Hou Fu Di Daughter-in-Law

Chapter 4 Infamy and not defending yourself
According to the law of the current dynasty, the minister involved in the sale and purchase of official positions should have been detained in the Juan Division first, and after a thorough investigation, the Dali Temple would make a judgment.But I also heard that after the imperial court, many ministers interceded for him, and in the end Lord Yao was only banned in the Shangshu's mansion.

The carriage rolled across the long street, in front of Shangshu's mansion, facing the furious eyes of the servants in the mansion, Lin Yuan showed the special surveillance badge in his hand with a blank expression.

Jiang Chenqi stepped across the threshold, and the servants lowered their heads to guide her and Lin Yuan. When they reached the study, she raised her hand to interrupt Lin Yuan's movement of pushing the door straight in, "Jiang Chenqi, pay my respects to Master Yao."

There was no sound from inside, Jiang Chenqi was not in a hurry, she just stood silently in front of the door.

"Squeak—" The wooden door opened from the room, Master Yao stood with his hands behind his back, and there were two cups of steaming tea on the sandalwood table behind him.

"How is Master Yao recently?" Jiang Chenqi took a sip of hot tea, it was Yunwu from Lushan Mountain, which was newly paid tribute this year.

Yao Lixing stroked his gray beard with a calm expression, "Everything is fine."

Jiang Chenqi was a little dazed, the person in front of her could be regarded as a veteran of the two dynasties, but now she is imprisoned here, with blue shirts and sleeves.

"Have you ever thought about this case, my lord, and what to do next?"

"You little girl, I thought you would be very good at guessing the emperor's heart when you are sitting in this position at such a young age." Master Yao shook his head and said sarcastically, "It's unexpected that this old man can see clearly."

Jiang Chenqi smiled softly, "What my lord said is that I have always only understood the way of a monarch and his ministers, but not the heart of an emperor."

"However, who can say for sure the final result of things that have not yet been settled?"

With slender fingers, he pulled out several pieces of letter paper from the envelope, and it fell lightly in front of Yao Lixing. The handwriting on the letter paper was too familiar. This Hubu Shangshu, who had experienced the changes of the new dynasty and witnessed countless storms, finally changed his face.

Above are the letters between Mr. Yao's concubine and several wealthy businessmen in the south of the Yangtze River. Yao Lixing may not have imagined that he had a clear conscience for decades, and there were really unscrupulous descendants who dared to ignore the law under his nose.

"What a stick!"

Master Yao's face was covered with blood, and he was so angry that he smashed a cup with his hand.

He used to think that this crime was just imposed on him, it was an excuse for the emperor's plan, and he knew that this matter would not end well, but now the facts brought about by the words in black and white are like a sword hanging above his head, and he does not know when it will fall.

"My lord hasn't answered my question yet." Jiang Chenqi pushed the tea bowl away and said softly, "This matter..."

"The old man thought that if he was dismissed from his post, he would not enter the court after that, so he would admit it."

Master Yao closed his eyes and sighed, "Forget it—"

Jiang Chenqi got up and took a look outside the house, before walking to the desk, there were pens, inks, papers and inkstones neatly placed on the table, and the ancient bronze lamp on the farthest corner was not lit due to daylight.

Master Yao was still breathing in his chest, seeing her slowly take out a torch and light the wick, the bronze lamp looked faint and ethereal in the daylight.

Jiang Chenqi picked up the scattered letter papers one by one, returned to the desk and sat down, Master Yao's expression became more and more unclear, his eyes followed closely, and it was too late when he realized what Jiang Chenqi wanted to do.

"and many more!"

The faint flames of the lamp ate away the letter paper, Master Yao finished speaking, Jiang Chenqi's hand was empty, only a pile of ashes remained on the table.

The Hubu Shangshu's eyes changed from shock to incredulity, he looked at the woman opposite with a casual expression, and was speechless for a long time.

Jiang Chenqi leaned over and blew out the lamp, and opened her mouth to break the submerged silence in the room, "Suiyang is your hometown, right? I have some friendship with the Suiyang Jiedu envoy, and it will not be difficult to protect your family for the rest of their lives."

"Aren't you afraid that the emperor will blame you for doing this?"

Everyone in the world knows that the commanding forces of the Beiya Imperial Army are extremely powerful, but these powers and positions are all obtained from the emperor.

Jiang Chenqi's tone softened: "It's up to heaven, it's up to people to plan things. What I'm doing today, I hope to repay my lord's protection back then."

"My name is Shen Qi, and Jiang is the surname given. As for my real name." She walked to the front of the house, stretched out her hand and opened the door, her voice fluttering along the midsummer wind, with a hint of sadness that was hard to detect, "It's Chu Ying." .”

Time goes back to everything, Chu Ying, the youngest daughter of General Chu Xiaojing who was convicted of treason.Yao Lixing finally remembered that when someone sued the Chu family for treason, the incident happened suddenly and quickly, and within a few days they were convicted and executed.When others were avoiding him, he was the only one who wrote to ask the first emperor to thoroughly investigate the case.

Master Yao stayed where he was. He never thought that the memorial that year would become a life-saving talisman today.

The door of Shangshu Mansion was closed, and the sun was getting brighter, and the people who had got into the carriage poked their heads out again.

"Linyuan, find a few death row prisoners from Bi Ansi, according to the shape of Mr. Yao and Yao's family members." Jiang Chenqi thought for a while, and then said: "The sooner the better."

Lin Yuan turned his horse's head and slightly cupped his hands in the direction of the carriage, "This subordinate understands."

The horseshoes galloped on the bluestone road, the crows circled the long street in the capital, and flew out of the forest with a long roar.

In the Commander's Mansion, Jiang Chenqi came down from the martial arts training ground with a silver and white bamboo whip, and just drank a sip of dried water, and the guards lowered their heads and handed over an envelope from the side.

Jiang Chenqi took it with a frown, she almost had a psychological shadow on this thing, and even the action of opening the envelope was extraordinarily rough.

"The invitation card from the Shaoqing of Dali Temple?" Jiang Chenqi held up the torn post with two fingers, a little unbelievable.

There are very few officials she has good friends with in the court, and she refused several banquets in the first year when she first became an official. Although she held a high position, she has always carried the reputation of a traitor, and everyone avoided it, so she always had a mansion in Beijing. When hosting a banquet, her name is generally not written on the banquet list.

"The person who came to submit the post said that the ranking was released the day before yesterday, and the second son of Shaoqing Master Xu won the second place, so they opened the house and held a banquet." The guard recalled, "But I heard that Master Xu has always been friends with Master Yao. , boldly speculate that they want to intercede for Shang Shufu's case through the commander's relationship."

Jiang Chenqi's beautiful eyes narrowed slightly, and the sweat on her forehead was glistening. She threw the invitation back into the arms of the guards, "Dali Temple also participated in the judgment of this case. Why don't you come to me and figure out a solution yourself."

The words are correct, but everyone knows in their hearts that the judgment of Dali Temple has to be made according to the investigation results of the Beiya side. If the crimes are written by the Beiya side, they can't change it by all means.

"Yes, this subordinate is going back to Shaoqing Mansion."

"stop!"

Jiang Chenqi's upset was written all over her face, her long whip was put away indiscriminately, "No need to go."

It was night, and the threshold of Shaoqing's mansion in Dali Temple was almost broken through. Luxurious carriages were parked at the door one after another, and the noble family members who came and went greeted each other, which was extra lively amidst the lights hanging from the trees.

The sound of "da da" sounded quickly, as if someone was riding a horse along the long street at night, and everyone in unison searched for the source of the sound. From far to near, two maned horses came towards Shaoqing's mansion one behind the other.

"Which family is this? It's too ostentatious."

"Yeah, such a big movement."

"Could it be some upstart?"

There were people talking in low voices, all of them were curious about who came, and for a while, no one stepped into the mansion behind them.

"Woo--" Yaqing's skirt flipped up with the movement of turning over and getting off the horse, her jet-black hair fell to one side like a waterfall, and she didn't have any gold hairpins on her head, only a string of green hairpins passed through her forehead. The eyebrow pendant made of curtain stone swayed slightly with the movement.The delicate face is like the epiphyllum blooming under the moon, clear and bright at night.

"Yo, there are quite a lot of people."

Jiang Chenqi handed the reins to Wei Yuexuan of the Forbidden Military Academy behind her, and glanced at the crowd who were arguing, some were gnashing their teeth, some were extremely surprised, and still said in an understatement, "It seems that tonight is very lively, it's not wrong—"

Her voice is very beautiful, in such a noisy environment, there is a kind of transparent, bright and touching charm.

Most of the noble women's eyes quietly fell on her. They were curious about this first female official since the founding of the country, but they couldn't match the exclamation in their hearts - so handsome.

Stepping forward, everyone consciously parted ways, and Ren Jiang Chenqi stepped into Shaoqing's mansion, leaving behind the silent photo of the full moon.

Several tall sycamore trees in the courtyard are covered with colorful birds made of silk and satin in various colors. The sound of pipa is played, and the banquet guests arrive one after another.According to the rank of the official, Jiang Chenqi sat down in the seat of the left chief, and a silver needle popped out when the silver ring on the index finger was pressed, and the color did not change when it fell into the tea.

"I heard that Commander Jiang doesn't like socializing on weekdays, so it's really a good fortune to come to the humble house to get together tonight."

The host of the banquet was holding a wine glass and smiling all over his face. Seeing Jiang Chenqi playing with the tea bowl, he explained, "We all know that the commander doesn't like to drink, so he specially ordered someone to replace it with a high-quality Junshan silver needle."

"Master Xu has a heart."

Xu Yu hurriedly said again: "The Commander has been busy investigating the case of the Shangshu Mansion recently, so I don't know what progress has been made?"

"My lord—" Jiang Chenqi smiled at him, "Don't discuss important cases indiscriminately."

"Yes, yes, I understand."

"It's just that Yao Shangshu has some kind of friendship with the humble official, and I hope the commander can see my face and deal with it lightly."

Jiang Chenqi felt a strange feeling in her heart, Xu Yu was pleading for Master Yao, but she was very straightforward.Not to mention that she and Xu Yu don't even have an ordinary colleague relationship, so what kind of face is there.Furthermore, if Mr. Yao is not the person she wants to save, after listening to these few words of sincere intercession, I'm afraid it will cut off the way for others to intercede for him.

Do you really want to help Master Yao?She didn't change her expression, and said casually, "It all depends on His Majesty's will."

Xu Zhen wanted to say something more, but was interrupted by the noise at the door.

"Marquis Ming Ying arrived—"

Xu Zhen seemed to have never expected that Xie Jinghuai would appear in his mansion, he looked at Jiang Chenqi and at Ming Yinghou who was slowly walking towards the door, wishing he could get into the ground.

Everyone knew that these two clashed in front of the palace, and Ming Yinghou was injured even more because of this incident. If there was another fight here tonight, his official position would be lost!

"What a coincidence, Commander Jiang."

Xie Jinghuai did not know when he had already arrived in front of the two of them. His complexion was a little pale, his slightly raised jaw was sharp and angular, his beautifully curved thin lips were very pale in color, and the only thing that shimmered was his pair of eagle-like ink pupils.

Seeing him consciously skipping over her, Xu Yu let out a haha ​​and left impatiently.

"It seems that Hou Ye is not as fragile as I thought, and he is still interested in participating in the banquet."

"Have you always been like this?" Xie Jinghuai suddenly asked an inexplicable question.

"what?"

"Infamy is added to the body, and it does not defend itself."

"I don't care." Jiang Chenqi said perfunctorily, she glanced at Yue Xuan who was hurriedly walking towards her out of the corner of her eye, and suddenly had an idea.

Not wanting to get entangled in this issue, she turned her gaze to look at the person behind Xie Jinghuai, "Well, Lin Jiao? General Lin, tell your master to sit down quickly, and you will fall on my side later, tomorrow the people from Yushitai will take care of me." There will be dozens more books."

Holding the long sword in his left hand, Yue Xuan stood still behind Jiang Chenqi, bowed his head to listen to a few whispers, nodded and disappeared into the banquet.

The knuckles of the middle finger knocked on the table of the small table. Jiang Chenqi quickly thought about what she had just told Yuexuan. She had almost thought about it. She poured out the cold tea in the cup and raised her head to refill a cup of hot tea , but happened to bump into the meaningful eyes of the person sitting opposite.

This can't be blamed for Xu Yu's ignorance of good and evil, both of them are first-rank officials, no matter who is the first on the left or right, they can only sit with these two, and they will always be facing the other person.

It's terrible, Jiang Chenqi sighed in her heart, if he continues to look at it like this, I'm afraid that she will really fight with dozens of impeachment memorials.

(End of this chapter)