When Li Rong heard this, she stood up subconsciously, then remembered that she was under house arrest and couldn't go out at all. She took a deep breath and said to Jinglan, "Send someone to find out the situation and report back to me immediately. Have someone keep an eye on the main hall. Once the news of Qin's pardon spreads from the main hall, immediately have all the people in the Inspection Department clear the road and send messengers to rush to the execution ground."

Jinglan responded and retreated. Li Rong stood there, paused for a moment, turned her head and looked at Su Rongqing who was looking down at the chessboard. She walked back to her seat, sat down and said, "Master Su, the prince consort has returned."

"Um."

Su Rongqing said softly: "I heard it."

"Those words just now..."

"Your Highness, please just pretend that I never said anything." Su Rongqing looked very calm, and Li Rong nodded.

According to Su Rongqing's personality, the only reason he said those words was because Pei Wenxuan was dead.

Pei Wenxuan died, and he wanted to keep her...

But why did he keep her? Why did he keep a princess who had lost her power and had clearly broken off relations with the crown prince?

Li Rong pondered, finding it hard to understand. She looked up at Su Rongqing, worried about Pei Wenxuan's return. Su Rongqing saw that she was absent-minded and said, "Since Lord Pei has returned, it certainly won't be in vain. Your Highness doesn't need to worry too much."

As he spoke, Su Rongqing placed the chess piece on the chessboard and said slowly, "Your Highness, why don't you give me some face and finish this game of chess?"

Li Rong didn't say anything. She just looked at Su Rongqing quietly. Su Rongqing today was very different from usual. She was more like the Su Rongqing in her memory who was a little unrestrained after getting drunk.

There is less order and more abnormality.

Li Rong hesitated for a moment, walked back to the chessboard, raised her hand and said, "Please."

While Li Rong and Su Rongqing were playing chess in the tower, Pei Wenxuan rode his horse and whipped it, galloping all the way into the palace. Then he dismounted and ran towards the main hall, shouting: "Your Majesty, Qin was wronged, spare her life!"

At this moment, the morning court had just begun when Pei Wenxuan's loud shout came from outside the hall. Everyone turned around and saw a young man in a green robe with mud on the corners, holding a roll of paper in his hand, walking quickly from outside the hall.

"Pei Wenxuan?"

Li Ming was shocked when he saw the person coming. The officials present had different expressions. Pei Wenxuan panted and knelt down to salute: "Greetings, Your Majesty. Long live Your Majesty."

"You..." Li Ming said in disbelief. Before he could finish the sentence 'Aren't you dead?', he remembered that Li Rong had declared sick leave for Pei Wen. He endured it for a moment before changing his words, "Aren't you still sick?"

"Your Majesty," Pei Wenxuan said respectfully, "Your Highness should have told Your Majesty that I was pretending to be sick, but in fact I was secretly leaving the capital to investigate Qin's case. After I left the capital, I realized that someone was following me, so I pretended to fall off a cliff to hide from others, so that I could smoothly go to the northwest to investigate Qin's case. Now that I have obtained evidence of Qin's injustice, I ask Your Majesty to immediately send someone to the execution ground and ask the executioner to spare her life."

When Li Ming heard this, he reacted immediately and said anxiously: "Quick, go to the execution ground and keep the Qin family!"

The eunuch got the order and hurried out immediately. Several old officials frowned and gave the eunuch behind the curtain a look, and the eunuch standing behind the curtain retreated quietly.

The eunuch received the order and left the palace. Not long after he walked out of the palace gate, he saw a group of killers rushing towards him.

The eunuch was so frightened that he rode his horse backwards. He saw a feather arrow flying towards him. He had no way to avoid it. His eyes widened in shock. At this time, a knife suddenly rushed out from the side, cut the feather arrow in half with one knife, grabbed the eunuch and threw him onto his horse, and said anxiously: "My lord, I am here on the orders of the Inspection Department to protect you. Please come with me."

As he spoke, the guard led the eunuch through the crowd, fighting all the way. The alley was densely packed with killers, who were entangled with the people from the Inspection Office and were fighting in the alley.

When the eunuch who delivered the order was stopped on the road, another team of people quickly left the palace and headed straight for the execution ground. They arrived at the execution ground ahead of time and found a guard. He whispered a few words in the guard's ear, and the guard immediately stepped forward, found the eunuch, and whispered something to him.

The guard frowned, hesitated for a moment, and finally nodded.

"The time has come," the executioner suddenly reached out and took the token with the word "斬" circled on it, and threw it to the ground, "斬..."

Before he finished speaking, he heard a hoarse voice from the crowd: "Sir, the time has not come yet."

The beheading officer had never expected someone to challenge him so openly. He gritted his teeth and shouted angrily, "Behead him now!"

The executioner seemed to know that the time was wrong, and he hesitated. Seeing that the executioner did not move, the executioner slammed the table and said, "What are you doing? I want you to execute me!"

The executioner, seeing his superior's anger, did not dare to delay any longer. He raised his hand to remove the sign behind Qin Lin, then raised his sword. A moment after the sword fell, a young man in the crowd suddenly rushed out, kicked him away, then raised his hand and cut Qin Lin's rope with a sword, and threw a sword over at the same time.

"Prisoner robbing!"

The soldiers reacted instantly and rushed forward.

Xun Chuan whispered "Save people" and kicked away the soldiers who rushed over. He raised his sword and blocked the Qin family. He said angrily: "It's not time yet, and you dare to kill people in advance. You are so brave!"

"Catch it for me!"

The prison guard was panicked when he saw the chaos. He shouted, "This is a crime of kidnapping! Stop them, all of them!"

The executioner shouted and the soldiers rushed to the platform. Xun Chuan stopped people and Qin Lin stumbled to save them. The two of them cooperated to protect the Qin family and made a mess on the execution platform.

At this moment, an eunuch, who was protected by everyone, rode up on his horse at full speed, holding the imperial edict in his hand, and shouted, "Spare his life! Spare his life!"

Amid the flashes of swords and sabers in Huajing, an unexpected tranquility appeared on the Beiyan Tower.

"Lord Su is very interested today." Li Rong put down the chess piece, listened to the sound of the copper bell in the wind outside, and said slowly, "You are willing to play chess with me like this."

"I am willing to play chess with Your Highness at any time." Su Rongqing looked at the chessboard and said naturally, "Besides, I thought Your Highness would have many questions to ask me, so I stayed on purpose."

"Master Su is right." Li Rong smiled, "I do have many questions and would like to consult with Master Su."

"Your Highness, please speak."

"I don't understand what Lord Su said just now." Li Rong and Su Rongqing took turns placing chess pieces. "Why does Lord Su want to marry me? Even if Pei Wenxuan is dead, I am still a second-married woman. Besides, the prince and I have already broken up. There is no point for Lord Su to marry me. Why go to so much trouble to marry a second-married woman?"

Su Rongqing didn't say anything. Li Rong pondered and said, "When Lord Su and I first met, he had the intention of joining the Crown Prince. He went to such great lengths to protect me. Did he want to use me to maintain a relationship with the Crown Prince? But why does the Su family value the relationship with the Crown Prince so much? The Crown Prince has a gentle personality and doesn't need..."

"Your Highness," Su Rongqing interrupted her, "Do you have to link everything to power?"

Li Rong's twisting movement paused. Su Rongqing raised her eyes and stared at Li Rong quietly: "I don't want to be an enemy of His Highness. I hope His Highness will live well. Isn't it okay for such a simple reason?"

Li Rong stared at Su Rongqing blankly. Birds were flying outside, from the Beiyan Tower all the way to the main hall.

In the main hall, Pei Wenxuan had handed over the accounts he had checked along the way, as well as the confessions of the people of Huangping County who recorded the battle at that time.

"Your Majesty, I visited the county offices along the way and copied down the specific grain and grass records of each county office at that time. According to the records of the Ministry of War, Huangping County had a total of 3,000 soldiers. Before the war, 10,000 dan of grain was allocated to provide food for one month. But in reality, when it arrived at Huangping County, there were less than 3,000 dan of grain and grass. When grain and grass arrived at each county, there was a little less, and in some large counties, it was even less. There was very little left. The amount of grain each county received was less than what the previous county reported. After checking, the total amount of grain each county reported to other counties was wrong, but the actual grain records of each county matched the records of Huangping County. It can be seen that the data of Huangping County receiving 3,000 dan of grain is true, and the 10,000 dan recorded by the Ministry of War is probably wrong. "

"In addition to the food records, I also interviewed local soldiers and civilians and recorded their confessions during the war. Before the war, half of the soldiers were already starving and sick, and had no strength to fight. Under such circumstances, the Qin family was able to ensure that the people in the city evacuated in advance without too many casualties. Not only should they not be punished, but they should be rewarded to avoid discouraging the soldiers at the border."

"Your Highness, I beg you to do this," Pei Wenxuan knelt on the ground and spoke loudly, "to thoroughly investigate the embezzlement of military pay in Huangping County."

As soon as Pei Wenxuan opened his mouth, the Minister of War jumped out and shouted, "Frameup! This is a blatant frame-up!"

"Is it a frame-up?" Pei Wenxuan raised his head and said excitedly, "We'll know once we check!"

"Your Majesty," Pei Wenxuan knelt on the ground and said loudly, "Please conduct a thorough investigation of the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Revenue, and the Ministry of History, and restore the Qin family's innocence and give justice to the border warriors!"

Li Ming said nothing, and everyone else remained silent.

Pei Wenxuan brought back too much evidence, and it was too real. At this moment, no one wanted to step forward.

But there is a lot of evidence, and many people are involved. After a long silence, those who participated in the case finally couldn't help but rush out when no one spoke. Yu Shitai Wenping was the first to bear the brunt and said angrily: "Pei Wenxuan, what do you mean? Yu Shitai of the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of War, and the Ministry of Revenue, are you saying that the entire court has united to deceive the superiors and the subordinates to frame the Qin family? Where does the Qin family get such a big face? And you, as an inspector, you are not doing your job, deceiving the emperor and breaking the law to leave the capital, and forging a bunch of evidence to deceive the emperor. Do you think the emperor will be deceived by you?"

"Yes," Wen Ping started, and the other officials hurriedly stepped out and said in a panic, "You checked the accounts? How did you, a supervisory officer, get the authority to check the accounts of so many counties? On what basis did others give it to you? Where did you get these accounts? Why don't you tell the truth!"

"Your Majesty," Wen Ping turned to look at Li Ming, knelt down and said, "Pei Wenxuan neglected his duties, deceived the emperor and broke the law. His father Pei Lizhi and the Qin family are old friends. Now, in order to show favoritism, he even fabricated evidence. I hope Your Majesty will investigate and punish him!"

As he spoke, many people followed Wen Ping and knelt down, saying anxiously, "Your Majesty, please understand!"

Li Ming said nothing and Pei Wenxuan knelt on the ground, silent.

In fact, everyone present knew that in the face of such evidence, whether Li Ming should continue the investigation was not a question of evidence at all, but a question of whether Li Ming could and wanted to investigate.

The aristocratic family is a sword hanging over Li Ming's head. If he pushes too hard, the sword might fall.

The aristocratic family was betting on Li Ming's fear, and Li Ming was indeed afraid.

He now just wants to balance the family, but it is just a balance, not a complete shake-up.

He doesn't dare and can't do that now.

The document Pei Wenxuan gave him was enough to cut the rope of the sword and make it fall.

Pei Wenxuan knelt on the ground, waiting for Li Ming's decision. Li Ming didn't say anything for a long time, and then he heard Pei Wenxuan say, "Your Majesty."

"Frontier soldiers guard not only the border, but also the mountains and rivers of Daxia."

This was a hint, reminding Li Ming that if he failed to handle border affairs well, the foundation of Daxia would be shaken.

Li Ming held Pei Wenxuan's memorial for a long time, and finally said, "Pei Aiqing has worked hard all the way. This case is of great importance. I will think about it again. You are tired too, go down and rest first."

"yes."

Pei Wenxuan bowed respectfully, stood up, and was about to leave when he heard Li Ming say, "Pingle is under house arrest in Beiyan Tower now. Go pick her up and go back together."

Pei Wenxuan was slightly stunned, then lowered his eyes and said respectfully, "Yes."

When Pei Wenxuan rushed to Beiyan Tower, Su Rongqing and Li Rong had not finished their game of chess.

After Su Rongqing said "Isn't it possible?", she looked at Li Rong quietly and said no more.

After saying this, an ordinary person would look at the other person, waiting for a response, but when he looked at Li Rong, he really just looked at her.

Li Rong could not sense any desire in his eyes.

That look contained many complex emotions, but no matter what it contained, it lacked the expectation of a response from her.

It seemed as if he was just saying it to her, and it didn't matter whether she responded or not.

Even her answer seemed redundant.

"Lord Su..." Li Rong considered and wanted to speak, but before she could say something to ease the atmosphere, Su Rongqing interrupted her.

"Your Highness," he put his hands on the chess box, he seemed a little tired, and changed the subject, "I just talked nonsense, Your Highness, don't take it to heart. Your Highness, unite with the noble families and assist the prince to ascend the throne. This is your best way. When you build the Inspectorate, you must also have a scale. The struggle for power is all about swords and shadows, you must be careful."

Li Rong did not say anything. Su Rongqing stood up and said calmly, "I have lost this game of chess. I will not disturb Your Highness and will leave now."

Li Rong lowered her eyes and looked at the chessboard which actually had no winner or loser.

Su Rongqing turned and walked out, but before he reached the door, Li Rong suddenly called him, "Su Rongqing."

Su Rongqing stopped and Li Rong looked at the black and white chess pieces on the board. She wanted to say something.

She wanted to ask him if he liked him.

I want to ask him what he means by wanting her to live a good life and not wanting to be her enemy.

But when the words came to her lips, she felt that there were countless problems behind it.

If he really wanted to, why didn't he ask for marriage first?

Given the power of the Su family, if he really risked his life to marry her, it might not be impossible, right?

If he really liked her, he would really want to do this...

But he still watched her marry Pei Wenxuan with open arms, which showed how much they loved her.

What’s the point of asking or not asking, answering or not answering a friendship that you dare not even mention in front of your family?

Faced with so many problems, Li Rong suddenly lost her courage.

She was suddenly disappointed and waved her hand: "Go away."

Su Rongqing didn't say anything. He stood there for a while and finally left.

When Pei Wenxuan heard that Li Rong was in Beiyan Tower without even changing his clothes, he hurried to the Tower. As soon as he entered the courtyard of Beiyan Tower, he saw Su Rongqing walking out.

Pei Wenxuan was slightly stunned, then he realized that Su Rongqing should have come to see Li Rong.

Pei Wenxuan frowned, and Su Rongqing also stopped when he saw Pei Wenxuan.

The two looked at each other for a moment. Pei Wenxuan smiled first and bowed, saying, "Minister Su."

"Pei Yushi."

"Shilang Su didn't go to the morning court today?"

Pei Wenxuan exchanged pleasantries and glanced at Beiyan Tower casually: "It's quite interesting to come to Beiyan Tower for a leisurely stroll."

"I have something to ask your Highness."

Su Rongqing spoke calmly, and Pei Wenxuan laughed: "It must be an urgent matter."

Su Rongqing said nothing. The wind gently blew through the dry grass around him. Su Rongqing stared into Pei Wenxuan's eyes for a long time. He suddenly said, "Why are you afraid of me?"

"I'm afraid of you?" Pei Wenxuan raised his eyebrows. "What nonsense is Minister Su talking about in broad daylight?"

"You are afraid that I will see His Highness."

Su Rongqing spoke directly, and Pei Wenxuan's expression turned cold: "Minister Su, be careful with your words."

"Isn't it?"

Su Rongqing clasped his hands in his sleeves and said calmly, "If it weren't for the fact that His Majesty was jealous of his maternal relatives, you wouldn't even be able to touch the princess's clothes in your entire life. Do you think you would ever get to touch the people around the princess?"

"Pei Yushi, are you curious about what I said to His Highness?" Su Rongqing said, leaning towards Pei Wenxuan. He whispered in Pei Wenxuan's ear, "I told His Highness," Su Rongqing lowered his voice, "I am willing to marry her."

Pei Wenxuan listened and his eyes widened suddenly.

"It's a pity you're back."

Su Rongqing's voice was a little cold: "But if you still want to drag Your Highness to go against the aristocratic family and put Your Highness in such a dangerous situation, Pei Wenxuan, you will not always have such good luck."

As he spoke, Su Rongqing raised his hand and patted Pei Wenxuan on the shoulder: "Take care of yourself."

After Su Rongqing finished speaking, he left calmly.

Pei Wenxuan stood there quietly. He felt that the weather in October was indeed a bit cold.

He suddenly wanted to see Li Rong, so eagerly and expectantly, he wanted to see her.

But when he thought of seeing her, he felt a little scared and panic for no reason.

He was afraid that she would tell him that Su Rongqing was proposing to her, and that she would agree to Su Rongqing.

She was afraid that as soon as they met, she would let him know that he had actually been abandoned early in this relationship.

It was like this in the last life, and it is like this time as well.

This fear made him stand still for a long time, not daring to move.

Li Rong was sitting on top of the tower. She drank her tea and paused for a moment before she heard Jinglan say happily, "Your Highness, the consort is at the foot of the tower."

When Li Rong heard this, she laughed instantly. She quickly stood up and walked to the window. As expected, she saw Pei Wenxuan standing under the tower, looking dazed.

"This fool."

Li Rong pursed her lips and cursed, then lifted her skirt and trotted down the stairs.

When she ran to the first floor, she couldn't help panting a little, but she pretended to be calm and said to the gatekeeper: "The prince consort is here to pick me up, open the door."

The soldiers guarding the gate naturally knew that Li Rong's house arrest was just a show. The news of the morning court had already passed through Beiyan Tower several times, so these soldiers hurriedly opened the door for Li Rong.

The vermilion door made a "creaking" sound as it opened. Pei Wenxuan turned around and saw the vermilion door opening inch by inch, revealing a slender figure behind the door.

She wore a wide-sleeved white gauze skirt with a blue border and a white plum blossom pattern. Her long hair was loose, with only a small part of her hair tied up with a jade hairpin. She looked elegant and pure, like an immortal who had descended to earth.

She looked at him with a smile on her face, with a hint of teasing in her eyes. She melted into his heart and made his heart soften.

No matter what emotions he was feeling, depression, panic, uneasiness and fear, they were all forgotten the moment he saw that person's smile. He just stared at her blankly, as if he was a mortal seeing an immortal.

Li Rong looked at Pei Wenxuan in front of her. The young man was dressed in green cloth and had stubble on his face. It looked like he was having one of the rare wild moments in his life, but somehow, he looked even more real and touching.

Li Rong looked at him with a smile, but when she touched the mud on his body, his swollen palms, and the wounds on his face, she couldn't help but slowly put away her smile.

A silent heartache spread in her heart, and she suddenly wanted to hug him, but she felt that it would be too inappropriate.

She called out in a hoarse voice: "Pei Wenxuan."

At that moment, the young man seemed to be awakened. Without waiting for Li Rong to say anything, he quickly stepped forward and pulled the person into his arms.

Li Rong was slightly stunned, and then she heard Pei Wenxuan seem to be happy and called out in a low voice: "Rongrong."

"I'm back. I'll take you home."

The author has something to say: [Small Theater]

Su Rongqing: "Pei Wenxuan, if you dare to put her in danger again, you won't be so lucky forever."

Pei Wenxuan: "What? Do you have the final say on my luck? If you have bad luck, stay away and don't infect me. I'm going to take my wife home."

Su Rongqing: "..."

Pei Wenxuan: "Also, it's enough to pretend in the article, but you're pretending with me in the small theater. Don't you know that I have the right to ooc in the small theater?"

Su Rongqing: "Like arguing with me?"

Pei Wenxuan: "Not only can I confront you, I can also hit you."