It's midsummer in July, and the sun is as hot as fire.
However, the storm season has arrived in the royal capital, with continuous heavy rain and rolling thunder.
The Lu Family Courtyard, which had been dormant for more than two months, became lively again. Chun Miao felt the wind on her feet as she walked, and her smile never broke. She quickly cooked a large pot of noodles and mixed the fragrant sauce. .
Lu Taotao and the others squatted under the corridor with a bowl each, snoring and eating noodles while watching the rain.
"Miss, you have lost weight." Chunmiao looked at Lu Anran, tears welling up in her eyes.
Lu Anran only ate a small bowl and didn't even touch the pastries carefully prepared by Chun Miao. Chun Miao was a little surprised. Why did her taste change after going out?
Qiu Chan tidied up the room and came out to pat her sleeves and said with a smile: "Sister Chunmiao, if you say this, it's my fault for not taking good care of you."
When leaving Diqiu, Qiu Chan burst into tears. Everyone had left after only a few days of excitement, and from now on she and her grandfather were left alone to guard the mansion.
Yun Qi simply waved his hand and asked Qiu Chan to go to the capital with Uncle Zhong and his family. Firstly, they don’t have many family members, and they heard that Qiu Chan has a cousin attending this year’s autumn festival, so they decided to leave early; secondly, Uncle Zhong is old, and Yunqi intends to let him return to his roots and return him to Luochuan in two years. county.
Qiu Chan saluted happily, and a group of people finally arrived at the royal capital early this morning.
Chun Miao wiped away some tears from the corner of her eyes, pursed her lips and said, "I didn't say whether there are enough noodles, I'll cook another pot."
Qiu Chan responded positively: "I will help you."
Chunmiao glanced at her and said, "Yeah."
After the two maids left, Yun Qi waved his hand in front of Lu Anran, "Does the rain look good?"
Lu Anran glanced sideways, "Won't the Crown Prince mention the punishment department again?"
Yun Qi shuddered when he thought that Su Ji had been left in the royal capital by him. He must have buried his resentment in the pile of official documents in the past two months. He shuddered when he thought about it, "I'll rest here first."
Ma Dan, who had followed shamelessly, finished slurping a bowl of noodles, pointed his chopsticks at the half-bald osmanthus tree in the courtyard, and praised loudly: "This tree is very good-looking. The yang side is extremely prosperous, bringing wealth and blessings, and the shady side is wilted, and eliminates disasters." To reduce the misfortune, even the trees have spiritual wisdom, it is indeed a geomantic treasure."
"Pfft--" Lu Taotao laughed and laughed, "Modan, are you serious?"
Ma Dan thought about what he had just said, and realized that he had said nothing wrong. Besides, even though he could always be flattering, he was right to say good things.
"That tree, it can be cut by the sword energy, whatever is yin or yang or yang." Mo Yan patted his belly, "If you want a stack of Arhats, I can cut it out for you."
Ma Dan: "..." That's not necessary.
He was still able to come back. "The sword energy is invisible, but it can form such a scene. In the final analysis, it is brought about by Feng Shui and influenced by the great road of heaven and earth."
Mo Yan silently gave a thumbs up, "high", in terms of swagger and deception, you are still better.
Lu Taotao bit her chopsticks and kicked the legs of Lu Anran's chair, "Did Yunqi give you dumb medicine? You can't make a dull fart in three days."
The Zhou family case was in broad daylight, but because it was so involved, in addition to the main people involved who were dealt with by the emperor vigorously and resolutely, other officials who might be involved were thoroughly investigated one by one. I am afraid it would not take more than a year and a half to find out everything.
Meng Xueli is one of them. The emperor has sent another person to Licheng to temporarily take charge of the overall situation.
Xue Tai and Zhou Ting had close contacts, and no one felt that they would be able to escape, but he had already prepared an escape route and only introduced a scapegoat, keeping himself completely out of the matter.
I don’t know how much effort the Liu family and Concubine Shu played in this process, but at least they were in peace on the surface, and the emperor scolded them and settled the matter.
Feng Feng Yu Yu listened to a lot on the way back, but Lu Anran seemed to be shielded from the outside world. He often looked at a certain place alone and was lost in thought. He even didn't touch the "Qianjin Pharmacopoeia" that he read every day when he had time.
Everyone knew that she had not yet come out of her depression. To be more precise, she could not let herself go.
Therefore, Lu Taotao's heartless question immediately attracted everyone's attention.
Lu Anran turned to look at her and said calmly: "The sauce is spilled on the floor. Go back to your yard to eat."
"I don't." Lu Taotao rubbed the bit of sauce off the ground with his toes, and didn't mind smearing it all on the soles of his shoes. He made a face and said, "You can lift me up if you can."
Lu Anran couldn't drive her away, so he had no choice but to turn his back on her and get up to go back to his room.
She reached out to push open the door, and as soon as she took one foot up, a jade bone fan opened in front of her. She turned her head and faced Yunqi's face with a smile that was brighter than a peach blossom.
"After thinking about it for so many days, you still haven't figured it out?"
Lu Anran lowered his eyelids, "Is there any point in doing this?"
If she gives people a wrong judgment from the beginning, then what is the meaning of everything she does?
"Everyone makes mistakes." Yunqi stood face to face with her in front of the door. The rain outside was pounding, covering the sky and the earth. He lowered his voice and said softly: "Your mistake is not irredeemable."
Lu Anran shook his head, "If we had discovered the problems with the Zhou family from the beginning, or if something was wrong with Housekeeper Zhou, maybe a few fewer people would have died in the Yaksha murder case."
"Perhaps? Possibly? What if?" Yun Qi raised his brows and smiled at the corner of his mouth, carelessly and frivolously, "Are we living based on assumptions?"
Lu Anran frowned and said nothing, and Yun Qi said again: "Why don't you change the direction? If this case remains unsolved, will more people die? Why not care about how many lives we may have saved, instead of dwelling on it? On someone who is already dead?”
Lu Anran raised his eyes: "Strong words."
"It doesn't matter what the reason is, as long as you can convince people with the reason." Yun Qi patted her head with his fan, "Do you believe it or not?"
Lu Anran stepped away from him, walked to the room and sat down, "I still can't learn to be compassionate, but everyone should have good and evil, right and wrong engraved in their hearts."
Yun Qi was more discerning than her. He hooked his fingers around the teapot and poured a glass of water. He put it to his lips and said, "The Ning Dynasty has a vast territory. Who can be sure that a case like the Zhou family's will not happen in other places? Without this dojo, wouldn’t the villagers of Shangsi Village have died?”
Perhaps the Zhou family could really, as Zhou Hou planned, hide their names and make a comeback elsewhere under another identity. A gold mine would be enough to become their capital.
"Compared to the truth being revealed, your mistakes are trivial." Yunqi drank some water and sighed: "You can't even learn compassion, so why do you insist on good and evil?"
There was a trace of confusion in Lu Anran's tone, "Don't you need to learn?"
"Am I a good person or a bad person?" Yun Qi pointed at his nose and smiled evilly, "My hands are stained with blood, and I have taken the lives of others with my own hands, but as Sicheng, I have avenged the injustice of the dead souls who have suffered unfair injustice. , to bring crimes to justice, then do you think I am good or evil?"
Human nature is complex and cannot be explained in one or two sentences.
Yun Qi tapped Lu Anran's eyebrows with his index finger, "The truth, no need to be emotional."
His fingers were slightly cold, with moisture from the rain, but his breath was hot, as if it had heated two hearts at the same time.
Lu Anran curled his fingers and asked, "Is it within Sicheng's scope to enlighten others?"
Yun Qi chuckled, like an east wind passing over a small bridge, and the spring scenery was alluring. "Of course, only the prisoner can be worthy of my sincerity." The last four words were deliberately slowed down. The words are revealed, and the ending sound is curled up, with a lingering tenderness that cannot be ignored.
—
The next day, Lu Anran and Yun Qi were summoned to the palace at the same time, and the emperor asked about the whole story of the Diqiu case.
After Yun Qi's extremely exaggerated and detailed description of Yaksha's murder, he began to have difficulty with his words during the Zhou family case, covering the whole story with uncertainty.
"Your Majesty, I felt that something was fishy from the beginning. Why was the entire family wiped out, and the housekeeper happened to be outside and escaped the disaster."
The emperor raised his eyes and said, "You are quite perceptive."
"It's a pity that Nangong Shaofu didn't believe his words, so he took such a big detour." Yun Qi shook his head and sighed.
The emperor took a pen to annotate the memorial and said without raising his head: "If this is the case, how will the case be solved later?"
"Is this..." Yun Qi touched his nose, "Qi Shen led the discovery of a gold mine outside the city, and Yu Zhifu arrested a farmer selling red gold stones. Nangong Shaofu continued to follow the clues, and the case gradually became clear."
After the emperor finished writing, he closed his hand and put it aside. He took the opportunity to look up and said, "Listen, what's wrong with you in the meantime?"
"Uh..." Yun Qi racked his brains and finally came up with a credit, "I followed Nangong Shaofu down the cliff and brought the prince back safe and sound. I dare not ask for credit. This is my duty."
The emperor snorted coldly, "I know it's my duty, so there's no need to elaborate."
Yun Qi closed his mouth and stood aside without saying a word.
When the emperor finally finished reviewing the stack of memorials, he looked at Lu Anran, who remained silent, and said, "I heard that you and Ding'an had some disagreements?"
"I don't know, I hope the emperor will make it clear." Lu Anran came out of the queue and knelt down.
The emperor threw away the brush, stood up and walked out with his hands behind his back, "Ding'an is willful and has an unstable mind. I have asked her to go to Fahua Temple for meditation."
As soon as these words came out, Lu Anran was a little confused about the emperor's intentions. After she returned to the royal capital, she did hear that Princess Ding'an had left the city to live separately, but she did not expect that she was sent to Fahua Temple.
Lu Anran would never be so naive as to think that the emperor was standing up for her, nor could she be the daughter of the Yang and Du families, so either Princess Ding'an's actions had made the emperor unbearable, or she was simply allowed to avoid her temporarily.
"If you do something wrong here, you will be punished, even if you are the princess." The emperor's dark eyes fell on Lu Anran, "If you see good things, you will change them, and if you make mistakes, you will change them."
Lu Anran lowered his head and looked at the ground, "Your Majesty, your Majesty."
"Do you have anything else to say?"
"My lord, no."
The emperor nodded and said something that seemed irrelevant, "A gentleman never loses his dignity, his elegance, and his words."
The two of them left the Linhua Palace, and Yun Qi sarcastically said, "I'm beating you to stop talking nonsense."
Look, I have already dealt with Ding'an, if you hold on to him any longer, you will have trouble with me.
Lu Anran shook his head, and Yun Qi really guessed, "Will the emperor find out who did it?"
"Well, Yang and Du will probably be traced. After all, after losing your beloved daughter, no matter how crazy you are, you can't be too crazy."
Lu Anran looked over sideways, "Your Majesty, is this really not unethical?"
"Obviously, it's my prince who is helping them to pick up the traitors." Yun Qi waved his folding fan and shook it, "Don't talk so much, I'll take you to a place."
But before they could leave the palace, the eldest princess's maid was ordered to invite the two of them to the imperial garden.
