Shengpingfang, Duzhai, and the fragrance of sweet-scented osmanthus.
Tomorrow is the Mid-Autumn Festival, and Lu Fengniang and her maids were preparing gifts for each family. When the gift list for Xue Zhai arrived, she hesitated.
"It's difficult. Xue Bai and I share the same mother-son relationship. This gift to Sanniang is too light, but too heavy a gift seems too harsh."
Caiyun lowered her head silently, knowing that her mistress was not really in trouble, but couldn't help but recite the words "I share the same love with Xue Bai as mother and son." Because every time she said it, she didn't know how to disappoint the noble family members of Chang'an City.
How envious they are.
Over there, Du Youlin came out of the main room, arranging his beard, and was going to the study. When Lu Fengniang saw him, she quickly grabbed him and said, "Alang, please slow down and help me look at the Mid-Autumn Festival gift list."
"Tell me." Du Youlin stopped.
Lu Fengniang refused to talk about the business and took him aside, chatting in a low voice: "I heard Caiyun chatting with Qinglan and mentioned that the Seventeenth Niang from the Youxiang Mansion often goes to Xue's house to talk to Sanniang."
"Xue Bai has been gossiping since he was here, but now that he is not in Chang'an, he is still murmuring like this. Is the young lady from the Li family going to see Yan Sanniang? How much can she say?"
"Aren't I just afraid that Sanniang will be closer to that side than to us?"
Hearing this reason, Du Youlin shook his head repeatedly and said impatiently: "Just have some useless idleness."
"What about the Mid-Autumn Festival?"
"We'll have a family dinner and invite Yan Sanniang and her natal family."
"But Mrs. Guo Guo still lives in Xue's house. I don't know what she has planned."
"Can you still control Mrs. Guo Guo?" Du Youlin became more and more impatient and walked away. In the end, he could not give a clear idea.
Now that Xue Bai is away, there are many people who want to take care of Yan Yan, and it becomes difficult to coordinate between them.
"By the way." Lu Fengniang asked again: "Alang sent someone to Jinguangmen to have a look. Why isn't Wulang home yet?"
"What home is he going to?"
"Alang forgot. He is coming back to celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival. He said he would arrive today. I have told you many times. Are you listening?"
Instead, Du Youlin frowned and said, "If an official of the imperial court leaves his post without permission, he is not afraid of being impeached by the imperial censor."
"Here in Jingzhao County, who wants to impeach him if he comes back from a break during the Mid-Autumn Festival? If you don't want your son to come back, just go outside the house during the Mid-Autumn Festival."
Lu Fengniang kept chattering, but she said the harsh words after Du Youlin walked away.
She was looking forward to her son's return home with joy. After waiting for a long time, she finally heard the announcement that Wulang's carriage and horses had arrived.
The carriage slowly drove into the side door. Lu Fengniang stepped forward and couldn't wait to open the curtain, only to see Xue Yunniang sitting in the carriage holding her stomach.
For a moment, Xue Yunniang lowered her head and hesitated to speak. Lu Fengniang immediately noticed something, stepped forward and asked in a low voice: "Good boy, are you pregnant?"
"Aniang." Xue Yunniang nodded.
"Please wait a little longer." Lu Fengniang was overjoyed. She gave her a hand and gave many instructions. After entering the courtyard, she remembered to look back and asked, "Where's Wu Lang? He's not here to help you either."
"Goro and his friends are going to do some business."
"Xue Bai is not in Chang'an, how can he still have friends? Which one?"
"He is the young master from Uncle Yang's house."
Lu Fengniang was originally very happy, but when she heard that her son was interacting with Yang Xuan, her smile became much more forced.
When she went to talk to Du Youlin, Du Youlin was pleased at first, then turned sullen and said displeased: "The traitor didn't go home immediately, but went to associate with those dandy boys. It's simply not a good example..."
Rui, go and find Wulang."
When the dusk drums started to sound, Quan Rui took Du Wulang back home in a hurry.
They rushed to the study, and Du Youlin asked: "Where did you go? If I didn't send the steward to find you, would you have stayed up all night?!"
"Ah?" Du Wulang felt wronged and explained: "The child originally planned to come back, but because the housekeeper came, he was delayed for a while."
"You still dare to quibble? After becoming an official, you became glib." Du Youlin scolded, "What did you and that dude do?"
Du Wulang had never wanted to be this official, but his grandfather had to say all the good and bad things. He was not enterprising at first, but now he is glib.
He was helpless and responded honestly: "Don't worry, Grandpa, we did a good deed."
Du Youlin just asked a question. When he didn't hear the answer, he waved his son away impatiently. His eyes fell back on the book and he didn't want to pay attention to the matter. As a result, the word "good deeds" came to his ears, and he became more suspicious.
, it should be noted that those Chang'an rangers regard prostitution as a good deed to help weak women.
Seeing Du Wulang resigning, Du Youlin thought for a moment and asked Quan Rui, "Where did he go today?"
"When I went to the Yang family's villa, Wulang really did a good deed. He bought a family home."
"Whose family?"
"It's an old woman, a boy of seven or eight years old, and a young lady of fourteen or fifteen years old."
Du Youneighbor threw away the scroll in his hand and said, "He is forbidden to have any further contact with Yang Xuan."
~~
"Me? Taking a concubine?"
The next day was the Mid-Autumn Festival, but Du Wulang was suddenly asked a few questions by his two sisters, and he quickly shook his head.
"My grandpa misunderstood me. That's not... that's Zheng Guiniang. Her brother was the same year as mine. He was captured by Nanzhao when he was the magistrate of Xulu County. I thought that I couldn't let the people who served the country feel cold, so I helped him.
A handful at home.”
When Nanzhao was mentioned, Du Jin couldn't help but pay attention and asked: "The surname is Zheng? What's your name?"
"Zheng Hui."
Du Wei thought for a while and thought: "I seem to have seen this name somewhere?"
She vaguely remembered seeing it in a certain document that Xue Bai compiled before setting off, but she had lost contact with Xue Bai for more than a month. The last time he wrote a letter was when he was in Yizhou, saying that he would soon join the army in secret.
Attack.
He also said humorously that the next time he should attack Taihe City was to write a letter in the city.
But Du Wei couldn't help but worry.
"If sister sees this name, she must have noticed that I am in the same year when she was looking at the rankings for me." Du Wulang said, "In short, I am in love with Yun Niang, so I must have no intention of keeping a concubine."
"I didn't see it when I was looking at the list." Du Wei shook her head.
She had never looked at Du Wulang's Ming Sutra list at that time. After thinking for a while, she suddenly turned around and left.
"Sister, where are you going?" Du Wulang asked hurriedly: "There will be a family dinner soon, I..."
Before she finished speaking, Du Jin had already followed Du Si in a hurry.
"I rushed back to reunite with my family." No one could hear the rest of Du Wulang's words, so he whispered to himself, "It's hard to take a break."
He has felt that the atmosphere of this year's Mid-Autumn Festival is a bit deserted because Xue Bai is not here.
Although Xue Bai was not originally a member of the Du family, he is now a very important person.
~~
There are several document warehouses in the backyard of Fengwei Building in Daozhengfang, where the collected information is hidden.
In the evening, the Du sisters walked through the corridor and saw candles burning in a room. They couldn't help but look at each other, both worried. When they opened the door, it turned out that Da Xi Yingying was still at the desk sorting out news.
"Why are you staying here alone during the Mid-Autumn Festival?"
"There is new news." Da Xi Yingying stood up and said: "Li Linfu did not go to the Mid-Autumn Festival Royal Banquet."
"Yeah?"
As far as Du Jin knew, Li Linfu never missed several imperial banquets even when he was most seriously ill. Tonight's news revealed something strange.
"What's his reason?"
"He claimed that he was repairing the tomb of his ancestors and was fasting, so he complained to the saint on this ground."
"No." Du Jin shook his head and said, "I'm afraid he is seriously ill. We must find a way to confirm this."
Now there is a war in Nanzhao. If Li Linfu is critically ill at this time, the situation will inevitably be turbulent. Xue Bai is not in Chang'an, and Du Jin still hopes that there will be fewer changes.
After talking about this matter for a while, Du Wei asked: "Have you ever seen the name Zheng Hui?"
Da Xi Yingying shook her head.
"It's the magistrate of Xilu County who was captured by Nanzhao."
"Lang Jun indeed has a list of officials in the southwest..."
It is said to be a list, but in fact there are many scrolls, recording officials from various counties in the southwest, as well as various battle reports during the Nanzhao rebellion.
But there is a problem. Many of the battle reports are incomplete. With the chaos in the southwest, it is impossible to deliver all the detailed information to Chang'an.
To this end, Xue Bai drew another map and marked various vague battle reports on it to deduce which places had fallen and which places were still holding on.
Among them, Xilu County was circled by him, with the word "trap" written on the side. In the official list, Zheng Hui's name also had the word "trap" written next to it. Of course, there was not only one Zheng Hui with these marks, but
There are hundreds of officials.
Only then did Du Wei remember something.
"When Xue Bai was in Chang'an, did he investigate these officials who were trapped in Nanzhao?"
"Yes." Du Jin took out a few documents and said, "But a lot of the news only arrived after he left Chang'an."
"Why is he checking this?"
Du Jin walked to the shelf and looked at it for a while, then took out a bunch of scrolls, rummaged through them, and finally handed one of the papers to Du Jin.
That was what Xue Bai recorded after meeting Zhangchou Jianqiong. The first sentence he wrote was "The strongest fortress is often breached from the inside", followed by the details of Zhangchou Jianqiong's attack on Anrong City, and then
Later, the situation in Taihe City and Anrong City was compared.
"He checked this because he wanted to find an insider who was responsible for attacking Taihe City."
"Is it possible that Zheng Hui could become his internal agent?"
Du Jin said: "It's hard to say, but we have to pass the news to him and let him know about it."
"But we still can't contact him."
"Yang Guozhong can do it. For this matter, Yang Xuan can be used to take our people to Yizhou."
After discussing this, it was already too late for the two sisters to return to Du's house for the family dinner. There was a curfew in Chang'an City, making it difficult to move around.
During the Mid-Autumn Festival, they were trapped in this small courtyard. They looked up at the sky and saw a bright moon in the sky. It was "thousands of miles apart to share the beauty of the moon".
~~
The same night, the big meadow.
On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, Xue Bai was sitting on the grass, looking up at the moon, thinking about nothing.
He has always wanted too much and has been busy in the secular world. He rarely has the opportunity to be in the world and experience nature without any distractions.
After a while, Wang Zhongsi came over and sat down directly next to Xue Bai.