Dongdu has entered the rainy season, and the fine raindrops fall from morning to night, pattering. Today is another rainy day, the clouds and gray clouds in the sky are piled up, the capital of ten thousand Buddhas is shrouded in the boundless sky, and the scattered Buddhist pagodas are washed black and bright by the rain.
The sound of Jinduo on the pagoda passed through the rain curtain, jingling, jingling, and spread to Wanjia continuously.
Pei Ji'an put away the umbrella and came back from outside. When the servants of Pei's mansion saw it, they hurriedly caught up and said, "Your Majesty, you are back. This servant is going to inform the old lady."
"No need." Pei Ji'an stopped the servant, looking extremely tired, "You all step back, I will be alone."
The servants could see that Mr. Da Lang was in a bad mood, so they didn't dare to say any more, bowed and stepped back.
Pei Ji'an was strolling in the winding corridor, with the sound of rain outside, Pei Ji'an's mood was as dark and gloomy as the rain curtain.
Ever since he was reborn, he seemed to feel tired easily and rarely had a happy time. He wants to change the situation and the tragedy of his previous life, but he has been unable to do so.
When he was reborn, he saw his relatives who died and were born again, and saw the Pei family that had not yet fallen apart. He was extremely moved. While he was with his family, he made up his mind to change history and prevent the Queen of Heaven from ascending the throne. He obviously exhausted all his efforts, but got nothing.
In the beginning, he wanted to subtly and gradually figure it out, so as to alert the emperor and Li Shan and expose the queen's wolfish ambitions without disturbing the snake. With the help of his father, Pei Ji'an became the emperor's close minister as he wished. He reminded the emperor many times that he tried to borrow the past to describe the present, use the words of the predecessors, ghosts and gods, but the emperor did not believe it.
This is actually quite normal. To the emperor, Pei Ji'an is just a child of an acquaintance, but? Tianhou is his wife who has been with him for twenty years. Who will the emperor trust? He really doesn't need to hesitate. Sometimes what Pei Ji'an said was obvious, and the emperor would show displeasure. From the emperor's point of view, what Pei Ji'an said was simply because he couldn't understand the emperor's distribution of power to the Queen of Heaven, which cut off the interests of the aristocratic family. Pei Ji'an had no choice but to restrain himself and look for another chance.
As a result, he waited and never found the opportunity again.
In July last year, Li Shan suggested that Li Chaoge get married. After Pei Ji'an heard about it, he ignored Li Chaoge's words and even withdrew his marriage with Li Changle. Pei Ji'an never regretted this decision. Before he entered the palace, he thought that Li Chaoge might not accept it, but he did it anyway. He is sorry for Li Chaoge, and he is sorry for Li Changle, he recognizes both, but in his previous life he couldn't recognize his own feelings and was confused all his life? In this life, he doesn't want to be confused anymore.
Even if he ruined his future, lost Li Changle, and broke with Li Chaoge, Pei Ji'an still had no regrets. This is a rare peace in his heart. Now that he understands who he really likes, how can he continue to have a successful relationship with Li Changle? It was Li Chaoge's fault that Li Chaoge didn't forgive him, but it was Pei Ji'an's fault to reject all engagements and push other women away.
Pei Ji'an didn't regret it, but he had to face a chain reaction, that is, he fell out of favor with the imperial court?.
The emperor didn't trust Pei Ji'an anymore, and the queen found an opportunity to transfer Pei Ji'an away from the Imperial Palace, and sent him to a noble position where he could not see the emperor.
The Empress Dowager has many eyes and ears, and Pei Ji'an has repeatedly said that the Empress Dowager has power, how could the Empress Dowager not know? The emperor was disappointed, the empress was on guard, and the family was in chaos. Pei Ji'an hindered the empress's goal of ascending the throne further and further. He watched the prince seriously ill, and the life and death of the princess Lu was unknown. on the track.
Yes, the Queen of Heaven was able to ascend to the throne largely because the emperor and the crown prince were in poor health. This is something that cannot be changed by manpower. With only Pei Ji'an alone, how can he compete with the trend of history
In the early spring of this year, Li Shan died of illness, and the emperor couldn't afford it anymore. The situation was exactly the same as in the previous life. Pei Ji'an gave up, now even if he ran to the emperor and yelled directly at the emperor that the Empress Dowager had ulterior motives, it would be useless for her to abolish the emperor and stand on her own.
If one person wants to change the general trend of the country, it is really a man's arm. Politics is the result of many factors. Even if Pei Ji'an changes the Pei family, he cannot change other people. Not to mention, Pei Ji'an couldn't even convince Prime Minister Pei.
Pei Xiang didn't believe that the Queen of Heaven would become emperor at all. In Pei Xiang's opinion, how could a woman want to be emperor? It is true that Tianhou is a bit more ruthless and a bit more powerful, but she is just a female stream. It is normal for her to be cruel to Concubine Xiao Shu and Queen Wang, but Li Shan and Li Huai are both her sons. How could a mother do anything to her son? Pei Xiang, including the eldest grandson's family, the Cao family and other veterans, all felt that Tianhou's current planning was to support her son to ascend to the throne of God. After the new emperor ascended the throne, she would naturally retreat to the second line and become the empress dowager in peace of mind.
Pei Ji'an reminded him everywhere to no avail, and he couldn't directly explain that he was reborn, he had experienced the following things once. Depressed, Pei Ji'an finally accepted the fact that he could not stop the empress from ascending the throne.
That's right, Tianhou has been conspiring for ten years, step by step, deeply rooted, why does Pei Ji'an think that he alone can stop Tianhou? Pei Ji'an had no choice but to retreat? The next best thing was to prepare for the worst policy that he had made at the beginning.
Abandoning the Queen of Heaven is the best policy, Li Shan proclaiming the emperor is the middle policy, supporting Li Huai is the worst policy, and Empress Wu ascending the throne is the last policy.
Pei Ji'an no longer wanted to stop the Empress Dowager, he just wanted to plan ahead and try his best to protect Li Huai, Pei's family, and the eldest grandson's family during the purge in the early days of Empress Wu's reign. When Li Shan was seriously ill, the government was in a downturn. Pei Ji'an invited him to be a follower beside Li Huai. At that time, everyone was staring at the East Palace, and no one cared about such a small change. Pei Ji'an came to Li Huai's side as he wished, and became a close minister of Zhao Wangfu.
Later, Li Shan died of illness, and the emperor sent a white-haired man to a black-haired man, so he couldn't afford it. But the time left for the emperor is running out. No matter how sad the emperor is, he still has to cheer up and make his youngest son, Li Huai, who has never been raised as an heir before, as the crown prince.
It is now July, Li Huai's third month in the East Palace. Before Li Huai? He never thought that the throne would fall on his head, so? All these years, he was devoted to eating, drinking and having fun, and never cared about government affairs. Suddenly such a big burden fell on Li Huai, not only Li Huai was stunned, but also other officials in the court.
Pei Ji'an helped Li Huai to deal with a series of etiquette for establishing a reserve and arrange documents. After all, Pei Ji'an had been with the emperor for a long time, and he knew the documents like the palm of his hand. With Pei Ji'an's support, Li Huai finally passed the adaptation period of his new identity smoothly.
Now that Li Huai is gradually getting started with the affairs of the Eastern Palace, he looks more and more like a prince? But he has no political accumulation at all, no one in the court, no generals under his command, and he has no political literacy, and his foundation is very shallow.
Pei Ji'an has been detained in the East Palace these days, helping Li Huai solicit power. The more he understands, the more he understands how weak Li Huai is. How can such a new crown prince compete against the queen
Pei Ji'an was so tired that he couldn't get any more tired. Even when he returned home, he was worried and rarely smiled. He was thinking about something, and accidentally bumped into a maid. When the maid saw that it was Mr. Da Lang, she hurriedly knelt down and saluted: "Mr. Da Lang, please forgive me. I don’t know that Mr. Da Lang is here."
Pei Ji'an waved his hand. It was because he didn't look the way that he bumped into someone, and it had nothing to do with the maid. Seeing the things in her tray, Pei Ji'an was surprised and asked, "What is this?"
"This is the Quanfu Kit. It contains longan, lychee, jujube and other fruits? It's for Biaozi to pay for."
Pei Ji'an thought that longan, jujube, etc. were things for begging for a son. What would Gu Mingke do with them? Then Pei Ji'an remembered that tomorrow is Gu Mingke's marriage.
Before the big wedding, parents will hang various pleasing omens in front of the newlyweds' beds for good omens, among which many children and many blessings are the most common. Gu Mingke is like this, and I think Li Chaoge also has it.
Pei Ji'an's expression turned cold almost instantly. Now that the wedding is being prepared everywhere in Pei's house, the servant girl said these words to please her, but for some reason, Da Lang's expression turned gloomy after she finished speaking. The servant girl was uneasy, not knowing what she had done wrong.
Pei Ji'an looked coldly at the two big red kits on the tray, the embroidered acacia flowers on them made Pei Ji'an's eyes hurt. He clenched his fists hard, using the pain to remind himself not to lose his composure, and then said lightly to the maid: "Give me the things, I happen to have something to see him, I'll send it for you."
The maid hesitated, Mr. Da Lang didn't look happy just now, why do you want to give her a kit now? But when the master spoke, the maid did not have the right to question it, so she respectfully complied and presented two exquisite kits to Pei Ji'an.
Some time ago, Gu Mingke moved out of the mansion on his own initiative. The Pei family was busy with other things and had no time to take care of him. Now that Gu Mingke is about to marry the princess, such a big event must go away from Pei's house, so Gu Mingke was also dragged back to Pei's house.
But everyone knows that this is only temporary, once they get married, Gu Mingke will move to the princess mansion, and the Pei family is only a transitional residence? So during this period of time, Gu Mingke and the Pei family lived in peace, and there were only a few days left, and no one wanted to make trouble.
When Pei Ji'an came to the west courtyard, the sound of the rain gradually became quieter, and the ding dong ding dong hit the eaves. Lu Qi was packing up her things, when she saw Pei Ji'an, she hurried out to say hello: "Pei Dalang, Mr. Peace."
Pei Ji'an nodded slightly, and asked, "Is my cousin in there?"
Speaking of the word "cousin", Pei Ji'an felt strange to himself. How long has he not called this title? Ever since the breakup at the Princess Mansion that day, Pei Ji'an never called Cousin Gu Mingke again, the two of them were strangers, they nodded when they met, let alone said anything else.
What's more, Pei Ji'an always felt that Gu Mingke was not his cousin. In other words, he is not Gu Mingke.
Pei Ji'an had no evidence, but his physical instinct told him that something was wrong with that person. At this moment, Pei Ji'an naturally uttered the word "cousin" to the maid of the Gu family, but once facing Gu Mingke's face, Pei Ji'an no longer had any intention of getting close.
Lu Qi crossed her hands and said: "Mr. Lang is inside, please come with Mr. Pei Dalang with your servants." Gu Mingke had heard people coming from outside a long time ago, but he was indifferent and still focused on reading the law book in front of him. Lu Qi led Pei Ji'an into the house, served hot tea for the two of them, and then quietly retreated.
The fragrance of tea is dense, and the water mist smudges in the air. Pei Ji'an and Gu Mingke sat opposite each other quietly, as if there was a layer of fog between them, they were clearly close at hand, but they seemed to be in the clouds.
After a while, Pei Ji'an took the lead and said, "Tomorrow is Shaoqing's wedding. Congratulations to Gu Shaoqing."
"Thank you." Gu Mingke nodded lightly. Everyone in Pei's family was so busy with the wedding that they didn't touch the ground. Looking around, they could see bright red dresses everywhere, but he, the party involved, sat quietly in the room, holding a book in his hand, as calm as an outsider. When Gu Mingke replied, he glanced at Pei Ji'an by the way. He said casually, "How much do you take care of Pei Siyi? Your body, since the last time we said goodbye, you seem to have lost a lot of weight."
Pei Ji'an is now transferred to Li Huai's side, and has become a minister of the East Palace, worshiping You Si Yilang.
Pei Ji'an has indeed lost a lot of weight, bad news one after another in terms of political affairs, the crown prince died of illness, the emperor was weak, the empress was in power, Li Huai was weak, everything was going in the direction that Pei Ji'an least expected; Big wedding, both inside and outside the capital are celebrating the wedding of these two people, how does this make Pei Ji'an feel at ease
Pei Ji'an pulled the corner of his lower lip, and his tone seemed to be sarcasm: "How busy Gu Shaoqing is, he still misses me. I'm really flattered."
Gu Mingke looked neither happy nor angry, quietly looking at Pei Ji'an. Gu Mingke doesn't care about Pei Ji'an, but Pei Ji'an is his task target, and Gu Mingke always wants to ensure that Pei Ji'an is alive.
Speaking of which, Gu Mingke hasn't paid attention to his real mission of going down to earth for a long time - to assist the greedy wolf to cross the catastrophe. Gu Mingke has changed from being impatient at the beginning to following the fate, and now he has completely let go.
When Gu Mingke agreed at the beginning, he thought that this task would be completed soon, and it would only delay him for two or three days at most. Now, Gu Mingke is ready to stay in the world for forty or fifty years.
He really couldn't figure it out, it was just crossing the tribulation, how could it be so slow? After the immortal ascends, because he has been away from the crowd for a long time and does not know the sufferings of the world, the heavenly court often arranges immortals with important positions to go down to the earth to experience the rise and fall of the world, appreciate the various states of the world, and only after a breakthrough can the memory be restored and return to the heavenly court. Because he wants to sharpen Pei Ji'an's peace of mind, Gu Mingke will not interfere in Pei Ji'an's life, let alone help him solve his problems. He will only push Pei Ji'an when necessary to help him find out the troubles of his heart as soon as possible.
As a result, Pei Ji'an not only wasted his own time, but also implicated his boss's boss, who stayed in the world together.
Gu Mingke has already seen it through now, as long as Pei Ji'an is not dead, he can toss about the rest of the things as he likes.
Pei Ji'an didn't know what the person in front of him was thinking, he looked at Gu Mingke's beautiful, almost bewitching face, and felt a sense of emptiness.
Obviously when Pei Ji'an was reborn, the situation was not like this. At that time, he was full of ambition, but Gu Mingke was weak and sickly, passive and avoided the world, so everyone guessed that Gu Mingke would not live long. In the past two years, Pei Ji'an has repeatedly hit the wall. His future and marriage have been messed up by him, and his relatives and friends are blaming him. However, Gu Mingke has been on the rise, his official career is prosperous, and he enjoys a high reputation both in the court and among the people. Now, Gu Mingke is about to become a princess.
It was as if the original situation had been reversed. When they were in the palace back then, the gentlemen of the aristocratic families were still joking, maybe? Gu Mingke got married before Pei Ji'an?. Who would have guessed that Gu Mingke would actually get married before Pei Ji'an
The target is still Li Chaoge, Pei Ji'an's former wife.
The two sat opposite each other, having nothing to say to each other. Gu Mingke didn't want to waste any more time with Pei Ji'an, so he asked, "The right minister came today, so why?"
If you have something to say, you can leave if you have nothing to do.
Pei Ji'an took out a pair of kits from his sleeves and put them on the table: "This is a kit of blessings. It is hung by the bed curtain the day before the wedding. It can bless the couple's harmony and beauty, and they will have more children and more blessings."
Pei Ji'an laughed at himself, he never imagined that one day, he would give the present son-in-law of his former wife a begging kit and wish them "more children and more blessings". Pei Ji'an knew that Gu Mingke had nothing to envy, but he just changed from Substitute 1 to Substitute 2, a shadow used by Li Chaoge to see things and think about others, this is really not something to brag about.
But Pei Ji'an always felt angry when he looked at the bright red decorations and the clusters of Albizia Julibrissin in front of him.
Gu Mingke didn't expect to be so particular about it. The customs of the world have changed a lot in recent years, especially in weddings, there are many more etiquettes that Gu Mingke has never heard of. Gu Mingke accepted it and said, "Thank you. Is there anything else?"
Gu Mingke almost had chasing customers written all over his face, and Pei Ji'an naturally didn't intend to sit for a long time. He stood up, took a few steps, and stopped inexplicably.
Gu Mingke was a bit impatient? He couldn't bear it. He suppressed his emotions with a public attitude, and asked Pei Ji'an as calmly as possible: "What's the matter?"
Pei Ji'an didn't care about the unkindness in Gu Mingke's tone. He turned around and looked at Gu Mingke with complicated eyes: "You should know that Princess Sheng Yuan was adopted by a foreigner when she was a child and grew up in Jiannan."
Gu Mingke nodded, expressing that he knew. Pei Ji'an added: "When she was young, she met a man in Pingshan, but unfortunately the two passed by each other, and there was no fate after that."
Gu Mingke didn't understand what Pei Ji'an said and what he was doing, he quietly looked at Pei Ji'an with a pair of cold eyes, waiting for Pei Ji'an's next words.
When Pei Ji'an met those cold, dark and indifferent eyes, he couldn't help but want to bow his head. It seems that just looking directly into these eyes is already extremely disrespectful.
But Pei Ji'an gritted his teeth, and said the rest: "She married you, not because she loves you. The man she really likes is the man who appeared in Pingshan back then. For many years, she has been looking for a man with refined looks, A man with a cold temperament, he happened to meet you after coming to Dongdu. You are not what she really wanted, you are just a substitute."
Gu Mingke was slightly startled, and then thought for a while. It turned out that there was such a thing. No wonder Li Chaoge in her previous life took Pei Ji'an by force and was so paranoid that she was almost crazy. No wonder she saw Pei Ji'an in this life, and she had no love or hate overnight. It turned out that the root cause was in Ping Shan back then.
Gu Mingke went to Pingshan to catch Peony before resetting the timeline? In other words, Li Chaoge of the two generations saw him. In the previous life, Gu Mingke immediately went back to the heavenly court for trial after arresting Peony, and never went to the human world after that, so Li Chaoge couldn't find him. Unexpectedly, Li Chaoge set his sights on Pei Ji'an because of this.
After all, Pei Ji'an is an immortal, and his every move is different from that of ordinary people. Regardless of appearance, Pei Ji'an's fairy spirit is quite similar to Gu Mingke's.
Gu Mingke felt a little sorry, no wonder Xu Mijing chose him to help Tanlang overcome the calamity. It turns out that Tanlang failed in the previous life because of Gu Mingke.
After Pei Ji'an finished speaking, he waited for Gu Mingke's response. As a result, Gu Mingke was not angry, but instead showed a look of sudden realization, and when he looked at him from behind, he was vaguely apologetic. Pei Ji'an was annoyed by that look, and couldn't help reminding: "Do you understand what a substitute is? You are just the shadow of another man, and your every word, deed, and action are all imagined by her to be someone else."
Gu Mingke nodded and said calmly, "Okay, I see."
Pei Ji'an was shocked, what did Gu Mingke say? Pei Ji'an couldn't understand it at all: "The substitute is even worse than Hongxing's cheating? It's too much. Don't you mind such a shameful humiliation?"
What does Gu Mingke care about? But if a man is another person's substitute for his whole life, it is really humiliating. Gu Mingke expressed his understanding. He read that after Pei Ji'an was used as a stand-in, he was emotionally fragile, so he said very kindly: "It's okay, there is no need to worry about it between me and her. If you haven't been sleeping well recently, then you should do something else. Don't dwell on the past. No matter what happened, it is already in the past, and one has to look forward."
Gu Mingke could tell at a glance that Pei Ji'an hadn't slept well during this period, and the memories of his previous life often fell into his dreams, which disturbed his restlessness. Gu Mingke couldn't understand what he was suffering from, but now that Pei Ji'an and Li Chaoge had no relationship, tomorrow was Gu Mingke's wedding, and speaking of kinship in the world, Pei Ji'an still wanted to call Li Chaoge his cousin. It's probably not appropriate for Pei Ji'an to get entangled in the dream again.
Pei Ji'an was stunned when he heard Gu Mingke's words. Is Gu Mingke really a man? His wife has something in her heart, but he actually said that there is no need to worry about it
Pei Ji'an left as if he had lost his soul. After Pei Ji'an went out, Jiao Wei sneaked in quietly and asked, "My lord, what did Biao Langjun tell you just now?"
"It's nothing." Gu Mingke returned to the desk, straightened his sleeves, and continued to read his law books, "Just talking about gossip."
Really? Jiao Wei didn't believe it, when Pei Ji'an walked out, it seemed like the sky was falling. Jiao Wei fumbled left and right in the room, finally couldn't hold back, and asked quietly: "My lord, the mansion is preparing for your wedding these few days. I'm happy. He called off his marriage to Princess Guangning some time ago, my lord, do you think Mr. Biao..."
"Jiao Wei." Gu Mingke raised his voice, raised his eyes from the book, and gave Jiao Wei a cold look, "I often think about my own mistakes, not to blame others. Who allowed you to arrange things that have no basis? "
Jiao Wei was frightened by this look. Most of the time, the son of his family is easy-going, but once he gets serious, he is like a thunderbolt, laying down millions of corpses. Jiao Wei's legs trembled, and he didn't dare to say more. When he saw something on the table, he saved it to please him, and quickly said: "What are these things
As Jiao Wei said, he was going to come to get the kit, he had a good idea, his son had a lofty temperament, his taste was light, and he only liked to use light colors for clothes and accessories, this kind of bright red and green would definitely not catch his eyes. However, before Jiao Wei's hand touched the kit, he suddenly felt a chill rushing from the bottom of his feet to the top of his head, as if a knife was hanging on his neck.
Jiao Wei raised his head in horror, saw Young Master looking at him expressionlessly, and said, "Get out."
Goosebumps on Jiao Wei's body exploded, he dared not keep it any longer, so he quickly slipped away with his tail between his legs. After Jiao Wei left, Gu Mingke lowered his eyes and continued to read the book without turning a page for a long time.
After a while, he raised his hand and inadvertently brushed over the two kits. The kit was cleaned up in an instant, and there was no smell of Pei Ji'an anymore.
Pei Ji'an didn't know where he picked up the incense. The smell was so strong that he couldn't concentrate. Now there is a cool fragrance inside and outside the kit, Gu Mingke is finally satisfied.
He thought he could always concentrate this time, but after a long time, Gu Mingke only read a few short lines. Gu Mingke kept replaying Pei Ji'an's words just now in his mind. Pei Ji'an said that Li Chaoge has been thinking about the man he met in Pingshan in his previous life, and he is also in this life.
Gu Mingke was dazed for the first time when he thought of the large piece of Albizia julibrissin on the kit, the implication of many children? Many blessings.