Honesty
The teacup was thrown back to the end of the table.
Looking sideways at Ren Beixi, Gui Yao's slender back was outlined by clothes being gently blown by the bamboo curtain. With her other hand, she pinched the note and burned it to ashes in the candlelight.
She raised her head and looked into the room, her bright eyes falling on the scroll hanging beside the bed.
Suddenly spoke.
"What kind of person is the current queen?"
Ren Beixi said: "Be cautious and prudent, be quiet and don't argue."
Such a straightforward description made Gui Yao think of the Phoenix Drink written by Ren Zhong, and her eyes turned slightly warm.
"Isn't it not unacceptable?"
But if you think about it carefully, now that the truth is clear, the cause of death of the Ren family's brother has nothing to do with the ban on Phoenix Drink, so the emperor is not unkind.
Thinking of this, as she was about to embark on the journey to the capital, Gui Yao became more and more curious about the emperor and the empress.
She didn't want to ask more questions, so she tied up her bag with one hand, picked up the pastry on the plate and took a bite.
——But suddenly forgot.
Now I can hear Ren Beixi's voice.
It's not groundless talk.
Gui Yao stared at Ren Beixi with a half-comprehensible look, and when she saw him turn his back and take away her teacup with a calm movement, she had no choice but to suppress any further questions in her heart.
She thought of the letter from her aunt. She lowered her eyes and stared at a white hair on her palm, which was left by Susu.
Your Majesty is in danger in the capital.
true.
But why did her aunt ask her to come to Beijing and meet her without Ren Beixi's knowledge?
The location is still in the palace where the queen lives.
“Knock knock.”
"Come in." Ren Beixi lowered his eyes and turned off all the lights in the room, leaving only the red candle in front of Gui Yao still wrapped in smoke.
The secret guard, dressed in ordinary civilian clothes, said respectfully, "General, Lu Fuyin has returned, and the subordinates patrolling the Wuhua Mansion have also reported in. We are just waiting for nightfall."
Ren Beixi nodded slightly and closed the door with one hand.
Seeing Guiyao standing quietly in the yard.
When he turned around, he followed her gaze and looked outside the wall, all the way to the distant mountains.
He asked her what was wrong.
"Tell me, why did the emperor paint the queen's portrait when he was on a secret visit?" Gui Yao blinked.
She turned her head and raised her chin slightly. Ren Beixi's big hand suddenly touched her head and rubbed it. She frowned and tried to hide away.
Ren Beixi held his breath.
"Maybe it's something you just can't get."
Hmm, this is considered as unfounded talk, right?
Ren Beixi naturally understood Gui Yao's obvious curiosity. After a pause, he said, "As brothers, I will speak truthfully."
Gui Yao became even more curious. She pulled Ren Beixi's left arm, stood on tiptoe, rested her chin on his broad shoulder, and shook her bound knuckles.
I no longer looked at the dusk slowly setting in the distance, I just wanted to look at his dark eyes.
"General Xiao Ren dares to call the emperor his brother."
You've grasped the key point.
Ren Beixi seemed to have been prepared for this, and he said softly, "The Queen is the daughter of my mother's family, so I can be considered the Emperor's elder brother."
Gui Yao knew that he had already noticed her desire to explore!
She had no intention of asking too many questions, but now that she had been tricked by him, she couldn't help but bite the skin exposed outside his black clothes. She nibbled on his neck for a long time but was still not satisfied.
I was half-heartedly led to the bed by him.
When she realized this, she was still under the pressure of her knees, causing the man to groan. She supported herself with her hands beside his ears, and the big hands that were firmly holding her slender waist were holding her tightly, making her feel hot.
Gui Yao's breathing also stopped.
The scorching clouds in the sky seemed to fall on her cheeks, more beautiful than the pink mist lingering in the clouds.
Guiyao felt even more ashamed when she cried.
Her breath was still caught in her sobs, and she only whimpered softly: "No, the guards are gone... If the people from Wuhua Mansion come in, well..."
"No." Ren Beixi gently tucked the hair on Guiyao's temples behind her ears.
"There is a key here, no one else can get in."
Gui Yao was stunned for a moment with her eyes tightly closed. After a while, she could no longer bear it and bit Ren Beixi's chest, clenching her fists and hitting his strong shoulders in vain.
"...Ren Beixi, this house is yours."
"Um."
She didn't know how many times she had called Ren Beixi a liar, a bad man, until she was finally coaxed into calling him "husband" many times, "terrible." Her voice was naturally low, as the furnishings of the ghost market streets and alleys were reproduced on the other side of the wall, and the sound of the fire breathing naturally drowned out their few gasps.
The carriage and horses may have been waiting outside the inn they originally planned to stay at for a long time.
Gui Yao lay in the bathtub for a while. After taking a shower and changing clothes, she didn't want to look at Ren Beixi anymore.
Angry! Sulking!
I was just angry because I didn't want to cheat by reading his mind during normal communication. Not to mention listening to his silent love words in his heart when he was weird, which was different from the soft words he whispered when he was forbearing.
Fortunately, in the past few days, she has almost been able to control whether to accept the mind reading or not, otherwise...
Don't want to think about it anymore.
When I looked up, I saw Ren Beixi jumping down from the roof. The painting was hung on the birdcage.
"Back then, I only stayed in the courtyard for a short time, and that's how I monitored Ren Shui." He saw Gui Yao sitting on the banana leaf in front of the courtyard with her legs hugged. He tidied up the messed-up pillows on the bed and gave it to her to hug.
"What is your identity?" Gui Yao asked.
"Put on a mask, try to cover up your mistakes. Others dare not recognize you, and those who know the truth dare not speak out." Ren Beixi stood with his hands behind his back, gazing at the scroll swaying slightly on the hook from afar, his dark eyes filled with a mystery. "I'm sorry, I kept it a secret from you."
He looked at Guiyao, but Guiyao was staring intently at her reflection on the white wall.
She felt his gaze and slowly turned her head to look at him.
"Then why are you staying in Wuhua City this time?"
"Yaoyao, I didn't lie to you."
Gui Yao did not forget what he said at the beginning. One was for food, and the other was for Lu Qingshan. But now three days have passed, and he accompanied her to do everything he had done in the past and explore the clues, but in the end, neither of the two things was completed.
Is that so? Gui Yao looked at Ren Beixi's back, and somehow, she couldn't seem to attribute her anger to resentment.
It's deception and distrust.
She was not a seventeen-year-old girl, she was... not Gui Yao.
Who is deceiving whom, and who is distrusting whom?
The picture on the white wall in front of me began to change slightly, and I could see that people were passing by the exhibition door frequently.
Gui Yao stared at the list on the table that she had copied from her memory, feeling a little helpless. Ren Beixi had sat down next to her at some point, holding the list in his hand, and told her who the people on the list were, focusing on those in the capital.
"The court is now divided into the new and old factions."
"The Prince's faction had already disappeared when the new emperor ascended the throne. The old faction consisted of loyal ministers favored by the previous emperor, and some of them still had prejudices against the new emperor."
"But because of his high position, he cannot be eradicated." Ren Beixi lightly brushed a name with his fingertips and said lightly, "This person is the pseudonym of the current prime minister's guest official."
The new faction were the ministers who had fought with the new emperor for the throne. Ren Beixi's explanation here was too roundabout, so Gui Yao directly labeled them in her mind.
She hugged her soft pillow and asked the question she wanted to ask: "Who is the position of the Gui family?"
Ren Beixi handed the porcelain cup, which he had warmed in his palm, to Guiyao. Seeing that she didn't move, he handed it half an inch forward.
Looking at her drinking water in small sips, Fang said softly.
"The Gui family is no longer in the game and can no longer be called a pawn."
Gui Yao hummed softly, then continued, "In the past two years, after the new emperor ascended the throne, the Gui family was willing to return to the capital to set up a clinic, which was already considered obedience."
She pushed the cup with her fingertips, buried her face in the pillow, and said muffledly: "What about Jiuchong, I mean the Imperial Master, what is his position?"
Maybe it was the night wind that made me feel dizzy and heavy.
When she raised her eyes, she saw the silent dark eyes of the man beside her. She thought he would not continue talking, and she had tacitly agreed that they should each take a step back because of the secret.
But he just held her hand.
He told her a story that went against the common sayings and was completely opposite to what she knew.
The bells of Yunchuan Temple often ring.
On his way to burn incense, the late Emperor Gao Zhi bumped into a young man who was ringing a temple bell. Perhaps it was because the young man had a head full of white hair that Gao Zhi took a second look at him.
But the young man did not kneel to him, but whispered.
"The imperial concubine's heir may endanger the great cause."
A slap made the thin man kneel on the ground, his body trembling.
The only person Gao Zhi loved in his life was his cousin, Concubine Gao. It was Concubine Gao who held him back that day and said with a smile that she was pregnant with the prince and that no blood should be seen.
No one took this man's crazy words to heart.
Until that night, what could be heard from the palace was not only the piercing screams of Concubine Gao's difficult labor, but also tens of thousands of palace servants kneeling on the ground with their heads held high, and the young emperor with blood on his hands, staggering and almost dropping the swaddled Seventh Prince to the ground.
Gui Yao lowered her eyes and looked at the swaying picture on the white wall in front of her in Ren Beixi's arms. In her ears, she could hear the sadness that she could not bear to hear any longer.
"The Phoenix that drinks..."
Her mouth was suddenly pressed by the fingertips, and under her long eyelashes were Ren Beixi's silent black eyes.
I see.
I am a killing sword, so you don’t eat flowers.
"Then...what about you?" Gui Yao was slightly stunned and held Ren Beixi's knees, then looked up hesitantly.
The throne never belongs to just one person, and the same goes for the queen.
Being loyal to the emperor but not being able to fulfill his wish, being a minister who does not kneel to the emperor is like being imprisoned as a close minister.
He was granted grace in the morning and sentenced to death in the evening.
A calm man like Ren Beixi was willing to show her his closeness to the emperor in an unrestrained manner, but she was well aware of the ruthlessness of emperors throughout history in later life.
Ren Beixi wiped a tear from the corner of Gui Yao's eye with his fingertips and said softly, "Don't be afraid."
"When we get to the capital, we will go together to see His Majesty."
He opened his arms, and Gui Yao dropped the pillow and lay in his arms, her breathing gradually becoming steady.
Gui Yao asked him softly, "A minister should serve his lord with loyalty, and a son should serve his parents with filial piety, right? If it wasn't me who married you, would you still follow this principle?"
Ren Beixi was stunned for a moment, then laughed out loud after a while.
Gui Yao raised her head in confusion, not knowing why he was suddenly so happy.
He touched Guiyao's head and kissed the tip of her nose.
"You are not the king I wish to serve, nor the relative I wish to serve? Then the first time I saw Yaoyao, I took your hand and rode on the horse."
"Get on the horse?" Gui Yao was stunned.
"If you are willing, I will take you away from this place where you are bound by your in-laws and go find your home."
Ren Beixi's voice was deep.
After he finished speaking, he just lowered his eyes and looked at Guiyao in his arms, blinking her eyes and pretending to be calm with a faint blush on her face.
Guiyao lay in his arms motionless.
"When are we leaving?"
"We can reach the city gate of the capital in half an hour." Ren Beixi touched her eyelashes that were like small fans.
Someone grabbed his wrist and threw him away.
Gui Yao was about to speak when she looked up and saw a new picture on the white wall in front of her. She pursed her lips and motioned Ren Beixi to look.
The man next to her naturally followed her gaze and saw Lu Qingshan walking into the door by feeling the wall in the light and shadow.
And behind him.
Followed by a tall figure.
Ren Beixi whispered two words to Gui Yao, gently put her back on the bed, stood up with his sword in hand, stepped over the white wall and flew onto the eaves. His footsteps were light and made no sound at all. The firelight on the street was still the best protective color.
Gui Yao stared at the scene in front of her.
The two men walked into the secret door of the secret room one after the other. When the door closed, the bony face of the tall man behind them could be vaguely seen.
It's not the face of a Central Plains person.
Gui Yao was slightly startled. She put down the pillow from the bed, stood up, and trotted to the yard. She saw Ren Beixi coming back from afar.
"Walk!"
The man protected her, picked up her bag with his left hand, and flew out of the courtyard wall together.
The originally orderly scene below suddenly erupted into the sound of fighting. Gui Yao glanced sideways and saw someone from the neighborhood drawing a knife and sneaking into the ghost market.
Seeing this, Ren Beixi blew the whistle.
She wanted to turn back, but the man grabbed the back of her neck.
The sounds of fighting continued behind her, and she spoke calmly, "If we leave like this, will they be in danger?"
"If you can't beat ordinary people, there's no need to call the Ren family army." Ren Beixi held her arm and fell back to the ground.
In front of the inn, Pinyue pulled out the carriage and talked to Xiaohui in a low voice about the finishing work.
Xiao Hui nodded.
The reins of the carriage were pulled, and Guiyao jumped into the carriage. When the wheels shook, she used her soft pillow to support her waist.
"Congratulations, host, the completion of the branch quest Xiangshu Youyi has reached 100%."
The system voice spoke softly.
"The mouse has a skin, but the man has no manners; if the man has no manners, what is the point of not dying?"
"It's harder to read people's minds than it is to read animals, so please be careful."
At this point, the battle of Wuhua City came to an end.
Many things happened in this city, and Guiyao also obtained a lot of information and clues.
The passing yellow sand covered the few flower trees in front of the Wuhua City Gate from afar. When the people heard the sound of galloping horses, they simply closed their doors and dared not walk around at night.
Perhaps both she and Ren Beixi have unfinished business regarding Wuhua City.
But at this moment, I really have to leave.
"Rest if you're tired, don't worry."
Ren Beixi's voice was silent.
Gui Yao nodded. She was indeed tired. When she was about to fall asleep, she vaguely heard the voice of the system in her mind.
"Congratulations, host. The main mission to Beijing has been completed."
"The main quest will be updated soon. Please check it after you wake up."
Gui Yao opened her eyes slightly, held up the carriage curtain with one hand and looked out. Rows of torches were burning on the city gate, illuminating the night sky. Her almond-shaped eyes were slightly startled.
The world has become as thin as gauze in recent years. Who made the horse rider come to Beijing?
We have arrived in the capital.
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