Su Qingluan followed Song Bo all the way home. Seeing his unusually cold and silent eyes, Su Qingluan felt uneasy. She didn't know why, but she always felt like a storm was brewing.
It is still a hot summer day, and everyone's clothes are relatively light. Su Qingluan also understands that light-colored clothes will be cooler in the summer, so she wore a goose yellow hem skirt today.
But as soon as she got home, Su Qingluan discovered that Mu Xingzhi had changed into plain clothes - it was not the pure black or white mourning clothes, but before leaving home in the morning, she saw him wearing a moon-white straight-hem dress, but now he had changed into a much more low-key light gray.
And now he no longer looks sickly with his hair disheveled, and it is obvious that he is going out.
"Qingluan, change into a plain dress." Mu Xingzhi looked at her.
Su Qingluan's heart moved, and a subtle touch emerged in her heart. She nodded quickly and did as Mu Xingzhi said. She intuitively felt that something extraordinary was about to happen.
When he came out after changing his clothes, Mu Xingzhi was gone as expected. And this time was different from the previous times. Besides Mu Xingzhi, even Song Bo was gone.
Su Qingluan lowered her eyes and thought for a moment. She asked the remaining people in the mansion to gather in the courtyard and ordered, "From today on, unless it is necessary, lock the gate tightly and do not go out." She then said to Yaoguang, "Please inform the staff at Su Ji to pay them a month's wages in advance, and have them lock the gate and go home to rest."
Then, she took out the banknote and handed it to Yaoguang: "Just say that I'm not feeling well and I don't know when I'll get better."
Yaoguang nodded and turned to leave.
Sure enough, the day was relatively calm, but late at night, bells rang one after another in the night sky, which should have been very quiet.
The sound of the bell was heavy and distant, as if conveying something. One bell after another woke everyone up from their sleep.
Su Qingluan didn't know how long the bell had been ringing. After it had rung several times, she put on her clothes and went out to ask Yaoguang, who had also come out to check the situation, what was going on.
Zi Su and Bai Zhi, who were originally sleeping in the servants' room outside, were quite far away, so they arrived only after Su Qingluan and Yaoguang met up.
"What time is it now?" Su Qingluan looked at the night sky. It was still pitch black and didn't look like dawn was about to break.
What's more, it's summer now. Although it's not the summer solstice, the sun rises very early. It should be at least midnight now.
Sure enough, Zi Su, who was on duty outside tonight, said, "My lady, it's just past midnight."
Although Su Qingluan had traveled here for two or three years, this was the first time she had encountered a bell ringing in the middle of the night, and it seemed to be a serious matter - after all, the bell had not stopped ringing even during the conversation.
So she hurriedly asked Zisu to help count how many times the bell struck.
After a while, the bell finally stopped, and Zi Su said, "My lady, the bell has struck eighty-one times."
Su Qingluan's heart moved: eighty-one. Although she had never seen the bell ringing in the middle of the night, she had read in a book that in the customs of the Sheng Dynasty, there was a situation where the bell could not be rung at a limited time - the funeral bell.
The number of tolls for the death knell varied depending on the status of the individual. Eighty-one, the number of ninety-nine, meant only one person in the world had the right to ring a death knell of this size: the emperor, known as the "Nine Five Supreme."
This is the death knell of the old emperor!
Su Qingluan understood that this was the true meaning of Bai Tiansongbo's so-called "things have changed" - they probably understood at that time that the old emperor was dying and would pass away soon.
However, Su Qingluan remembered that the death of the emperor was a major event, whether in the novels and TV series she had read in her previous life or in the many stories she had read in this book. Especially for an ambitious prince, shouldn't he serve the emperor at this time?
Why does Mu Xingzhi seem to be so unhurried, as if the position of emperor has nothing to do with him?
With this doubt, Su Qingluan told everyone to go to bed normally.
A few days later, her doubt was answered - because Mu Xingzhi's other "identity", the prince "Xiao Huan" was "praying" for the emperor in a temple on the outskirts of the city.
The old emperor was a man who desperately wanted to control power. With such a character, Su Qingluan did not believe that he would issue an edict of succession, because that would be equivalent to handing over his rights to others in advance, which was absolutely intolerable for a man who was obsessed with power and could not even tolerate his own flesh and blood.
The subsequent developments seemed to confirm Su Qingluan's speculation - the infighting among the princes, which was originally just a minor fight, officially began.
In fact, as a person outside the vortex of power, Su Qingluan could not really face the cruel and bloody struggles. However, the soldiers wearing colorful clothes and holding various flags running on the streets from time to time, as well as the city gates that were said to have been closed, all showed that the situation in the city was not peaceful.
Su Qingluan even heard deafening shouts and cries of killing in her dreams more than once in the middle of the night.
Under such circumstances, Su Qingluan began to feel that staying away from the center of power and "praying" might be another way to avoid disaster.
And because the Su family has Su Qingluan, the owner who always likes to tinker with all kinds of food, there is no shortage of food to fill their stomachs. Even if the variety is not rich, in a situation where going out to buy groceries may lead to death, having these foods will ensure that they will not starve to death when they stay indoors.
But……
Su Qingluan unconsciously thought of Mu Xingzhi: He was not willing to be a country bumpkin, otherwise why would he travel so far and risk his life to restore his true identity and act like a schizophrenic?
So, is Mu Xingzhi's current state of "keeping away from the world" really just a coincidence arranged by the old emperor?
Su Qingluan suddenly thought of a possibility: Could it be that this was Mu Xingzhi's deliberate arrangement to avoid the princes' infighting during this period?
Moreover, in addition to avoiding disaster, there is another benefit of "praying" by oneself, which is to create an impression of "not competing with the world and having no doubt about the throne". At least according to the news so far, almost everyone is busy fighting for the throne, and no one seems to have noticed this prince who was recognized halfway but thrown into the temple to pray for blessings.
The Seventh Prince Xiao Huan seemed to have been forgotten by everyone...
If this is just to be able to play the role of "the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind"...
Su Qingluan felt a chill on her back: If all her speculations were correct, when did this guy Mu Xingzhi start plotting, even taking into account the reactions of the old emperor and all the princes to him!
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