"Li Yao, what did you say?"
Ye An was startled by Li Yao's strange behavior and almost thought he had heard it wrong.
This tone and this intonation, it seems like a completely different person. Is this still the Li Yao he knows?
Because he always bowed and nodded to people, Li Yao's back was a little hunched. At this moment, he held his head high and looked directly at Ye An.
"I am saying, Your Majesty, have you forgotten what day it is today?"
"today?"
Ye An clearly remembered his birthday, Mu Ci's birthday, Dou Dou's birthday, and the Queen Mother's birthday; none of them were today.
Seeing that he had no impression at all, Li Yao's expression became impatient and he glanced around with cold eyes.
Ye An followed his gaze.
There were white candles burning in the room, white banners for memorial services hanging, a painting hung on the south wall, and an altar in front of the painting.
Since this is in Feiluan Palace, the spirit seat is...
Ye An lost his voice and said, "Is it Su... Imperial Noble Consort?"
"Yes." Li Yao nodded slowly: "Your Majesty was busy preparing for the birthday ceremony for Concubine Chen, but forgot that today is Concubine Su's birthday, so I specially reminded Your Majesty."
Ye An heard the sarcasm in his words. Li Yao would never speak like this in the past. Ye An had already discovered something was wrong, but there was no one else in the room except him and Li Yao. He touched the jade whistle vigilantly, but the whistle that could summon the secret guards was not there.
What exactly does Li Yao want to do?
Ye An was a little scared and took a step back as naturally as possible: "Li Yao, Concubine Su is gone. I really don't want to disturb her spirit in heaven. You should send me away from here."
Li Yao shook his head: "Your Majesty, you haven't been to Feiluan Palace for a long time. It's not easy for you to come here, but you are leaving without talking to him?"
……he? !
Seeing Li Yao staring at the spirit tablet, Ye An's hair stood on end. He said with a stiff face, "I have lost my memory. I really don't know what to say."
Li Yao smiled and said, "Things in this world cannot be written off with a simple "forget". You loved him to death before, and you were sad for a short time after he died. With a simple "forget" you go on to suffer with someone else. Your Majesty, are you worthy of Concubine Su who died for you?"
"You said Su...Su Qinghuai died for me? He..."
Ye An suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chest. After Yang Shuxuan passed away, his heart no longer hurt, and his original body seemed to have completely disappeared, but he didn't expect...
Ye An endured the pain. He felt that Li Yao was not safe and he must not faint from the pain in front of Li Yao.
"I... don't understand. Didn't he die of illness? How could he die for me?"
Ye An spoke with difficulty, trying to divert Li Yao's attention and delay time, and also hoping to divert his own attention. Maybe as he spoke it would not hurt so much.
"Your Majesty, have you even forgotten this? You were hunting with court officials, and your horse was frightened. Concubine Su was injured while trying to save you, and she can no longer conceive with you... The Queen Mother wanted you to tour the harem for the sake of having an heir, and he begged you to do the same, and even quarreled with you on purpose. If you really left in anger, do you know how much pain he felt inside?"
Li Yao narrowed his eyes and said coldly, "Watching the one you love fall into the arms of another, I am a dull servant and cannot imagine what kind of torment this is."
Ye An knew that his original body had quarreled with Su Qinghuai for some special reasons, and the two of them drifted apart, but he didn't know there was such a reason, so he asked, "Then, what happened next?"
"Later? Later, he was depressed all day long. His old illness had not healed, and he was heartbroken. His health became worse and worse. He was reluctant to tell you even when he was dying. And you, you came to Feiluan Palace to see him several times. What's the point of being heartbroken after he died?"
"You told me that you wanted to go with him regardless of everything. At first, I thought you were affectionate and righteous, and that he was thinking of you until his death. But you just slept for a while and forgot all your past feelings. Your Majesty, your words are as good as gold."
Li Yao's words were like sharp knives, which greatly stimulated the original body. The pain became more and more intense. Cold sweat appeared on the tip of Ye An's nose. He had to squat down and hug his chest.
"Li Yao... who are you? How can you know so much?"
"Has the Emperor lost his memory again? Who else could this servant be?"
Li Yao laughed, his eyes fell on the painting on the wall, and his expression softened. The painting showed a portrait of a handsome man. Li Yao's eyes gradually became empty, and he said quietly, "I am the pair of eyes he left in this world. I want to see for him how worthless the person he sacrificed his life for was."
Mu Ci didn't bother to get on the sedan chair, and directly rushed to Changle Palace with several secret guards using light skills. However, the empress dowager said that the emperor had not been there, and she herself had not summoned the emperor.
Mu Ci and his party looked hurried, and the Queen Mother could not help but become suspicious: "What happened?"
Mu Ci was secretly shocked, realizing that Ye Xiaoan might have met with an accident, but he was still not sure of Li Yao's intentions. These were just his guesses, and he couldn't lose his composure.
Mu Ci calmed himself down, and with a calm expression, he said, "The Emperor was joking with me. He hid himself and asked me to find him."
The emperor had a cheerful and carefree personality, and the empress dowager was used to it. She laughed and scolded: "He is not serious, and you let him do what he wants? Get out of here! My Changle Palace is not for you to play around with!"
Mu Ci's palms were covered with cold sweat. He took his leave and left the hall, asking the secret guards to search for the emperor's whereabouts bit by bit with Huanhua Hall as the center. The emperor got on the dragon chariot from Huanhua Hall, so the focus of the search was on Changle Palace.
Not long after, a secret guard came to report that a dragon sedan was found near the Xuande Hall, but there was no one in the sedan. Not only the emperor, but also the eunuchs responsible for carrying the sedan and the guards who guarded the sedan were all missing.
Could it be that the emperor returned to the Xuande Hall?
Mu Ci got up and rushed to Xuan De Hall, but he could not find Ye An either in the main hall or in the bedroom. The eunuchs serving in Xuan De Hall all said that they had not seen Li Yao or the emperor.
Mu Ci was extremely anxious.
A figure flew to Xuande Hall, An Er knelt on one knee and presented a torn letter.
"There was no one at Li Yao's residence. I only found the letter in the secret compartment under the bed."
The letter had been torn into pieces, with one part missing, so it was impossible to piece together the whole letter. An Er couldn't understand the letter, but he found the word "Mu" on the scraps of paper. An Er guessed that the letter was most likely related to Concubine Chen.
Mu Ci had no other clues at hand, so he simply calmed down and studied this incomplete letter. There were only a few words on the letter, and one could roughly make out the word "夜" at the beginning, followed by "慕", and the words "参选" survived.
Mu Ci was not familiar with the handwriting on the letter, but he guessed that Mu and Canxuan must refer to the draft. Mu could be him or someone else in the Taifu Mansion. Li Yao tore up a letter related to the draft and the Mu family and hid it.
In the past two years, no beauty pageant has been held because the emperor was pregnant and gave birth to a child. Ye An has no plans to hold a beauty pageant in the near future. Besides, any news about the beauty pageant will be announced to the world. What does it have to do with the Mu family? What's the point of Li Yao hiding it?
Also, why does this letter begin with "night"? Generally speaking, even when talking about specific days, the word "night" will never be put first.
...Could it be that Ye is a surname?
A light suddenly lit up in Mu Ci's heart. He remembered one thing. During the talent show more than a year ago, Ye An asked Li Yao to send him a letter. The letter explained Ye Xiaoan's identity to him and asked him to participate in the competition. However, Mu Ci did not actually receive the letter. He and Ye An were very confused. After Mu Ci entered the palace, he asked Master Mu to ask the servants, and they all said that they had never received a letter for the eldest young master. Because a group of Mu family servants left the house to return home at that time, and there was no time to ask those people, Mu Ci thought it was done by those who left the house. Since he had already entered the palace, there was little point in investigating, so he did not verify it further.
Could it be that this was the letter that Li Yao did not actually send out?
Mu Ci remembered that Ye An mentioned that the letter was written by Wen Ziran. He ordered the secret guard to take the letter through the tunnel to Ruixuexuan to find Xiao Fang, Wen Ziran's former trusted eunuch, to verify it. Xiao Fang had been guarding Ruixuexuan. After taking the incomplete letter, he recognized Wen Ziran's handwriting at a glance.
The secret guard came back to report. Mu Ci seemed to be thinking about something. Li Yao was a very secretive person. He usually did a good job in carrying out Ye An's instructions. Why was he unwilling to help Ye An deliver the letter?
Ye An wrote this letter after their first intimate encounter and before the selection of concubines. Ye An was confined to Xuan De Hall by the empress dowager and failed to meet Mu Ci as promised. If this letter had not been sent in time, and Mu Li had not been framed and her reputation ruined, Mu Ci would never have been able to enter the palace on the day of the selection, let alone become a Zhaoyi.
...So, Li Yao originally wanted to stop him from entering the palace?
However, Mu Ci only met Li Yao after he entered the palace, and believed that he had no hatred against Li Yao. Why did Li Yao do this?
Mu Ci also couldn't understand why Li Yao wanted to harm Ye An and the little prince. Now the secret guards were looking for Ye An's whereabouts. He had a hunch that maybe if he found this reason, he might be able to know where Ye An was.
Mu Ci recalled the few contacts he had with Li Yao. He remembered that the first one was on the day after he entered the palace. He wanted to go to the nearby Feiluan Palace to take a look, but Li Yao tried to stop him, but her words were not very polite.
Also, when he was promoted to Chen Fei, there was something strange about Li Yao's behavior when she came to announce the decree.
Many of Li Yao's words seemed strange when thought back. Since she had prevented him from entering the palace in the first place, she naturally didn't want him to have a good relationship with Ye An.
Mu Ci pondered for a moment and asked An Er: "Do you have a detailed investigation of Li Yao?"
An Er presented the secret report. This secret report had been circulated several times and no problems could be seen. Therefore, at the beginning, the secret guards did not suspect Li Yao.
Mu Ci read Li Yao's life again. Li Yao had been with Ye An when Ye An was still a prince. He was first recommended to Ye An by Ye An's study partner Su Qinghuai.
"...Su Qinghuai?"
Mu Ci was stunned.
An Er explained: "It's Imperial Noble Consort Su. The Imperial Noble Consort was the emperor's companion when he was a prince. After the emperor ascended the throne, he was made a noble concubine..."
Mu Ci frowned, so Li Yao is actually—Noble Concubine Su’s person?
Su Qinghuai had passed away. Even if he was discovered, no one would doubt the intentions of a dead man, let alone think that Li Yao, a eunuch who had served the emperor for many years, would harbor resentment towards the emperor.
He prevented the emperor from summoning Mu Ci into the palace, plotted to murder the pregnant emperor, and even the eldest prince. He did all these things that were meaningless to the eunuchs themselves, all for his... old master, Imperial Noble Consort Su.
He was unwilling to accept the fate of his old master. He would not allow the emperor to find a new love, nor would he allow anyone to replace Concubine Su's position in the emperor's heart. This was not fair. The emperor had forgotten the past and started a new life. Did he still want him to carry that heavy past and live in pain?
If Li Yao was doing this for Su Qinghuai...
Mu Ci roughly knew where Ye An was, and said in a deep voice: "Go to Feiluan Palace."
He used to be worried about Concubine Su, but Ye An helped him to erase all his worries.
He didn't care about what happened between the emperor and Su Qinghuai in the past. He only knew that the emperor now was his Ye Xiaoan.
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This article actually writes a lot of emotions～～～
To all the little angels who are still here QAQ
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