Chapter 98 The Secret Between Rescue Mother and Son
The door of Yuji Palace was tightly closed, but a strong smell of blood could still be smelled from inside. Guan Pei and the other guards who followed their master pushed open the door of Yuji Palace. Their faces suddenly changed, and they were so ugly that they couldn't speak.
The people in front of him stepped aside. Zhou Qi saw the situation in the Yuji Palace and snorted with a smile, "Zhou Xuan, no wonder this old man chose you as the emperor. It turns out it's because you're just as crazy as this old man."
The Yuji Hall is brightly lit tonight, illuminating the rosewood beams and pillars, the jade tiles on the ground, and the murals outlined with gold and silver threads around the hall, making it look particularly noble and imposing.
Going up the steps, in the middle of the Yuji Palace, at the highest point, on the imperial throne that all the power-hungry ghosts in the world desire, sits Emperor Zhou Xuan.
Zhou Xuan's charming figure moved slightly. He pointed at the woman and child hanging from the beams and said to Zhou Qi in a gentle voice, "My archery skills are slightly better than your grandfather's."
Back then, Liu Ling was almost beaten to death because he accidentally heard news that he shouldn't have heard. Liu Ling didn't dare to say a word to anyone. Later, when he went to Songjiang City, Liu Ling dared to tell Zhou Qi that he had seen the late emperor slaughtering several concubines of low rank in the imperial garden. People were not allowed to kneel to die, and they had to run for their lives. The late emperor was wearing military uniform and chasing and killing them with a sword.
Zhou Qi stood outside the door and looked at the children and women hanging from the beams. Most of them were pierced by more than a dozen arrows, while the least had two or three arrows stuck in their bodies. One of them was just dead, and blood was dripping onto the jade tiles on the ground like raindrops under the eaves.
Zhou Qi sighed, "If you don't learn good things, you will learn bad things. When the old man slaughtered the concubines in the harem, you were there. At least the old man dared to imagine himself as a mighty and majestic general and even dared to chase him. Why did you tie everyone up? No wonder you are not as good as the old man as an emperor."
"What do you know!"
Zhou Xuan was so angry that he couldn't control his voice. His voice was sharp and thin, so harsh that Zhou Qi frowned.
Zhou Xuan stood up and waved his hands, gesturing at the corpses in the room. "I could have been on the battlefield, and in less than ten years I could have regained all military power. These bitches, in order to eliminate my offspring and have their sons inherit the throne of the Great Zhou, actually poisoned me and left me in this state today. They deserve death!"
Zhou Qi tilted his head slightly and pointed outside the imperial city: "You want to take back the military power? Chen Hui and his men are outside the imperial city. You can ride out and fight him now."
Zhou Xuan slowly sat down on his imperial chair, covering his mouth and laughing: "I am about to die, why should I bother with those people? Anyway, they can't get their hands on my throne."
Before Shen Hui and others arrived in Luoyang to defend the king, Emperor Xuan of Zhou issued an edict severely criticizing Shen Hui and others for being disloyal to their emperor and father, for not following the imperial order and raising troops without authorization; for being unkind to the people, for not guarding the borders, and for allowing the enemy army to wreak havoc on the people of the Great Zhou Dynasty.
When Zhou Qi arrived outside Luoyang City and heard the soldiers on the city wall reading the imperial edict loudly, he knew that Zhou Xuan had already anticipated the Tartars' southward advance, but he still chose to go crazy and allowed everything to happen.
Zhou Qi sneered: "I only have one question for you: are you colluding with the Tartars?"
Zhou Xuan was tired. He curled up on the cold, hard imperial chair and said blankly, "What Tartars? What does this have to do with me?"
Zhou Xuan curled up even tighter, and the crown on his head accidentally hit the imperial chair. He suddenly became angry, struggled frantically to pull off the crown on his head and threw it down the steps, then burst into laughter.
"Zhou Qi, do you think you won?"
Zhou Qi did not answer him.
"You think you're a hero just because you sent troops to Ningxia to stop the Tartars? Hahaha, you can save the people on the northern border, but you can't save your wife and children. Once they die, you'll be left alone, just like me."
Zhou Qi stepped into the gate of Yuji Palace, and the sticky blood soaked the soles of his shoes. The blood falling from the air landed on him. It seemed that in the blink of an eye, his hand grabbed Zhou Xuan's neck and lifted him up from the throne.
Zhou Xuan’s eyes widened, his face flushed, and he struggled frantically.
Zhou Qi let go, and he fell to the ground like a puddle of mud. Zhou Qi kicked him down the stairs. He rolled several times and his body was covered in blood.
Zhou Xuan coughed and laughed crazily: "I don't want the world anymore. I have nothing left. You can forget about it."
"Hahaha, Zhou Qi, do you know why you haven't given birth to any children in all these years? That's because of the medicine I gave you. Once your only son dies, you'll have no descendants! No descendants at all!"
Zhou Qi looked down at him from above. After a few breaths, he finally controlled his inner violence: "Guan Pei, tie him up and hang him from the beam. When my princess and the prince are safe, let him down."
Zhou Xuan struggled desperately while being hung up: "Kill me! Zhou Qi, kill me if you dare!"
Zhou Qi walked out of the gate of Yuji Palace, turned around, and said coldly: "If anything goes wrong between my princess and the prince, I will make you pierce my heart with thousands of arrows!"
The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind it.
Zhou Qi and his city defense army were the oriole behind, but there were too many mantises and they could not be dealt with in a short time. The troops trapped in Luoyang could not move. A group of guards beside King Qi rode on horseback to find the navy and asked them to mobilize 2,000 troops to rush to the port of Dongliao City by sea immediately, and then mobilize the Liaodong Army from Dongliao City to rush back to Songjiang City.
It’s too far away. Water from far away cannot put out a nearby fire. Maybe it’s too late, but what if?
Zhou Qi believed that his princess must be able to take A Yuan away from the disaster!
At this time, Songjiang City was still shrouded in darkness. Gu Youan had taken a nap holding his son. He woke up and went outside to take a look.
Several guards were guarding the cave entrance. Liu Zhong stepped forward and whispered, "The traps we set up in our mansion are too powerful. After a group of people died, those thieves dared not enter the secret passage again."
"Oh, so you mean the killers didn't catch up?"
"Not yet."
It was pitch black outside, and the tip of my nose was filled with the cold smell of ice and snow. Gu Youan said, "As long as there is green mountain, there is no fear of running out of firewood. Tell our people to cherish their lives. On our territory, even if we can't kill them for the time being, we will grind them to death."
Those people's goal was to take care of her and Yuan. As long as she and Yuan were fine, it wouldn't be a big deal. Wait a little longer, until Tian Jilang brought his troops over, and the situation would turn to her side.
"Don't worry, Godfather knows what to do."
"Mother."
Gu Youan hurriedly turned around and went back into the cave in the dim light of the snow at the entrance. She saw Yuan sitting up from the quilt and told him to lie down again: "You let all the heat in the quilt escape."
A Yuan refused until Gu Youan came over, then he held her and lay down.
"Are you scared?"
A Yuan shook his head: "I miss my father."
"Your father must miss you too."
It was freezing cold and the journey was long. There was no way out. She didn't know what was happening in the north and Luoyang. All she could do was protect herself and her son and trust Zhou Qi.
The maids and servants sleeping nearby woke up, and Xiaoyue asked softly, "Princess, Prince, would you like something to eat?"
"What do you have? Baozi and steamed buns."
Last night they put all the food under a quilt and covered it. Although it was cold, it was not frozen hard. They just needed to warm it up a little in the warm quilt before eating.
Gu Youan asked for a few, wrapped them in a handkerchief and placed them under the quilt, asking Yuan to hold them: "You'll be able to eat them soon."
Yuan probably thought it was funny and smiled.
The steamed buns in my arms were warm, and it was daybreak outside. When it was almost noon, the sun broke through the clouds and shone down, reflecting the light on the snow in the forest, making it bright everywhere.
For fear of attracting the enemy, except for the guards at the cave entrance, everyone else hid in the cave. They didn't light a fire and just lay in bed and talked in low voices when they had nothing to do.
Aunt Qian, who had been taking care of Yuan since he was born, took out a book from her arms and handed it to Gu Youan. Gu Youan knew at a glance that this was the book Yuan had been reading recently.
"You took the book with you when you fled?"
Aunt Qian smiled and said, "I didn't mean to take it. When someone came to tell us to leave yesterday, I was cleaning up the prince's study, so I just took it away."
Gu Youan asked his son, "Do you want to study?"
A Yuan shook his head, he didn't want to.
Gu Youan put the book under his pillow, held his son in his arms and talked to Aunt Qian, asking her if everything was okay at home.
"I've been very busy these days and haven't had time to ask you how things are going with my uncle and aunt."
"Thank you for your concern. When we came here, except for the merchants like the Du family, the rest of the Du family were allocated land outside the city. Later, they built houses and everyone lived well. A few days ago, you said that the city was uneasy and that the Du family members in the city had moved to their homes outside the city."
Aunt Qian worked at Prince Qi's mansion. When her family went out of the city, they sent her a message asking her to come back. However, Aunt Qian couldn't bear to leave Yuan, so she didn't go back.
Gu Youan knew Aunt Qian's intentions, so she said, "After this matter is settled, go home and rest for a month before coming back."
Aunt Qian laughed and said, "It's okay to go home for a day or two, but how can I rest for a whole month? Besides, thanks to you, my sons are all busy with work. If I go back, they won't be around, and there's nothing good to do."
Aunt Qian had two sons and one daughter. One son was selected as a civil servant and worked in Dongshan Port. The other son was not good at studying, but was an honest man and worked as a manager on a farm.
Because of Gu Youan, Songjiang City has set up female households, and the rights and interests of female households are the same as those of male households. Aunt Qian's only daughter has not married, and after finding a son-in-law, she is the head of the family. Now she runs two shops on the south street of Songjiang City, and her business is booming.
It's not just Aunt Qian's daughter. There are many women in Songjiang City who have established female households. The maids who left Prince Qi's Mansion are rich and have strong backers, and the most of them have established female households. These people have been favored by Prince Qi's Mansion and the princess in every way, and they are also the most supportive of the princess.
Xiaoyue listened quietly, occasionally glancing at the princess, her eyes sparkling.
Xiaoyue is about the same age as Xiaoju. Xiaoju married Xu Zhi and had a son, but she had no intention of getting married. She just wanted to serve the princess. When she was older, she would comb her hair and act like a mother. When she was old, she would be an old mother to the princess.
The princess said that if she didn't want to get married, the palace would take care of her until the end of her life.
The princess is now the princess, and will definitely be the queen in the future. By then, she will have changed from an old mother in the palace to an old nanny in the harem, which seems pretty good.
At the foot of the mountain, the dead bodies on the snow in Songjiang City were left unattended, but the atmosphere in the cave on the mountain was very warm, and the day passed by in casual conversation.
In the evening, when the sun sets, the clouds in the sky become thicker, and the wind has a moist smell. Half an hour later, light snow begins to fall from the sky.
The guards changed shifts and saw that it was snowing. They were no longer as tense as they were during the day, so they all relaxed a little.
At this moment, Guo Su's ears suddenly moved. She turned her head abruptly and looked diagonally behind her, and heard another rustling sound.
She drew her bow and shot three arrows, one after the other, flying out in a snowy mist. The heavy objects fell into the snow with a dull sound.
The enemy is attacking!
"princess!"
"Go!"
Gu Youan immediately carried his son on his back and ran deep into the cave. There were several paths dug out by humans in the depths of the cave, and only one path was a way out. Running out of this path would lead to the east side of Beishan, where there was a ridge connected to Laohuling behind the neighboring mountain village.
She ran fast, and the killer behind her came fast too. Aunt Qian and Xiaoyue and several other maids followed behind her to help block her. Gu Youan felt that this was not going to work. If this continued, the only outcome would be the annihilation of the entire army.
"Listen to me and go your separate ways!"
"Stop following me!"
"Run for your life!"
Gu Youan's tone was stern and brooked no refusal. Xiaoyue gritted her teeth and ran towards the secret passage in the east, southwest of Aunt Qian. The others behind her waited for a while, and only when the princess and the prince disappeared at the bend of the road in the west did they disperse and run away.
Running in several different directions was effective. The killer chasing her hadn't caught up with her for a while, but Beishan was too big and the secret passage was too long. Before she could run to the end of the passage, an arrow shot from behind. Gu Youan didn't even think about it and immediately hid to the right side of the secret passage.
There was no mountain wall on the right side of the secret passage, but a cliff. The opening here was originally split to allow light and ventilation. It was dark and snowing, and the two killers who were chasing them ran to the edge of the cliff and looked down. It was so dark that they couldn't see anything clearly.
"If you want to see him alive or dead, go to the bottom of the cliff to find him."
Gu Youan did not fall off the cliff. She dodged to the right and entered the space with her son on her back.
Gu Youan was so nervous that her muscles were tense. She didn't breathe a sigh of relief until she found herself standing on the stairs with her son on her back.
It was a close call. Thank God for his gift and love!
"Mother!"
Yuan was so nervous that he lay on his mother's back and didn't dare to move: "Where are we?"
"We are in my mother's home in her previous life."
Previous life? Yuan didn't understand, how could such a magical thing exist in this world?
Gu Youan put his son down, unbuttoned his cotton coat, and the sweat on his body evaporated.
"Yuan, are you hot?"
Yuan nodded blankly and let his mother undress him. He was still frightened.
Gu Youan took his son to the window and opened it. It was also dark outside, but it was not as cold here as in Songjiang City. Under the lights, vegetables were growing in the yard, fruits were hanging on the trees, and a group of chickens and ducks were nesting under the trees.
A Yuan recognized it at a glance. The small orange on the tree was the kind he ate every winter, the small orange unique to their Prince Qi's Mansion.
It turns out that this little orange was from my mother’s family in her previous life?
The mother and son faced each other, and Gu Youan said to her son seriously, "This is a secret between us. You can't tell anyone. Understand?"
A Yuan's intelligence returned, and he asked, "Father, you didn't tell me?"
"I won't tell you. Only my mother and I know about this."
"Mother can only bring me in? Father, grandmother, and grandfather can't come in?"
"Only you. You are my son. We are connected by blood. No one else can do that."
A Yuan knew that this was the place where his mother had saved her life, so he couldn't tell anyone else. He said, "A Yuan, don't tell my father, don't tell anyone else. Only we know."
Gu Youan smiled and pinched his cheek: "Are you hungry?"
"I'm hungry."
They were just about to have dinner when they were being chased by the killer and had no time to eat.
Gu Youan took his son's hand and went to the kitchen to prepare a simple pot of fried egg noodles. After the eggs were fried, he added water and boiled them. Then he felt that some vegetables were missing, so he went to the yard downstairs to pick a handful of green vegetables, washed them and put them in the pot to cook.
Wherever she went, Yuan followed. When she turned around, the mother and son bumped into each other. Gu Youan smiled and asked, "Are you scared?"
A Yuan shook his head. He was not afraid. He just wanted to follow his mother.
The light on the top is not a candle, it is so bright, could it be a little sun?
Why is there fire on the table and how did the fire start?
The knife his mother used to cut vegetables looked better than his father's sword, and the basket his mother used to wash vegetables was both light and sturdy. These were things he didn't understand.
After the meal was ready, the mother and son shared it and ate it, feeling warm in their stomachs.
After dinner, the bowls, chopsticks and pots were placed in a large box covered with transparent glass. He watched as water was flushed into the box and the bowls and chopsticks became clean.
What kind of world did my mother live in in her previous life? She didn't need a few servants to chop wood and light the fire, nor did she need a few servants to wash dishes and clean.
A Yuan suddenly felt sorry for his mother.
Gu Youan took her son to the bathroom, gave him a pair of pajamas she had bought for him before, and taught him how to wash his hair and take a bath with boiling water.
A Yuan pointed at the clothes and said, "That's what the young lady is wearing."
Gu Youan said with a smile: "These are your mother's clothes. Do you want to wear them? If not, then you can stay naked."
Yuan said, "...Yes, I must wear it."
Gu Youan smiled and told him to go in and wash himself, and then threw his changed clothes into the washing machine.
After a while, A Yuan finished washing. Gu Youan used a hair dryer to dry his hair. When he turned around, he saw him squatting in front of the washing machine, watching his clothes spinning in the drum.
"Yuan, you sleep here tonight." Gu Youan pointed to the room.
A Yuan stood up and asked, "Mother, where are you sleeping?"
"Of course I'll be with you. You go to sleep first, and mother will be here soon."
Yuan saw his mother walking out and hurried to follow. He saw his mother standing on the steps putting on a thick cotton coat and asked anxiously, "Mom, are you leaving?"
"Mom, go out and take a look. She will be back soon."
"But……"
Gu Youan walked over, put his hands on his shoulders, and said gently but firmly: "Don't worry, mother will definitely come back. You know, nothing will happen to mother."
A Yuan's tense body relaxed suddenly: "Then, mother must come back soon."
"good."
Touching his son's loose hair, Gu Youan walked to the stairs, turned around and disappeared.
A Yuan trotted forward and stood at the stairs for a while. He turned around and pushed a soft chair over. He also went to the bed to get a blanket, wrapped himself tightly, and sat on the soft chair waiting for his mother to come back.
Gu Youan returned to the cliff with a knife in hand. The two killers guarding the cliff were unable to react in time. One of them was stabbed in the neck by her, and the other was kicked off the cliff.
She stood there and waited for a while. The light snow was still falling, and there was only the whistling sound of the wind in her ears. No other sound came from the secret passage, so she slowly walked in.
At this time, there was a faint firelight coming closer from the corner ahead. She recognized Ah Yue's anxious voice and appeared: "Don't worry, Ah Yuan and I are fine."
"princess!"
Gu Youan saw the maids and several guards running over. Liu Zhong's cotton coat was torn and his back seemed to be injured. Guo Su had an injured arm and was tied up randomly. Several maids and guards also had wounds of varying sizes on their bodies.
"Are the killers gone?"
Guo Su hurriedly said, "At that time, a group of people entangled us and couldn't let go. A few of them went to chase you. I don't know why, but after a while, the people chasing you ran back and took the others away. We were free, so we came to find you and the prince."
Gu Youan knew that those people retreated because they thought she and A Yuan had fallen off the cliff.
"I've hidden A Yuan, so you don't have to worry about him." Gu Youan said immediately, "Leave this place immediately. The injured ones will hide, and the uninjured ones will go down the mountain to find Liu Ling. Tell him to lead his men to set up an ambush in the valley tonight."
Valley? Which valley?
Gu Youan said to Guo Su, "You know, many years ago, we went to Beishan to hunt tigers and came across the valley where Prince Qi lived."
Guo Su immediately remembered and nodded: "I will go and inform Eunuch Liu right away."
After Guo Su left, Gu Youan said to Liu Zhong, "A Yuan and I hid secretly. Those who were chasing us thought we fell off the cliff. You should also think we fell off the cliff. There is no need to follow us."
Liu Zhong immediately understood what the princess meant and said, "I will immediately evacuate everyone outside the cave. We will just pretend we don't know you're here."
Gu Youan nodded and said, "I'll be leaving now."
"Princess, take care!"
Gu Youan found a deserted place and hid in the space. As soon as she entered, she saw her son wrapped in a blanket and sleeping on the small sofa, and she couldn't help laughing.
"Mother!"
Awakened by the sound of her coming back, Yuan opened his eyes and smiled when he saw that his mother was fine.
Gu Youan patted his son's head and said, "Go to sleep. We are safe for now."
The mother and son hid in the space for a night. At dawn the next day, the killer who entered the valley to search for them and was unfamiliar with the place started fighting with the guards of Prince Qi's Mansion who had been lying in ambush at the foot of the cliff.
The killers were numerous and powerful, and after half an hour they broke through the encirclement and tried to escape, only to confront A Xuan who had arrived with her troops.
Guo Su ran over from behind, knife in hand: "Is Tian Erlang here?"
"No, he should be behind."
A Xuan had not been feeling well the past few days and had been staying at home instead of going out. Two days ago, Bai Jie led the Liaodong Army back from Shanhaiguan. He only then learned from Bai Jie that Prince Qi had taken all the city defense troops south.
When Ah Xuan heard this, she was so shocked that she immediately ordered a group of soldiers to come to Songjiang City to protect her sister.
Bai Jie stopped her and said that if Songjiang City was short of manpower, the princess would definitely call them there, and if she didn't call them, it meant there was no shortage of manpower.
A Xuan scolded Bai Jie, gathered the troops and set off.
Seeing so many killers besieging her, A Xuan cursed Bai Jie in her heart again. If he hadn't stopped her, she would have come earlier and could have helped more.
"Where's my sister?"
"The princess and the prince are both fine, you don't have to worry."
A Xuan breathed a sigh of relief, fortunately she didn't come too late.
By mid-afternoon, Tian Jilang led his troops to Songjiang City. The assassins who had retreated and hidden in Songjiang City were all eliminated, and soldiers were sent to guard the four gates of Songjiang City.
Gu Youan brought A Yuan back to the dilapidated Prince Qi's Mansion through the secret passage. They finally survived this disaster.
After getting through the most difficult time, a bright future will come.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com