General, he's cheating again

"Ah, Commander Gu can be said to be a formidable young man. He never expected to be promoted to the first rank at such a young age. Congratulations, congratulations!"

At noon the next day after Gu Zhen returned to Beijing, the warm spring breeze blew through the streets and alleys of the capital.Within half a day, everyone in the capital knew that Gu's Mansion on Junyi Street in Xihuamen was crowded with people, and the road was blocked by the crowd of vehicles and horses in front of the gate.

All the civil and military officials of the court knew that the Holy Majesty had a high opinion of Gu Zhen and that Gu Zhen entrusted him with the post of envoy of the Privy Council as soon as he came back.They also heard that the rewards that flowed into Gu's mansion from the palace in the evening yesterday never stopped, they couldn't help feeling sour, they didn't expect that the rewards given to Gu Zhen by the Holy Majesty were also unprecedentedly honored.So, early this morning, they came to congratulate Gu Zhen wearing ordinary clothes and holding congratulatory gifts.

Right now, there are three or five servants in civilian clothes collecting congratulatory gifts in front of the main hall of Gu's mansion. Zhang Youwei, Minister of Rites, and Li Wengang, servant of the household department, presented the congratulatory gifts.

"Hey, Li Shilang's words are wrong. You should know that it is a matter of course for Gu Zhen to become a general now." Zhang Youwei straightened his waist and put his hands on his back and praised, "I saw this in the Imperial College back then. When I was this boy, I saw his imposing manner between his brows and eyes, his height of eight feet and his appearance! I said that he will definitely be a pillar in the future, haha!"

Zhang and Li were singing together and boasting about Gu Zhen. Gu Zhen, who was walking by in the main hall, couldn't help but stop when he heard someone praising him so much.

He turned around and looked at the two courtiers in front of him lightly with his phoenix eyes, then his thin lips curled into a slight smile, "Long time no see, my lords."

Zhang Li and Zhang Li were stunned when they saw Gu Zhen at first, as if they didn't recognize him, then they realized that there was a black-clothed one-eyed guard behind Gu Zhen, and hurriedly replied "Congratulations, Mr. Gu" and so on.As we all know, Gu Zhen is a different kind of person, besides his stubborn nature, he also has a characteristic that he always follows a one-eyed guard wherever he goes.

Gu Zhen was wearing an inky black gold brocade robe today, his hair was half tied in a crown, and he was playing with a jade bone landscape folding fan in his hand.

He straightened up and looked at Zhang and Li in front of him. His eyes became peaceful. He first smiled kindly at them, and Zhang and Li also smiled when they saw this.

Unexpectedly, Gu Zhen frowned slightly and walked in front of them, sighing softly. Gu Zhen sighed, "Gu Mou heard that the two seniors praised Gu Mou full of praise. Although Gu Mou was happy in his heart, he felt a little bit ashamed."

Zhang and Li saw that Gu Zhen was willing to forget the past, and their attitude was quite gentle, and they wanted to make friends with Gu Zhen in their hearts. After looking at each other, they took a step closer to Gu Zhen and showed concern.

Zhang Youwei and Li Wengang looked at each other, then shifted their eyes to Gu Zhen and said puzzledly: "Now everyone in the city knows that Mr. Gu, you have won the battle and won the appreciation of His Majesty. What is there to be ashamed of?"

Gu Zhen jumped out of his melancholy, stopped and raised his eyes to look at Zhang Li and raised his eyebrows, "It's really not a big deal, it's just that I just heard Master Zhang mention the matter of entering the Imperial College and the past."

Zhang Youwei couldn't help feeling guilty when he heard the words, his face began to turn white and red.

Gu Zhen folded the fan in his hand, and seeing Zhang Youwei's embarrassing expression and his phoenix eyes narrowed half-closed, he pretended not to see Zhang Youwei's embarrassment, turned around and glanced at the people around him and continued: "I recall that when I was studying, Master Zhang's son, Zhang Tingyu, had a day in the middle of the night. Go to Gu Mou and say goodbye to Gu Mou. Seeing his gloomy expression, Gu Mou asked him what happened, but he told Gu Mou that an elder in his family said that Gu Mou was an unbearable person, if he dared to fight Gu Mou again If you mess around with him, his legs will be broken!"

Gu Zhen shook his head with emotion, looked sideways at Zhang Youwei, and asked with sincere concern: "Master Zhang just spoke so highly of Gu, and Gu knew that the elder who berated Gu was definitely not Mr. Zhang. Gu just now thought carefully, since then It seems that I have never met Brother Ting Yu face to face. I think Brother Ting Yu respects the elders in the family so much and listens to the elders, so he must still have healthy legs now."

Zhang Youwei only felt that he had been slapped on the face, Fang Fang raised his voice to praise Gu Zhen, but Gu Zhen didn't know the current affairs to tear him down.Cursing secretly in his heart, he knew that this Gu Zhen's stubborn nature would not be a good thing, he hurriedly looked at the people beside him with a layer of cold sweat on their foreheads, and then glanced at the front with a narrow smile and half-closed his eyes to look at him Gu Zhen, humming twice, was about to put down his old face and speak, not wanting to be interrupted by Gu Zhen raising his hand casually.

Gu Zhen suppressed the smile on his face, and casually pointed a boy in cloth clothes and said, "Since I have received the gifts from the two adults, I will lead the adults to the east hall for tea. Don't neglect." Then he turned to Zhang and Li. As soon as the person bowed, he said goodbye with a calm expression, saying that he would go to the south courtyard to enjoy the flowers and would not accompany him.

"Pfft! Enjoy the flowers!"

In a water pavilion in Gu's mansion, Ye Ru'an, the Shaoqing of Dali Temple, who was sitting with Qin Qingrong and drinking tea, almost burst out laughing.Qin Xiaoxiao, a girl standing in front of the two of them, shook her handkerchief and nodded with a smile, "Everyone knows that the South Courtyard is a group of concubines who play music and dance. Gu Zhen is not going to admire flowers, but to admire beauties!"

It is said that Gu Zhen is a frivolous bum, and Zhang Shangshu flattered and flattered his horse so much that he ended up flattering him on the horse's leg.Haha, you didn't see that Zhang Shangshu was so angry that Gu Zhen made his beard stand on his head. "

Ye Ru'an suppressed his smile, and glanced at Qin Qingrong who was still holding the chess book and looking at it calmly.Ye Ruan was not surprised when he saw it, picked up the teacup in front of him and thought about it, "I have a little impression of Zhang Tingyu, the son of Zhang Shangshu."

"I know, it should be the same as Gu Zhen. I used to be in the same family as brother Ru'an and my brother." Qin Xiaoxiao stretched his neck with great interest, waiting for Ye Ruan to continue.

Ye Ru'an was wearing a Xidanqing robe today, and it looked more chic when put together with Qin Qingrong's crescent moon white robe. He put down the teacup and played with Heizi again, looked at Qin Xiaoxiao and nodded noncommittally,

"When your brother and I were studying in the Imperial College, everyone in the school said that Zhang Tingyu's family had the strictest tutoring among our classmates. If his father Zhang Youwei coughed lightly next to him, Zhang Tingyu would straighten his back straight up. His father looked at him in a blink of an eye and picked out something wrong. It is probably because the family is too strict that Zhang Tingyu was attracted to Gu Zhen's wild personality. At that time, the students in the Imperial College were either afraid of Gu Zhen, or they were with Gu Zhen The two hate each other or hang out together. It's just that no one thought that Zhang Tingyu would hang out with Gu Zhen.

After that, it seemed that he hadn't seen him following Gu Zhen for a while.However, this Zhang Tingyu's temperament has also become more and more silent. "

After Ye Ru'an finished speaking, he came back to his senses and saw that Qin Qingrong was still concentrating on watching the chess record. He and Qin Xiaoxiao looked at each other and shook their heads, then snatched the book from Qin Qingrong's hand and said, "Qingrong, you don't even listen to such interesting gossip , I think you are really going to be independent from the world."

Ye Ru'an picked up the fan again and knocked on Qin Xiaoxiao's dangling legs on the stool, pretending to reprimand, "Girls are like everyone, are you sitting or not?"

Qin Xiaoxiao moved towards Qin Qingrong's side in pain and grievance, frowned and looked at Ye Ru'an anxiously: "Why do you always beat people!"

The Ye family and the Qin family are family friends. Qin Qingrong's mother died of illness early in life, and Qin Yi also passed away a few years ago.Since the death of Qin Qingrong's parents, the relationship between Ye Ru'an and Qin Qingrong and Qin Xiaoxiao's brother and sister, who were already friends, has become closer.Ye Ru'an treats Qin Xiaoxiao as his little sister, because Qin Qingrong is very tolerant of Qin Xiaoxiao, Ye Ruan just wants to discipline Qin Xiaoxiao relatively strictly and often.

Qin Qingrong was reading the book at first, and when he saw the book being snatched by Ye Ruan, he picked up a white piece, looked at the chess game and made a random move, and took Ye Ruan's black piece without hesitation.

Ye Ru'an watched his black pieces on the chessboard instantly turned into a plate of loose sand and scattered among the white pieces in isolation. He stroked his forehead and sighed, "You brothers and sisters, the elder brother is as quiet as a virgin, and the younger sister moves like a rabbit. They are not easy to deal with!"

Seeing that he had lost the chess game and Ye Ru'an pushed the chess game into chaos and repented, Qin Qingrong saw it, but he didn't stop his eyes from looking elsewhere with worry.

"Ru'an," Qin Qingrong stood up and faced the wide lake outside the water pavilion, sparkling light reflected in his eyes.The breeze brushed the white robe gently, but there was no gentle smile on his handsome face.With his hands on his back, he looked at the lake with a heavy look in his eyes, "You have to know that the situation has been settled since then."

Seeing this, Qin Xiaoxiao jumped off the bench and ran to play in the flowers outside the pavilion, appearing faintly from time to time.Hearing this, Ye Ru'an was sitting up, frowning slightly.

"The emperor has been dissatisfied with Prime Minister Lin for a long time." Qin Qingrong turned to look at Ye Ru'an, a bit of chill appeared on his originally gentle and jade-like face at this moment, "But he has always been afraid of the Gu family."

"How could this happen?" Ye Ru'an got up and paced back and forth thinking, he asked back: "Since the emperor is afraid of Gu Zhen, why would he entrust all the military power to Gu Zhen's hands?"

"I guess there are two reasons." Qin Qingrong calmly analyzed: "First, the emperor wants to use the Gu family's prestige to frighten the world; second, the emperor wants to use Gu Zhen to help him bring down Prime Minister Lin's power in the court."

Ye Ru'an pondered for a while, then looked at Qin Qingrong with disapproval and shook his head, "The second point is probably wrong. You must know that although the Gu family and most of the courtiers have some disputes, and the current situation is also normal for civil and military relatives, I have never heard of the Gu family. What kind of deep hatred is there with Lin Wenshan. What's more, Gu Zhen is a rebellious dude, and no one in the city can see through him, so he is definitely not easy to control. The emperor, he probably won't gnaw on this hard bone."

"Then guess, has Gu Zhen investigated the cause of Huaibei King's death all these years?"

Qin Qingrong and Ye Ru'an looked at each other, the expression in their eyes gradually darkened.

"I have been ordering my subordinates to secretly investigate this matter all these years and found some clues. I found out that the assassins who assassinated the Huaibei Wang family basically had a kind of snake venom in their bodies."

"Snake venom?" Ye Ru'an was startled, and then suddenly said: "You mean someone is secretly raising a group of hidden guards controlled by snake venom, and this person is likely to be Lin Wenshan?

If you can find clues, Gu Zhen will definitely be able to find them too.If he suspected that the murderer was Lin Wenshan, even if the emperor didn't say anything, Gu Zhen probably wouldn't let Xiang Lin go easily. "

"Actually, I'm not sure." Qin Qingrong showed doubts, "All the clues I collected point to that person, but it doesn't rule out that someone is deliberately guiding people who want to find out the truth behind the scenes."

"Qing Rong, then... Uncle Qin, how did you check?" Ye Ru'an glanced at Qin Xiaoxiao who was chasing butterflies outside the water pavilion, and lowered his voice.

Qin Qingrong sighed coldly, shook his head helplessly, "I have no clue."

"Uncle Qin has always been healthy and healthy. I don't believe that he will suddenly become seriously ill. Someone must have harmed him."

Ye Ru'an clenched his fists tightly with murderous intent on his face. He had always been grateful for Qin Yi's kindness in saving his life, but he never expected that Qin Yi would pass away soon.

Ye Ru'an suffered from a serious illness a few years ago. At that time, he seemed to be on the verge of death. He tried hundreds of prescriptions, but they could not be cured. Instead, it became more and more serious.And just when he was about to give up his expectation of life, it was Qin Yi who found a prescription in time, saying that there is a medical sage on the cold mountain in the north, who can heal the dying with his hands and bring him back to life.At that time, Qin Yi was driving to Beiweifu for a private visit. When he learned that there was such a medical sage, he asked the first emperor to go to Hanshan to seek medical treatment in person.He went to Hanshan alone to live for three months before he was moved by the medical sage and agreed to go down the mountain with him to treat Ye Ruan.

On the days when Qin Yi passed away, Ye Ru'an was very sad.In his eyes, Uncle Qin is a person who has devoted his whole life to the country and is sincere and sincere.After Qin Yi's death, Ye Ru'an was grateful for Qin Yi's kindness and took care of Qin Qingrong and Qin Xiaoxiao as a family ever since.

Qin Qingrong smiled comfortingly at Ye Ru'an who was emotional. After many years, he has learned to hide his thoughts in his heart.When he mentioned his deceased father again, he would not shed tears nor clenched his fists with hatred in his expression.But time can dilute his melancholy, but it will not erase his hatred for the murderer.Qin Qingrong swears that if he finds out who that person is, he will personally kill that person and ask him to go to hell to make amends.

"Brother!" Qin Xiaoxiao squeezed a bouquet of flowers in her hand and sat down beside Qin Qingrong. Her round eyes looked at the stone bridge opposite the water pavilion not far away, and pointed to the black spot on the bridge not far behind Qin Qingrong. Yi Ren said: "I seem to have seen those two people before, and one of them is blind in one eye."

Qin Qingrong and Ye Ruan turned around and looked at the stone bridge opposite, only to see Gu Zhen and Leng Ji standing in the middle of the arch bridge and looking at them.