[Red Chamber] Daiyu Reborn

But why did Mrs. Shi Tai of the Jia family go to the palace to cry to Concubine Zhou?

Yuanchun in the palace is surrounded by wind, knife, frost and swords, but the Ningguo Mansion and Rongguo Mansion outside the palace are not easy to bully. The centipede is dead but not stiff. How can the two big mansions not resist when they are trampled into the mud? reason?

However, apart from the vassal officials, Jia Zheng and Wang Ziteng are the only members of Jia Shi Wang Xue's four families who are still serving in the court. Both of them are foreign ministers.They did look for Lin Ruhai, but Lin Ruhai avoided Lin Jifeng's house.

After finally entrusting many people, the Jia family found out that the rumors about their young lady's abuse were released by the imperial dining room, and the imperial dining room was managed by Zhen Zhaorong of the Zhen family.These alone are of course not enough, but the Jia family remembers that when they became concubines more than a month ago, the Jia family and the Zhen family also had contacts, because Zhen Jinran, who is known as the most talented woman in the capital, was enthroned under Yuanchun. He didn't show any good looks, and the friendship between the two governments that lasted for decades had a small gap since then.

Finally, there is Jia Yucun.After Lin Ruhai refused to recommend Jia Yucun's reinstatement, Jia Yucun went to Beijing on his own.Jia Yucun was born as a Jinshi, a student of the emperor, and his performance in the imperial examination was higher than that of Jia Zheng. This caught the eye of the pedantic second master of the Jia family.This time, there was such a scandal in the palace. Jia Yucun got the news from the sullen Jia Zheng. When he heard about the Zhen family, he hated him immediately. Furious, Jia Zheng went to beg Jia Mu again, and finally the whole family decided to make a fuss in the palace. Since the Zhen family is unkind, don't blame them for being unrighteous!

——As for saving face?In Yuanchun, all the official ladies raised by a dignitary mansion were rumored to have had affairs with eunuchs. Can you imagine a more embarrassing situation?

Concubine Zhou Gui looked at the old lady who was kneeling on the steps and kept wiping her tears, and she felt a headache, especially her high-quality official dress, which made Zhou Guifei feel very dazzling.

The four wives were supposed to be of the first rank, but in the previous dynasty, an emperor loved the country and did not love beauties. Under the admonition of all the officials that "the queen is still alive, the noble concubine should not be named as the queen", he insisted on creating an imperial concubine for his beloved concubine. Come on.The imperial concubine is above the first rank, almost shoulder to shoulder with the empress. The emperor of this dynasty felt that this title would disrupt the morals of his concubines, and he didn't want to give it up, so he set the imperial concubine at the first rank, and lowered the four wives and nine concubines to the next rank. .

In other words, the standing second-rank Concubine Zhou Guifei was one level lower than the tearful old lady Mrs. Shi Tai on the ground.

"Madam Tai, please get up." Concubine Zhou Gui frowned, and motioned to the maid beside her to forcibly help Jiamu up, helped her to sit on the seat beside her, and pressed her temples, "Madam Tai, what you are talking about is about the previous dynasty. It is inconvenient for me to intervene. However, Concubine Xian's reputation is of great importance, I will definitely investigate this matter carefully and give Concubine Xian justice."

"Your Majesty..." Mother Jia couldn't hold back the tears in her eyes, and she almost knelt down again, "My Lady, I am sorry that I have no shape... You don't know, Empress Xian has been raised under my knees since she was a child, and she has always been well-behaved. Filial piety... I never imagined that after entering the palace, I would suffer such a catastrophe, I beg you to be the master of the concubine Xian!"

In the palace, praising a woman in front of another woman has absolutely no effect other than causing hatred.Concubine Zhou Guifei was already upset, but when she heard this "heart-to-heart" confession, she became even more furious: Heh, the precious daughter who was raised at the knee of you, a high-ranking nobleman, was sent to the palace to be a palace maid?The girl from your Jia family is really "golden precious"!

Concubine Zhou's glamorous eyebrows and eyes became sharper, and her tone became more impolite: "Mrs. Tai, the one who is clear is self-clearing. As long as the younger sister of the concubine Xian has a clear conscience, no one can frame her. Although I can understand Mrs. Tai's love for her granddaughter All my heart, but please don't forget, Mrs. Xian, the younger sister is already the emperor's concubine. Whether her virtues are bad or not can only be judged by the emperor; Forgive me for being helpless—someone, please send Madam Tai back.”

Ignoring Jia Mu who seemed to have something to say, Concubine Zhou unceremoniously issued the order to evict guests, and then sat quietly on the phoenix couch, took off her golden and emerald fingertips, put her hands in her sleeves, leaned against the cushion, and closed her eyes repose.

The little maid beside her hurried over and beat Concubine Zhou's legs gently.

After a while, Concubine Zhou raised her eyes slightly, her eyes were exhausted: "There is still no movement from Zhen Zhaorong?"

The palace maid replied in a low voice: "After this incident, Empress Zhaorong stayed at home, but she didn't ask to invite the married woman into the palace."

"She can sit still, can she stay the same?" Concubine Zhou sneered, then frowned tightly, "However, this Palace cannot sit still. Those dead eunuchs... are not afraid of others, It's the Inner Palace Secretary—he has a good friend outside. As soon as this person is found, Concubine Xian will be clean, but this palace will be in danger..."

It's funny to say that the "fellowship" or "vegetable household" relationship between court ladies and eunuchs is much more loyal than ordinary people's feelings. In general, they rely on each other to live.Even if one party dies, the other party will observe the festival for the deceased as a "survivor".

The "caihu" of the chief eunuch of the Inner Palace Department is an ordinary little maid, she seems to be called Su Xin, who made a big mistake more than a year ago and was almost beaten to death by Concubine Li Shu.The eunuch begged her here, and she kindly rescued Su Xin and let her go out of the palace. From then on, the eunuch devoted his life to her.

In order to drag down the Lin family, the imperial concubine forced her desperately. Concubine Zhou had no choice but to sacrifice this card. Although she did not drag down Miss Lin, it at least made it a stumbling block for Concubine Li Shu.

Later, when she silenced her, Concubine Zhou naturally didn't intend to let Su Xin go, but Su Xin didn't know if she got the letter in advance, and she slipped away from the supervision of the Zhou family without a sound. There is a serious problem.

Concubine Zhou Guifei thought for a while, bit her lips, and showed some determination in her eyes: "Although the matter between the eunuch and Su Xin is secret, it can't be hidden after all... Send a letter to my brother, and be careful to keep a close eye on Su Xin's home." , as soon as that little hoof shows up, kill it immediately!"

"Yes, empress." The court ladies have become accustomed to Concubine Zhou's cruelty, and they resigned after being blessed.

The sky is getting late and the mountain breeze is cool.By the creek in the suburbs of Beijing, in a resting pavilion built by a certain believer, Lin Jifeng squatted on the ground and rowed in circles, one after another, until his legs were numb and numb, and couldn't help but pat the person in front of him. shoulder: "Uncle, how long are we going to squat?"

Lin Rui also squatted for a while, but he was still motionless like a sculpture, and his voice was emotionless: "It's not dark yet, it will take at least another hour."

"Ah?" Lin Jifeng wailed a little, complaining about himself, "If I had known, I wouldn't have come to join in the fun... Uncle, are you sure Zhou Cheng will come here in person?" Deputy Commander.

"It's only three things, Concubine Zhou can't wait any longer, he will definitely do it himself." Lin Rui replied lightly.

It is not difficult to find out the ambiguous affairs of eunuchs and maids in the palace, and the name Su Xin was quickly brought out.Su Xin is the most important witness. The emperor is looking for it, and Concubine Zhou is also looking for it. Now it depends on who moves faster.However, Concubine Zhou wanted to kill people to silence her, and the emperor wanted the oriole to be behind.

Where is Su Xin?The Zhou family couldn't find it, and neither could the emperor's spies, but they could all find Su Xin's family.They took refuge everywhere like cunning rabbits, obviously, they knew that their lives were threatened.

The previous two times, they haunted the Jingshen Temple in the north of the city, which is where the eunuchs released from the palace lived. The Zhou family sent people to come, but they returned empty-handed. Three times, they hid in a nunnery outside the city, and Zhou Cheng would definitely take action himself.

"King Su must hate you to death..." Lin Jifeng muttered.

The echo was still weak: "There is no difference."

Lin Jifeng squatted aside aggrieved and continued to draw circles, Lin Rui continued to stare closely at the small nunnery hidden between the mountain walls.

The setting sun finally reluctantly took away the last layer of beautiful fire clouds. From a distance, the mottled and skinny nunnery was almost hidden in the oppressive twilight, and the chaotic sound of horseshoes gradually sounded in the direction of the city gate.

"Uncle, did you make a mistake? He actually ran out in an official uniform?" Lin Jifeng made a fuss.

"He is the deputy commander, and the law and order in the suburbs of Beijing is his responsibility." Lin Rui signaled Lin Jifeng to keep quiet, and gestured to the hidden guards around him. Many of them squatted and slowly walked towards the direction of the nunnery step by step. move.

Seeing Zhou Cheng dismount from his horse, signaled the surrounding soldiers to surround the nunnery, and then——slammed the door and broke in.

"Uncle, if they don't do anything else, they're going to go in and kill people!" Lin Jifeng reminded Lin Rui immediately when he saw that Lin Rui didn't move.

Lin Rui frowned slowly, and made another gesture - it turned out to be "don't move".

"What's wrong?" Lin Jifeng asked anxiously.

"Something's wrong." Lin Rui said slowly, "What kind of nunnery doesn't light up at night?"

"Don't light the lights...the nuns are asleep—no, Su Xin's family is hiding here, they should be very vigilant!" Lin Jifeng suddenly opened his eyes, patted Lin Rui on the shoulder, and pointed forward, "Uncle, look!"

Looking up at Lin Jifeng's fingers, Lin Rui's expression changed—beside the nunnery, there was a lush tree with a canopy that just covered half of the nunnery. Among the layers of leaves, there was a huge tree hidden. something like a package...

Seeing that the people led by Zhou Cheng had rushed into the nunnery, the big bag suddenly fell down, and the powdery things sprinkled on the nunnery and the surrounding grass, Lin Jifeng immediately changed his face when he smelled it: "It's sulfur!"

Almost in the next second, there was a burst of "cracking" firecrackers in the room, and the faces of the people outside changed: the firecrackers caught fire, and almost instantly, a raging fire ignited in the first half of the nunnery, and the fire spread very quickly. , the small nunnery was completely engulfed in the fire, Lin Jifeng took a few steps forward to appraise carefully, and took another breath of cold air: "There is also phosphorous powder... where did they get these things?"

"Put out the fire!" Now I don't care about who is the mantis and who is the oriole, Zhou Cheng is a dignified second-rank official, how can he be trapped in a long-planned fire for no apparent reason?