The few people in the pavilion are all low-ranking officials.
Although he was invited to the banquet, he was just an insignificant person and had no chance to show his face in front of Qian Poxin, so he simply brought some food and drinks and went to the empty pavilion to drink and chat.
They didn't know that there was a cave behind the rockery, and they were still proud of finding a place where they could have a clear view of the surroundings and where they could drink and talk safely, but they didn't know that they were bumped into by Li Zian.
"Shi, Shizi..." Several people all shrank into quails in front of Li Zian, and there was no trace of the complacent look they had when they were chatting with others.
"You're talking about Shangguan behind your back, and you're quite happy talking about it, right?"
Several people fell to their knees.
"Your Majesty, the few of us who drank too much and talked nonsense have polluted your ears."
"Please forgive us this time. We will never dare to do it again."
Li Zian waved his hand and said, "If you let me hear these words again, I will hand you over to Master Shen."
Several people looked at each other in confusion after hearing this, with bitter looks on their faces.
They can only control themselves and stop talking in the future, but how can they control other people's mouths?
"Why, many people in the city say that now?" Li Zian asked with a raised eyebrow.
"This..." one of them hurriedly threw the blame away, "Actually, I don't know this, I only heard it from others.
"There are all kinds of rumors out there, and it's all about anything."
Li Zian's recent focus has been on the late emperor's secret decree, and indeed he has not paid much attention to the situation on the Shen family's side. Hearing this, he frowned slightly and waved his hands to send a few people away.
"Xie Yan!" Li Zian called softly after there was no one around.
Xie Yan rolled down from the tree next to the rockery and landed quietly next to Li Zian.
"What's the situation in the city now?" Li Zian frowned, "Didn't I say that Lord Shen had taken some measures before?
"You ask someone to check and see if there is someone behind the scenes who is deliberately spreading this information."
Xie Yan took the order and left, and soon disappeared.
Li Zian stood up and walked down the rockery, returning to the main courtyard where the banquet was held.
Qian Poxin was slightly drunk at this time. He looked up and saw Li Zian walking through the Moon Gate. He immediately greeted: "Master, where have you been? Did you go out to avoid drinking?" Bar?"
"Just go out and change." Li Zian said and returned to the table, but instead of sitting next to Qian Poxin, he came to Shen Zhonglei's side.
Sitting next to Shen Zhonglei was Shi Guangping, a fellow governor of Wuchang Prefecture.
He was drinking and eating grapes, but Li Zian stood in front of him and refused to leave.
Fortunately, Shi Guangping wasn't stupid. Although Li Zian didn't say anything, he quickly understood what he meant. He stood up and said, "I'm too drunk to drink. I'm going to change my clothes for now. I'm sorry."
As soon as Shi Guangping left his seat, Li Zian sat down directly.
The maids hurriedly moved forward to lift the table that Shi Guangping had used, replaced it with a clean one, and placed wine, vegetables and fruits again for Li Zian.
Seeing Li Zian replace Shi Guangping and sit next to him, Shen Zhonglei was a little confused, not knowing what Li Zian wanted to do.
"Master Shen, cheers!" Li Zian said, picking up the wine cup and clinking glasses with Shen Zhonglei.
In fact, there was no need for him to do anything specifically. As long as he sat next to Shen Zhonglei, enough signals had been sent to everyone.
Whoever can come to the banquet is not a human being.
Li Zian was not so enthusiastic about Qian Poxin.
Not only did he sit next to Shen Zhonglei, he also took the initiative to bring the wine. When they clinked glasses with him, the rims of their glasses were almost flush.
"I didn't know before that the relationship between Master Shen and the Crown Prince was so good?"
"Yeah, I haven't seen the two of them interact too much before.
"I think our information is not accurate enough!"
Shen Zhonglei had long been accustomed to keeping a distance from Prince Rui's Mansion, and Li Zian's sudden show of kindness made him a little overwhelmed.
But after two glasses of wine, he quickly thought about it.
It was only Mrs. Shen's own selfishness that prevented him from getting too close to Prince Rui's Mansion.
And he himself felt that he would be quite content to be the prefect of Wuchang Prefecture.
Especially in the past two years, the situation in Beijing has deteriorated year by year. In the past few months, I have received letters from Zhao Qu from Beijing, and I can see between the lines that he regrets returning to Beijing to take up a post.
What's more, the prince and his daughter are now in love, and they may propose marriage early next year.
Sooner or later, he will be tied up on the ship of Prince Rui's Mansion, so why should he deliberately pretend to avoid suspicion.
After thinking about this, Shen Zhonglei immediately relaxed a lot, and he and Li Zian exchanged cups, and the more they chatted, the more they became more in tune with each other.
Although Li Zian deliberately catered to him at first, after talking, he found that Shen Zhonglei was actually a very thoughtful person who sincerely wanted to do something practical for the people.
Li Zian picked up the wine cup and said to Shen Zhonglei: "It's a pity that I never had the opportunity to have an in-depth talk with Mr. Shen before.
“After learning about it today, I discovered that Mr. Shen has many ideas and opinions that are similar to those of my father.
"If my father had not been injured, he would have got along very well with Mr. Shen."
Qian Poxin was sitting on Shen Zhonglei's right hand side. Hearing this, he turned his head in Li Zian's direction in surprise.
He had done some research before coming from the capital, and all the information compiled told him that Prince Rui's condition was Li Zian's Achilles' heel. Unless you really want to anger him, don't mention it, even just No need for polite greetings or concern.
But what did he just hear? Li Zian actually mentioned Prince Rui on his own initiative, and in such an understatement?
He thought he might be drunk.
Qian Poxin stood up and said, "Everyone, let's drink first. I'll go change clothes and come back as soon as I go."
Upon hearing this, the maid hurriedly came over to guide him and led him to the door of a room across the courtyard next to him.
Qian Poxin went in by himself, and after a while he came out, washed his hands, and washed his face. When he came out, he was blown by the wind and immediately became energetic.
He felt that his mind was spinning rapidly at this moment. The reason why Li Zian had such an attitude could be that Prince Rui's condition had improved, right?
Probably not?
Qian Poxin shook his head and rejected his idea.
But thinking about a series of things that happened after he came to Wuchang Mansion, including Liu Xukun's disappearance and so on.
All the fragmentary clues seem to be vaguely pointing to the same result.
A result that he couldn't believe, but he couldn't completely rule it out.
"Come here." Qian Poxin thought about it again and again, and finally called out, "Where are the pens, ink, paper and inkstones? I suddenly have something to write down."
A garden like this that is specially rented to others for banquets will inevitably host some poetry gatherings, and these things are always available.
So when she heard that he asked for pen, ink, paper and inkstone, the maid was not surprised at all. She took him directly to the door of a study room, opened the door and invited him in.
"Sir Qian, you can use the pen, ink, paper and inkstone in the room as you wish. The slave is right outside the door. If you need anything, just call the slave."
"Yeah!" Qian Poxin entered the room very satisfied.
Although Wuchang Mansion is indeed not as prosperous as the capital, it is still quite wealthy.
If nothing else, you can see a lot of problems just from these people who specialize in eating, drinking and having fun.
Only when the people are prosperous, there are many rich people, and everyone lives a comfortable life, will the industry such as the Fourth Division and the Sixth Bureau become more and more prosperous, and the work will become more and more meticulous.
Qian Poxin walked to the table, cleared away the messy thoughts in his mind, took out a pen and paper, and quickly wrote a sealed letter.
After he finished fucking the man in the letter, he folded it up, handed it to his personal servant and said, "Take the letter back to the capital."
He still couldn't bear to let go of this great opportunity.
However, even though he drank, he still had the last trace of reason left. He did not ask anyone to send the secret message directly to the palace, but ordered it to be sent back to the Qian Mansion for his staff to analyze it clearly before taking action.
Qian Poxin returned to the table after leaving for a long time, and at a glance he saw Li Zian still chatting with Shen Zhonglei.
Both of them were more or less drunk, but their eyes were surprisingly shining, and it could be seen that they were really having a good time chatting.
Qian Poxin didn't understand, how could they have so much to say?
Shen Zhonglei himself was a little unbelievable.
Although he had been in contact with Li Zian many times before, he actually didn't know him well.
And although the outside world has always said that Li Zian is a genius, he has shouldered the burden of the entire Huguang at a young age, and his performance is no worse than when Prince Rui was alive.
But Shen Zhonglei actually half-believed everything.
He felt that the reason why Huguang did not go into chaos after Prince Rui fell into a coma, and even had a steady rise in promotion in recent years, was definitely not the result of Li Zian alone, and most of it should be attributed to the subordinate officials of Prince Rui's palace.
Li Zian's role is to stabilize people's hearts. At most, he can also know how to use people well and not give random orders.
And even though he was a prince, facing a man who was about to abduct his beautiful daughter, Shen Zhonglei still couldn't help but feel the worries of an old father.
Apart from his status, is this boy really worthy of my precious daughter?
So after drinking a few glasses of wine today, Shen Zhonglei finally couldn't hold back his old father's heart and had the courage to test Li Zian.
However, to his surprise, Li Zian was able to answer questions fluently, and his thoughts were 80 to 90% similar to his.
So at first we were taking exams, but later we actually had a lot of fun talking.
The two of them exchanged glasses while chatting, and in the end they both fell drunk at the banquet.
People from Prince Rui's Mansion not only brought Li Zian back, but also specially sent people to escort Shen Zhonglei back to Shen Mansion.
Shen Tianshu knew that Shen Zhonglei was having a banquet outside today, so he had already asked his servants to prepare bath water and hangover soup.
But I really didn't expect that the person would be sent home drunk.
"Why did dad drink so much? Did someone force him to drink?" Shen Tianshu frowned. Shen Zhonglei always had a sense of proportion. What happened today?
"It's not that I was drunk. I was too happy chatting with the prince, so both of them got drunk."
Shen Tianshu: "..."
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