bastard returns

After a while, there was almost no sound. Ning Yuan didn't want to provoke some irrelevant people because of too much noise, especially Xie Changqing, who was drunk, was sleeping in the room.

"What are you wearing on your wrist?" Even though a dagger was pressed against his throat, Huyan Yuanchen seemed to be fine, and even chatted with Ning Yuan in a normal way.

"Every time you want to seize the weapon in my hand, you will first restrain my wrist. It is said that you can gain wisdom by taking a fall, so I buried a few silver needles in the wristband." Ning Yuan raised his voice, "Look now It was very effective.”

"No wonder." Huyan Yuanchen nodded, then turned his gaze back to the dagger on the neck, and smiled bitterly: "Are you going to hold me like this all the time?"

"Otherwise, how would you learn your lesson." Ning Yuan then withdrew the dagger, "It's been like this since before, how many times have you done this kind of wall jumping in the middle of the night?"

"If I don't jump off the wall in the middle of the night, how can I come to see you." Huyan Yuanchen saw that the cold thing on his neck was finally taken away, turned his face sideways, and looked around the room, "If it wasn't for the snow Li Hong leads the way, I still can't find this place." After speaking, his eyes froze for a moment, as if he saw Xie Changqing lying on the bed and sleeping deeply, and asked suspiciously, "Who is this guy?"

"Of course it's my colleague in the Confucian Academy." Ning Yuan thought about why the conversation between the two of them didn't feel like reunion after a long absence, and put on his robe.

"Colleague?" Huyan Yuanchen's voice rose, obviously not believing it, and soon he saw another bedding next to Xie Changqing, and raised his voice a little more, "Could it be that you were sleeping on the same bed just now?" ?”

"Otherwise, did you see that there is a second bed in this room." Ning Yuan walked to the door, opened the door, turned around and said, "Let's talk about something later, so as not to disturb other people's rest."

"Facing me with swords and swords, but worrying about whether others can have a good rest." Huyan Yuanchen muttered softly, and followed Ning Yuan out of the room somewhat awkwardly.

The moon has climbed to the top of the head, and it is a beautiful full moon. Ning Yuan counted the days and found out that it will be fifteen soon.The yard of Tian Buwei's house is very small, and there is no place to sit and chat like stone benches and tables, so Ning Yuan sat down on a big bluestone. Huyan Yuanchen seemed not to want to sit, so he stood aside with his hands clasped. Compared with the elegant and luxurious prince's attire during the day, his current appearance is much more shabby, without any gold ornaments on his body, and his night clothes seem to be a bit out of size a few years ago, Ning Yuan only realized that he hadn't seen him for a few years , Huyan Yuanchen seems to have grown a little taller again, he took off the mask, the whole face is no longer a little simple and youthful, it has become a lot more cold and mature, and a few years across his left The scar on his face didn't change at all, but it didn't destroy the beauty of the whole face, on the contrary, it added a bit of wildness to his whole person.

"What's the matter, I haven't seen me for a long time, so I want to see enough at once?" Huyan Yuanchen noticed that Ning Yuan was looking at him, and he looked at him without hesitation, with a cynical smile on his face.

"I see that you are getting older, but your personality is skinny. In the past, you didn't have a hobby of being talkative." Ning Yuan lowered his head, began to straighten his wrinkled sleeves, and said, "Okay, Prince Yongyi, you Do you want to wait for me to ask, or take the initiative to speak up?"

The two haven't seen each other for a long time, Ning Yuan just wanted to start a conversation in a less awkward tone, and put aside the doubts in his heart. From just now to now, it seems that they haven't said anything of substance, but he As soon as the words fell, before the man's response, he suddenly felt his whole body tightened, and his body had been tightly wrapped by Huyan Yuanchen's slender arms.

Hu Yanyuanchen closed his eyes, rubbed his chin on Ning Yuan's forehead, and said in a low voice: "It's really strange that the two of us were fighting and bickering just now, what are we doing? It's clear that this is a long-lost reunited lover. The best thing to do."

"I have never admitted that I am your lover..." Ning Yuan muttered in his heart, but he didn't say it out, and he didn't push him away, so he was hugged by Huyan Yuanchen, and his mind was in an instant , as if returning to Yanzhou City that night, Huyan Yuanchen also hugged himself tightly, and then said something that he still remembers even now.

"Actually, ever since I stepped into the territory of Dazhou, I wanted to ask Yan Fei to contact you immediately. Unfortunately, there are people around me who are watching closely, and I don't want to involve you in some things, so I keep holding back." Huyan Yuanchen continued. He said: "I originally planned to come to you after everything was settled, but unfortunately, after seeing you in the hall today, I found that I couldn't bear it anymore, so I sneaked out to see you in the middle of the night."

"Someone is watching you?" Ning Yuan was stunned when he heard this, "I still want to ask you, what happened to Prince Yongyi, are you really the uncle of Emperor Daxia now?"

"In some ways, it's true." Huyan Yuanchen let go of Ning Yuan's arm, "I returned to the court in a hurry three years ago because my father passed away, the crown prince ascended the throne, and all the royal family They all have to go to offer their condolences."

During the national funeral of the Great Xia, it is reasonable that the prince who is abroad must return to the court immediately, because the emperor of the Xia Kingdom had already canonized the crown prince in his early years, so there were no mistakes in the subsequent change of the throne, and the power change was completed smoothly. But just when Huyan Yuanchen finished his filial piety for more than a year and felt that he had nothing to do with himself in the court, and was about to go back to the Great Zhou Dynasty to continue wandering in the clouds and wild cranes, the new emperor's empress hurriedly approached him and told him an imminent news Well, the new emperor, who has just ascended the throne for less than two years, is already seriously ill, and his time is numbered.

Although the queen gave birth to a prince, but the new emperor has not been on the throne for less than two years, and the foundation is not stable. If the throne is vacant at this time, there must be a large number of people in the royal family working hard to climb up. Let alone one mother and son become the emperor and the other the empress dowager, I am afraid that it is impossible for them to survive safely.

The queen's meaning could not be more clear. She knew that Huyan Yuanchen was the least ambitious among the new emperor's brothers. What happened, I hope he can think of such a little kinship, so that the royal family will not let civil strife and blood flow into rivers.

And the queen's prediction was quite accurate. Less than half a month later, the emperor died suddenly, and then someone took the opportunity to make trouble in an attempt to gain imperial power. Fortunately, Huyan Yuanchen planned first, and the queen's natal family also With some effort, he finally succeeded in supporting the only son of the late emperor, that is, Huyan Yuanchen's nephew, to become the new emperor, and because of his meritorious service, he was awarded the title of prince and became the prince of Yongyi.

Also because the new emperor was young, a court as big as Daxia couldn't be supported by others, so Huyan Yuanchen was tripped there again. As the regent, he led the officials to discuss matters in the previous dynasty, and the queen mother was in the dragon chair. He listened to the government behind the curtain, but very quickly, Huyan Yuanchen noticed something was wrong, it seemed that someone was always watching him, and around his mansion, there were also some inexplicable rats.At the beginning, he didn't take these things seriously, but once when the queen mother slapped him around and asked the new emperor at what age it would be appropriate to take charge in person, Huyan Yuanchen realized that the queen mother was afraid that he would have too much power in his hands and wanted to plot against him. usurped the throne.

So he didn't stop doing anything, and returned all the powers in his hands the next day, intending to live his life of idleness and wild cranes again, but even so, the queen mother was still worried, and always suspected that the reason why he was able to hand over the power so simply, It must be that there is still some mysterious power in his hand that can shake the status of the new emperor, so not only did he not relax his vigilance, but even more people were sent to monitor him. Minister, in order to avoid suspicion, the queen mother probably sent someone secretly to send him on the road to finish it off.

"This time the embassy was also arranged by the empress dowager. It is called an envoy, but it is actually an exile. Except for Yan Fei and a few personal attendants, the rest are all the empress dowager's people. Their purpose is probably to find someone The high-sounding reason makes me never go back to Daxia.” At this point, Huyan Yuanchen stretched his waist, hugged the back of his head with his hands and lay on his back on the big bluestone, “Actually, I really don’t care if I go back or not. When I grew up, I almost never took my royal status as a thing, but I just occasionally thought that if I just followed their wishes like this, it would be too useless, and I couldn't swallow this breath."

"No wonder, so the assassination in the hall today was also conspired by the Empress Dowager Xia?" Ning Yuan thought for a while, and said: "In this way, the assassin leader will testify against you before he dies, so he will say It makes sense, plotting to assassinate the Emperor of Great Zhou, no matter whether it is in Great Zhou or Great Xia, there is definitely a reason to execute you, but this is actually so bold that you are not afraid of causing war between the two countries?"

"Maybe she knew early in the morning that someone would suddenly come out to rescue your emperor?" Huyan Yuanchen grinned at Ning Yuan, "As long as your emperor is safe and sound, there is no need for the two countries to go to war. At that time, as long as I, the conspiring assassin, are executed, if Da Zhou insists on pursuing the case, then he can pay some gold, silver and other property, and the matter will be settled. Do you think that such a scene of borrowing a knife to kill someone is a coincidence? ?”

"It does have its ingenuity, but to let those assassins disguised as dancers enter the palace, since the Empress Dowager Xia's hand can't reach Dazhou's palace, so they need one, or more than one internal response here, Everyone worked together to act out the whole play, and then everyone took what they needed, some could take the opportunity to get rid of the thorn in their side, some could take the opportunity to turn around, and some even took the opportunity to ascend to the sky." Speaking of this, Ning Yuan shook his head, "It's just a pity that they counted everything without omissions, but they missed one person, but if this person's thoughts are not included, then the previous calculations can only be evaluated in four words —pretending to be smart.”

"Yeah, even I know that your Majesty the Emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty is very suspicious." Huyan Yuanchen also laughed, "That's why I can talk to you here now, otherwise I might have been rejected Put in a prison and resign to fate.”

"It sounds like you are very worried about being locked up, and you don't want to think about your confident appearance in the hall today." Ning Yuan sighed softly.

"Are you worried about me?" Huyan Yuanchen asked suddenly.

Ning Yuan's expression was stagnant, he turned his face unnaturally, and changed the subject, "There is a curfew in the city tonight, and you still have the guts to sneak out. If you are caught, no matter how suspicious the emperor is, your reputation as an assassin will only be feared." You have to sit down too."

"I still have some confidence in my qinggong." Huyan Yuanchen tugged on Ning Yuan's clothes, "Don't talk about those disappointing things, just lie down, the moon is very beautiful tonight."

Ning Yuan had no choice but to lie down beside Huyan Yuanchen. The night was heavy with dew, and the big bluestone under him was also very cold, but Ning Yuan didn't feel cold either. Holding it, a slight heat came from his somewhat rough palm. Inexplicably, Ning Yuan felt that it had been hanging in his heart before, making him feel inferior to the big rock that could not sleep, and then fell down. , A burst of drowsiness also followed.

The city of Huajing was under martial law for seven days, and the assassins were also arrested for seven days. However, the guards and arrests who walked through the city could be said to have found nothing. Whoever let those assassins die in the hall, there is no Leave any clues that they can hunt down.

Seeing that nothing could be found, the rumor gradually subsided, and was quickly replaced by two other things. The neglected Sikong Xu also seemed to have returned to the emperor's eyes because of the credit for saving him. What's more, he actually recognized the concubine Yue, or the newly promoted concubine Yuegui, as his adoptive mother!

After the news came out, Ning Yuan couldn't help but laugh, and thought it was a rumor for a while, until he heard from Gao Yu that it was true, he regained his composure, and at the same time took a better look at Sikong Xu's state of bearing humiliation.

Concubine Yuegui was about the same age as him, not to mention that because of Lu Ping's matter, the two had an old grievance that could not be resolved before, and Sikong Xu had been neglected for so long, except for himself not being up to date, most of the reasons were due to The reason why Yue Concubine gave the emperor the pillow wind, and now Sikong Xu obviously understood the importance of this "pillow wind", and he did not know what method he used. What a show.

Because Sikong Xu has no mother clan, he is often looked down upon by others; because Yue Concubine has no heirs, even if she favors the Sixth Palace for a while, it is just a mirror image. From Yuan Yuan's point of view, it would be extremely ridiculous for Sikong Xu to call out mother to a young and beautiful girl.

"I'm so obsessed with thinking about something. The first day of next month will be Chun Wei, and I should prepare well now." Gao Yu's ruler tapped Ning Yuan's back unambiguously, causing his whole body to tremble. Feeling the pain, he scratched the back of his head embarrassingly, recovered, and continued to study the book in front of him.

Gao Yu attached great importance to Ning Yuan's spring break, and recently found many obscure scriptures for him to study. Gao Yu's disciple should have the appearance of a disciple, and it's wrong to be distracted by reading. It's just that a lot of things have happened recently, and Huyan Yuanchen's problem of climbing the wall in the middle of the night has not changed at all. At most, they just drank and chatted, but the lack of rest still made it difficult for Ning Yuan to concentrate.

"This year Chunwei will be stricter than previous years due to the presence of the Xia Kingdom Mission. Also for the sake of my Da Zhou's face, the test questions will be more advanced. If you write a little wrong in the answer sheet, it means that you have no hope of being a Jinshi, so you have to work hard. Put your heart and heart into it." Gao Yu tapped the table with a ruler, and said plausibly, "Don't blame the teacher for being strict, but if you go and see how many scriptures Xie Changqing has to read through in a day, you will understand."

Even though Gao Yu pretended not to care on the surface, his appearance was exactly the same as that of the elders who used the younger generation to compete with each other. Even though it seemed mean, there was indeed a trace of warmth inside.

At this time, the door was pushed open, and a scholar with a goatee and a red official uniform came in, saluted Gao Yu and said, "Master Gao, there is a father-in-law from the palace who wants you to enter immediately. Holy Palace."

Gao Yu nodded, told Ning Yuan a few words, and immediately straightened his official uniform and went out, but the goatee scholar didn't follow, but moved to Ning Yuan's side, pretending to casually look at him Looking at the book, he said: "Master Gao thinks highly of Mr. Ning, so Mr. Ning must be named on the gold list next month, and we will be waiting to drink the master's wedding wine!"

While coping with it, Ning Yuan felt that the scholar's face looked familiar. After a while, he remembered that the goatee scholar was leading the way when Pang Song came to the Imperial Academy, and he looked very similar to Pang Song. It is close, it seems that the surname is Ma.

Since Lin Chong was exiled from Beijing, the Pang family has been quiet. Even Pang Qiushui has been sick and has not entered the palace to accompany the queen mother. Outsiders say that this is the Pang family's intention to show weakness to avoid the edge of Ningguo government, but Ning Yuan didn't think so.

It seemed to be an innate intuition, he smelled a conspiracy from the Bachelor Ma in front of him.

****

After Ma Xueshi left the Imperial Academy, he didn't go back to his home immediately, but rode in a simple carriage, turned around, and finally entered Pang's mansion through the back door.

In the teahouse of Pang Mansion, Pang Song had already prepared tea and tea fruits, and sat there, looking like he had been waiting for a long time, the two exchanged a haha, Pang Song first said: "But have you noticed any signs? "

"In the past few days, Gao Yu has been taking Ning Yuan by his side to review books. Today, I finally went in under the guise of passing on the news, and saw what Ning Yuan was reading." Ma Xueshi said: "It's all old books. , some of them are too obscure, even the bachelors don’t go back to read them on weekdays.”

"It's full of obscure ancient books?" Pang Song paused the tea cover that was turning over in his hand, "It seems that he attaches great importance to the scientific research of his disciple, but as a bachelor, isn't he showing favoritism? Will you reveal to his disciples the direction of Chunwei's question?"

"This...you are joking with me, Dafa man." Ma Xueshi laughed when he said this, "The title of Chunwei has always been drawn up by the emperor, even Gao Yu will not know it now."

"It's true that the emperor will come up with the topic, but how to come up with it, even the emperor will seek other people's opinions, especially the opinions of a scholar of the Imperial Academy." Pang Song put down the teacup in his hand , "I did not think about the matter last time, and I did it too ostentatiously, since it didn't work out, it's fine, but this time it's different, Bachelor Ma, think about it, if the emperor finds out that someone is a bachelor However, in order to accommodate his own students, he played favoritism and fraud in the Chunwei field at the foot of the emperor, and even committed the crime of deceiving the emperor, do you think he still has a chance to come back?"

"This..." Ma Xueshi was stunned, "What do you mean, Pang Dao?"

"You have to know that once our emperor becomes suspicious, even His Royal Highness, who was still very popular before, said that he would fall out of favor if he fell out of favor, let alone just a bachelor of the Imperial Academy and a small Juren, what will happen to them then? Even if I don't tell you, you should understand, Bachelor Ma."