The sky was getting dark and they couldn't go back before the curfew, so Xue Bai and Du Wei had to book two rooms in the post house.
The dinner was shared with Erlang and his wife of the Wei family. The roasted mutton was served with steamed cakes. To be honest, it was much more delicious than the food at Du Zhai. Even though it was the same roasted mutton, it was also sprinkled with rich spices.
After dinner, the two went to Xue Bai's room to chat for a while.
"Who is Princess Changning?"
"The daughter of Emperor Zhongzong, the cousin of the current saint." Du Mei said: "She sold her official position to Queen Wei and Princess Anle, and when the saint ascended the throne, she and his consort were demoted to Jiangzhou."
She frowned slightly and whispered: "I don't know more about it. I have to ask my second sister when I get back."
Xue Bai found a piece of paper, picked up a piece of charcoal and wrote it down, saying, "I might just be passing by, or I might be an official slave of Princess Changning's Mansion. In short, it's a clue."
"Just check slowly, I'm leaving."
Du Wei got up and left the guest room.
Xue Bai sent her to the door.
suddenly.
Du Wei didn't know what she saw. She trembled with fright and turned around to hide, but she bumped into Xue Bai's arms.
Xue Bai was about to close the door, but Wenxiang Nephrite hugged her full, and couldn't help but ask: "What's wrong?"
"Hide quickly."
There was the sound of footsteps. Xue Bai looked around and saw several people coming up the wooden stairs of the post house. The first one was Xin Twelve.
Xin Twelve was talking to someone, his eyes sharp and cruel in his manner.
In the Wei Jian case this year, hundreds of people were tortured to death by his hands. It was the blood of these people that made him unique.
Xue Bai closed the door.
Du Wei was still huddled in his arms, her body trembling slightly.
"You don't have to be afraid of him."
Du Wei didn't say anything, but she cried.
Xue Bai could not personally understand her fear in the torture chamber, so he did not say any words of comfort, but just patted her back with his hand.
There were candles lit in the room, but an unknown wind blew out two of them, leaving only one.
In the darkness, Du Wei buried her head and cried for a while, and finally choked up, her voice was broken.
"Liu Shang, Liu Sang is so miserable...she has been the only one who has been with me for so many years..."
"I'm very timid... I actually don't want to be a aunt... I had two brothers when I was young..."
"I'm also aggrieved... The whole family made the decision when we got married... In the end, I ended up alone..."
Xue Bai could hear some things clearly and some not, but he always responded patiently: "I know."
The last candle went out.
Du Wei had a strange feeling. Whenever she fell into darkness, she easily forgot that Xue Bai was still very young. She always felt that he was an upright man who could tolerate and protect her.
She had calmed down, but was a little reluctant to leave the embrace in front of her.
Weak or not, she was too lazy to be strong at this time.
"Why are Jiwen's people here?"
"Come to check me. Use Ji Wen to check, which shows that Li Linfu doesn't trust me."
"what should we do?"
Xue Bai said: "Tomorrow morning we will rush ahead of them to check."
"Good, lest anything bad comes from them."
"Well, let's go to bed early."
Du Wei was stunned for a moment, realizing that there was something else in his words, as if he knew that she did not dare to go to another room alone, so he naturally let her sleep here.
Then she felt something again. She was stunned for a moment and quickly left Xue Bai's arms.
The two of them didn't speak any more. They got on the couch and lay down on opposite sides, covered with the same quilt.
They all behaved calmly and seriously.
But Du Wei could actually feel his heat. Even though he was lying there calmly, she could still feel the high emotions in the young man's body. Then she couldn't sleep.
After staying up for another half of the night, she finally became tired and fell asleep.
~~
Before dawn, two figures led their horses and left the post house.
"Their horses are still there."
"Let's go, take thirty steps before mounting the horse, so as not to alarm them."
Xue Bai quietly left the post house. After walking for a while, Xue Bai said: "Thirty steps."
"How can there be thirty steps?"
"I counted."
"That's what you're saying, keep an eye on it."
In the gray sky, Du Wei handed the horse rope to Xue Bai, lifted up her skirt, stepped her left foot, and then her right foot.
"One step, one step, two steps are one step, do you understand?"
"I understand, if you don't take small steps, you can't reach a thousand miles."
Du Wei then laughed.
The two of them were a little embarrassed when they first came out, but now they felt comfortable again.
After walking another fifteen steps, they got on their horses and rode forward.
When we arrived at the city gate, we saw the city gate slowly opening amidst the sound of morning drums. We headed east along Yanpingmen Street and returned to Shengpingfang at 6 o'clock. In the corner, Du's house was preparing for lunch.
"Ah, where did you go last night? My family was worried all night."
Du Mei ignored Du Wulang at all and hurried to the inner courtyard with Xue Bai.
Even when she met Lu Fengniang on the road, she only asked, "Aniang, where is my second sister?"
"In the house, hey..."
Du Jin hurriedly ran across the verandah, opened the door, and saw Du Jin sitting there holding a book and reading.
"Um?"
Du Jin raised his head and looked at the two people outside the door, suspicion flashing in his eyes.
Du Wei said: "I asked about Princess Changning's Mansion."
"Come in and talk."
"It's too late, Ji Wen is checking Xue Bai."
Du Jin stood up and started looking for things and said: "Princess Changning gave birth to Yang Hui, and Yang Hui married Princess Xianyi. Now Princess Changning's mansion is actually occupied by Princess Xianyi."
While she was talking, she found a plum gold hairpin from the box, handed it to Du Mei, and said: "I can't go out. This is the gold hairpin that Princess Xianyi has worn for many years. You can use this to ask for permission... Changed clothes."
"I said you have a way."
Soon, Du Wei went to the inner room and changed into a luxurious robe.
Rushing back to the front yard, Du Wulang greeted again: "Hey, I just happened to have lunch."
"Time is running out."
Du Wulang then put down the biscuits and followed.
The three of them rode their horses and rushed to Pingkangfang. They got off their horses and Du Wei whispered to Xue Bai: "It's best if you don't show your face. Wu Lang and I will go and ask first."
"good."
Seeing the Du siblings knocking on the door, Xue Bai went to sit at a restaurant on Pingkangfang West Street, ordered a bowl of wontons and ate slowly.
At noon, before the Du siblings came out, they saw a group of people leading horses coming from the Xifang Gate.
~~
"Xin Twelve."
Xin Twelve, who was walking on the road, suddenly heard someone calling him. When he turned around, he saw that it was Xue Bai who he was investigating.
Hearing the authority in Xue Bai's tone, he couldn't help but feel guilty. He stepped forward and said with a smile, "Mr. Xue, what a coincidence."
"Did the fugitive get it?"
Xin Twelve was stunned for a moment, and then he realized who Xue Bai was asking, and hurriedly said: "How can those desperadoes be taken by villains?"
"Oh? The right minister summoned you to interrogate people?"
"This...yes, the villain is about to go to the Prime Minister's Mansion."
"Go ahead."
Xue Bai waved his hand and stared at Xin Twelve.
Xin Twelve was stared at by him and had no choice but to turn south.
After walking for a while, someone asked: "Steward, are you really going to the Prime Minister's Mansion?"
"Damn it, wait until that kid leaves."
~~
"Xue Bai."
As soon as Xin Twelve left, the Du family siblings caught up from behind.
"Let's go first."
The three of them hurriedly left Pingkangfang from West Street and rushed back to Du Mansion.
Du Jin was already waiting and summoned them to the side hall.
"how?"
Du Wei said: "Princess Xianyi is not here today, and the steward of the mansion received us. When I asked the princess if there were any lost official slaves in the mansion, he shook his head and said no. I asked him again if he knew anyone nearby who had lost someone, and he asked Asking back, it’s a beautiful boy who’s lost.”
"Oh?" Du Jin's expression changed and he said, "In that case, what should he know?"
"That's right. The Cuju court next to the princess's residence is vacant in the winter and no one is looking after it. Yesterday, a beautiful boy woke up from the Cuju court. He turned out to be the son of an important minister in the court who had been missing for many days."
Du Wulang rushed to say: "This beautiful young man said that he met a goddess, and he has been living in that goddess's place these days. Others don't know, but the steward of the Princess Mansion knows that the residence of the goddess mentioned by this beautiful boy is exactly The residence of Mrs. Guo. Speaking of which, it is not new that Mrs. Guo kidnapped beautiful young men in Chang'an. Alas, the Tang Dynasty is really in decline now, and the security of Chang'an City is also very poor. "
This result was unexpected by Xue Bai, and he couldn't help but fall silent.
The originally clear thinking became a bit confusing.
Du Jin said: "In other words, Xue Bai is probably a member of a high-ranking family who was abducted by Mrs. Guo Guo?"
"It's possible." Du Wei said: "Xuanyangfang is just south of Pingkangfang. If it was Mrs. Guo who did it, she would throw people into the nearby Pingkangfang every time. It's not that far away."
The three siblings discussed it for a long time, becoming more and more inclined to this possibility.
Only Xue Bai always shook his head, thinking it was the wrong direction.
"Why?"
Xue Bai hesitated slightly and said: "Although I lost my memory, when I woke up... I didn't feel empty."
Du Wei was slightly startled and turned away.
Du Jin pondered: "No matter what, this is a clue now."
~~
evening.
Xuanyifang, Yangzhai.
Pei Rou heard a man's voice coming from the front yard and quickly put on some rouge. She rushed over to take a look, only to see Ji Wen with bad breath. She rolled her eyes and immediately turned back to the backyard.
When he took this trip, Yang Zhao caught him and gave him some instructions.
"Here comes a hot pot of wine."
"Here, Mr. Lang."
Pei Roujiao responded, but did nothing with her hands to avoid letting Ji Wen's foul mouth touch her cup.
In the front hall, Yang Zhao invited Ji Wen to sit on the bench and asked, "Have you come out of trial?"
"Don't inquire about this matter."
Ji Wen waved his hand, fatigue flashed in his eyes.
He had tortured many people, but this time he encountered a tough problem.
"Come today, the Right Prime Minister has something to entrust to me, but I need Yang Canjun's help."
Yang Zhao laughed when he heard this, and turned to look at the door.
He has always been principled in helping others, and when he saw Ji Wen coming to the door without a gift, the smile on his face became reserved.
"Well, the things that need to be transported by car are all bulky objects." Ji Wen said, "I got a treasure recently."
He was straightforward and took out a long and narrow wooden box from his sleeve and handed it over.
Yang Zhao opened it and saw a golden flower necklace.
"Oh, turquoise."
Ji Wen sneered slightly, cursing secretly that this countryman had grown up and now knew about turquoise, and said: "The most valuable thing is the workmanship. Such a small five-petal flower is actually made of gold wire, and the stamens are inlaid with pearls and green." Every little flower is made of turquoise, beaten, drawn, woven, carved, and inlaid, which is truly a work of art."
Yang Zhao's eyes shone brightly and he nodded repeatedly.
Ji Wen then said: "I have something that I would like to ask General Yang to ask Mrs. Guo..."
