Bao Ning and Pei Yuan both showed disbelief.
They looked at each other, Bao Ning asked: "Are you sure that the person who came to your house was General Wei, not another man with the surname Wei in your house? I remember that there was also a man with the surname Wei among the flower farmers in the backyard..." Although the old man Wei was already over 60 years old, Bao Ning still felt that the possibility that the old man Wei was pregnant was greater than that of Wei Meng.
Chen Jia said: "It is absolutely true, it is General Wei! That girl Min Min is holding a rope in her hand and is trying to commit suicide!"
Pei Yuan stood up and dressed Bao Ning: "Don't eat yet, I will have someone send it to your house later, and we will go back to take a look."
Bao Ning agreed.
Chen Jia got the definite answer and hurried out to report the news.
Ah Chou was still sitting on the ground. She was not pretty, and she was dressed shabbily. At first glance, she looked like a beggar. Chen Jia had long forgotten that he had just knocked someone down, and he was about to run away from Achou. Achou's eyes were secretly staring at his legs, and when Chen Jia finished moving his left leg and was about to move his right leg, he stretched out his leg and tripped Chen Jia and sent him flying.
Chen Jia let out a cry and then fell heavily beside the doorstep.
The sound of a strong middle-aged man who practiced martial arts for many years falling to the ground was very loud. The shopkeeper ran out anxiously to see, thinking that there was an earthquake.
Baoning opened his mouth in shock.
"You tied me up." Chen Jia stood up dizzy and turned around, slowly tilting her head to look at Achou, "Are you sick?"
Achou sobbed a few times, raised his head and said, "Sir, my legs are inconvenient, and I accidentally blocked your way when I stood up just now. Please forgive me for my weakness and poverty."
Her actions just now were not all for revenge, she just lacked a way to prove Pei Yuan's trustworthiness in a short time. She
is now an unarmed beggar. If Pei Yuan wants to make things difficult for her, it is too easy. He doesn't even need to say anything. As long as he doesn't care, the black boy in front of him has enough means to make her uncomfortable, even if it's just a kick.
On the contrary, if he is willing to speak up for her, she will be safe. This was enough to prove that Pei Yuan was not a cold-hearted person, so she could take a risk and ask him for help.
Of course, revenge was a two-birds-at-one-stone thing.
"Stop talking nonsense here." Chen Jia said angrily, "I saw it clearly just now, you deliberately stretched out your leg to entangle me, you dare to take responsibility for what you did, why are you pretending to be a cripple!"
Achou pretended to cry and said, "I am just a beggar, I have no food to eat, how dare I deliberately offend you, sir."
Chen Jia shouted, "Don't act pitiful with me! I clearly saw that you deliberately entangled me..."
"Forget it." Baoning was already dressed neatly, Pei Yuan frowned and looked at Chen Jia, "Why are you talking nonsense with a little girl? It's okay to fall down, what's the matter with losing a piece of meat? You are so stupid. No wonder no one likes you even though you are over 20 years old." Hearing
this, Achou's eyelids moved.
Chen Jia shut up embarrassedly, followed Pei Yuan, and went out silently.
Bao Ning walked to the door, suddenly stopped, looked at Pei Yuan and said: "I think we should ask the county magistrate to send this girl home, check on her family's situation, and leave some money. Feng County is now under your jurisdiction. Under good circumstances, the people should be prosperous and no one would pick up things on the road. Now there are still beggars on the roadside who have no food to eat. It's your fault."
Pei Yuan thought for a while and said: In an instant, he nodded and said, "I didn't think it through."
He ordered Chen Jia, "You stay here first, take the girl to the yamen, and do as the princess says."
Chen Jia agreed reluctantly. He watched Baoning and Pei Yuan walk away, turned around and raised his chin to Achou, "Let's go."
Achou moved his gaze back from Baoning, patted the dirt off his butt, pursed his lips and jumped up.
Chen Jia squinted at her: "Did you really pretend to be crippled then?"
Achou snorted, ignored him, brushed past Chen Jia's shoulder like a gust of wind and ran away, leaving Chen Jia alone at the door, angrily cursing: "Ugly girl, you are bad and a bitch, just wait, you will never get married in your life, whoever wants to marry you will be a pig with his head submerged in a dung pit!"
...
When Baoning and Pei Yuan returned to the gate of the mansion, many people had already gathered there. When the guards saw them coming back, they quickly pushed aside the crowd to make way.
Wei Meng sat on the stone steps with a pale face. Miss Minmin was still crying, "You are the most heartless man. I was still in love with you a month ago, but you turned your face and ignored me! You even said I was wrong, but you have never seen me. If it is really as you said, whose child is this in my belly? His father doesn't want to acknowledge him. What's the point of me living? People will poke at me and laugh at me... Let's just hang ourselves here together!" As
she was saying this, she was about to hang the rope on the beam again. The people around her booed and tried to dissuade her.
Wei Meng said sadly: "Miss, I really don't recognize you. I went to Lige Tower a month ago just to relax and drink a glass of wine. I slept late and went back the next day. I really haven't seen you!"
Minmin cried, "I don't want to live anymore..."
The onlookers shouted "Ah!" again, and continued to persuade him, pointing fingers and blaming Wei Meng.
Baoning looked at the girl Minmin, who was very pretty, about eighteen or nineteen years old, and looked like the type Wei Meng liked. Wei Meng must have had some feelings for her, mostly because of her appearance. She was beautiful and kept saying that she wanted to marry him, so he couldn't bear to let her go. Otherwise, with his temper, how could he tolerate a woman who was so dissolute and embarrassed him. He would have asked someone to beat her out long ago.
She nudged Pei Yuan's arm, and Pei Yuan understood, cleared his throat and said, "In that case, let's go into the mansion first and talk about it."
Wei Meng saw him coming and hurriedly stood up. After hearing this, he cried out again: "Young General, I really have never seen this Minmin..."
"I've never seen her before, let's talk about it after we go in. Maybe you are drunk and forgot about her. A girl's reputation is important and cannot be tarnished. We must give Miss Minmin justice." Pei Yuan signaled the guards to open the door and went in with Bao Ning. Bao Ning smiled and invited Minmin to come in as well.
Passing by the unwilling Wei Meng, Pei Yuan paused and whispered, "Are you afraid that your bad reputation will spread throughout Feng County, so why are you still standing here? Otherwise, hurry in!"
...
Candles were lit in the flower hall. Bao Ning and Pei Yuan sat at the top seats. Wei Meng stood aside with an expressionless face. Min Min stood on the ground crying.
Bao Ning said gently, "Tell me what happened that night again."
Minmin wiped her tears and said it again: "... I toasted General Wei, he got drunk, so I helped him to the room. He fell asleep, I undressed him and washed his body. Minmin is thin, born in a land of fireworks, one day it will be difficult to save, my lifelong wish is to dedicate myself to the man of my dreams... General Wei's reputation spread far and wide, Minmin has been secretly in love with him for a long time, facing this scene, I can't help but... …General Wei did not despise Minmin for her low status, and they had a night of love. The next morning, Minmin woke up. After all, she was a girl, so she was really ashamed. She just wanted to hide this past event in her heart and savor it, so she sneaked away. But who would have thought that she was pregnant, and she had the audacity to come to my house... The madam of Lige Tower knew about these things, and my sisters also knew about them. Your Majesty can send someone to inquire about them!"
Wei Meng's eyes changed.
He found that Minmin changed her words a lot. At the beginning, she did not mention the toast, nor did she say that she was infatuated. Now, it seems that she continued to make up stories to make up for her words. But she said it so confidently.
His doubts became even greater.
Pei Yuan looked at Wei Meng: "Is what this girl said true?"
Wei Meng was silent for a while, then said: "Maybe I was really drunk and forgot. Tomorrow I will go to Lige Tower to ask in person. If it is true, I will marry you. You can stay in my courtyard tonight."
Minmin showed a look of surprise, and bowed and said: "Minmin thanks the prince and princess, and thanks to General Wei."
Baoning called her to get up, and asked Liu Ma to arrange for someone to clean up the house for her, and also asked the kitchen to prepare a new dinner.
Wei Meng winked at Pei Yuan, and they went to the study together, leaving someone to watch from a distance.
Pei Yuan sat in the armchair, propped his chin on his hand, and asked lazily: "What do you want to say? Why make such a big fuss?"
Wei Meng said: "I have doubts about Minmin."
After that, he shook his head in frustration, "Maybe I am too suspicious, but I always feel that someone is manipulating me behind the scenes and has set up a trap in a month to lure me into the trap."
"Old Wei, you are too unconfident." Pei Yuan stood up, patted him on the shoulder, and advised, "It's my fault. I hit you too hard in the past. Now I take back what I said before. You are a good person. Although you are a little older, you have a successful career and you look good. There will be women who secretly like you. You shouldn't be so sensitive. When someone confesses their feelings to you, you think they are trying to frame you..."
"I think so because I received this letter." Wei Meng interrupted Pei Yuan, took out a bamboo tube from his sleeve and handed it to him, "This is the third time I have received an invitation from Nazhu this month. The first two times, he sent his personal guards to find me secretly, but I refused. This time, he wrote a letter in person."
Hearing the name Nazhu, Pei Yuan raised his head suddenly and his face turned serious.
Nazhu Chanyu is the current ruler of the Xiongnu royal court. He ascended the throne at the age of sixteen and has been in power for more than forty years. He has always had the ambition to swallow up the Central Plains and annex the world. However, the Xiongnu nomadic land was poor and the military force was not strong at the beginning. Nazhu Chanyu was forced to marry the Zhou Dynasty and asked to marry a Zhou princess, pretending to submit for decades. Later, the Xiongnu migrated to the fertile Hetao region, and their national strength gradually grew. Nazhu's ambition was also exposed, and the two sides turned against each other, and a war broke out.
The war ended with the defeat of the Zhou Kingdom, the slaughter of more than 200,000 soldiers, and the suicide of a Zhou princess.
But at that time, Nazhu's power was not enough to annex the entire Central Plains. The two sides reconciled and rested. During this period, there were constant large and small battles, but no battle resulted in a result that was enough to shake the current situation of confrontation.
The current ambitions of both sides have been accumulated for decades, like a bloated fish bladder. Now it seems calm, but no one knows when it will explode.
Wei Meng said: "Nazhu wanted to seduce me. But he knew that I was loyal to you. It was just verbal promises, or the power of gold and silver, and it would be difficult to shake my mind. If I were Nazhu, I would definitely plan another chess game. The primary purpose is to alienate our hearts."
Pei Yuan asked: "Do you suspect Minmin is a chess piece sent by Nazhu?"
Wei Meng pursed his lips: "I don't know."
He was really tempted by Minmin. If Minmin had nothing to do with Nazhu's plan, Wei Meng thought, he would be very happy.
"At the Mid-Autumn Festival banquet, when you took out Rouge Eyes, I asked you where you got the Xiongnu royal court's exclusive banned drug, but you didn't answer me." Pei Yuan looked into his eyes and said slowly, "Can you tell me now?"
"I accepted Nazhu's invitation." Wei Meng said, "Tonight at midnight, in the Masson pine forest thirty miles outside the city, you can go with me."