The night gets deeper.
The middle hall of Youxiang's Mansion was as warm as spring, but Du Jin's voice was a bit cold.
"Only two wishes can be called reconciliation. Has anyone ever asked me if I wish to do so? And who has ever cared about how Li Heng forced me to achieve his goal? He is unkind and I am unjust. Please give me the paper and ink. , the paper is written in my own handwriting..."
After that, a long, long time passed, and the people in the hall didn't know what was being said. It was endless. Du Wulang stood there and listened drowsily. His head kept dropping, like a hen pecking at rice.
Suddenly, he got excited and shook his big head, shaking the fat on his cheeks to wake him up.
"Pfft."
A woman's chuckle came from somewhere.
Du Wulang was stunned, and turned to look at the side wall. He saw a figure moving behind the gauze of the window to choose a husband, and he could vaguely see the towering clouds on her temples. She was a woman!
This surprise was no small matter. He quickly lowered his head and looked at the soles of his feet, feeling sad and no longer sleepy.
Didn't notice what Xue Bai said just now, Li Linfu behind the screen also said with a smile: "Forget it, you are allowed to take Du Erniang back, but she is not allowed to leave the house even half a step."
"Thank you, Prime Minister."
It could be heard that Li Linfu was very happy and said: "The country will not be handed over to the weak prince in the future. You have contributed a lot to this matter. Go back and study hard."
"yes."
Du Wulang's eyes widened, and he saw Xue Bai bowing, turning around and walking out together with Du Jin.
He also hurriedly followed, but suddenly remembered something, so he turned around and glanced, only to see Jiaonu still standing in the hall and not following. I couldn't help but feel overjoyed, and for a moment I felt a little bit like saying goodbye, so I waved goodbye.
There was a curfew at this time, so Li Linfu sent the Jinwu guards to send them back home with documents.
Riding horses at night, Xue Bai was not good at riding, so he still rode with Du Jin and let her hold the reins.
Chang'an Avenue was dark during the curfew, and only the lantern held by Jin Wuwei shone a little light, leading them forward.
When they reached Shengpingfang, Du Jin suddenly sighed unconsciously.
The breath blew into Xue Bai's ears, which made them itchy.
He didn't react.
A young girl in her early twenties would probably feel sad and helpless after going through this. She was trying to be brave, so he just pretended not to hear.
After waiting silently for a while, Fangzheng was called up to verify the documents and open the door...
~~
The candles were always lit in Du's house tonight, and no one fell asleep.
When he heard the sound of horse hooves, the porter quickly stood up, pushed open the ajar door on the west side, and ran towards the front hall with large strides.
"I'm back, I'm back! Xue Langjun is amazing, he really brought my second mother back!"
Suddenly Du's house became lively, and everyone rushed to the front yard.
"It will be good when we come back." Lu Fengniang was supported by Caiyun and Qinglan as she trotted all the way, crying: "It will be good when we come back. We can remarry when we come back."
When she rushed to the stable in the front yard, she saw Du Jin getting off the horse with some difficulty. She quickly asked two maids to come up to help.
Xue Baiben was still helping Du Jin, and when he saw them coming, he got out of the way, but was glanced at by Qing Lan rather resentfully.
Not long ago, it was in this courtyard that he faintly woken up from his coma when he heard Lu Fengniang's howling.
Finally heard it again today.
"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu Now I'm back. I was thinking, since I have no name and status, and I am still being hidden by him, wouldn't it be worse than being knocked down from Yeting? I don't even have hope."
"Mom, look what you said."
"People say you are not my biological child, but when I married into the Du family, you were only a little bit older, woo woo, so a little bit older, and now you are so beautiful. Anyone who doesn't praise you when you meet them points at you. . Wuwu, you have always wanted to be strong-tempered since you were a child." Lu Fengniang cried until she couldn't stop crying. At the end, she wiped her tears and said: "It's okay, remarry, don't worry about not marrying a good one."
Du Jin just smiled, patted Lu Fengniang's back, and said, "Mom, everyone is watching, and I have lost my dignity. Let's go back to the house first."
"Your grandpa is still in a coma. He's very worried."
"..."
When everyone went inside, the Du family siblings and Lu Fengniang went to the inner house to talk.
The steward Quan Rui ordered the other servants to disperse, leaving only his son Quan Fu. He glanced outside the door and asked Xue Bai, "Xue Langjun, that one didn't follow you?"
Xue Bai smiled and shook his head.
"Her business is done, she doesn't need to follow me anymore."
Quan Rui couldn't help but breathed a sigh of relief, with a happy face on his face. He went to bolt the door first, raised his hand and said, "Let's talk about it here?"
"please."
The three of them arrived in the east hall. Quan Rui stroked his beard and sighed: "Since last night, my heart has been uneasy, but now I am at peace."
Quan Fu said: "Me too, Xue Langjun doesn't know that I was frightened when she chased me last night."
"I haven't had time to ask you about last night..."
Suddenly they heard footsteps outside, and the three of them stopped talking.
After a while, Du Wulang came in and asked curiously: "Hey, what are you talking about? Why don't you talk again?"
Quan Rui responded: "I just want to ask if the maid from Youxiang's Mansion is still here."
Du Wulang understood and said with a smile: "Are you happy that she is not coming?"
Du Wei came in and said, "But let's talk to Wu Lang, lest he become confused and spill the beans."
Quan Rui asked: "What is Wulang doubting?"
"Let me tell you, wasn't there a murderer here last night? I saw a few footprints with gold juice in the main room."
"Ah." Quan Rui said, "The villain must have stepped on it without paying attention..."
Du Wulang didn't wait for him to finish, and said: "But the strange thing is that there are also ones on my window sill, but only the murderer climbed up on my window sill."
Quan Rui couldn't help but said, "Wulang, it's a villain who got on your window sill."
"I mean, a murderer broke into my house last night and beat me hard. It is said that the prince wanted to silence me, alas. He must have stepped on the same puddle of gold juice as Steward Quan."
"The villain means," Quan Rui said, "that the villain hit Wu Lang's bed hard."
"ah?"
Quan Rui said: "Actually, there is no murderer. It was all arranged by the aunt and Xue Langjun in order to make the right minister trust Xue Langjun more."
Du Wulang's eyes widened, but then he understood and said: "I said that the prince would not send anyone to silence him, but you don't have to hide it from me, right? I'm very tight-lipped."
"It's not that I'm hiding it from you." Xue Bai said, "I'm afraid you won't act like it in front of Jiao Nu."
"If you want me to act, I can act like one." Du Wulang muttered, took a few steps, and said, "Let me guess, it was Quan Fu who lured Jiao Nu away, right?"
Quanfu responded: "It's a villain."
"She has martial arts skills, how did you escape?"
"Xue Langjun said that she was afraid of the smell, so the villain and grandpa first made the toilet dirty and left footprints on the courtyard wall. Hey, in fact, when she chased him, the villain was hiding behind the pile of barrels in the latrine, but she thought The villain is flying over the roof and over the wall!"
Quan Rui said: "The villain was still negligent. He didn't notice that the soles of his feet were stained with gold juice when he was setting it up beforehand. Jiao Wulang saw the clues."
Du Wei asked Xue Bai: "Now that Li Linfu has obtained the key evidence that the prince secretly raised dead soldiers, does the saint really want to depose the prince?"
"Very likely."
"At this time of year, the Du family does not dare to ask for anything else but peace."
"Yes, I just hope that the Du family can stay out of the matter and no longer be involved in these power struggles."
Quan Rui said: "What happened last night must be rotten in our stomachs."
At this time, Du Jin came in alone with a lantern and said: "My father is awake. He is just weak and cannot see people yet. He needs to rest for a while."
"That's great." Du Wulang was overjoyed and clapped his hands and said, "Today is really a blessing, a lot of good things happen!"
Quan Rui and his son were also overjoyed.
"Then go and tell the kitchen to prepare some supplementary food for Lao Alang tomorrow."
"Um."
Quan Rui just retreated, and Du Jin couldn't help but ask Du Wei, "I seemed to have seen two coffins in the front yard just now?"
"It's from Lang Jun and Liu Shang."
Du Jin had been holding back since she entered the door. At this time, her face had completely turned cold, and she asked calmly: "Is the eldest sister paying filial piety to Liu Shang?"
Du Wulang was always more afraid of his second sister. Hearing these words, he exclaimed silently and asked Xue Bai to step aside, which meant "my second sister is about to have an attack."
"It's fine if we make peace with each other. He will still be my husband-in-law when he dies, so etiquette..."
"Pedantry!" Du Jin suddenly raised his voice and shouted: "How many women in the Tang Dynasty are as useless as you?! Do you have to wait until he really kills the entire Du family to death?!"
"Everyone is dead..."
"I don't care if the person is dead, I won't let him get a coffin to take in, and see his soul and enter Du's house again! Did you think about it when you bought him a funeral utensil? If it hadn't been for Xue Bai's rescue, I would still be with him today. Dozens of corpses are piled up outside the Dali Temple, and the rest of my family members are on their way to Lingnan! Not to mention walking to Lingnan in shackles, you will be worse than dead before you pass the Qinling Mountains. Why don't you pay tribute to him? !”
Du Jin's tone became harsher and faster, and he cursed a few more times before venting his hatred.
Du Wei was scolded by her, wiping her tears and said, "How about we stop arguing in front of our brothers?"
The two sisters were silent for a while, each calmed down, and then turned around.
"I've made you laugh. I haven't been home for a long time, so I'm a little lost." Although there were still tears on Du Jin's face, her expression had returned to calm. She raised her hand and asked Xue Bai to sit down, and said, "You saved the Du family, so we can I must help you with all my heart. You have great ambitions, but to realize your ambitions, you must first have an identity. You can never enter the general position with the identity of a runaway slave or a lowly citizen."
Xue Bai nodded.
Chatting with Du Jin was indeed much easier. She understood what he wanted from the beginning. Although her grasp of people's hearts was not strong enough, her vision was high enough.
"We plan to find out your parentage first before making any decisions, okay?" Du Jin asked again, "The family background needs to be there, and the family certificate needs to be submitted for the imperial examination. It means that you have found the concubine that you have longed for, and I will give you a gift when she comes. Now that you're an official, you can't just say you don't remember who you are."
"Okay, thank you very much."
Du Jin smiled.
Du Wei hurriedly wiped away her tears and said: "I went to the Wei residence opposite during the day to find out from the two slaves who carried you back where I picked you up in Pingkangfang. Unfortunately, it's not a coincidence. , they went out of the city to receive New Year's gifts, and it will take two days before they come back."
"Don't be afraid." Du Jin said, "We'll keep an eye out for you and we'll ask you as soon as you come back."
Xue Bai didn't say much about this matter, he still nodded in thanks.
Du Jin smiled again and said, "Whether it's an official slave or a runaway, from now on you will treat Du House as your own home. If you are born into an extraordinary family, don't despise us."
"It's a deal?"
"It's a deal."
"Okay, go to bed." Xue Bai stood up and said, "It's late."
Du Jin tried to control the situation all night long, but when Xue Bai said a word, she still felt inexplicably that he seemed to treat her like a little girl.
Du Wulang took a few steps outside and suddenly thought of something.
"Sister, I was in the Right Prime Minister's Mansion and made a woman behind the son-in-law selection window laugh. Are you okay?"
"Go ahead."
"Are you really okay?"
"Go ahead."
Du Jin sat there for a while, then pulled Du Jin and said, "I'll sleep with you tonight, okay?"
"Um."
The two sisters just had a quarrel, but when they got into bed, Du Jin couldn't help but hugged Du Mei tightly and cried silently.
a long time.
"I'm still a sister. I don't know how to reply when I scold you."
"I know how hard it was for you to win the title of Third Grade Liangdi. I watched you all the way."
~~
It was night, and the lights of Youxiang Mansion stayed on all night.
Finally, he got the key witness who could bring down the prince. Li Linfu interrogated and discussed with people all night, which was as lively as a festival.
Even though he was busy until dawn, he still didn't forget one thing.
"I asked you to check on Xue Bai. How did the check go?"
"Right Prime Minister, it has been found that Xue Bai was really picked up by the Du family. It is said that it was picked up by a servant of Wei Shaoyou's house."
"anything else?"
"Those slaves have recently arrived outside the city. Waiting for two days..."
Li Linfu was furious and scolded: "Don't you know how to go out of the city and ask?!"
Ji Wen was horrified and quickly responded: "Just ask someone!"
