Chapter 8 Chapter 54

Shen Zhenzhu met Xue Hongxian in the western suburbs. This is Shen Zhenzhu's first time out of the palace after returning to Chang'an.The weather is very cold, sitting on the soft couch in the carriage to warm the fragrance, listening to the whistling of the wind, passing by her ears in bursts, reminded her of that year when An Qingxu was imprisoned in Luoyang Yeting, listening to the outdoors in the quiet night, it was the same way. Generally speaking, in fact, Chang'an is far colder than Luoyang in winter, but it seems that there is no time longer than that winter. "It's here, it's here!" Zhang Hanruo called the car to stop.

Shen Zhenzhu got off the carriage, her nose was warm and cool, and there was something dripping from between her eyelashes, she looked up at the sky, the snowflakes had already danced colorfully, thin and sparse, the sky was like fine enamel spreading cicada patterns.Stretch out your hand, the stamen is extremely soft and melts in an instant. The guards retreated far away to watch. Xue Hongxian is just like a red plum in the snow, with a petite body and the redness in her dimples, she is no different from when she separated two years ago, like an elf. Back then when Xue Hong suddenly disappeared, even though Shen Zhenzhu knew that she was excellent in martial arts and that nothing would happen to her, that heart was still on the line after all, especially since there was no news from Xue Song, sometimes thinking about it made her uneasy.Today, Xue Hong is standing in front of his eyes with a lively face, and it is really hard to hide his joy.

"Sister Shen!" Xue Hongxian galloped towards her, threw his head into Shen Zhenzhu's arms, raised his head, and was still laughing foolishly. Shen Zhenzhu embraced her, gently patted the snowflakes off the big red fur hat for her, and said, "Where did my sister go, I miss you so much." Xue Hong opened his eyes wide and looked at Shen Zhenzhu carefully, then pursed his lips suddenly, his eyes turned red, "Sister is so thin. I heard from Sister Hanruo that you suffered a lot after I left that year, I—" She lowered her head, a tear rolled back and forth in her eye socket, and it was about to fall, she looked very delicate and cute.

Shen Zhenzhu laughed, held her tightly in his arms, comforted her intentionally, said that she was fine, Zhang Hanruo also joked and tried to persuade her, Xue Hongxian pursed her lips and wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes in embarrassment.Shen Zhenzhu secretly wondered, how could Zhang Hanruo know himself so well? "Back then, Master took me away." Xue Hongxian explained. "Master? Your master is—?" Xue Hongxian blinked, thinking about whether he should answer this question.Shen Zhenzhu hurriedly said: "If there is any taboo, don't make things difficult for sister Xue Xian, anyway, it's not a big deal, as long as you are safe and well."

Xue Hongxian shook his head, smiled slyly, and said: "It doesn't matter, anyway, the master asked me to go down the mountain this time, and didn't make me swear not to tell others. I only talk about my two sisters. I guess the master will not blame me." She There is "Master" on the left and "Master" on the right. They always smile sweetly when they say it, and her master must love her very much. Zhang Hanruo said: "That's still not good, be careful your master beats your palm so much that you can't carry the bowl to eat!" Xue Hong said angrily: "Don't laugh at me! That happened when I was a child, and now the master never hits me." Then he twisted Zhang Hanruo's mouth: "Sister Zhang, how long is your brain? I said it was a slip of the tongue a few years ago. In a word, you still remember it now!"

Zhang Hanruo pretended to be afraid, and hid behind Shen Zhenzhu with screams and screams. Xue Hong refused to obey, and went around to catch her. Shen Zhenzhu wanted to protect Zhang Hanruo and prevent Xue Hong from accidentally falling, and the three of them fought together It seems that they have returned to the time when they lived in the Prince's Bieyuan. After a while, Shen Zhenzhu felt flustered and her chest was tight, and her complexion was not good. Zhang Hanruo was cautious, and hurriedly told Xue Hong to stop the fight, and the three of them got into the carriage and started back to Xujiu.

Xue Hong said: "To be honest with my two sisters, I don't know the name of the master. I have called her 'Master' since I was a child. She is a bhikkhuni (note: nun). I don't know who my biological parents are. As long as I have memories, I will be with the master. The master treats me like my biological mother. However, when I was eight years old, she suddenly sent me to Xue... Xue Song's house, saying that I had a relationship with him, five years Only then can I return to the mountain. In the past five years, she came here every New Year’s Eve to teach me the martial arts and swordsmanship in the middle of the night.” By teaching martial arts, Xue Hongxian will be able to stand alone in the world!Compared with such immortals, it is a waste of time for ordinary people to practice martial arts for decades.

"That day when I went to fetch water, I never thought that I would meet my master by the river! Without saying a word, she ordered me to go back to the mountain immediately." "How does your master know where you are?" Zhang Hanruo was terrified. Xue Hongxian's eyes are full of admiration: "Master knows astronomy and geography, and it is everywhere." He said: "That day was the first time I disobeyed Master, crying and begging, saying that a sister wanted me Take care of me, I can’t leave my sister and go back to the mountain for now. Who knows, the master is neither angry nor laughing.” She sighed, and she, who has always been carefree, showed sadness. Zhenzhu and Zhang Hanruo lamented—they had no father or mother since they were young, although they have a loving teacher, they still feel uneasy after all.

"I would rather Master get angry. She will always forgive me and agree to my request after she gets angry." Xue Hongxian continued: "But that time, she only told me that everyone in the world has their own karma. It shouldn't interfere." "I refused, so I knelt down to beg the master, and the master took my hand and pulled me away. I was too far behind the master in martial arts, and I couldn't break free. Just like that, I was brought back to the mountain by the master—" After she finished explaining, she raised her head with pity and said, "That's it, sister Shen, don't you blame me—"

Shen Zhenzhu was deeply worried about the words "practice", seeing Xue Hongxian in front of him, although he was young, he couldn't hide his flowery beauty and green temples, and he would really become a "bhikkhuni" one day, how unbearable it was .Xue Hongxian respects her master like a god, so she doesn't have to let her master decide everything, the master should control and arrange her fate early on. Xue Hongxian suddenly broke into a smile again, and said: "But today I can redeem my crime!" Then, he took out something from his bosom and handed it to Shen Zhenzhu, saying: "Look, look, what is this? !"

Shen Zhenzhu took it and saw that it was palm-sized and thin, wrapped in cowhide.Asked: "What is it?" Xue Hong said: "Don't be in a hurry to dismantle it, guess what?" Shen Zhenzhu weighed the weight, and said at the same time as Zhang Hanruo: "Is there a letter inside?" Xue Hongxian pouted: "It's not fun at all, why are you so smart!" Shen Zhenzhu smiled and scratched Xue Hongxian's face with her fingers, and opened the cowhide package.Sure enough, there were several pages of letter paper folded squarely inside.Unfolding the letter paper, Shen Zhenzhu couldn't help being stunned—there were all twisted and weird words on it! "Is this a letter from the Huihe people?" She asked Xue Hongxian.Not long after the founding of Huihe, the Turkic script was adopted, and there is no own script.Shen Zhenzhu stayed in Hehe for a period of time, although she could see that it was in Turkic language, she couldn't recognize a single word. Xue Hongxian blinked and nodded complacently. "Let me take a look." Zhang Hanruo reached out and took the letter paper, and said with a smile, "I understand some Turkic characters." Pearl remembers that Zhang Hanruo mentioned that her mother is Turkic, so it is not surprising that she can read Turkic characters. Zhang Hanruo raised a corner of the car curtain, faced the snowflakes, and looked down carefully, the more he looked, the more dignified his face became.But after a while, the letter was still folded after reading it. "What to write?" Shen Zhenzhu asked her. Zhang Hanruo looked at Shen Zhenzhu meaningfully, sat down solemnly, and then slowly said: "This is indeed a secret letter written by the secret envoy of Huihe to the Khan of Huihe." Looking back, he asked Xue Hongxian: "How did you get this letter?" Believe it?" Xue Hongxian patted his sleeves nonchalantly, and said, "Steal it!" It turned out that when Xue Hongxian entered Chang'an City yesterday evening, he saw a foreigner in Han costume leaving the city.Because of the assassination of Pei Zhaoyi, the defense of Chang'an City was tightened on the outside and tightened on the inside, and people who entered and exited were strictly checked.But the foreigner was extremely domineering, determined to leave the city in a hurry, the city guards hindered the efforts of the Huihe soldiers, they dared to be angry but did not dare to speak out, they searched hastily and let the man out of the city.Xue Hong now sees this stubbornness, and is annoyed that he will have to be searched carefully in his luggage, and also in the past two years following his master and his friend Kong Konger, he has learned some wonderful skills, which he has nowhere to use on weekdays, so he doesn't need it now. When will we wait?So Qingqiaoqiao stole the letter paper that the Huihe man hid in his bosom. After stealing the letterhead, she certainly didn't recognize the tadpole-like Turkic characters. Although she didn't know much about people and the world, she was extremely intelligent.After a little thought, he "drawn" the Chinese characters on the letter paper, split them into several copies, found a few translators in the teahouse, translated them into Chinese, and pieced them together again. Knowing that it was related to Shen Zhenzhu, Zhang Hanruo hurriedly asked Shen Zhenzhu Pearl calls out. Zhang Hanruo said: "It turns out that Pei Zhaoyi was assassinated, no, it should be said that he was plotting to assassinate Concubine Zhang Shu, and the main envoy was Huihe Khan!" While speaking, he glanced at Shen Zhenzhu, Shen Zhenzhu knew about it, and at this moment he had to act Surprised look. "More than half of this letter is the confession of the assassin. He said that the assassination had failed, and Pei Zhaoyi had acted as a scapegoat. But at that time, the scene was chaotic, and they mistakenly thought that the matter had been accomplished, and took advantage of the chaos to pull out the murder weapon and send it to sister Shen. Your dormitory also said that there was a neixian among them, who not only leaked the assassination, but even sold the matter of sending the brocade box to Shujing Palace to Concubine Zhang Shu. Finally, they said that they would definitely assassinate Concubine Zhang Shu again, and revealed the inside story of the assassination. Xian, otherwise it would be embarrassing to see Khan." After Zhang Hanruo finished speaking, he looked at Shen Zhenzhu suspiciously: "Sister, I'm confused, it's all for the Huihe people to assassinate Concubine Zhang Shu, why did they send the murder weapon to you?" Shen Zhenzhu sighed endlessly, she was not wrong as expected - Mo Yanchu, he would not treat her like this.She was even moved. He said that the "gift" he gave her was to assassinate Concubine Zhang Shu!She hated Concubine Zhang Shu so much, but there was nothing she could do about it for a while, and he knew all about it!Killing Concubine Zhang Shu is not the same as assassinating the emperor, it is not beneficial to his "overall situation", and he is willing to make this uneconomical deal, this kind of intention is no different. Zhang Hanruo couldn't wait for her to answer, so he asked again. Only then did Shen Zhenzhu come back to her senses, and said with a smile, "This... I don't know either." Zhang Hanruo seemed to have realized something, and said in a low voice with a half-smile: "It turns out that the rumors outside are actually true." Shen Zhenzhu was surprised: "What!" But Zhang Hanruo didn't say anything, just said: "Fortunately, Hong Xian's younger sister got this letterhead. If someone else gets it accidentally, it is inevitable that sister Shen is the master!" He ignited it, and set the letter paper and the cowhide on fire. The cowhide smelled bad, and it took a long time to burn it out.This letter is indeed of great importance. If others get it, it will definitely hinder the diplomatic relations between the two countries. The carriage drove back slowly with the three of them.Xue Hongxian was in a very good mood, talking non-stop. Shen Zhenzhu and Zhang Hanruo had their own thoughts, and only responded to her from time to time to make her happy. After walking for a while, the carriage slowed down and finally stopped.Xue Hongxian shouted in surprise: "What's going on!" He heard the horse's hooves "clack" approaching, and someone called out in a low voice outside the curtain: "Princess—" it was Yan Ming's voice. Shen Zhenzhu raised the curtain of the carriage, a carriage and several attendants had already parked in front of her, Li Chu got off the carriage with a brocade hat and sable fur, and was meeting her eyes and smiling slightly.Yan Ming said: "Wangfei please move, Your Highness is here to pick you up." Hearing the word "Your Highness", Xue Hong hurriedly poked his head out and looked forward, shouting: "Which one is King Guangping, let me see, let me see, I have never seen Sister Shen's husband before." !" When he saw Li Chu, he couldn't help calling out "Ah", his eyes were shining brightly, he hugged Zhang Hanruo, and yelled loudly: "My God, that's King Guangping, I've never been there before." See such a handsome man!" Zhang Hanruo just smiled cautiously, and didn't follow Li Chu to look at him, nor did he raise his eyes. The chariot brought by Li Chu was surrounded by charcoal fires, the charcoal fires were burning vigorously, and the heat was blowing on the face, making it extremely comfortable.After saying goodbye to Zhang Hanruo and Xue Hongxian, the attendants drove the horses slowly. Li Chu held Shen Zhenzhu's hand, feeling that it was not very warm, the smile on his face restrained a bit, and he couldn't bear to say anything, Shen Zhenzhu hurriedly urged: "Let the carriage go faster, it's suitable for dinner If you don't see me, you're going to cry again." Li Chu said, "It's okay." He shut his mouth and didn't speak.Shen Zhenzhu knew that he was unhappy, and it was very cold today, so she reluctantly agreed to leave the city.Just about to say a few soft words, her whole body trembled and she sneezed. Li Chu casually slapped her on the back, but it was wet. Did not pay attention. Li Chu's anger rose, his shoulders felt warm, but it was Shen Zhenzhu who rested her head on his shoulders, closed her eyes slightly, and said softly: "I don't know why these two days, I get tired very easily..." His heart was slightly sour , forced himself to suppress the fire, embraced her with one hand, and untied the tie of his fur coat with the other. Shen Zhenzhu was startled and raised her head: "What are you doing?" Li Chu didn't smile, and said with a sullen face, "What else can you do? You really don't want to die!" When he said the last sentence, he was rather sullen, and while speaking, he took off Shen Zhenzhu's fur coat and put on his own for her. Holding her tightly, after a while, he finally let out a long breath and said, "I have good news for you, Zhang Deyu is in my hands." "Zhang Deyu?" Shen Zhenzhu was stunned for a while before remembering who it was—that shrunken little man who betrayed himself to join the rebel army as the head of the palace!If Li Chu hadn't mentioned it, I would really have forgotten that there is such a person in the world.She doesn't hate this person, although because of him, she has suffered such a serious injury and suffered so much.She just disdains that such a villain is not to the point where Shen Zhenzhu hates her, he is not worthy!Asked: "Has he confessed to the chief envoy?" Li Chu tightened his palm slightly, and said: "I recruited. He recruited before forcing a confession—it was that bitch Dugu Jing who taught him to do it!" His eyebrows became serious, and he apologized: "It's all about me It's my fault." If he hadn't mistrusted Dugu Jing, how could he have let her know the secret of the secret room, and if she hadn't been behind the scenes, how could Zhang Deyu have reported it? Shen Zhenzhu suddenly had an idea: "Although the current Dugu Jing is the concubine Shu's righteous daughter, it's not that she can't be touched!" Li Chu is so clever, he immediately understood: "You mean to deal with her secretly? That's not bad, but you have to wait a few more days. She usually stays around Concubine Shu, so it's extremely difficult to do it." Thinking about it, he looked a little happy: "The day when the emperor returns to Beijing is the best time! To deal with her, it must be at this time. If the emperor returns to Beijing to formally confer her the title of princess, it will be even more difficult to deal with her." Shen Zhenzhu nodded again and again. In addition to Dugu Jing, one of Concubine Zhang Shu's wings can also be removed, and Dugu Jing had an accident before he was canonized, so it is expected that he will not be held accountable. He also asked Li Chu how to deal with Zhang Deyu. Li Chu said lightly: "You must let him go through all the suffering you suffered that day. How can you allow him to die so easily." Li Chu was originally the Secretary of the Ministry of Criminal Justice, how to interrogate and deal with prisoners has his own comprehensive method. Shen Zhenzhu listened to him with ease, and knew that Zhang Deyu would have to suffer enough torment in the endless hell before he could fall into hell forever.It sounds pitiful at the moment, but this person is really not pitiful, so he smiled faintly, closed his eyes, and remained silent for a while. Li Chu only thought that she was asleep, but saw that although her eyes were closed, a strange smile gradually appeared on her face, and she suddenly opened her beautiful eyes, and gave a soft "chi" laugh.Li Chu was puzzled and said, "What's so funny?" "I laugh at you for being beautiful and blessed." Shen Zhenzhu squinted at him, with a half-smile, "Sister Hanruo is extremely beautiful in the world, talented in both civil and military affairs, I don't believe you don't know what's on her mind." Li Chu was taken aback for a moment, then raised his eyebrows and laughed involuntarily: "You said she, um, is indeed a rare figure among women." Seeing that there was a smile on Shen Zhenzhu's face, but her brows were faintly gloomy, she raised her hands together Picking up the ends of her hair from the sideburns, she then said softly: "Unfortunately, in my eyes, all the women in the world are not as beautiful and talented as you alone." She came out, but like a thunderbolt, her whole body was touched, and she suddenly raised her eyes to meet his gaze. He still smiled softly.The snow was getting heavier and heavier, and the carriage was moving steadily and silently. There were only the two of them in this small carriage, and the space was so cramped that there was nowhere to release the joy in my heart.The beauty of this moment is far better than the flowers before the moon and the sky. "But, I'm so useless, I can't help you with anything... make things difficult for you everywhere, make you a burden..." Tears welled up in her eyes. He sighed, couldn't help laughing, and finally held her tightly in his arms, his voice was firm and clear: "I don't want you to help me. I just want you to be good and by my side. Always like this, by my side..."