Chapter 173 Can We Still Be Friends?
Chang Suining raised his eyes and looked forward.
In addition to the two monks who were usually seen outside the tower, there was now an additional row of imperial guards guarding the tower.
Looking further into the courtyard, I saw the Holy Emperor in royal robes standing in front of a three-legged bronze incense burner in front of the tower, holding a green incense stick and worshiping the gods of heaven and earth. After three bows, he slowly inserted the green incense stick into the bronze burner.
Cui Jing and Wu Jue accompanied him.
Cui Jing had turned his head to look, and Chang Suining met his gaze. Seeing that he was also there at this moment, it would be impossible for her to say that she had no guess at all.
She had never known who Cui Jing was loyal to. The nobles all said that he was a lackey of the empress. Although she did not agree with this, she was not sure of his true thoughts and position.
But what she could be sure of at this moment was that if there really was a secret in the Tower of the Goddess, then Cui Jing must be someone who knew the secret shared with the Queen.
And if her intuition at this moment is correct - if the secret in the Tiannu Tower is related to Li Shang, and she is not sure which kind of connection it is, there is a possibility of hostility between her and Cui Jing.
Cui Jing had helped her a lot, and she truly regarded him as a trustworthy friend along the way, but the one who was friends with Cui Jing was Chang Suining.
If the other party knew that she was Li Shang, would they still be friends? The answer to this question cannot be answered based on any emotion, but needs to be determined by the truth.
Now, she is going to try to get to the truth.
Seeing that Minghou turned around and looked at him slowly, Chang Suining raised his foot and stepped into the formation.
At this moment, Chang Suining seemed to hear in her mind the sound of the wind in this world piercing through her body.
Her eyelashes trembled silently, but her expression did not change.
The girl's embroidered shoes stepped on the painted floor and she walked forward.
Ming Luo looked at the floor painting that the girl had stepped on and felt it was ironic. She had no sense of reverence at all. How could such a person be Princess Chongyue?
The wind blew up the golden bells hanging on the eaves of the tower, making a crisp sound.
The Emperor of the Holy Ceremonies stared at the girl in the sandalwood cloak walking towards him, and suddenly many old scenes flashed before his eyes.
The girl came before her and bowed her head, saying, "Your Majesty, I pay my respects to you."
At the same time, another voice sounded in the Holy Ce Emperor's mind - the son pays homage to the mother.
The face of the girl in front of her had nothing in common with the girl in her memory, but perhaps because of that guess, she actually felt that the two faces overlapped.
There was a ripple in the eyes of the Holy Ceremonial Emperor.
Withered yellow bamboo leaves fell down, and the light smoke that was originally rising slowly in the bronze furnace suddenly changed direction and dissipated under the influence of the wind.
After a moment, the Holy Seal Emperor said slowly, "No need to be polite."
The voice sounded dim and distant to Chang Suining's ears, but there was no sign of anything unusual on her face. She just stood up as usual.
It was not appropriate to look around in front of the emperor, so she lowered her eyes and stood quietly.
But even with her senses diminished, Chang Suining could still sense that the emperor's gaze falling on her was filled with a strong sense of inquiry, just like the invisible sharp blades around her at this moment, as if they wanted to pierce her and expose her true form.
The Emperor of the Holy Ceremonies was unable to detect any unusual reaction from the girl, so he said, "Follow me in."
"yes."
When the Emperor of the Holy Ceremonial Army turned around, a eunuch came quickly from outside the pagoda courtyard and asked to see him.
After getting permission, the eunuch went into the courtyard and paid his respects to the Holy Emperor.
"…Your Majesty, there are many refugees outside the temple, more than a hundred of them. They gathered outside the temple and cried for the saint, saying that they had not eaten for a long time and begged the saint to save their lives…"
The eunuch looked very uneasy, fearing that he had violated some taboo.
When praying for blessings, a group of sick refugees came to gather around the emperor and ask for help, which was ultimately unlucky.
"Where did these refugees come from?" The Holy Ce Emperor frowned and asked, "Daozhou?"
"Your Majesty, that is exactly..."
Chang Suining had also heard about the severe drought in Daozhou since the spring. The drought affected a very wide area. Not only did the entire Daozhou suffer a total crop failure, but all the wells and springs dried up, making it difficult for the people to get drinking water on a daily basis.
Even though there were disaster relief measures, they had little effect. The victims had no food or water, so they crossed the Huai River to the north to save themselves. As a result, there were even chaos in the states along the way, with refugees fighting with soldiers...
These refugees who were able to reach the capital alive must have gone through countless hardships and difficulties.
The Emperor of the Holy Ce said with a hint of compassion: "It is not easy for them to come here from Daozhou. Cui Qing, you can take care of these people for the time being."
As the emperor, it was impossible for her to meet these refugees in person. Most of these people who could travel a long distance and come to the capital alive were not good people. To call them disaster victims were probably no different from bandits. Only by the Xuan Ce Army's appeasement and suppression could they give up the idea of making trouble.
Cui Jing agreed, looked at Chang Suining and nodded slightly to her before leaving.
Chang Suining also nodded in response to him, as usual.
But she could sense the unusual look in Cui Jing's eyes, although she couldn't tell what it meant.
Cui Jing left the pagoda courtyard, and Yuan Xiang, who was waiting not far away, came to meet him.
Cui Jing turned around and took a last look at the girl who was walking into the tower.
Master Wu Jue's ring and the slightly modified formation items could only slightly alleviate her pain. She must have been enduring it very hard at this moment.
He couldn't even imagine what she was going through at the moment.
"Grand Commander, those disaster victims..."
"Stay as planned."
Cui Jing strode away, took the sword from his waist and held it in his hand.
The moment Chang Suining walked into the tower, he realized that the feeling he had just had outside the tower was not worth mentioning at all.
Her internal organs seemed to be pulled by an invisible force, as if her soul was about to leave her body at any moment, but there seemed to be another force that firmly trapped the soul within.
And the pain became more intense with every step she took forward. It seemed as if there was an invisible resistance in front of her blocking her from moving forward, and countless voices in her body were stopping her.
The girl's expression remained unchanged as she continued forward.
Wu Jue secretly broke into a cold sweat, feeling extremely worried.
This was all he could do now, and he didn't know how long His Highness could hold out, so he just hoped that everything would go smoothly...
Since Chang Suining entered the tower, he has been silently paying attention to the layout of each place in the tower.
This formation was far more complicated than she had imagined, and was different from any military formation she had ever seen before.
She wrote down the formation arrangements in all directions according to the principle of "no matter how things change, they remain essentially the same". As she distinguished them along the way, she gradually became aware of something strange.
Although these array items are complicated, upon closer inspection, some are missing. The array items and their positions are also divided into primary and secondary. If we use the terms primary and secondary, what we see at this time are all secondary, and the real primary array items are not seen.
The main object of the formation is the eye of the formation. The eye of the formation is related to the rise and fall of the formation and is the most critical existence.
Is this what the formation requires, or is it to prevent the formation from being easily destroyed, so the eye of the formation is placed in a hidden dark place? While Chang Suining was thinking, he had already followed the Holy Ce Emperor to the edge of the Jade Pool.
The ethereal voice of the Holy Ceremonial Emperor rang in Chang Suining's ears.
"Madam Chang, do you know why I summoned you to Dayun Temple?"
"This is to pray for the soldiers who are fighting against the rebellion and my father." Chang Suining even sounded very weak.
Her sense of touch and hearing had been greatly reduced, and she needed to concentrate carefully to distinguish what the Emperor of the Holy Book was saying.
"Yes, but not entirely." The Holy Ceremonial Emperor turned his head slightly to look at the girl: "In fact, there is one thing I don't understand, and I want to ask Madam Chang."
Chang Suining remained calm: "I don't know what your majesty is referring to."
"Madam Chang has many outstanding qualities. I had intended to give her the position of a female official in charge of the case, but you did not accept it." There was no intimidation in the Emperor's tone, but the words he said made people feel uneasy.
"After that, Li Lu and Cui Qing both wanted to marry me, but you rejected them all. So I am very curious. You are not interested in the official position I gave you, nor in a good marriage or a good son that ordinary women value. What do you really want?"
These were clearly things her Ah Shang would do. These were things that ordinary women would chase after and desire, but her Ah Shang would not care about them.
Ming Luo's eyes never left Chang Suining.
At this moment, there was still no change on the girl's face, nor did she show any uneasiness or hesitation when being tested.
"I know that my character is not yet determined, and I am afraid of causing trouble in the palace, so I dare not accept the position of female official. As for marriage, in my opinion, the difference between good and bad is that it depends on the mutual affection between the two parties. Only when the two parties are in harmony with each other can it be considered a good marriage."
After a pause, the girl continued, "If you ask me what I want to do, I just want to be my father's daughter, stay in Changfu, and live with my father and brothers who love me. That's enough."
The Holy Seal Emperor smiled slightly when he heard this: "You probably haven't grown up yet if you have such thoughts."
The girl heard this and said, "My father said that I don't need to grow up. I can stay with him all my life and do what I like."
These innocent and straightforward words seemed to make the Holy Cemeter Emperor somewhat distracted.
"It is a blessing that you don't have to grow up." The Holy Cemeter Emperor said, "My child grew up when he was very young."
"This is also my failure as a mother. I gave birth to them, but failed to give them a stable life..." The Holy Ceremonial Emperor looked at the statue of the goddess, "And when I finally had the ability to make up for it, my children were gone. Perhaps this is the retribution from heaven."
Chang Suining lowered his eyes and did not respond.
Her body, which was originally torn by pain, even felt numb for a moment when she heard these words.
She didn't know whether the guilt in Minghou's words was real or not. Maybe he really felt guilty after getting everything at his age, or maybe he was just testing her. After all, she had experienced such a tactic once before.
In her eyes, her mother was calm, cold, and unscrupulous. She had never shown any kindness to her, nor had she ever said a soft word.
She originally thought her mother was used to this, until she grabbed her hand before the marriage and said in a loving and even pleading tone, "Ashan, please help me one last time."
Her mother even touched her cheek tremblingly, with tears of guilt in her eyes that she had never seen before, and said that she would definitely take her home.
Only then did she realize that her mother could actually treat her with kindness.
She stared at him for a long time, realizing that the kindness didn't even seem fake, it was the ultimate sincerity, and this ultimate sincerity left her no room for rejection.
At that moment, she suddenly wanted to ask, "Does my mother know what she will experience after marrying Beidi?" But she didn't ask.
Her mother was not an ordinary woman, nor was she a naive concubine who was ignorant of the state affairs. She must have known what this marriage represented.
It is because she knows this that she calls herself "mother" and feels guilty. However, this guilt does not affect her mother's request for her to go to that purgatory.
The reason why she knelt down was not because she felt her mother had done something wrong. On the contrary, even if her mother had not come to beg her, she had already decided to agree to the marriage.
At that time, Da Sheng was no longer able to fight. Its soldiers were exhausted and its national strength was weak. Seeking peace was the only way to survive.
What Dasheng needed at that time was no longer generals to go to the battlefield, but princesses to marry for peace.
Then let her go.
She could go, and she should go, but she just felt that perhaps a mother shouldn't treat her child like this.
But it's okay. Ever since she can remember, her loveless but ambitious mother has only brought her endless demands and requests. She has been repaying the kindness of giving birth to her, but it seems that she can never repay it. It just so happens that she might as well use this thing that she was about to do to break it off. It can be considered a shortcut.
From then on, whenever she thought of her mother, she felt relieved, because she no longer had to bear the burden of giving birth to and raising her.
From the moment she followed Ming Hou's arrangement and pretended to be Ah Xiao, she had used her life to break free from the cage of family affection. Having paid such a price, she would never surrender and return to the mother-daughter relationship that made her breathe.
What's more, she still has a mystery to solve. She has not found out who wanted to kill her in her previous life. Even for the sake of saving her life, she cannot expose herself in public at this moment.
As for whether Ming Hou's guilt at this moment was real or fake, she had no way of finding out and didn't care.
"Madam Chang, have you read the Great Cloud Sutra? Have you heard of the legend of the goddess saving people?" asked the Emperor of the Holy Ceremonial Ce.
"I have heard it."
"My Chongyue also saved the world with her own life..." The Holy Ce Emperor said, "Madam Chang must have heard about Chongyue's experiences and deeds many times. In your opinion, is there anything similar between Chongyue and this statue of the goddess?"
Chang Suining subconsciously looked up at the white jade statue.
The moment she looked over, the fingertips under her cloak trembled.
This statue of a goddess...
Her eyes fell on the lifelike face of the statue and the striking crack on its neck...
So, the one "enshrined" in this Heavenly Maiden Tower was never the Heavenly Maiden in the Dayun Sutra, but her? !
While "looking into" the eyes of the jade statue, Chang Suining felt as if every part of his body was being held captive, and he was filled with confusion.
Noticing that the Queen's gaze was moving towards her, Chang Suining immediately concealed the shock in her eyes and said, "I have never seen Princess Chongyue in person, so I have no way to compare whether the Princess resembles this goddess statue, so I dare not answer rashly."
The Emperor of the Holy Ceme said nothing, but just looked at Chang Suining quietly, as if he was determined to get the answer he wanted from the girl.
Chang Suining stood there with his eyes lowered, trying his best to control every part of his body so as not to appear abnormal in the slightest.
It was unknown how much time had passed before the Emperor of the Holy Ceremonial Ceremonies spoke again.
Good night everyone, see you tomorrow~ (End of this chapter)
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