Jiangshan Fengwuzhi

Chapter 139 Monitoring
When it comes to being a spy, Gu Jingnian thinks he is much more capable than Pei Nian.

Because he had a good attitude, or in other words, deep down he didn't consider himself a spy, he would always forget about the country of Switzerland.

In his opinion, Pei Nian was using too much force.

But when he reminded her, she still didn't quite believe it and said that Zhao'er might have been deceiving her. How could it be so easy for him to just confess after being deceiving her?
In response to this, Gu Jingnian simply commented "stubborn", turned over, and was too lazy to say more.

But Pei Nian was not stupid. He lay there alone and thought for a while. He realized that he might be exposed. He whispered, "Zhao'er knows everything that happened in our house. Whether we live in separate rooms or in the same room, she will know it soon."

"Yes, arrange for people to monitor our Eastern Palace." Gu Jingnian said, "It was the Eastern Palace that persuaded my father to betray Rui and surrender to Yong. Since they know our background, how can they not be suspicious?"

"But Zhao'er also has high hopes for me."

Gu Jingnian lowered his voice and said, "There are so many servants in our mansion. Do you think there are any with sharp hearing? I mean, sharper than ordinary people."

Pei Nian said: "Of course there is."

"How can they not be suspicious when we chat every night in a language they don't understand?"

Pei Nian agreed with what Gu Jingnian said.

"I guess someone is listening to the bed right now."

"Try?"

"Okay, let's try." Pei Nian was not willing to be outdone, "You first."

"Go to sleep."

Gu Jingnian began to speak normal language.

Pei Nian said: "I can't sleep."

"That?"

"Ah."

Accompanied by very slight rustling sounds, Gu Jingnian's voice began to become heavy and low.

"Have you washed your hair today?"

"Ah."

"good smell."

Pei Nian's voice was still a little stiff, and he said: "Don't touch my hair, it's messed up."

"What about here?"

"Yin Shu seems to have a crush on you, did you know that?"

"Focus on this and stop talking about this."

"No, explain it to me first, or don't touch me."

"There's no chance for me and her."

"Prove it to me... um..."

Gu Jingnian directly blocked Pei Nian's mouth to stop her from continuing to make things difficult.

Behind several walls, in the backyard's inverted room, several maids had already gone to bed. Only one person was sitting by the door, seemingly in a daze.

She heard all kinds of sounds in the alley, the sound of Qin'er bathing, Gao Changgan's snoring, the footsteps of the night watchman in the distance... These were all noises. She tried hard to ignore them and focused on listening to the increasingly charming breathing in the main room.

"Okay, go away."

Pei Nian said something to Gu Jingnian in anger, feeling a little annoyed, but also feeling ashamed that he could do nothing about him. It was hard to imagine what expression Pei Nian, who usually had a stern look, had at this moment.

Gu Jingnian said nothing, but he kept moving.

After hearing this, the maid also felt her mouth dry and her cheeks burning.

When she woke up the next day, she didn't remember when the fun in the main room stopped. She only remembered that she had been dreaming all night.

Gu Jingnian and Pei Nian got up at dawn. She and several other maids brought hot water and breakfast over. She subconsciously glanced at the two of them and happened to meet Pei Nian's eyes.

She was a little flustered and quickly looked away, thinking that it was just a glance and nothing should be discovered.

In short, after serving the young couple who had just made love the night before to wash up, she walked into the bamboo forest as usual, picked up a bamboo tube from the ground, and told it everything she had heard.

--------

In Mingde Hall, an old gentleman gave a lecture today, talking about some past events when Yong State was founded. His purpose was naturally to subtly make these smartest disciples recognize that Yong State was the orthodox one in the world.

Pei Nian usually listened attentively to this kind of class to show her willingness to be loyal to Yong State and seek an official position as soon as possible. But today, she was distracted while listening.

Suddenly, her arm was touched. She turned around and saw it was Zhaoer, pushing a note towards her.

"Why aren't you paying attention?"

Pei Nian decided to take a step back and test Zhao'er's attitude, so he wrote: "I have changed my mind recently."

Zhao'er was a little surprised and wrote: "Why?"

As they wrote notes back and forth, Pei Nian's words revealed a mentality that it was difficult for a woman to be an official, so it would be better to just live an ordinary life with a husband and children.

"Because of Gu Jingnian?"

"Yes."

Seeing this, Zhaoer put down his pen, shook his head, and whispered, "How can you forget your ambitions because of a moment of pleasure?"

Pei Nian lowered his head and said nothing, understanding in his heart.

She was completely certain that this Zhao'er must have come from the Eastern Palace.

Regardless of whether the Eastern Palace wanted to reuse her, it was certain that they became suspicious of her when they were monitoring her. And Gu Jingnian was right. The best way to face suspicion was not to prove anything, but to show an indifferent attitude. At worst, she would just stop being an official of the Yong Kingdom.

Seeing that she didn't answer, Zhao'er nudged her with his elbow again.

Pei Nian wrote: "I don't know your real name yet."

When Zhao'er saw it, he picked up a pen and wrote three words on the paper.

"Yin Wanqing." Pei Nian smiled and said softly: "Pei Nian, this is my real name."

"Zhao'er is also true, it's my nickname..."

"Cough cough!"

The old gentleman on the podium had long noticed the two people whispering to each other below. Seeing that they were becoming more and more outrageous, he finally spoke up to remind them.

In the afternoon, Gu Jingnian was still waiting under the old locust tree.

His face had some wrinkles, probably because he had just woken up. He became closer to Zhang Xiaofang, and the two of them were chatting about random things, which made Zhang Xiaofang smile with a relaxed smile.

"Burns can heal, why do sleep marks take so long to disappear?"

"Then I am 'Awrinkle' now."

"Be careful in case I do better than you in the next ten-day exam."

Pei Nian said goodbye to Yin Wanqing, walked over, and said, "It's very likely."

After saying that, he nodded to Gu Jingnian, and the two exchanged a few words in a secret language.

"It turns out that she is the prince's daughter."

"..."

Over there, Yin Wanqing was turning around and walking away, and while she was listening, she vaguely heard the first one or two sentences they said.

She smiled faintly and got into her carriage.

The carriage passed through the streets and entered the East Palace from the side door very quietly. As soon as she got off the carriage, she asked, "Is my brother here?"

"Prince Zhao is having dinner."

"I'll go see him."

There were three dishes, one soup, one bowl and two vegetarian dishes on the table. Yin Jinggeng sat there eating alone with his bowl in hand.

When it comes to eating, Yin Jinggeng doesn't act like a rich and powerful person, he doesn't spend lavishly nor does he try to be frugal, he just makes sure he eats well and fully at every meal. He chews his food slowly, he just eats, he eats on time.

He has this attitude when doing everything, including sleeping and handling state affairs. This is one of the reasons why he looks healthy and full of energy.

Yin Wanqing walked into the hall and saw that Yin Jinggeng had not finished the last two bites of food. She did not rush to speak but waited patiently until he wiped his mouth with a handkerchief.

"I'm going to meet a few generals who are returning to Beijing soon. Just tell me if you have anything to say." Yin Jinggeng said.

"Gu Jingnian and Pei Nian have made new progress."

"Are the results out?"

The reason for saying this is that Yin Jinggeng once speculated that Pei Nian might be a spy from the Rui Kingdom. Yin Wanqing believed that this speculation was unfounded, so the brother and sister made a bet.

The bet was their father's Qinglong sword.

"No result, but some interesting things happened in the past two days." Yin Wanqing said: "Gu Jingnian is quite calm and is playing a trick of retreating to advance with me."

"is it?"

"I clearly tested them with the things they were most interested in. I talked to Gu Jingnian about alchemy and promised Pei Nian an official position to make them curious about my identity, to see if they would reveal any flaws. Yesterday, Gu Jingnian deliberately ignored me. At that time, I was puzzled that he could be so patient. Today, he asked Pei Nian to pretend that he didn't want to be an official to test me. At first, I really fell for their trick and thought that Pei Nian was going to help him raise his children. Later, I saw through it."

Yin Jinggeng asked: "How did you figure that out?"

"you guess."

"I won't guess. If it were me, I would be able to see the clues at a glance."

Yin Wanqing smiled and shook her head, with a hint of pride, and said, "They always like to say things that only they can understand."

"Yes."

"I've learned a little bit recently." Yin Wanqing blinked, "Just a little bit."

Yin Jinggeng was surprised and asked, "You can learn this?"

"It's nothing more than a mixture of languages from various tribes. After careful consideration, I can easily make out one or two words from it. At least I can understand the word 'test.'"

"It seems that I have won the bet." Yin Jinggeng smiled confidently, "If you don't want to give me the Azure Dragon Sword, don't recruit them anymore and let them be hostages."

After saying that, Yin Jinggeng stopped caring about the matter and stood up and walked out.

The smug look on Yin Wanqing's face gradually faded away, and she realized that her brother was probably right.

But when she began to consider giving up her relationship with Pei Nian, she found that she really wanted to see a female official from the Yong Kingdom, and a female official who could really accomplish great things, so she decided to give Pei Nian another chance.

She did not eat well like Yin Jinggeng. She only took two cakes and ate them. When she felt like eating, she went to a quiet courtyard on the west side of the East Palace.

The bamboo forest is dense, with a large group of houses hidden in it. A plaque hanging on it reads "Tingfeng Pavilion".

A cat was curled up and taking a nap. Yin Wanqing went over and piled bamboo leaves on the ground on it, but it didn't wake up.

But when Yin Wanqing walked away, a little bird flew over the bamboo forest. The cat suddenly woke up, jumped onto the roof, raised its claws and tried to pounce on the bird.

Pushing the door open and entering one of the houses in the row, I saw nothing else inside except rows of bamboo tubes with silver threads attached to the bottom.

Following the threads, I discovered that they were actually a person's hair.

She was a short and skinny old woman, sitting behind a bamboo tube rack, holding a bamboo tube in her hand and listening.

"I want to listen to Gu's house now." Yin Wanqing said.

The old woman didn't say anything, but just raised her hand and pointed at a bamboo tube on the shelf.

Yin Wanqing walked over, picked it up, and put it to her ear.

The voice that had just existed began to sound again. It was a maid repeating what Yin Yucheng had said.

Gradually, she heard a sentence that was both absurd and expected:

"I've recently regretted becoming sworn brothers with you. I should have let you be my son-in-law."

(End of this chapter)