?

  The King of Lanling walked up to the two with large strides, he stretched out his hand and pulled Zhang Qi into his arms, then turned to Zhang Xuan and said sternly: "Ninth Uncle, your friend is looking for you everywhere!"

  "Ah?" Zhang Xuan stood up, and with a somewhat embarrassed tone said: "It must be those few people, they also want to see Ah Gui..." Just as he was saying this, he saw the expression on Lanling Wang's face, and his voice suddenly choked. Zhang Xuan paused for a moment, then hastily smiled at Lanling Wang, bowed, and quickly walked out, looking like he had been scared off by Lanling Wang.

  The King of Lanling put down Zhang Qi, took her hand and sent her to the carriage. He then turned around and walked towards his horse. Just at this time, Zhang Xuan ran over and said loudly: "Chang Gong, you said my friend came to find me, where are they? Why can't I see them?" The King of Lanling looked at Zhang Xuan who was in a hurry, put his hands behind his back and smiled slightly. "Later, I heard that they seemed to say that they would wait for you at the Drunken Moon Building." The Drunken Moon Building was a famous brothel in Jiankang where young masters gathered, which was a very normal thing.

  Zhang Xuan heard this and responded with a sound, then turned his head to call over his family's carriage. He hastily rushed towards the Drunken Moon Building. Seeing him leave, Prince Lanling put down Zhang Qi, pulled down the curtains of the carriage, and retreated several steps, waving his hand. At that moment, the guard surnamed Cheng hurriedly came over with a flattering attitude.

  He beckoned him over, and the King of Lanling said in a low voice, "Aren't Yang Shoucheng and the others at Zuiyuelou? Go notify them now that I, their ninth uncle, am more than happy to foot the bill..." As soon as he spoke, Cheng's guard widened his eyes, "Your Highness, this...it seems no husband would be willing to pay for someone else's whoring expenses."

  The King of Lanling said quietly, "This ninth uncle of mine is different. He was just hugging my woman and seemed to be enjoying himself... Go ahead, Yang Shoucheng will make him pay happily." At this point, the guard surnamed Cheng completely understood and nodded his head, saying sternly, "That's right, that's right. Others might let it go, but the ninth uncle is generous and open-minded, he just paid for a few dozen people to have fun. What's the big deal? I'll go now." As soon as he finished speaking, he ran far away in a flash. Even though he had run very far, the guard surnamed Cheng was still secretly lamenting in his heart: The king's mind is getting smaller and smaller, just because his brother-in-law hugged his sister, he insisted on taking revenge, it's really unbearable!

  It's late at night.

  Today, Zhang Qi met with Zhang Xuan and Zhang Jin, and they talked a lot. Although they hadn't yet discussed the hardships of recent years, they were interrupted by Langling Wang bursting in. Nevertheless, Zhang Qi felt a sense of fulfillment, as if traveling thousands of miles back to Jiankang was just for this reunion.

  The King of Lanling returned home. She was kneeling beside a low table, embroidering something by the candlelight.

  The King of Lanling sat down beside her and asked, "What are you embroidering?" Zhang's eyebrows and eyes were all smiling as she softly said, "Ninth brother told me to embroider a handkerchief for him."

  "Oh?" The King of Lanling said lightly: "You haven't embroidered a handkerchief for me yet."

  "What? Zhang Qi was taken aback. She turned around to look at him, and under the flickering candlelight, his handsome face was as stern as ever, as if the words he had just spoken, which carried a hint of dissatisfaction and childishness, were not from his mouth."

  Zhang Qi turned back. She lowered her head and bit the thread, her eyes curved into crescent moons, "You don't use handkerchiefs either."

  "I'll take it from now on!" Zhang Qi couldn't believe his ears again, and he stupidly turned around. He stood up, unfastened his belt, and said calmly, "Go to bed, the candlelight is too dim and can hurt your eyes."

  "Oh." Zhang Qi was also tired, she put away her needle and thread, took off her outer garment and honestly slept beside him.

  After dozing off for a while, Zhang Gui felt his gaze burning intensely on her. She turned around and asked, "Chang Gong, what are you looking at me for?" Her eyes widened slightly as she warned in a soft voice, "My waist is still sore!" As soon as the words fell, Prince Langling glanced at her lightly, seemingly finding fault with her for being overly sensitive, and said, "I was just taking a look. Go back to sleep."

  "Oh." Zhang Qi obediently closed his eyes, but after a while, he found himself still staring at her, so she opened her eyes and gave him a coquettish glance.

  At this point, Langling Wang finally turned his head and casually extinguished the candle flame.

  That night, Zhang Qi slept very lightly. In the middle of the night, she struggled to wake up and found herself tightly wrapped in a man's arms, her head clamped between his neck and shoulders, making it hard for her to breathe. After waking up, she used both hands to push him away, turned over to face away from him, and fell asleep again.

  The next day, when Zhang Gui woke up, King Lanling had been summoned into the palace by Emperor Chen again.

  Out of boredom, Zhang Qi thought that she hadn't finished talking to Zhang Xuan from yesterday, so she sent someone to the Zhang residence to invite Zhang Xuan out.

  Who would have thought that the servant returned alone? He came back and said to Zhang Gui, "Reporting to the lady, Ninth Uncle is being held under house arrest and cannot leave his door."

  "What's going on? Why?" Zhang Qi was startled and quickly stood up.

  The servant replied, "The Ninth Uncle didn't say much, but I heard his young servant say that yesterday the Ninth Uncle was detained at a brothel because of an unpaid debt. His wife took out a large sum of money from her dowry to bail him out. As soon as he got back home, his wife ran to her mother-in-law's place in tears and cried bitterly. Then the Ninth Uncle was locked up by his family for three days."

  It seems that Zhang Xuan was locked up for overspending, and Zhang Qi let out a sigh of relief. She wasn't worried about Zhang Xuan not having enough money to spend, as either of the two gifts she had given him would be enough to exchange for a sum of money that could support his reckless spending for half a year or even a whole year. What she hadn't expected was that Ninth Brother, such an honest person, would also accumulate debts in the brothel and get detained.

  After thinking for a moment, Zhang Qi let out a sigh and said in a low voice: "I understand, you can go down now."

  "Yes."

  With nothing to do, Zhang Gui could only embroider a handkerchief. When the King of Lanling returned in the evening*, she had already embroidered more than half of it and would be able to finish it tomorrow. Seeing her busy, he didn't say anything this time.

  The next day, Zhang Qi finally finished embroidering the handkerchief. She held it up against the sunlight and examined it from left to right for a while before putting it away, thinking that she would personally give it to Zhang Xuan when she saw him. She thought that Ninth Brother would surely be delighted when he saw it.

  But on the third day, after waking up from sleep, Zhang Qi searched left and right. However, that handkerchief could not be found no matter what. After searching every corner, she still couldn't see the handkerchief, and Zhang Qi felt a bit downhearted. When Wang Lanling returned at noon, she said in a depressed tone: "My handkerchief is gone, the handkerchief I embroidered for Ninth Brother is gone."

  The King of Lanling glanced at her and left without paying attention to her.

  It was then that she whispered again, and a guard beside her said: "Madam, the handkerchief is gone, so be it. I heard Ninth Uncle say something that day: The things embroidered by his sister Ah Qi are not only exquisite in craftsmanship but also have a fragrance on them that can make his friends envy him to the point of having red eyes. Ninth Uncle took that thing just to show off everywhere." The guard paused and continued, "By the way, the Duke has instructed me to tell you, Madam, that he has already sent someone to buy two equally exquisite handkerchiefs and had them delivered to the Zhang residence. That matter is now over, so please don't worry about it anymore."

  Zhang Qi's eyes widened as she saw the old guard's calm demeanor, and she thought to herself, "How can this be the same?" She wanted to say something, thinking that even if Jiu Ge had asked for her handkerchief just to show off, it was no big deal. But what would be the point of saying any of this to the guard? For now, she simply muttered a subdued "oh". When Langling Wang returned in the evening, Zhang Qi still looked displeased and mumbled a few more complaints, but he didn't seem to have heard her, or at least didn't respond.

  Next, Zhang Qi still couldn't help but secretly embroidered a handkerchief and sent it to Zhang Xuan, but it was returned by Zhang Xuan's servant on the same day. The person who returned the handkerchief said something inexplicable: "Miss Qi, Ninth Master says that he doesn't want this handkerchief anymore, if you still insist, he will really strip off a layer of skin, and even if it's not your ninth aunt, but your own mother, she would have to take two more doses of medicine."

  This remark is so suspicious, Zhang Gui thought about it over and over again. After the King of Lanling returned, she couldn't help but glance at him repeatedly. However, no matter how many times she glanced, the King of Lanling remained expressionless, with a stern and cold demeanor. When she looked too frequently, he would turn his head, gaze brightly at her, reach out to hold her waist, lower his head as if to kiss her lips. This action startled Zhang Gui so much that she immediately suppressed this matter, only occasionally muttering to herself in her heart.

  Zhang Xuan was rarely seen after that day, but Zhang Shi'er let Zhang Gui meet him several times. Each time he faced him, he was hesitant and wanted to speak up but didn't know what to say, so Zhang Gui just turned around and left without paying much attention to him.

  She posed like this several times, and Zhang Shi'er also calmed down.

  After staying in Jiankang for half a month, the breath of spring filled the whole world. On this day, Prince Langya received a carrier pigeon.

  Seeing him standing on the steps, frowning and staring blankly at the north, Zhang Qi couldn't help but walk up to him and ask: "What's wrong?" Hearing her voice, Langling Wang turned around, looking at her, he said in a low voice: "His Majesty says that you and I should return to Ye City." He didn't say that His Majesty had mentioned in the letter that Zheng Shi had shown signs of compromise regarding their divorce.

  "Return to Ye City?" Zhang Qi's face turned pale, she lowered her head and looked at her toes.

  The King of Lanling looked at her for a moment, nodded and said: "It's windy outside, go put on another layer of clothes. Don't worry about this matter." After speaking, he walked out in big strides.

  Seeing him leave, several guards hurried to follow. The King of Lanling rode his horse to the outskirts of the city and gazed at the rolling clouds in the north. He suddenly sneered and snorted heavily, "Why bother with it."

  Yang Shoucheng rode his horse to his back and also looked northward, saying softly: "Where is Your Majesty going?"

  "It's still not enough." Lang Ling Wang had apparently made up his mind, and slowly tore the silk paper into pieces. He relaxed his hand, letting the spring breeze blow it away. His words were low and detached, "The Gao Zhan of today is no longer the one who was once the Prince of Guangping. If I didn't have some promise to keep, I would return to my country now. I'm afraid he will make a move on Ah Gui." Gao Zhan was too lustful, and liked to make moves on his brothers', uncles', and ministers' wives. Nowadays in Qi, the powerful ministers had no one dared to marry beautiful women.

  Yang Shoucheng nodded and sighed: "Your Majesty has changed too much."

  ￥￥

  Born in a military family, ancestors engaged in humble occupations, living in a poor district... isn't it quite pathetic?

  However, this girl is good at washing utensils!

  Let's see a modern female lawyer reborn as an ancient female litigator, although penniless and powerless, she is discriminated against. Fortunately, she has many tricks up her sleeve, speaks eloquently, and has sharp teeth that can bring wealth.

  Internally repairing the ultimate stepmother and relatives, externally tongue-fighting with rascals and villains.

  My goal is: can go up to the public hall, can go down to the prison cell, can fight and win against the phoenix, can strangle Little Qiang to death.

  The woman pulled down the curtains and asked in a low voice: Sir, what do you want me to do?

  And another thing, whoever it is, stop wasting words, chatting with me requires a consultation fee!

  Liu Anhua's new work "Beauty Schemes", book number

  Currently ranked #1 on the PK chart