Hearing Peng Yizhen's arrangement, Mrs. Cao and Gu Shiba Niang cried and thanked them again.
Peng Yizhen was an old friend they had made in Xianren County. They had experienced Shopkeeper Zhou's incident together, and now they run a drug store together. They were more of a relative than a close relative.
Gu Shiba Niang thought that her brother died because he was infected with the plague in prison. If the prison disaster reappeared in this life, the plague would naturally be inevitable. It would be a good idea to go there with Peng Yizhen, a miraculous doctor. But that's it.
"Then I'll help you, uncle." She said after plastic surgery. Now that the matter is serious, she is no longer polite.
Now that it was agreed that the sooner the trip would be better, Peng Yizhen immediately went back to clean up, and temporarily closed the drug store. He also wrote a letter asking the boy to send him home to pick up his family as soon as the city gate opened.
The separation was imminent, but the mother and daughter no longer shed tears. Mrs. Cao took her maid to pack her luggage, while Gu Shiba Niang quickly wrote a letter to Xin Chaoyang, asking him to take care of her mother.
The tragedy of her brother's imprisonment has indeed reappeared, and will the tragedy of Cao's family also reappear? Her heart can't wait to be split into two parts, and she can't let go, and her heart is torn apart by pain.
Not to mention that the reaction of Gu Changchun and others just now made her feel like a hole in her heart. Even if they were pleasant, she would never dare to entrust Cao to them. If she took Cao to Beijing, she really couldn't take care of her. , and secondly, he was afraid that Gu Changchun would really kill his brother, and there would be no one in the family, not even anyone to protect him.
The only person she can rely on and trust is Xin Chaoyang. At least for now, she is still worthy of Xin Chaoyang's help. Compared with family ties, profit is now the reason why Gu Shiba Niang believes most.
Along with the letter, she also sent a contract written by her, renewing the contract exclusively for medicines for one year, and signed it.
"Mom, if they really want to exterminate my brother and they can't fight, let them exterminate all three of our family." Gu Shiba Niang finally said quietly.
Ms. Cao nodded, stroked her daughter's head and said hello.
When the sky was dark, two carriages quietly drove out of the gate of Cao's house and rushed along the deserted streets shrouded in fog.
When they reached the city gate, a boy stopped them on the roadside.
"Ms. Gu, this is a letter from our young master."
Gu Shiba Niang stretched out her hand from the window and took it. The carriage did not stop and sped past the boy. She opened the letter and found that there was only a blank piece of paper. She finally felt that the boulder on her heart was slightly loosened and filled with Hongsi's eyes finally closed and she leaned against the swaying wall of the car.
At this time, Xin Chaoling hurriedly broke into Xin Chaoyang's study, and the first thing he entered was the paper balls thrown on the floor.
Xin Chaoyang was lying sideways on the couch, facing inward, with his long black hair pouring out like a waterfall.
"Brother, you can still sleep." He stepped on the paper ball and jumped in front of Xin Chaoyang, shouting, "Something big has happened, something big has happened."
"What's the noise about?" Xin Chaoyang said lazily, but he remained still.
"Brother, Gu Jieyuan has been sent to prison," Xin Chaoling shouted.
"I know." Xin Chaoyang hummed, turned around gently, and lay flat on his back, his eyes still closed.
"Then...then...what should Mrs. Gu do?" Xin Chao Ling stammered.
The reaction of the elder brother in front of him was really beyond his expectation.
"Do your best and obey fate." Xin Chaoyang replied calmly, raising his hand and covering his face with the sleeves of his wide white gauze.
Xin Chaoling stood there, feeling that he had a lot to say, but also felt that there was no need to say a word. He kicked the ball of paper at his feet, exhaled heavily, and sat down on the armchair in front of the desk. Only then did I see a stack of papers with three or four words written on them scattered on the table.
Some wrote "peace of mind", some wrote "don't think about it" and so on.
"What are you going to write?" Xin Chao Ling muttered, casually pulling it aside, and suddenly saw a contract with bright red fingerprints.
"Ms. Gu" he jumped up holding the contract, "Mrs. Gu, when did you send it?"
"Last night." Xin Chaoyang's voice came from under his sleeves, which was a little muffled.
It turned out that Mrs. Gu had already told her brother immediately. Xin Chao Ling was stunned. No wonder she was not surprised at all by the news she brought.
"What did Mrs. Gu ask you to do? She even wrote the contract in advance? Brother, I have heard that Gu Jieyuan committed a major rebellious matter. If it doesn't happen, the nine tribes will be implicated..." He endured kept asking.
"It's nothing, I'm just taking care of her mother." Xin Chaoyang said lightly, his posture unchanged.
"That's it?" Xin Chao Ling glared and asked.
Xin Chaoyang put down his sleeves and opened his eyes. There was a slight redness in his eyes, indicating that he had not slept last night.
"What else do you think?" he asked, sitting up slowly.
Xin smiled at Ling San, it was really nothing...
He shook the contract in his hand and said with a bit of solemnity: "Then let me accept it. This is not good. It seems like we are adding insult to injury..."
Xin Chaoyang smiled and stood up. The maids outside the room filed in. One put on a thin satin cashmere robe with him, one tied up his hair carefully, and another brought warm tea.
"Good sister, give me a drink." Xin Chaoling took the hand of a pretty maid and pointed at his throat, "It's almost smoking."
The pretty maid giggled, and as expected she went to pour him a cup of tea, and held it in her hands to feed him.
"Brother, although I don't understand business, I also know how to offer charcoal in the fire... At this time, we should never raise any conditions..." Xin Chaoling put his arms around the pretty maid's waist, and then said vaguely .
"I accepted it to make her feel at ease." Xin Chaoyang said, tied on his gray cloak and strode out.
"An Xin?" Xin Chaoling was a little confused. Seeing Xin Chaoyang leave, he quickly let go of the pretty maid, "Brother, where are you going?"
There was no one outside the door.
Gu Changchun and the others walked into the house with tired faces. Everyone who had also stayed up all night gathered around them and asked about what was going on.
Gu Changchun waved his hand to signal everyone to calm down. He sat down and drank three cups of hot tea in one breath before he regained his composure.
"This is what happened..." He began to speak in a hoarse voice, but his voice was much calmer than yesterday when he suddenly received the news.
Sure enough, the government was well-informed and got the news one day ahead of them. The origin of the matter can be traced back to last year. The reason was that the Tanzhou governor impeached the Tanzhou chief envoy for corruption and bribery. This was originally a small matter, but because of the involvement behind the scenes, The two big figures are getting more and more intense.
The prefect of Tanzhou was a student of Li Shifang, the cabinet scholar, and the chief minister of Tanzhou was the nephew of the chief minister Zhu Chunming. In short, after a series of court visits to deal with the imperial censor's investigation of Dali Temple, at the end of the year, the chief minister of Tanzhou Those who were dismissed and investigated will never be used.
Everyone thought the matter was over, but during the Chinese New Year this year, the prefect of Tanzhou was captured from the New Year banquet by wolf-like police officers sent by Dali Temple.
"Why?" Everyone in the room was listening in rapt attention, feeling that what he said was better than the storytellers in the teahouse.
Gu Changchun glanced meaningfully at everyone in the room and slowly uttered a few words.
"Corruption cures disaster food."
The whole room was in an uproar.
Gu Changchun took another sip of tea and continued his lecture.
This brings us back to last year, when Tanzhou was plagued by locusts and there was no harvest. The imperial court allocated disaster relief food. At the end of last year, after the case of the Tanzhou Chief Envoy was settled, the Liuyang County Magistrate impeached the Tanzhou Magistrate’s family members. The disaster food was replaced with old moldy food to make huge profits. It was found to be true and he was dismissed from his post and imprisoned...
Does this mean that a dog bites a dog with a handful of hair, or that the crows in the world are as black, or that fifty steps lead to a hundred steps
"Grandpa..." Someone interrupted Gu Changchun with a confused look on his face, "...What does this have to do with Brother Hai?"
Gu Changchun glanced at him and twirled his sparse beard.
"This matter did not end here. Dali Temple continued to investigate and found that someone in Tanzhou had already reported the matter, but it was covered up by the teacher of Tanzhou Magistrate, Grand Scholar Li. So the emperor was furious and ordered the Ministry of Punishment to conduct a thorough investigation. Academician Li..." He said slowly, "Minister of Punishment, do you know whose world that is?"
Although most of the tribe had never been involved in officialdom, they knew something about Zhu Da, the chief minister of the Zhou Dynasty, and they immediately understood.
"...I heard that Mr. Li pointed at Mr. Zhu and called him a traitor because of General Ye's affairs..."
"No, because of General Ye's affairs, Mr. Li even tried to impeach Mr. Zhu..."
"I see, it's over now. Mr. Zhu was worried that he couldn't catch his pigtails, so he took the initiative to send him to his door..."
"But, Grandpa, what does this have to do with Gu Hai? Gu Hai is a young student, but he can't embezzle food for disaster relief, and he can't protect corrupt officials for personal gain..."
"Master Li is the examiner of the examination." Gu Changchun sighed, "So His Majesty gave him face and ordered him to be imprisoned after the examination. But before that, everyone had heard the news, Brother Hai I don’t know what happened, but I arrived at Mr. Li’s house on the day the Punishment Department arrested people, and several young students got into trouble with people from the Punishment Department and said some things that I shouldn’t have said…”
That’s it, this unlucky kid….
"Then, it shouldn't be a big deal," everyone asked cautiously.
Young people are passionate and energetic, and the person being arrested is their examiner, who can also be called a teacher. It is inevitable that they will be a little impulsive. This is not a major rebellious matter. At most, it can be over with a reprimand, right
"I don't know yet." Gu Changchun said, but his face was a little solemn. He recalled the expressions of the adults when they were talking, and had an ominous premonition, "The people sent by Shen'an should be here soon. Listen to what he said. Well, these people in the officialdom are most accustomed to seeking advantages and avoiding disadvantages. Telling me so much is already very embarrassing..."
Thinking about the attitude of the adults when they saw him last night, it was obviously different from the attitude a few days ago when the news of Gu Yuzhong's number one scholar came out.
This Brother Hai is just like her sister. He seems to do things without thinking, and doesn't look at where he is or who he is facing. He just hits them like a hammer, not only harming himself, but also hurting their clan.
"If the matter is really serious, exterminate him. No matter what, we must not let him harm the clan or Yu'er's bright future." He patted the chair heavily and stood up, "Go and see Mr. Cao and that girl." What to do? Tell them to be honest these days and stop causing trouble for me, especially take care of that girl..."
With such a big incident happening to Gu Hai, every household was staring at the door of his house, so everyone already knew about the two cars leaving early in the morning.
"Grandpa, that girl seems to have gone to Beijing and left before dawn." Someone said.
"What?" Gu Changchun lost his voice in surprise, and immediately looked angry, "Look, look, are there any of us in these eyes? You can do whatever you want, so wanton, it would be strange if nothing happens."
Three days later, a letter from Gu Changchun's eldest son in the capital arrived. After reading the letter, Gu Changchun jumped up from his chair in shock, and his face turned pale.
"It's over, it's over, it's over..." He said this over and over again.
At this time, Gu Shiba Niang had already sat at her uncle's house in the capital. After listening to the story of this important minister, she felt dizzy, and these words were flashing through her head repeatedly.
It’s over, it’s over, it’s over…
"Li Shifang is dead." Gu Shen'an said, looking at the little girl sitting upright in front of him, the initial shock of hearing that his family came to report was still on his face.
"Then brother, he also..." Gu Shiba Niang asked softly.
Her expression was very calm, except that her face was a bit haggard than ordinary people. In Gu Shen'an's opinion, this was also because she was on the road without sleep.
Gu Shen'an had never seen this little girl before. She had only heard her name twice this year. Her general impression was that she was a rough girl who had no father to discipline her and didn't know the basics.
But when I saw him today, his posture was elegant and his behavior was dignified. What was even more surprising was his calmness.
Seeing that she was a few years younger than Luo'er, she had just received the news that her brother had jumped over the dragon gate, and she was suddenly shocked to hear that the dragon had fallen into the sky. This ups and downs of joy and sorrow, even a person who has wasted half a life cannot bear it, and it is hard for her. The little girl can still stay single and come to the capital.
"That..." Gu Shen'an made a gentle gesture. After finishing it, he remembered that this little girl is not from the officialdom, nor from the capital, nor is she a student who cares about family affairs, national affairs, and everything in the world...
"That Mr. Zhu..." Gu Shiba Niang said, "What should we do? Just because my brother defends his examiner and fulfilled his duty as a disciple, will he also die together?"
He just said it once, but the little girl already understood it. Gu Shen'an nodded, yes, if it were any other woman, she would probably know nothing except crying.
"Since the General Ye incident, Mr. Zhu's impeachment posts have been like a snowflake, and several ministers have been pulled down for various reasons. Mr. Zhu has endured it for a long time. This time he wants to kill the chicken to scare the monkeys. Shocked, so Li Shifang is dead." Gu Shen'an said with a little more patience, "Brother Hai was fine at first, but he just needed to be taught a lesson and be warned. A few days ago, after the news came down that Mr. Li was sentenced to death, he submitted a petition..."
Gu Hai does not have a formal official position yet, so he cannot submit petitions, but as a tribute scholar, he can submit petitions.
"The words are sharp and pointed directly at Mr. Zhu..." Gu Shen'an said, looking at Gu Shiba Niang with a serious expression. The meaning was self-evident, "He asked someone to deliver a letter to me and asked for the genealogy. He just asked not to be involved. Relatives…”
He said that it would not affect his relatives, but he was actually asking his relatives not to embarrass his mother and sister. By doing this, he had obviously made plans to die.