Chapter 46 Chapter 46 "Are you still awake?"
After those cases were closed, Shangguan Li returned home from the Dali Temple prison, and Shangguan Xu also recited scriptures for a few days at the Da'an Temple. Now that Shangguan Li has been cleared of all charges, she can return to the palace.
But before that, she changed her route and went to Shangguan Mansion. After all, Shangguan Li had just been released from prison after a life-or-death experience. Even though she knew he was not physically injured, she was still worried and wanted to go and see him in person.
But on the way there, Shangguan Xu sat in the carriage, thinking about what he said to her that night.
His next step was to take direct action against Su Ran, and he had also prepared the evidence he would need.
Although it was Su Ran who took the lead in the Jiangnan water transportation this time and helped stabilize the situation in Jiangnan, he also put himself in front of the world. The higher he praised himself, the harder he fell.
This time, several major ship merchants in Jiangnan came to Beijing to ask Prime Minister Su for an explanation. Xu Qing'an took advantage of their lack of support and found out about the business dealings between the ship merchants and Su Ran in the past few years. However, Su Ran had just spoken on behalf of the Su family and said that the Su family only had a business relationship with those ship merchants and had no other involvement. Therefore, once such a deception of the people is exposed, Su Ran will definitely suffer backlash.
Over the years, Su Wang has always used the Su family motto to restrain himself and the Su family's children. In the eyes of outsiders, the entire Su family is a group of people with good character and a clean and upright character. Therefore, as long as Xu Qing'an's plan is implemented, Su Ran will definitely be condemned from all sides.
But Shangguan Xu was still concerned about one thing: how exactly had Xu Qing'an discovered the profitable dealings between Su Ran and the ship merchants? He could actually find out such secrets so easily.
He was truly like a ghost in the dark, knowing all the secrets that were not meant to be seen in the light.
So how many secrets does he hide behind himself?
——
After those cases were concluded, the Ministry of Justice suddenly had much less work to do, and Xu Qingan was able to leave his post earlier today.
Just as he left the office, he saw Su Ran walking towards him.
"Master Xu."
"Su Zhongcheng?"
Su Ran greeted him with a smile and said, "It just so happens that I'm off duty early today. Could you please invite Master Xu to my house for a chat?"
Xu Qing'an was puzzled, but didn't show it on his face. He smiled and said, "Is today a special day? To be invited by Prime Minister Su."
Su Ran said, "Yes, uncle. Uncle wants to invite Lord Xu to come over for a chat." His eyes were sincere. "He wants to have a good talk with Lord Xu."
——
After entering the Su Mansion, the servants he met along the way all treated Xu Qing'an with great courtesy, which really seemed like the way he treated a distinguished guest. After entering the conference room, the seat where Xu Qing'an was going to sit was already filled with various seasonal fruits and cakes, and the tea brewing in the stove was also fragrant and refreshing.
Su Wangben was sitting in his seat waiting. When he saw Xu Qing'an come in, he immediately smiled and kindly invited him to take a seat.
"I don't know what Lord Xu likes, so I've only prepared some tea and snacks." He asked considerately, "Does Lord Xu have any food preferences? It's a good time now, so we can have dinner together later."
"I'm sorry to have kept Lord Su waiting for so long." Xu Qing'an first bowed to him, then without answering him, said, "I wonder what Lord Su wants to tell me by calling me here today?"
Being straightforward saves time. Su Wang smiled and stopped arguing with him.
Su Wang said, "Thanks to Lord Xu's timely discovery of other similar cases, the situation of my son-in-law was resolved in time, giving him a chance to turn things around."
"I just don't know how Lord Xu was able to find several similar cases in such a short time."
Xu Qing'an took a sip of tea and, under his probing, said frankly, "Lord Su, you think too highly of me. How could I have found so many similar cases in such a short time? It's just that I saw the rainy season was approaching and was worried about heavy rain and disasters, destroying houses and roads, so I learned some of this in advance."
"Mr. Su also knows that when I worked in the Censorate before, I still had some of the problems of the Censors. I always liked to pay attention to other people. Who knew that this happened to help Lord Shangguan. However, Lord Shangguan is an innocent person, and I dare not take credit for it." As he said this, Xu Qing'an smiled and lowered his eyes with a little shame.
Su Wang looked at him with a smile, his expression normal: "Master Xu is too modest. If it were me, I would let Mingyue treat Master Xu to a good banquet."
Xu Qing'an bowed and said, "I really don't deserve this."
Su Wang: "Master Xu, what are your future plans? Have you ever considered leaving the Ministry of Justice and taking a position in another government office that interests you?"
Leaving the Ministry of Justice... He was testing whether he was willing to leave Shangguan Xu and turn to Su's sect.
Xu Qing'an curled his lips and smiled coldly, then raised his eyes and replied, "I haven't thought about it carefully. Since I have entered the court as an official, it is natural that I will go wherever the court needs me."
Seeing that he seemed to be about to decline, Su Wang said patiently: "There are so many officials in the court, not everyone can be in the position that suits them. Lord Xu is young now, and he is a double-academic talent. He must choose the right path for himself as soon as possible so that he can be of use."
Xu Qing'an asked, "Which path does Lord Su think is suitable for me?"
Su Wang said earnestly, "The situation in officialdom is complicated. The most important thing is to choose a guide who has rich experience and can see through the mysteries."
Xu Qing'an nodded as if he was being taught, but then asked, "And then?"
Su Wang immediately clenched his fists.
He knew that this person's indifferent attitude definitely did not mean that he did not understand what he said, but that he was just deliberately ignoring his words.
Su Wang suppressed his smile and asked, "So, Lord Xu, do you think that the person you have chosen now can be your backer and guide you?"
"Who did this humble servant choose?" Xu Qing'an continued to play dumb and asked with a smile, "Who did this humble servant choose?"
Su Wang's anger suddenly rushed up in his chest. Since he became the prime minister, no one had ever dared to speak in such official language in front of him!
"Alright, Master Xu, stop playing dumb." He stopped talking to Xu Qing'an in a gentle and courteous manner. "Do you really think that joining the Queen Mother in opposing me will end well? She uses you like a sword, but she can't give you what you want."
"Why does Lord Su think she can't give this humble servant what he wants?" Xu Qing'an asked immediately, "Does Lord Su really know what this humble servant wants?"
Su Wang frowned: "What do you want?"
Xu Qing'an sneered: "See, Lord Su is also not confident in his answer, otherwise he wouldn't ask me like this."
Su Wang explained: "I ask this because I respect your opinion. Only when you and I are open to each other can we achieve twice the result with half the effort."
Xu Qing'an: "But what if I say that no matter what, Lord Su will never give me what I want?"
He wants him dead!
Looking at Xu Qing'an's gradually cold eyes, Su Wang became more and more confused about what he wanted. But even though he said it so decisively, there were only a few things he wanted when he became an official.
He guessed, "You want a prime minister?" After a moment's thought, he continued, "That's a bit bold, but it's normal for people to have ambitions. Besides, the Great Jin Dynasty practices a system of multiple prime ministers. If Lord Xu has such an ambition, it's not impossible to achieve it."
But Xu Qing'an still didn't express his opinion, and even his expression didn't change at all because of his words.
Su Wang frowned for a moment, then suddenly thought of something and said sarcastically, "Could it be that you are seeking the one in the palace?"
Xu Qing looked at him calmly and said in a calm voice, "Mr. Su really has more experience than us young people. He can come up with any guess."
Su Wang: "Otherwise, I really don't know why you are unwilling to accept my idea and become my disciple. You know, there are so many scholars in the world, and for many of them, even just the Su family is out of reach. But you don't care at all."
"Perhaps it's because Lord Su is highly respected, a saintly person who stands high above everyone else. I, born in humble circumstances, have witnessed many vile things, which makes me feel different from Lord Su's ideals and difficult to align with." Xu Qing'an stood up, holding up the cup of tea and said, "I am flattered to have Lord Su invite me today, but it's difficult for me to express my gratitude, so I can only offer tea instead of wine. Thank you for your kindness."
Su Wang's eyes were cold and his voice was stern: "Have you thought about it?"
Xu Qing'an smiled slightly, drank the tea in the cup, then put the cup down, bowed to him, turned around and left.
Su Ran, who was guarding outside the door, was startled when he saw that only Xu Qing'an came out of the room, and he immediately knew the result.
When Su Ran turned around and walked forward, he saw Su Wang sitting quietly with a teacup in his hand, but there was a sense of anger around him.
"What a pity. I thought he was very talented and wanted to train him well. What a pity." After saying that, Su Wang raised his head and drank the tea.
With a loud "thump", the teacup fell upside down on the table.
——
Xu Qing'an arrived outside the Su Mansion, mounted his horse, and left.
When Su Ran came to find him, he roughly guessed the purpose of Su Wang inviting him here.
He would not be won over by Su Wang, but he came here just to see Su Wang's ugly appearance.
Are you threatened? But it's not over yet.
Xu Qing'an was riding his horse on the road when he saw a team of carriages and horses carrying heavy objects moving slowly ahead of him. He didn't want to wait any longer so he turned his horse around and turned into an alley on the side.
The alley is narrow and quiet.
No, it was unusually quiet. Xu Qing'an raised his eyes and looked around.
Before daybreak, a ray of dazzling white light shone from an attic.
Xu Qing'an closed his eyes and immediately thought to himself that something was wrong. Sure enough, a short arrow hit him at that moment. He quickly turned sideways and jumped off his horse, but he still couldn't dodge it in time, and a bloody mark was left on the side of his cheek.
Immediately afterwards, two more arrows were shot at him. Fortunately, he pulled out the sword tied to the horse when he dismounted, and swung the sword to block the arrows, knocking them to the ground.
Another wave of arrows came. This time he chose the right moment, reached out and grabbed two arrows, then swung them towards the shooting point and returned the arrows.
Accompanied by two painful muffled sounds, blood seeped out from the attic window bars.
The hidden arrows stopped, and suddenly there was a sound of footsteps. In the blink of an eye, Xu Qing'an was surrounded by a group of men in black holding knives.
Without waiting for any further words, a group of people attacked him with knives.
Xu Qing'an dodged, blocked, and counterattacked one by one.
He walked among the swords and knives, bending down, stretching up, and then looking for opportunities for the attackers to strike with his sword or kick with his feet, neutralizing those deadly moves step by step.
The scar on the side of his face was a bit glaring, but the blood splattered on his face also made his whole face look more balanced, with brokenness and ferocity coexisting.
Xu Qing'an's men were also merciless. Even when those people used killing moves on him, he did not leave them any room for mercy.
A moment later, half of the killers who had just rushed out were lying down, and Xu Qing'an had no other injuries except the scar on the side of his face.
Xu Qing'an stood among a pile of corpses, with blood hanging on his brow and the blade of his sword. He looked at the people around him with cold eyes.
This scene was so shocking that the killers outside dared not move forward.
Just as the fight paused, footsteps were heard on the road outside.
"How? Is he dead?"
The voice originally contained a laugh, but the person who spoke suddenly fell silent the moment he entered the alley.
He was frightened by what he saw.
It was because the person he wanted to kill not only stood there safely, but also killed half of the people he sent out.
The ground was covered with blood, and the man in the middle stood with a sword, looking like Yama.
The few people who came in later were not wearing masks and were not wearing black clothes. Xu Qing'an remembered that they were the people in the convoy that had just blocked the middle of the road.
It turned out that it was planned long ago.
He smiled coldly.
The man hurriedly said, "What are you still standing there for? Come on!"
Another wave of attacks came towards Xu Qing'an. The people who came later were waiting with their fingers on end, because since he had revealed his identity, this man had to be killed. However, what he had not expected was that Xu Qing'an was so powerful that the crossbowmen could not kill him, and neither could a dozen assassins.
He felt inexplicably panicked.
Sure enough, just as he was distracted, a gust of wind blew, accompanied by wailing sounds, and two assassins were kicked to his feet. He raised his eyes in a hurry, only to see a bloody sword stabbing towards him.
Everything happened so fast that I didn't have time to dodge before someone grabbed my shoulder and put a sword on my neck.
"Please spare my life." The hostage blurted out in such a situation.
The others who followed him in were also dumbfounded and horrified.
"Mercy?" Xu Qing'an said coldly in his ear, "When you asked them to kill me just now, did you ever think of asking them to spare my life?"
The sword on the neck slowly moved, and the pain gradually deepened.
"Go to hell."
"I'll give you whatever you want!"
The person being clamped closed his eyes and screamed.
The person behind him really stopped moving.
The man immediately added, "I'm in the shipping business in Jiangnan. I'll give you whatever amount of money you want..."
Xu Qing'an murmured: "Jiangnan water transport..."
"Yes, yes." Seeing hope, the ship merchant responded repeatedly, "He, he is also in the shipping business. Several of us in Jiangnan can give you the money."
Xu Qing'an glanced at the people pointed by the ship merchant. Like the man he had restrained, they were dressed in luxurious clothes, all in silk and satin. However, the clothes of one of them were even better. He must be the head of one of the major ship merchants.
What a joint encirclement and suppression.
He came up with a plan, but pretended to be indifferent to the ship merchants' conditions. He said, "I've heard about what happened in Jiangnan. You ship merchants have suffered heavy losses recently and lost a lot of market share. I'm afraid your accounts are all in the red. Do you still have money to give me?"
"Of course not!" The ship merchant in front spoke up. "Although we've suffered some losses this year, we're still financially secure. We're not as strapped for cash as you say, sir."
Xu Qing'an: "Show me the account book."
A meal for several people.
Xu Qing'an sneered: "Empty words, what are you talking about? I'll kill him now."
"Hey! I have it, I have it." A ship merchant shouted.
Several family heads went to the capital together, so they naturally carried important things like account books with them. Xu Qing'an tricked them out successfully.
He paused and saw the man in front of him pull out an account book from his pocket. He said without allowing any objection, "Open it and come forward."
The man did as he was told.
If this account book is true, it will be another strong evidence to hit Su Ran.
Xu Qing'an carefully distinguished them.
However, there was a sudden gust of wind, and the account book pages suddenly flipped. Xu Qing'an glanced at it, then became confused. The next moment, the man grasped a handful of white powder and sprinkled it at him.
The distance was too close, and even if Xu Qing'an dodged in time, he couldn't prevent some of the powder from hitting his eyes.
There was a white blur in front of my eyes, followed by severe pain in my eyeballs.
The man's way of spreading the word was not very elegant, and the person held in Xu Qing'an's hand was also caught in the trap, wailing several times.
But he saw this opportunity and waved his hand to let the killers come forward.
Fortunately, Xu Qing'an could still hear. Seeing someone rushing over, he quickly turned the person in his hand and kicked him towards the killers, then ran in the opposite direction.
After passing through several alleys, Xu Qing'an tentatively opened his eyes several times.
Fortunately, although the vision is blurry, it is enough to find the way.
But the bad thing was the powder that just hit his face.
Part of the powder entered his eye sockets, and part was inhaled into his body with his nostrils. Gradually, he felt an inexplicable dryness rising in his chest, and his whole body was stuffy.
Such a physical reaction would naturally affect his movements during the attack, but it was more related to the entanglement of the remaining poison in his body.
The poison in his body is cold, and encountering such positive drugs will only stimulate the two and intensify the backlash.
He was already a little distracted.
In a daze, he saw a big tree in the courtyard of a mansion, lush and tall with many branches.
The people behind him were still chasing him. He hesitated for a moment, closed his eyes to calm his mind, then stepped on the wall and flipped into the mansion.
——
Since he had not been back to Shangguan Mansion for a long time, and encountered such a dangerous situation this time, Shangguan Xu naturally had to exchange more pleasantries with Shangguan Li when they met again.
After they finished talking, the brother and sister decided to have dinner together in the evening. Shangguan Li went out to give some instructions to the servants. Taking advantage of this gap, Qinghe came in from outside and whispered something to Shangguan Xu.
Shangguan Xu was slightly surprised when he heard this: "Are you still awake?"
Qing He nodded: "He's awake. Judging from his appearance, his injuries don't seem serious. He only has bruises on his face, but there seems to be something wrong with his eyes."
Shangguan Xu stood up: "Let's go and take a look."
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