Xu Zhihu lived in the Freehand Garden in the northwest corner. The yard was not small, but there were pitifully few servant girls. It was slightly cold. The Phoenix Battalion, including Yuan Meng, were arranged to live in two yards not far from each other. At the gate of the yard, Lu Baijie bowed again before leaving.
Entering the yard, Xu Zhihu had his personal servant girl Qiao Er bring some iced plum soup. After sitting down, he asked, "What happened on the road?"
Blue Bird truthfully reported everything that had happened at the reed marsh.
Blue Bird spoke calmly and tirelessly. The danger involved could not be described as simple twists and turns.
Xu Zhihu's expression rose and fell. In the end, when he heard that His Royal Highness was safe and sound, he covered his chest and sighed heavily in relief.
Xu Zhihu turned his head with a strange gaze to Pei Nanwei, who still had not been able to sit down. This unruly younger brother was really something. He even dared to steal a wangfei!
From afternoon to dusk, the Freehand Garden was calm. Xu Zhihu asked the girls about Hsu Fengnian and especially liked to hear some embarrassing stories. Xu Zhihu did not have the good mood to be treated coldly by the Lu Manor that was within reason. After a sumptuous dinner, a well-educated page came and lightly knocked on the door. He came from the smallest Retreat Garden in the Lu Manor. Lu Baijie, who was regarded as a sword immortal by the people of Yangzhou, did not live there much. For most of the year, she took this page to travel and visit hermits. The one who opened the door was the servant girl Qiao Er. For some reason, the two of them did not see eye to eye. At this moment, it seemed that enemies would not meet unless they were enemies.
Seeing Qiao Er, the page said coldly and stiffly, "My master wants to see your mistress."
The atmosphere was already strange. After these words were said, it became even more awkward.
Qiao Er huffed coldly and left after saying that she understood.
Looking at her back with clear eyes, the page secretly revealed a thread of annoyance.
Sitting in the pavilion by the lake, Lu Baijie smiled slightly and muttered to herself, "The youth already knows the taste of worry."
Xu Zhihu walked out of the garden and sat down in the pavilion. He said guiltily, "I've troubled you this time."
Sword Immortal Lu, who didn't have any of the bad habits of a noble family but still had the backbone of a noble family's descendant, shook his head and said, "It's not that I'm causing trouble for Little Uncle, but if I do that, it will be even more difficult for you to conduct yourself in the Lu Estate."
Xu Zhihu said indifferently, "This is nothing. It's nothing more than a fake smile in front of me and a colder smile behind me. "
Lu Baijie sighed and said, "Let's not talk about Second Steward Lu Dongyang first. His Highness the Crown Prince ordered his retainers to commit murder in the downtown area. No matter how bad their conduct was, they were still scholars from Huting County. One of them was even a descendant of a servant. If the Crown Prince didn't dismiss him, Little Uncle could still go to Elder Brother and say a few words. Lu Manor would come forward to clean up this mess. At most, we'll just give some compensation to the families of the lesser concubines, as well as a few official's salary. Anyone would have complaints about using money to buy their lives, but a proper official's position should be enough to shut their mouths. For such a troublesome matter, Little Uncle doesn't mind making an exception for you. But to tear down the Central Gate of the Lu Estate and kill Lu Dongyang in front of the entire street of Huting Family, Second Brother cares about his face and not adding insult to injury is already the limit of his patience. The Lu family has experienced ups and downs for hundreds of years and has suffered a lot of humiliation. It's just that in the past hundred years, the bumpy days have gradually lessened. Today, we've been humiliated to this extent. I'm afraid even the Master will be angry. "
Xu Zhihu was silent.
Lu Baijie frowned and said, "Zhihu, at this time and place, there are only the two of us. Little Uncle will speak frankly. As His Royal Highness' younger brother, how can you act without any regard for the consequences? Do you really not care about the opinions of those in the capital at all? You must know that no matter how powerful your father is, in the end, he still set up political opponents like Zhang Julu and Gu Jiantang, who are pillars of the dynasty. Moreover, he wants to push the Four Clans of Yangzhou to the enemy side of Beiliang. Because of you, Xu Shufei was demoted to the Cold Palace. If it was His Majesty's idea, it would be fine. If it was His Majesty's idea, do you think the Xu family will still have any friendship left in His Majesty's heart? Moreover, don't you know who Xu Shufei is? These years, the Gumu Xu family has spent almost all of their manpower and resources to pave the way for her. Now that they've suffered such a calamity, even if the Gumu Xu family, who used to have a close relationship with the Lu family, will not be able to advance and retreat together like before. It's exactly the same as Quan 'er's sudden death. You'll have to take the blame. "
Xu Zhihu raised his head and smiled. "I'm used to it."
Lu Baijie said bitterly, "Oh, you."
Xu Zhihu leaned against the red pillar and looked into the distance. He said softly, "That younger brother of mine went to Jiangxin County to find trouble with that Liu Liting."
Lu Baijie said in a low voice, "Is he still going to cause trouble? Is he not afraid of being unable to clean up the mess? If someone with ulterior motives fanned the flames, then it would not be just people fishing for fame that would jump out. Even the entire Jiangnan Dao would be in an uproar. After all these years, have you not seen through the so-called famous people of Jiangnan Dao who value fame more than life? "
"I know, I've seen through it a long time ago. Qingzhou values benefits. Yangzhou values fame. Which Gangnam-do scholar doesn't admire my father-in-law's words, 'Even death is more important than Mount Tai'? "
Xu Zhihu squinted his eyes and smiled. "But this younger brother of mine, probably because my father is the King of Beiliang, he doesn't care about the things that many people would risk their lives to hold in their hands. However, he cares about the things that even poor people don't care about the most. Little Uncle, if you tell him these very reasonable advice, he probably won't listen to it. "
Lu Baijie, who had the reputation of Tangxi Sword Fairy, sighed. "If you stop him from entering the Lu residence, your future days will be easier. But if you really go and stop him, not to mention whether you can stop him or not, you'll be the first to fall out with me."
Xu Zhihu laughed without caring about etiquette. "Uncle, you're so pitiful as a sword fairy."
Lu Baijie looked at his daughter's smiling face with some sadness in his eyes.
Back then, the woman he admired also had such a natural smile. If he had been more resolute and talked less about morality and the overall situation, perhaps he wouldn't have had any regrets.
How could there be so many ifs in the world?
Lu Baijie closed his eyes.
Not far away, the page boy and the servant girl were arguing. Would these two children also understand the unusualness of "thinking it was normal at the time" many years later?
After Lu Baijie left, Xu Zhihu sat in the pavilion and waited until late at night.
When His Royal Highness appeared outside the Lu residence, the white horse was dragging a cold corpse that had long been badly mutilated.
Obviously, it had been dragged all the way from Jiangxin County to Huting County.
Although Lu Baijie, who was guarding the door, had expected this, he still felt extremely shocked when he saw this scene.
After Hsu Fengnian dismounted, he raised his head to look at Lu Baijie. Because of his elder sister, Xu Zhihu, he didn't have any ill feelings toward this Tang Xi Sword Fairy. He only saw Lu Baijie put one hand on the hilt of her sword and supported it with a Ba Xiu ancient sword. Hsu Fengnian said expressionlessly, "Is Mr. Tang Xi trying to sell me some benevolence and righteousness?"
Lu Baijie snorted coldly and turned to leave.
In addition to shock, he was also puzzled.
How did the Crown Prince of Beiliang get so seriously injured?
Xu Zhihu ran all the way, leaving the servant girl Qiao Er far behind. She rushed out of the Lu residence's gate and stopped very close. She smiled and said, "Ah, we've caused trouble again."
She didn't notice that Hsu Fengnian's back was dripping with blood.
When the horse dragged the corpse through the city gate, the assassin, like a gecko, stuck to the ceiling of the cave, waiting for an opportunity, struck and almost shattered his spine.
But Hsu Fengnian just stared at her with red eyes and said softly, "Sister, let's go home, okay?"
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