Chapter 285 A Sudden Change
The next morning, just as the sky was beginning to lighten, Shen Qingci entered the palace with Chu Jichen.
Chu Jichen went to the Golden Palace for court, while Shen Qingci remained quietly in the Taiji Hall.
After the court session ended, Chu Jichen did not linger. He dismissed the palace servants who accompanied him and, with only Shen Qingci by his side, ascended the palace tower along the winding palace road.
This palace was the place where emperors of past dynasties received the worship of the people during their enthronement ceremonies or birthday celebrations.
Shen Qingci leaned on the railing and looked up into the distance.
A recruitment point had been set up in the square not far away.
A somewhat worn banner with the character "沈" (Chen) fluttered in the morning breeze.
It was already late, and the area around the recruitment point was bustling with people, shoulder to shoulder.
The two places were particularly densely populated.
One was a bulletin board with an imperial edict posted on it, where a crowd of people were gathered, whispering and discussing it among themselves.
The other place was the makeshift conscription registration office, where a long, winding queue stretched almost to the end of the street.
Because they were quite far apart, Shen Qingci couldn't hear what the people were saying, but those vivid faces were clearly visible to her.
There was an elderly man with graying temples and a slightly hunched back, yet he still stubbornly straightened his back.
There was a young boy, still small and with a youthful face, whose eyes shone with the fearless spirit of a newborn calf.
She even saw many women in the group; though dressed in simple clothes, their heroic spirit was undeniable.
They were either old or young, male or female, but the expressions on their faces were remarkably consistent.
That is the unwavering determination to forge ahead even when faced with mountains of knives and seas of fire.
Shen Qingci was no stranger to this expression.
In the wind and sand of the border, outside her father's central command tent, and at every oath-taking ceremony before heading to the battlefield, the soldiers wore this expression.
Shen Qingci closed her eyes, feeling a burning sensation in her eyes and a sour, unspeakable feeling in her throat, as if something was blocking it.
Before tears could spill from her eyes, she quickly turned around, her back to the bustling crowd, took a deep breath, and suppressed the turmoil in her heart: "Alright, let's go. I've seen it, there are quite a lot of people... Father and eldest brother would be very happy if they saw this."
She spoke casually, but the slight tremor in her voice betrayed the turmoil in her heart.
However, Chu Jichen did not respond to her. His gaze remained fixed on the square not far away, his eyes deep and dark.
Shen Qingci noticed his unusual behavior and looked in the direction of his gaze with some confusion: "What's wrong? What did you see? Why do you look like that?"
"I saw Huo Yunting." Chu Jichen's voice was low and unreadable.
Shen Qingci's heart skipped a beat, and she immediately looked in the direction Chu Jichen was looking.
Sure enough, at the edge of the bustling crowd, she vaguely spotted a somewhat familiar figure.
That person must have just finished court. He was still wearing his official robes and seemed inconspicuous in the crowd. But his upright posture and the air of being out of place with the people around him made it clear that, even though his face was not clearly visible, it could only be Huo Yunting.
Shen Qingci raised her eyebrows slightly, a knowing glint in her eyes.
She had anticipated that the recruitment drive in the name of the Shen family would be so large-scale, and that many people had come to enlist yesterday. Huo Yunting, being suspicious, would surely be suspicious.
He will definitely send someone to investigate the situation.
But she never expected that Huo Yunting would come in person.
"Thinking about it carefully, it's normal for him to go." Shen Qingci's mind worked quickly, and she soon figured out the key point. "This conscription point is near the palace gate and is one of the largest in the capital. It's reasonable for him to come and take a look after court."
However, only Huo Yunting himself truly knows how much of the probing and apprehension was hidden in the phrase "on the way."
Upon hearing this, Chu Jichen's lips curled into a playful smile: "I'm afraid it's not just a matter of going the same way. Look behind him..."
Following Chu Jichen's direction, Shen Qingci saw that not far behind Huo Yunting, several furtive figures were moving through the crowd, seemingly asking the applicants something.
“They’re checking those people’s identities.” Shen Qingci sneered. “It seems he’s really scared. He’s scared that this is just a setup I set up, scared that these people who came to apply to follow Qingming to the border are fake, and even more scared… that these people are real.”
"Truth and falsehood intertwine." Chu Jichen withdrew his gaze and looked at Shen Qingci, his eyes full of doting and indulgence. "As long as we can make him wary and dare not act rashly, we will have achieved our goal."
"Let's go. Now that we've had enough of the show, it's time for us to head back."
Shen Qingci nodded, took one last deep look at the banner with the character "Chen" fluttering in the wind, and turned to leave with Chu Jichen.
Chu Jichen sat in a wheelchair, and the palace was surrounded by stone steps.
Upon reaching the stone steps, palace servants who were waiting there immediately lifted the wheelchair and carried it down step by step.
But after descending just two stone steps, an unexpected event occurred.
The palace attendant carrying the wheelchair on the right suddenly seemed to slip, and he lost his balance and fell backward. The wheelchair he was carrying suddenly lost its balance and fell directly down the palace tower.
Shen Qingci, walking behind, saw the whole scene clearly. Her heart skipped a beat, and she cried out in alarm, "Chu Jichen! Be careful!"
Chu Jichen, sitting in a wheelchair, had a cold expression. He slapped the armrest of the chair, suddenly leaped up, and then landed lightly below the palace tower, standing steadily.
His movements were fluid and graceful; he hardly looked like someone with mobility issues.
Countless palace servants and guards who had been waiting below the palace tower immediately rushed forward and hurriedly knelt on the ground, crying out, "Your Majesty!"
Chu Jichen responded softly, raised his eyes, and exchanged a glance with Shen Qingci, who was still on the palace tower.
In that glance, there was reassurance, but also a hint of barely perceptible coldness.
Shen Qingci's heart finally settled down, and she quickly walked down the palace tower to Chu Jichen: "Are you alright?"
Chu Jichen shook his head, his voice cold and stern: "Seal off this palace. The people on the stone steps are waiting there. Search carefully and see what's on the ground."
He couldn't believe that his own men would slip so easily.
This is clearly a carefully orchestrated scheme.
The purpose was probably to test whether his leg was truly healed or just pretending.
Yuanbao and Yelan hurriedly stepped forward and searched the stone steps carefully, but found nothing.
There was nothing on the stone steps.
Chu Jichen narrowed his eyes. It was impossible that there was nothing at all.
The most likely scenario is that the other party concealed the plan and arranged for someone to guard the area below the stone steps. After the scheme succeeded, they hid the items.
If that's the case, then that thing is very likely on these guards or palace servants.
Chu Jichen's gaze swept over the people kneeling on the ground around him: "If it's not on the stone steps, then search them. Search everyone who was around here just now."
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