After the whole family was swept away, I lay down flat

Chapter 774 Inquire
When Haitang received the letter, she was completely confused.

Why did Wu Qiong ask her about Wu Men's past life for no reason?
She and Wu Qiong had known each other in Chang'an for five years. Although she had never avoided the topic of Wu's old friends, Wu Qiong had not mentioned it in front of her for at least three years. When he did, he would only mention his cousin Xie next door and the two old men Cao and Lu. Wu Qiong had not even paid attention to the officials who had been rehabilitated and returned to the court.

Why did Wu Qiong mention them? And it seemed that she was asking more about those who failed to be reinstated as officials and returned to their hometowns to retire, or even those who died in exile, that is, the old people of Wumen who are not living a happy life now. Was she asking about these people because she heard what someone said?
Haitang recalled what had happened recently and immediately guessed that it was Wu Ke who fell into the water.

Could it be that... Wu Ke's fall into the water is related to Wu Men's past life?
Haitang read Wu Qiong's letter over and over again, wondering in her heart what Wu Qiong's intention was and why Wu Ke fell into the water.

Unfortunately, her brother Haijiao was not at home at the moment, so she had no way to find someone to discuss things with. There were many things that were not convenient for her grandparents, and as for Jin Jiashu... she did not want to reveal Wu Qiong's concerns to others.

After hesitating for a while, Haitang simply concealed the letter and didn't mention it. She only asked Jin Jiashu casually, "How is Wu Ke's condition recently? Did the Duke of Zhenguo's Mansion really accept his story about him falling into the water?"

Jin Jiashu responded and sighed, "He's not seriously ill, but he won't get better in a short time. He needs to rest for at least ten days or half a month. The teacher also asked him to stop classes and told him not to worry about his studies. He should take care of his health first. He is not allowed to study for more than two hours a day. As for the reason why he fell into the water, since he insisted that it was an accident, others can't do anything about it and can only follow his wishes. He doesn't care about it himself, so what can the Zhenguogong Mansion do? Anyway, he is not seriously injured, so let him go. The old man Zhenguogong has a lot of things to do now, and the Zhenguogong's wife is also busy and has no time to find out the truth."

Of course, Wu Ke was not good at lying. After he woke up, anyone who had seen him would guess that he was hiding a secret. Everyone knew that there must be something wrong with his falling into the water, but since he did not ask for an investigation, he must have felt guilty. In that case, there was no need to investigate further, lest Wu Ke himself be embarrassed if the truth was found out.

The Duke of Zhenguo Mansion stopped the matter and only arranged for someone to take good care of Wu Ke's health, so that he and his cousin Wu Qiong could live comfortably in the courtyard. However, Xie Wenzai, as a teacher, kept this matter in mind and wanted to find out something.

But Xie Wenzai never mentioned this matter in front of the Hai family. He only told his two old friends Cao Gengyun and Lu Bainian, and also called two students Jin Jiashu and Geng Tianyou.

Because of his status, Jin Jiashu has been detained at home by Ma Shangyi and Lin Shiwei recently. He is not allowed to go out easily. If he wants to go out, he can only go to his teacher's house or Xie's house near his home. He has to bring two followers with him when going to a bookstore. Naturally, he has no way to inquire about any news.

On the contrary, Geng Tianyou, although he is a quiet and shy person, has the support of the Zhuang and Geng families, and has a wider circle of friends outside. Geng Zehuai and Zhuang Shitong, two elders of his grandfather's generation, both hold official positions and are busy with official duties all day long, and are not keen on socializing; after his father's cousin from the Zhuang family fell seriously ill, he has been staying at home to recuperate, rarely going out, and is always worried about the evil people outside, and even his daughter Zhuang Minyi has been detained by him all year round; Geng's uncle and aunt are dull and not good at speaking, and his mother is a woman who has just returned from a divorce, so it is not convenient for her to interact with outsiders. There are so many people in the two families, but only Geng Tianyou can go out and socialize with others. The families of officials in the local civil service system in Chang'an can only find Geng Tianyou to deal with the families of Zhuang and Geng, so he has a wide network of contacts, but he does not have deep friends outside.

Geng Tianyou has another advantage. Although he is shy, he is very tactful. He will never say anything that he shouldn't say, and he never embarrasses others. This is probably because he has lived in his biological father's home since he was a child, and he often needs to read other people's faces. With his personality, and the support of two local powerful officials behind him, his popularity is not bad. It's just that he doesn't like making friends, and prefers to stay under the teacher's nose to study, so he gets along more with his two classmates. Now that Wu Ke is in trouble, the family of the Zhenguogong Mansion are all military generals, and it is not convenient to deal with the scholarly family who hosted the literary meeting. But Xie Wenzai is interested in investigating the situation that night, so he can only use Geng Tianyou, a student.

Geng Tianyou went there without saying anything. He visited several friends of the same age who had participated in the literary gathering, and with the introduction of one of them, he met another senior literary figure in Chang'an who was also attending the gathering that day. He did not openly ask about anything, but just talked about articles, asked for advice on knowledge, and complimented the other party on the virtue of promoting talents. He soon got the answer he wanted.

He came back and told teachers Xie, Cao, and Lu who were the people who received the invitations and who the guests brought with them. He didn't know their full names, but he could roughly tell their surnames, places of origin, and backgrounds. Jin Jiashu stood by and listened, watching the changes in the expressions on the three teachers' faces, and he knew that they must have guessed something.

Jin Jiashu later told Haitang in private: "Although I dare not guarantee it, I am 80% sure that two descendants of the Wu family had seen Wu Ke that day. Teacher Xie was not familiar with their ancestors, but Teacher Lu should have been in the same year as one of them, and Teacher Cao had worked with the other in the court."

In short, the fathers and grandfathers of the two men were once subordinates or students of Wu Wen'an, and were targeted by the Sun family, framed and exiled. However, they were not as lucky as Xie, Cao, Lu and others, and died in the northwest at an early age. Although their families and descendants did not come to the northwest with them, they also suffered enough in their hometown in the countryside and had no hope for the future. After a large number of Wumen students were pardoned, they also regained the qualifications to participate in the imperial examinations, but the lost time could not be made up, and their imperial examination careers were not going smoothly. This time they came to Chang'an to seek advice from teachers. It was an accident to meet Wu Ke, but when he thought about how he was originally a child of an official family, but had suffered enough since childhood, and looked up to see Wu Ke had been well-dressed and well-protected all the way, and now he had a promising future, how could he accept it calmly?
Old men Cao and Lu followed the clues and went to the homes of these two old friends. After finding them, they asked about Wu Ke's fall into the water.

The two admitted that they followed a senior writer whom they had just met to attend a literary gathering. When they heard others introduce the grandson of Wu Wen'an, and saw Wu Ke as a spoiled nobleman, and everyone was polite and respectful to him, they felt wronged. They took advantage of the situation and invited him to the lotus pond to ask about Wu Ke's recent situation. When they learned that he was living well all the way and had not suffered any hardship because of the tragic death of his relatives, they became excited and angry.

They didn't push Wu Ke into the water, but they questioned him angrily and complained about Wu Wen'an and the Wu family. Probably because no one had told Wu Ke about these things, he was shocked at the time, stepped back in panic, and fell into the lotus pond.

The two scholars panicked when they saw this. One of them could swim and wanted to go into the water to save the man, but when he heard a servant running over, the other one was afraid of getting into trouble, so he pulled his companion and ran away. They saw Wu Ke being rescued from a distance, and then they returned to the front seat. It was a mess at the time, and the literary senior who brought them to the literary gathering did not suspect anything, and naturally no one suspected them afterwards.

But they always feel uneasy in their hearts.

(End of this chapter)