Save the tragic villain in progress!

When the news was sent back to King Jin's mansion, King Jin felt his eyes go dark, and he almost fainted like the attendant.He was so angry that his whole body was cold, he barely supported the table to stand firm, gritted his teeth and said in a trembling voice: "The prince clearly did it on purpose!"

When Chu Jiaoping heard this, his face also turned ugly.The food collection has ended. From the princes and ministers to the common people and merchants, everyone has donated. Only the king of Jin is missing. What will Emperor Yan think when he sees it?

Chu Jiaoping was angry and anxious, frowned and said: "Your Highness is confused, if the silver was sent over early, the prince would have nothing to do even if he wanted to. Now that he is constrained every step of the way, wouldn't he be lifting a rock to hit himself?" feet."

King Jin's face turned pale when he heard this.He was already in an uneasy mood, but being accused by Chu Jiaoping made it worse to the extreme, and said with a flick of his sleeves: "Enough, I know what you said, but now that things are like this, what else can I do!"

King Jin got up and wandered around in the house, and finally came up with a solution that didn't work: "This king doesn't believe that the money can only pass through the hands of the prince. Tomorrow, the king will enter the palace and let the mother and concubine collect donations on his behalf. In the hands of the royal father."

Chu Jiaoping closed his eyes and let out a slow breath.The crown prince gave a full three-day deadline, and King Ping and Chang Wang honestly sent the silver to the East Palace, but King Jin went his own way, and the women in the harem handed it over to let others see what they thought.

There was a rare trace of frustration in Chu Jiaoping's eyebrows, and he said in a tired tone: "I'm afraid it will be too late to send it tomorrow, the prince's move is clearly intentional, he must have carved the merit tablet early, even if His Highness handed over the money, I can't even engrave my name on it."

The king of Jin choked: "Then the king will order people to give the silver taels to the mother and concubine now?"

Chu Jiaoping looked at the darkening sky outside, and slowly shook his head: "The palace gate has already been locked, and the time for handing in the post to pay homage has long passed. Besides, how will His Highness bring those silver taels into the palace?" , His Majesty will definitely be alarmed in the middle of the night. When His Majesty asks why he didn’t pay all the silver taels within three days, how will His Highness reply?”

One sentence blocked Jin Wang's last thoughts.

The moon is in the middle of the sky, and the shadows are sparse.The bright moonlight poured down, making the courtyard ground white, and the edges and corners of the cobblestone path shimmered slightly, paving a winding and silvery road.

Chu Xinian was sitting in the study, bowing his head and drawing on the table.It's just that it's not ink, but turmeric juice.I saw him draw a silhouette of a man in official uniform on the yellow paper, leaving a small vacancy in his right eye, which looked strange.

The prince lay across the table and stared at it for a while: "Who are you drawing?"

Xie Jingyuan didn't have so many scruples, and directly looked in front of Chu Xinian, and then raised his eyebrows: "You are painting Qin Daoyan?"

Chu Xinian blew on the traces on the paper, and saw that the color of the turmeric gradually faded after it dried.He asked Xie Jingyuan: "How is it, do I still look like it?"

Xie Jingyuan tapped the table lightly with his fingertips, but said nothing, not wanting to hit Chu Xinian.

The prince suddenly laughed and laughed: "Hahaha, Chu Xinian, Chu Xinian, I thought you were proficient in everything, but I didn't expect that your painting skills can't even match that of a three-year-old child. It can be seen that no one is perfect in the world. If you I want to draw Qin Daoyan's one-eyed dragon, but I will draw it for you alone, look at what you drew, crooked, like a ghost."

But Chu Xinian said meaningfully: "Your Highness guessed right, what I draw is a ghost, I only want to look like it, not like it in spirit."

Xie Jingyuan heard something different about the words, he looked at Chu Xinian with an enthusiastic tone: "What are you planning, let me tell you, this general can help you as a staff."

Chu Xinian changed another piece of yellow paper: "Then please general, think about it for me, which 'ghosts' the emperor is most afraid of."

I heard that Emperor Yan could not sleep all night recently, he was so sick that he couldn't even get out of bed, he invited imperial physicians and eminent monks, but the cause couldn't be found out.Outsiders don't know the reason, but the prince knows, he secretly told Chu Xinian that Emperor Yan had nightmares at night, always dreaming that someone was asking for his life.

"ghost?"

Xie Jingyuan was thoughtful, "Your Majesty visited the residence of the late Right Chancellor Feng Qiuping in person in order to win over his courtiers in the early years. This Feng Qiuping had a daughter-in-law who was very beautiful."

Chu Xinian answered unhurriedly: "Later, this beautiful woman appeared in the Holy Majesty's harem bizarrely, and the right minister Feng Qiuping also died suddenly and bizarrely."

This story goes pretty often.

Xie Jingyuan smiled at Chu Xinian, and said in a cold voice, "Wrong, it wasn't a bizarre and sudden death, but someone chopped off his arms and bled to death."

When he finished speaking, Chu Xinian had already picked up a pen and drew a silhouette of a man on the paper. He was dressed in a prime minister's robe, but his arms were missing.

Although the prince didn't understand Chu Xinian's intentions yet, he also made suggestions: "There is also my mother."

He made a gesture in front of his neck: "The emperor himself strangled her to death with a white silk."

Chu Xinian didn't know if the prince was sad when he said this, the only thing he could be sure of was that the prince was very impressed with that scene, otherwise he wouldn't mention it repeatedly.The tip of the pen pondered, not knowing how to fall.

The prince said: "My mother and concubine always wear a peacock with a bead in it. You draw a woman in a palace costume, and then draw a step. There is a rope hanging around the neck. When others see it, they will know it is me." Queen Mother."

Chu Xinian slowly rubbed the messy hair on the tip of the pen: "Don't you feel offended the former queen?"

The prince was silent for a moment and said: "What should be offended has already been offended. Have you ever seen a mother of a country who was innocent and strangled to death by the emperor himself. Draw it, my mother will not blame her."

Chu Xinian had no choice but to draw a silhouette of a woman in palace costume on the paper as he said, and added a peacock walker between her temples.Just as he was about to put down his pen, he suddenly heard Xie Jingyuan say: "There is also General Xie Bi."

He said these six words so suddenly that even the air became quiet.

Chu Xinian turned his head subconsciously, and saw Xie Jingyuan crossing his arms, leaning his back on the armrest of his chair, his sharp face was blurred in the candlelight: "The emperor has owed so many people in his life, how could Xie Bi be missing?" General."

"He is used to wearing armor, and he is good at wielding a long sword and silver spear."

"You can draw a silver gun, it was the silver gun that he brought with him the day he entered the palace."

"But I don't know how he died. I only heard that he was shot by dozens of arrows."

Following Xie Jingyuan's narration, Chu Xinian gradually drew a general in armor on the paper, holding a silver gun, majestic and upright.With a few arrows added to his body, his identity is ready to be revealed.

Xie Jingyuan glanced at the yellow paper: "The drawing is quite similar... In fact, I almost forgot what he looks like."

The prince also suddenly became lonely: "I almost forgot what my mother looks like."

The two of them gathered in this study to cut their own scars.Turning out the old things bit by bit, not only the dust was thrown up, but also a cold and slightly bloody rain.

There is a saying that the person who knows you best is always the enemy.Xie Jingyuan and the crown prince shook off all the bad things that Emperor Yan had done, and the pile of yellow paper at Chu Xinian's hand became thicker and thicker, roughly estimated to be more than 20 pieces.

Xie Jingyuan was also stunned for a moment, he probably didn't expect Emperor Yan to do so many things.Seeing the prince standing next to him in amazement, he sneered, "Why are you so surprised? It's all done by your father. Maybe you will be like him in the future."

The prince seemed to be trampled on his tail, and almost jumped: "Xie Jingyuan, do you dare to come out and challenge Lonely!"

Chu Xinian shook the paper in his hand, and said sarcastic words beside him: "Your Highness, why be impulsive, if the crown prince of a country dies in the general's mansion, then how will I explain it to the general."

"You two are struck by lightning, you will die!"

Under Xie Jingyuan's gloomy gaze, the prince did not say these words, and swallowed them into his stomach with difficulty.He snorted heavily through his nose, turned and walked towards the door, then clapped his hands, and ordered someone to bring up a large object covered with a red cloth.

The object was probably a bit heavy, as tall as a person. Two big men struggled to lift it, and when it fell to the ground, it made a dull and heavy sound, but I don't know what it was.

Xie Jingyuan frowned, and walked out of the study with Chu Xinian: "What is the prince doing?"

Chu Xinian seemed to have guessed something in his heart, and said with a smile: "Naturally, it's something that everyone in Beijing wants to be at the top of the list."

As soon as he finished speaking, he saw the prince tearing off the red cloth covering it, and it turned out to be the monument of merit.There are densely packed names engraved on it, both pros and cons, including princes and nobles, except that there is no King Jin.

The prince patted the stele: "Tomorrow Gu will hand in the list of money-raising, and the emperor will be curious why there is no name of King Jin."

Chu Xinian asked with interest: "Then how will His Highness respond?"

The prince has long thought of the next move: "How can Gu answer? It is the officials of the Ministry of Households who are rigid and blocked his money outside. It is not Gu who ordered him to block it. Moreover, Gu gave a full three-day deadline. If he doesn't come to pay it himself, he can blame anyone."

The crown prince is also narrow-minded and holds grudges. He touched the monument of meritorious deeds, which was so crowded that there was no space left, and smiled like a big villain: "Tomorrow morning, I will ask the emperor to admit his mistake and collect the money from King Jin again." That’s it. But unfortunately, the stele of merit is already full, and it’s impossible to recreate it.”

At that time, Jin Wang will not only be reprimanded by Emperor Yan, but also lose his wife and lose his army.

Chu Xinian's eyes were sharp, and he glanced at the stele of merit, only to find that his name was also listed there, and asked in a little surprise, "Why is my name still there?"

The prince took it for granted: "You and Jingyuan belong to the same family, and it stands to reason that you can only have one name, but I will give you a chance to be famous forever, and you will be added. You will not be able to squeeze in in front of you. Throwing money in, the front is occupied by them, but it’s still okay to rank No. 30.”

Chu Xinian said nothing, pointing to No. 30, No. 37 and No. [-]: "Since I and the general belong to the same family, why should His Highness's name be crowded among us?"

36th, 37th, and 38th, the corresponding order is Xie Jingyuan, Yin Chenghao, and Chu Xinian.

The crown prince's name stands out from a group of others, squeezing in abruptly among them, dazzling like a third party.

Xie Jingyuan's eyelids twitched, feeling that it was quite an eyesore, so he frowned and said, "Hurry up and find someone to do it again."

The prince said: "That can't be done. If we do it again, what should we do if the king of Jin catches the opportunity?"

The amount of silver donated by the crown prince happened to be a little lower than that of Xie Jingyuan, and the impartiality was just at the 38th place.He thought this number was ugly, so he "slightly adjusted" his order and Chu Xinian's order.

He didn't dare to replace Xie Jingyuan, for fear of being beaten.

Xie Jingyuan turned around and was about to cross out the prince's name with a knife.The prince stopped him from wiping it off: "Xie Jingyuan, you and I are as close as brothers, what are you afraid of when we engrave our names together? You are afraid that your name will be tarnished."

Xie Jingyuan sneered: "Your Highness guessed right."

It's really dirty, not only dirty, but also very eye-catching.

The crown prince stood in front of the stele and refused to let him wipe it off. Seeing that Xie Jingyuan was about to strike with the knife in his hand, he was frightened and urged: "Chu Xinian, Chu Xinian, take care of him!"

Seeing this, Chu Xinian finally pulled Xie Jingyuan over, pulled out the knife in his hand, threw it on the ground with a clang, then picked up a pebble and stuffed it to him, and said softly: "General, use this to hit, it won't come out." human life."

He is more poisonous than Xie Jingyuan, and more cautious than the prince.

Xie Jingyuan just wanted to cross out the name on the stele with a knife, but Chu Xi's young Piaopiao helped him divert his target with a single sentence and attacked the prince directly.

38?

Ah……

The prince finds it unpleasant, and so does Chu Xinian.

The prince regretted bringing the stele of merit and virtue to show them off, and immediately urged his attendants to remove the things, and left the general's mansion as if his butt was on fire.

Xie Jingyuan stood behind and threw the stone in his hand.Aiming at the prince in the dark night, he threw it with a whoosh.There was only a scream, and the cicadas were dumbfounded in an instant.

The prince yelled across the wall: "Xie Jingyuan! You've been paid a thousand knives!"

Xie Jingyuan sneered, turned around and entered the room.

Chu Xinian couldn't help sighing, there was already one who was not worried, and now another one came.

As the night darkened, Chu Xinian did not rest, but turned over and over the stack of yellow paper he had just drawn, thinking about how to maximize the effect.The candle at hand was more than half burned, and the dim yellow light gradually dimmed.

Xie Jingyuan lay on the bed with his head propped up, and saw Chu Xinian drawing and drawing on those papers with all his attention.Bored, he stretched out his hand and fiddled with the tassels that fell from the curtain.

"Chu Xinian..." He said lazily.

Chu Xinian took the time to glance at him: "Huh? What's the matter?"

Xie Jingyuan ticked his fingers at him: "You draw those things that are neither human nor ghost, you might as well draw General Ben."

Chu Xinian didn't speak, and lowered his eyes to cover the flashing smile in his eyes: "The general is not afraid that I will paint you as a ghost?"

Hearing this, Xie Jingyuan thought he was unwilling, snorted and turned his back to him, covered himself with the quilt and went to sleep.

Chu Xinian looked at him quietly from behind, wondering what he was thinking, and smiled after a while.Then he took out a piece of white rice paper from the table, and without using a brush, dipped a thin layer of ink with his fingertips and began to trace.

A man's romantic appearance gradually took shape on the paper, with the tails of his eyes raised, with a three-point mockery and three-point smile.It was Xie Jingyuan.

Chu Xinian hesitated for a moment, but did not add the criss-crossing scars.Staring at it for a moment, then slowly wiped off the fingertips, dried the ink marks on the paper, and carefully folded them up.

He untied his outer robe, casually laid it on the low couch, walked towards the inner room, and climbed onto the bed with ease.

Chu Xinian pulled Xie Jingyuan into his arms from behind, with a smile in his voice, as if whispering, and called him in a low voice: "Lanting..."

Xie Jingyuan pricked up his ears indiscriminately, thinking that he was about to say something, but Chu Xinian didn't say anything, just hugged him and fell asleep.

In the dark, he quietly stuffed a piece of paper under Xie Jingyuan's pillow.

"..."

The next day, in the early court of the Tai Chi Hall, all officials gathered.The crown prince handed over the list of grain raised in the past few days to Emperor Yan, cupped his hands and said: "I report to my father, my son has lived up to his entrustment, and has counted all the money collected from the locust plague in the north, please have a look at it."

Emperor Yan has been on a sick bed recently, and the whole person looks sick. Hearing this, he managed to cheer up and looked at the list, but he was surprised to see the huge amount on it: "Huh?"

Emperor Yan couldn't believe it: "These are all the money and food you donated?"

The old eunuch at the side quietly stepped forward and explained: "Your Majesty, you have been ill recently, and you don't know what's going on outside..."

After finishing speaking, he told the story of the merit monument built by the prince in detail.

Only then did Emperor Yan suddenly realize that he had carefully read the list of donations, but he always felt that something was missing. Then he found that all the kings on the list were listed, but there was no King Jin's name, and his brows subconsciously frowned: "King Jin , why not have your name?"

King Jin's heart skipped a beat when he heard the words, and he immediately went out and knelt down to plead guilty: "Your servant should die, I have already raised 7 taels of silver yesterday, and sent someone to send it to the Ministry of Households as soon as possible, but...just..."

The King of Jin is well-known and used to be a good person. It was not his style to accuse the crown prince of deliberately obstructing him, so he hesitated.

Xiao Da, on the other hand, fully took on the responsibility of understanding Yuhua. Seeing that the King of Jin was inconvenient to speak, he came out and was filled with righteous indignation to Emperor Yan: "Reporting to Your Majesty, this matter has nothing to do with the King of Jin. In fact, when the King of Jin sent someone to send the money, a member of the Prince's family Stop it more, saying that the three-day deadline has expired, and refuse to accept the cash!"

Emperor Yan couldn't distinguish between anger and emotion when he heard the words, looked at the prince, and asked without emotion: "Chenghao, is there such a thing?"

The crown prince pleaded guilty very straightforwardly: "Your servant deserves to die, because the three-day deadline has been set, and the officials under the sect dare not disobey it. It is inevitable that they acted a bit rigidly. Yesterday, they did not receive the silver taels from the Jin Palace."

Xiao Da snorted coldly: "I'm afraid it's not because he acted rigidly, but because someone instructed him."

As soon as he finished speaking, a pile of scraps suddenly hit him head-on, Xiao Da was hit with gold stars in front of his eyes, before he could react, he heard Emperor Yan scolded in a cold voice: "Why, do you want to say that the crown prince deliberately ordered it?" ?!"

Xiao Da hurriedly pleaded guilty on his knees: "Your Majesty, calm down!"

Emperor Yan has been in an irritable mood recently, and they have hit each other with guns.With a gloomy expression on his face, he threw another booklet and slammed it heavily at Xiao Da: "What a secretary, Mr. Xiao, donate five hundred silver!"

Another book was thrown at the King of Jin, and he sneered again and again: "What a King Jin! The three-day deadline for not paying the silver, but on the last day, is this blaming the Crown Prince for intentionally framing you? Ah?! "