Women Wearing Men: The Growth Path of the Bastards of the Aristocratic Family

After the young man finished speaking, a young man with a gentle temperament walked out of the cabin and responded with a smile: "Yes, sir, after passing Songjiang Mansion, it is not far from Hangzhou."

The two people on board were none other than Cheng Yan and Prince Li Jinze.

Cheng Yan's trip to Beijing was for official business, and he carried the emperor's orders. He was going to Zhejiang to deal with the aftermath of the anti-Japanese war, and based on the anti-Japanese results of the local officials, he would give certain awards to Mei Feng, Gu Yunji and others on behalf of the central government based on their anti-Japanese results.

Li Jinze, on the other hand, traveled incognito. Under the instruction of Emperor Jingfeng, he concealed his identity and name. He first followed the procession of burying Zhou Minqing all the way to Suzhou Prefecture, and then mixed with Cheng Yan and his party to travel to Zhejiang.

There are only a few people in the team who know the inside story. Others only know that his surname is Zhao, that he is an aide of Cheng Yan, and his identity is quite mysterious.On weekdays, he seemed to have nothing to do except look at the scenery and play around. However, Cheng Yan was extremely polite to him, which was hard to understand.

From Cheng Yan's point of view, Li Jinze's entourage this time was beyond his expectation.

Logically speaking, as the crown prince, Li Jinze should stay in the palace to listen to politics and study, and not go anywhere.I don’t know what he said to Emperor Jingfeng, but he was able to make Emperor Jingfeng relent and agree to his visit incognito, all the way to the south of the Yangtze River.

Before leaving Beijing, Emperor Jingfeng went to Cheng Yan and told him to watch the prince carefully and not make any mistakes.

On the surface, Cheng Yan and his party only had one ship, but secretly they were followed by countless Feiyu Guards. Not to mention ordinary robbers and bandits, even hundreds of highly skilled killers and assassins could not get close to them.

Cheng Yan didn't need to worry about protecting the personal safety of the prince, and he couldn't worry about it. Emperor Jingfeng asked him to "watch", which naturally had another meaning.

Thinking of this, Cheng Yan calmly glanced at Li Jinze who was looking at the scenery on the bow of the boat, his eyes dark and unclear.

Li Jinze grew up in the capital and had never seen the beautiful spring scenery in the south of the Yangtze River. He took a deep breath of fresh air and sighed: "As expected of the south of the Yangtze River, a land of plenty and plenty, it is indeed very different from the capital. Such beautiful scenery must be beautiful." Most of the people who come out are talented people.”

Speaking of this, Li Jinze suddenly remembered something and turned back to look at Cheng Yan: "Master Cheng, I remember that you seem to be from Songjiang Prefecture, right? When we get there later, do you want to take a break for two days and let you go back and see the elders in your hometown? Folks? There’s no rush at this moment anyway.”

Cheng Yanwen smiled and said: "Both my parents have passed away, and there are not many relatives left in my hometown. I have never been back since I went to Beijing to take the exam after the provincial examination in the fourth year of Jingfeng. Now that so many years have passed, I am afraid that the villagers If you don’t recognize me, there’s no need to go back.”

Li Jinze shook his head in disapproval: "You must know that Mr. Cheng was the top scholar in Jingfeng for five years, a real number one scholar. He is only in his 20s now and has become a doctor in the Literary Selection Department of the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Although his position is not high, he has great power. Extremely serious. You are so young and promising, I am afraid you will have become a celebrity in Songjiang Prefecture. How could the villagers forget you?"

Li Jinze traveled incognito with Zhou Minqing's funeral procession. After arriving in Suzhou, he could directly contact the local officials.Anyway, Feiyuwei followed him, and it was enough to inform the officials there whenever he went to one place. This was not only convenient for the government, but also gave Li Jinze himself a lot of freedom.

But it was obvious that Emperor Jingfeng didn't want him to be too free.

Everyone in the government and the public knew that Cheng Yan was a member of Emperor Jingfeng, and asking Li Jinze to follow him was not only for protection, but also a disguised form of "surveillance."Since it is "surveillance", it is very important to have a good relationship with Cheng Yan. Not only can he put in a good word for himself, but at least he should not report it in front of Emperor Jingfeng.

Listening to the hint of compliment in Li Jinze's words, Cheng Yan smiled and responded with a hint of saltiness: "Then let's talk about it when we return, so as not to delay the errand. After all, I have the emperor's orders on this trip, and it is still official business. More important." Li Jinze did not give up and continued to make insinuations: "One of the Zhejiang officials we are going to meet this time is named Gu Yunji, who is the prefect of Shaoxing Prefecture. I heard that he is also from Songjiang Prefecture? So he is from the same hometown as Mr. Cheng?"

Cheng Yan nodded politely: "Exactly. I met Mr. Gu when we were young. We passed the provincial examination together and passed the palace examination together. We have known each other for many years."

Hearing what he said, Li Jinze was a little puzzled.

Since they are from the same hometown and are good friends who met when they were young, the friendship should be extraordinary. Moreover, as far as Li Jinze knew, Cheng Yan married Gu Yunji's sister. The two families were related by marriage, so they should be inseparable from each other.

However, hearing what Cheng Yan meant, it seemed as if he and Gu Yunji had only been "acquainted" for many years, and they didn't seem to have a close relationship with each other.

Are you really unfamiliar with Gu Yunji, or are you wary of him and unwilling to reveal too much?
Li Jinze made up his mind to get something out of Cheng Yan, so he tried to say: "...I think back then, Master Cheng and Master Gu were similar in age and from the same hometown. One was the number one scholar in high school and the other was the third highest scorer. They were called 'Songjiang "Double Jade" became a favorite story for a while."

"It's a pity that Mr. Gu was transferred to the southwest as a local official within two years. After that, you were separated from each other, thousands of miles apart. If not, you would have been able to work together and make more dazzling political achievements in the court."

Cheng Yan's voice was a little cold: "Whether you are at the local level or at the central level, you are still an official. There is essentially no difference. It is the same everywhere."

Li Jinze asked for trouble and said sarcastically: "Master Cheng is right..."

"Sir, the wind is strong on the bow of the ship. It's better to go back to the cabin and rest early." Cheng Yan seemed reluctant to talk more. After saying these words politely and distantly, he turned around and returned to the cabin.

He was a young man after all, and he was very curious. Looking at his back, Li Jinze secretly muttered in his heart: Didn't it mean that Cheng Yan and Gu Yunji had a good relationship?Why doesn't it look like it?Could it be that the two have been separated for many years and their relationship has faded?Or...is there something else hidden?

Li Jinze rolled his eyes twice, thinking of some gossip, and his thoughts were like wild horses, gradually running off the reins.

In the early years, there were rumors that Cheng Yan suffered from a hidden disease that could not be disclosed to outsiders, making it difficult to propose marriage and hindering his marriage.Gu Yunji ignored the rumors and insisted on marrying his sister to him. In this way, the rumors should have been self-defeating.

But Cheng Yan had been married for so many years, but he didn't have a single child. Besides his wife, he didn't have any other concubines in the family. Considering all the above, it's hard not to think too much.

Could it be that Cheng Yan deceived the Gu family with his clever tongue, and only after the Gu family married their daughter did they discover the truth, and Gu Yunji broke off the relationship with Cheng Yan in anger?
...No, no, no, this is too outrageous.

The more Li Jinze thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong, so he simply shook his head and put away the messy thoughts.

At the end of March, on the spring day of Jiangnan and Jingming, Cheng Yan and his party took a boat down the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. It was smooth sailing along the way. Within a few days, Hangzhou Prefecture was in sight.