Three days later, just as dawn was breaking, there was a knock on the courtyard gate. The urgent knocking made the guards in the courtyard tense. Someone was coming so early?
They didn't dare to make a decision on their own, so they directly summoned Erlu, who walked to the door and opened it.
Outside the gate stood one of the Imperial Guard captains, holding a box in his hands and looking at Erlu with a nervous expression.
"Zata, what brings you here?" Erlu quickly ushered him in. Zata was one of the most skilled martial artists in the Imperial Guard.
"Eru, let me see Prince Zhi and Fourth Prince immediately!" Emperor Kangxi's imperial edict arrived, ordering him to come overnight and prepare to put Yin and Yin in full charge.
Erlu sent a guard to invite Yin, who strode into the main hall and stood outside the door of the inner chamber.
"Fourth Prince, His Majesty's memorial has arrived, and he requests your presence in the study!" Upon hearing the voice outside the door, Yin quickly got up. He glanced at the sleeping Qingyan, covered her with a blanket, and then put on his coat and left.
His figure disappeared behind the door. Qingyan opened her eyes. She heard the sounds outside the door and became alert.
She rarely gets to sleep soundly when she's away from him.
She entered the space and headed towards the study. Yin was already seated. After Yin went over, Zata opened the sandalwood box, inside which was a bright yellow document. Yin and his brother knelt down and kowtowed to the document before Zata handed it to the two masters.
Yin opened the memorial, which contained Emperor Kangxi's handwritten comments. As he had expected, Kangxi had entrusted Yin with handling the matter of the scholar.
"Zata, are you coming with us, or going back immediately?" They didn't have many people with them, which annoyed Yin greatly. If things weren't handled properly, there might be problems.
"Fourth Master, this servant must return immediately. If danger arises near His Majesty, Tulichen will be unable to control the situation." Zata had no choice but to return overnight. He had not slept for several days, and his tiger-like eyes were bloodshot.
"Father Emperor instructed that you rest for one night and set off again the next day!" Yin glanced at it and saw at the end that it said, "After a day of rest, you can return."
"." Zata also felt extremely exhausted, but in order to avoid delaying things, he decided to rush back temporarily.
"Eru, go and arrange a room for Zata," Yin instructed.
After Erlu and Zata left, Yin sat down in the study, rubbed his cheeks, and tried to shake off his drowsiness.
"Fourth brother, the number of scholars who have committed suicide by hanging has been rising steadily, reaching 20 today. However, all of this is related to what happened at the examination hall that time." Yin was also busy helping with the investigation.
Yin smiled wryly. "Of course," he said. "Right now, officials in the south and the capital are trying to confuse the public and make it more difficult for the two of them to investigate."
"Yes, brother, we need the cooperation of sister-in-law and Qingyan!" Yin said.
"Want to go and see the local area?" It's a fishing village by the sea; it's not impossible for them to go see the sea.
Yin nodded, for seeing is believing.
The guards conducted a secret investigation, but there might be loopholes. Only if they went themselves could he draw a conclusion.
Yin felt the same way; they had been targeted by those people, and the government officials were suppressing the news and constantly trying to confuse the public.
"Setting off early this morning?" Yin looked at his arms. It was just past 3 a.m. After breakfast, everyone would set off together. They should arrive at their departure point by the afternoon.
“Okay!” Yin agreed. “We don’t need to pack too much stuff here. Let’s just say we’re going out for a few days and then we’ll come right back.”
Outside the inn, a considerable number of men were already lying in ambush. These men were specifically there to keep an eye on the two families' movements. If their procession became too large, they would become alert.
After the two brothers had discussed it, Yincai got up to take his leave.
Yin returned to the inner chamber and found that Qingyan had already woken up, her big, watery eyes staring at him.
"Little darling, sleep a little longer. We're going to the village by the sea today!" Yin pinched his little nose, reminding him that he absolutely couldn't be passive anymore.
"So rushed?" Yin didn't say that if they walked slowly, the people wouldn't notice them.
Yin leaned close to her ear and relayed some of the words from Kangxi's memorial. The scholar's suicide had caused quite a stir in the Hanlin Academy, and even more so, memorials from the censors were being sent to Kangxi in a steady stream.
"Sigh..." Qingyan sneered. The officials in the south spent lavishly. Seeing the ministers before them make a fortune and leave, the successors naturally followed suit.
Yin closed his eyes, conserving his energy for another fierce battle tomorrow.
At dawn, the servants busied themselves preparing for the trip. Su Lan and Su Zhu prepared a great deal of food, as they did not plan to stop for meals during the day's journey. Therefore, the small kitchen prepared a full day's worth of meals.
Yin listened to the sounds outside, looked down at the little one in his arms, her pink sleeping face particularly attractive to him.
"Little darling, get up quickly, we're getting ready to go!" Yin shook Qingyan, and she groggily opened her eyes.
"Fourth Sister, when are we leaving?" Qingyan asked, her little face puffed out and her eyes hazy. "Do we need breakfast?"
Seeing that she was about to close her eyes again in a daze, Yin pinched her little nose, and she breathed heavily through her mouth.
Waaaaah!
Her watery eyes slowly filled with mist. He saw that she was awake, licked her pink lips, and got off her.
"Fourth Sister, you're doing this again!" Whenever Qingyan was about to stay in bed, Yin would always use this trick to wake her up.
"Hurry up, the children can go to the carriage. You don't want Songkriyirha to laugh at you, do you?" Yin said in a low voice.
Qingyan slowly got up and leaned weakly against Yin, preparing for him to help her get dressed.
He took the coats he had worn that day and helped her put them on one by one. Today, he had specially prepared a white, half-collared, narrow-sleeved undergarment, over which was a light blue, wide-sleeved blouse made of mulberry silk, a light blue long skirt, and a pair of blue multi-layered soles.
He prepared a blue robe for himself, which was the kind of clothing that wealthy Manchu families would prepare.
"Sisi, shall we use a simple gold hairpin?" The two children were too young to change their way of addressing each other. To avoid being discovered by outsiders, they decided to disguise themselves as the clothes of a wealthy Manchu family.
Yin personally styled Qingyan's hair into a small double bun. When he was young, Yin also helped Consort Tong style her hair. Of course, that was a little secret between the mother and son.
After the Qingyan coming-of-age ceremony, whenever Yin had time, he would go back to style her hair, which became a little romantic gesture between the couple.
Yin personally adorned her with a cloisonné butterfly hairpin, and at her temple, he pinned a small phoenix hairpin. The phoenix has three tail feathers, and this was a phoenix hairpin that ordinary people could use. In the little phoenix's beak was a pink pearl, and below it were three rows of small pearl tassels that swayed in the air as she moved.
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