Cheng Lang asked hoarsely, "Did you... agree to any conditions he offered?"
Yi Ning shook her head. She didn't want to say anything more. What she did was her business. If Cheng Lang wanted to care about her, she had nothing to say. But no one could question her. She said to him, "A Lang, it's so late. You should go back."
She wanted to leave, but saw that her hand was grabbed by him again.
"Don't be angry." Cheng Lang was afraid that she would be angry with him, so he closed his eyes and said, "...I'm just afraid that he will use you."
Cheng Lang had come late at night to tell her about the Duke of England, so why would she be angry? Yi Ning held his hand and said, "That's not the case. It's not convenient to travel now... Or you should stay in the guest room. I'll have the maid prepare a room for you."
Cheng Lang felt relieved after hearing this and hummed, "I have to go to court tomorrow and get up at dawn." He added, "Don't let me disturb you."
Yining called Zhenzhu in to make arrangements and said goodbye to Cheng Lang. She was very tired and fell asleep almost immediately after returning to Dongyuan.
But outside the imperial city, the lights in a teahouse were still on.
Xu Wei loved the edamame from this teahouse. He said no other place could make it taste this good. Luo Shenyuan had tried it a few times and found no difference. But as long as Lord Xu was happy, that was all that mattered.
So, they always discussed things in this teahouse. The shabby teahouse was surrounded by soldiers and officers, and steam rose from a large pot outside. Anyone who passed by knew at a glance that Lord Xu was eating edamame here again.
Later, seeing Xu Wei's frequent visits, someone donated some money to the teahouse owner, asking him to renovate the dilapidated room to prevent Xu Wei from feeling uncomfortable eating edamame. The owner took the money and did what he said. The room was paved with camphorwood floors, painted with tung oil, and decorated with several imperial kiln blue-and-white glazed plum vases, which looked quite interesting.
Xu Wei sat opposite Luo Shenyuan, next to him was Yang Ling. He had placed third in the second-place exam this year and had been accepted into Xu Wei's fold. Luo Shenyuan had read Yang Ling's essay and felt it was even better than the second-place finisher, Wang Qiuyuan's, showing his talent and unique insights. He didn't know why he only placed third in the second-place exam, but Xu Wei had promoted him from the Hanlin Academy to serve under him as a clerk in the Ministry of Revenue.
Yang Ling was a very modest person, yet neither servile nor overbearing. Even though Luo Shenyuan and he were born in the same Jinshi year, and Luo Shenyuan was already a fourth-rank Dali Temple official, while he was still a seventh-rank Jieshizhong, he did not show any fear in front of Luo Shenyuan. He smiled and toasted him, saying, "Brother Luo, you and I are both disciples of Master Xu - who of us will be the one to shell the edamame for Master Xu?"
Having said that, a plate of edamame was handed to Luo Shenyuan.
The adults present all laughed. Xu Wei also said with a smile, "How dare you, Yang Ling, tease me!"
Luo Shenyuan remained calm and took the plate of edamame handed to him by Yang Ling: "Students should peel beans for their teachers." After saying that, he rolled up his sleeves and began to peel edamame for Xu Wei.
Under the writing hands with thin calluses, the green and fragrant edamame fell into the plate one by one.
Xu Wei didn't know what to say to the two men, and the adults around him burst into laughter. The Minister of Revenue patted Luo Shenyuan on the shoulder and said, "Yang Ling, watch out! You have to learn from Lord Luo! Otherwise, how come you're only seventh rank while Lord Luo is fourth? He can even shell edamame faster than anyone else!"
Xu Wei laughed so hard his stomach hurt. For the first time, he felt like his student had some humanity. He waved his hand, "Let's not get off topic. We just talked about Shen Yuan's promotion. Now let's talk about the Pingyuan Fort incident." He turned serious, "I think everything here is suspicious. Shen Yuan, didn't you send someone to Pingyuan Fort to investigate? Did your spies find out anything?"
As the Junior Minister of the Dali Temple, there are some things that cannot be done openly. Luo Shenyuan secretly raised a group of people to do this. He put down the soybeans in his hand, patted his hands clean and said, "My spies wrote to say that there was indeed a great battle in Pingyuan Fort. But the 30,000 casualties - there is something strange. More than half of the corpses were wearing our armor. But after checking, I found that their thumbs had calluses, legs were injured, and their skin was dark. They should not be Han people. After reading their letters, I speculated that they must be from the Waqi tribe."
"You're saying our actual casualties shouldn't be 30,000?" someone asked curiously. "Then what about the remaining people? They can't have just disappeared into thin air."
Luo Shenyuan's words were so bizarre that Xu Wei also found them puzzling: "How does this make sense? Have you seen Wei Ling's body?"
Luo Shenyuan shook his head: "If we see Wei Ling's corpse, it won't make sense."
Yang Ling understood what Luo Shenyuan meant and was a little surprised: "You mean - Wei Ling is not dead?"
"If he's alive, I want to see him. If he's dead, I want to see his body." Luo Shenyuan never made any absolute statements. "Only after seeing his body can we say he's dead. Right now, no one knows. The Ministry of War has already sent Left Vice Minister Xiao Zuoyun to Xuanfu. Xuanfu has received additional troops, and with Lu Jiaxue's deputy general, the border should be secure."
At this point, someone sighed with emotion: "If the Duke of Ying really died... After a lifetime of military service, it would be a pitiful end. I heard that his family is so old and young that there is not even a leader. If Wei Ling is really gone, the Wei family might be ruined because of it."
Luo Shenyuan's hand holding the teacup stiffened slightly.
"Lu Jiaxue didn't even plead for him in the court." Someone else said, "He's quite ruthless."
"He really deserves to stand for many years." Luo Shenyuan said only this and then stopped. He handed the plate of peeled edamame to Xu Wei.
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