Mikago

"Zoran, open the door, it's me, Swiss Franc."

Under the faint moonlight, the knock on the door sounded again in the quiet courtyard.

Ye Zuolan still didn't respond.There seemed to be no one in the room, and there was no shadow of a single star in sight.

"If you don't speak, then I will come in."

Tang Ruilang no longer waited for the reaction in the room.He reached out and pushed the door, and then walked to the window.

There is no upper pin on the branch window, and it opens outward with a light lift.Inside the room, it was completely pitch black, and it was impossible to see where Ye Zuolan was.

Tang Ruilang remembered that there was a desk under the window, so he crawled into the room in the dark, and accidentally knocked over a few teacups, which fell to the ground with a shattering sound.

He was worried about stepping on the debris, so he slowed down his movements a little. When he finally stood on the ground and his eyesight had adjusted to the dimness of the room, he found Ye Zuolan lying on the bed in the inner room, burying her face in the unrolled quilt , seemed to be motionless.

"What's going on here?"

The boy who came to rescue the soldiers just now was vague, Tang Ruilang was also at a loss at the moment.He walked quickly to the bed, leaned over and pushed Ye Zuolan's shoulder.

For the first time, there was no response; for the second time, he increased his strength.

"Hmm..." The person lying on the bed called out softly, as if he had just woken up from a dream: "What... what are you doing?"

Tang Ruilang asked back, "What's the matter with the voice? Are you sick?"

Ye Zuolan froze for a moment, and then realized that her voice was hoarse, like a male duck.

"...No, I'm fine."

"It's clear that there is something wrong!" Of course Tang Ruilang didn't believe it, and turned around to light the lamp.

Not wanting her distressed appearance to fall into Rui Lang's eyes, Ye Zuolan hurriedly got up and wanted to resist, but just twisted twice, another surge of unstoppable pain came.

He couldn't help but flinch, Tang Ruilang had already lit the oil lamp, turned around, and took a deep breath.

"Are you—?!"

The light was dim, but it couldn't hide the redness of Ye Zuolan's eyes and the tear stains on his face.In addition, he just fell asleep on the bed with messy hair, so he looked very miserable.

"Are you in pain?" Tang Ruilang noticed that he was lying on the bed all the time: "Let me see."

"It's okay, it's really okay!" Ye Zuolan refused to agree, shaking her head desperately.

However, Tang Ruilang was also stubborn, he bullied him with hands and feet, wrestled with Ye Zuolan, and finally took off his close-fitting obscene pants.

"This... who beat you like this?!"

I saw seven or eight purple-red stick marks stretching across the thighs that were originally creamy white jade, each of which was as thick as a thumb, and raised half the height of a fingernail.The blood vessels below it jumped and jumped, and it was astonishingly hot.

Ye Zuolan was ashamed, angry and sad, so she just lowered her head and didn't answer.Tang Ruilang thought about it for a while, there might not be someone in the Imperial College who was so bold and reckless, and today was supposed to be a ten-day holiday, Ye Zuolan had always spent time at home, and that meant...

"Could it be your father? Why did you provoke him?"

"I, I didn't..."

Ye Zuolan still felt wronged.However, if Tang Ruilang was told the ins and outs of the matter, it might be detrimental to his father's career.

After weighing the two, he chose to remain silent.

Fortunately, Tang Ruilang didn't ask any further questions.He turned around and went to the outside room, whispered a few words to the servants and bodyguards standing outside the door, and then walked in with a white porcelain bottle.

"This medicine was brought by your mother, so hurry up and apply it."

After all, Ye Zuolan was only an 11-year-old boy, and when she heard that her mother cared about her, her eyes couldn't help getting moist again.

Seeing him patronizing and weeping, Tang Ruilang sighed and sat beside him, unscrewing the bottle cap by himself.The bottle contained a spicy ointment, apparently intended for external application.

"do not move."

Tang Ruilang dug a little ointment and wiped it on the stick marks on Ye Zuolan's legs, only to feel the skin bounce when his fingertips touched it, and he quickly dodged away.

"I'll do it myself, I'll do it myself!"

Ye Zuolan blushed, and hurriedly turned around, but when she stretched her waist and hips a little, she grinned in pain for a while.

Tang Ruilang also felt uncomfortable looking at it, so he pressed Ye Zuolan's waist to stop him from moving around, and smeared between his legs involuntarily.

"Your father beat you really hard. It's red and swollen. What did he use? A whip, a cane? Why aren't you afraid of beating you and maiming you?"

"It's the baguette, the thickest one." Ye Zuolan lay on the bed sobbing, "...and interrupted."

"Family baguette?!" Tang Ruilang's eyes widened: "I thought that kind of thing was just kept at home for people to look up to. But it's used to beat people..."

"Have you never been beaten?" Now it was Ye Zuolan's turn to be surprised: "What about the thinnest one? The one used to slap the palm?"

"No."

Tang Ruilang still shook his head.After applying the ointment a few more times, he suddenly laughed out loud.

"Actually, I'm quite envious of you. My father is a busy man, and he stays in the province all day long. Even when he returns home, he stays in the study. Let alone beating me, he doesn't even have time to ask me about my homework." have."

The cooling of the ointment came into play.The heat and pain are lessening.At the same time, Ye Zuolan felt the warmth of Tang Ruilang's palm.Warmly and tenderly, covering his wounds.

A little itchy, a little comfortable, a little relieved... the rest of the feeling, he still has no way to describe it.

In any case, thanks to Tang Ruilang's reassurance, Ye Zuolan's mood has stabilized a lot at this moment.

Recalling the conflict with his father just now, he took the initiative to lean towards Tang Ruilang, and asked in a low voice: "After I finish studying in the Imperial Academy, will I be able to be reused by the court?"

"Why do you ask this all of a sudden?"

Although Tang Ruilang was curious, he still replied solemnly: "After finishing the Imperial Academy, one has to take part in the palace examination, and only those admitted can become Jinshi. Among the Jinshi, there are high and low ranks, who are either appointed immediately or wait for three years... "

"I know all of this." Ye Zuolan sighed: "I mean, even if a person has real talent and learning and successfully obtained an official position, is it possible that he will not be reused by the court and waste his time?"

"I think there should be."

Tang Ruilang was also frank: "The ancients said: 'If you do your best to be an official, I have Ning Mo.' There are thousands of officials in the capital, and it may not be possible for everyone to get what they want. This is an unavoidable fact."

"I see."

Ye Zuolan tried her best to suppress the sigh from the corner of her mouth, and continued to ask: "If this kind of thing happens to me...if I can't realize my ambition, what should I do?"

This question was obviously beyond the scope of Tang Ruilang's thinking. He hesitated for a while before answering: "Don't worry, if Zuolan becomes an official, I will definitely help him."

Ye Zuolan didn't respond.He just lay quietly on the bed, silently chewing on the words he was most afraid of, but also wanted to hear the most.

------------

The damage caused by the Thirty Stick Family Law cannot be underestimated.Ye Zuolan was in pain for seven days, and it took another 20 days for her to recover basically.

During the two ten-day holidays on the 27th, Ye Zuolan chose to stay in the Imperial College.

He wasn't angry, but he couldn't figure out how to face his father; he didn't know whether he should stick to his own opinion or bow to his father's rich life experience.

Ye Zuolan also thought about asking Tang Ruilang for help, asking him to invite her to the Tang Manor's banquet.However, when he thought that he might lose Tang Ruilang's appreciation instead, he hastily dismissed the thought.

The day of the feast was approaching day by day, but no one expected that a major accident disrupted all the plans.

In the early morning of this day, Tang Ruilang's second sister, the young Princess Duan, passed away after giving birth to a son.

Since Prince Duan's Mansion was not in the capital, it was already the second day when the bad news came.Everyone in the Tang family was shocked. Tang Ruilang had a close relationship with his second sister on weekdays, so he immediately set off for Duan Wang's mansion regardless of dissuasion.

This walk took many days.

After Tang Ruilang left, more rumors spread into the Imperial College one after another.

Princess Duan Tang Manxiang is the second daughter of Tang Quan, Minister of the Ministry of Officials.It is said that she has a delicate appearance and a lively temperament, and she is loved by her parents.However, perhaps because she was spoiled and spoiled since she was a child, her personality is extremely arrogant and unrestrained.

And her husband-in-law, Duanwang Zhao Qing, was born to the imperial concubine Shen.When King Duan was five years old, Shen died of illness, so he recognized Empress Xiao as his mother.Legend has it that Zhao Qing is more beautiful than a beautiful woman, but unfortunately she is also a surly and difficult to get along with.

Some people who used to work in Prince Duan's mansion also revealed that Zhao Qing was insane when she came out of her mother's womb, and she would have seizures from time to time, which could only be suppressed by drugs.

Such a pair of men and women who "can only be seen from a distance" are brought together like needlepoints, so naturally nothing good happens.The father of a student in the Imperial College had witnessed the ceremony of King Duan's wedding. It is said that there was already an undercurrent between the husband and wife at the banquet.

Two years passed in a snap of the fingers, and Princess Duan was suddenly pregnant with Liujia.Everyone originally thought that the conflict between the husband and wife had been resolved—but now this sad news has to send chills down the spine.

Princess Duan might have been killed by Prince Duan Zhao Qing.

Although no one dared to question it openly, such views had quietly spread in the Imperial College, and even the entire capital.Of course Ye Zuolan had heard about it, but what he cared more about was another member of the Tang family.

How is Tang Ruilang now?

If the death of the concubine is really inseparable from Prince Duan, wouldn't his trip be a moth to the flame?