The pages of the booklet were spread out in front of her. Jiang Rao glanced at it and felt as if her fingers were burned by fire. She threw the booklet away.
It's a dowry book.
She had clearly only read it the night before her wedding, but her aunt had unexpectedly sent it to her so early, hiding it at the bottom of a box.
She looked in the box again and saw something else, and suddenly felt something was wrong.
Ming Shao grabbed the booklet, closed it, and held it in front of Jiang Rao. "Miss, this... would you like to take a look? The Imperial Concubine put a lot of effort into it."
After all, she is a few years older than Jiang Rao. Ming Shao seems much calmer. Jiang Rao hides on the beauty couch and buries herself under the pillow. "I don't want to look." Her voice was muffled in the pillow.
Ming Shao didn't hear it, so she asked again, "Take a look?"
Jiang Rao: “…”
She wondered if it was normal for girls who wanted to marry the man they loved to feel calm and at ease when faced with this kind of dowry book before getting married?
She was afraid that Ming Shao would notice her mistake, so she raised her eyes from the pillow, trying to look calm, "Put it here with me first."
There's nothing wrong with accepting it.
She collected the booklet and placed it under her pillow, thinking it was nothing to do with it.
Ming Shao put the booklet under her pillow and said, "The young lady's wedding will be arranged by the Imperial Observatory and the Ministry of Rites. It will be a lively occasion."
Jiang Rao didn't really care whether the wedding was lively or not.
She had other things to worry about, and didn't care about the wedding date or even the scene on the wedding day.
——Her movements with Yijia and the Queen.
After counting the things sent by Concubine Yun, Jiang Rao finally went out.
Even though she couldn't see Rong Ting, she took the carriage and went outside to take a look.
Hu Tang handed her a visiting card yesterday. Although Hu Tang and Madam Hu could not speak well of her father openly, they wrote a family letter and sent it to the military camp in the northwest, asking General Hu to come forward to protect her father.
Although the letter was of no use, Jiang Rao thought that if she did it she would go and meet Hu Tang, or at least thank Mrs. Hu.
The streets were bustling with people, gathering towards the south.
Jiang Rao glanced at that picture through the cross-shaped window pane.
There was a lot of noise and I didn't know what they were talking about.
She stopped the carriage and asked Ming Shao to go down and inquire. When Ming Shao came back, she closed the curtains and said to Jiang Rao, "Last night, a big fire broke out in Lord Shen's house in Shenque. Many people died. Madam Shen and Lord Shen's daughter were both buried in the sea of fire."
Is someone dead?
Jiang Rao felt a little cold when she heard Shen Xiuying's name again.
"When they were carried out, we couldn't even tell who was who. It was so pitiful." Ming Shao was still frightened. "It's dry in winter. When I go back, I have to tell the maids in the courtyard to be careful with the candlelight."
Jiang Rao withdrew her gaze.
She heard that when Chen Que was captured, his wife wanted to divorce him, but Chen Que did not give her a divorce letter in the end.
The relationship between the two was so severed that they were no longer respectful to each other, and now they are separated in this way.
As expected, good and evil have their own destination.
Ming Shao sighed, "Miss, you said that Lord Shen had a good career, why did he want to frame our master?"
"Maybe, he's bewitched by a ghost." Jiang Rao said in a calm voice.
But I don’t think so in my heart.
She just couldn't mention the Queen to Ming Shao.
She once suspected that Shen Que had hired someone to forge calligraphy and paintings, perhaps at the instigation of her uncle.
But Chen Que is a person who curries favor with the powerful. Ever since her uncle was expelled from the mansion, Chen Que has cut off all ties with her uncle. She is not the kind of person who would risk her life for her brothers.
However, she didn't believe that a little Shen Que could almost deceive her father and that it was his ability alone.
Think about the silver snake pattern Liao Qiubai mentioned...
Jiang Rao raised his hand and pressed his sore temple.
Empress Jiahe, Xu Lanruo.
It's either her or the Xu family.
Even if he is not the mastermind behind the incident, he cannot escape responsibility.
If it were really... Damn it.
She had never cursed anyone's death before.
Others don't want her to live well.
Jiang Rao wanted to get close to Queen Jiahe, but after she entered the palace, Shuxiang Palace had always been clearly separated from Jinxiu Palace, and she rarely saw Queen Jiahe.
Apart from palace banquets, there was no chance for them to meet.
She tried to start directly with Empress Jiahe, but she might not be able to do it as well as Rong Ting.
It would be better to start from the Xu family.
But she knew too little about the Xu family.
We have arrived at the Hu Mansion.
Jiang Rao stopped thinking about it, got off the carriage, and was taken to Hu Tang's courtyard by the maid.
The Hu Mansion is not as spacious and grand as the Ning'an Marquis Mansion. It is very simple and plain.
There was even less stuff at Hu Tang's place. The entire courtyard was bare, with only two potted plants huddled in the corner so that Hu Tang wouldn't get in the way while practicing martial arts.
Jiang Rao walked in and was wondering where Hu Tang, who always came out to greet her happily when he heard about her, had gone. At that moment, she heard screams from under the window of the warm room in the west wing.
"Mother, mother, I was wrong. Please torture me in another way. Ah, my scalp hurts."
"It hurts, it hurts, it hurts, I am your daughter who you raised with great difficulty, if I die, I am gone, wuwu mother..."
When Jiang Rao was led into the warm room in the west wing by her maid, Madam Hu was combing Hu Tang's double buns.
Hu Tang looked reluctant.
Madam Hu had a cold face and forcefully combed her hair. "It's unlucky to keep saying the words 'kill' and 'die' every day!"
"This kind of bun..." Hu Tang touched the bun on the back of his head and pursed his lips, "It's so awkward."
She heard the maid bring Jiang Rao in and glanced at her, "Niannian, you're here?"
Jiang Rao was outside listening to Hu Tang's voice and thought she was being punished for some serious mistake. When she came in, she realized it was a false alarm. She smiled and bowed to Mrs. Hu.
Mrs. Hu smiled and returned the greeting, saying, "You have made a fool of yourself again, young lady."
Jiang Rao quickly shook her head.
"The Emperor's arranged marriage has just arrived today, why are you here? Why don't you help your mother to count the betrothal gifts?"
Jiang Rao thought of the booklet she had seen in the morning, and the little figures on the page that she had opened. She hadn't seen them clearly but they had always taken root in her mind and were clearly remembered. She lowered her eyelids, feeling a little shy. Madam Hu smiled, "This is a great happy event. Good children, come here quickly, and let this disobedient child of mine share in the good fortune."
Looking back at Hu Tang, her beautiful eyes became sharp blades again.
Hu Tang curled his lips and hugged Jiang Rao's arm.
After Madam Hu left, Hu Tang glanced behind Jiang Rao, and only felt relieved when he saw her walking away.
She pulled out the hairpin and threw it on the table, and completely untied the double bun that Madam Hu had just tied for her, and tied her hair up casually, not forgetting to talk to Jiang Rao, "The marriage is here, and I'm waiting for you to get married. You will have less time to spend with me. Before you get engaged, you must spend more time with me."
"After you get married, I will have plenty of time to spend with you." Jiang Rao smiled. She didn't tell Hu Tang the reason behind her marriage to Rong Ting, but she thought that even if it was just an ordinary marriage, with his considerate personality, he would not restrict her if she really wanted to do something. "He's easy to talk to."
Hu Tang was about to say something but stopped himself, his eyes quietly looking out the window. The yard was empty. It was deep winter and all the leaves of the trees outside the yard had fallen, with the treetops pointing straight to the sky.
Hu Tang had sharp eyesight and could see the bird's nest built there clearly from a distance.
The tree trunk is bare and there is nothing else.
She turned her gaze back and frowned suspiciously, "Really?"
Jiang Rao nodded affirmatively.
Hu Tang joked, "It didn't work.
Honey, you are protecting me now. ”
"Why don't you protect me when we are about to get married? Not only do I want to protect you, I want to do it with confidence."
She spoke calmly and without any arrogance, and her face did not reveal any domineering attitude, yet she made people feel her full confidence.
Hu Tang laughed, and his eyes kept looking outward from time to time, looking overly suspicious.
Jiang Rao looked at Hu Tang who kept looking outside and asked, "Do you want to go outside?"
"That's not the case." Hu Tang shook his head and frowned, "I just felt like there seemed to be someone outside."
She was suspicious, "Maybe my mother has hired someone to spy on me again."
She walked closer to the window, looked left and right, and finally determined, "There should be no one there."
Jiang Rao held her back, "Tang'er, teach me some Kung Fu moves."
"Why do you suddenly want to learn this?" Hu Tang felt sudden and a little surprised.
Jiang Rao glanced down at her embroidered shoes and said seriously, "Protect yourself."
Although my foot, which was sprained last time in the snow, still hurts occasionally when I move, it no longer affects my walking.
If Rong Ting hadn't reminded her, she wouldn't have realized that the person who bumped into her smelled of lilac.
She wanted the innate sharpness that martial artists possessed.
…
Unfortunately, although Jiang Rao's ankle can still move, it hurts when she moves bigger.
Hu Tang was very strong, and seeing that Jiang Rao's feet were really in pain, he said, "Not today, let's wait until later."
She returned to the house, rummaged through the boxes and cabinets, and finally found a few dusty books. She brushed off the dust and handed them to Jiang Rao, "Let's read today."
Jiang Rao flipped through the book and found it was a set of women's commandments filled with words. Neither the words nor the book itself looked like Hu Tang's.
She flipped through it again and confirmed that the handwriting was not Hu Tang's. She looked at Hu Tang and asked, "Is this your sister's book?"
Hu Tang took it and looked at it for a long time with a frown before he remembered, "This is Xie Xiang's book."
"Xie Xiang?" Jiang Rao didn't recognize this name.
"The only legitimate daughter of Prince Xiang, and the granddaughter of the father-in-law." Hu Tang flipped through two pages, his face suddenly turning red with shame, "At the beginning, I didn't like writing, so I snatched her book away."
"Fortunately, you were not in Jinling at that time." Hu Tang felt extremely regretful when he thought about it, "Otherwise, I might have stolen your book."
Jiang Rao shook her head. "My father never made me learn these things seriously. He only asked me to watch them when he wanted to punish me."
Hu Tang was extremely envious. Jiang Rao flipped through the booklet and asked thoughtfully, "Can you tell me about Xie Xiang?"
Father-in-law
granddaughter.
That is the Xu family.
Maybe I can get something useful from her.
…
The sun sets early in winter and night falls quickly.
Not long after Rong Ting returned home, there was a knock on the study door.
The person who came in after getting permission was a stranger other than Huai Qing and Wu Que.
He was the only secret guard that Rong Ting personally recruited to be by his side. Unlike the ones that Jiang Rao had previously arranged to be by his side, he was fully arranged by himself.
Jiang Rao didn't know of their existence, and Huai Qing Wu Que didn't know either.
The man came to Rong Ting and reported in a low voice, "No suspicious people appeared around the fourth young lady today. She has returned home safely."
Rong Ting asked, "Where did she go today?"
The secret guard replied, "The fourth lady stayed at Miss Hu's place in the general's mansion for the whole afternoon, reading books and learning martial arts. After leaving the mansion, they made an appointment for the next meeting."
The whole afternoon.
Rong Ting repeated the secret guard's words slowly in his mind.
He rubbed his finger bones and repeated it again.
Even though Hu Tang is a woman.
It didn't affect his unhappy mood.
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