Luo Cuiwei, unaware of Yun Lie's true intentions, watched silently from the side.
"Hey, my fifth brother sent a letter?" Gao Zhan examined the wax seal repeatedly before showing it to Yun Lie. "Where's the letter?"
If you do the math, it's been five or six months since the New Year that he hasn't received any letters from the Duke of He's mansion in the capital.
"There's no letter, just this wax seal," Yun Lie waved his hand, "Take it back and let it remind you of home."
Gao Zhan frowned and thought for a moment, then muttered resentfully, "No one but my fifth brother would be so idle as to do something like this."
However, he carefully put the wax seal into the pouch at his waist.
Gao Zhan was no longer the carefree young master he once was. After thanking Yun Lie, he left in a hurry.
After he left, Luo Cuiwei asked in confusion, "How did you know the letter was from Gao Yu?"
Gao Zhan's fifth brother is Gao Yu, the commander of the Imperial City Guard. Although Yun Lie and Gao Yu are not exactly friends, they do know each other.
“Those jade-colored wax seals are quite expensive and not commonly seen on the market. Most people buy them for collection purposes and wouldn’t actually use them to seal letters,” Yun Lie explained. “I vaguely remember that Gao Yu had a habit of drawing a small cross on the wax seal with the edge of her thumb ring after sealing each letter.”
They were still unsure, which is why they called Gao Zhan over to confirm.
****
Luo Cuiwei slowly sat on Yun Lie's lap, constantly rubbing her temples with her fingers. "You mean, Gao Yu intercepted a carrier pigeon, and now someone in the capital is sending a message out of the Northern Di language; but instead of presenting the message to His Majesty, he secretly sent it to my house, asking my family to forward it to Linchuan?"
What a mess!
"If I'm not mistaken, this letter should be Yun Huan's doing." Yun Lie let out a cold breath, looked up and saw her frowning with worry, so he reached out to take her place and pressed her forehead acupoints with appropriate force.
"The Duke of He's mansion is on Yun Xi's side. Gao Yu got hold of Yun Huan's weakness, but then dumped this hot potato on Linchuan. It's obvious that my sister wants to do me a favor and also use me to get rid of Yun Huan. Ha."
Luo Cuiwei thought for a moment, then asked, "What about the Tang family? What about the Huang family? Ugh, why is my head so confused?"
Suddenly, many things became a tangled mess, involving treason and the struggle for the throne. Luo Cuiwei had never encountered such a deep situation before, and she didn't know where to begin.
Yun Lie, however, was used to such things and patiently explained to her, "When I advocated replacing the Huang family with the Luo family on the Spring Hunt list, it was Yun Huan who stood up to oppose me. It seems that the Tang family was originally Yun Huan's people."
"If Luo Cuizhen's classmate surnamed Tang is from that Tang family, then does that mean that Huang Jingru's family squeezed out the Tang family and became Yun Huan's henchmen?" Luo Cuiwei asked.
“It shouldn’t be that he’ll be squeezed out. After all, Yun Huan has very few chips to begin with. Both the Tang family and the Huang family can provide him with financial resources. If nothing unexpected happens, he won’t completely abandon the Tang family,” Yun Lie snorted. “What my little sister’s classmate was complaining about was probably that the Huang family had taken away Yun Huan’s original attention to the Tang family.”
"What leverage does Huang Jingru have over you?" Yun Lie paused, then asked seriously.
Luo Cuiwei thought for a moment, "If we really have to say what leverage she has, it's probably that she guessed that I wanted to ask you to pass through Linchuan so that the Luo family's caravan could transport goods through the defense zone."
After the New Year, Fish Wong stopped making public appearances.
The Prince An's residence frequently mingled with officials and censors in private.
No one in the capital believed that they could successfully travel by official road to Linchuan.
Sending messages to the Northern Barbarians via carrier pigeon.
When these events are put together, one can roughly guess what happened even before Fu Qian comes to identify the Northern Di script on the paper.
Luo Cuiwei slapped her thigh in anger and pinched it hard, "Is Yun Huan going crazy?!"
“He’s always been crazy,” Yun Lie said, wincing in pain. “Young lady, even if it’s not your leg, please don’t pinch it so hard.”
Luo Cuiwei turned around, intending to glare at him, but couldn't help laughing.
"Complaining like she's being spoiled, who does she want to smother?"
****
Although he had a general idea of what was going on, Yun Lie still cautiously summoned Fu Qian and asked him to identify the Northern Di script.
Fu Qian carefully read through the densely packed questions, his expression one of shock.
"Someone tipped off the Northern Di people, saying that we are preparing to wage war against them."
Furthermore, in the letter, this person also advised the Northern Di people that instead of waiting to be attacked, they should first launch a surprise attack on Linchuan.
"Now that things have come to this, let's see who can strike first and catch the enemy off guard." Yun Lie's dark eyes blazed, their sharpness like the gleam of a frosty blade.
After waiting patiently for so long, Yun Huan finally stuck out his neck to be slaughtered.
Then so be it, and settle all grudges, both public and private, together.
Looking at Yun Lie's expression, Luo Cuiwei couldn't help but laugh. "Does this mean we need to go back to the capital?"
She understood that Yun Lie was not a rash or impulsive person; for him to say such a thing, he must be confident that he would succeed.
After more than a year, the two of them have developed a good understanding and never interfere in each other's areas of expertise.
"Little Yuanzi should go back to the capital to familiarize herself with the place." Yun Lie stretched and slowly stood up, a calm smile in his eyes.
With that expression and that aura, anyone who saw him would believe that as long as he stood there, he could protect the entire world behind him.
The summer sunset painted his body with gold, and though he held no weapons, it was as if a thousand troops stood behind him.
Luo Cuiwei nodded slightly, her smiling eyes sparkling with countless tiny stars that seemed to burst forth and scatter across the ground.
This is the man who once carried the central army's "Yun" banner amidst the flames of war on the border.
This is her beloved young man.
Chapter 82
On the morning of the fifth day of the eighth lunar month, the sun had barely risen above the horizon when the sweltering heat began to rise.