Regardless of whether the fourth prince heard it or not, no one paid any attention to Guo Qian's howl.
Several government officials came forward and tied up Guo Qian without mercy.
Qin Zeng said: "This governor will report this matter to the emperor. Guo Qian will be temporarily detained in the Dali Temple prison to wait for the emperor's decision."
After all, he was from the House of Lords of the Ministry of Finance, and he was secretly involved with the fourth prince, so he naturally had to report it to the emperor. .
Guo Qing felt awe in his heart, "Excuse me, Mr. Qin."
After seeing off Qin Zeng and the others, Guo Qing's eyes were still full of the kind and submissive grandson he had raised for more than ten years, but his eyes suddenly turned vicious.
Rice rises and rice grudges fight rice and hatred.
You can obviously give him nothing, but as long as you give him a little, he will want everything.
Mrs. Guo Er was hit and hurt more than anyone else. Guo Qing said to Mrs. Guo, his old wife who had been with him for many years, "Please give me some advice."
Mrs. Guo nodded silently.
Seeing that no one was paying attention to them, Wei Laner quickly tugged on his mother Guo's sleeve.
Ms. Guo said bravely, "Sister-in-law, second sister-in-law..."
The Second Madam Guo paused for a moment, but it was only a pause before she and the First Madam entered the house. Neither of them paid attention to Mrs. Guo.
Mrs. Guo could only look at Mrs. Guo, "Mom, I really didn't know that Guo Qian wanted to harm his second sister-in-law!"
Mrs. Guo frowned at her and said in a deep voice, "Even if this incident didn't happen, don't you know what good deeds you encouraged your second brother to do? Come here and send your aunt and cousin out of the house."
Guo's lips trembled, her mother actually wanted to drive them away from the Guo family.
"grandmother!"
Weilander cried out sadly, "Don't you care about your granddaughter?"
Mrs. Guo glanced at her and said, "If you take care of everything, you will become an enemy. Why should I bother you anymore?"
After saying that, Mrs. Guo turned around and entered the house.
Guo and Wei Laner looked at each other, looked at the expressions of the servants around them, and left the Guo Mansion dejectedly.
*****
In late spring and early summer, pink cherry blossoms and begonias are blooming. Sitting on the second floor of Linjiang Pavilion, Li Qingyi could see the snowy cherry blossoms blooming in several courtyards.
There are no peonies and other precious flowers and plants in the homes of ordinary people, but apricot flowers, locust flowers, gardenias, etc. bloom one season at a time throughout the year. At this time, the layers of pink, frosty, and white clouds were eye-catching, full, and bustling.
Qin Zeng sat opposite her and said: "Xiaoxiang was not arranged by me. Liu Sheng and his family went to Dali Temple to report to the official. They were bumped into by Chen Yan. Hearing that it was related to the Guo family, he immediately reported the matter to me. I arrived. Only then did the Guo Mansion know that Guo Qian was angry because of the Guo family's humiliation, and used Xiaoxiang as a tool to vent his anger and cut her into pieces."
Originally, according to the plan he and Li Qingyi discussed, exposing Guo Qian's murder of his adoptive mother and nailing him to the pillar of shame would be able to achieve the expected goal. Unexpectedly, Guo family went to Guo Qian and lost his temper, which triggered a series of things.
Li Qingyi frowned, "Mother and daughter, Mrs. Guo, are really a pair of bad guys. But Mrs. Guo's unintentional move made everything possible for us."
With Xiaoxiang's incident as a foreshadowing, Guo Qian's character was greatly compromised in the eyes of the Guo family. This led to the incident of him poisoning his adoptive mother, and everything became more logical, completely shattering the image that Guo Qian had built over the years. The Guo mother and daughter also intensified conflicts with their natal family because of the poisoned candle incident.
Li Qingyi hissed, "Did you deliberately leak the news to the fourth prince and ask him to rescue Guo Qian?"
If the fourth prince does not come, even if they remove Guo Qian, it will still take a lot of effort for Guo Qing to get closer to Qin Zeng.
Qin Zeng raised his eyebrows and said "Yeah", "The fourth prince wouldn't have come. After all, it was too explicit, so I had to use a few paragraphs."
Li Qingyi did not ask what method Qin Zeng used to deceive the fourth prince. After all, Qin Zeng had many tricks, which she could never match. What she was more interested in was, "Guo Qian is really piling up corpses." Soaked in the tub all night?"
Qin Zeng shook his head: "If he really stayed there all night, even half the night, he would have died of poisoning. I think he spent a lot of time torturing Xiaoxiang, plus the silent dismemberment.
It took time. He entered the bathtub to wash off the blood on his body. It was already early in the morning. "
Li Qingyi sighed, "I really don't understand. If Guo Qian is his Second Young Master Guo, his future prospects will be the same. However, he is so narrow-minded that he has forced himself into the corner of the bull."
"People's hearts are not as good as snakes. There are people who can think of everything and others who can't think of everything. Guo Qian obviously belongs to the latter group. How could he be willing to become a subordinate of the other brothers of the Guo family? He is willing to be assigned and manipulated by the brothers of the Guo family his whole life."
Li Qingyi nodded, thinking of Guo Qian's leg, "Actually, Guo Qian's leg may not be incurable, but under the circumstances at that time, the fourth prince was obviously misled by your words."
Qin Zeng raised the corners of his lips slightly when he heard this, "I think he must have reacted by now, but it was already too late."
Guo Qian has been imprisoned in Dali Temple, and what he has done has been known to many people. The well-informed storyteller in the teahouse has compiled several versions of "Peasant Woman and Snake".
Li Qingyi was silent for a while, then turned to talk about Aunt He in the Zhen Mansion, "I have something to ask you, sir."
"Um?"
"There really is a secret passage in Aunt He's house, and the exit of the secret passage is actually in Yushu Hutong, three streets away. I want Changning and the others to go into the secret passage to explore, but I'm afraid that the entrance and exit are dangerous, so I want to find out where the secret passage goes. Dig through the middle and take a look. If you find nothing, first reveal Aunt He’s false identity in front of the Zhen Mansion.”
Upon hearing this, Qin Zeng took out a map of the capital from his arms.
This kind of thing involves defense, and ordinary people are not allowed to draw or hold maps.
Li Qingyi suddenly became cautious.
Qin Zeng was amused by her appearance and pointed out a place on the map to her, "This is Zhen's Mansion. Most of the three streets from here to Yushu Hutong are private houses. I think since Aunt He can spend her energy on the three burrows of a cunning rabbit, If we dig such a long tunnel, how can we be stingy about digging a few more exits?”
"You mean, there must be other entrances and exits to these houses? Or, perhaps, her daughter lives in one of them?"
"You can try to look for it." Qin Zeng pointed to two more places and said, "In addition to private houses, you can also go here and here to look for traces of passages."
Li Qingyi's eyes lit up, "Indeed, although these two places don't look very hidden, they are located in the back alleys of other people's houses. There are not many people coming and going, and even if there are, they are just some servants with low combat effectiveness. If discovered, it will be easier to deal with.”
"If you can find another entrance and exit, you don't have to dig it yourself."
Li Qingyi nodded and memorized the places pointed out to her by Qin Zeng on the map. "It's really convenient to have such a map. You can see all the streets in the capital at a glance."
Qin Zeng smiled, "That's why such things are not allowed to be kept privately or drawn privately. Only Dongchang, Jinyiwei, Beijing Defense Department and other yamen related to Beijing security have such drawings."
Li Qingyi became nervous again. Qin Zeng stroked her hair that was blown by the wind and asked: "Wei Mansion is going to have a wedding. Do you want to help Princess Yuanheng and stay in Wei Mansion?"
"Of course, Jin'er is getting married, so we can't take it lightly."
"Yeah." Qin Zeng responded in a low voice and said, "If Guo Chongli doesn't come out for a day, the Guo family and her daughter will have to hang on for a while. They probably won't dare to act rashly during this period, but they can't completely relax their vigilance. People’s hearts are unpredictable.”
Li Qingyi nodded, "I know, the Zhao family is still in the Guo family's village!"
*****
On the day of Wei Jin'er's wedding, the sky was clear, the wind was sunny, and it was a rare good day.
The entire Wei Mansion is very lively. Compared with Guo Qing, Wei Shicheng climbed to the position of Minister of the Ministry of Personnel in his thirties, and he may join the cabinet in his forties. His eldest daughter is getting married, and many of his colleagues are dignitaries. Come and cheer.
Not to mention the relatives and friends who often move around, the older generation from other mansions plus the younger generation, plus their wives, wives, nephews and ladies, these people alone are almost filling the Guo Mansion. .
There are only a few direct sisters in the Wei family. On a day like this, Wei Baozhu also has to
Go back to your parents' house and help entertain the guests. Wei Lan'er was injured and claimed to be ill. As the daughter of Princess Yuanheng and the sister of Wei Jin'er, it was not surprising that Li Qingyi helped entertain the young ladies.
But there were still not enough manpower, so Mrs. Wei assigned the fifth girl Wei Jiaoer and the sixth girl Wei Ziying, the concubines of the third room, to help with the work.
Although Wei Jiaoer was a concubine, she was more popular with Mr. Wei San than his legitimate daughter Wei Laner, so she was also the target of rejection by other concubines.
Wei Ziying, who is the same age as Wei Jiaoer, may have some competition with her in marriage affairs, so the two of them usually have black eyes when they meet.
However, although the two of them don't get along, they will not hide their differences at this time. They will follow Li Qingyi and Wei Baozhu with low eyebrows and be good girls.
Li Qingyi didn't care. As long as these people didn't come and cause trouble, she wouldn't trouble others. This was especially true for Wei Baozhu. If it hadn't been for Lin's trouble, she would have been the most popular girl in the house. Therefore, the four of them entertained the guests together without causing any trouble.
The first young lady to enter the house was actually the former enemy of the Wei sisters, the fourth prince and concubine Xu Hanzhang.
Prime Minister Xu and Wei Shicheng often had political differences, so the two houses were not on good terms. However, Xu Hanzhang did not come with Song Linlang this time, and he did not see Wei Lan'er, who often quarreled with her. His mouth was also a lot more forgiving, and he did not have any yin and yang aura. He followed Wei Baozhu's guidance and went in as usual.
Wei Ziying looked at the backs of the two people and muttered to Li Qingyi: "Xu Hanzhang is usually very arrogant. If she were taller, I'm afraid we can only see her nostrils. Is the sun coming out in the west today?"
Li Qingyi thought to himself and did not answer her words. Then his second aunt and the wife of the Minister of Rites came together, with Li Miaoran and Zhen Zhen following behind them. After a few people talked for a while, Li Qingyi said, "Let Heng Wu take you to Jin'er's yard. I'm still helping my mother entertain guests, and I'll find you later."
One by one, the young ladies went to Hengwu to see off Li Miaoran and the others. They walked around the backyard and came back. They leaned next to Li Qingyi and said, "Girl, there's nothing wrong in the backyard. Miss Wei San didn't even step out of the yard. On the contrary, the front The prince and Mr. Qin met the fourth prince and the second son of the Mu family on the way, so they came together."
