A traitor

A major incident happened in Chang'an, Pei Yan's nephew Lu Xun brought a girl back to the city, the girl complained for her father and sued Yu Huaizhong, the governor of Yizhou city.

A paper of complaint was handed over to Cai Jun of the Ministry of Criminal Justice. Seeing that the matter was serious, Cai Jun drafted a memorial and submitted it to the emperor. The emperor heard that there was still this matter in his court.

So he ordered Cai Jun to conduct a thorough investigation, and finally arrested more than a dozen criminals related to the case. Cai Jun interrogated them overnight, and finally someone couldn't stand the inner condemnation, and tortured with the court, and confessed the whole story.

With the witnesses and the letterhead left by Wu Zuo before his death, the Ministry of Criminal Affairs moved quickly, and requested an imperial decree from the emperor, and rushed to Yizhou day and night to confiscate Yu Huaizhong's mansion. Not only that, when investigating Yu Huaizhong's crimes, Cai Jun found that the government officials had done more bad things than these. They sorted out the case clearly, and in the end, besides Yu Huaizhong, many officials in Yizhou were implicated.

At that time, Su Qinglang was busy with His Royal Highness Prince Yi's affairs in the border town, and it would take seven days to summon the soul.

Even though he was in a hurry, he had no way to come back. He could only watch helplessly as his former allies, the right-hand minister Qin Jian's right-hand men, were questioned by the court one by one.

After summoning the soul for King Yi, Su Qinglang took a coffin with clothes and hats under custody, and hurried back to the imperial city. Unfortunately, the overall situation had already been decided at that time, and the officials involved in this matter were taken into custody.

Those who were demoted were demoted, even Su Qinglang was impeached because of being implicated by some officials of the Ministry of Rituals and inspected his subordinates for being lax, and received a few words of reprimand in front of the emperor.

Coming out of the palace, Su Qinglang went directly to Qin Jian's mansion without hesitation.

At that time, there were seven or eight officials gathered in the main hall of Qin Xiangfu, who seemed to be summoned by Qin Jian to discuss countermeasures.

Seeing Su Qinglang appear, Qin Jian's eyes paused for a moment, and he said, "Go out."

The officials looked back at Su Qinglang who was standing at the door, they understood immediately, they got up one by one to say goodbye, and even saluted Su Qinglang when they went out.

Su Qinglang nodded in response, and walked into the hall after they all left.

He lifted his robe and knelt down to Qin Jian: "Master Xiang, Qinglang is back."

Qin Jian hummed and asked, "Do you know everything about Yu Huaizhong?"

Su Qinglang nodded, and said shamelessly: "Qinglang came here to plead guilty to the Prime Minister."

Qin Jian groaned, and heard him say again: "Then Lu Xun was traveling with me and knew that he was going back to the imperial city. Qing Lang should have seen the clues, but he was careless and let him back. Otherwise, Mr. Yu And they won't suffer for it."

Qin Jian pondered for a moment, and then slowly said: "Master Su, you have made frequent mistakes these days, do you know how many people we have lost because of this?"

Hearing this, Su Qinglang lowered his head again, arched his hands and said, "Qinglang knows his mistake, please punish him."

After finishing speaking, Qin Jian did not respond, and he said slowly after a long time: "You always do your best in everything you do, if there is no special reason, you will not make mistakes to this point, look around you, is there anyone who is suspicious, and get rid of him as soon as possible." Get it out."

Su Qinglang raised his head and said hesitantly, "Master Xiang, what do you mean..."

Qin Jian snorted coldly, and said: "From the border city to the imperial city, it took several days. If no one was there to help us, how could we not have discovered Lu Xun's whereabouts with our eyeliner?

If the facts are correct, the person who betrayed us is among the people who went with you to the border town, whether it is Mei Liusheng or Sun Zizhong, you will deal with it yourself. "

Meeting Qin Jian's gaze, Su Qinglang hurriedly said, "Yes..."

I wanted to say something, but I heard the butler's voice from outside: "Master Xiang..."

Just this sentence, I didn't say anyone was visiting, let alone anything.

However, upon hearing the butler's reminder, Qin Jian looked at Su Qinglang and said, "Go back first."

Su Qinglang hummed without asking any further questions, got up and saluted Qin Jian, then turned and walked out of the room.

Walking to the door, the housekeeper reminded him in a low voice: "Master Su, after the young master tells you to go out, go to the study to look for him."

Su Qinglang nodded slightly, thanked him, and then walked away.

However, he still has a long-term mind. The steward just informed him that there is obviously something to avoid him.

Therefore, after Su Qinglang walked out of the main hall, he did not rush to Changxue Garden immediately, but hid behind a clump of pine trees to see who would come to see Qin Jian now.

I saw that the butler led two people over from a distance, one was Jia Dexin, and the other was not the Mr. Jia with eyes on his head, but the one who had a blind date with Su Qinglang and slapped Su Qinglang Du Qingyun's daughter Du Shiqi.

Thinking of Qin Jian's decision to let Jia's father and son go home and think about it, and the scene of Du Qingyun being ransacked and beheaded at that time, Su Qinglang couldn't figure out why these two people got together today, let alone why they had already been killed. Why did Jia Dexin, who had stepped on the mud, turn over like a carp, and was summoned by Qin Jian.

In desperation, she had no choice but to go to Qin Huan. Thinking of Qin Huan and what she said in Yizhou, Su Qinglang felt a little guilty.

I don't know what he will say when I see Qin Huan later, let alone how I will explain it to him later.

After thinking about it, he walked to Qin Huan's study. His study was located in the west wing of Changxue Garden. There were more books in it than in his room.

The things placed in the room are all priceless, most of them are tributes transported from the palace, even the prince's study is nothing more than that.

Walking into the room, I saw a few children arranging flowers, while Qin Huan was standing in front of the desk and drawing. It was already midsummer, and the weather was so hot that it was inevitable to suffer from heat stroke. The doors and windows were wide open, and some ice cubes were brought out from the cellar to store, There was a breeze in the room, which was very cool.

The boy standing at the door saw Su Qinglang and hurriedly saluted him. Qin Huan raised his head and smiled when he heard the movement.

The hand that was painting paused, looked at him and said: "I knew it, you will go to see father as soon as you come back, and you must not have thought of seeing me first."

Su Qinglang smiled, and teased: "I have a business to look for, Mr. Xiang. After the business is done, I will have more time to accompany you. Why, Young Master Qin is jealous now?"

He walked over, bypassed the desk, and walked to Qin Huan's side, but saw that what he was drawing was his own portrait.

"This..." Su Qinglang looked at himself in the painting, with a somewhat puzzled tone.

Qin Huan smiled lightly, then sighed again: "At first I wanted to draw a portrait of you, but unfortunately I couldn't draw your charm. This one...it seems to be useless again."

Su Qinglang looked at it for a moment, and then nodded: "Indeed, there seems to be something missing in the eyes, and it looks dull."

Qin Huan glanced at him and curled his lips: "What I like the most is your eyes. I want to draw them well, but I can't draw them well. Maybe it's because I haven't seen you for too long."

Su Qinglang raised his eyebrows when he heard the words, and put on a gesture of dissatisfaction: "How long has it been since Young Master Qin forgot about me, could it be that he was behind my back and found another lover?

Qin Huan smiled: "Yes, after you left, Dad introduced me to a beauty. If you don't believe me, take a look, there is a portrait of him in that silk vat."

Su Qinglang walked over, took out a pair casually, opened it, and saw that he was dressed in snow-white clothes, with exquisite eyebrows, and a folding fan in his hand, who else could it be?

Throwing away the one in his hand, he took out another one, which was still his portrait, and tried to take out the third one, but Qin Huan said, "You don't need to look at it anymore, it's all yours."

Seeing Su Qinglang cast his eyes on him, Qin Huan lowered his head and said with a wry smile: "After you left, I have been painting here every day, counting the days, and thinking about when you will come back, I can show you my paintings , It's a pity that the paintings are always bad, and there are a lot of waste manuscripts, and I don't want to throw them away, so I can only frame them and keep them."

Su Qinglang was startled, then looked at the children in the study, coughed unnaturally, Qin Huan understood this, and ordered them to go down quietly.

After the little boy left, Qin Huan followed to the door, looking like he was about to close the door, Su Qinglang put down the painting in his hand, walked to the desk, picked up the paintbrush that Qin Huan used just now, looked at the painting for a while, and then painted on the left side of his own portrait. The horns were carefully drawn.

He didn't pay much attention to the sound of footsteps coming from behind him. He was lowering his head and sketching, but he felt someone gently reaching out to wrap his arms around his waist.

Qin Huan leaned forward, rubbed against Su Qinglang's ear, and said in a deep voice, "Qinglang, I miss you so much..."

Su Qinglang's pen paused, and he heard him say again: "This time, you really, have been away for too long."

He was silent for a moment, did not give him the answer he wanted, and began to draw as if nothing had happened.

Seeing this, Qin Huan smiled slightly, rested his chin on his shoulder, and said, "I thought you were going to repair the portrait I drew."

Su Qinglang replied in a calm tone, but also somewhat dissatisfied: "It's not like you don't know, I'm good at flowers and plants, and I've never been as good at drawing people as you."

Outlined with the tip of the pen, and then stained with a few points of cinnabar with a brush, a lifelike plum blossom will appear on the paper, adding a bit of brilliance to the original painting.

Qin Huan looked at it carefully and nodded, "I said why the left side looks empty, and I always feel that something is missing. Looking at it this way, it looks much more harmonious."

Su Qinglang glanced at him, and replied angrily: "When you draw people, the center of gravity never deviates too far from the center, but this painting has moved to the right a lot more than usual, and the lower left corner is occupied by clothes, only the top There is a large blank space in the corner, which was laid out early in the morning, and I will add it when I come back."

Seeing him piercing himself, Qin Huan smiled lightly, hugged him tighter, and said: "Sure enough, nothing can be hidden from your eyes..."

He paused for a moment before explaining again: "I just want to draw a picture that belongs to the two of us. When you go out to do errands, you can take it out and have a look, so as to remind yourself not to pester you. In this way , I won’t bother you any more.”

Su Qinglang was silent for a long time, before hesitatingly said: "I'm sorry about Yizhou..."