When Li Ruan met Jia Lun for the first time, he subconsciously felt an uncontrollable fear and disgust in his heart, and even the superficial politeness could not be achieved.
Therefore, every time Li Ruan met Jia Lun, he simply disguised himself as taciturn and calm. In addition, Jia Lun himself also had a gloomy and vicious personality, so the atmosphere was always tense every time the two met.
Cold.
At this time, after hearing Jia Lun's inquiry, Li Ru'an did not make any circles and answered directly: "Of course I succeeded."
Jia Lun nodded, without any happy expression on his face, and just asked again: "What did the prince's secret letter say? Tell me all the contents in detail, and I will report it to the seventh prince.
Your Highness relayed it."
Li Ruan shook his head and said, "I can't explain it verbally, so I'd better write it down and you can hand it over to His Highness the Seventh Prince."
After saying that, without waiting for Jia Lun to express his position, Li Ruan took out his pen, ink, paper and inkstone again and prepared to write a letter to the seventh prince Zhu Hejian.
For Li Ruan, the more escape routes the better. Now Zhao Junchen seems to have loosened his views on eunuchs in politics. Li Ruan also has more expectations for Zhao Junchen, but he will not bet on Zhao Junchen without reservation.
, after all, Zhao Junchen may regret his mistakes in the future, and may collapse and lose power, so Li Ruan will not give up Zhu Hejian's line easily.
It is precisely because of this consideration that Li Ru'an insisted on communicating with Zhu Hejian by writing letters instead of letting Jia Lun be responsible for conveying the words-if Jia Lun controlled the messaging and ideas between him and Zhu Hejian
Communication will be easily controlled by others in the future. If Jia Lun has evil thoughts in the future, it will be easy to mislead Zhu Hejian's view of Li Ruan.
However, in the "Dream of Red Mansions" written by later generations, there is a sentence: "The agency was too clever in its calculations, and it cost Qing Qing's life."
On the other side, seeing Li Ruan's statement, Jia Lun was still noncommittal, as if he didn't see Li Ruan's little thoughts at all, and just stood aside quietly, watching Li Ruan's performance.
However, after everything was ready, Li Ruan was about to write a letter, but Jia Lun stared at the ink on the inkstone that was still wet. It had obviously been used not long ago, and suddenly asked: "Inkstone
The ink on it has been ground in advance and is now just a little dry... Did you write something else with the pen and ink just now?"
Following Jia Lun's sudden inquiry, Li Ruan's writing hand shook slightly and sprinkled a drop of ink on the paper. The originally white and clean paper was suddenly stained with a small patch of black.
The remaining ink on the inkstone was naturally because Li Ruan had just written a secret letter to Zhao Junchen. Now that Jia Lun had seen the flaw, Li Ruan, as a double agent, was inevitably a little panicked.
However, after all, Li Ru'an had some skills and quickly restrained his abnormal behavior. He calmly crumpled the ink-stained paper into a ball, threw it aside, and said in a calm voice: "I did a big thing for you today. I
But this person is not very courageous, and after returning to the house, he was still panicked, so he had been practicing calligraphy and calming down."
Jia Lun nodded and said softly: "Our family has also heard about your deeds. Although you are not an orthodox family background in the inner study, your knowledge and talent are extremely extraordinary. They are much higher than ordinary eunuchs in the palace. It is bound to
Even calligraphy has its own merits!
But I don’t know, can we take advantage of the opportunity of you writing a letter to observe your calligraphy handwriting? The Seventh Prince always says that our family’s knowledge is too poor, so I might as well take the opportunity to learn a thing or two from you.”
Jia Lun's words sounded nice, but in fact he was asking Li Ru'an for evidence that he had just "practiced calligraphy". He obviously had doubts in his heart, and suspected that Li Ru'an was secretly in contact with some force other than Zhu Hejian.
But where would Li Ruan have any evidence to give him? At this time, he would naturally refuse.
"no!"
"Why not? It's just a copy of some copybooks for practicing calligraphy. What's so shameful about it?"
Seeing Jia Lun's endless pestering, Li Ru'an's voice became cold, his expression was full of unashamed calmness and impatience, and he hummed: "When a person is upset, he often puts down his pen when practicing calligraphy.
Write down some inner thoughts that cannot be told to outsiders. Only by expressing your feelings directly can you relieve your inner emotions. This is also the case for me!
These inner words may not be harmful, but they involve the inherent evil and unbearable nature of the human heart, and they are not something that others should know. Your request is a bit excessive!"
Hearing Li Ru'an's explanation, Jia Lun's usually expressionless face actually showed some apology, nodded and said: "I see, I was the one who was rude. Brother Li, please don't take offense!"
Then, Jia Lun inadvertently changed the topic and said: "By the way, there are many secrets in the secret box of His Majesty's Royal Study. Did you take a chance to peek at the secrets of the Prince this time?
Have you read any other confidential information? If there is any, please take this opportunity to inform His Highness the Seventh Prince. This information may be of some use to His Highness the Seventh Prince."
Li Ruan shook his head directly and said: "As I said, I am timid. I was afraid of being discovered when I peeked into the secret box. After peeking at the secret of the prince, I didn't dare to offend and waste time, so I quickly dealt with all traces.
, locked the secret box again, and has not read other secret contents... For people like me, the less we know about many things, the better."
"It turns out that this is indeed a very prudent approach. For us poor people in the imperial court, sticking to our duties is the smartest way to live."
After saying that, Jia Lun took a step back and watched silently, no longer interfering with Li Ru'an's letter to Zhu Hejian, but the way he stared at Li Ru'an was like a knife, making Li Ru'an feel uncomfortable all over.
Zhu Hejian is a master of conspiracy and power. Jia Lun has been with Zhu Hejian since he was a child and has received a lot of words and deeds. Li Ru'an's little tricks and tricks are not clever in Jia Lun's eyes, and they are quite a bit like playing tricks on others.
Li Ruan also knew that he accidentally let Jalen discover the flaw, but he was lucky and thought that if Jalen was just suspicious, he might not take actual action, so he kept calming down and finally suppressed his emotions.
Gradually I finished writing the letter.
Because of Zhao Junchen's instructions, Li Ru'an didn't hide anything when he wrote the letter. He wrote all the confidential information about Prince Zhu Heyu into the letter, then enveloped the letter and gave it to Jia Lun.
After Jalen reached out and took the secret message, Li Ruan took out the backup key of the secret box from his arms and handed it to Jalen, saying, "You can take this key back as well, if you want it to stay in my hand forever."
, I’m afraid I won’t be able to sleep well in the future.”
Li Ru'an's statement was obviously to emphasize his caution and timidity, hoping to reduce Jalen's suspicion.
But in fact, Li Ru'an had already used a piece of dough to leave a model of the secret box key, and he could easily make another one in the future.
On the other side, Jia Lun seemed to appreciate Li Ru'an's performance of his duty, and his usually cold expression became a little kinder. He reached out and took the key from Li Ru'an and said: "It's okay to hand this key back, but from now on
You may need it again, so be prepared."
After saying that, Jalen turned and left.
Li Ru'an followed Jia Lun and silently closed the door after Jia Lun left the room.
But just as the door closed, the expressions of both Li Ru'an in the room and Jia Lun outside the room quickly turned cold.
*
However, he said that after Jia Lun left the room, Li Ruan became increasingly uneasy and restless.
Jia Lun was obviously suspicious, and Li Ru'an didn't know whether he should tell Zhao Junchen about this situation.
"It's really a wave of ups and downs. I just proved my position and loyalty to Zhao Junchen and eased the relationship with him. Who would have thought that I just made a slight mistake and let Jia Lun find a flaw. Now I still have to
Trying to resolve the Seventh Prince's suspicions... is simply terrible!
After Jia Lun discovered the flaw, even if he couldn't be sure that I had second thoughts, he would definitely inform the Seventh Prince about today's incident... According to Zhao Junchen, the Seventh Prince has always been determined to eradicate the root cause, so if I want to resolve it
If he is suspicious, he must act quickly!
In the current situation, turning to Zhao Junchen for protection may not be a good choice!
Since passing through the battlefield of Shaanxi and Gansu, I have witnessed the changes in his temperament with my own eyes. It is not an exaggeration to say that Zhao Junchen is decisive and ruthless in killing and turning against him. If he receives the news, he thinks that I have become him.
If there is a flaw in his, he might even attack me before the Seventh Prince..."
While mumbling to himself, Li Ruan couldn't help but look pale.
After he peeked at several of the secret contents in the secret box in the royal study, he was already ambitious and wanted to make great achievements. Unfortunately, this state only lasted for one morning, and he became suspicious and fearful again.
appearance.
After all, a tiger is a tiger and a rabbit is a rabbit.
Moreover, with Li Ruan's methods and scheming, it would be too difficult for him to be a qualified double agent between the two conspirators Zhao Junchen and Zhu Hejian.
After thinking about it like this, Li Ru'an found that it was difficult to handle this situation with his own wisdom alone, and he had to find a wise man to give him some advice.
Then, Li Ruan suddenly thought of someone, that was Liu Ye.
During the Shaanxi-Gansu War, a civil riot suddenly broke out in Tianshui City, and Liu Ye, because of his reputation among the people, was coerced by the rioters and became the leader of the rioters.
However, Liu Ye had some insight. After becoming the leader of the rebels, he not only did not lead the people of Tianshui to continue to cause chaos, but instead took the initiative to curb the chaos and maintain civil order. After Li Ruan was ordered to rush to Tianshui City to quell the civil chaos, he even
He took the initiative to surrender and plead guilty, and then took a positive attitude to perform meritorious service. Not only did he assist Li Ruan in successfully wiping out several other rebel forces in Tianshui City, but he also helped Li Ruan quickly calm down all kinds of chaos in Tianshui City.
During this period, Liu Ye's shrewdness and methods were deeply valued by Li Ru'an. In addition, Li Ru'an considered that he was isolated and helpless and lacked support around him, so he deliberately used some thought and took risks to ask for help.
Zhao Junchen and Emperor Deqing pleaded for mercy, focusing on describing Liu Ye's original helplessness when he participated in the Tianshui civil unrest, and his outstanding performance when he later served his crimes.
In the end, because of Li Ruan's protection, Liu Ye, as the leader of the rebels, not only was not severely punished by the court, but when Emperor Deqing rewarded the meritorious officials, he actually got a ninth-grade official position, became the supervisor of Yuanma Temple, and had
Qualifications for receiving imperial salary!
Li Ru'an still has some trust in Liu Ye's wisdom and methods, and he is in today's situation only because of Li Ru'an's efforts to protect him, so this person is also somewhat loyal and grateful to Li Ru'an.
In this way, when Li Ruan wanted to find someone to discuss countermeasures, Liu Ye became the best candidate.
Thinking of this, Li Ru'an didn't dare to waste any time, quickly left the room and went out of the palace to look for him.
*
Just when Li Ruan rushed outside the palace to look for Liu Ye, Jia Lun had also returned to the Seventh Prince's Mansion and handed Li Ruan's secret letter to Zhu Hejian.
Jia Lun understood the priorities of the matter and did not mention Li Ruan's abnormal behavior to Zhu Hejian at the beginning. He just waited quietly for Zhu Hejian to read the contents of Li Ruan's secret message.
After Li Ruan read the secret letter, his face suddenly darkened, he quickly stood up without any hesitation and said: "Enter the palace immediately, I want to see my father!"