My enemies became my companions

Chapter 308
Several days passed in a flash.

These days, there was no business to worry about, whether in Zhigesi or anywhere else, and Chen Yi was happy to be free. He would just go to Zhigesi to take a look, say hello to Luo Nanwu, and then return home.

There are often a lot of underworld affairs when the new year comes, but most of them are just trivial matters, which can be handled by the various government offices, and the Zhige Division does not need to be mobilized at all. Even if the Zhige Division can be mobilized, it will be handled by the various departments under the Sicheng.

As for how to deal with it, it is different from what many storytellers say. The first thing to rely on is naturally connections, followed by government authority, then financial resources, and finally military force.

There are no castles in the air in this world. A person who can enter the Zhigesi must be a fifth-rank warrior, and at the very least, a sixth-rank warrior. To develop martial arts to such a level, it is inevitable that all kinds of human relationships and help from noble people are indispensable. The ten officials in the Zhigesi have a network of contacts that covers almost the entire capital area.

So it is normal that You Xu knew Qiu Gang, and Chen Yi killed You Xu, and therefore involved Qiu Gang in seeking revenge.

And if someone in the capital revealed that Chen Yi had killed Qiu Gang, many people might be involved in seeking revenge.

Even with Zhou Yitong around, these people could hardly threaten Chen Yi and the people around him, but being constantly harassed by the mosquito nails was still very scary, and one never knew they would capsize in the gutter one day.

When he was not busy with official duties, Chen Yi stayed at home. He was not idle all day. In the early morning, he accompanied Yin Tingxue to practice under the supervision of Zhou Yitong, and then he also practiced Yin Jianshan's sword. After that, he talked with Zhou Yitong for a while, most of the time it was only a quarter of an hour, and his wife in the previous life rarely responded. After a quarter of an hour, she went back to the guest room to recuperate again. They could not see each other again until the evening. This made people feel depressed, but Chen Yi rarely pitied flowers and grass and created troubles for himself.

Chen Yi had some free time after lunch, but it was also the time Yin Tingxue feared the most, because her husband was most likely to think about that at this time. The girl had calculated that after one or two times of tossing and turning in the afternoon, she would have to wait until an hour and a half after curfew to have enough strength, but he would do it again in the evening. Not only would it be unbearable, but the whole day would be wasted. So she had to find another way. After much persuasion, she finally persuaded Chen Yi to stop. But what was the point of persuading him?

She read to him.

Because Chen Yi was often not at home and she had nothing to do, the concubine read a lot of books, including the Four Books and Five Classics and the selected edition of Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, all of which were bought by Chen Yi. They were piled up in the study, almost filling up the entire room, and Yin Tingxue had read 60% of them, mostly novels and storybooks. She saw all kinds of stories and people in the books. She was very quiet when reading, and even when she saw touching parts, she would wipe away her tears quietly.

Now she was going to read the book to Chen Yi. Chen Yi listened very quietly. He would talk to her about the story in the book only after she finished reading a volume.

The girl was very strategic in her reading. At the beginning of the afternoon, she read story-based novels. After half an hour, she began to read some obscure Buddhist and Taoist scriptures, which made Chen Yi drowsy and he had to go back to the bedroom to take a nap. At this time, Yin Tingxue had some free time and could do her own things.

It is said that I am doing something of my own, but in fact I am mostly reading, and occasionally doing some needlework, playing tossing pots, or playing mahjong alone. It doesn't matter whether it is fun or not, the most important thing is to be at ease.

Everyone likes to be free, but the freedom that everyone wants is different. For Chen Yi, freedom means accompanying this person and that person. For the girl, freedom means having a home and staying at home alone.

After a few days, it suddenly started to rain. The closer it got to the New Year, the less rain there was. Dark clouds that were not very thick pressed down on the sky. The light in the mansion was dim, and water was dripping down from the green tile roof. There was a faint earthy smell. The girl, wearing a goose yellow dress, was holding "The Peony Pavilion" and was about to read it to Chen Yi, but Chen Yi, for some reason, was looking straight to the south at this time. After a while, he suddenly took out the rice paper and said he wanted to write a letter.

Just write the letter. As his concubine, Yin Tingxue pressed the paper for him, ground the ink, and combed the tip of the pen with her little mouth.

Although he said he wanted to write a letter, after Chen Yi grabbed the pen, he held it over the rice paper for a long time without starting.

The ink dripped onto the table, forming spots and half spreading out.

Yin Tingxue looked at him in confusion, wondering why he hadn't started yet. Was he planning to write parallel prose in one go?

"I can't write a letter." After a while, Chen Yi managed to say the words.

Yin Tingxue laughed, covering her mouth with one hand and holding her stomach with the other, and she almost lost her balance and fell to the ground.

Chen Yi glanced at her and said, "Is it so funny?"

The little fox stopped smiling immediately, and quickly shook his head, folded his hands in front of his chest, and gently advised him not to be angry.

Chen Yi didn't argue with her, but stared at the blank rice paper. There was really no place to put the ink.

It’s not that I can’t write letters, at least I can write characters, but the problem is that I can’t write classical Chinese…

I am not a rough person. I had nine years of education in the distant past, so I would not be a rough person. But writing classical Chinese is another matter. I have no idea about it at all.

Because of this, I am not interested in poetry gatherings. In fact, even if the Tang, Song, Yuan and other dynasties did not exist in this world, it would be extremely difficult to copy poems. If you can't even write classical Chinese, no matter how many poems you copy, your superficial foundation will be exposed, let alone parallel prose, which is more advanced than poetry.

Chen Yi felt that he was not a rough man, but to the daughter of King Xiang, this husband was a rough man, the kind that could not be rougher.

"How about I read to you and you write?" Yin Tingxue suggested after thinking about it.

Chen Yizhen had this intention.

So Yin Tingxue put her hands on the table and asked Chen Yi in a soft voice who he wanted to write to and what he wanted to write. When she learned that Chen Yi wanted to write to the pregnant queen, Yin Tingxue was silent for a moment.

She suddenly didn't want to help Chen Yi write the letter anymore.

But words once spoken cannot be taken away. Yin Tingxue shook her head and continued to help Chen Yi write the letter wholeheartedly.

The letter contained mostly words of condolence, with one or two words explaining the current situation. On the surface, it was written to the princess, but at the end of the letter, it was full of affection and left a sentence to complement her.

Yin Tingxue composed a poem: I have missed you for a long time this spring, and today I meet you for the first time.

Chen Yi originally wanted to write it down, but at the end, he had to say what he wanted to say in person. What's more, he had been reading this letter for such a long time and had some thoughts in his mind.

So he wrote down eight words:

The mountains are covered with snow, the seas are dry and the rocks are crumbling.

Chen Yi had no idea whether these eight words were well written, so he just folded the letter and found a chance to go to the post station to mail it.

Calculating the time, they should have returned to southern Xinjiang by the time the letter arrived.

To be honest, it would not be a bad idea to write the letter in vernacular Chinese, but Chen Yi thought that Qin Qingluo would read the letter. If he wrote it in vernacular Chinese, not only would the princess look down on him, but she would even be greatly disappointed. That's why he insisted on writing it in classical Chinese.

Yin Tingxue saw it all, so she didn't try to persuade Chen Yi. She knew that this was her husband's character.

And she saw

Late at night, he stayed outside the house and secretly carved a Buddha statue for her...

Because she laughed at him last time, he stopped carving in the morning.

This kind of days continued until the day Min Ning brought Min Ming to the house.

Chen Yi was still very surprised when the Min sisters appeared outside the door.

Min Ning's face was serious, his brows were tightly furrowed, his phoenix eyes were fixed on Chen Yi, his thin lips were pursed, as if he didn't know how to start.

Her sister's pretty face turned pale. She didn't dare to look Chen Yi in the eye. Her peach blossom eyes were drooped, and she felt quite ashamed.

Seeing Min Ning slowly walk through the gate, Chen Yi asked in confusion:
"Why did you come here with your sister?"

As soon as the words fell, Min Ning, with a frown on her face, looked away. She folded her arms across her chest and said shyly, "I have something... please." Chen Yi glanced at Min Ming not far away. The latter lowered his head and took half a step aside. This action made Chen Yi guess something.

Then, he looked back at Min Ning and said, "Yuechi, you don't have to beg."

Hearing his tone, Min Ning breathed a sigh of relief, and then said sternly: "You still have to beg. Although you and I are... brothers, we should keep things separate."

She didn't know how to describe the relationship between the two.

She had disguised herself as a man and kept it a secret from him for so long, so he didn't think there was anything wrong with calling them brothers. But now that the truth has been revealed, she is a woman and he is a man, and it always feels a little weird that they are still brothers.

Could he change the word, "friends"? That was a little too shallow. After all, they had a deeper friendship, and it was on his lips. But the word "husband and wife" hadn't even been written yet, so Min Ning simply didn't think too much about it and used "brothers".

Female brothers are female brothers. Doesn’t he want female brothers?

"Just tell me what it is." Chen Yi said calmly.

Min Ning sighed and said, "It's simple. The Queen Mother summoned my sister to the palace."

After the explanation, Min Ning told Chen Yi everything that Min Ming had told her, from the first time she entered the palace to meet the Queen Mother to the present time when she was held accountable by the Queen Mother. She told everything clearly. There were some confusing points, so Chen Yi asked questions and Min Ning answered them one by one.

After hearing this, Chen Yi frowned.

Min Ning stared at Chen Yi and gritted her teeth. If this matter was not so difficult, she would have wanted to handle this kind of household chores on her own. However, she was powerless to do anything about it now and could only go to Chen Yi.

She really wanted to say, "After this time, I will give it to you."

But once these words were out, the meaning would definitely change, making him think that she was trading her virginity for something. Min Ning was not worried about being looked down upon by him, but she was worried about being looked down upon by herself, because what she wanted was for things to happen naturally and naturally.

So Min Ning couldn't say anything and could only stare blankly.

Chen Yi chuckled, as if he understood Min Ning's thoughts and said:

"I'm not hesitating. I'm thinking about the one in the palace."

Min Ning nodded slightly and said softly:

"That's good...what do you want to do?"

"What to do? Just go to the palace and confront her directly." Chen Yi paused, glanced at Min Ming and said, "To be honest, I have had this idea for a long time. I stood in Jingren Palace and faced her face to face. It was just that the matter of Jinya Pavilion made both of us a little embarrassed. I have no reason to go to the palace. In the end... maybe I should thank your sister."

Min Ming lowered his head even lower as he spoke, so low that he couldn't see his feet.

After Chen Yi took a quick glance, he didn't look at it any more.

It would be a lie to say that he had no interest in Min Ming at all. It was just that Chen Yi had already said it and would not take it back unless it was absolutely necessary. Besides, he had long learned to restrain himself and didn't think about it any more at the moment.

Compared with Min Ming, the one in Jingren Palace is the real headache.

Chen Yi took a deep breath, then exhaled heavily, and continued:
"Yuechi, I think you will have to leave Beijing early after I enter the palace this time."

Min Ning was stunned for a moment, but then he reacted and said:
"You mean..."

Chen Yi continued:
"I'm afraid she won't give up. If she sets her sights on you, it will be too late to leave... It's better to leave now while she still doesn't know you're a girl."

Chen Yi turned his head and glanced in the direction of Jingren Palace along the Donghua Gate.

"This time, I want to go to the palace and talk to her."

He said it again, seemingly speaking to Min Ning, but also seemingly talking to himself.

"Okay..." Min Ning paused and added, "I'll wait for you to come back before I leave."

Chen Yi did not refuse. He knew that Min Ning had originally planned to leave after the New Year, but this time, things might not go as planned.

After returning from the underground palace, even though Chen Yi had rarely been to Jingren Palace, and she had intentionally not summoned Chen Yi to the palace, her desire for control had only increased, and had unknowingly deepened to this point.

For example, the time when she went on a secret visit in order to grant Yin Tingxue the status of Princess in person, it was clear that if it wasn't for the matter of Jin Ya Pavilion, she would have been stuck in a stalemate with Zhou Yitang for the entire day.

In his previous life, because Queen An had not entered the underground palace at that time, her control over him was not deep. Otherwise, he would not have been able to leave Beijing so easily.

Chen Yi turned around, walked to the water tank, opened the lid, scooped a spoonful of water from it, and washed his face.

Then he knocked gently on the guest room door.

He didn't say anything, just stood there for a while and then turned and left.

And he knew that his wife from his previous life in the guest room understood everything.

Chen Yi turned around and entered the mansion. After settling Yin Tingxue, he came out wearing the black robe of a thousand households, with a sword on his back and a knife in hand. Then he waved to Min Ning and went straight to Jingren Palace.

The sky is dark and gloomy.

Inside Jingren Palace.

The ground dragon was boiling hot, emitting gusts of white steam in the cold wind, as ethereal as a fairyland, which made the master of the temple look even more holy.

The beautiful and graceful woman who was about to step out of the door stopped, she gathered her fox fur coat, and as if she had a telepathic connection, she looked towards the direction of Donghua Gate with a deeper gaze.

The palace maids who were guarding outside the palace came forward. It was windy and cold outside, and they wanted to persuade the empress dowager not to stand there for too long.

But they saw Queen An raise her hand slightly, with her fingertips suspended in mid-air.

"Pass on my order. If anyone from outside the palace wishes to see me today, I will not see him. If anyone from outside the palace wishes to force their way into the palace, they will be captured alive."

Tomorrow is the recommendation day. I am so nervous. I hope everyone will support me and recommend my book. Success or failure depends on this.

There will be additional updates in the early morning.

(End of this chapter)