novelaction Chapter 193 Undercover, Back to Suzhou
Chapter 193 Undercover, Back to Suzhou
Chapter 193 Undercover, Back to Suzhou
The big ship continued to sail on the river. After a while, Fuchang entered Yinzhen's room and said, "Your Highness, my men found that someone was following us. Do you want to stop him?" After saying that, he made a gesture of wiping his neck.
Yinzhen stopped him: "No need, proceed according to the plan, but I will trouble Brother Fuchang to suffer with me this time."
After hearing this, Fuchang smiled slightly and said: "Your Highness, you are joking. I eat the emperor's salary and relieve his worries. These are what a servant should do." As for who this emperor refers to, the two of them knew it well.
After leaving Suzhou, Yinzhen and Yinsi separated. According to the plan, one of them would go to Jiangning Prefecture, while the other would return to Suzhou to investigate Cao Yin's brother-in-law Li Xu. Of course, Yinsi volunteered to return to Suzhou, so Yinzhen went directly to Jiangning.
After Fuchang finished speaking, he pushed open the door and went out to make arrangements. Late that night, two small boats were quietly lowered from behind the large ship, out of sight. Then, several people split into two teams, boarded the small boats, and left the large ship.
The next day, nothing happened on the ship. When someone couldn't wait any longer and took the opportunity to board the ship, they found that Prince Yong had not left the cabin all day, but the three meals a day were still delivered on time.
An expert ventured in to check and found that the house was empty. Seeing this, all the people who were tracking behind evacuated and divided into two teams to chase the boat that left the night before.
It seems that this Prince of Yong is quite capable, actually planning to take a shortcut to Jiangning ahead of time. However, even if you are clever, you will still be discovered. Thinking of this, everyone stopped paying attention to the large ship slowly floating on the river and instead focused on tracking down the whereabouts of the two teams.
About two hours later, when it was almost dawn and it was the darkest time of the morning, the secret door of the room that someone had checked was opened, and then two people walked out. They were Yinzhen and Fuchang, but from their faces, they were just two ordinary people who would be nowhere to be found if thrown into a crowd.
The two men moved quickly, without turning on any lights, and quickly passed through the darkness. After a while, there was a slight splash of water, followed by the sound of rippling water, and then the water surface returned to calm, and no sound could be found anymore.
Thanks to Bull for always explaining the benefits of carrots and for forcing Fuchang to eat more at home so that he could still see things at night instead of being blind.
That's why they were able to leave the ship quietly without being discovered. Fuchang decided that after returning, he would listen to his sister and teach the children to eat carrots. If anyone didn't eat carrots, they would be beaten with a stick.
Of course, Yinzhen was also very curious about Fuchang's magical ability to see in the dark. You know, most ancient people suffered from night blindness, and people who could possess this magical ability were one in a thousand.
Fuchang didn't show it on his face, but a strong sense of pride lingered in his words as he explained, "Sir, my brothers and I can all see at night. It's because my sister used to force us to eat those long, thin yellow radishes when we were very young. She said they were called carrots, and I heard they were a variety that came from the Western Regions."
Yinzhen knew about that kind of thing. For a period of time, when his wife came back from Yuqing Palace, she asked the kitchen to cook carrots every day. But later, because he really couldn't stand the taste, he gradually stopped.
It turns out that this disgusting thing can have such an effect. He thought that at night, one could only use a lantern or torch to illuminate everything in order to see everything clearly.
At the same time, Yinzhen also secretly made up his mind that after returning home, no matter whether the carrots tasted good or not, he must serve them every day and let everyone in the family eat them, especially the children, because this thing is very useful.
But how could he know that Honghui often stayed with Hongye before, and he could eat whatever Hongye ate. According to Buerhe's personality, how could there be no carrots?
As for Hongjing, he listens to Hongchang very much. As long as Hongchang says he wants to eat carrots, he will eat them obediently without any supervision.
As for the Fourth Lady, well, she usually doesn't need this ability. Normally, when she goes out, she takes eight steps at a time, so there's no danger.
It can be said that among the masters of the entire Prince Yong's Mansion, only Yinzhen, the Second Prince and the Eldest Princess were not arranged with the carrot set meal. The reason why they did not use it was that they all disliked the taste, which can be regarded as an alternative consensus.
At daybreak, the two men handed over their travel permits and swaggered into the small county town. They found an ordinary shop, ate, washed up, and rested for the night. Then, Fuchang hired an ordinary carriage and left the town with Yinzhen for Suzhou City.
Their disguised identities this time were students taking an imperial examination, and because they both spoke with Beijing accents, their travel permits stated that they were Han army bannermen whose ancestral home was Suzhou and who currently lived in Shengjing.
The imperial court stipulated that those who wished to take the imperial examinations and participate in the joint examinations had to prepare for the examinations in their hometown. Since their travel permit was from Suzhou, their destination this time was also Suzhou.
There were many people like this. Along the way, the two met many scholars who came to Suzhou City to take the imperial examinations.
They entered Suzhou City smoothly. The two of them rented a small farmyard near the examination hall like ordinary students. Fuchang had experience in this matter. It was also thanks to the fact that he accompanied his third brother when he took the imperial examination. Otherwise, he would have been a little at a loss when he suddenly entered Suzhou City.
The identities of Yinzhen and Fuchang also changed. From then on, Yinzhen called himself Wang Lingyun according to the name on the pass. He was the eldest grandson of the Wang family, an ordinary bannerman of the Shengjing Han Army Banner. Fuchang was Wang Lingyun's personal servant Wang Er.
Suzhou City has been very busy recently, and this opportunity just happened to provide convenience for the two. As a student preparing for the exam, Wang Lingyun only needed to stay in the courtyard and concentrate on studying every day. No one would suspect anything if he did not show up for the next month.
Wang Er's subsequent behavior would be even less noticeable. A personal servant of an examinee went out to gather information, inquire about the information needed for the exam, the examiner's preferences, and even spend money to bribe the servants in the official's family, etc. These are basic practices for most examinees.
So the two of them split up into two groups. Yinzhen went to find the officials on the list given by Yinreng before leaving to cooperate with the investigation, while Fuchang went to inquire about the residences and whereabouts of some officials.
Yinzhen quickly followed the address and arrived at a small courtyard with two entrances. Although it was called a small courtyard, that was only for a prince like Yinzhen. In fact, this place was not small at all.
The person living here is Mr. Li, an official who was exiled here from the capital. Now he is assigned to the Qingshui Yamen in Suzhou, where he spends all day sorting out the case files of the Yamen.
This day happened to be the day for Mr. Li to take his mother's bath. After Yinzhen came to the door and explained his purpose, he was quickly taken into the reception room by the servants, and then ran to the study in the front yard to ask for instructions from the master.
When the servant knocked on the door, Lord Li was drinking tea in the house. After hearing the servant's report and seeing the jade pendant that the other party had brought over, he quickly got up and went to the front hall.
Seeing someone come in, Yinzhen took a look at the person and saluted decisively: "My younger brother pays his respects to my elder brother. I am the younger brother of the second son of the Shengjing Wang family, and I am the fourth Lingyun. My elder brother asked me to come and visit him in person when I come to Suzhou."
Upon hearing the other party's ranking, Lord Li's eyes understood clearly, but his expression remained silent. His expression suddenly became gentle and amiable. "Brother Lingyun, please don't be so polite. Come, take a seat. We are all family. Your brother and I have known each other for many years, and I understand his character and personality. The fact that you came to see me shows that we are close. If you have any questions when you come to Suzhou City, please feel free to ask me. As your brother, I will tell you everything I know."
Yinzhen, who had been sitting down, quickly stood up and bowed to Lord Li. "Thank you, brother. I've heard from you that when you took the imperial examination, your essay was praised by the current emperor. With your guidance, I will definitely do even better this time."
Upon hearing this, Lord Li stroked his beard cheerfully and looked at the young man in front of him with assurance: "Very well, very well. I believe that I understand you well. You will definitely pass the provincial examination this time."
Then the two of them happily went to the study in the front yard and discussed the issues related to Wang Lingyun's article for an afternoon. Lord Li also took out his own article for Wang Lingyun to refer to when he returned.
When Yinzhen returned to the courtyard, when night fell, Suzhou Weaving House asked: "What's going on? Is there anything wrong with those things?"
"Your Excellency, it's the younger brother of one of your friend's friends who's here to visit. He's back to his ancestral home to take the imperial examinations. The items you sent were indeed the articles and poems you wrote previously. I've checked them out several times and there's nothing wrong with them."
"That's fine. At a time like this, we must be careful about everything. Go back and continue to supervise. I don't want any mistakes to happen at this time."
"Yes, I will take your orders."
As the night deepened, the sound of someone coming into the room outside, taking off his shoes and lying on the couch was heard. Lord Li, who was lying quietly in the inner room, curled up the corners of his mouth slightly, then closed his eyes and fell asleep.