Between the vast sea of ​​clouds

A flash of lightning flashed across the dim sky, and the red umbrellas propped up under the patio were like blossoming new lotuses, which lost their original beauty in the heavy rain, leaving only a very faint red in the water vapor, as if they had been washed away by the sun. blood.

Closing the door shuts out the sound of thunder.Osmanthus osmanthus incense is burning in the room, and the stands on both sides are tall and large. Lamps are densely placed from top to bottom, and the wicks burn quietly, forming a bright waterfall of light.Going all the way to the depths, stepping through four doors, you will arrive at the innermost room.There is an incense table and a shrine in the main hall. Although the furnishings are old, the bright yellowish color is revealed in the firelight, but it cannot cover up its delicate texture.A strange fragrance lingers in the nose, which makes people feel refreshed.

"The wood in this house is all peach wood over 150 years old," the person standing in front of the incense table turned around, holding a dim lamp in her hand, and she fiddled with the wick lightly with a thin silver bar. Jumping up, the light filled the palm of the hand in an instant, illuminating the blue sea wave pattern on the front of the skirt, "It is said that it is to ward off evil spirits... But you say it is ridiculous, but you want to ward off evil spirits in the ancestral hall. What kind of evil is it?"

She smiled softly: "It is the crime of murdering sisters and parents, and the crime of evil and sycophancy for the descendants... This is the Lingnan Xie family."

Xie Qi watched as she filled the lamp with new oil and put it back on the shelf, gently pressed the letter with her hands in her sleeves, and said, "Xie Yuan, you do this kind of thing all day long. Do you want to refill the oil lamp?"

Xie Yuan didn't even look at her, he sat cross-legged on the futon and said, "You think I'm willing to stay here? The clan trapped me here just because they were worried that something would happen to me."

Xie Qi stood in front of her, looked down at her and said, "King Xinyang has arrived in Beijing." She took out the letter from her sleeve and handed it to Xie Yuan, but Xie Yuan turned his face away and said, "It's really strange, I really don't understand why some people put aside the glory and wealth and rush to die."

She looked up at Xie Qi: "Can you understand?"

Seeing that she didn't answer, Xie Qi took back the letter and replied: "I don't know, but King Xinyang's entry to Beijing may not be as bad as you said. You shouldn't fight against the elders of the clan and send people to hunt down Yuan Sui privately."

Xie Yuan said: "I'm afraid those old things will be investigated by Yuan Sui. Even so, they also feel fearless. I'm afraid no one can match this kind of tolerance."

Xie Qi said in a deep voice: "Say what you have to say, don't need to insinuate. What's the use of you confronting me, it's better to think about your current situation and how to get out of here."

"Come out? I really don't want to come out." Xie Yuan lowered his head slowly and said, "On the day when Zhu Lian Jiuzu, I will burn this ancestral hall down, and save trouble."

Xie Qi was very impatient, upset by what she said, and was about to turn around and leave, but when he walked to the door, Xie Yuan said: "Are you going to Beijing?"

Xie Qi didn't look back, and replied: "Yes, this is to say goodbye to you."

Xie Yuan took out a string of beads from his sleeve, held them with his fingertips, and played with them: "What are you going to do? To test the emperor's attitude, or to see the current scenery of King Xinyang?"

Xie Qi was silent for a long time, restraining his irritability, he pulled a futon from under the incense table and sat in front of Xie Yuan, saying: "Just go and have a look."

"What are you looking at?" Xie Yuan sneered, "Don't waste your efforts, you have been with this person for so many years, have you ever seen her play lightly because of some kind of friendship?" The beads snapped back onto his wrist, "If you want me to say that the late emperor still had shortcomings to be found, but this Majesty, he can't even catch a single mistake. You said earlier that Li Qingping was the most holy family, but according to what I see , isn’t it like a folding fan in summer, which is thrown away in autumn. If something goes wrong with the old people who came out of her hidden mansion in these years, they will be punished as well. The Hezhou corruption case involved the elders of the two dynasties. The one who ransacked the house, the one who was exiled. It is related to the affairs of the state, and no one is spared. In this way, it is a bowl of water."

Xie Qi is naturally aware of these things, but she was unwilling to do so, and said after a while: "I have to try, after all, His Majesty was once the Patriarch..."

Xie Yuan interrupted her, looked at her in amazement and said: "You are so confused, how can the Patriarch of the Eight Desolations compare with the Lord of the World! Haven't you seen the movement in Chenzhou? What is the purpose of punishing the vassal kings? The new emperor has been on the throne for less than a year, but he wants to risk the disgrace of the world, disregarding filial piety and human relations, and first attack the vassal kings. Even if the vassal princes are big, but after a few years, when they repeatedly make mistakes and the world sees it, it will not be too late to cut down the vassals, so why is she in such a hurry?"

Xie Qi couldn't speak for a while, and murmured: "She doesn't want Xie's family to become bigger and hold back the court. The chaos of the vassal king has not yet arisen, but she is afraid that the situation of the aristocratic family discussing politics a hundred years ago will reappear."

Xie Yuan raised his brows: "So it's not stupid, it seems that the elders in the clan are not completely blind in picking you as the young master."

She spoke so eccentrically, Xie Qi was rarely angry, and had other calculations in his mind, saying: "I still have to go to Chang'an."

"Of course you can go, but you must also understand that it is not of much use whether you go or not." Xie Yuan restrained a little, and replied calmly, "The collapse of the building did not happen in a day. I have always wondered why you sent people to Yunzhou in the first place, which almost exposed the relationship between the Xie family and Xirong. Why did you act so impulsively?"

Xie Qi thought for a while and replied: "At that time, this Li Qingping held too much weight in Your Majesty's heart." When she said this, she had a strange expression on her face, and she said quickly, "I'm worried that she will be bad. I thought that she would not be able to return after going to Xirong, but accidentally found that His Majesty was still looking for her. What does this mean? Your Majesty believes that she can come back from Xirong safely, otherwise why bother to mobilize her in private? The dark guards are going to look for it?"

"Looking back at the current situation in Chenzhou, this person is indeed quite capable." Xie Yuan said while thinking, "It stands to reason that there are many capable people around Your Majesty, and she shouldn't be the one who should be valued. What is the reason... ..."

Tens of thousands of oil lamps were flickering. After staying for a long time, people didn't feel how warm the room was. On the contrary, they felt uneasy. Xie Yuan pushed a bead, pinched it with his fingertips and stopped moving. He frowned and said : "If you talk about the matter in Yunzhou carefully again, I always feel that there seems to be something wrong."

Xie Qi repeated what she said once, and Xie Yuan looked at her hesitantly and said: "The purpose of the people you sent was to get rid of that Li Qingping and prevent her from returning to the court; but at this moment, I found that The staff of the Wu family stretched their hands too far, and found some things that shouldn't be investigated, but my original intention was to bring her back, and I didn't intend to let her die..." Her lips moved, as if silently calculating something, and finally She asked: "This is Wu Ying, do you know who she originally belonged to?"

Xie Qi said: "Her biological mother is a counselor under King Qi's sect. You should have met a few times. It is that Mr. Si who fought fiercely with those in the clan who supported King Qi when the situation was not clear."

It took Xie Yuan a long time to say: "Wrong, wrong...we are all wrong!"

As soon as she finished speaking, the thread in her hand suddenly broke, and the beads jingled from her sleeve and fell to the ground, rolling far away.Their shadows stood motionless in the light, but each other's hands trembled, Xie Qi said with some difficulty: "You mean, she has already—"

Xie Yuan stood up suddenly, and the silk thread withered from her fingers: "How can things in this world be so coincidental! At that time, you and I were far apart, and the things we did were completely different. Why are you here? In this matter, you made a move, and I also made a move? Li Qingping is just a bait, she puts her on the bright side, but as long as someone checks this person, she will find out, this is just a temptation! We It was wrong at the beginning, she didn't want to target the Chenzhou family, nor did she want to weaken the feudal lord! I'm afraid that from then on, she noticed something and started to take precautions. From the beginning to the end, she just wanted to thank the family die!"

She naturally didn't know that this was the result of hints and warnings given to Chu Jun by the Patriarch of Rao's family in the past, and she only blamed the cause and effect on the Xie family's growth, and some things had to be exposed, which aroused Chu Jun's fear.

Xie Qi's heart was also cold. At this time, there was thunder outside the house, and the porcelain bowl on the incense stand trembled. It was only an instant, and the fire in the room was also dimmed. She was a little lost, and said in a low voice: If it doesn’t get to this point, it’s still too late!”

"It's too late." With a pale face, Xie Yuan slowly bent down and picked up the beads from the ground and held them in his palm, said: "We didn't want to be restrained by the golden tent and helped her destroy Xirong; I didn't expect the prince to want that book The roster, the Golden Tent's counterattack, and the court's changes have exposed the eyeliner and hidden stakes that have been buried in the palace for decades... and the families of the Bahuang defected one after another, although in the end we killed them with the help of King Xinyang The Patriarch of the Shao family took his place, but this is another bait."

The east window was suddenly pushed open, and the wind gushed in, blowing out most of the lamps on the shelf, and the rest flickered in the wind, leaving only a faint light for illumination.

Xie Qi's forehead was covered with cold sweat, even his temples were wet, and he said shortly, "It's not enough!"

Xie Yuan walked to the incense table step by step, and put the beads into a blue and white porcelain bowl: "It's too late, the Xie family has now turned their backs on the golden tent, abandoned the original layout, and put everything on the King of Xinyang. Wrong, wrong step by step, if King Xinyang dies, then nothing will exist anymore."