The word "boundary" touched Yang Lun's crown.
He hurriedly said to Yang Wan: "Now that you've said this to me, just swallow it."
Yang Wan nodded and continued, "You can't be too radical. You must understand the Queen Mother's position, find a good occasion, and at the same time, you must know the limits of being a minister."
After hearing what she said, Yang Lun pinched his palms, nodded, and turned to walk towards Yangxin Gate. Yang Wan chased him a few steps and said, "Brother, wait a minute."
As she spoke, she stuffed a purse into Yang Lun's hand. "Take this money and buy something for Deng Ying."
Yang Lun picked it up and took a look at it, then said casually, "Why buy it? He doesn't eat anything except the food in the prison."
Yang Wan said, "Then buy him some apples and oranges to supplement his vitamins and prevent him from losing his hair."
Yang Lun narrowed his eyes, "What do you mean..."
"Ah? Oh."
Yang Wan coughed and awkwardly changed the topic: "I meant to replenish my body."
Yang Lun looked at Yang Wan, half-believing and half-doubting, and then he put the money into his arms, walked a few steps, and then quickly returned to Yang Wan, pointing and saying, "Yang Wan, when you leave the palace, you must come back home for me."
Yang Wan was forced to take a step back.
"do what?"
"What?" Yang Lun stiffened his neck and said, "I want to interrogate you!"
Yang Wan crossed her arms and said, "Okay, you set up the court, and I will definitely go to the trial when the time comes."
**
As November passed, the Ming Dynasty welcomed the coldest New Year in its history.
On the tenth day of the twelfth lunar month, the inner court was going to escort Emperor Zhenning to a coffin. Martial arts were imposed inside and outside the capital and the roads were cleared. Reed sheds of varying sizes were built along the roads for the new emperor and officials who were escorting the funeral procession to rest.
Except for the case of Silijian, all other prison cases in the Ministry of Justice were put on hold due to the great mourning. The prisoners in the prison could not be divided into the two punishments of "imprisonment" and "exile", which caused overcrowding and uneven supply. The prisoners' families outside had no choice but to find ways to send money to the prison, but half of the money was scraped off when it arrived at the government office, and the other half was scraped off by the jailers in the prison, so very little could actually be delivered to the prisoners.
Yang Lun asked his servant to buy a bunch of apples and oranges in the market, put them in a bundle, and personally brought them over. He stood in the hall of the Ministry of Justice waiting for Qi Huaiyang. Qi Huaiyang had not been home for nearly ten days. He had just taken a lunch break in the inner hall. When he was called up by the yamen runners, he had not put on his mourning robe. He hung the robe on his sleeves while walking, and asked casually: "The three court trials have been suspended for the past two days. We are waiting for the 'face-to-face interrogation' below. What are you doing here..."
Before he finished speaking, he looked at the bag in Yang Lun's hand.
"Send something."
Before Yang Lun could speak, Qi Huaiyang raised his hand and said, "He won't want it. Why don't you go in and take a look at him while I'm here?"
Yang Lun smiled and said, "That's fine."
Qi Huaiyang turned sideways to look for the jailer coming out from behind and asked, "Did anyone come to the palace today?"
"Yes, a eunuch from the Imperial Household Department came over and was speaking the etiquette of 'face-to-face interrogation' to the prisoner."
"Is it out?"
"Not yet, I just went in."
"oh."
Qi Huaiyang tied the mourning belt, took Yang Lun out of the back hall, ordered someone to open the prison door, and then returned to the yamen.
Yang Lun walked into the inner prison carrying his bag.
Standing in Deng Ying's cell were the eunuchs from the Imperial Household Department and four runners from the Ministry of Justice. The eunuch was holding a book and reading it word by word. Deng Ying stood in front of the wall with his hands down, listening silently. When the eunuch finished reading, the runner asked Deng Ying, "Do you understand?"
Deng Ying nodded and said calmly, "Yes, I understand."
The yamen runner said, "Repeat it."
"yes."
Deng Ying gently pinched her wrist and lowered her head to repeat.
He did not speak fast, and every word he spoke was very clear, almost identical to the text in the book.
"I've heard that you can memorize everything you see, and today I've really seen it."
Deng Ying smiled shyly, "Thank you, father-in-law."
Yang Lun hadn't heard Deng Ying recite texts for a long time. They were children of scholars, and they were famous for their horse stance. They had competed with Deng Ying before, and they had won and lost. But he always suspected that Deng Ying didn't try her best when he won.
The eunuch put down the book, bent down and took a sip of tea. Before he put down the teacup, he saw Yang Lun looking at him sideways, and hurriedly came up to greet him, "Yang Fu Chen..."
Yang Lun glanced at Deng Ying who was still standing behind the prison door, lowered his head and asked, "Have you decided on a date?"
"yes… "
"Okay, go ahead. I'll ask the government for details."
"yes."
The eunuch in the hall didn't dare to drink tea anymore and bowed and withdrew from Yang Lun's side.
Yang Lun bent down and walked into the cell. Deng Ying lowered his hands and said, "You can hear me recite these."
"What's the matter?"
Yang Lun put the bag on the ground and sat cross-legged on Deng Ying's table. "After so many years, you can still memorize it by heart."
Deng Ying knelt down and said, "There are many rules and regulations in the inner court. Just the article "Tai (Harmony) Inner Training" must be thoroughly learned."
He casually mentioned the life in the inner court, and Yang Lun felt a little hot in his ears.
"Can Yang Wan also memorize so many rules and rituals?"
Deng Ying hugged her knees and sat up straight. "She can, but she has a habit."
Yang Lun used his hand to push away the torture device beside Deng Ying's legs, "What habit?"
"She likes to write, whether she is reciting or recording, she will write."
He raised his head and looked at Yang Lun, "She seems to have been writing a book."
"What kind of booklet? What's written on it?"
Deng Ying replied: "It's a thread-bound booklet. I haven't read the text on it, but it seems to be written in Yidi..."
"How is that possible!"
Yang turned around and asked, "She was raised by her mother and her sister-in-law since she was young, how could she be exposed to Yiwen?"
Deng Ying did not answer.
Yang Lun frowned, clasped his hands on his knees, and spoke after a while: "Fu Ling, she said something in front of Yangxin Gate today."
"What."
"About your case of forging a will."
Yang Lun paused, clenching his fingers around the base of his thumb, "She asked me if there was a clear line between criminal cases and inner court secrets."
Deng Ying was stunned. "Are you sure?"
"Don't tell me whether I'm sure about this or not!"
Yang Lun was inexplicably annoyed. "She is my sister. She has been following me around since she was a child. I know exactly what her temper was like and what she knew and didn't know, but..."
He suddenly slumped his shoulders. "Even you and I didn't see this. Don't you think she saw too much this time? She..."
"Zi Xi."
Deng Ying interrupted Yang Lun, "Not just this time."
He leaned against the wall and said, "Before the Autumn Examination, my teacher and I thought that the matter of the academy student was a dead end, but in the end, he came back to life in Qingbo Pavilion."
Yang Lun stood up and said, "Since you already knew it, why didn't you ask her in front of her?"
"Am I qualified to ask Wanwan?"
"you… "
Yang Lun touched Deng Ying's ankle in his haste. Deng Ying closed her eyes and endured the pain. She stood up and looked at Yang Lun and said, "I don't want to ask Wan Wan."
Yang Lun asked: "Why?"
Deng Ying lowered her eyes. "She has always been looking at me and asking me, I have always been her subordinate, how can I be her judge?"
After hearing what Deng Ying said, Yang Lun felt a sudden pain in his heart.
It was for both Deng Ying and Yang Wan.
All women in the world are taught the virtues of women and regard men as their heaven. This is true for mothers and wives.
But Yang Wan was not among them. Perhaps she had her eyes on a slave, so she did not need to crawl under the "sky".
That glorious person was crushed into dust, and from then on he held every step of Yang Wan in his arms. Beside Deng Ying, she seemed to be infamous, but her heart had never been humiliated.
He had said before that Yang Wan saw too clearly.
It may not be because she lives too freely.
The person she loves does not judge her, so everything she says and everything she does only needs to follow her own inner principles.
Yang Lun felt that this was very dangerous for a woman. He did not agree with it, but he had to admit that he saw a kind of temperament in Yang Wan that neither Yang Yu nor Xiao Wen had, which was temporarily between a scholar and a woman.
"Just forget it if you don't ask."
Yang Lun looked down at the bundle on the ground and changed the subject, "On the day of the interrogation, you and Yixian will be brought into the inner court together. Have you confronted him during the previous three trials?"
Deng Ying raised her head and said, "It can't be considered a confrontation. As long as the judge doesn't ask, I have nothing else to confess. Now there is only one unsolved problem in this case - whether I was instructed by the Imperial Household Department to forge the will. However, this problem does not have a big impact on the conviction. It is nothing more than to distinguish between me and He Yixian, who has committed a more serious crime, but in the end, neither of us should be able to escape death."
Yang Lun said, "I will argue this point in front of the Queen Mother and the Empress when His Majesty interrogates you and Yixian. I will see if I can force out the Queen Mother's true attitude towards the forged edict. You just asked me if I was sure. If this is something I came up with myself, I may not be sure, but this is something Yang Wan pointed out to me, so I am quite sure. If it works, it will be a life-saving favor, you can thank her after you get out."
After he said that, he picked up the bundle on the ground and handed it to Deng Ying.
"Take it and eat it."
Deng Ying didn't reach out to take it, and said lightly: "Don't give me anything, I eat well."
“It’s apples and oranges.”
"Not even that."
Yang Lun shrugged and took back the bag, "You said you don't want it, right?"
"Yes, no need."
"Yang Wan bought it for you."
After saying that, he turned around and walked out of the prison door.
"Zi Xi."
From behind Yang Lun came the sound of shackles rubbing against the ground, and then the voice calling him became louder, "Zi Xi, wait a minute."
Yang Lun stopped and looked back. Deng Ying had already walked to the door of the cell. The jailer came up to lock the door. He was blocked behind him and looked a little embarrassed.
"Don't take it..."
Yang Lun turned around and walked back to Deng Ying. "I told you to eat apples and oranges every day. They said they can nourish some trees and stop your hair from falling out."