Ask the Nine Ministers

Chapter 5: Returning Home with a Minor Punishment
After growing up, Gu Jie grew up to be the person Xue Yueying liked.

He was tall and straight, and had a bright smile, but he didn't like Xue Sui's smile, and he didn't like her looking at him with a smile.

Maybe because her mother was a Hu Ji, Xue Liu's eyes were too dark and deep, her nose was straight and straight, and she had a unique temperament. Although her life was worthless, she was exceptionally clean and beautiful. She was like this at the age of eight, and she was also like this at the age of eighteen. This made him very irritable and he wanted to break her.

"How dare you ask my mother? If you hadn't interfered, how could my mother and I have been separated? How could Ying'er have suffered so much? Do you know how much grievance and ridicule Ying'er has suffered? Xue Liu, it's all your fault!"

Xue Sui asked back: "Has she suffered as much as I have?"

Gu Jie's face froze and he looked away.

"Your minor injuries are nothing, just a child's play."

Skin trauma?
Xue Sui looked at the gloomy sky, thinking of the child who was trembling and struggling in pain but whose mouth was blocked and he couldn't utter a word. He rubbed his lower back and sneered.

"What about your injury? Now that Gu Wulang's injury has healed, have you forgotten my life-saving grace?"

Gu Jie was like a cat whose tail was stepped on. All the hair on his body stood up and his eyes became particularly fierce.

"They and I are close friends. We are just having fun together. Who wants you to meddle in our business?"

As if to convince himself, he used his stiff hands to straighten the coat on Xue Yueying's shoulders, "Ying'er has been hurt, suffered, and slandered over the years, which is a thousand times, ten thousand times more painful than you, Xue Liu..."

Xue Sui smiled and said, "Then Gu Wulang, remember this. If it's not a thousand times or ten thousand times, you will have to finish off the enemy yourself in the future!"

"Xue Liu!" Gu Jie's face changed and he became furious.

"Gu Lang..." Xue Yueying shook her head at him, "Don't blame my sister, she is very pitiful."

Gu Jie looked at her and his features softened.

"Ying'er, you are so kind. If there is anyone who can save my life, it is you, not someone else."

"Gu Lang..."

"Okay, I don't blame her. But I said that I would never marry Xue Liu even if I die. From now on, I will never let Ying'er suffer any injustice... Gu Jie will definitely cherish Ying'er's kindness."

Xue Yueying smiled, her face bright and beautiful, "Then you should talk to Sixth Sister nicely... Although marrying into the palace is a good thing, it is inevitable that a woman will feel sad if she is not loved..."

Gu Jie nodded helplessly.

Glancing sideways, I found Xue Sui was smiling.

He was even more irritated and uneasy. "Ying'er, you are kind-hearted, but others may not appreciate it. Some people are not worthy of our kindness after all..."

Xue Yueying raised her hand to stop him from speaking and asked Xue Sui again.

"Sixth sister, if you are unwilling to go to the palace, why don't you come with me to ask grandmother and the eldest lady to allow my sister and I to share the same husband and become Gu Langping's wife..."

"Ying'er!" Gu Jie was anxious.

"How can such a despicable woman be on equal footing with you?"

Xue Sui almost laughed out loud, "Who said I didn't want to?"

She looked at the horses passing by on the side of the road and smiled.

"In terms of talent, beauty and power, Gu Wulang is not even worthy of carrying shoes for His Royal Highness Prince Duan. How could I abandon Fenghuang and marry Shanji?"

Then he hissed softly, "Not everyone is as blind as the fourth girl."

Gu Jie's face turned red with embarrassment, but he did not dare to openly refute her and say that Prince Duan was not as good as himself.

Xue Yueying lost her temper, "Sixth sister, don't be so ungrateful. If it weren't for the fact that my elder sister had been childless for many years after marriage, such a good thing wouldn't have been your turn..."

Xue Sui smiled slightly, "I will tell the eldest girl what the fourth girl said later. Why is she so miserable? Unlike the fourth girl, she hasn't even gotten married yet, so she can get pregnant any way she wants."

Xue Yueying's heart tightened and her face turned pale.

The two families kept the pregnancy a secret, so how could outsiders know about it?
Xue Yueying glanced at the two girls who were looking down, and thought of Gu Jie, her mother who wished she could bite off a piece of her flesh. Suddenly, she didn't dare to look at the smile on Xue Sui's face.

Can marrying into a marquis's mansion really bring you a life of glory?
-
Xue Yueying prepared another carriage for Xue Sui.

She and Gu Jie were in the front, laughing from time to time. Xue Sui and Xiao Zhao were in the back, and the wood in the carriage was damaged halfway through the journey. They stopped and started along the way, and returned home a full day later than Xue Yueying.

Shortly after the New Year, red lanterns celebrating the solar term were still hung in front of the Xue Mansion. After nightfall, the lights flickered, reflecting the majesty of the family.

Xue Sui's carriage waited outside the mansion for a full cup of tea before someone came to open the door and let her in.

The doorman blew on his hands and snorted in dissatisfaction. He did not take Xue Sui, who had returned to Beijing in trouble, seriously and was as sarcastic as ever.

"It's freezing cold, can't Sixth Miss hurry up? You have to torture us servants and make us stay up all night waiting for you."

"If it were another girl, she would have to give some money to the doorman for a drink when she returned home at night..."

A hand stretched out from behind the curtain.

There were about twenty copper coins in the snow-white palm.

"Stingy!" The doorman pursed his lips and reached out to grab the money, but unexpectedly, the little hand raised and the copper coins flew accurately into the air and fell into the fish pond in front of the screen wall.

"Oops! I missed it."

The fish pond was full of water. It would be painful to fish out those copper coins on a frosty day like this... The concierge gritted his teeth with a cold face, waited for the carriage to pass by, then rolled up his sleeves and put his arms into the water.

Xue Sui lifted a corner of the curtain.

The night wind was chilly and cool, blowing into her cuffs, like a cold silk ribbon quietly wrapped around her skin, making her shiver slightly.

The man looked very embarrassed as he bent over and fumbled for copper coins in the winter water...

Just like when she was held upside down by her feet and her head was pressed into a water tank.
-
Xue Qingzhi had just walked over from the council hall with Prince Duan when he saw Xue Sui throwing the coin, and his expression froze instantly.

"Minister Xue." Li Huan stood with his hands behind his back under the shade of a tree southeast of the screen wall. His face was half bright and half dark, and his voice was slow and dignified.

"You have to hurry up with the case of You Taichang's family. Old Lord You goes to my father to cry and complain every day, and this prince is also in a difficult situation."

"Okay, okay." Xue Qingzhi bowed and said, "I will investigate carefully and handle the case properly so that Your Majesty will not have to worry about it."

Li Huan saw that he was respectful, and his serious face softened.

The name has also changed.

"Thank you, father-in-law."

Xue Qingzhi leaned forward and smiled meaningfully, "As the Minister of Justice, it is my duty to investigate and handle criminal cases. Moreover, Your Majesty is currently in charge of Jingzhao affairs, so I should assist you wholeheartedly to repay Your Majesty's trust..."

The emperor intended to cultivate Prince Duan. Although he was not the nominal prefect of Jingzhao Prefecture, all affairs of the capital were supervised by him.

Not only that, the emperor also made an exception and let him take charge of the Right Guard and the Palace Guards to control the prince's direct personal soldiers of the "Six Commanders of the Eastern Palace".

The meaning is self-evident.

As a father's partiality, Li Huan did not disappoint everyone's expectations.

Since he took charge of Jingzhao, he has sought benefits for officials, been lenient to the people, and personally revised the criminal law to reduce the many cruel punishments that have been in place since he came to power.

This made him highly praised among the people in the market and his good name spread widely.

On the Lantern Festival, Sanlang of You Taichang's family fell off a flying bridge. At first, Jingzhao Prefecture judged that he had drunk and slipped. But after the imperial physician in the palace fixed his bones and saved his life, Sanlang You unexpectedly woke up and insisted that someone had pushed him.

This matter caused a stir in Shangjing for several days and there were many rumors.

People gloated over his misfortune, saying that he was a troublemaker and it would be better if he died.

The Jingzhao Prefecture, together with the Ministry of Justice, searched for all the suspicious persons in Qionglou that night, but failed to find the murderer.

Lord You went to the emperor every day to cry for this precious child.

In the past, the emperor would at most have said a few words of comfort, but now that Prince Duan is in charge of Jingzhao, he is bent on rectifying the customs of the people and eradicating current ills. When this case happened and the murderer could not be found, it would be like a slap in the face of His Royal Highness Prince Duan in public.

Xue Qingzhi understood what he meant and said a few polite words. Li Huan said no more and turned away, asking calmly:

"Who was in the carriage that just entered the mansion?"

Xue Qingzhi felt a little guilty.

At that time, they only told others that the child was weak and sent him to the ancestral home in the countryside to recuperate, but was later abducted by a kidnapper.

Xue Qingzhi had no idea how Xue Liu got to the Old Mausoleum Swamp.

But if Li Huan knew that the woman who bullied the servants was Xue Liu, who the Xue family was going to bring to Prince Duan's mansion to be his concubine, I'm afraid bad things would happen...

Fortunately, the lights in the corridor were dim, so Li Huan might not be able to see the person clearly.

Xue Qingzhi then said: "It was dark, and I couldn't see clearly which room the girl was from..."

Li Huan nodded lightly, giving him a way out.

"I shouldn't be interfering in the affairs of my father-in-law's mansion, but the crown prince has been making trouble recently, and my father attaches great importance to the virtue of managing the family and the family discipline. If my father-in-law runs into a knife edge, it will be a serious crime if he fails to manage the family strictly... It's better not to make any more mistakes."

Xue Qingzhi raised his sleeve and wiped his forehead, "Thank you for your advice, Your Highness. I don't need to do that."

Li Huan nodded: "Goodbye."

Xue Qingzhi bowed and said, "I respectfully send you off, Your Highness."

Li Huan slowly put his hands behind his back and walked in front with big strides.

Xue Qingzhi followed in three or two steps, looked back in the direction where the carriage disappeared, and gritted his teeth secretly.

Trouble spirit!
He caused trouble for him as soon as he came back. He is indeed a natural disaster star.

How could they be like his eldest and fourth sisters? One was the reincarnation of a lucky star, and the other was a spiritual being. One married Prince Duan as his principal wife and would rule the country in the future. The other married the beloved son of Marquis Jingyuan, who held a large number of troops, and would enjoy unlimited honor in the future, all thanks to her father’s help…

　Li Zhao: Xue Ping'an, my role in the film is a bit too small.

　　Xue Sui: Li Zeida, aren’t you living in your brother’s mouth?
　　-

　　If nothing unexpected happens, it will be updated at 12:00 noon every day~~

　　Xue Ping'an and Li Zeida said that the nicknames given by the children are very good!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)