Chapter 80 Chapter 80 Shen Qingchen is missing
Public opinion has eased somewhat, but the disputes in the court are still in full swing.
Amidst the endless debate, urgent news of a flood in Liangzhou finally arrived.
Emperor Hengshun waved his hand and appointed Shen Qingchen to take charge of disaster relief affairs. He also appointed Jiang Heye, the former prince of Zhenbei Marquis, to assist him and allocated 2,000 taels of silver.
The whole court was in an uproar, but no one dared to guess the emperor's intention.
Only in private did someone sigh, "Your Majesty has remained neutral and sent someone to personally resolve the old matter."
"When a strong dragon meets a local snake, it's a dangerous situation." Some people are also worried.
There were many different opinions, but the parties involved seemed unusually calm. They packed their bags and were ready to leave that night.
The situation is sensitive, and the forces involved are complex. Everyone is taking a wait-and-see attitude, and few people even dare to come and see him off openly.
When Ruan Yueyi married into the Jiang family, she was also concerned about Prime Minister Jiang's high power and influence, so she did not want to show up in public and sent someone to stuff a large amount of banknotes into the family.
But Wei Shutan came again openly.
"I'm not involved in politics, I just wanted to come in person." She got off the carriage and smiled, pointing to a stack of rare beast-taming books for Jiang Heye. "Take them away, for an emergency."
Jiang Heye carried it respectfully onto the carriage.
"Xiao Xu is unable to come, so I'll pass on the message," Wei Shutan instructed. "The Liang family not only has 150,000 men publicly at their disposal, but they also likely have private troops, perhaps colluding with Bei Xuan. Be careful, don't engage in head-on confrontation, and take care of yourself."
"I'll be in Kyoto. I'll help you look after Little Rongchang and Kyoto. Come back soon." She smiled. "Who knows, by the time you return, the statues at Renshu Temple might be finished."
"You have to take care of yourself." Jiang Hexue's eyes were shallow, and her words made her eyes sour. "Wait until we come back." "Take care." Shen Qingchen still said the same thing.
"Have you calculated, benefactor, whether Mengniang can survive this year?" Wei Shutan asked with a smile.
"Yes." Shen Qingchen looked away and said lightly.
"Not just this year, we Mengmeng want to live a hundred years." Jiang Hexue shook her wrist, suppressing tears. "Summer may never come back. In autumn, I'll treat you to roast deer."
"Okay." Wei Shutan smiled softly. "Waiting for you."
After seeing her off, another unexpected person came.
"General Xie is here to see me off?" Jiang Hexue looked at Xie Junxiao who was riding a horse in shock.
"I don't have much to say goodbye to you. Princess Rouyang asked me to pass something on to you." Xie Junxiao tossed the purse in his hand to Shen Qingchen, speaking calmly. "The princess said that she had read a lot of books in the past and knew some ancient characters. She had figured out the symbols on the embroidery and hoped it would be helpful to you."
Jiang Hexue was stunned, and even Shen Qingchen's calm expression was slightly disturbed. After a moment, he opened his mouth and said, "Thank Rouyang for us."
"I'll try to make it back in time for the young county lady's full moon banquet," he said with a smile. "If it's difficult, I should be back for the hundred-day banquet."
Jiang Hexue couldn't help laughing: "Of course."
"I wish you all the best." Xie Junxiao gestured.
-
The journey was long, and it would take more than 20 days to get from Kyoto to Beixuan. They took the official post road and there was no delay, but they also traveled day and night without changing horses or people.
Jiang Heye was sensible enough to ride the horse by himself. As long as his brother-in-law was in the carriage, he would stay away if possible.
But Shen Qingchen and Jiang Hexue rarely did things that he had to avoid. Ever since he received the message from Princess Rouyang on the day he left Beijing, he had been holding the embroidery map and comparing and analyzing it.
The note contained a string of ancient characters they couldn't understand, followed by a careful explanation in Longlin language: "The messy symbols are the characters in the upper row stacked from left to right, either the left half is ancient Beixuan language, the right half is ancient Longlin language; or up and down, inside and outside."
"After I compared and restored it, it should be like this—"
"Southeast, south three, east eight, north eight, west nine."
"What's this?" Jiang Hexue had no idea what this simple line of words meant. She looked over the embroidery several times before finally sighing. "Mother is really too smart. I can't figure out what she means."
Shen Qingchen put his arm around her shoulders and touched them soothingly: “Take a break, don’t worry.”
"Sleep for a while." Jiang Hexue felt a slight headache coming on from what she saw, and she leaned into his arms.
Shen Qingchen said "OK", leaned over to extinguish the Snow Spring Letter in the incense tube, and replaced it with calming incense for her.
"I don't want this one," Jiang Hexue said wearily, stopping him. "Before I left Beijing, I combined a new one using Bei Xuan's ancient formula. It's more effective than usual. I want that one."
Shen Qingchen knew what she was talking about, and patiently replied "Okay", and changed the favorite light for her: "Go to sleep."
"I want to rest my head on your legs." Jiang Hexue leaned into his arms several times, but felt unsatisfied, so she spoke softly.
Shen Qingchen was speechless, but he didn't loosen his grip on her.
"Husband." Jiang Hexue was well aware of his silent attitude and acted coquettishly. "Husband is the best."
She hooked her little finger around him and shook it, and Shen Qingchen pressed half of her shoulder and let her rest her head on his legs.
But Jiang Hexue adjusted her posture, but still felt her neck was not comfortable, so she asked again, "Husband, can you fold your legs?"
Shen Qingchen's manners are always proper and she never sits like this.
Jiang Hexue held his hand and kissed it again and again, and he did as he was told. He crossed his legs, supported her pillow again, and took out the hairpin that was in the way of her bun.
The girl, feeling comfortable, hugged his waist, rubbed against him and found a suitable position, then buried her face in his waist and abdomen. She was so sleepy that she couldn't tell whether she had just woken up from a nap, and said "I love you" to him in a soft voice.
Breathing becomes even and long.
But Shen Qingchen didn't feel so good.
Nuanchun's clothes were not thick. She wrapped her arms around him tightly, with her nose pressed against his waist. Her soft and warm breath fell, but the layer of cloth seemed to have no blocking effect.
That unexpected confession lingered in my ears for a long time.
The black hair without the hairpin flowed down smoothly, covering the back of his bare hands and wrists, making his skin and heart itch.
He shouldn't have touched her at this moment. Being so close, the longing for her after not seeing her in Beijing for so many days was already unbearable. He wanted to lower his head, ask for a kiss, to be intimate with her.
But she was resting, and he had to put one arm around her shoulders and protect the back of her neck to prevent the carriage from shaking and disturbing her.
Shen Qingchen calmed down, took the embroidered picture on the table with his other hand, and tried to divert his attention.
Only when he took it out did he realize that there were many half-finished patterns on it. He frowned slightly, thought of something, and put the embroidery pattern under the incense burner.
After a while, the half-revealed pattern appeared clearly on the picture. He took it back and looked at the new diagram again.
The diamond pattern on the back was indeed the layout of the Zhenbei Marquis Mansion. The new diagram carefully marked the courtyards and added a line of small words: "Evidence."
Draw a small arrow pointing to the string of words "Southeast".
In addition to this, there were two more small patterns, one of which Shen Qingchen recognized as Jiang Hexue's purple tooth black necklace.
The other one seemed to have modified this necklace, leaving only the largest purple tooth untouched. The gold wire with the twined branches and carved white flowers was folded into another complex pattern, but the meaning was unclear.
There was only one sentence in ancient northern mysterious language attached, which he could not understand.
Shen Qingchen repeatedly checked the newly emerged pattern several times, but didn't see anything else. Suddenly, he thought -
No wonder Jiang Hexue and Jiang Heye are so smart despite having such a stupid and dull father like Jiang Tao. It turns out that it is all due to the efforts of Madam Hou alone.
He put down the embroidery and looked at Jiang Hexue again.
She slept soundly in his arms, her eyes, which were usually charming but cunning, were now closed, her thick eyelashes slightly curled up, and golden spots of light from the warm sun fell on them.
As he watched, Shen Qingchen couldn't help but raise the corners of his lips a little, opened his lips, and called out "baby" very softly.
Then he hugged her a little tighter, relaxed his straight back, leaned against the car wall, and took a nap with her in the faint fragrance.
It was as leisurely and comfortable as if they were traveling to Jiangzhou together.
-
The flood situation in Liangzhou is more serious than expected, and therefore even more bizarre.
Because spring is not a season of frequent heavy rains, and Liangzhou is not in the southwest where it rains all day long, there are very few tributaries of the Liang River, and the vegetation on both sides is lush, so such a flood should not have occurred.
But the flood has already occurred, and the top priority must be disaster relief.
Shen Qingchen was worried about the dangers and unexpected events of the on-site investigation, so she would not allow Jiang Hexue to go no matter what. Therefore, after the group stayed at the posthouse, she mainly discussed resource allocation with the prefect.
Coincidentally, Tian Yu, the governor of Liangzhou, was Fu Xian's husband. After several conversations, Jiang Hexue felt that he was a loyal and honest person and was well organized in his work.
"Natural disasters are frequent in Liangzhou, and no matter how hard I try to address them, they are unavoidable. I sincerely hope that this time we can get through this peacefully and that the people can feel at peace." Tian Yu knew that she and Fu Xian were old friends, so she added a few words. "My wife has mentioned this to the princess many times before. Once the situation has calmed down, I hope the princess will grant me the honor of a small gathering."
"Okay," Jiang Hexue replied with a cheerful smile. "I heard your daughter will be turning one at the end of the year, so it's time to prepare a gift..."
"One year old? Who did your princess hear that from?" Tian Yu asked in confusion. "My daughter turned three last month, and my wife's younger brother's youngest daughter turned one at the end of last year."
Wife's younger brother and young daughter? Has Fu Wang gotten married?
Jiang Hexue asked the question in a daze, and received a positive answer from Tian Yu, who sighed, "My brother-in-law has a miserable life. His wife died young, and the son and daughter they left behind were raised entirely by my brother-in-law."
Jiang Hexue responded indifferently. She didn't care about Fu Wang, but when she thought about how he was already married and still wanted to cause trouble to make Shen Qingchen misunderstand that she had an affair with him, causing them to miss each other for so long, she felt a chill.
After the chill, the longing comes surging.
She and Shen Qingchen hardly saw each other during the day now, as they were both busy with their own things. Only at night when she was half asleep and half awake, she felt the bed sink slightly, and then she knew that he had rushed back to accompany her.
But when she woke up the next day, the quilt was empty, and the warm temperature lingered. It was the hot water bottle he had thoughtfully put in there for her before he left, not his body temperature.
After saying goodbye to Tian Yu in a hurry, Jiang Hexue went to the Lianghe Riverbank regardless of Xue Lan's dissuasion, and couldn't wait to see Shen Qingchen.
Most of the river embankment had been rebuilt and reinforced. When she arrived, the laborers were taking a short rest, but they all looked sad. The embankment leader walked up to her and greeted her with a forced smile.
"What happened?" Jiang Hexue was shocked by their appearance. "Has the disaster worsened? An epidemic?"
The dike captain shook his head and said, "Don't worry, Princess. The dike will be reinforced in about two days. Your Highness has calculated that the next few days will be sunny. There is no need to worry."
"What are you worried about? ...Where is His Highness?" Jiang Hexue looked around and didn't see Shen Qingchen, so he asked.
The dikemaster hesitated to speak.
"Speak!" Jiang Hexue frowned, but everyone fell silent.
"Your Highness...is that the brother who is as beautiful as the god in the painting?" A crisp child's voice was heard in the eerie silence.
"He's gone."
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