Hai Jiao couldn't help but sigh in his heart as he watched the two old men from the seventh room of the Zhou family leaving with young Du Qi in their arms.
Zhou Yijun also sighed beside him: "As long as Grandpa Seven and Grandma Seven are willing to protect Du Qi... His father has ended up like this now, and he doesn't know what will happen to him in the future."
Du Boqin's guilt has been confirmed. Shaanxi Dusi stepped up the trial years ago and has already reached a conclusion. Even if the case is sent to Beijing for review, there will be no second result, because all kinds of witness and physical evidence are complete, and the whole set There were no errors or omissions in the program. Unless the Sun family forces a guarantor regardless of national laws, the possibility of overturning the case is slim.
Will the Sun family protect people? That's really not necessarily the case. Today, Du Boqin's reputation in the Northwest Frontier Army has long been discredited, and it is impossible for him to act as an internal agent for the Sun family and frame the Zhou family or other generals of the Northwest Frontier Army. He is no longer of use to the Sun family. Is it worth asking the Sun family to risk the world's disapproval to save him?
If Du Boqin cannot overturn his conviction, he will be sentenced within the year. So what will happen to his son Du Qi?
If he is lucky, the penalty will only be imposed on Du Boqin himself. At most, his family will be confiscated, and his heirs will not be implicated. Then Du Qi, as the son of a criminal official, will not have any hope of taking the imperial examination. He will also be in a difficult situation in Chang'an, but relying on the clan, he can barely survive. .
If he is unlucky and Du Boqin loses his life and his children are implicated, then Du Qi is likely to be exiled or even become an official slave. If the place where he was exiled was in the northwest, the Seventh House of the Zhou family could manage some connections and send him to a place where acquaintances were stationed, so that he would suffer less, but he would not have much of a future in the future.
Unless there is another war on the Hu-Chu border and he makes a contribution in the war, there is still a chance for him to stand up. But he was weak since he was a child, his martial arts skills were mediocre, and he only loved reading. Military achievements are simply a fantasy to him!
Zhou Yijun and Du Qi are similar in age and have seen each other frequently since childhood. However, they have different personalities and have not become friends. But he knew very well that the other person was the kind of person who wanted to study for the imperial examination and did well in it. Now he was watching the other person being dragged down by his father and his whole life was ruined, and he couldn't help but feel sorry for him.
Zhou Yijun sighed a few words to Hai Jiao. Unexpectedly, Hai Jiao's mind was more flexible than his, and he was also better at taking advantage of loopholes: "If the seventh member of the Zhou family really wants to win over Du Qi, it is not completely unthinkable... The son of a prison official It's just that he can't take the imperial examination, and he doesn't say that he can't do anything else. The worst he can do is to be a soldier in the army. In the peaceful years, the soldiers around the border generals were not hard work. If they could learn a skill, such as accounting or prison execution, There is still a chance to be officially promoted to a civil service position, and you can make do with it. Don't underestimate these civil service positions. If you do well, you can hope to be promoted to the sixth or seventh grade. Not everyone can be promoted to a serious official through the imperial examination. To the sixth level."
Zhou Yijun's eyes lit up when he heard this: "That's right! We have temporarily arranged for him to serve in the army, even if he is just a small soldier. In our northwest frontier army, the Zhou family wants to protect him, who dares to bully him? Come back and catch up with the imperial court's amnesty, His status as the son of a criminal official doesn't matter. If he can't pass the imperial examination, it will be the same if he works as a civil servant in the army!" Zhou Yijun had even thought that when the new king ascended the throne, he would definitely offer amnesty to the whole world, and the emperor had I've been sick for so long, it probably won't take more than a few years...
Of course, he would not tell Hai Jiao truthfully what he thought. He just smiled at his new good friend and said, "Thank you very much. I will tell Grandpa Qi later."
Hai Jiao waved his hand: "I also think that Du Qi has a conscience. He is not a white-eyed wolf like his father. He is just too far away from the capital and is detained by the Sun family. It is difficult to escape. Otherwise, he would have reported the news earlier. If you give it to Chengenhou Mansion, we don’t have to work so hard to investigate."
There were many things that the elders of Zhenguo Palace did not reveal to the younger ones, but brothers and sisters Zhou Wenjun and Zhou Yijun had already found out everything in private, and the latter naturally understood what Hai Jiao was talking about. He smiled and said: "If it weren't for the testimony of the cousin of the Marquis of Cheng'en, our family knew that Du Qi's heart was towards us, and grandpa and grandpa Qi would not be so tolerant to him. Before he came back, Qi Grandpa and grandma seven hate Du Boqin, but they plan to ignore Du Qi!"
Hai Jiao was about to say something when he suddenly noticed that after the crowd of onlookers dispersed, a carriage slowly drove into the second gate of the Zhenguo Palace. The curtains of the carriage were tightly covered, and it was impossible to see who was sitting in the carriage from the outside. There were strange guards on the left and right sides of the carriage.
Just now, Mrs. Cheng'en Hou Shizi and her two children got off the car in front of the second door and walked into the inner house. The people in this carriage actually wanted to enter the second door in the carriage, and there were so many guards following them. Isn't it a bit weird? ? Is the identity of the people in the car more important than the wife of Chengen Hou Shizi and her children? Or was it that the people in the car were injured and had difficulty moving like Jin Jiashu?
Thinking of this, Hai Jiao asked Zhou Yijun quietly: "Who was in that car? Why did he go straight into the inner house?"
Zhou Yijun also noticed it and felt strange as well: "I didn't hear that any of the people who came back from Chengenhou Mansion were sick or injured?" After hesitating, he simply ran into the second door. Haijiao quickly followed.
There were many people coming to Zhen Guogong's mansion today, and the door was not tightly guarded. Hai Jiao was still a young man. He followed Zhou Yijun into the second door and no one stopped him. So he followed Zhou Yijun smoothly and approached the carriage. After seeing it enter the second gate, the guards were led away, and the carriage drove directly to the main courtyard where Zhen Guogong and his wife lived. In front of the main courtyard door stopped.
A well-dressed maid and two older girls were waiting for each other in front of the main courtyard. Another maid brought a step stool and raised the curtain of the carriage. A tall, thin boy about the same age as Hai Jiao got out of the carriage. come out.
Hai Jiao and Zhou Yijun glanced at the young man from a distance, only to find that his appearance was unfamiliar. He looked tall, thin and pale, and seemed to be unhealthy. His brows were slightly furrowed, giving him a rather melancholic temperament.
The two looked at each other, both curious about who this young man was.
After the boy jumped out of the car, a middle-aged woman in dull clothes and a twelve or thirteen-year-old girl in blue walked out of the car. The former refused the young man's support and stepped out of the carriage with the support of the maid. He nodded reservedly to the well-dressed maid and said something. The girl in blue held the boy's hand and jumped out of the carriage. The middle-aged woman said something to her, stuck out her tongue, and started to act coquettishly with a smile.
The middle-aged woman and the girl in blue look somewhat similar, and they look like a close mother and daughter. The daughter supported her mother and walked into the main courtyard under the guidance of the decent maid. On the other hand, the pale, tall and thin boy followed them silently, feeling like he was being left out.
What are the backgrounds of these three people? It seems that they are not closely related, so why are they riding in the same carriage?
Zhou Yijun and Hai Jiao looked at their backs with curiosity in their hearts. The former, as the young master of the Zhenguo Palace, is naturally confident. He ran to the door of the main courtyard and asked the servant woman carrying the step stool: "Who is here?"
However, the servants didn't know it, and the coachman drove away in silence. Seeing this, Zhou Yijun had no choice but to go into the main courtyard to find a familiar girl to inquire. Unexpectedly, he was immediately pushed out and said that the Duke and his wife were entertaining guests and no one could disturb them.
Zhou Yijun left the main courtyard with a puzzled look on his face, and while walking out with Haijiao, he complained in a low voice: "Who is here? With such a big pomp, even our own family can't disturb them. They are with their cousin. Are you from the capital? Why haven't I heard anyone mention it before?"
Hai Jiao also has many questions in his mind, but unfortunately no one can answer them right now. Du Qi's appearance attracted everyone's attention, but not many people noticed the carriage. Where should he go to find out?
(End of chapter)
