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When Feng Shuo came over, the Chu family had just finished setting off firecrackers to welcome the Spring Festival, and outside the gate pasted with Spring Festival couplets were all red shredded paper after the firecrackers had been let off.

It is said that the first day of the first lunar month is the "broom's birthday". It is not allowed to sweep the floor on this day, otherwise it will sweep away the wealth of the year. Therefore, no one sweeps the thick snow in the courtyard of the Chu family, and the withered red plum petals fall on the snow. , but surprisingly good-looking.

Feng Shuo's status is noble, even Mrs. Chu and Mrs. Chu came to meet him at the gate in person. Jiang Yanyi stood with the juniors, because she felt that she was so ugly after staying up all night, she kept nodding her head and lowering her eyebrows. Dare to look up at Feng Shuo.

Her rare and graceful posture caught Feng Shuo's attention.

Feng Shuo took a few more glances calmly, and found that her face was covered with rouge, which was different from her usual sobriety. She thought she was wearing makeup to be embarrassed to be seen by him, and the corner of her mouth couldn't help pulling out a light smile radian.

During the Chinese New Year, the theater troupe didn't accept work, even if they wanted to invite a theater troupe to come to the house to have a good time, it was impossible. When Feng Shuo came, everyone in the Chu family except Chu Changping and his son was obviously very cautious.

Inviting Feng Shuo to the reception hall, Master Chu held back for a long time, only holding back the word "drink tea".

Feng Shuo also saw the restraint of this family, so he deliberately avoided the topic of political affairs and the current situation, and only talked about homely chats.

It's a pity that we haven't finished drinking a cup of tea, and we have almost finished talking about all the topics we can talk about.

Except for the "sick" Chu Chengbai and Chu Yangui, who had inconvenient legs and feet, all the men of the Chu family stayed in the front hall to accompany the guests.

Feng Shuo said: "Why don't you see your young master, Chen Guogong said that he is very good at chess, I have free time today, I just happened to play a few games with him."

This seemingly unintentional remark made everyone in the Chu family pay attention to Chu Yangui, a young man who seemed to have a ruined future.

To be able to worship Chen Guogong as a teacher, Feng Shuo has to take a fancy to him, no matter how bad Chu Yan is in the future, he will definitely be his adviser.

Compared with Chu Yangui's bright future, when Uncle Chu thought of his son who was beaten so hard that he couldn't get out of bed on the first day of the Lunar New Year, his complexion had never been good, and his dissatisfaction with Chu Changping was almost all on his face. But he didn't dare to make trouble in front of Feng Shuo, he only excused himself by saying that he was not feeling well, and left early.

Chu Changping didn't let Chu Yangui come over, but it was inconvenient to take care of his leg injury, Feng Shuo even opened his mouth, so he asked Chu Chengmao to go over and bring Chu Yangui back.

After Chu Chengmao went to meet Xie Chuji, all he could think about was helping her connect and telling Feng Shuo about the redress of Mu's family, but just in case, Xie Chuji's affairs at the mansion had to be kept secret, and there were so many people in the front hall, he hadn't Looking for opportunities to introduce Feng Shuo.

Now that he went to pick up Chu Yangui, he thought that Chu Yangui would have to play chess with Feng Shuo for a while, and had the opportunity to meet Feng Shuo alone, so he asked Chu Yangui to tell Feng Shuo on the way.

After sending Chu Yangui to the front hall, he went back to the backyard to look for Jiang Yanyi. He wanted Xie Chuji to pretend to be Jiang Yanyi's maid. After Chu Yangui sent a letter to Feng Shuo, Jiang Yanyi would take Xie Chuji there.

Although recommending Xie Chuji was just for business, but such an arrangement would not keep Jiang Yanyi in the dark.

When Chu Chengmao came over, Jiang Yanyi was talking with Chu Shubao and Xue Shi in the old lady’s yard. Chu Chengmao asked her to go to the front hall to deliver a plate of rice cakes. Both Shubao and Chu Jiabao showed gossipy smiles.

Chu Huibao wanted to go out for a walk after being bored in the room for a long time, clamoring to go with Jiang Yanyi.

Chu Shubao frightened her: "Aren't you afraid of the King of Liaonan?"

Chu Huibao scratched his hair, and after thinking for a long time, he finally came up with a description: "Don't be afraid, he looks as good-looking as the second sister."

The grandparents and grandchildren in the room all laughed, Mrs. Chu said: "This silly girl, good-looking can't be used to describe a man."

Chu Huibao was puzzled: "Then what should I say?"

Mrs. Chu said: "It must be heroic."

"Parrot? Doesn't he look like a parrot?" Chu Huibao looked dumbfounded.

Chu Shubao didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "Okay, Hui Bao, don't be ashamed of yourself. It's better to find a teacher for spring. At least put some ink in your stomach so that you won't be ridiculous in the future."

Chu Huibao pursed his lips in displeasure, "I don't want to. If I can't write big characters well, my husband will hit me again."

Chu Jiabao smiled and said: "Then you have to practice that handwriting well. When you were in the capital, you lost three masters because of your ugly handwriting."

Mrs. Chu was teased from ear to ear by her granddaughters: "Then Hui Bao has to learn from Second Sister. Second Sister's handwriting was shameful before, but now she looks decent."

Chu Huibao turned her head to look at Jiang Yanyi pitifully: "How did the second sister practice big characters well?"

Jiang Yanyi laughed and said, "Practice a few more copybooks."

Chu Huibao's chubby little face collapsed in an instant.

Chu Shubao and the others couldn't help laughing out loud.

Chu Chengmao urged at the door, Jiang Yanyi got up and followed him first.

Chu Huibao wanted to follow her as a tail, but was held back by her sister Chu Shubao.

***

Jiang Yanyi walked in the corridor with Chu Chengmao, she still knew Feng Shuo a little bit, Feng Shuo would occasionally be unruly behind others, but he was definitely calm in front of others.

She guessed that this was probably Chu Chengmao's idea, so she asked him: "Second brother let me go, is it because of Miss Xie?"

Last night Xie Chujijiu proposed to see Feng Shuo, Jiang Yanyi was not surprised that he could guess Chu Chengmao.

As he walked, he said, "She said that she has the evidence to rehabilitate the Mu family and wants to see the King of Liaonan."

Jiang Yanyi was a little surprised by this answer. After thinking about it carefully, everything seemed to make sense again.

After Mu's family was raided back then, Chen Guogong had to spend a lot of energy to replace Chi Qing and Mu Shizi with two death row prisoners. Since then, the two brothers have been hiding their names under Feng Shuo's command.

Xie Chuji treats Mu Shizi with deep affection, so it's not surprising that Mu Shizi revealed his whereabouts to her.

When she arrived at the guest room where Xie Chuji lived, she was not dissatisfied with Chu Chengmao's arrangement, and quickly changed into a maid's clothes and followed Jiang Yanyi to the front hall.

*

lobby.

Feng Shuo has already played a game of chess with Chu Yangui. He played chess against Jiang Yanyi. Jiang Yanyi is very smart, but his chess moves are always conservative and gentle. Chu Yangui's chess moves can be said to be completely opposite to Jiang Yanyi's. ,put all one's eggs in one basket.

On the chessboard, black and white were fighting bloody battles. Compared to Chu Yangui's endlessness, Feng Shuo's every move seemed to be done step by step, as if he had already counted the number of paths Chu Yangui could take.

Later, when Chu Yangui's heizi was completely trapped to death by Baizi, Feng Shuo pointed out: "The way of chess is also the way of the mind. You can break out of the immediate siege with just one ruthless force, but in life, there are many hurdles to overcome." It’s not just the one in front of you. Before you get ruthless, you have to see clearly the road ahead.”

Outside the half-opened window, heavy snow was flying like fluff. Occasionally, snowflakes fell on the window lattice, and were instantly melted by the heat from the charcoal basin in the room.

After a game of chess, Chu Yangui's back was almost drenched with sweat.

He looked at the man sitting across from him, and suddenly felt that he was a mountain that he could not overcome in his entire life.

The world only said how cruel and violent the King of Liaonan was, and the court officials also called him a mad dog, but no matter how much infamy he suffered and how many people wanted to kill him, he was still the king in this troubled world.

He walked step by step through the mountain of corpses and the sea of ​​blood. He is indeed ruthless, but he is still invincible.

Chu Yangui looked at Feng Shuo, pursed his lips and nodded: "I remember."

There was a knock on the door outside, it was Jiang Yanyi who brought Xie Chuji over to deliver pastries.

The servants in the room had already been dismissed by Chu Yangui on the grounds that they would not disturb the game of chess. Grandpa Chu sat there for a while, really unable to think of what to chat with Feng Shuo, and while Chu Yangui was playing chess with Feng Shuo, he also left After leaving the front hall, not to mention the stinky wine basket of Second Master Chu, he went back to his yard early to drink.

Jiang Yanyi held the rice cake door, saw the chessboard, and asked with a smile, "You lost?"

Feng Shuo said: "He plays better."

Jiang Yanyi was worried about saving Feng Shuo some face in front of outsiders, so he just gave Feng Shuo a look.After she put the plate of rice cakes on the low table beside her, she asked Chu Yangui, "Are you bored? Let me push you out to get some air?"

This meant to avoid it, after all what Xie Chuji said might be a secret.

Before Chu Yangui could answer, Feng Shuo said, "The windows are always open, so it's not stuffy."

He pointed to the pear blossom chair beside him, "Sit down, why don't you help Yangui see the next game."

Xie Chuji is also a smart person, so he immediately understood Feng Shuo's attitude - he didn't intend to avoid suspicion with Jiang Yanyi and his brother.

After Jiang Yanyi sat down, Xie Chuji bowed to Feng Shuofu: "I have met the King of Liaonan."

Chu Chengmao stood guard outside the door, no one would come here.

"Miss Xie, you don't need to be too polite." Feng Shuo raised his eyes and glanced at her from her door until now, "It is said that you have obtained evidence to rehabilitate the Mu family?"

Xie Chuji straightened his thin back: "Yes, I want to ask the prince to reverse the case for the Mu family."

Feng Shuo asked, "Evidence."

Xie Chuji took out a stack of letters from his bosom and handed them to Feng Shuo: "There used to be a general named Liao Kun under Mu Wuhou's command. Back then, Mu Wuhou was defeated. ’, but was framed by this villain!”

"Liao Kun?" Feng Shuo frowned: "After the Mu family was raided, he was the only one in the court who dared to risk his life to intercede for the Mu family."

Xie Chuji's eyes were red, and the hatred in his eyes was boiling: "He is just hypocritical! Back then, Mu Wuhou reused another general under his command, and he held a grudge. Just when the late emperor was ill, several princes were secretly fighting. Although the orphan of the prince was loved by the late emperor, But the first emperor was afraid of his relatives and kept suppressing the Gao family, who had many false titles but no real power."

"In order to help the emperor and grandson seize the throne, the Gao family took a fancy to the military power of the Mu family and bought Liao Kun, a general under Mu Wuhou's command. In the battle when Wuhou was defeated, it was Liao Kun who opened the city gate for the enemy army at night. Daxuan's people and soldiers were beheaded in his sleep, and the letter accusing Mu Wuhou of collaborating with the enemy and treason was also used by him in the name of Mu Wuhou to contact Minghan Kingdom in the south..."

The undeniable evidence that convicts the Mu family back then is a letter written by the Marshal of the Minghan Kingdom in the south to Mu Wuhou.

After Mu Wuhou's death, Marshal Ming Han instinctively attacked the next city directly, but took the initiative to stop his troops for three days, saying that he admired Mu Wuhou and mourned the loss of such an ally.

This move made the officials in the court who had originally pleaded for Mu Wuhou's family dare not intercede again, thinking that Mu Wuhou was really collaborating with the enemy and treason.

Feng Shuo has been looking for evidence to rehabilitate the Mu family these years. He originally thought that the letter was framed by the Ming Han Kingdom, and the truce by the Marshal of the Ming Han Kingdom was just a show.

It's a pity that countless people were sent to investigate, but they couldn't find a breakthrough. When he nearly killed the Marshal of the Ming Han Kingdom, he also questioned him on the battlefield. The Marshal of the Ming Han Kingdom insisted that Mu Wuhou was his ally. All the facts showed that Mu Wuhou seemed to be really collaborating with the enemy and treason.

If he hadn't trusted Mu Wuhou's character, Feng Shuo would have been convinced by those evidences.

Now Xie Chuji found out that someone had exchanged letters with Marshal Minghan in the name of Mu Wuhou, and the mystery was finally solved.

It never occurred to Feng Shuo that the former clan who seemed to be loyal to Marquis Wu was the real culprit who sent the entire Mu family into thinking.

He flipped through the letters Xie Chuji handed over one by one, the more he looked, the worse his complexion became, and in the end it was overcast, "Xuan Qing took the initiative to find Liao Kun back then, so the Gao family knew about their brothers from then on. not dead."

On the surface, Liao Kun was at odds with the Gao family, but in fact he was the running dog of the Gao family.

At that time, Mu Xuanqing thought he was a trustworthy person, and dragged out all the clues he found, thinking that he really wanted to help the Mu family get justice, but in the end Liao Kun reported all Mu Xuanqing's movements to the Gao family.

Chen Guogong, who replaced Mu Xuanqing and his brothers with death row prisoners, also became a thorn in the eyes of the Gao family, but before the Gao family found evidence, Chen Guogong resigned from office and went back to hiding, which escaped the Gao family's calculations.

Mu Xuanqing trusted Liao Kun too much, and always suspected that there was someone else's eyeliner around him. He tried several times to wipe out his power, but it was still in vain. Who knew that the real traitor was at the end of the letter he sent.

Xie Chuji smiled bitterly and said: "Three years ago, the letter paper on the arrow that Shizi received in the army was also written by the Gao family. The Gao family knew that Shizi wanted to find out the truth and rehabilitate Mu Wuhou, so they came up with this plan. , wanting to consume both Shizi and you to death in that battle."

Feng Shuo was not the commander in that battle, after several months of fighting, there were only a few thousand remnants in his hands, and the court reinforcements had not arrived yet, but Ming Han Kingdom had tens of thousands of tigers and wolves, the commanders all abandoned the city and fled.

Later, Mu Xuanqing died in battle, and Feng Shuo was seriously injured and lost half his life.

After several years of investigation, the truth finally surfaced, but it was bloody, just as scarred and glaring as the blood that flowed to the street corner of the vegetable market when hundreds of members of Mu's family were sent to the execution ground and beheaded.

Feng Shuo's knuckles squeezed the letter paper into creases because of too much force, but his eyes were filled with calm before the storm: "It's time to pay back what they owe the Mu family."