The edict to open a women's official school was quickly issued. In addition, it also included trivial policies such as the need to consult women on marriage matters, and that all walks of life were not allowed to reject female employees except under special circumstances. These policies soon spread among the people.

Come.

When Chen Yanshu drafted these documents, Pei Annan helped a lot. In addition to her own thoughts, most of them were reliable suggestions found in the comment area.

When the readers found out that the author might adopt their suggestions and write them into the novel, they started to get angry one after another. They all expressed their opinions and suggestions. Those who were originally addicted to CP have been overwhelmed by these political comments, and the comment area has become another court.

Those opinions all come from a society where men and women are equal, and some are too radical and inappropriate. Therefore, readers also carefully consulted ancient books and researched policies suitable for Pei Annan's era, which helped a lot.

Therefore, after Chen Yanshu drafted the document, his admiration for Pei Annan reached a new level. His eyes were like twinkling stars when he looked at her, without any concealment.

On the contrary, Xie Chenghe, who was also involved, felt depressed and didn't want to leave them alone, so he had to drink flower tea to suppress the anger in his heart.

Pei Anan was busy for three consecutive days before finally taking some time off. She collapsed on the bed and closed her eyes, but she was thinking clearly in her mind.

The points have increased to more than a thousand, and the blackening value has dropped again and again, stopping at 62. Everything is going well, but she is not satisfied yet.

Xie Chenghe spoke to her in the court hall just because of the stimulation brought to him by Ding Yueluo and Chen Yanshu. If he wanted to go further...

She opened her eyes, the sharpness in her eyes could not be concealed.

"It's time." She whispered.

The autumn wind is fierce, and the sky in the capital has never been clear. Yesterday it was so hot that it felt like summer, but today there is a cold wave, which requires people to wrap up their coats tightly.

Boxes of animal gold charcoal were carried into the Xuanyi Hall. The people in the Ministry of Internal Affairs let it slip that His Majesty was reluctant to use these precious charcoals, so Baba'er sent them all here.

Xie Chenghe wanted to refuse, but the maids and eunuchs were so frightened that they knelt down and kowtowed, begging him to spare them once. If His Majesty's order was not fulfilled, their heads would not be saved.

Therefore, Xie Chenghe had no choice but to watch the beast gold charcoal, which could not be exchanged for real money and silver, just burned in the center of his hall.

The warm air made people drowsy. While thinking about how much money this charcoal could exchange for and how many people it could save, Xie Chenghe secretly laughed at himself for being stupid. No one would dare to buy such charcoal no matter how much the price dropped.

There are two kinds of charcoal in the palace that are the most valuable. One is the beast-gold charcoal, which has always been used only by the emperor and the empress. If it is given as a reward, it is not burned, but offered as an honor.

The second is silver wire charcoal, which can only be used by favored concubines in the harem. Anyone who can use such charcoal can raise his chin to the sky and walk with squinting eyes.

When the prince was favored, the late emperor distributed his beasts, gold and charcoal to the East Palace, which made Xie Chenghe and Pei Annan benefit from it.

Pei Annan was only thirteen years old at that time and was not as good at concealing her emotions as she is now. Xie Chenghe could always catch the hint of impatience and boredom in her eyes that he had no time to hide.

In winter, it was warm in the East Palace. Xie Chenghe was lecturing in the front, and the prince and Pei Annan were dozing in the back. He coughed twice, and the two boys quickly sat up straight, one reading and the other studying ink.

Little Annan's hands were no pinker and tenderer than those of other half-grown girls, nor were they swollen, round and soft. Instead, the joints were stretched out early, and they were so slender that they seemed to break at the touch of a touch, and her skin was so white that you could see the veins.

She used her sharp-edged hands to punch the ink sticks, poking at random. She ruined the fine Hui ink to an unknown extent, and she thought no one else had noticed.

During Xie Chenghe's lecture break, he looked at the ink stick in her hand. She held the ink stick so tightly that her fingertips turned white.

Pei Anan noticed that he was looking at her, so she quickly corrected her work, knitting her fingers in smooth circles, and gave him a bared smile, pretending to be innocent.

"Thank you, sir? Thank you, sir?"

A few gentle calls brought Xie Chenghe out of his memories. He came back to his senses, left those dimples and slender eyebrows behind, and looked at the guards.

This was a guard of the Imperial Prefect's Office. Pei Anan persuaded him to stay in the palace for the sake of government communication and because he had not yet recovered. It was a kind of deal to tolerate the guards and servants of the Imperial Prefect's Office to serve in the palace.

"Xiao Shunzi is here." The guard bowed and said softly.

Xie Chenghe sat up straight, his lips tightened, and nodded.

The guard turned around and went out. Not long after, Xiao Shunzi walked in. The doors and windows were closed, and there was no sound even from outside the palace.

Since Xie Chenghe called himself "Chen" in the court, civil and military officials have been full of curiosity and prying eyes about his position.

Some people think that Xie Chenghe is using this as a stop-gap measure to stabilize Pei Anan before delivering a fatal blow. Some people think that Xie Chenghe has given up and has taken refuge with Pei Anan.

Everyone is thinking about which of the two possibilities is more likely, and they can't help but guess what happened to the two of them when Xie Chenghe was named the leader of the harem.

It's just that Xie Chenghe's previous Ji Yue Qingfeng was really deeply rooted in people's hearts, and what Pei Annan did to him before was too cruel, which made people waver, not knowing which side to lean towards.

To test things out, Xie Chenghe suddenly had more invitations. Today he went to Zhang's house for a drink, and tomorrow he went to Wang's house to read poems. People wanted to get a glimpse of his reaction, but his reaction made them even more confused.

He actually answered them all.

Mr. Xie Chenghe, who has always been unwilling to make mistakes, actually agreed to all the appointments and wandered around various venues every day after court, chatting and laughing with others.

It was only after a few days that people realized that Xie Chenghe, who once considered himself noble and did not want to hang out in the vanity fair, was not incapable of socializing, he just disdained socializing.

In the past few days, he had held more than a dozen banquets, large and small, ranging from the birthdays of royal relatives and nobles to the cocktail parties of officials. He had interacted with more than a hundred people, and he had managed it without missing a beat.

No one figured out his attitude, no one saw his plans. He was still the unpredictable Xie Chenghe, but now, he was even more terrifying.

Ding Yueluo said with a smile: "You haven't seen that Ni Shan's face has turned green. He has really become a laughing stock now. His son was still popular in the past, but now it seems that in recent years, the capital will not

Someone has proposed marriage to him."

Pei Annan smiled contemptuously, Ni Shan was just a chess piece, he couldn't make any waves, otherwise he wouldn't have been abandoned so easily.

If she kills such a person, there will be no harm. If she keeps him, he can gain a good reputation. When the Ni family declines in two years and Ni Shan's mentality collapses, it will not be too late for her to eradicate him.

"But tell me, Mr. Xie, is he interested in you?" Ding Yueluo made tea skillfully and kept talking, "If not, why would he check on Zhao Xiaoan?"

Pei Annan took the teacup from her hand and couldn't help but curl up his fingers and tap her on the forehead.

Why is this girl the same as those readers in the book review section? Xie Chenghe's attitude changed slightly, and it was as if he had entered the bridal chamber after a hundred years of marriage.

How can it be that simple?

"He just felt that I had changed too much, and he was at a loss for what to do for a while. Plus, he felt a little guilty about what happened to you."

Ding Yueluo rubbed her head and pouted: "I didn't succeed at all. Why is he feeling guilty?"

Pei Annan took a sip of tea and smiled. This is what makes Xie Chenghe so extraordinary.

He is compassionate and compassionate. He is born with a red heart. He punishes himself for the misfortunes of others and blames himself for the mistakes of others. He is a true sage.

In the case of Ding Yueluo, he knew that the final winner would be Pei Annan anyway, but he still felt guilty because he had thought about marrying Ding Yueluo.

Then I came up with the idea of ​​​​checking Zhao Xiaoan's line to make up for the debt.

Ding Yueluo listened to Pei Anan's words and smiled so hard that she couldn't see her eyes: "How do you know him so well? Do you really have some thoughts? I think he is a good person, so should I accept him as the emperor's wife?"

Pei Anan was not annoyed that she was neither big nor small, and put down the tea cup with a sneer: "Don't you know your enemies?"

At this time, Eunuch Su came up and said, "Your Majesty, Ding Shang Palace, Mr. Xie has gone to the Ministry of Punishment."

The moment Eunuch Su approached, Ding Yueluo straightened her expression and returned to her usual dignified and steady state. Although her eyes were squinting and smiling, there was no trace of emotion in them.

Pei Anan leaned back on the chair with her back relaxed, raised her lips in response, and tapped the pastries on the table with her hand, asking Ding Yueluo to try it.

Zhao Xiaoan, a member of Zhongshushe, has an official position that is neither big nor small. At any rate, he is in the fifth rank and is responsible for the work of issuing imperial edicts.

It's just weird that Zhao Xiaoan didn't become an official through the imperial examination, and no one recommended him. There's no history even about when he became an official. It's like he just came out of nowhere.

Xie Chenghe didn't know for a moment whether it was because such a person was so easy to take advantage of, or whether he had deliberately cleared his background just to take advantage of him.

He drank tea from the Ministry of Personnel for three days, and Chen Yanshu also secretly helped him by cooperating with the Ministry of Personnel. Unexpectedly, after checking for a long time, the only word Zhao Xiaoan that appeared in the file was actually from the Ministry of Punishment.

files.

Twenty years ago, Zhao Xiaoan was a witness in the corruption case of Prince Duan. He accused Prince Duan of taking bribes and misappropriating the disaster relief money issued by the court, causing people to be displaced and starved to death everywhere.

Xie Chenghe looked at the word "Cangzhou" on the case file of the Ministry of Justice. He was horrified and his hands were shaking. He forced himself to read it all. His face turned pale, and a mouthful of hot blood spurted out, staining the desk case red.

Twenty years ago, Cangzhou experienced three years of severe drought. It finally rained in the fourth year, but it rained heavily for several consecutive days, flooding the villages and destroying the fields.

Three years of severe drought left Cangzhou without a harvest. The heavy rains destroyed people's houses and the rivers surged. The surviving people climbed up the mountains overnight, trampling the bodies of their loved ones under their feet.

Six-year-old Xie Chenghe knelt in the rain, begging his neighbors to give him a bite to eat. His mother, pregnant with her younger brother, fainted from hunger, and his father had been washed away by the water.

No one gave him food, no one had anything to eat, people had finally reached the stage of exchanging food for food, and looked at him as if they were looking at a piece of meat.

His mother drank muddy water and stood up, pulled him away from the crowd, found a high tea shed, told others to eat people, and told him to run quickly.

My mother died, and the brother in her belly could not survive. The body was rotting in the shed, surrounded by flies, but he did not leave.

There was nowhere to go. The dikes were washed away and the road to the nearest city was gone. The mountains that once reached the sky were now only the tops. He and his mother's body lay together, waiting to die.

All that was left in his world was mud, dampness, the pain of raindrops lashing his body, and a pungent and disgusting smell. He didn't know where to escape, and he didn't have the strength to escape.

At this moment, a well-dressed man appeared. He stood in the rain, but the rain curtain could not hide his nobility.

He stretched out his hand to Xie Chenghe and said kindly and gently: "Come with me, blessed boy."

Xie Chenghe didn't know how lucky he was.

During the three years of severe drought, his parents survived by eating Guanyin soil and grass roots, feeding him little by little of the family's remaining grain. His parents were all skinny and skinny, and only their belly was round and bulging, full of dirt.

My mother was pregnant. On the day it rained, my father went crazy with joy and went to fish and make soup for my mother. However, the dam was washed away and my father was gone.

Now, he is about to die, but this man says he is lucky?

Xie Chenghe had no strength to refute, and later he had no way to refute, because the man who led him out of hell was the late emperor, the emperor who had just ascended the throne at that time.

When the emperor visited Cangzhou in person, most of the local officials were dismissed from their posts, and the corruption and ugliness in Cangzhou's territory were clearly revealed.

The dams and houses were all rebuilt. The emperor took out his private treasury and forced officials and wealthy businessmen to donate money to rebuild Cangzhou.

The people wanted to build temples and statues for the emperor, and they wanted to kowtow to death in front of the emperor, otherwise they would not know how to express their loyalty.

As for Xie Chenghe, he was brought back to the capital. The emperor originally wanted to train him to be a guard, but found that he learned political history very quickly, so he was sent to the Imperial Academy.

Later, he entered the official position at the age of twelve, was promoted at the age of fifteen, and became the national master at the age of twenty, and also served as the prince's tutor.

He became a myth, a legend, a pioneer.

The late emperor also did not expect that he would pick up a treasure in Cangzhou.

In order to repay his kindness and loyalty, this treasure refused all invitations from the first day he became an official. Only the emperor followed suit and took the prosperity of the country as his own responsibility.

Pei Anan was looking at the treasure intently.

After Xie Chenghe vomited blood, he fainted in the Ministry of Justice. The minister of the Ministry of Justice was so frightened that he sent him back. After consultation with the Imperial Medical Bureau, it was confirmed that he was suffering from a sudden attack of the heart and a fever.

Pei Anan put aside everything and came over to take a look, and saw that the man had fallen asleep, his face was pale, his brows were so furrowed that they could kill a fly, and his eyelashes were trembling uncontrollably.

"You get angry too easily, huh?" Pei Anan smiled lowly, stretched out her hand to press his eyebrows, and smoothed the wrinkles, "It's not like you to be anxious twice in a few days."

"Did you hit a weak point?"

"It's time for the immortals in mythology to lower their heads and look directly at this dirty human world."

It was already noon on the second day when Xie Chenghe woke up, and the morning session had already passed.

Seeing Xie Chenghe wake up, the maid next to her hurriedly tried to find the imperial doctor, but he suppressed her.

"Sir, your Majesty came to visit yesterday and waited for two hours before leaving." The maid asked boldly, "Why don't you give your Majesty a message first to save your Majesty from worrying?"

The maid is the maid in the Imperial Master's Mansion. She is so innocent that it makes people speechless. Xie Chenghe smiled bitterly: "Do you think there are things in this palace that she doesn't know about?"

Sure enough, before the maid could get up, Ding Yueluo's voice came from outside: "My lord, are you awake? Say hello to your lord."

Xie Chenghe took a breath and calmed down: "Is there something wrong with Ding Shang Palace?"

"Your Majesty ordered your subordinates to wait outside and send a message when Mr. Xie wakes up." Ding Yueluo's voice was as calm as ever, "If Mr. Xie feels better, please move to the Tingwei Office."

Xie Chenghe was stunned: "Tingwei Department?"

The Tingwei Office is the place in charge of the world's prisons. The guilty princes, nobles, ministers and officials in the capital will also be imprisoned in the Tingwei Office for interrogation.

A place like this naturally has a sinister atmosphere, and Xie Chenghe felt chilled in his bones as he stood at the door.

Ding Yueluo was only sent here. She was a qualified microphone. No matter what Xie Chenghe asked along the way, she kept a steady smile and said nothing.

But just when Xie Chenghe was about to go in, Ding Yueluo's voice slowly sounded, as light as a cloud:
Chapter completed!