Chapter 15 The Eunuch's Fiancee
This was the first time Zhou Yunshu had seen her mother so panicked since leaving the capital.
"Mom, what's wrong?"
Li Jialan grabbed her daughter's hand as if it were a lifeline. She whispered urgently, "Shu'er, let's go, now!"
"Mom, what happened?"
Didn’t they agree yesterday to stay in Tongcheng for three days?
Anyway, so many people in Dujia Village can't walk fast, so even if they set out three days later, Zhou Yunshu is confident that she can catch up.
But why did my mother suddenly change her mind now?
Especially Li Jialan's current mood is really strange.
"I took Chunque to the city gate this morning to wait and see if I could run into your grandmother and the others. Who knows?" Li Jialan swallowed her saliva and looked at Zhou Yunshu with nervousness and fear in her eyes. "I actually saw Cao Zhengxing!"
Zhou Yunshu clenched her fists in surprise, "Eunuch Cao?"
"Why would he leave the capital?"
Eunuch Cao's name is Cao Zhengxing, which is the name given to him by the current emperor. He is also the most favored eunuch of the current emperor.
Cao Zhengxing is now not only the emperor's eunuch who wields the pen, but also the eunuch who holds the seal of the Imperial Stables and commands the twelve regiments of the imperial army. He is the first inner court official to be in charge of the imperial guards since the founding of the Great Zhou Dynasty.
When the Zhenbei Palace was ransacked, it was Cao Zhengxing who sent people to do it, and Zhang Qinglai was one of his generals.
It can be said that Cao Zhengxing is half responsible for the decline of the Zhenbei Palace, which is why Li Jialan is so afraid of Cao Zhengxing.
At least that's what Zhou Yunshu thought. As for the real reason, Li Jialan didn't say.
Or perhaps the real reason is only known to her, her husband Zhou Jianzhang, and her mother-in-law Ji Mingzhu.
Cao Zhengxing and the Zhou family were not just political enemies. Li Jialan was also Cao Zhengxing's fiancée before he entered the palace.
However, things are unpredictable. In the early years, the Li family fell into decline, and the Cao family offended the powerful and had their property confiscated and executed, so the engagement between the two was naturally cancelled.
But who would have thought that many years later, when Li Jialan followed her husband into the palace to receive a reward, she actually saw Cao Zhengxing, who should have been dead for many years but had turned into a close confidant of the emperor.
The Zhou family and Cao Zhengxing have always been at loggerheads in the court. Zhou Jianzhang often said in front of Li Jialan that Cao Zhengxing was a sinister and cunning minister who was sweet-mouthed but had a sharp tongue.
When the gentle and refined fiancé in her memory turned into a traitor who was despised by everyone, Li Jialan was stunned.
The worst thing was that not only did she recognize her fiancé, but Cao Zhengxing also recognized Li Jialan.
When Cao Zhengxing stopped her and said he wanted to fulfill his engagement with her, Li Jialan was scared to death.
At that time, Zhou Yunshu and Zhou Yunqi had just turned three years old. Cao Zhengxing said that he loved the twins very much and didn't mind being their stepfather since he would never have his own children in this life anyway.
This sentence frightened Li Jialan so much that she developed a high fever that night. When she recovered and heard that Cao Zhengxing had come to their house in place of the emperor, she was so frightened that she did not dare to leave the room, for fear of hearing something scary from Cao Zhengxing again.
But Cao Zhengxing always found a way to see her. When Li Jialan heard the maid say that Zhou Yunshu and Zhou Yunqi were having fun with Cao Zhengxing in the garden, she was so scared that she ran to the garden immediately, fearing that Cao Zhengxing would do something to her two children.
Cao Zhengxing had done so many evil things for the emperor and for himself that the evil spirit in him could not be stopped.
Zhou Yunqi was unwilling to get close to Cao Zhengxing, but Zhou Yunshu had never known what fear was since she was a child.
When Li Jialan rushed to the garden, Zhou Yunshu, who was only three years old, was thrown into the air by Cao Zhengxing. She laughed and asked Cao Zhengxing to throw her higher. Li Jialan was almost scared to death at that time.
It was on that day that Zhou Jianzhang noticed that Li Jialan was acting unusually, so he asked about her and Cao Zhengxing.
Since that day, Li Jialan never attended any palace banquet again.
She could still take care of her youngest son, but Zhou Yunshu was raised by Ji Mingzhu since childhood, and it was common for her to attend various palace banquets and banquets for princes.
Even though Li Jialan tried to stop him, Cao Zhengxing still contacted Zhou Yunshu again and again, as if he regarded Zhou Yunshu as his own child.
Li Jialan was so scared, especially after she and her daughter and son were almost kidnapped when they went up the mountain to worship Buddha. She finally couldn't help it and told her mother-in-law about what happened between her and Cao Zhengxing, risking being divorced.
There was no way out. Cao Zhengxing was acting more and more recklessly and crazily, and he had become Li Jialan's nightmare.
Fortunately, her mother-in-law was indeed the most powerful person in the world. From the time she confessed to her mother-in-law until Zhou Yunshu got married, she never saw Cao Zhengxing again, and Zhou Yunshu never had any private contact with Cao Zhengxing again.
Not to mention that after Zhou Yunshu grew up and knew about Cao Zhengxing's reputation and the relationship between the Zhou family, she consciously stayed away from Cao Zhengxing.
There was just one thing Zhou Yunshu didn't know. When she married King Ji Sheng of Wei, Cao Zhengxing had added makeup to her.
There were a total of eighty-eight dowries. If you didn't know, you would think that it was Cao Zhengxing who was marrying off his daughter.
Of course, the Zhenbei Palace would not accept this dowry. After leaving, who would have thought that the madman Cao Zhengxing would actually put it into the dowry paraded on the day of Zhou Yunshu's wedding. Li Jialan was so angry that she trembled after hearing the news.
So when Li Jialan saw Cao Zhengxing, whom she hadn't seen for a long time, in Tongcheng, she was really scared.
She was afraid that Cao Zhengxing had followed them to Tongcheng, that she and her daughter would be abducted and held captive by him, and that the nightmare she had dreamed of for many years would come true.
So at this moment she just wanted to escape, the farther the better.
Li Jialan grabbed her daughter's hand and asked urgently, "Shu'er, do you think he followed us here? Does he want to take us back to the capital?"
Zhou Yunshu looked at the panicked Li Jialan and said soothingly, "Mom, if he really had come after us, he would never have picked Tongcheng to attack. This must have been just a coincidence."
But Li Jialan couldn't listen to Zhou Yunshu's words at this time. Her mind was full of the scene when she was almost kidnapped by robbers.
Li Jialan shook her head and said, "Let's go, we must go!"
"Let's go, Shu'er, let's go!"
Li Jialan was determined. She couldn't stay in the same city with Cao Zhengxing for a moment.
Zhou Yunshu sighed helplessly, "Okay."
"We almost bought everything yesterday, but there are still some minor herbs we haven't bought yet. We..."
Fang Huiwen held Yuan Ruo in his arms as he stood by the screen and said, "I've already told Chunque to get it ready for when Mother comes back."
Yesterday, after she counted the things Zhou Yunshu and Chunque bought, she wrote down the things that had not been bought yet and bought them together today.
"Okay, thank you for your hard work, sister-in-law. Let's pack up now."
"good."
Fang Huiwen left with the child in her arms. Zhou Yunshu looked at Li Jialan, who had calmed down a little but was still at a loss.
Zhou Yunshu had a hunch that she was hiding something from her, but she was too emotional at the moment and it was not a good time to ask.
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