After saving the Empress, I became the top scholar in the imperial examination.

"Clang!"

Li Wei kicked open the half-closed door, stepped over the threshold, entered the room, and roared:

"Li Xinlian, you beast! Get the hell out of here..."

An angry roar erupted. Any father would feel more humiliated than Governor Li for his daughter eloping.

But the roar abruptly stopped when it reached the word "come".

The room suddenly fell silent.

After a few breaths, a woman's voice rang out from inside the room:

"Hey...give him...clothes..."

The sound was very soft, almost imperceptible.

The Northern Dynasty officials immediately lowered their heads and held their breath in anticipation.

Upon hearing this voice, the officials of the Southern Dynasty sighed deeply, knowing that all was lost.

Now all we can do is wait for Li Wei to bring his daughter out so we can discuss how to handle this matter.

At this moment, ding ding ding ding.

The Governor-General of Jiangnan, wearing a feathered hat and the official robes of the Northern Dynasty, stepped out from the east wing again.

The burly governor had bulging veins on his forehead, his face was covered in trembling pimples, and his eyes were frighteningly somber.

He walked out the door.

He was breathing heavily, his shoulders heaving, clearly exhausted.

To be fair, if their own unfilial daughters had done such a thing, those present would probably not feel any better than Lord Li.

At this time.

"Clang!"

He turned around and closed the door.

"Um?"

In the end...did they still leave their daughter with some dignity?

Everyone paused for a moment.

As the two vermilion doors closed, the Governor-General of Jiangnan raised his hand, and everyone noticed that he was holding a blue robe.

"Snapped!"

He tossed the robe onto the young man lying on the ground, his veins bulging, his teeth clenched, but his tone remained calm as he spoke:

"I...I...I really misunderstood Lord Ning!"

Ning Nan felt dizzy and extremely uncomfortable, but he forced himself to stay awake and chuckled twice:

"Lord Li... I drank too much last night... and slept in late... What's it to you, Lord Li? Heh... bringing so many people to wake me up..."

As he spoke, he pulled the thick blue robe over himself.

My body, stiff from the cold wind, finally warmed up a bit.

"Fine, fine, fine..." Li Wei gritted his teeth and uttered a few words resentfully, "I had no idea... that Lord Ning possessed such abilities..."

"You flatter me..." Master Ning said calmly as the cold wind blew by and his mind slowly cleared.

"Walk!"

Li Wei raised his head, his eyes bloodshot, and roared at the crowd.

Everyone was taken aback.

The clerk asked blankly, "Sir, where is...where is Miss?"

"Are you deaf?" Li Wei asked, his eyes red. "Didn't you hear Lord Ning say that he slept alone last night?"

The clerk was stunned, then pointed to the east wing: "There was clearly a woman there just now..."

"What do you mean, 'what do you mean'?" Li Wei shouted, "Screw you! Get lost!"

That's all.

He flicked his sleeve and walked straight out of the courtyard.

Upon reaching the courtyard gate, he turned back and roared at the crowd who were frozen in place:

"Get the hell out of here!"

Upon hearing this roar, the Northern Dynasty soldiers and their infantrymen sprang to their feet and, like birds and beasts, followed behind Lord Li.

The next moment, the officials who had rushed into the Crane Garden together, as well as the five hundred infantrymen, all retreated from the Crane Garden like a tide, their footsteps echoing everywhere.

Inside the Yaji Tower, the officials of the Southern Dynasty looked at each other, wondering what had happened.

They clearly heard a woman's voice inside, so why is Li Wei denying it?

Could it be that he's trying to protect his daughter's reputation and doesn't want to make a big deal out of this?

But if you really care about your daughter's reputation, shouldn't you have refrained from making such a big fuss in the first place?

What's the logic behind this?

Seeing that the prince consort was still lying on the ground, Jia Shi'an and others rushed forward to help him up.

Ning Nan waved his hand, his face pale and his expression somewhat ferocious, and said:

"Get out... everyone get out... Xu Xiyin... go and call Xu Xiyin over... call her over... everyone else get out..."

Xu Xiyin was called out from the west wing, and everyone else left the Yaji Building.

Xu Xiyin, usually calm, came over to help Ning Nan with a worried expression.

The cold ground pressed painfully against Mr. Ning's back, and his mind slowly cleared.

The voice was angry as it said, "Do you know what she did?"

Xu Xiyin looked uneasy, but the next moment, she looked at him with a strange expression.

"Don't look at me like that!" Ning Nan snapped. "Nothing's wrong!"

Xu Xiyin lowered her eyes and said, "This subordinate... only knows a little bit. She... she said to leave everything to her."

As the female Taoist priest spoke, she helped the leader put on his clothes.

"You believe that?" Old Master Ning's forehead veins throbbed violently.

As he spoke, he slowly turned around, his heavy eyelids fluttering as he shuffled toward the east wing, with Xu Xiyin supporting his left arm.

"Clang!"

He pushed open the door, took a step inside, and was just about to start cursing when he saw a scene of unspeakable whiteness. He quickly closed his eyes, took a step back, and staggered.

If Xu Xiyin hadn't supported him with both arms, Master Ning would have fallen down immediately!

"Get the hell out of my clothes!"

The voice inside said innocently, "I just got out of bed and was getting dressed when you came in."

"Get out!" Master Ning finally shouted.

…………

The Southern Dynasty delegation, which was originally scheduled to depart after noon, changed its departure time to 7:00 AM and informed the Northern Dynasty delegation.

After consulting with the Seventeenth Princess, the Northern Dynasty delegation decided to depart at Chenshi (7-9 AM).

The two delegations had actually been making preparations for quite some time.

It's only an hour or two earlier, it's no big deal.

The grand procession left Huai'an City through the north gate and continued northward.

The efforts of Governor-General Li Wei of Jiangnan to have people break the ice and repair the official road overnight have yielded significant results, making the road north much easier to travel.

For about six hundred years, the Yellow River has breached its banks several times, carrying large amounts of silt and sand to the Huai River area.

The Huai River channel is severely blocked and has narrowed year by year, to the point that it can hardly be called a river anymore. Most of the water flowing from the west into the Huai River is diverted into Hongze Lake.

It is feared that in another hundred years, this section of the Huai River estuary east of Hongze Lake will disappear.

After leaving Huai'an, the two delegations headed to the important city of Xuzhou.

The Northern Dynasty delegation still led the Southern Dynasty delegation.

For the Southern Dynasty delegation, the procession remained the same: high-ranking officials' carriages led the way, infantry and laborers with mules and horses formed the middle, while cavalry protected the flanks.

As for Vice Envoy Ning, one of the deputy envoys of the delegation, he led more than ten Imperial Guards and nearly forty recruited servants, driving some mules and horses, and was at the end of the delegation.

In addition, there were 100 cavalrymen sent by the three princes of the Northern Dynasty, who followed and protected the delegation about 100 zhang behind. These 100 cavalrymen also brought 100 laborers to transport the cavalry's supplies.

A plain carriage was surrounded by more than ten cavalrymen dressed in Southern Dynasty flying fish robes.

On the carriage.

Ning Nan, dressed in a blue robe, sat at the head of the table in silence.

"Son-in-law,"

Qian Sijin, sitting on the right, lowered his head and said:

"The situation at Yajilou has been fully investigated..."

His voice was weak.

"There's a tunnel under the wardrobe in the east wing of the Elegant Gathering Building... When our men went down, the tunnel was sealed off at its deepest point, but the soil was fresh. Based on the location, we determined that the tunnel leads directly to a wine cellar called Tianjinlou outside Crane Garden. Miss Li must have come in from there..."

On the left side of the carriage sat a nun and a maidservant dressed in peach-colored robes, the maidservant sitting very close to the nun. At this moment, she glanced at Master Ning at the head of the table and exclaimed in displeasure:

"I didn't do anything to you, why are you acting like this?"