She fell out after crying at the wrong grave

Li Chongxuan stood at the door of the wing room with his hands behind his back, looking north. The sky was clear and warm, with birds singing in the shade.

Not long after, Lu Zhongting walked out first.

A'ao followed closely behind and called out to Li Chongxuan.

"General, please stay. I have something to say to you." Ah-yi held Li Chongxuan's arm armor tightly, and it hurt her hand. "This time, I'm afraid I really have to wrong you and give you a reputation of being loyal to your post."

To make a long story short, after a lot of talking, I finally managed to make the matter half clear.

The remaining half that is unclear is that the current situation in the inner palace has been concealed.

With Li Chongxuan's status and position, it is basically enough to explain the situation of the court.

Ah-yi looked at his stunned expression and thought to herself that this was really absurd. He finally managed to escape from the capital, but was caught again. He tried every possible way to escape again, and now he had to go back again after a short period of comfortable life.

On the way back to the Ma Mansion to resign, Li Chongxuan's last question kept lingering in A's mind.

"What if this fails? What will happen to the soldiers and civilians at the border?"

Huai Chengbai and Lu Zhongting have different political views. The former hopes to change the dynasty and establish a wise ruler. But this is easier said than done. It is easier to find someone with two legs.

Lu Zhongting's intention has always been to depose Shen Zhuo, or wait for him to die, and let A'an succeed him. Even if she has no such intention, or does not have the ability to govern the country, it doesn't matter, anyway, there are ministers like them. By then, we can eliminate the treacherous and open up the channels for people to speak and appoint people based on their merits, and there will always be a way out.

It would be a good idea to choose a husband of noble character for the princess, have a son born and make him the crown prince, or let her abdicate.

Good idea, really absurd. It turns out that when they first proposed to make her the empress, it was not because they thought she was kind and reasonable, but because she was the last bloodline of the royal family.

Lu Zhongting's head made her laugh even more than the flood in Pingjiang that hit Wuling.

If it was as he thought, then she would not only be a puppet emperor, but also a vessel for giving birth to a prince.

She, Cui Yong, was willing to be an ordinary citizen, willing to live a life without wealth or status. Even if she died alone, she wanted to follow her heart and die as a human being, rather than becoming an object at the mercy of others.

What's more, Lu Zhongting seemed to be afraid of Hengzhi from his words, so there was no need to discuss it.

But after thinking about it carefully, Ah'ao suddenly realized that there was a way to solve the problem these two people were thinking.

But this matter requires long-term consideration, and now is not the time.

Today is the last day for the old man of the Ma family to rest in state, and the funeral will be held tomorrow. Ah-yi returned to the Ma residence and saw Zheng Da and several people in charge discussing the procedures for tomorrow's funeral ceremony in front of the residence gate.

"The shopkeeper's wife is back." Zheng Da dropped the blueprint in his hand and walked over. "Is everything going well?"

smoothly?

Ah'ao sighed, a gentle breeze blew on her face, and a few strands of hair that she had not had time to comb after taking off her official hat swayed on both sides of her cheeks.

The eyebrows are smooth and the tips of the slender eyebrows are of just the right thickness, adding color to the pair of almond-shaped eyes.

Although she is wearing plain clothes and having a plain face, her beauty remains the same as that of the spring mountains.

"Not only did it not go smoothly, but there were new problems. I have to go to the capital with the imperial envoy." Ah-yi dragged Zheng Da to the side under the pink wall and said briefly, "I have to take Yunli with me. After the funeral tomorrow, Madam Zhao will bring the housekeeper to settle accounts with you."

She took out a small square seal from her sleeve and said, "This is the seal of the shop. I trust you to do the job. After this is over, I'm afraid you won't be able to return for a while. Qing County has been occupied by Youbei people. You take the rest of the people south to Pingzhou and stay in our Pingzhou branch for a while."

Zheng Da nodded and took the seal and several documents.

"If the war has not started, you should go back to Kezhou." Ah's thought, and then said, "Even if you send a message back from Pingzhou, you must be careful. The situation is not peaceful now, and we can't let anyone catch us and arrest us."

Zheng Da was a man who knew the priorities very well. He collected the things carefully and then asked, "Shortly after you left this morning, Mr. Huai, who was familiar with you, left first and left a message for you, saying that you would not be alone this time and asked you to wait for his good news."

"Mr. Huai is gone?" Ah'ao was startled. They had just met again and hadn't had a good chat yet, but he left quietly again.

He said he came to pay his respects, but he left before he even finished the funeral.

In this chaotic time with war and siege everywhere, where can he go?
I can't care about so much anymore.

"Although the Youbei people stationed their troops fifty miles in front of the city gate, their scouts monitor the people coming in and out of the city every day." A few people came out of the gate. Ah'an paused and whispered, "The envoy cannot openly take one more person away. Yunli and I will go out with the funeral procession tomorrow, and they will meet us then."

"If." After struggling for a long time, Ah Yi finally said, "If you want to send a letter back to Kezhou, just tell your master the truth and say that I went to the capital."

Zheng Da looked at her hesitant back and wanted to say something, but in the end he let her go.

Huai Chengbai disguised himself as a barefoot Taoist priest and chose the shortest but most dangerous route. He borrowed a white flag from the Ma Mansion and headed straight for Kezhou from Qing County.

Ah'ao heard Yunli talk about this while she was in the carriage.

"Mr. Huai is worthy of being my wife's teacher. He is really a man with great ideas." Yunli held the water jug ​​and poured a cup of warm water for Ah's wife. "Mrs. Zhao in the mansion and I are terrified just by listening to him!"

Ah'ao was dressed in white, holding a cup and beating her waist.

During the funeral procession, she cried very hard all the way, so the northern barbarians could not tell that in this long procession, the woman whose eyes were swollen like peaches from crying was actually passing through to return to the capital to see Princess Xuancheng. This was Ah's old specialty, and it was not difficult to do. It was just that she had not rested well for several days, and after crying so hard, her head was buzzing.

"We went to the Taoist temple at the foot of the mountain and bought someone else's old Taoist robe. I changed Mr. Huai's hair into a bun, and he looked like a Taoist priest who had passed away."

Ah-yi saw that she was describing the story vividly and could not help but praise her, "I admire your ability of disguise. It was you who changed my makeup for me in Kezhou's private residence before and fooled Xue Ping. You are really an expert."

For a Confucian scholar like Lu Zhongting, it was really inappropriate for a man and a woman, and a master and his subject, to ride in the same car.

After leaving Qing County, they were out of the surveillance range of Youbei people. Lu Zhongting consciously avoided getting off the car, and when he arrived in Chengye, Yuanzhou, he hired another car, one in front and one behind, giving Ah'an and Yunli the convenience of talking alone.

After traveling all night and keeping her spirits high, Ah-yi was already exhausted. Now that she had just passed the border of Yuanzhou, she leaned against the wall of the car, forgetting all her manners.

"The northern barbarians are the epitome of people who don't understand but love supernatural powers. Especially when it comes to Taoism in the Central Plains, they would rather believe it than not believe it." Ah'e half closed her eyes and smiled, "Mr. Huai has really learned to draw talismans. If the northerners from Qing County stop him, he only needs to draw one on the spot and pretend to be serious and say a few words about Wuliang Tianzun. I'm afraid they will be so scared that they will quickly pass Mr. Huai away."

Yunli laughed heartily, and his laughter really sounded like a silver bell. Ah'ao felt happy just listening to it.

"Oh, right." Ah-yi suddenly remembered and asked, "What was Mr. Huai going to do in Kezhou? Did he mention it?"

This question stumped Yunli.

She thought for a moment and shook her head. The plain hairpin on her temples with its tiny tassel pendant swayed gently. "This... Mr. Huai didn't say anything. He just said that you must be busy in the future and I'm going to help you."

Help me.

Ah'ao murmured these two words softly, she was completely confused and no one could help her.

"My lady, please take a nap. We may not be able to stop and rest for a while until we arrive at the Pingzhou official post station." Yunli took out a thin blanket and draped it over A'ao.

She simply raised her hand to take off the hairpins and let her hair down. She could think about the rest tomorrow.

"Well, Yunli, you should take a nap too. If Lord Lu comes to call you, don't pay any attention to him."

After passing Yuanzhou and getting away from the mountains, the climate became noticeably hotter.

Three days later, the group finally arrived at the Pingzhou official post. Lv Zhongting was carrying the emperor's order, so the officials along the way dared not neglect it and directly booked the second floor of the official post for their exclusive use.

Ah-yi changed into a thin dress, the color of peach blossoms. Her black hair was tied up high on her head with a jade hairpin, and a few peach-colored flowers were pinned on top, with a few emerald green leaves as a backdrop. In addition, she had slept well in the past few days and was in good spirits, so she looked even more radiant and eye-catching.

The postmaster in the hall waited at the door specially. When Lu Zhongting and his servant took the key and went upstairs, he deliberately stopped A'an and Yunli.

With a hand across her body, Ah'ao couldn't help but look sideways.

The postmaster smiled respectfully, and Ah-yi did not want to be the first to attack. She waited until Lu Zhongting's figure disappeared at the end of the stairs before she stepped back half a step and examined him.

"What does the postmaster mean?"

The postmaster quickly replied, "I dare not, I dare not, but according to the rules, the Minister of the Central Secretariat must choose a residence first. Please wait for a moment, Your Excellency."

As he spoke, he led Ah'an to sit at a table nearby, had someone serve her tea, and brought her a few plates of snacks and fruits, which was very considerate.

Yunli's eyes were dazzled. These snacks were exquisite in style and fresh in color, and just looking at them would increase one's appetite. The teacups were also different from those in Kezhou, with thin porcelain and plum green color. Even the tea trays were made in the shape of lotus leaves, which looked lifelike.

She looked at A'ao uneasily, and A'ao also found it strange.

"The food and utensils here are not so lavish even for an official post station, right?" Ah-yi looked at the post station chief and asked tentatively, "If the officials were ranked according to their rank, the Minister of the Central Secretariat would have chosen the upper room first, and I was just a passenger. Why didn't he give such good things to him first?"

The postmaster smiled and bowed, "Your Excellency has good eyesight. These foods are naturally specially provided for you." As he spoke, he took out a copper key from his bosom, on which there was a stone-carved Pixiu hanging with a red rope, "This room on the second floor faces the sun, and there is no western sun in the evening. It is transparent from north to south, and it is specially prepared for you. Please come in."

strange.

A'ao stared at him, reached out to take the key, examined it carefully, but couldn't figure out anything.

"Pingzhou is hot and dry. There are mosquito repellent sachets in the room. You can open the window in the middle of the night to enjoy the cool air."

These words seemed vague, as if they were reminding her of something.

In general, government inns would remind guests to close doors and windows to prevent thieves from appearing in the middle of the night. Even if it was very hot, how could a woman like her open the window in the middle of the night to enjoy the cool air?

The room was spacious and bright, and was decorated very elegantly. In addition to the wing rooms for the guests to sleep in, there was also a room outside for the night watchman to stay.

Yunli was outside and fell asleep early.

A'ao half opened the window, blew out the light early, and lay down on the bed.

It was past midnight, the night was quiet, and there was movement by the window.

(End of this chapter)