Somewhere in Chang'an City, there were two father-in-law and son-in-law sitting next to the stove in a courtyard. In the winter of the fifth year of Jiahe, Zheng Huaixian had a long talk with his father-in-law all night.

Zheng Huaixian took out a pot of tea from the table, put it on the stove, and slowly steamed it. The old man named Yan Zhiwei closed his eyes and rested, leaned on the rocking chair, and a corner of the blanket on his body fell to the ground.

Zheng Huaixian, who put the teapot on the stove, saw this scene and tiptoed to the old man's side. Zheng Huaixian held the blanket in his hand and gently covered the old man's body.

People have studied sleep thoroughly. Some people have some small movements when they sleep, but some people will not wake them up even if they yell in their ears.

In this life, people sleep every day when they were born, and when they were old, they could not sleep anymore. The time between them is only a short century.

Yan Zhiwei slowly opened his eyes and looked at the person in front of him with some vagueness. It took him a long time to see clearly that this was his son-in-law, Zheng Huaixian.

Yan Zhiwei took off the blanket on his body, sat up, bent his body slightly, and approached the stove. When he got old, his hands and feet were a little cold, and this was even more so in winter.

"Huaixian, sit down and rest for a while."

Zheng Huaixian handed the teacup in his hand to the old man, and he filled it with another cup of tea, "Dad, slow down, hot."

The old man responded, put the tea to his mouth, and the fragrance came to his nose. The old man tasted it and it turned out to be good.

“Good tea.”

Zheng Huaixian smiled. In addition to studying, the old man likes to drink a sip of tea in his life, but his official position is the censor of the Censorate, so in recent years, it has been a job of offending people. It would be good to support the people in this mansion with just those salary. If he read a book, the old man had saved up money for several months and went to buy it. In this way, he naturally missed a lot of good books, but the old man was not upset every time. He just smiled slightly and returned to the mansion with his own money in his arms.

"Dad, where did Dean Song of Baizi Academy get the tea?"

Yan Zhiwei heard the tea brought by Song Jinmo and smiled and said, "This is not the tea for me, it should be what you are going to come."

Zheng Huaixian smiled embarrassedly, without the demeanor he had when he was chasing Jia Zhenman in the world. "Isn't mine Jing'er's? Isn't Jing'er's yours?"

Yan Zhiwei laughed loudly, touching his beard, and felt very happy, "You can still talk."

Zheng Huaixian smiled and added another cup to Yan Zhiwei, "Dad, I'm telling the truth."

Yan Zhiwei took the blanket next to him again. The weather was cold. After leaving the blanket, it was really cold. The teacup in front of him was steaming.

"Will you come back after leaving Chang'an City this time?"

Zheng Huaixian did not answer the old man's question. He glanced at the door that opened in the room and wanted to stand up and close the door, but was stopped by the old man. "It's okay, without the obstacles of the door, I happened to take a look at the night view of Chang'an City."

"I won't come back. If Jing'er wants to come back to Chang'an City in the future, I will wait for her outside the city."

The old man sighed slightly, "Is he really not paying attention to the world again?"

Zheng Huai first drink

He took a sip of tea and said slowly: "This time I came out to save Master Jie Chen, otherwise it would be better for me to come out with the coward who only dared to hide in Yuhua Palace."

The old man leaned on the chair, his tone of regret, "It's right for the world to do things in the world. But Your Majesty is not as unbearable as you said."

Zheng Huaixian snorted coldly, "What else do you want if someone who stole his daughter-in-law?"

The old man crossed his hands and put them on his abdomen, feeling helpless. As an orthodox Confucian child, the four words of etiquette, righteousness, integrity and shame are what they should remember before reading the books of sages, and it is also the most basic morality that people should abide by. And that Majesty actually stole the princess of his fourth son and named him his concubine.

When the old man thought of this, he felt helpless and heartbroken. When a monarch began to ignore morality, it was also the time when he lost the hearts of the people.

"Along the way, officials from all over the country were insatiable, cleverly established names, and forced taxes to be collected, and the people were suffering. Every day, they would starve to death on the streets, and those who were frozen to death. Not to mention the distance, they would say that in Chang'an City, there were few who were starving to death every day, and there were still few who were frozen to death?"

"On the northern border, wars are fought every day, and people are dying. But who knows that in the past few decades when the King of Qi was in charge, the Ming Dynasty won less and lost more."

The old man continued to lie on the chair, listening to his son-in-law slowly talking about all the things that happened in the Ming Dynasty in recent years. As the censor of the Censorate, there are such letters on the desk every day. The old man actually knows everything, but he is unwilling to admit it.

He also knew why Zheng Huaixian told him so much, because the news that the old Duke died in Jiming Temple a few days ago spread in Chang'an City, saying that it was to ask His Majesty to investigate the massacre of the Liangzhou cavalry and pretend to be military merits.

The old Duke exchanged his death for His Majesty's determination to investigate the matter, so he had to select an imperial envoy to Liangzhou to investigate the matter. However, in the court, no one is qualified and willing to go.

Is this a good errand?

Of course not. The person who took on this job first offended King Liang, one of the seven vassal kings, and the other one offended the cavalry in Liangzhou. If you find out the truth of the matter, you can return to Chang'an City safely? How could it be so easy? King Liang is a relatively weak vassal king among the seven vassal kings, but that is only compared with other vassal kings. The cavalry under King Liang, who was traversing the Western Regions, was not a vegetarian.

So who will take on this job?

In the eyes of the old man, he was the one who had to do anything from entering the Hanlin Academy to taking charge of the Censorate in his life, and he was loyal to the late emperor and His Majesty the Ming Emperor. Secondly, in order to completely take charge of the Censorate, Yang Zhao would also try his best to make this happen. At that time, no matter whether he was killed by the rioted Liangzhou cavalry or was killed on the road, Yang Zhao could do his best to take charge of the Censorate in full.

The third is that there are not a few thousand officials who have reported impeachment over the years, and there are hundreds of them. Among these people, there are many people, including royal family members and wealthy families. There is no way. The old man was favored by the former emperor because of this spirit of fearlessness and fearlessness, so he could take charge of the Censorate.

But after all, it is necessary for the old man to nod and agree that his Majesty would really let Yan Zhiwei investigate this matter.

Zheng Huaixian specially sent his wife away tonight

My son just wanted to persuade the old man not to take on this job.

"I know everything you want to say, but I can't promise you."

Zheng Huaixian lowered his head, looking a little lonely, "Just treat it as for Jing'er or for your grandson, it's not OK?"

The old man smiled happily, and the grandson who picked up food for him during the day was very happy. "People say that when people get old, there are two things that they can't let go, one is their children. When I get to my place, Jing'er will marry you, so I feel at ease and at ease. A saint who has not been born in Confucianism for a hundred years, I think who dares to bully Jing'er."

When the old man said this, he was arrogant and arrogant, "Of course you are not allowed to bully Jing'er."

Zheng Huaixian smiled and said, "This is naturally, Yan Jing bullies me."

The old man snorted and continued, "As parents, since the child's problem has been solved, the next question is how to die."

"A Confucian book says that death is lighter than a feather or heavier than Mount Tai. Since my wife died, I have not been afraid of death. There are many ways to die, die from illness, die of accidents, and be killed by others, many, many."

"Everyone can die, but he is old and young, but I am afraid that death is worthless and death is not worthless. I always think that this is what the book says."

A cold wind blew outside the door. As the old man spoke, he sat upright. The candlelight in the room shone on the old man's face, and the old man was in high spirits.

"As a child of Confucianism, you should make annotations on these supreme quotations. As a minister, if you want you to die, you will die."

"The word "loyalty and filial piety" is loyalty first and filial piety later. For thousands of years, everyone has wanted to be loyal and filial, but it is so difficult."

The old man pointed out outside the door, "The elders of Xu Tiande's three dynasties also wanted to be loyal and filial. He wanted to be worthy of Taizu's kindness to him, and also wanted to plan a hereditary only for his son and grandson, which was only a vassal king. But where was such a good thing?"

"A lifetime is fate, no one can do anything to others."

The old man glanced at Zheng Huaixian who said this, nodded, and agreed.

"If everyone wants to plan some benefits for themselves, then my Ming Dynasty is really over. An era will eventually have someone to stand up."

"I just think that in the world where you are, there are Li Taibai, who is the sword-holding world, Gu Kaizhi, the old master who ascended in the sun, and Master Jie Chen of the Little Buddha Temple who even admires a little. These are the backbone of the world."

"In the court, Zhang Juzheng is the backbone of the literati, and Xu Tiande is the backbone of the military general. So many poor students from my Confucianism stand in the court, why isn't anyone who can stand up and dare to die?"

The old man slowly got up, picked up the teacup on the table, drank it all, and then walked outside.

"I am not talented, I am willing to be that person, the one who dares to die."

The old man stood at the door, paused for a moment, and told Zheng Huaixian, who was sitting on the chair behind him, "Take good care of Jing'er and my good grandson."

Zheng Huaixian nodded, and never put down the teacup in his hand and held it in his hand.

The old man laughed happily and walked into the winter night of the fifth year of Jiahe.

In the room, the cold wind blew, and the candlelight was extinguished.
Chapter completed!