On the 30th day of the twelfth lunar month, couplets are posted, ancestors are worshipped, lanterns are hung, and firecrackers are lit.
At around 9 o'clock in the morning, the sky was already dark.
In the bedroom, Li Xuan carefully pulled her arms out from under Liu Jinyu's neck and pulled up the quilt.
Liu Jinyu noticed the movement and wanted to open her eyes. At this time, Li Xuan whispered in her ear: "Go on sleeping, it's still dark."
Liu Jinyu responded vaguely, then squeezed her whole body into Li Xuan's arms again, and fell into a deep sleep.
Li Xuan, who originally planned to get up, looked helpless, this girl.
Since becoming pregnant, Liu Jinyu has begun to fall asleep deeply and often becomes lethargic.
Especially after Li Xuan returned to Beijing, she became even more tired of being around Li Xuan.
Holding Liu Jinyu gently, Li Xuan sniffed the fragrance of her long hair and narrowed her eyes slightly again.
…
The morning light was bright, and Liu Jinyu finally woke up with a yawn. She had just opened her eyes, her thoughts were still in chaos, and suddenly a flash of light flashed through her mind, and she sat up immediately: "No, we have to worship our ancestors today. "
"Okay, it's all done a long time ago. If I wait for you to get up and do it, it will be too late." Li Xuan's voice sounded at the door, and she took off her fur coat at the door. It wasn't until her body got warmer that Li Xuan walked in. In the room.
"With your husband here, I feel a lot less lazy." Liu Jinyu muttered and raised her head, but her eyes were full of snickers.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, Li Xuan took Liu Jinyu into his arms. Looking at her naughty look, her slightly bearded chin touched her delicate face. Liu Jinyu immediately raised her hand and said no with a smile. :"itch!"
"Haha!" Li Xuan forcibly stabbed Liu Jinyu twice, and then said: "Okay, it's time to get up, my mother is waiting!"
"Ah!" Liu Jinyu quickly broke away from Li Xuan's arms and started to get dressed.
Li Xuan was helping. I don't know why, but she was always helping more and more.
I don't know how long it took for the two of them to come to the side hall.
Seeing the joking look on her mother's face, Liu Jinyu immediately blushed.
Li Xuan looked shameless.
"Da Lang, Sanniang is pregnant, you should pay more attention." Before Ouyang could finish her words, there was a "bang", and Liu Jinyu's head hit the dining table directly, and she pinched her tightly with one hand. Li Xuan's back was very strong.
Li Xuan suddenly looked like he was grinning, but he never screamed.
Ouyang couldn't help laughing when she saw the young couple looking like this.
At this moment, a burst of hurried footsteps sounded outside the door. Li Zhu quickly walked in from the door, with a hurried look on his face, and handed a short note to Li Xuan's hand.
Li Xuan glanced at Li Zhu in surprise. Although the rules of Prince Peng's Mansion were not strict, they were not so strict.
Especially since Li Zhu is also an old man in the mansion, how could he not pay attention to this? This can only mean...
Li Xuan lowered her head seriously and looked at the short-term lottery in her hand.
Li Xuan glanced at just a few lines of words, but his eyes were fixed on the last word, his eyes full of horror.
"What's wrong?" Liu Jinyu glanced at Li Xuan in surprise, then leaned over to read the text on the note.
Li Xuan shook her head, clasped the note, then looked at Liu Jinyu and said, "Eat first. After breakfast, we will discuss this matter."
Li Xuan raised her head and looked at Li Zhu, and said softly: "After Mr. Yu has breakfast, please go to the study, and also go to Dongjingyuan to call Li Bi."
"Here!" Li Zhu quickly turned around and left.
Ouyang, who was opposite, looked at Li Xuan, frowned and asked, "What, what happened?"
Li Xuan sighed softly and said, "My son thought he could have a peaceful New Year, but he didn't expect that some people just don't live well."
Seeing his mother's worried look, Li Xuan shook his head and said, "Don't worry, mother. This matter is not aimed at the son. Someone is targeting Pei Yan, the Minister of Punishment, and the methods are a little more drastic."
"Oh!" After hearing that it had nothing to do with Li Xuan, Ouyang was suddenly not interested, and Liu Jinyu felt relieved.
After a while, Li Xuan helped Liu Jinyu into the study. Yu Ze and Li Bi stood up immediately, cupped their hands and said, "Princess."
Li Xuan waved her hand and said, "You're welcome at home."
After Liu Jinyu sat down, Li Xuan handed the short note into her hand. The moment she saw the content of the note clearly, Liu Jinyu couldn't help but change her face: "Who is this person, so cruel?"
…
The short note was placed flat on the desk, with a few lines of small words written on it: "At three o'clock in the morning, in Anning Square, the old wife and only son of Lenglin's family were hanged to death at the same time by the Ministry of Punishment. The Ministry of Punishment has begun an investigation."
"How should I explain this matter?" Li Xuan raised his head and looked at Yu Ze.
Yu Ze looked solemn and said: "There is no doubt that someone must be taking revenge on Leng Lin's family to target Pei Yan."
"How to target Pei Yan?" Liu Jinyu didn't understand for a while.
"That's because of something that happened yesterday." Li Xuan sighed softly, and pulled out another note from under the desk: "At three o'clock in the morning, the Ministry of Punishments Zhang Gu Lenglin's wife and children were dressed in white linen. Standing outside the gate of the Criminal Department in mourning clothes, Zheng Rengong, the doctor of the Criminal Department, invited him in and sent him out after half an hour."
Li Xuan pushed the note to Liu Jinyu, and then said softly: "Yesterday they just came to the Ministry of Punishment, and today they were silenced. People can't help but wonder whether the person who really did it was Pei Yan, the Minister of Punishment?"
"But Pei Yan has no reason to do this. His subordinate died during the mission. He only needs to provide adequate compensation and he can handle the matter completely and properly. Why does he need to silence him?" Liu Jinyu looked at Li Xuan with a puzzled face and said: "It's just an ordinary relationship between a superior and a subordinate. How to use it to kill people and silence them? The Leng family..."
When Liu Jinyu said this, she couldn't help but pause. A terrifying possibility flashed through her mind, but she couldn't believe it.
"The Leng family has secret information about the Minister of Punishment." Li Xuan spoke out for Liu Jinyu.
This is the only reason that can be explained now that the Leng family was suddenly silenced and can be connected to Pei Yan.
Yu Ze sat across from him, shook his head slightly, and said: "Even if there is a handle on the Leng family's matter, Pei Shangshu will not be able to kill people and silence him at this critical moment. Therefore, it is very likely that one of his rivals framed it." Framing him.”
"Yes, tomorrow is the first day of the dynasty. No matter how stupid you are, you must be careful and consider carefully at this time. After all, this matter is too big. Once it attracts the attention of the palace and the truth is thoroughly investigated, no matter how deep the murderer behind the scenes is hidden, , are easily dug out." Liu Jinyu took a step forward and began to speculate on the identity of the mastermind behind the scenes.
"Officials in the DPRK will naturally not be like this, but the King of Donghai might be." Li Xuan shook her head slightly, then looked up at Li Bi and asked in a low voice: "What do you think?"
"My subordinates think that the prince, the princess, and Master Yu may have made a mistake." Li Bi's words directly shocked everyone.
Li Xuan's mind suddenly calmed down and she said, "Keep talking."
"Even the King of East China Sea needs to worry about the hearts of the people in the government and the public, and cannot act so unscrupulously." Li Bi's words directly woke up everyone present.
Li Xuan nodded seriously and said, "That's true."
What the King of Donghai wants to do is to regain the throne, but if he leaves a desperate, ruthless and vicious impression on the world, then there will be very few people willing to cooperate with him.
Even if someone is willing to cooperate with him, they will be more wary of him during actions. If this continues, it will not be a good thing.
"Who would do this?" Liu Jinyu frowned tightly.
"Could it be?" Li Bi suddenly raised his head and glanced at Li Xuan.
Li Xuan immediately rolled her eyes at him angrily and said: "If I take action, even if I have people go to the Criminal Department to make trouble every day, it would be better than killing people..."
Before Li Xuan finished speaking, everyone present frowned. Li Xuan glanced at the expressions on everyone's faces, finally nodded and said: "So, this matter is most likely not against Pei Shangshu, but just a personal grudge, or even... Really suicidal.”
"We have to find out the details of the Leng family no matter what." Li Bi looked at Li Xuan with a solemn expression.
Li Xuan waved her hand and said: "There is no need to investigate this matter. People from the Ministry of Punishment will find out everything that can be found out, and then make it public. After all, this matter must be explained both inside and outside the Ministry of Punishment. If there is any trace, If it was concealed and then exposed, Pei Yan's prestige in the Ministry of Justice would be completely destroyed."
"Then our people will continue to lurk?"
"Since His Majesty has ordered me to stay at home, then I will listen to His Majesty and stop everything that needs to be stopped." Li Xuan shook his head. He had a feeling that there was a very deep flavor in the emperor's verbal edict. This made him not visit his father-in-law at home this New Year, because he heard an extremely threatening atmosphere from the emperor's decree.
Yu Ze seemed to have been thinking about something. At this time, he looked up at Li Xuan and said in a deep voice: "Your Majesty, could it be that you knew about such a personal grudge in advance and then used it cleverly? After all, no matter what, It's all Pei Shangshu's responsibility, and if you use it wisely, you can still hit Pei Shangshu."
Li Xuan raised her eyebrows slightly. This method of calculating behind layers of curtains was actually very similar to the methods of some old people in the court.
"It's useless!" Liu Jinyu said suddenly. Seeing others looking over her shoulder, she said calmly: "As long as the real cause of death is investigated in this case, we can use it in any way we want. And at this time, if there is really someone If you jump out, you will easily be identified as the murderer behind the brutal death of Leng's mother and son. Doing so will offend everyone in the entire punishment department."
Li Xuan narrowed her eyes slightly and said softly: "What Sanniang said is indeed reasonable. If someone is really so cruel, I am afraid that not only the Ministry of Punishment, Dali Temple, Jinwu Guard, Qianniu Guard, but also Yongzhou and Chang'an will be offended. The two counties will all hate that man for ten thousand years, and if his wife and children are implicated, everyone will be afraid?"
"Your Majesty!" Li Bi's face suddenly became very solemn: "There is another possibility, that is, the Leng family really has some information about Pei Shangshu, and it is the kind of fatal information, so he is desperate. Take action?"
"The only thing I can think of related to Leng Lin is that he had Pei Yan's secret order to go to Hangzhou to investigate me. Therefore, before leaving Chang'an, he left things in Chang'an. But I didn't expect that Leng Lin would actually He couldn't come back alive, so the Leng family's wife and children went to find Pei Yan.
Maybe they had reached something with Pei Yan, but someone refused to let it go, and then took advantage of the personal conflicts between Leng Lin and others to kill the Leng family's wife and children, fake suicide, and then framed Pei Yan..."
In the end, Li Xuan said that even he himself was surprised by this complicated conspiracy.
Perhaps, that's what happened, and there wasn't so much conspiracy in the first place.
But there is no doubt that someone is targeting Pei Yan.
Chang'an is indeed dangerous. As soon as a flaw is revealed, someone will immediately chase and attack.
But who is this person?
(End of chapter)
