Pei Ji's sudden death made Li Xiu's heart a mess, especially when he thought of Pei Ji's help to him, Li Xiu felt even more sad. He only regretted that America was too far away and Li Xiu could not go to Pei Ji's tomb to pay his respects in person, but he took Li Ke with him and accompanied him to the villa where Pei Ji was in the South Mountain.

Pei Ji's villa was originally Li Yuan's palace in Nanshan, but later rewarded him to Pei Ji. After Pei Ji resigned from his post, he also lived here for retirement. At that time, Li Xiu often came here to visit because the courtyard was quite large, with a small lake and a hunting ground. Even when Li Yuan had escaped from the palace, he had hidden here.

Since Pei Ji left Chang'an, this Nanshan villa has been vacant for a long time. Although Pei Ji has many children and grandchildren, they all serve as officials in other places. The most promising one is named Lawyer Pei, who married Li Yuan's sixteenth daughter, Princess Linhai, who is considered Li Xiu's brother-in-law, but he has been serving as the governor outside and rarely returns to Beijing.

It is precisely because of this reason that when Pei Ji left Chang'an, he entrusted the villa to Li Xiu to take care of him. Usually, there were many servants responsible for the management. In addition, Li Xiu also came around from time to time, and sometimes stayed for a few days. So when Li Xiu brought Li Ke here, the scene he saw was almost not much different from when Pei Ji was there.

"This...is Mr. Pei's villa?" Li Ke is not unfamiliar with this villa, because he had been here when he was in Chang'an before, but he hadn't come back for many years, and some memories were blurred.

"Yes, this is a reward from Mr. Pei, and it is also his favorite place. If that hadn't happened at the beginning, Mr. Pei would have been sitting here for retirement." Li Xiu said with emotion at this time. As for the "that thing" he said in his speech, it naturally refers to Li Yuan's deceiving death. Li Ke immediately understood it and did not discuss it too much.

At that moment, Li Xiu took Li Ke to the villa. Every grass and tree in the villa was so familiar, but unfortunately their owner was no longer there, which made Li Xiu sad again.

As the saying goes, seeing things and thinking of people, Li Xiu walked around the other yard for a few times. He thought that Pei Ji was fishing and hunting here, but now this old friend is already sleeping thousands of miles away. It is impossible for him to go to his tomb to worship him, which makes him even more sad.

Li Xiu wandered in the villa until it was getting late, and then he took Li Ke with him to go back. Li Ke kept comforting Li Xiu along the way, which made Li Xiu feel better.

However, just as Li Xiu and Li Ke left the villa, they suddenly saw a carriage running from the bottom of the mountain. When they passed by the villa, the carriage suddenly stopped. Then a beautiful girl jumped out of the carriage and shouted happily: "Why are you here? You must be lazy and come to hunt again. No wonder you haven't seen you all day!"

The girl was Wu Mingkong. She had just returned from Li Xiu's house, but she didn't expect to see Li Xiu and a young man in front of the gate of the other yard. Although she had seen Li Ke before, she was not very familiar with him. In addition, Li Ke had been in Yangzhou for so many years and had changed a lot, so she couldn't recognize her for a while.

"Mingkong, you came back so early today, didn't you have dinner at home?" Li Xiu said with a forced smile.

"Sir, are you worried?" Wu Mingkong was extremely smart and immediately noticed that Li Xiu's expression was something wrong. This made her look suspiciously at Li Ke behind Li Xiu. She felt that this young man looked familiar, but she couldn't remember where he had seen him for a while.

"It's nothing. This is Li Ke, the King of Wu. You have met before. He is also Jin'er's cousin." Li Xiu was so energetic that he first introduced Li Ke for Wu Mingkong, and then introduced Li Ke, "Ke'er, this is Wu Mingkong, you should remember her. In addition, she is Jin'er's fiancée. The two were engaged a few years ago!"

"Of course I remember that last time my husband said that Brother Jin was engaged, and it turned out to be engaged to Mrs. Wu!" Li Ke also smiled and stood up and saluted Wu Mingkong. Although Wu Mingkong was younger than him, Wu Mingkong had entered Li Xiu's sect much earlier than him. In fact, he was still his senior sister.

"It turned out to be you. I haven't seen you for a few years. I dare not recognize you. But what are you doing when you go back to Chang'an? Do you think you live too long?" Wu Mingkong asked without hesitation when he heard that the other party was Li Ke. Although she was a woman, she knew the situation in Chang'an better than anyone else. Especially when he saw Li Xiu's face was a little strange, he even suspected that Li Xiu was worried about Li Ke's return to Chang'an, which made her have no good feelings for Li Ke.

Li Ke didn't expect that Wu Mingkong would be so rude to speak. He couldn't help but smile bitterly, wanting to explain but not knowing where to explain. After all, it was impossible for other people to know that Pei Ji died in the Americas.

"Mingkong, this matter has nothing to do with Ke'er. Moreover, when he came to Chang'an, he received a summoning from His Majesty to celebrate His Majesty's birthday, and when the birthday is over, he will leave quickly, not what you thought!" Li Xiu also hurriedly helped Li Ke explain that Wu Mingkong's grasp of the situation was so accurate that he was sometimes even willing to lose.

"It really doesn't matter?" Wu Mingkong asked again with some doubt at this time. She was a smart person, and naturally she also had the problem that smart people all had, that is, she was too suspicious. Moreover, she found that Li Xiu's mood was very wrong, and it seemed to be sad, which made her even more curious. If Li Ke hadn't been there, she had to ask clearly.

"Okay, don't ask anymore. I'm very tired today and want to go back and take a break. You should go back early too!" Li Xiu was really not in the mood to explain again. He immediately said perfunctoryly, then left with Li Ke, leaving Wu Mingkong alone standing there and sulking.

In the following period, Li Ke did live in seclusion every day as he promised Li Xiu, and rarely contacted the outside world. At most, he went to the palace to visit Concubine Yang or Li Xiu's place, but the number of times was limited. However, even so, there were still rumors in Chang'an City, saying that Li Ke's purpose of returning to Beijing this time was not simple, and some even said that Li Shimin specially summoned Li Ke back to Chang'an, probably because he wanted to replace Li Chengqian.

Although the rumors above did not have any evidence, they immediately spread throughout Chang'an under this delicate situation. It is estimated that many people were secretly pushing it behind this. After all, taking advantage of this opportunity, not only can this pool of water be muddy, but Li Ke can also be pulled into this pool of muddy water.

Li Xiu was calm about the storm that caused by Li Ke in Chang'an City. Because he had expected this situation to happen, it was not surprising. He had asked Li Ke to stay in simplicity and try not to contact outsiders, just to prevent this situation, because the more he went out, the more he was caught, the more he was caught.

After all, Li Ke was still a little young. Faced with the rumors spreading from Chang'an City, he was a little panicked at first, and even wanted to leave Chang'an immediately, but was dissuaded by Li Xiu because the more he was in this situation, the more he had to calm down. If he left now, he would seem guilty.

But what is even more strange is that Li Shimin turned a deaf ear to the rumors about Li Ke and did not express any comments. This surprised Li Xiu. However, Li Shimin's mind is difficult to guess now, especially when it is related to the throne, his attitude has always been very puzzling.

As time goes by, Li Shimin's birthday is getting closer and closer, and Li Ke has prepared a birthday gift. Even Li Zhi, who is far away in Bingzhou, sent a birthday gift. However, at this time, Li Tai, who had been to Luoyang, finally came back in the name of celebrating his father's birthday.

This time Li Tai came back, he immediately attracted the attention of countless people, and Li Ke finally took this opportunity to breathe a sigh of relief, because those who followed him before now have followed Li Tai, and even there are fewer rumors about him.

However, others no longer pay attention to Li Ke, but Li Tai remembered this third brother. Because when he was in Luoyang, he heard some rumors about Li Ke, which made him very anxious, for fear that his father would really pass the throne to his third brother, so he hurried back. On the third day of his return, he went to Li Ke's mansion to visit him. However, the two brothers seemed to be speechless. It is said that when Li Tai left in the end, his face looked very ugly.

"Haha, you had a big fight with Li Tai?" Li Xiu couldn't help but smile when he looked at Li Ke with a frustrated expression in front of him.

"Yes, I used to think he was too selfish, so I didn't communicate much, but I didn't expect that after a few years, he had changed from selfishness to arrogant, and he could even be arrogant, with thorns in his words and words. In the end, I was so angry that I had a big fight with him!" When Li Tai was mentioned, Li Ke immediately said angrily.

"Haha~, when you quarrel, Chang'an City may be full of rumors again, saying that your brothers were disagreeing because of the throne." Li Xiu laughed loudly at the moment. In fact, he thought that Li Ke and Li Tai were a good thing, because at least there was no need to worry about being implicated by Li Tai in the future.

"I..." Li Ke smiled bitterly when he heard Li Xiu's words, then shook his head and said helplessly, "Forget it, after I celebrate my father's birthday, I will go back to Yangzhou. I will not see him again in the future. It doesn't matter whether my relationship with him is good."

"It's good that you can think like this. Your younger brother has been fascinated by the throne. I'm afraid he will suffer in the future." Li Xiu said again.
Chapter completed!