Xiao Qiao enters the farm gate

Because I was traveling with a child, it was not fast, and it was already April when I arrived in the capital.

Zhou Ming bid them farewell on the main street in the city. Qi Cong's carriage was in front and turned into another street until it stopped in front of a large mansion.Qiao Mo lifted the window screen and took a look. There was a plaque on the door, which read "Qi Mansion".From the outside, the mansion looked like the others on the street.

Looking at the architectural style of the mansions on this street, they are majestic and majestic. Probably [-]% of them are from officials and eunuchs.

As soon as the carriage stopped, the door of Qi's house opened. Qi Cong said something to the boy at the door, and soon someone came in to announce.Seeing that the sun was shining outside, Qiao Mo got out of the car with the child in his arms, just in time to see a group of people pouring out of the gate, led by Uncle Qi Yun.

"Uncle." Qiao Mo looked at the people beside him again, and greeted them one by one.

Everyone met each other, uncle took the child in his arms, and a group of people entered the gate and sat down in the front hall.Qi Yun asked about the recent situation, and said a few words of comfort, and the scene became a little quiet for a while.After all, Lin Zheng's life and death were unknown, so it was not easy to bring up this topic.

Seeing this, my uncle decided to change the subject, lightly held the baby in his hands and said with a smile: "This kid doesn't recognize his life at all, he keeps staring at me with his eyes open."

Not long ago, the cousin Jiang Shi who had just added a boy answered the conversation tactfully: "You are really obedient, did you name it?"

"I gave her a nickname, An'an."

As for why it is called "An'an", there is no one here who does not understand.

After sitting for a while, Qi Yun led him to see the old man.The old man was getting old, and even though he was usually in good health, he was unavoidably excited when he saw Qiao Mo's dead eldest son, and he felt tired after he said something.Seeing this, Qiao Mo found an excuse and didn't bother him much.

The Qi family had known that he was coming, and had arranged the residence early in the morning, which was Qi Nan's small courtyard before he got married.

The small courtyard will be renovated every few years, and it is usually maintained and cleaned with great attention. The interior of the house still retains the previous furnishings.Now that Qiao Mo is living here, except for the bedroom, a lot of things have been added to other places, and some people have been transferred, and the small courtyard that was a little empty and deserted is full of life.

Qiao Mo cleaned up briefly, changed his clothes, and saw that he was sleeping soundly, so he asked Hsinchu to take care of him, and he went to see Qi Yun.

Qi Yun seemed to have expected it a long time ago, and was waiting for him in the study.

Waiting for the servants to serve tea and leave, Qiao Mo directly asked about Lin Zheng's news.

Qi Yun said slowly: "I haven't got any news yet."

"No news..." Qiao Mo's heart tensed, and he opened his mouth to speak.

"I know what you want to ask." Qi Yun sighed: "The matter of the Northland is a secret in the court, except for me and the emperor, no one knows about it. Maybe one or two people have guesses, but they dare not talk about it. This time the matter failed, the emperor was very unhappy, and sent people to Jincheng twice since the end of the year, but they could not easily step into the Northland. Since the closure of the Northland at the end of last year, it has not been opened again. Therefore, it is impossible to inquire whether Lin Zheng is still alive."

"The emperor gave up long ago, right?" Qiao Mo knew very well that a small Lin Zheng was not worthy of the emperor's manpower for it. It was a fluke to find one, not for Lin Zheng, but for what Lin Zheng might find out. intelligence.Sending people later was just to inquire about information, not to find people.

Qi Yun was acquiescing, but still said to him: "Chang Zhao is still recovering from his injuries in the north, and he is almost healed now. I sent a letter earlier and asked him to enter the north to investigate one or two when it is convenient."

"Thank you, uncle." Qiao Mo also knew that this was the only way. Qi Yun's doing so was extremely risky, not to mention anything else, once the emperor found out, he might be in trouble.

After thinking wildly for a while, Qiao Mo suddenly came back to his senses, and Qiao Mo remembered another thing.

"Uncle, what is your relationship with Zhou Ming?" Qiao Mo asked tentatively.

"Zhou Ming?" Qi Yun was surprised to hear him ask. "I have known him for many years, and he is considered a good friend. His father, Mr. Zhou, and I are colleagues in the Imperial Academy, and the two families also have contacts. This time you went to Beijing with him on the same journey, why do you ask him?"

Qiao Mo told him everything about passing by the small town inn: "What do you think, uncle? I always feel that Zhou Ming's reaction is very wrong. He obviously has a lot of things to say, and he seems very worried. Will it Will it be related to Prince Kang?"

Right now they are in the study, only the two of them, Qiao Mo has no scruples about speaking.

Apart from worrying about Lin Zheng, what he wants to do the most is to quickly find out the truth about the tragic death of his original parents over ten years ago.One is that the Qi family treats him sincerely and well. Two, after all, he is now Qi Nan's son. If there is another real culprit, his situation may be very dangerous, and this hidden danger may also affect his family. .His family includes not only Lin Zheng, An An, and the Qi family, but also the close neighbors of Shanglin Village, Fang Jinnian, Shen Feng, Song Han from Fengcheng, and so on.

The target of his suspicion now is King Kang. A royal county king would not dare to underestimate him even if he does not go to court. How could he not be vigilant and apprehensive.

Qi Yun couldn't hide his surprise when he heard these words at first, but he was old after all, so he quickly stabilized his emotions, thought for a while and said: "I also checked the king of Kangjun in the early years. There was resentment in my heart when we got married, but nothing was found out. As you said just now, Zhou Ming’s reaction was indeed abnormal. He must know something. You said just now that he looked wrong after seeing you, so... ..."

Qi Yun's eyes fell on Qiao Mo's face, and she murmured to herself, "You look a lot like you, especially when you smile, maybe... it's impossible for him to see you, you must be I saw the portrait elsewhere, so I was so surprised by your appearance. He has always been friends with King Kang. It would not be surprising if he saw your portrait at King Kang. After all, King Kang liked you back then. Oh shit, it's just..."

"It's just that he shouldn't react like that." Qiao Mo took the words. "Doesn't that mean that King Kang really has a problem? Uncle, in your opinion, if you ask, will he keep his friendship with King Kang secret, or will he reveal something?"

"...I can try it." The reason why Qi Yun said this was just a gamble.

He can trust Zhou Ming's character. Although Zhou Ming and King Kang have a good relationship, they are not close friends.If there are really some shady inside stories, based on Zhou Ming's friendship with him, coupled with Zhou Ming's temperament, it is very possible to tell the truth.If the other party does not say anything perfunctory, [-]% may involve the privacy of King Kang Jun, which also shows that there is no shady private business in it.

So overall, it's worth a try.

The reason why Qi Yun was at home today was that Xiu Mu happened to be busy with court affairs for the next few days. He planned to go to Zhou Ming when he was next to Xiu Mu, but Zhou Ming came to the door first.

That night, Qi Yun was watching official business in the study, and the servants reported Zhou Ming to see him.

After thinking about it for a while, Qi Yun guessed something, and was also a little excited in her heart. When the person arrived, she dismissed the servants and closed the door, leaving only the two of them.

Zhou Ming was obviously well prepared when he came back this time. Seeing that he was so secretive and cautious, he didn't show anything unusual.

"I'm very grateful for Brother Zhou's presence this time. Presumably Brother Zhou wants to tell something." Qi Yun spoke first.

Zhou Ming nodded, and didn't make a fool of himself: "It's not a big deal, if not, I wouldn't have told you until now. It's really an accident." Zhou Ming thought of Qiao Mo's appearance, and thought of the time when he went to Shanglin Village on a whim. Seeing Qiao Mo, I couldn't help feeling that maybe it was destined by heaven.

"To be honest, I was really surprised when I first saw Brother Qiao's appearance, and I was even a little flustered without even noticing it. When I came back these days, I carefully recalled the previous scene, and I always felt that the inside story was deep. If I don't tell you, what face will I see in the future? Ten years ago, I went to Kangjun Wang’s mansion for a drink. I had a good time there. Both of them were a little drunk before I knew it. Kangjun Wang invited me into the study to enjoy the paintings. In addition to poetry and books, my favorite thing in my life is Paintings, as expected, I saw two very good original works by everyone... I don’t know how long it took, King Kang fell drunk on the low couch, and seemed to be asleep, but I was still interested, so I took out the scroll from the painting tank and took a look. Once appreciating, then, I saw a portrait."

"At first glance, the person in the painting seemed familiar, but after careful consideration, I didn't know him. Afterwards, the familiarity came from your relationship. You look a lot like your elder brother."

Qi Yun frowned.

It was expected that Zhou Ming saw Qi Nan's portrait at King Kang, but after that...

"The portrait is very vivid. I have seen King Kang's painting, and I recognized his handwriting. Even though there was a love poem written on it, I didn't think about it at the time. Nowadays, literati love to dance with words and ink, and draw a beautiful woman. Expressing love does not necessarily mean that this beauty is a real person, and even if it is a real person, according to the status of the King of Kang County, there are many beauties I know. Just continue to look at it, and turn out several paintings from the painting vat The portrait of the same person, the person on the portrait has different postures and different clothes, like a son of a family...

When the last painting scroll was opened, there was smoke and fire shining through the painting. There were no people and no buildings. If you didn't pay attention, you would think it was just an ink stain.I was just surprised at first, but after the scroll was fully unfolded, a jade pendant fell out of it, and only half of the tassel was burned by the fire. "

Qi Yun stood up abruptly, her voice dry: "What kind of jade pendant is it?"

"Liuyun Baifu's suet white jade pendant is decorated with pea-green tassels, and red agate is strung on the tassels." For some reason, Zhou Ming was deeply impressed by this jade pendant back then. No, but he only thought it was Situxuan's personal matter, so he hurriedly put it back as it was, and didn't mention it afterwards.

It was only after Situxuan sobered up that he realized that Situxuan took him to the wrong room because he was drunk.Outsiders were never allowed to enter this small study room, but fortunately Zhou Mingzao took out a landscape painting to cover it up, lying on it pretending to be drunk and fell asleep, and thus managed to get in.

After many years, this matter has been forgotten, and I thought it was a trivial matter, but I didn't expect to see the "person in the painting" at that time, and the dusty memories came out, and the shock in my heart can be imagined.Even though he only loves to read and paint, he has also noticed the clues from the clues. He didn't want to get involved in this old case, but after thinking about it again and again, he still came over.

Qi Yun was already in a daze at this time: "That jade pendant was worn by my elder brother since he was a child. I heard that when he was young, he was in poor health, so my aunt specially made that jade pendant and sent it to the temple to chant scriptures and consecrate it for my elder brother to wear on it. Keep safe and healthy on your body. For so many years, until the eldest brother got married, that jade pendant never left him."

Later, when the tragedy happened, he rushed over and only saw the horrific corpse after the fire. On the corpse and in the surrounding ruins, he did not find the jade pendant.

For so many years, he has also used this as a clue to search, but there has been no news, but he never thought of...

After finishing the matter, Zhou Ming left, and left the capital in the afternoon of the same day, returning to Fengcheng.

Qi Yun immediately set about arranging a new investigation. After so many years, it was not easy to find it. In addition, if it was really the work of King Kangjun, even if he was young and made omissions, the traces of so many years would be wiped out. ...Qi Yun had to wonder if the old county king knew about it. If he knew, how could the old county king not take care of Kang County king?Situxuan was the second child, originally there was an older brother above him, but the reason why the position of the county king fell on him was because his elder brother died when he was young, so the old county king valued the younger son more and more.

Considering that Situ Xuan is a member of the royal family after all, he is the cousin of the same grandfather as the emperor, even if the real evidence is found out, it will be difficult to be fair in the face of it!

But no matter how difficult it is, this matter still needs to be investigated. The eldest son of the Qi family can't die in vain!Let alone let Brother Cheng be in danger all the time.

Half an hour after Zhou Ming left, Qiao Mo found him.

Qi Yun considered that he was the person involved and had close contact with Situ Xuan, so she told him what Zhou Ming said, mainly to make him guard against it.

Qiao Mo suddenly asked, "Will he attack Lin Zheng?"

"What do you mean?" Qi Yun was puzzled for a moment.

"When he left years ago, he went to see me and asked me about Lin Zheng. Although I was perfunctory at the time, but..."

But according to Situxuan's palace and scheming, it is not impossible to guess it. If he guesses it, he can do a tragedy for more than ten years. If he still comes to contact Qiao Mo, how can he easily let Lin Zheng go?

"If he really guesses that Lin Zheng has gone to the Northland, then he will be in trouble." After all, Qi Yun is an official, and his considerations are not limited to one place, and he feels bad right now.

If Situ Xuan really guessed that Lin Zheng's name was to run a business but actually went to the North for another purpose, then as long as he has the heart, he can do a lot of tricks.The emperor didn't want to say anything about this matter, so he specially handed it over to him, and asked him to recruit people in private, without regular troops, let alone recorded officials.

But now...

"The king of Kang Jun has not left Beijing since the end of the year. It is said that he was sick in the cold spring and gradually got better a few days ago. I'm afraid this disease is strange." Qi Yun thought of the tragedy that year. If it was really caused by Situ Xuan, I'm afraid that if there is also some connection with the local bandits, the problem will be even more serious.

Those bandits took over the mountain as their king, robbed merchants, and killed countless people.The bandits caught back then were only a small part of them. I heard that the really powerful ones had been hidden, as if they had learned the news first.

Could it be that these bandits are actually...

Qi Yun didn't dare to make rash conclusions, but her heart was beating violently, so she asked Qiao Mo to go back first, while she hurried to the small courtyard where the old man was resting.Although the old man has long since resigned from office, Qi Yun is still used to talking to the old man when encountering important events.The old man has experienced a lot, and sometimes some words he said can make him enlightened.

Qiao Mo went back to the small courtyard full of worries, only to find that Hsinchu was arranging some things, as if they were gifts from someone.

"Who sent it?" He thought it was a relative of the Qi family.

Unexpectedly, Hsinchu replied with a smile: "It was just sent from the front. It is said that it was given to you by King Kangjun. I wish you a happy son."