¡ ¡ ¡ As he spoke, except for a hint of self-mockery, Lu De¡¯s expression and attitude were generally calm and collected. "But Lu Ping and Lu De have known each other since childhood, and they are most familiar with Lu De's emotional changes, but it is possible to see the panic hidden under the calm surface of Lu De. ¡°Obviously, Lu De has chosen the path for the future, but he cannot predict whether the end of this road will be good or bad. After hesitating for a moment, Lu Ping did not expose Lu De's true emotions, but couldn't help but ask: "Is it worth it?" Lu De shrugged and said with a smile: "To be honest, if I think about it carefully, I think it's not worth it at all. ! But I have reached this point after being impulsive, what else can I do?" As he spoke, Lu De lowered his head and played with the bronze medal in his hand, then changed the subject and waved: "Let's go to the city now. Shiji Tea House on East Chongming Street Let¡¯s find out the family background and secrets of His Royal Highness, the Seventh Prince, and see if he is worth our investment!¡± After saying that, Lu De had already stepped towards his carriage, and Lu Ping After shaking his head slightly, he quickly followed. * At the same time, Zhu Hejian stood on a high attic in the front courtyard of Zhanyuan, silently watching Lu De's leaving figure, his expression also uncertain. Zhu Hejian completely inherited the suspicious nature of Emperor Deqing, and he was always more skillful and never willing to trust anyone easily. Just like Lu De said, under normal circumstances, after he joins Zhu Hejian's sect, even if he has been working hard and loyally, it will take at least three to five years of observation and investigation, as well as various, Only after overt or covert testing did he have the opportunity to win Zhu Hejian's initial trust, and then he was qualified to have a little access to some of Zhu Hejian's secrets. ??For example, the existence of the "Chaofeng" dead soldier. The existence of the "Chaofeng" dead soldier is undoubtedly one of Zhu Hejian's core secrets. He has been ordered to carry out Zhu Hejian's secret operations many times - such as the tragic death of Zhao Shancai's mentor and former crown prince He Ming. [Currently used, it is the most complete and best-used App for listening to books. It integrates 4 major speech synthesis engines, over 100 kinds of sounds, and is a source-changing artifact that supports offline reading. huanyuanapp.com Source-changing App] But now, forced The complicated situation in Nanzhili, as well as the deep fear of Zhou Shangjing's follow-up plan, plus Lu De's replacement of Zhu Hejian to shoulder all the controversy and infamy, and giving away his important information, so Zhu Hejian is also a different person. There is no choice but to let Lu De directly contact the "Chaofeng" dead soldier. This situation seriously violated Zhu Hejian's suspicious nature and made Zhu Hejian very uncomfortable. He always felt uneasy and awkward. With Lu De's intelligence, after contacting the "Chaofeng" dead soldier, he would surely be able to spy on many of Zhu Hejian's secrets. Therefore, after watching Lu De leave, Zhu Hejian immediately wanted to send someone to send an order to the "Shaofeng" dead soldiers, asking them to keep their mouths shut when they came into contact with Lu De, and never reveal any unnecessary information to Lu De News, by the way, we monitor closely and wait for opportunities to test. However, when he thought of this, Zhu Hejian suddenly discovered that there was no qualified candidate around him who could handle this task! ¡°A smart person like Lu De must use clever methods when monitoring and testing, otherwise he will only see traces and be counterproductive. Because of his suspicious nature, Zhu Hejian only had a few true confidants. The only confidantes who followed him to Nanjing were the eunuch Jia Lun and the leader of the "Chaofeng" dead soldiers Guo Shouzhong. Only these two had the ability. perform this task. Now, Jia Lun is secretly contacting the Nanjing garrison eunuch Xi Cheng, and Guo Shouzhong has also been ordered to leave to carry out his mission. Therefore, Zhu Hejian was unable to find a reliable candidate in a short time to carry out the task of monitoring and testing Lu De. After discovering this, Zhu Hejian became increasingly depressed, and thought to himself: "It only took me half a year from behind the scenes to the front of the stage. My background is too shallow. In addition, I am always too cautious when choosing my confidants. Reliable helpers are naturally few and far between, and there is always a shortage of people to employ From this point of view, although it is risky to directly recruit this Lu De as a confidant, after all, he has mastered his key information, which can be regarded as a confidence in his heart. , as long as you are careful when using it, it may be a good thing" After so consoling himself, Zhu Hejian took a long breath, then turned back to the study, and quickly wrote a secret letter, the content of which was to instruct Guo Shouzhong While performing the current mission, I also distracted myself from paying attention to Lu De's contact with the "Chaofeng" dead soldier. After writing the secret letter, Zhu Hejian called a guard and explained?: "Immediately find Guo Shouzhong and hand this secret letter to him and then go find out about the prince and grand master Wang Baoren. I obviously summoned him and Lu De at the same time, but now Lu De has already After leaving, Grand Master Wang still hasn¡¯t shown up. Let¡¯s find out what¡¯s going on! Doesn¡¯t this Grand Master Wang also want to avoid me?¡± After the guard took the secret letter into his arms, he quickly reported it. Report: "I was about to report to His Highness. When we sent people to the residence of Grand Master Wang to deliver a message to him, we found that Grand Master Wang had already left his residence, so we could not convey the message to him in time. However, I had people guarding me. Outside the residence of Grand Master Wang, he would immediately inform him of His Highness's summons. "Zhu Hejian was slightly stunned and asked, "Master Wang is not in his residence? Where did he go?" "The guard hesitated a little. After that, he replied: "The people in Wang Taishi's palace are not willing to reveal more information to us, but there is a news that is not true or false, saying that Wang Taishi's sedan chair was found outside the East Garden!" Wang Baoren went to Dongyuan! After hearing the news, Zhu Hejian's eyes flashed immediately. Like Zhanyuan, Dongyuan is also one of the famous gardens in Nanjing. Decades ago, the Song family, a wealthy family in the south of the Yangtze River, spent a lot of money to buy Dongyuan as a residence for the Song family members in Nanjing. After Zhou Shangjing arrived in Nanjing, he chose Dongyuan as his temporary residence. Therefore, Wang Baoren went to Dongyuan, most likely to visit Zhou Shangjing secretly! The private meeting between these two old foxes will undoubtedly directly affect the subsequent direction of the situation in South Zhili. Before the rise of Zhao Junchen, Wang Baoren was the political opponent who had the best chance of challenging Zhou Shangjing's status in the temple. The two men had never stopped fighting openly and secretly and scheming against each other for decades. At the same time, Wang Baoren currently only has one identity, that is, the fictitious title of Crown Prince and Grand Master, so his only mission is to assist the left and teach the Crown Prince. Only with the Crown Prince as the fulcrum and starting point, can Wang Baoren find opportunities. Return to the core of the temple. Therefore, after hearing the news that Wang Baoren secretly visited Zhou Shangjing, Zhu Hejian was not worried that Wang Baoren would betray him and choose to conspire with Zhou Shangjing. After just thinking for a moment, Zhu Hejian roughly guessed Wang Baoren's true intention of meeting Zhou Shangjing. After Zhou Shangjing arrived in Nanjing, he was relatively active at first and frequently contacted all walks of life in South Zhili. However, after Zhu Hejian secretly poisoned him again, Zhou Shangjing's stomach disease quickly showed signs of worsening. Especially in the past few days, Zhou Shangjing has been hibernating in the East Garden. Not only has he never appeared in public again, he has also declined all visits from guests. At the same time, Zhou Shangjing¡¯s friend Song Chengren, the old head of the Song family in the south of the Yangtze River, sent people to secretly purchase various precious medicinal materials. Several famous doctors in Nanjing were also summoned to the East Garden and have not left until now. As for the Song family members who live in Dongyuan, they all keep secret about Zhou Shangjing's situation and always remain silent when faced with inquiries from various forces. Three days ago, a young member of the Song family accidentally leaked some news, saying that he was very worried about Zhou Shangjing's physical condition, which soon triggered various speculations and discussions. But on the second day, before all parties could further inquire into the situation, all members of the Song family living in Dongyuan were implicated and were collectively banned by Song Chengren. Combining these signs together, various forces in Nanjing began to speculate that Zhou Shangjing must be seriously ill, otherwise he would not have gone to war in such a serious way. However, because Zhou Shangjing and Song Chengren strictly blocked all news, although everyone speculated that Zhou Shangjing's physical condition must be extremely poor, how much truth is this guess and how specifically Zhou Shangjing's physical condition has deteriorated? , but no one knows the details. Under such circumstances, Wang Baoren secretly visited Zhou Shangjing, obviously to verify with his own eyes the true situation of Zhou Shangjing. After thinking about this, a sneer appeared on Zhu Hejian's pale face, and he nodded: "This is a good thing! Wang Taishi took the initiative to visit Zhou Shangjing, which means that he is no longer just a spectator, and is ready to take action himself. ! And once he decides to die personally, he can only choose to fully support me, which will undoubtedly be a big help to me! Speaking of which, news just came from the capital not long ago that my father has been ordered to be placed under house arrest. He even refused to summon the third brother to listen to his explanation This old guy has obviously been waiting for this news and must wait until the crown prince abolishes the throne.He will only take action after the matter is completely confirmed. He is really cautious! ¡± * At the same time that Zhu Hejian commented like this, the Crown Prince and Grand Master Wang Baoren finally met Zhou Shangjing with his own eyes after waiting for a long time. Zhou Shangjing has been refusing to see guests during this period. A few days ago, even the seventh prince Zhu Hejian paid a visit in person. He was also rejected. It was not easy to meet him. Although Wang Baoren was the crown prince and an old rival of Zhou Shangjing, he still waited in the East Garden for more than half an hour and repeatedly emphasized himself. The determination to meet Zhou Shangjing was so intense that he finally got the chance to meet Zhou Shangjing. The meeting place between Zhou Shangjing and Wang Baoren was in a hidden study room in the East Garden. After being brought into the study, he immediately looked up and carefully looked at Zhou Shangjing's situation. However, Wang Baoren couldn't help but be shocked by the appearance and look he showed at this moment!