Rong Ting walked towards them. When Jiang Rao saw him coming, she subconsciously pointed her toes towards him and took the cloak from his arm and held it herself.

Rong Ting bent down slightly to match her move to take the coat from his arm. He saw Jiang Jinxing standing by and watching them from the corner of his eye. He straightened up slightly, put his arm around Jiang Rao's shoulders, pulled Jiang Rao close to him, and asked Jiang Jinxing, "When did my brother-in-law come?"

As time passed, his habits were completely different from those when he was a teenager. He was used to smiling when looking at people, but the smile was always exactly the same. His narrow eyes looked like bright and warm crescent moons when smiling, and the shadow cast by his thick eyelashes swallowed up the slightly evil mole under his eye.

Jiang Jinxing frowned.

After he was thrown into the academy to study at the age of eight, he received a lot of care from Rong Ting there. He was very satisfied that Rong Ting became his brother-in-law.

When Jiang Rao got married, he wanted to talk to his elder sister in the Ning'an Marquis's mansion but couldn't find anyone. He gradually felt uneasy and finally changed his mind.

How could Rong Ting, who is so good at calculating and could have a seat in the court in just a few years, take good care of him just because of a little favor he had done him in the past? In return, I got a lot of information from him about his sister's preferences and whereabouts.

It was obvious that he had been planning something for his sister.

Although he had planned this long ago, he had misunderstood for a long time that he had no interest in his elder sister. He had been thinking every day about how to help his elder sister get the husband she wanted... If it were true... Jiang Jinxing thought through the intrigues and felt somewhat dissatisfied.

He had only wanted Rong Ting to be his brother-in-law. Firstly, his sister liked him and her eyes were full of stars when she saw Rong Ting. Secondly, he could also save face. Rong Ting was smart and good at kung fu, which made up for his lack of having a brother.

But now he was somewhat disgusted by Rong Ting's cleverness.

Such a smart person, he would change his sister when he likes her. If one day he no longer likes her, he may not have the ability to seek justice for his sister.

No matter how good-looking Rong Ting is, in his heart, no man in the world is as handsome as himself. Jiang Jinxing replied calmly, "I came here about an hour ago. I have nothing to do, so I came to see if there is anything I can do for you."

"Oh." Rong Ting mentioned casually, "I knew your sister was giving out porridge, so I came back a little earlier today."

Jiang Rao wanted to ask Rong Ting why he came back so early today, but when she saw him talking to her brother, she didn't go up to disturb him. When she heard Rong Ting's words, she smiled secretly, touched his hand quietly, and left in a flash.

Jiang Jinxing immediately had a subtle feeling of being outdone, but he had already told Jiang Rao for the sake of face that it was his parents who sent him here, and it was not easy for him to change his words, so he could only sulk by himself.

…

Jiang Rao and Rong Ting usually had their meals at a small round table. Although the table was small, it was exquisitely made from the finest small-leaf red sandalwood. Fuyun and twin lotus were finely carved and entwined around the corners of the table. Although it was a small round table, it was particularly warm when the two of them sat around it. Today, with one more person, they immediately felt a little cramped.

Jiang Jinxing looked at the two people on the opposite side, holding the green-glazed porcelain bowl in his hand, but was reluctant to pick up his chopsticks.

There was a small bamboo basket on the dining table. The cooked chestnuts were drained and filled the basket. Rong Ting rolled up his sleeves, peeled one, and habitually handed it to Jiang Rao's mouth.

Jiang Rao remembered that Jiang Jinxing was there, so she didn't dare to open her mouth to accept feeding like she usually did. She pushed the bowl away, blinking her wet eyes silently as if speaking, and let Rong Ting put the chestnuts in her bowl.

Rong Ting let it go obediently, but used the tip of his boot to gently rub the tip of Jiang Rao's embroidered pear blossom shoes, silently expressing his dissatisfaction.

Jiang Jinxing took a glance and guessed how the two of them got along in private, and immediately felt disgusted.

He peeled the chestnuts for himself, feeling very lonely. After he peeled the chestnuts, he put them on the plate into a golden pile, but did not touch any of them.

After a while, he pushed the bowl away, said "I'm full", and went to the yard first.

Jiang Rao was worried about what Jiang Jinxing wanted to tell her, and when she saw that he never mentioned it, she felt a little strange in her heart.

He seemed to want to avoid Rong Ting.

She noticed this and felt inexplicably puzzled.

Is there anything that Rong Ting cannot know?

Rong Ting saw Jiang Rao's eyes following Jiang Jinxing's back, so he slowly put down his chopsticks and said to her, "I'll go take a look."

He walked out of the door and saw Jiang Jinxing standing in the corridor, leaning against the wall, thinking about something. He heard Rong Ting's footsteps and quickly came back to his senses and called out "Brother-in-law."

Rong Ting looked at him with a deeper look, staring at Jiang Jinxing, which made him feel uneasy. Just when he was wondering if Rong Ting knew about the thing he accidentally learned, Rong Ting spoke, "Have you learned all your lessons?"

In front of Rong Ting, Jiang Jinxing did not dare to lie and answered honestly: "It's not so bad, but Mr. Yan went back to his hometown to visit relatives recently, so I had some free time."

Rong Ting nodded and said nothing more.

Jiang Jinxing thought about Rong Ting's expression and understood something.

he

I've been going to Prince Qi's mansion quite frequently recently, and I think people are annoying me.

"Just now, someone came to the porridge stall."

Rong Ting slightly turned his eyes and turned his gaze towards Jiang Jinxing.

"Brother-in-law will never guess who it is." Jiang Jinxing pretended to be mysterious, "Sister wanted to tell you at the beginning, but I stopped you. If I told you directly, I'm afraid you would have lost your appetite and would only want to go to the Dali Temple."

“Second Miss Shen, Shen Qinying.”

There wasn't much surprise in Rong Ting's eyes.

He knew it a long time ago.

He knew everything that happened in the mansion.

There was a hint of anger hidden in his eyes as deep as the sea.

Although he could not hold great power, he could only feel at ease if he had control over the things he wanted to control.

There was a fire at the Shen family, killing Mrs. Shen and Shen Que's second daughter. He found out that one of the servants in the Shen family had no news. The maid was about the same age and shape as Shen Que's second daughter...

He guessed at that time that Shen Xiuying was still alive, so he sent people to search for her everywhere, and also arranged spies at the city gate.

But Shen Qinying was finally brought back by Jiang Jinxing.

He thought he had laid a tight net, but there was still a fish that slipped through, and that was what he couldn't tolerate.

Rong Ting's voice became colder as his mood changed, "Second Miss Shen, I will personally interrogate her."

Jiang Jinxing is not like Jiang Rao, who stays away from the court and doesn't care about court affairs. When he got a little older, he became interested in this kind of power struggle. Although he was just playing with cats and dogs all day and seemed to be unserious, the intrigues in the court had long surpassed those novels about heroic deeds and became his favorite thing to listen to when he was having fun.

He knew what kind of reputation Rong Ting had in the court.

When Rong Ting left the mansion, Jiang Jinxing found Jiang Rao and asked, "Sister, have you always wanted to get close to the Princess of Xiang and her daughter, Xie Xi?"

When Jiang Rao did this, she did not deliberately hide it from the people around her. She was not surprised that Jiang Jinxing knew about this, but was a little surprised that he was also concerned about her. She nodded and corrected, "I don't want to get close to him, I just want to find out. Princess Xiang is obviously the biological daughter of the father-in-law, why is she always hiding from the father-in-law?"

Jiang Rao already had many guesses in her mind, and she felt that the most reliable one was that Princess Xiang resented her father for favoring her elder sister Xu Lanruo.

She found out that Princess Xiang and Queen Jiahe had a bad relationship when they were still in the boudoir.

It is natural for Princess Xiang to feel jealous since her elder sister entered the palace and became the queen.

She guessed Princess Xiang

It was under the influence of jealousy that he gradually cut off ties with the Xu family.

Jiang Rao told Jiang Jinxing everything she had in mind, and then said, "I wanted to find out before, because I wanted to know if I could find any evidence against my father-in-law from Princess Xiang. Now that the Xu family has lost power, there is no need for me to keep an eye on the mother and daughter anymore."

Jiang Jinxing listened to her words patiently and finally couldn't help laughing out loud.

His tone was still full of sarcasm, "The father-in-law's daughters are well-known for being filial."

"What you mean is..." Jiang Rao frowned.

"Princess Xiang doesn't hate Father-in-law Xu." Jiang Jinxing said firmly, "Father-in-law Xu married her to the King of Xiang because he wanted her to keep a close eye on him and to secretly control his power, so as to prevent the Third Prince, who had a close relationship with him, from taking away the crown prince's position. But the fact that Father-in-law arranged for her to spy on the King of Xiang was reported to him a few years ago, and he was furious. Princess Xiang was no longer a useful pawn, and he was afraid of Father-in-law Xu's power and didn't dare to divorce her. Now Princess Xiang is hated by her husband and rejected by Father-in-law Xu, so she is now depressed."

Jiang Rao was stunned when she heard this. After a while, she found her voice and asked, "What if she is trying to trick you?"

Jiang Jinxing frowned, very dissatisfied with her distrust, "You only know to start with Princess Xiang and Xie Xi, but you don't know that women's minds are sometimes more difficult to guess. What they think in their hearts, they have to say the opposite verbally, which is very troublesome. These things were confided by the King of Xiang after he was drunk, and every word is true."

Jiang Rao was silent for a while, digesting the whole story of Jiang Jinxing, and suddenly her face turned cold, "Prince Xiang was drunk, why were you by his side? Did you drink too?"

Jiang Jinxing was furious and said angrily, "If it weren't for you always investigating the Princess of Xiang, but being clumsy and unable to find anything, I would have tried to get along well with the King of Xiang. Wine is nothing, I'm paying Xiaoliu instead."

"Xiao Liu?"

"My cricket."

"The King of Xiang loves cricket fighting. Xiaoliu, the cricket I trained, was the best in Jinling. I deliberately lost to him and gave him the cricket. He was always successful with the cricket I gave him. Others praised him for his cricket training. I worked so hard to train the cricket, and he was naturally grateful to me for giving him the reputation. "

"But I have really suffered a great injustice. Silver, I want silver." Jiang Jinxing stretched out his hand towards Jiang Rao and asked for it with confidence.

Jiang Rao wanted to remind him that playing with things will only lead to a loss of ambition, but this time she was out of ideas. As soon as she heard it, she knew that her brother had helped her investigate King Xiang a few months ago.

Don't think he says it easily. The boy is at an age where he needs to save face. He will definitely not mention the hardships he has experienced. He just wants people to praise him for his intelligence.

She didn't say much, but gave the money readily. She took out the cash box and gave him a silver note worth one hundred taels.

Jiang Jinxing weighed the banknote, patted his palm twice, smiled, and then reached out and handed the banknote back to Jiang Rao.

Jiang Rao was just surprised at his rare generosity when she heard Jiang Jinxing's voice, "This one thousand taels is my account, in exchange for the hard work of getting the information from King Xiang. I'll continue to pay it back."

He was very happy to talk about money, and his smile was so wide that it seemed that he could make the peach blossoms bloom in February. He tapped the table with his fingers, "Sister, I won't make it difficult for you. You can take back the 1,000 taels, buy a few dozen more loads of rice in the spring, and help me run the grain shop. If you can sell it, you can return the principal and interest to me. If you can't sell it, it won't be too late to give me another 1,000 taels at that time. Is that okay?"

Jiang Rao took back the banknote, uttered a "huh", and said with some annoyance and some helplessness: "Okay."

This is a good plan, so she doesn't have to worry about him squandering the treasury of the Ning'an Marquis's Mansion in the future.

Jiang Jinxing touched his throat and said, "I'm tired of talking, tea."

Jiang Rao instructed Ming Shao to go down and make tea and put the banknotes back into the drawer.

While Ming Shao was returning with the teapot and cups to pour tea for the two masters, Jiang Rao remembered something and asked Jiang Jinxing, "Why did you wait until your brother-in-law left before telling me about the matter at Prince Xiang's Mansion?"

Why is there any need to hide this from Rong Ting?

Jiang Jinxing drank half a cup of tea and looked at Jiang Rao in confusion, "You've been with him for so long, and you've never noticed anything?"

Jiang Rao frowned slightly and asked, "What do you want me to notice?"

"Don't you think that exposing the affairs of the Princess to the King is very similar to the style of my brother-in-law?"