All the ancestors in the capital begged me to be a substitute

As the wedding day got closer, Shen Lingxi became more and more busy.

She felt in her heart that after the wedding, she might not be able to take care of the coffin shop and Fu'an Hall for the time being, so she tried to arrange things in advance.

The construction period for Fu'an Village, where Shantang and the orphans of Su's army are housed, is also nearing completion. Fortunately, the Dou family has sent some useful stewards to help, and it is progressing in an orderly manner.

Shen Lingxi knew that the queen mother was thinking of her, so that she could rely on the Dou family and form a good relationship with the Dou family.The Dou's family is also very proper in doing things, advances and retreats with limits, everything is based on her wishes, Shen Lingxi will certainly not reject the kindness of the Queen Mother and the Dou's family.

The queen mother knew that Shen Lingxi had the ability to see hell, and she rarely had anyone around her to serve her.

But after getting married, since Shen Lingxi will be the crown princess, she must have some useful people around her to take care of the affairs of the palace for her.

Therefore, the queen mother sifted and sifted in the Shoukang Palace, and asked the Dou family to pick some at the mansion. She sent Gui's mother to the Dou mansion to palm her eyes before sending them to Wangxian Village. Even Xiaodouzi was sent to Shen Lingxi's side by the queen mother.

In this way, before Shen Lingxi entered the East Palace, the female officials and palace servants who will serve her in the East Palace in the future have already settled down in Wangxian Village.

The wedding date was set in a hurry. In just half a month, not only did she have to try on the crown princess's crown dress, but also the palace's female official Shangyi came to teach Shen Lingxi palace etiquette.

I dare not say anything else. In terms of "behavior etiquette" in the palace, whether it is "standing", "sitting" or "sowing", Shen Lingxi can do it with her eyes closed because of her previous experience.

The female official Shangyi, who has always been unsmiling in front of the palace people, looked at Shen Lingxi and smiled from ear to ear. Everyone would praise her: This future princess is really a model among noble ladies.

Finally, she was busy until the day before the big wedding, when everything was ready, Shen Lingxi finally breathed a sigh of relief.

At night, the female officials and maidservants who surrounded her also retreated with a smile, leaving her alone time for the last night.

Shen Lingxi carried a lantern and two pots of burning knife wine to Old Man Shen's grave.

In early winter, the trees are bleak and the wind is whimpering. Although the full moon is in the sky, the path up the mountain is luxuriant with withered grass, reflecting the moonlight, like frost.

If other people know that the princess who will be crowned tomorrow will come to the grave in the wilderness in the middle of the night, I don't know how to feel.

Shen Lingxi doesn't want to care what other people think, it's rare that she doesn't even have a ghost by her side tonight, so she should come and tell Ah Weng that she is going to get married.

She respectfully lit three joss sticks in front of the grave, poured wine into pottery bowls, and enshrined in front of the grave.

Shen Lingxi squatted in front of the tombstone, stretched out her hand to caress the cold edge of the stele, and whispered in the usual tone of shame in front of Ah Weng: "Ah Weng, even though I am married to the emperor's grandson in a fake way, no matter what, I want to go on the jade plate and go through the motions. Just pretend that the granddaughter kept the promise I made with you and married herself, okay?"

The only response to her was the whimpering of the cold wind in the distance.

It was as if Ah Weng was in front of her and pretended to cry to express his dissatisfaction.

Shen Lingxi thought of her own Aunt, wiped her eyes and pretended to cry, and complained about her appearance.

She smiled, stood up straight, and murmured: "If you know, I will bless His Royal Highness, the Emperor Taisun, and find out who the murderer of his parents is as soon as possible, so that my little aunt's innocence can be restored as soon as possible, and I can live a consummate life."

After finishing speaking, Shen Lingxi bowed in front of the tombstone, poured all the two jars of wine on the grave, and then turned around to leave.

However, just as she turned around—

She saw a tall and dark figure, standing not far behind her with his chest around his chest, looking at her faintly.

Even if Shen Lingxi can see ghosts on a daily basis, it is inevitable that she will be shocked when she sees such a scene in such a barren mountain.

"Are you... a human or a ghost?" She asked warily.

Don't forget to raise the lantern in your hand and shine it on the person who comes, to see if there is any shadow on the ground.

"Shen Lingxi, it's really fun for you to run up the mountain to visit the grave in the middle of the night."

The Qingyue voice of the visitor came to Shen Lingxi's ears with a teasing tone, which made her suddenly heave a sigh of relief.

"Mu Huai'an, are you sick?" She asked angrily, "In the middle of the night in this barren mountain and wild ridge, pretending to be a ghost to frighten people, do you believe it or not, I invite a few ghosts to follow you every day?"

Mu Huai'an walked in front of her, his romantic and affectionate peach blossom eyes reflected the light in her hand, sparkling.

"I came with you." He pointed to Old Man Shen's tombstone, with a rare smile on his lips, "I didn't pretend to be a ghost to scare you, but you were so focused on talking to the old man that you didn't notice me."

Shen Lingxi opened her almond eyes slightly.

She subconsciously remembered what she had just said in front of A Weng's tombstone, and asked warily, "You overheard me? Did you hear it all?"

"What did you hear?" Mu Huai'an raised his brows slightly, took the lantern from her very naturally, turned and walked back.

Shen Lingxi stepped up to keep up, her almond eyes were clear and scrutinized him, and she asked anxiously, "Just now, did you hear all the whispers I said to Ah Weng?"

"that……"

Mu Huai'an suppressed the corners of his mouth that could not stop rising, and pretended to be relaxed and said: "Isn't it that you and His Highness married for a purpose, and it's not a secret, so what if I accidentally overheard it?"

Shen Lingxi was startled, and looked at him suspiciously, "What do you mean, you already knew?"

"Is it hard to guess?" Mu Huai'an looked sideways at her, and said in a natural tone, "You told me before that you have no love for His Highness, and now you suddenly decided to marry him, there must be other reasons."

"It's not been a day or two since I've known you. How can I not understand you? You've got no brains. If you say you don't like someone, maybe [-]% of them are true. But if you say you love someone with all your heart, then [-]% of them are false."

Hearing him say the word "like", Chu Yan's eyebrows and eyes appeared in Shen Lingxi's mind, and a strange feeling flashed in his heart.

"You're just out of your mind." She retorted quickly, unwilling to continue discussing this topic with him, and asked with a straight face, "What are you doing with me?"

Mu Huai'an walked away with the lamp in his hand, and said with an understated smile: "Of course I thought, if you go back on your word, I'll take you away. For a loyal person like me, when it's time to make a move, I naturally want to do something for my friend. I can't just watch you jump into the fire pit and remain indifferent, right?"

"That's not necessary." Shen Lingxi's eyes moved slightly, she pulled the corners of her lips, and said pointedly: "Young Qing is worrying too much, I will never go back on my decision."

The smile on the corners of Mu Huai'an's lips froze slightly, and the joy of hearing that she and Chu Yan were "fake marriage" just now disappeared instantly because of this sentence.

However, when he thought that the treatment of the grandson of the emperor was no different from his treatment, he felt very comfortable.

He frowned, and nodded seriously, "Very well, you must do what you say, and don't go back on your word. This is the Shen Lingxi I know."

Shen Lingxi saw that his expression was normal, as if he had let go of his obsession with himself, she felt much relieved.

"Are you looking for me if you have nothing to do?" She asked again, "Didn't you say that you wanted to inquire about the matter between the Duke's mansion and Yunjiang when you returned to Beijing early in the imperial mausoleum? Has there been any progress?"

In the past few days, Chu Yan has not brought any news related to Yunjiang, she is really curious about the progress of the matter.

Mu Huai'an's expression moved slightly, but he said: "What can happen, it's nothing more than that when Yun Chong fled for his life back then, his father led his troops in pursuit and almost killed him, so Liang Zi ended up like this. Now he wants to secretly provoke the relationship between the Mu family and His Highness."

Shen Lingxi saw his expression, and knew that he must be hiding something.

"You don't want to say it." She snatched the lantern from Mu Huai'an's hand, walked down the mountain quickly with a cold face, "It's getting late, Shaoqing should go back earlier, if people see, I'm still with you the night before the wedding, Shaoqing and I will die."

When Mu Huai'an heard this, he didn't know what to think, and said with a half-smile, "What are you afraid of? Since His Highness is married to you in a fake way, it must be that he has no affair with you, right? As long as His Highness believes that you and I are innocent, it will be fine? Could it be that Your Highness is still jealous of a fake marriage?"

Shen Lingxi's footsteps slowed down instantly.

She couldn't refute this.

She looked sideways and looked at him with clear eyes.

"Okay, okay." Mu Huai'an teased with a smile: "I'll tell you everything I know, right? I'll at least let you see, compared to your fake husband, I'm definitely more reliable than him, right?"

Shen Lingxi frowned and turned her head in extreme displeasure.

"I am married to Your Highness, and he is also my real husband. Since I am married to him, in my heart, he is naturally reliable. This marriage, whether it is true or not, or how to call it, is a private matter between us. Please stop talking nonsense, Shaoqing. If you say that about him in front of me again, you don't need to come to me again."

Mu Huai'an made a point.

Seeing her angry face, he immediately remembered——

When Shen Lingxi didn't know Chu Yan before, in front of him, she always had a pleasant face on her face, but she refused coldly in her heart.

He neither dared to offend him, nor would he compromise easily.

Like this, happiness and anger are all written on the face, which has never happened before.

It has to be said that compared with the past, the current Shen Lingxi is more vivid and real.

This is the change that happened when His Royal Highness, the grandson of the emperor, made clear the way for her ability in front of the emperor, and silently supported her to stand in front of others.

This is where he feels ashamed.

But one thing has not changed, she will not allow others to belittle the friends she cares about.

In front of him today, he is not allowed to talk about Chu Yan.

Then in the future, in front of Chu Yan, she will definitely protect him...

Thinking of this, Mu Huai'an smiled faintly, bowed to her, and responded, "What you said is true, I was the one who was rude just now."

Seeing this, Shen Lingxi turned sideways to avoid his ceremony, and the anger in her brows and eyes lessened a lot.

Mu Huai'an looked a little more serious.

Knowing that Shen Lingxi missed Yunjiang the most, he pondered for a while, and said directly: "I asked my father about things related to Yunjiang. My father told me that when he led the vanguard to attack the five cities of Yunguo, he encountered a strange thing."

"Strange things?" Shen Lingxi raised her eyes to look at him, her eyes were full of doubts, "What's the matter?"

Mu Huai'an said solemnly: "Father said that the night before the attack on Qicheng, a Yunjiang man suddenly came to his tent in the middle of the night and said that he would make a deal with him. As long as he promises to win Yunguo and elect Yunhongshan as the king of Yunjiang, then we will cooperate internally and externally to help him take down the five cities of Yunguo."

"If you don't handle this kind of thing well, you will be charged with the crime of collaborating with the enemy. Naturally, my father didn't dare to make a claim, so he flew pigeons overnight to pass the letter to the late emperor."

"If you can take down Yunguo without laying down too many soldiers, the first emperor will naturally not refuse, and immediately agreed to this matter. That's why the Mu family was able to take down five cities in one go, and made great achievements in battle."

Speaking of this, Mu Huai'an laughed at himself, "This is the Mu family's greatest achievement so far, and it's the first time I know that this military exploit came about in this way. Even though the people from Yunjiang came to the door to cooperate with each other, winning to the end is not as glorious as fighting with real swords and guns."

Shen Lingxi's almond eyes were slightly deep.

Qicheng is the first city at the frontier of Yunguo. After it was lost at the beginning, four cities were captured by Dazhou Company within half a month.

Shen Lingxi recalled that on the day she died, after the scumbag father was shot into a hedgehog, the city gate was opened from the inside, and all the officials in the city surrendered...

It turned out that Yun Hongshan had turned his back on this war from the very beginning.

Thinking of this, Shen Lingxi felt mixed feelings.

If Yun Kingdom had not been destroyed, she would not have died tragically.

But if you think about it from another angle, under the rule of her scumbag father, Yunguo is already starving and dying, and the people are in dire straits.

Da Zhou's soldiers were disciplined, brave and invincible. Even if Yun Hongshan hadn't colluded with the enemy, it would have been impossible to escape the life-and-death struggle between Da Zhou and Yun Kingdom.

The war is cruel, if you take the initiative to give in, at least the people in the city can be saved from the flames of war, and it might be a good thing for the people.

"Fighting with real swords and guns, killing is too serious after all. Yunguo was destroyed, the only one to blame is Emperor Li's failure to be a man, and he can't blame other people for plotting." Shen Lingxi said with no expression on her face.

She paused, and her brows moved slightly: "How did the people from Yunjiang get into the tent of the Mu family army?"

"This is the weird part." Mu Huai'an said in a deep voice, "Father said that the man came alone and never disturbed a single soldier, but outside the tent, there are always heavy guards..."

"It's the charming God who knows Zhu Youshu!" Shen Lingxi said firmly.

"Zhu Youshu?"

As the young minister of Dali Temple, Mu Huai'an naturally knew what Zhu Youshu was. He asked suspiciously: "Zhu Youshu has to be face-to-face with people before he can be hypnotized by the person performing the technique. How can he manage to get into a handsome tent under heavy guard?"

When the ghost of the first concubine appeared, Mu Huai'an had already left the imperial mausoleum, so he didn't know about Zhu Youshu.

"He's good at disguise." Shen Lingxi looked at him and said.

Mu Huai'an's eyes flickered, and when he thought of something, his face changed slightly, "He is good at disguise, knows Zhu Youshu, entering a heavily guarded place is like entering an uninhabited land, could it be...he was the one who broke into the Yongtai Palace's Soul Locking Well back then?"

"That's right." Shen Lingxi pointedly said: "Not only that, but that person is also the murderer of the former Crown Princess. If my prediction is correct, Yun Chong is now trying to find ways to hand over the evidence of Yun Hongshan's connection with the murderer of the Crown Princess to the hands of His Royal Highness. The murderer not only killed the First Crown Princess, but also colluded with your Mu family in the war. Tell me, what will Yun Chong do next?"

Having said that, she lowered her voice, "Or... Your Mu family has something to do with the death of the former Crown Princess?"