Jinghong Tower

Since it involves talented people in the palace, this matter is no longer just a matter of Jinghong Tower.

Lu Chang did not dare to delay and sent all the evidence he found to Laomofang Hutong that night.

He Ran saw it and smiled.

I really didn't expect that a mere commission that didn't make any money would lead to Feng Cairen being implicated.

He Ran had known for a long time that Feng Cairen and Zhou Jian had secretly met and had also sent people into the palace, but she did not alert them because she wanted to see who was behind Feng Cairen.

Concubine Feng was just a palace maid of low rank. Her current situation was not much different from being banished to the cold palace. If someone said that she was the mastermind, He Ran would not believe it.

As for Feng Zhaoyan, He Ran only knew about him before. He knew that he was extremely greedy and ran away after the capital was moved, so He Ran did not pay attention to him.

He Ran asked Xiaoli to send these clues to Jinyiwei, and the case was officially transferred to Zhong Yi.

He Ran pushed all matters related to Zhou family and the imperial palace to him.

Zhong Yi hadn't fallen asleep yet when a servant's voice came from outside: "Sir, Miss Xiaoli, who is with the boss, is here."

Zhong Yi was stunned. It was so late at night that He Ran came to see him. It must be something important.

Sure enough, after reading the evidence, Zhong Yi's face was gloomy.

Unlike He Ran, Zhong Yi is very familiar with Feng Zhaoyan.

At that time, the court was divided into two factions, and Feng Zhaoyan did not stand on either side. However, he was able to sit firmly in the position of Jingzhao Yin. Even after Gaozong died and Min Man was in power, he was still Jingzhao Yin.

Feng Zhaoyan always likes to tell others that he comes from a poor family, but Zhong Yi has checked him out. Although Feng Zhaoyan's Feng family is only a third-rate family, his mother is from the famous Ye family in Fujian!

Ye Zhen, who had competed with Zhou Chi for the world back then, was a direct descendant of the Ye family.

The reason Zhou Chi was able to ascend the throne as emperor was not because Ye Zhen was defeated, but was the result of internal strife within the Ye family. Ye Zhen died at the hands of the Ye family.

Without Ye Zhen, the Ye family was leaderless and the huge family fell apart.

When Zhou Chi pacified the world, the Ye clan members were afraid of being purged, so they changed their names and many of them left Fujian.

Feng Zhaoyan's mother's surname was Yang, but her actual surname was Ye. She was from a branch of the Ye family. This branch of people later came to Henan, changed their surnames, and settled down there.

When Min Lan returned to the throne, the first court official she had to win over was Feng Zhaoyan.

But Feng Zhaoyan was slippery, so Min Lan sent Zhong Yi to check all of Feng Zhaoyan's ancestors.

Zhong Yi found out that Feng Zhaoyan's biological mother was from the Ye family and told Min Lan about it.

Min Lan summoned Feng Zhaoyan and threatened him with this matter. Feng Zhaoyan immediately knelt down to show his loyalty.

From then on, whenever the Min family caused trouble, Feng Zhaoyan pretended to be ignorant. The Min family became more and more outrageous, and Feng Zhaoyan played a role in fueling the flames.

Zhong Yi paced back and forth in the room, and the tangled thoughts in his mind gradually became clearer.

He knew that there was something wrong with Feng Cairen; He Ran had told him about it early on.

Like He Ran, he also wanted to know who Feng Cairen was working for.

He had checked Feng Cairen's family and knew that Feng Cairen had a concubine sister. After Feng Cairen's father passed away, her mother showed her power and not only forced her aunt to death, but also sold the concubine's daughter.

Yes, the Feng family told the outside world that the concubine's daughter was very filial. After her aunt died, she was overly sad and damaged her body. She died not long after.

She was just a concubine's daughter who died before getting married. Her relatives and friends didn't care about it, and the Jinyiwei didn't care when they went to investigate.

Now that I think about it, the Feng family must have been lying.

Come to think of it, although Concubine Feng is no longer favored, she is still in the palace after all.

If word got out that her sister had run away from home or run away with a strange man, then not only the Feng family would be ridiculed, but also Concubine Feng in the palace.

Mrs. Feng is Caifeng's biological mother, so she will definitely protect her daughter.

Therefore, Feng Jianjian's disappearance was kept secret. The Feng family never looked for her, outsiders didn't know she had run away, and no one would connect her with Jingzhao Yin's concubine.

Zhong Yi took a deep breath.

Zhou Jian——Feng Cairen——Feng Jianjian——Feng Zhaoyan——Ye family in Fujian!
And now, the small court is in Fujian!
Shortly after Emperor Yonghe fled, the Embroidered Uniform Guard sent spies to Fuzhou. Unfortunately, the journey was long and the spies did not send back much news. The small court was indeed supported by local wealthy families, but there was no one with the surname Ye among them. Even among the officials currently trusted by Emperor Yonghe, there was no one with the surname Ye.

Before today, Zhong Yi had never doubted anything. The Ye family had long since collapsed, and it was normal that there was no one with the surname Ye in the small court.

But now, he began to suspect that among those noble families supporting Emperor Yonghe, there was the shadow of the Ye family.

Zhong Yi issued two orders overnight. One was to secretly capture Feng Zhaoyan and Feng Jianjian throughout the city, and the other was to order the spies in Fuzhou to investigate the Ye family!
After the two orders were sent out, Zhong Yi's tense nerves relaxed slightly.

A graceful figure tiptoed to the door, hesitated for a moment, then raised her hand and knocked on the door a few times.

Zhong Yi asked, “Who?”

"It's me." The voice was light and crisp, like a yellow oriole singing out of a valley.

"Come in." Zhong Yi sat back in the chair, his tone light.

The door opened from the outside and a young woman walked in.

She was wearing light-colored clothes, her hair was tied in a loose bun, and she was holding a tray in her hands.

"It's late at night. I made some midnight snacks. Let's eat together."

"Well, put it down." Zhong Yi said.

The woman smiled, put down the tray, sat down opposite Zhong Yi, and with her delicate hands, brought out the midnight snacks, which were two bowls of knife-cut noodles and a pot of aged vinegar.

Zhong Yi's unchanging expression finally shattered bit by bit, and he smiled rarely.

He has been eating knife-cut noodles for two lifetimes and never got tired of it.

He was really hungry too.

He picked up the bowl of noodles and began to eat it voraciously. The woman was also eating, but she ate very elegantly. She was very good at making noodles, but she didn't actually like eating them. She was from the south and her parents died when she was young. She was taken to Jin by her uncle, but there were too many children in her uncle's family. She followed the adults to work in the fields when she was four or five years old, but the family still couldn't eat enough. Later, human traffickers came and took her away.

Later, someone went to the human traffickers to pick children, and she was chosen. She thought she would be a maid in a wealthy family like the others, but she didn't expect that she would be sent to a Taoist temple. Instead of becoming a Taoist nun, she was trained to be a killer.

Killers not only need to learn martial arts, but also need to learn many skills, such as cooking.

She once went undercover in a restaurant for three months just to assassinate a customer who often dined there.

It was at that time that she acquired the skill of making noodles. She had thought that her skill could only be used until the next time she went undercover, but she didn't expect that after many twists and turns, she would have the opportunity to make a bowl of knife-cut noodles for a man in this big house in the capital.

Zhong Yi finished eating the noodles and wiped his mouth with a handkerchief. Seeing that there was still half a bowl of noodles left in her bowl, he suddenly said, "You should go to Fuzhou."

The woman was startled and slowly raised her head: "Is it because of Lan Ruo?"

At some point, Zhong Yi returned to his icy expression that had remained unchanged for a thousand years: "Lan Ruo died a long time ago, at the hands of King Jin."

A trace of loneliness appeared in the woman's eyes. She followed Zhong Yi to meet the head of the He family. After just one look, she could be sure that it was Lan Ruo.

There can't be friendship between killers, but she and Lan Ruo are people who can trust each other.

Lan Ruo was the most outstanding killer and was highly valued at a young age, so Lan Ruo died at the age of fourteen.

However, when she saw the head of the family, He, she was so surprised that she almost lost her voice. It was Lan Ruo, just like what she imagined Lan Ruo would look like when she grew up.

She told Zhong Yi about this, and since then, she has never walked out of the door again.

She didn't blame Zhong Yi. She knew that Zhong Yi was doing it for her own good and was worried that she would not be able to resist and run away to meet Lan Ruo.

After all, she and Lan Ruo were too familiar with each other. She even knew that there was a red mole on Lan Ruo's foot.

So now that Zhong Yi asked her to go to Fuzhou, the first thing she thought of was that Zhong Yi didn't want her to stay in the capital, worried that she might offend Mr. He at some point.

She lowered her head and traced her fingers across her knees.

Zhong Yi said softly, "I checked. The King of Jin sent assassins to pretend to be the maids of the Princess of Jin. On the night of the wedding, they pretended to assassinate him. He captured the Princess of Jin and blocked her in front of him. It seemed that the assassin killed the Princess of Jin by mistake, but in fact, the assassin wanted to kill only the Princess of Jin from beginning to end. The assassin was executed on the spot. She was Lan Ruo. She was buried in the mass grave outside Jinyang City. After you come back from Fuzhou, if you miss her, go to the mass grave and burn some paper money for her."

The woman hummed, and then Zhong Yi said, "Don't let your imagination run wild. I have never thought of her. I am not worthy of her."

The woman was startled and raised her head sharply: "Why are you telling me this?"

Zhong Yi's face showed no sadness or joy: "When you come back from Fuzhou, we will get married."

The woman was stunned, her eyes were dull, but her eyes were red. After a while, she found her voice again: "Is it because I can cook noodles?"

"My wet nurse could make many kinds of noodles, knife-cut noodles, sour soup noodles, and stewed noodles. My favorite was knife-cut noodles, but after I was seven years old, I never had my favorite noodles again."

It was the first time the woman heard him talk about himself. She was curious and happy, and couldn't help asking, "Don't you like the noodles your mother cooks?"

She has been without a mother since she was a child, and she envies children who have mothers. The food cooked by her mother must be the most delicious food in the world.

Zhong Yi laughed at himself: "I actually wish I didn't have a mother."

He seemed to lose interest all of a sudden, and said to the woman, "It's late, go to bed."

He stood up and walked to the desk, wrote a few lines on the paper, turned around and handed it to the woman: "Burn it after you read it."

This is the mission of this trip to Fuzhou.

This was not the first time the woman had gone on a mission. She memorized everything on the paper and held it close to the candle flame, turning it into ashes.

She will set off tomorrow morning.

Tonight, she really wanted to stay by his side, do nothing, and just watch him quietly.

But she still turned around and left. When she reached the door, she stopped but did not look back: "My name is Lu Mingming, and I am from Dantu."

Zhong Yi frowned slightly. It turned out that she still remembered where she came from. Those killers were brought to the Taoist temple when they were very young. He thought that she was the same as them and only knew her name in the Taoist temple.

Her name is Liuyun, a name that doesn't sound like that of a killer.

"I've got it down. Your name is Lu Mingming, and you're from Dantu."

Lu Mingming smiled silently. It was great that besides Lan Ruo, there was finally another person in the world who knew who she was.

Of course my uncle's family also knew about it, but they had probably forgotten about her a long time ago. Even if she stood in front of them, they would definitely not recognize her.

Just like Lan Ruo
At this time in the northwest, He Shuting was also awake late at night.

Just today, He Jiang brought the latest news that Luo Yun abandoned Wu Ji and joined Xiao Wenyuan!
He Shuting smiled. Wu Ji would never have dreamed that Xiao Wenyuan's daughter, who was engaged to Wu Ji, was betrothed to Meng Cheng's eldest son not long ago!
Wu Dongming saw that Xiao Wenyuan was ambitious and was worried that he would not be loyal to him, so he used the marriage of his children to tie Xiao Wenyuan down.

But what’s the use of marriage?

When Wu Dongming lost power, Xiao Wenyuan immediately unilaterally broke off the engagement. Seeing that Meng Cheng had taken control of Meng Zhong's military power, he married his daughter to Meng Cheng's son.

It was still a marriage, but it changed from a Wu-Xiao marriage to a Meng-Xiao marriage.

What a good story of a woman marrying two men.

He Shuting said to herself: "Wu Ju, you have to thank me. If I hadn't sent people to hunt you down that day, you would have been torn into pieces by Xiao Wenyuan."

These people are not good people!
He Shuting recalled the lustful look in Meng Cheng's eyes when he looked at her that day, and she had an idea in her mind.

The next evening, He Shuting had someone send a silk handkerchief to Meng Cheng. The handkerchief was snow-white, with only a white plum blossom embroidered on one corner, exactly the same as the white plum blossom on her lapel when Meng Cheng first met her that day.

In fact, Meng Cheng has been wanting to go to Meng Zhong's house these two days.

In the past, he would go there every few days. Although he was not as enthusiastic towards Xiao He as before, as long as he thought that Xiao He was Meng Zhong's woman, he wanted to take advantage of her in front of Meng Zhong.

He hated Meng Zhong and had hated him since he was a child.

His father favored his eldest son and only had Meng Zhong in his eyes, never taking him seriously.

After Meng Zhong came to power, he promoted him on the surface, but in fact it was just charity to him. He wished he could kill Meng Zhong!
He had endured for so many years and finally waited until today.

He wants military power and he wants women too.

Thinking of Xiao He, Meng Cheng thought of Princess Chang'an who now lives in Meng Zhong's mansion.

In terms of appearance, Princess Chang'an is not as good as Xiao He, but she has a charming and pure temperament that Xiao He does not have. This makes him feel itchy and he wishes he could press Princess Chang'an under him right now.

At this moment, a servant came in with a maid. The maid handed him a silk handkerchief. He took it and looked at it, and he knew who the handkerchief belonged to.

"Where is the princess?" Meng Cheng asked.

The maid smiled softly with her hands covering her mouth, her face flushed: "The princess has something to ask of you, so we are hosting a banquet at Qingfang Residence. Please, General, be sure to come."

Meng Cheng laughed out loud. She had something to ask for. He had long guessed why Princess Chang'an came all the way here. Was she here to chat with that enchantress Xiao He? Of course not. Princess Chang'an came to borrow troops for Wu Ji! (End of this chapter)