Chapter 1369

The night was like a huge black curtain, covering a corner of the sky and also covering the earth where things were happening.

Footsteps stepped on the bluestone slabs on the ground, and the black robe and the ink-like night scene almost merged into one.

In the backyard of Yuan Ji's mansion, Yuan Wu, with a frown and a hideous scar on his face, led four guards and was pushing a person whose eyes were covered with a black cloth into the inner hall.

The candlelight covered by lanterns in the corridor between the mansions emitted a pale yellow light, flickering on and off.

The maid standing under the lantern with her head lowered let the guards walk by her side, and never curiously raised her head to look.

Just because she, who had been a maid in the mansion of an aristocratic family for many years, understood that the more you know, the faster you might die.

After arriving in Ye County, Yuan Ji did everything with a very low profile.

It didn't even fit the status of the future head of the Yuan clan.

Even the mansion he lived in right now was the same.

The mansion, which didn't occupy much land, only had front and back courtyards.

In addition to the main room and the east and west wing rooms, there was also an ear room on the left and right sides of the main room.

In the west ear room, Yuan Ji, dressed in a white robe and wearing a jade crown, sat behind the desk.

Holding a brush in one hand, a piece of white paper was spread on the desk in front of him.

A dim oil lamp was lit beside the white paper.

The black ink reflected a faint oily light under the illumination of the candlelight.

After the wrist strength penetrated the paper and fell the last stroke, the three characters "Wind Thunder Benefit" leaped onto the square white paper.

The Yuan clan's ancestral "Meng's Book of Changes" was a school founded by Meng Xi of the Western Han Dynasty.

Meng Xi, courtesy name Changqing, was from Lanling, Donghai, Western Han Dynasty, and his ancestors traced back to Mencius.

The Yuan clan's ancestor Yuan Liang was a disciple of the Meng school.

By the generation of Yuan An, he understood and mastered the "Meng's Book of Changes," ranked in the court, and since then the Yuan clan rose.

Wind Thunder Benefit is taken from the "Book of Changes" Dui hexagram, which means that thunder must move first, and wind must follow, and then all things can benefit.

"Wind has no form, thunder shakes the sound, benefit brings blessings."

Yuan Ji placed the brush in his hand on the pen holder beside him and looked down at the three characters on the paper.

He had been like the wind without a shadow since coming to Ye City, keeping a low profile, not because he was depressed.

But for the day when thunder roars in the nine heavens.

Dong dong dong.

There was a knock on the door outside the study.

Yuan Ji, who put down the brush, looked up at the door outside, and then said the two words "come in" softly.

The black study door opened, and the cold wind outside poured in quietly, blowing the oil lamp in the room to sway.

Yuan Wu brought the man whose eyes were covered into the study, and then turned to close the door behind him.

The flame on the oil lamp stood straight, and the blue smoke curled.

Yuan Ji glanced at the man whose eyes were covered, and Yuan Wu on the side nodded.

"Are you Zhen Jian's son?" Yuan Ji asked slowly.

Hearing the voice, the man's body trembled slightly.

"Answer whatever I ask you, if there is half a lie..."

Yuan An, standing behind Zhen Jian's son, pulled out the scabbard slightly.

The sound of the long knife rubbing against the scabbard pierced into the ears of Zhen Ji, Zhen Jian's son.

"Yes, I am." Zhen Ji answered with a trembling voice.

Yuan Ji pressed his hand toward Yuan An and then continued: "Don't worry, I'm not here to kill you. If I wanted to kill you, I wouldn't let you come here."

"I just want to ask you a few questions. You only need to answer truthfully, and you will be safe, and I also guarantee that I will send you to a safe place."

Yuan Ji's voice was very approachable.

Having been an official in Luoyang for many years, as the next head of the Yuan clan.

How to treat people, how to gain someone's trust, how to win over those who need to be won over, these seem to be instinctively engraved in memory, without the need for deliberation.

Sure enough, after Yuan Ji's voice fell, Zhen Ji, who had weak legs due to fear and needed Yuan Wu's support, stood up straight.

"Tell me, why did Yuan Shao hunt down you and your father, and why was he determined to wipe out your branch of the Yuan clan."

"Don't rush, tell me slowly."

Yuan Ji took out another piece of paper from the side, and then picked up the brush placed on the pen holder beside him, and the tip of the brush fell on the paper.

"I will say..."

"That day, my father went to Yuan Inspector's mansion to pay a visit, saying he had important matters to see Yuan Inspector. After returning, my father found me and told me to be prepared to take over the Liangzhou shops in Ye County."

"I... I didn't understand, so I asked my father why. My father said that Jia Dong's good days were over. My father said that Jia Dong should have hidden the Empress He sisters who escaped from Luoyang. It was seen by the servants in the mansion with their own eyes."

Yuan Ji's face had no change in expression, and he wrote down every word Zhen Ji said on the paper.

"Later, my father also sent people to observe Yuan Inspector, until Yuan Inspector led troops to chase out of the city, my father was very happy and even drank some wine."

"But..."

"But not long after Yuan Inspector left, I don't know when he returned, he ordered the mansion to be closed. At that time, I was in the city preparing to take over the Liangzhou shops. The servants in the house suddenly told me, I knew something was wrong, so I escaped..."

"Since then, I don't know my father's whereabouts..."

After Zhen Ji told everything.

Yuan An had finished recording.

And wrote the names of several people on the white paper.

Duan Yu, Yuan Shao, He Lingsi, Jia Dong, Zhen Jian.

Looking at the names on the paper, Yuan Ji was thoughtful.

When all this happened, he was still in Hedong Commandery.

At that time, after Duan Yu broke Guo Tai's Baibo Army from Baibo Valley, he went all the way to Taiyuan Commandery in Bingzhou, and then his whereabouts were unknown.

After Duan Yu returned to Chang'an, he issued a manifesto to denounce the rebels. It was clear that He Lingsi had already gone to Chang'an at that time.

In this way, Duan Yu came to Jizhou to welcome He Lingsi.

What Zhen Jian discovered in Ye County was definitely the He Lingsi sisters.

As for who Yuan Shao met after leaving the city, the answer was already obvious.

It must be Duan Yu himself who came from Bingzhou.

Wiping out the Zhen clan's branch was just to silence them.

Yuan Ji raised his head and waved his hand at Yuan Wu: "Take him down first, and settle everything well."

"As you command!"

After Yuan Wu agreed, he took Zhen Ji out of the study.

And Yuan Ji put down the brush in his hand, slowly stood up, carried one hand on his back, and stood in front of the study window, looking at the starry sky filled with night.

"Uncle, you said everything is for the Yuan clan, but it seems someone didn't do that..."

"If the court learns that Yuan Shao is colluding with Duan Yu, then how will the Yuan clan handle itself?"

"Can your position as Grand Tutor still be kept?"

"Uncle, it's not that I want to fight. You also said that the Yuan clan is not anyone's Yuan clan. If anyone harms the interests of the Yuan clan, then he is the enemy of the Yuan clan, and must be eradicated, pulled out, and replaced."

"I'm doing this, you shouldn't be angry, right."

"This is what you taught me yourself, everything is for the Yuan clan, since that's the case..."

"For the Yuan clan, no one cannot be sacrificed, right..."