Chapter 73 Chapter 73 Hidden Arrow
In the dim morning light, Chongping walked to the Marquis's window.
"My Lord, the commander has woken up and wants to say goodbye to you and leave."
Inside the room, Lu Shenru just responded softly when he saw his wife sitting up from the tent.
"How is the commander?" she asked, throwing on her clothes and getting out of bed. "I'll go with you."
The man didn't respond immediately, but raised his eyebrows and looked at her.
Du Lingjing instantly understood the meaning between his brows.
Did he really think that he was the man she picked up from outside?
That's clearly his own cousin!
Du Lingjing glanced at him and put on her clothes.
Lu Hou snorted twice and said, "Forget it, I have always been generous."
Is he always generous?
Du Lingjing couldn't help but look at him strangely, and he immediately asked.
"Don't you think so, madam?"
Can Du Lingjing still say no?
She secretly laughed, said "How dare you", and urged him to go quickly.
The drug in Wei Jue's body was forcibly removed with an antidote. Du Lingjing saw that although he was awake and Chongping had changed him into clean clothes, his lips were pale, as if he had a serious illness.
I managed to hold on until I vomited blood yesterday, how could I possibly recover overnight?
But he looked indifferent, with his brows half lowered as he apologized to Du Lingjing.
"My mother was confused and did such a thing."
If the original plan had been followed, the other person to take the medicine would be Du Runqing, the second daughter of the Du family.
He said to Du Lingjing, "I will control mother when I go back. I think mother has come to her senses. Please don't be angry about this."
It takes two to tango. It's not all because of Mrs. Baoguo's confusion on her second sister's side.
He apologized, then thought of something else and glanced at Du Lingjing.
"Nian Jia..." He thought that Nian Jia's medicine must have been properly dissolved, "but what happened yesterday is like a cloud of smoke, so there is no need to let her know."
Du Lingjing blinked.
She couldn't help but think of yesterday in the carriage, when Wei Jue couldn't help but hug her tightly when Nian Jia held onto his clothes tightly. It was a sudden burst of reluctance, unwilling to hand her over to Wei Cong.
If, back then, he had resolutely parted ways with her as Nian Jia said, how could he have felt such an unbearable moment of reluctance yesterday?
However, today, he asked her not to mention it to Nian Jia again.
Du Lingjing followed his wishes and nodded.
As for why he parted ways with Nian Jia, Du Lingjing didn't feel comfortable asking.
After all, he is a member of the Imperial Guard, and even more so the commander of the Imperial Guard, the person who knows the most secrets in the world.
As expected, the Marquis did not ask any further questions and only instructed his cousin.
"Go back and recuperate for a few days."
Wei Jue nodded in agreement, and thought about the medicine from yesterday, which inexplicably ended up in Du Lingjing's wine pot.
"I will give my wife an explanation on this matter."
Lu Shenru didn't need him to worry about it and waved his hand.
"The Marquis' Mansion will conduct a thorough investigation."
After he finished speaking, it was already late, so Wei Jue bowed solemnly and said goodbye.
The morning light blurred his figure in the cool spring breeze, and he walked into the shadows of the trees whose spring leaves were gradually connecting.
Du Lingjing stared at his figure in a daze.
Someone suddenly asked.
"Is he that good-looking?"
Could it be because he is one of the thinnest boys among the military boys, and he has a gentle temperament and is sick now, like someone?
Lu Shenru lowered his head to look at his wife. After he said this, she finally stopped being in a daze.
She frowned and glared at him.
"Nonsense!"
These four words made Marquis Lu laugh. When she said this, she sounded a bit like Lord Dou.
In the first few years after he returned to Beijing and entered the court, the old man could not argue with him in the court, so he would glare at him in private and call him "nonsense."
Marquis Lu pulled back the lady who was about to leave, and without waiting for her to refuse, he bent down and kissed the tip of her nose, then strode off to attend the court session.
Du Lingjing was helpless.
But before Lord Lu went to court, he did not forget to instruct Chongping, "Find out carefully who drugged the lady."
Chongping quickly agreed.
When Lu Shenru met Dou Ge Lao in front of the main hall, he couldn't help but think of the four words "unreasonable". Could it be that the words that scholars like them usually use when they are helpless against warriors?
But he caught a glimpse of the huge rosacea on the old man Dou Ge Lao's face and immediately looked away.
That was completely different from the cute little nose of his wife at home.
Before Dou Ge Lao could turn around to look at him, he had already turned back, raised his chin, and strode into the hall.
Dou Ge Lao sneezed for no apparent reason and rubbed his red nose.
There is something I want to mention at the court meeting today.
Previously, Wei Cong was in Ningxia and was injured by the sudden attack of the Tartar army. He went there and defeated them all, forcing the remaining Tartars to flee in panic in the mountains. It was expected that they would not come back for a while.
Unexpectedly, Ningxia reported again this morning that the Tatars had made a comeback. Although they were not as fierce as last time, Ningxia City was also missing a general like Wei Cong.
Wei Cong couldn't go back for a while, so Dou Ge Lao took the opportunity to reprimand Lord Lu for his poor deployment of troops.
The emperor didn't say anything, but he seemed to be in poor health today and looked sick. He had no time to inquire about the matter in detail and only asked Lu Shenru to arrange it as soon as possible.
Lu Shenru accepted the order.
When he was leaving court, he met a man in front of the palace gate.
The man was wearing a jade crown and brocade robe, and behind him were seven or eight attendants, staff and confidants. He stood among this group of adult men, showing a bit of the immaturity of a teenager.
Lord Lu paused slightly.
"Oh, His Royal Highness Prince Yong."
Prince Yong meets Qi.
Lord Lu greeted him properly according to etiquette, but Lu Shenru only stopped and nodded, bowed hastily, and said nothing more to him. He turned around and left with big strides.
The person he supported was his nephew, Prince Hui. He wanted to establish the younger one instead of the older one, and he had nothing to say to Prince Yong, Dou Ge Lao and other civil officials.
He just left like that, and the people around His Royal Highness Prince Yong couldn't help but "attack" him.
Especially a young man near Prince Yong, who couldn't help but snort coldly.
"Lu Shenru has already acted so arrogantly before the outcome is clear. He is disrespectful to Your Highness and is undoubtedly a traitor!"
As he spoke, he spoke to the young prince beside him.
"When your Highness enters the Eastern Palace in the future, this man will surely be a great threat to the court. Your Highness must not be lenient to him, or even to the entire Yongding Marquis Mansion Lu family."
He said in a deep voice, "It will be safe only if we uproot them."
Upon hearing this, Prince Yong Fengqi turned around and looked at him.
This person was a member of the Shao family who had just been pushed to his side by his mother's clan, the Shao family, to replace Shao Boju.
But this person talks a lot, so much that it's noisy.
Feng Qi pursed his lips slightly.
This man was not at all as talented in literature as his cousin Shao Boju, who had committed suicide and was a top scholar in the imperial examination, and he was certainly not even a bit as talented as Lord Lu.
Just making noise all the time.
But he did not scold, just lowered his head and turned away.
*
After Lu Shen finished his court session, he returned to his mansion. He heard that his wife was making tea in the small garden behind the main courtyard today.
As the weather grew warmer, she gradually began to love walking in the huge garden of the Marquis's mansion.
Now he walked over and saw her standing with her back to the willow tree beside the pond, talking to Qiulin through the courtyard wall with lattice windows.
Willow leaves swirled and fell on her shiny black hair. Qiu Lin was telling her about what happened in Chengqingfang.
"... The second young lady has rarely been making a fuss these past two days, but she has been weeping and not eating much. She asked when she could go back to look after her mother, saying that the second lady's condition was unstable and she couldn't leave her."
Under the weeping willows by the pond, Du Lingjing sighed slightly.
Her aunt fell her head for unknown reasons and developed hysteria. After returning to her parents' home to recuperate, her condition not only did not improve, but worsened.
The second sister Du Runqing can be considered filial.
Her unreliable uncle was a complete hands-off boss. He sent very little money home every year and never came back. The place where he was appointed was remote and it was inconvenient for his family to go there, and he was too lazy to pick him up, so he just left his sick wife to his daughter who had not yet reached the age of marriage.
My second sister has reached the age of marriage now, but she is only fifteen. As for my younger brother Zhan Ming, he is still studying at Baoding Academy and cannot help me.
A fifteen-year-old girl had to take care of household chores and take care of her sick mother. Unfortunately, her in-laws did not really care about her and her mother, but just kept giving her some drugs to make her lover.
Du Lingjing still ordered not to let her leave, "Let her calm down and think it through first."
But Qiulin said that someone from the Gu family came to pick her up.
In the morning, Madam Wan sent someone over first, but Uncle Wen stopped them. Unexpectedly, Master Gu also sent someone to pick up his niece.
When Gu Yangsi's men saw that Wen Bo did not open the door, they actually tried to break in.
"Fortunately, the guards of the Marquis' Mansion were here and rebuked those people. They left in anger."
He is so tough, maybe he has found some in-laws and husband for Du Runqing.
Du Lingjing immediately ordered Qiu Lin, "Either they send the second wife back to the Du family, or they should not even think about taking advantage of the Du family's daughter."
What do Master Gu and Madam Wan want to do? They just want to use the Du family's name to do something improper.
Looking through the flowered window on the courtyard wall, Lu Shenru suddenly felt that his wife had the demeanor of a first-rank marquis's wife. He did not immediately walk around the courtyard wall to her side, but continued to stand outside the window.
Unexpectedly, Qiu Lin took out a handkerchief from his sleeve.
The man looked closely and saw a maple leaf embroidered on the handkerchief.
Qiu Lin whispered, "Sixth Master's handkerchief, which was used to bandage Madam's wound, has been washed by this servant. Please return it."
Qiu Lin thought to himself that the Sixth Master's handkerchief was not suitable to be kept in the Marquis' Mansion.
Madam Guo Jian took a look and immediately said, "Let Chang Pu send it back to him today."
As she spoke, she thought of something, "The day after tomorrow is the palace examination. Let him study hard and hope he can win a high reputation in the palace."
Although Jiang Fengchuan ranked last in the imperial examination, he would most likely be a Tong Jinshi, but he should still have hope, even if it doesn't work out. Du Lingjing thought so. If it was Sanlang instead of Liu Lang who entered the palace examination, he would have a chance to be ranked among the second-class Jinshi, or even the first-class champions, second-class champions, and third-class champions.
Suddenly I thought of Sanlang. Time seemed to fly and a lifetime had passed.
She was stunned for a moment, and looked towards a clump of green bamboo with its branches exposed in the next yard.
Inadvertently, only a small piece of bamboo was left in the mansion, locked in a secluded courtyard where no one had ever set foot.
Du Lingjing asked someone to collect the tea under the weeping willows, and walked around the edge of the pond until she came to a clump of green bamboo leaves that peeked out from the wall.
She turned her eyes suddenly and saw a pointed head quietly popping out from under the courtyard wall.
When Du Lingjing saw this thing, she blinked quickly.
It's bamboo shoots.
Someone had removed most of the bamboos in the mansion without saying a word. Now if they saw a small bamboo shoot that had managed to grow through the other side of the courtyard wall, wouldn't they have someone pluck it out?
Du Lingjing thought of the marquis, and also remembered that he had said in the morning that he was "always generous."
She shook her head, sighed, and laughed secretly, but she also secretly responded to him, picked up a few fallen leaves to cover the bamboo shoots, and hid them in the corner.
Du Lingjing left from time to time, but she didn't notice that the people outside the wall were watching her every move.
But the man didn't see clearly what she was hiding in the corner.
Until he walked over and saw the bamboo shoots, he stopped at the corner and paused for a few breaths.
... ...
Du Lingjing felt that her lord was a little silent in the evening.
For some unknown reason, he had been silent since the afternoon. During dinner in the evening, his eyes would occasionally fall on her, and then he would silently look away.
He seemed to be in a depressed mood, but he didn't say why, he just pursed his lips.
Du Lingjing was secretly amazed, but he asked the nanny to light some incense.
The aroma entangled in his nostrils, but he was completely silent even at this time.
In the bathroom afterwards, Du Lingjing thought he would say to her "Quanquan, let's make peace" as he did before, but this time he didn't. He just looked at her in a daze with his dark eyes.
The next day, Nian Jia sent someone to deliver a letter to Du Lingjing, wanting to invite her to the residence of the Marquis of Zhongqing. Wei Cong also sent a letter to Marquis Lu, inviting him to a small family dinner at the Marquis' residence.
Marquis Lu was about to discuss Ningxia's military affairs with Uncle Zhongqing and his son, and later he went to the Wei family with his wife.
Lord Zhongqing, Wei Cong's father, injured his leg while fighting outside the Great Wall a few years ago. He could no longer ride a horse to lead troops, so he simply put away the sword and gun he had used all his life, bid farewell to the battlefield where he had fought life and death, and was transferred back to the Five Military Commandery in the capital to take charge.
Heroes always grow old, but fortunately there are always successors.
Lu Shenru first discussed military affairs with the Wei father and son. Lady Bo had a conversation with Du Lingjing and Nian Jia, then smiled and pretended that she had something else to do, leaving the two little sisters alone.
Du Lingjing quickly stood up to see her off, and Wei Cong's mother patted her hand and asked her to stay.
Turning back to the room, Du Lingjing looked at Nian Jia carefully again. She saw that her complexion had recovered. Thinking back to what happened that day, she was really shocked.
But after this moment, Du Lingjing couldn't help but look at her twice more.
Was it a blessing in disguise for her and the prince regarding that matter?
Sure enough, Nian Jia's face turned red when she stared at him.
She whispered to Du Lingjing that the Duke's Mansion had invited Imperial Doctor Li yesterday.
"Doctor Li checked my pulse first and said nothing was wrong, but when he turned to check the prince's pulse, he just kept shaking his head."
Nian Jia said that the way Imperial Doctor Li shook his head made her heart tremble. "Fortunately, he didn't say that the prince would be ill from now on, but he was strictly ordered to rest for at least half a month."
Du Lingjing also breathed a sigh of relief when she heard this.
Nian Jia whispered, "The prince suddenly told me that night that he wanted me to wait for him for half a month."
wait... ...
Du Lingjing saw that Nian Jia's face was flushed and she looked fearful and uncertain.
"I can wait for him for half a year, or even half a month..."
She said she wasn't sure whether she could have sex, after all, she was taking medicine.
As she spoke, her face turned even redder, all the way to her ears, and her voice became even lower.
"In fact, what I am even more uncertain about is that the prince seems to be too good to me."
She knew he was a good person, but she didn't even understand why he suddenly wanted to marry her.
"Now that I see him, my legs are no longer weak, but my heart is beating so fast that I can't breathe."
Du Lingjing was surprised, and she grabbed her hand, "How about I go with you to live in the Marquis' Mansion for a few days!"
"..." Du Lingjing couldn't help laughing when she saw her panic-stricken look, "Even if I agree, the prince may not let me go. It's better for the princess to stay and take care of the prince."
After all, it was because of her that the prince was forced to rest by Imperial Doctor Li.
Nian Jia also knew that she couldn't leave him, but she couldn't sit or stand in front of him. He looked at her and smiled warmly, and her heart beat faster.
"It's so strange, why am I like this..."
Nian Jia was almost scratching his head, and thinking about his half-month deadline, he felt even more dizzy. He just hoped that he could close his eyes and open them again so that the night would pass.
Jingniang just kept smiling with her lips pursed.
Nian Jia quickly changed the subject.
"By the way, I heard that you were the one who brought it back to me that day."
She heard that it was the carriage from the Yongding Marquis's Mansion.
She suddenly asked this and Du Lingjing paused.
As for the part about Wei Jue, the prince was silent, and when Wei Jue did not mention it, she also kept silent.
It was as if Wei Jue had never forced himself to do that, had never touched Nian Jia who was also poisoned, had never forced himself to feed her cold water to calm the drug, had never carried her all the way to the Bo's house, had never vomited blood and fainted in the car, and had never been unconscious for the whole night...
Du Lingjing nodded and said yes, "Chongping drove, I brought you here."
Nian Jia held her hand tightly and said, "Thank you, Jingniang. What would I have done without you that day?"
Du Lingjing didn't deserve her thanks.
But she asked again who had drugged her.
It had only been two days since the incident, and the person who drugged me did it without anyone noticing, and it hasn't been identified so quickly.
The two chatted for a while. As it was getting late, Lady Bo called a maid to invite the two to the front hall for the banquet.
There were no outsiders at the family dinner between the two mansions. Nian Jia sat next to the prince and picked up food for him.
Du Lingjing took a closer look. Why were they all nourishing and aphrodisiac?
She saw the prince smiling helplessly, but Nian Jia hadn't noticed yet and instead urged Wei Cong, "Prince, eat more!"
Du Lingjing was extremely amused.
The uncle and his wife pretended not to see anything and asked Lu Shenru and Du Lingjing not to be so formal.
Lu Shenru naturally also saw the interactions between Princess Nian Jia and Wei Cong.
Obviously, after the princess married Wei Cong, she gradually left everything about her predecessor in the past.
But what about his wife?
His eyes fell on her.
Du Lingjing looked over with some awareness, but he remained silent.
... ...
On the way back, Du Lingjing couldn't help but ask him what happened in the past two days?
Is there something worrying in the court?
But she didn't think so.
Besides, she hasn't agreed to reconcile with him yet, so it would be a bit tricky to ask this question.
However, before he could open his mouth, the carriage was blocked by pedestrians and stopped halfway.
In front of me was a group of drunk candidates who had failed the exam but had not left the capital. They stayed in the capital waiting to see the ranking of those who had passed the exam.
They were all frustrated, but now they were emboldened by the wine. They saw a carriage passing by but did not give way. Instead, when they heard that it was a carriage from the Yongding Marquis's mansion, they deliberately occupied the road and blocked Marquis Lu's way.
Lu Shenru sneered.
He also smelled of alcohol, and Du Lingjing quickly called him, "Turn around and you'll reach Jiqingfang. Why don't we go down and take a few steps?"
Why bother to deal with a group of failed and drunk candidates? He would give the court officials who opposed him a chance to criticize him and write memorials to him.
She asked the marquis to get out of the car.
The man got off the carriage, stood beside it with his hands behind his back, and glanced at the group of candidates. Everyone fell silent.
His arrogant and cold attitude was enough to make those scholars feel bad.
Du Lingjing sighed and walked towards the roadside stall.
Lu Shenru looked over and thought that she hadn't been out for a stroll for some days, so he didn't say anything more. He told Chongping to have the carriage drive back to the Marquis' Mansion first, and he would accompany her for a while on the road to the capital.
The roadside is bustling with people, selling all kinds of things, especially when it gets dark, the shops selling hot buns, pancakes, noodles and porridge are full of people.
Du Lingjing had just finished a banquet and was not hungry, but she saw a miscellaneous books stall in front of her and walked over.
Lu Shenru followed behind her. The alcohol made him walk slowly, so he walked leisurely behind her with his hands behind his back.
Unexpectedly, at this moment, there was a sudden sound of breaking wind in my ears.
The bustling crowd on the main street of the capital had not noticed anything yet, but Lu Shenru saw a cold light flash before his eyes in the night.
The guards of the marquis's mansion also sensed something and ran towards him.
But the sudden hidden arrow pierced through the night sky and shot straight towards Du Lingjing's delicate neck.
“Quanquan!”
She turned around in a daze.
Before she could react, the man's eyes widened, and he was unable to pull her back quickly. He suddenly flew forward and pulled her into his arms.
The hidden arrow that broke through the wind hit the two men's ears directly, and in the next breath it pierced into the man's arm.
Blood splattered on Du Lingjing's nose and eyes, and she had forgotten to breathe.
The guards were horrified.
"My Lord!"
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