."

"It's not your fault!" Li Shi put down the teacup heavily, and shouted in a cold voice, "Go back and be sober, don't be an eyesore in front of me!"

Liang Zixuan was a noble son outside, but he didn't dare to refute his mother at home. But after drinking him twice, he was so frightened that he saluted hastily and left in a hurry.

Looking at Liang Zixuan's back, Li closed her eyes and felt a terrible headache.

Among the women in the inner house, she can already be called swift and swift.

Before the palace banquet started that day, she was still thinking about how to marry the Ming family's A Tan back to the mansion smoothly. When she left the palace, she saw Ming Tan from a distance not getting into the carriage of the Jing'an Marquis Mansion, but leaving with Bai Minmin hand in hand, and a plan quickly came to her mind.

She sent someone to follow her from afar, and went back to the mansion to tell Liang Zixuan in detail how important this marriage is and how embarrassing their current situation is.

When someone came to report that Ming Tan and Bai Minmin had left Tingyu Building and went to Nanyuhe Street, she made a quick decision and planned to rescue each other by falling into the water.

If this matter is completed according to her plan, it should have the best of both worlds, it will not spoil the marriage, and it can be used as a bargaining chip to keep Zhu'er mother and son. Forget it, I have to bear the responsibility of falling into the water.

This plan failed, and the Marquis of Jing An came back so quickly, what else could she do? They can only make such a bad plan to make Zhu'er mother and child disappear!

Heartbroken until lunch time, the servants came to report: "Madam, the cousin girl and the young master have already left the city."

The stone hanging in Li Shi's heart was finally settled, she waved her hand wearily to let people back down, intending to be quiet and quiet.

From Shangjing to Lizhou, the journey is said to be far away, said to be close or not. It can be reached in two days with fast horses, and about seven days with slower carriages.

The journey was bumpy and tiring, seeing that she was far away from the hustle and bustle of Shangjing, and her servants were obviously treating her poorly since she left the city, Zhu'er felt more and more unwilling.

"Girl, let's rest here today, the road ahead is not easy, if you go further, it will be difficult to find the inn before dark."

Zhu'er raised the curtain of the car, looked at her eyes, frowned and said: "This place is so dilapidated, how can we rest?"

Tired for a day, the servant was in no mood to deal with the cousin girl who was doomed to be unable to bring her into the mansion after giving birth, and replied impatiently: "If you don't rest, you can go on your own way."

"you!"

The servant stretched his waist, ignored her at all, and went into the hotel on his own. The nurse also got out of another carriage, and went in with the sleeping baby in her arms.

Pearl helpless, had to get out of the car.

Following up at the hotel, she wanted to go up to see her child, but the nanny turned aside and refused to let her go: "Girl, madam has repeatedly told me to take care of the young master, so I won't bother you, you should rest earlier."

Zhu'er: "Brother Min is my child, what do you mean!"

The nanny, like the previous servant, took the baby into the house to rest and ignored her.

Zhu'er had a vague premonition of something, and her heart instantly became half cold.

She sat down straight as if venting her strength, and was stunned at the table for a long time. The heat of the meal was almost gone, and she picked up the chopsticks belatedly.

But a reminder from a strange man suddenly came from the table behind him: "Don't take the medicine."

When Zhu'er froze, she subconsciously turned around.

The man said again: "Don't look back, someone is watching."

Hearing that "the drug was taken" and "someone was watching", Zhu'er suddenly panicked, her mind was in a mess, and she didn't know whether to believe what the person behind her said.

Just at this time, she caught a glimpse of a wild cat wandering under the table looking for food, so she pretended not to clamp it firmly, and shook out the food.

The wild cat meowed a few times, approached lazily, first licked it, and then picked and chewed the food on the ground. But after a long time, the wild cat didn't have any special reaction.

"You lied to me?" Zhu'er's voice was trembling and uncertain.

The man explained: "Ruan Jin San will only make people weak and unable to escape, and it is not fatal."

Pearl braced herself up and stared at the wild cat for a while. It nestled in place, wagging its tail slowly, and it really didn't move much, but the cat's habits were just like this, so it didn't prove anything.

Wait... She was suddenly alert: "What are you talking about, why should I run away?"

"When I return to Lizhou, I will marry Zhuangzi to fill in the house. Doesn't the girl want to escape? Or the girl thinks that she can wait until the day when the scenery returns to Beijing?"

When Zhu'er heard the words, she was struck by lightning.

The attitude of the people around her after leaving Beijing did make her feel ominous, but marrying a steward to fill in the house... No, no, how is this possible! And she also has Brother Min, who is the eldest son of her cousin, it is impossible for her aunt and cousin to treat her like this!

The person behind continued: "Mrs. Ling Guogong has a dowry Zhuangzi in the western suburbs of Lizhou. Zhuangzi is more than forty years old. His wife died of illness a few years ago, and he never married again. He only has four concubines and five sons. In the steward's mansion, lanterns are hung and a happy birthday is posted. When the girl arrives, she can worship three times as a ceremony.

"As for the little son, the blood is inseparable. If there is a chance in the future, he will definitely recognize his ancestors and return to his clan. It's just that he will never have half a relationship with the girl. The girl will leave, and the mother and child will be separated. I think they will never see each other again in this life."

These words sound extremely absurd. But her intuition told her that it was true, it was all true.

The sound of teacups falling on the table came from behind, and the man said in a deep voice, "Girl, if you want to go back to Beijing to earn a future for yourself, I can help you."

It was cool at night, and the outside of Shangjing was pitch black, but inside the city was lit up at night, making it lively and brilliant. Changyu Street, which is completely occupied by the Dingbei Palace, is probably a rare and quiet place in the city.

Jiang Xu and Shu Jingran were talking with candles in the open room of the study room. The candles flickered, and a shadow entered the room with the wind. They bowed their heads and replied, "My lord, the girl and the child from the Liang family have been brought back to the capital, and they have been settled properly."

Jiang Xu said "hmm" and raised his hand.

The shadow understood and retreated silently.

Shu Jingran circled three sunspots, covered his sleeves to take the chess, and said to himself: "I've been thinking about why you made the move that night. Let Liang Shizi save Miss Ming's family, this marriage is a certainty, it's not a bad thing. Now... I finally figured it out."

Daxian has been in power for hundreds of years, his family is deeply rooted, and his power is getting stronger and stronger. The Holy One has long wanted to trim it.

A few days ago, the Holy Majesty took the most insolent and unrestrained Marquis Cheng Enhou who dared to touch the salt mines. It would not be long before the Duke's Mansion and the Marquis of Jing'an's Mansion could not escape.

If these two families get married, it will save some energy to settle the matter together. The Holy Majesty seems to have this intention too, but, "You don't seem to want the Mingliang and Liang families to get married, why?"

"Didn't you figure it out?" Jiang Xu took a moment and slowly raised his eyes.

"..."

"I just want to understand that the reason why you saved people that day was because you didn't want the Mingliang family to get married, that's all."

"It turns out that there is no need to think about it."

Jiang Xu lowered his eyebrows and sneered softly. He almost directly questioned the ingenuity of Second Young Master Shu, wondering if he was worthy of the little lady who was waiting for him to play horses in the street in Chunwei High School.

Shu Jingran coughed, feeling a little embarrassed.

After all, he has not yet entered the court, and many things are unclear. Jiang Xu didn't make things difficult for him anymore. He looked down at the chess game and said, "Haste makes waste. Besides, pruning the family is not my intention."

It was very quiet in the bright room, except for the faint sound of candle flames beating.

Shu Jingran smacked Jiang Xu's words with some meaning.

The first half sentence is easy to understand. It is a bit too hasty to clean up the two in one go. In recent years, the empress dowager eats vegetarian food and recites Buddhism, and she is quite peaceful, but the empress dowager's family has deep roots, and has been a threat that cannot be ignored since the Holy Majesty ascended the throne. If the action is too big, it will inevitably leave some loopholes for them to win people's hearts. Divide and transform, relatively speaking, it is more complete.

But in the second half of the sentence, Shu Jingran paused.

He has never been able to figure out the relationship between Jiang Xu and the current Holy Majesty.

These years, the Holy Majesty really had nothing to say to Jiang Xu. On the contrary, Jiang Xu has not been very enthusiastic about the current Holy Majesty, and can even be called indifferent. Many times his attitude makes people wonder whether he is in the camp of the Holy One.

The phrase "not my intention" also made Shu Jingran a little confused, whether it meant "not my intention, but I will still help you" or "not my intention, so I will sing the opposite of you".

Jiang Xu seemed to know what he was thinking: "It is really rare for Ming Ting to dispatch troops from afar, let's stay here for a while."

Then settled the last sunspot: "You lost."

Shu Jingran came back to his senses, at some point, Bai Zi, who was originally slightly better, was forced by Hei Zi, and he was trapped in the city of sorrow, with no room for mediation.

But he didn't intend to play chess tonight, so he pushed the chess pot away, and he asked: "Then if you want to stay away from Ming Ting and ruin his daughter's marriage, what kind of marriage will you arrange for his daughter? Ming Ting is far away." Holding Yangxi Road in your hands, you should not be underestimated. And once the marriage is broken, it seems that many people will not be able to resist this temptation."

Jiang Xu didn't answer, just looked at him quietly.

"...?"

It took Shu Jingran a long time to realize something was wrong.

He has always been as gentle as jade on the outside and inside, calm in dealing with things, advancing and retreating appropriately, but now he probably feels absurd. After concentrating on his words for a while, he laughed in disbelief: "Jiang Qizhi, what do you mean by that?" , I marry?"

"The queen has already arranged for Zhang Huaiyu's marriage. As for Lu Ting, he is too affectionate."

"Then am I an unlucky person?" Shu Jingran still found it funny.

Jiang Xu stared: "If you don't marry, why don't you let me marry you?"

Shu Jingran: "That's not a problem."

Jiang Xu didn't want to talk too much, so he went straight to see off the guests without lifting his eyelids.