Chang'an has truly welcomed the largest thunderstorm in history. After a sky filled with lightning, it was followed by torrential rain. At three o'clock in the night, the night sky seemed like a huge black curtain, bringing endless oppression to people.

  The temple gate was kicked hard from the outside, startling the already sleeping gatekeeper.

  The eunuch, chilled to the bone by the rain, opened the door with a trembling body. "Who dares to be so..." The words were stuck in his throat as he saw the white-clad eunuch standing outside, as pale and eerie as a ghost at midnight.

  "Your Majesty has ordered Pei to enter the palace immediately for an audience!" The eunuch was drenched from head to toe, his pale face like a ghost.

  Not a moment can be delayed, it must be immediate, enter the palace at once.

  Pei Tan had barely managed to throw on a garment when he ordered his servant to fetch his official robes, but the eunuch spoke in a sinister tone: "His Majesty has instructed Minister Pei not to delay for even a moment; dawdling like this, are you trying to defy the imperial edict?"

  At the slightest disagreement, they would say "resist imperial orders". Pei Tan glanced at the eunuch, and this strong wind and heavy rain seemed to make him feel a little uneasy.

  Zhong Zong hastily summoned him, without even drafting an imperial edict, and directly issued a verbal decree.

  Without waiting to change into official attire, Pei Tan adjusted his clothes and belt, ensuring he would not lose his dignity in front of the emperor. He then said to the eunuch, "Let's go."

  As soon as Pei Tan left, all the remaining people in the Dalisi Temple woke up with a start. The first to react was the bailiff, who immediately rushed towards Shen Xingwen's house.

  Before he reached the door, it was opened and Shen Xingwen appeared at the entrance, wearing a cloak.

  He stared silently at the bailiff: "What happened?"

  The yamen runner's face turned pale with fright as he shook his head desperately: "Your subordinates don't know."

  No one knows, including Pei Tan, but something has happened and everyone can smell it in the air.

  "Temple Master, there is a letter..." The speaker was one of the gatekeepers from earlier, holding up a wet letter. He didn't dare to hide it anymore. "Tonight, just after nightfall, someone delivered this letter. Since all the masters were resting, we subordinates planned to hand it over tomorrow..."

  Before he could finish speaking, Shen Xingwen snatched the letter away, but his eyes narrowed as soon as he saw the name on it.

  The yamen runner lowered his head: "This... this is a letter for Miss Jing..."

  ”

  Late at night, someone sent a message to Jing Wanyan alone.

  The official trembled as he recalled that the person who delivered the letter had repeatedly urged him to hand it over to Jing Wanyan immediately. However, at that time, he was dozing off and didn't think a letter was anything urgent, so he agreed verbally but then blocked the messenger outside the door.

  "I think this letter has nothing to do with Master going into the palace..."

  The next moment, Shen Xingwen tore open the letter in front of him, took out the letter paper inside, and scanned the content. In that instant, there was a flash of dark light in his eyes, and suddenly, a gloomy smile hung on the corner of his mouth.

  The official saw it and was afraid that he had really gotten into trouble. Did this letter really contain something important?

  Especially as the enemy may already be on their guard.

  Jing Wan'er struggled to push open the door that was pressed down by the storm, and as soon as she opened it, she saw Shen Xingwen standing at the entrance, drenched from head to toe.

  Shen Xingwen shook open the letter in his hand, his narrowed eyes gleaming with danger: "Why did someone send a letter telling you to leave Dalit Temple at night? Can you explain?"

  Jing Wan'er stared at Shen Xingwen, her eyes gleaming with a hint of menace. "What did you say?"

  Jing Wan'er was originally a light sleeper, and this thunderstorm had been going on since the first flash of lightning.

  At that time, she had already woken up with a start.

  The doors and windows were almost blown over, she suddenly had a bad premonition in her heart, so she felt that no matter what, she had to leave.

  Shen Xingwen blocked the doorway, and just like his first impolite behavior, it was also an interrogation of Jing Wanyan.

  Jing Wan'er only then shifted her gaze with difficulty onto the letter paper, which was almost completely soaked through, and her eyes involuntarily jumped.

  "Admit it... you've been secretly colluding with outsiders all along, haven't you?"

  He brought the "iron evidence" closer to Jing Wanyan's eyes, but the letter didn't clearly write out what had happened before and after, only scribbling a sentence that made Jing Wanyan have to leave the Dali Temple tonight no matter what, giving people an even more bewildering feeling.

  Jing Wan'er stared at the letter, a look of confusion gradually appearing on her face.

  "Stop pretending."

  Jing Wan'er looked at him and subconsciously asked: "Where is Sir?"

  Shen Xingwen stared at her face: "The master is not in the mansion."

  Jing Wan'er forced herself to recall, the handwriting on the letter was scribbled hastily, but those words... should be Zi Cui'er's.

  Before she could think deeply about it, Shen Xingwen had already said: "Is it that if Shen Mou had come a step later, Jing would have really left the Dali Temple?"

  Jing Wan'er looked at Shen Xingwen and said word by word: "I won't leave the Dali Temple, nor will I go anywhere else."

  Shen Xingwen's face was expressionless: "How can you explain the matter on the letter? Why don't you say... who gave you the letter?"

  Jing Wan'er had a continuous bad premonition, "You said the master is not in the mansion, where did the master go?"

  Shen Xingwen's eyes swept across Jing Wanyu's face, wanting to know if she was pretending.

  "The adults have just been summoned into the palace by imperial decree."

  Jing Wan'er was stunned, whoever was summoned away on a stormy night was very unusual. Zi Cui'er wouldn't hastily send a message like this, so something must have happened outside. And all of them were trapped in the Dali Temple, completely unaware of any news from the outside.

  Jing Wan'er looked at Shen Xingwen: "You are now the deputy of the Grand Justice Temple, you should immediately find out why the master entered the palace."

  Shen Xingwen said after a while: "You command me?"

  Being ordered around by a girl isn't exactly something to be proud of.

  Jing Wan'er also looked at him: "You trusted me last time and caught the escaped Hu Chao. What's the harm in trusting me again?"

  Moreover, questioning Jing Yuanner is young, he himself suspected that this letter was related to Pei Tan's sudden entry into the palace. Now that Jing Yuanner has denied it, the top priority is to figure out the reason.

  So Shen Xingwen stared at Jing Yuanyu for a long time without making a sound.

  Jing Wan'er said: "Give me a bamboo umbrella."

  "What are you going to do?" Shen Xingwen stared at her.

  Jing Wan'er was not afraid of him staring at her: "Only when I see this friend of mine, can I understand why she wrote such a letter."

  Shen Xingwen narrowed his eyes: "You want to escape?"

  Jing Wan'er looked at him and said: "After Shen Gongzi became the Temple Lieutenant, his brain didn't work well either? Not to mention that on a rainy day like today, the whole city must be under curfew. I don't have a pass, where can I escape to? Even if I wanted to leave, I'm still a palace maid with a crime on my head. After the rain stops, the Imperial Guard will search the entire city. Can I turn myself into someone outside the city?"

  It has to be said that Shen Xingwen's distrust of Jing Wan'er is rooted in his prejudice, and any doubts or mistrust from the heart are magnified.

  "After a long time, Shen Xing said slowly: 'In such heavy rain, it's hard to move forward even an inch. Even with a bamboo umbrella, you can't go far. On the contrary, traveling at night in the rain will be even more dangerous.'"

  Jing Wan'er detected a hint of sincerity in this sentence, she fell silent for a moment, "But now we don't know what happened outside, and why the adults were suddenly summoned into the palace."

  Shen Xingwen rolled up his sleeves: "Think about how Lord forced Hu Chao to surrender, any trouble, Lord can handle it."

  At least pay until the rain stops tomorrow morning, Pei Tan can still make it.

  ——

  Pei Tan knelt in the Zichen Hall for a whole night, his wet clothes not allowed to be changed. By the time it was slightly bright outside, his body heat had dried his clothes.

  "I've heard that since your marriage was arranged by Me, you have never proactively visited the Guanglu Temple?"

  Pei Tan's back remained straight as he knelt, and after a long while, he said, "It was I who was rude."

  He didn't say that he would be handling the case of the crown prince as required by Emperor Taizong, no matter what the reason was, it was he who was being impolite first.

  Zhong Zong's face did not ease up in the slightest: "The Duke of Guanglu personally sent an invitation, and you didn't even show up? Pei Tan, just how dissatisfied are you with this marriage?"

  Pai Dian didn't move and his expression didn't change.

  His voice slowly echoed in the hall: "I know I am not worthy of the princess, and I thought to wait until the truth about the prince's case is revealed before asking for your majesty's instructions, but I did not expect things to turn out this way."

  Zhong Zong sneered: "So you admit it? You've been wanting to back out of the marriage from the start, or rather, defy the imperial edict?"

  The case of the crown prince was finally revealed, but these words instead touched off Emperor Zhongzong's angry nerve. Especially when the imperial edict was issued that day, Pei Tan immediately entered the palace at night, hoping to recall the edict.

  Zhong Zong's voice rose: "You, for a palace maid with a crime on her head, are being cold to the Princess of Great Tang, is this also true?"

  Pei Tan raised his bright and clear eyebrows: "Absolutely not."

  Emperor Zhong did not get angry, but instead smiled: "Someone saw it with their own eyes, you and that palace maid entwined in broad daylight on the streets of Chang'an. Are you saying that everyone is now framing you?"

  Bai Tan's face turned pale, he looked at Zhong Zong: "I didn't."

  If it were in the past, Zhong Zong would naturally believe in Pei Tan's character, but now it's different.

  "Now all the eyewitnesses have spoken clearly, are you still denying it?! Do you want me to bring the witnesses before your face?"

  The whole city is in an uproar, can it be calmed down by just a few words of self-defense from Pei? Rumors are like this, as long as one thing is true, everyone will believe that everything else is also true.

  Pei Tan was quick-witted and calm, he appeared on the streets of Chang'an with Jing Wanyu at the same time, during the cheating case in the imperial examination hall, as for the so-called " entanglement" on the street...

  Pei Tan had already figured out how all this came about. At first, he and Jing Wanyan secretly went to the wine tower to search for clues, and when they jumped down from the wall, they didn't think they would still be seen by a third person...

  Zhong Zong was visibly enraged, he had never thought that letting Jing Yu'er stay in the Great Temple of Compassion would lead to such a disaster.

  He trembled with his fingers pointing at Pei Tan: "Even if I want you to handle the case of the crown prince... this case, are you because it involves the Jing family and wants to plead for the girl of the Jing family, so you will agree to take it on?"

  Bai Tan's eyes showed a deep shock, and he looked up at Zhong Zong.

  It's unthinkable that Your Majesty would suspect him like this.

  The look in Pei Tan's eyes apparently made Zhong Zong pause for a moment. However, the fire in Zhong Zong's heart had already burned too fiercely, and he did not expect that his most trusted minister would create such an embarrassing situation for him to deal with.

  "I value your great wisdom so much..." Zhong Zong supported his forehead and sat down suddenly.

  How can people still believe in it now?

  It has come to this; the case of the Crown Prince will never be able to make the hearts of the Tang officials return to obedience.