Don't ask about the common people, ask about ghosts and gods
Looking at the familiar face, Xu Ning did not think that she was just performing as a musician.
Until now, Xu Ning would never believe that the incident at Yan Huan's banquet had nothing to do with her, because she just hadn't found any direct evidence.
"Today is an auspicious day for Your Majesty, and I, a humble servant, respectfully present you with a small gift. I am reminded of Your Majesty's grace in blessing the people, which is as great as the bright moon. Your Majesty's grace is so great that I cannot repay it. I now present you with the 'Splendid Rivers and Mountains', and wish our emperor a long life and our country prosperity." Zhao Mingshang bowed his head and presented the gift.
Emperor Qianping looked at the picture carefully, then showed appreciation: "Well, not bad, not bad. This picture is very much to my liking." The emperor looked at Zhao Mingshang. This woman was dignified and generous, and she was also the most talented woman in the capital. She was a good candidate.
"Minister Zhao, you have raised a good daughter."
Father Zhao was suddenly called and quickly stood up to respond.
All those who presented gifts received rewards, except Zhao Mingchang. Everyone present was a shrewd person, and the Empress was also satisfied. Everyone had made up their minds.
"Your Majesty, I have heard that Your Majesty likes the sword dance 'Looking Northwest' very much, so I have learned it from you."
The music of stringed and bamboo music rises again.
The music filled the magnificent palace. The young master of the Zhao family raised his hand and drew his sword, and Tang Xixu and the other two followed him out.
Four long swords pointed directly at the caisson, and the four men swung their swords into a flower, with cold light flashing. The bright swords were like silver snakes, with numerous sword shadows and dazzling moves that were dazzling to the eyes.
The elderly emperor on the throne was lost in thought as he watched the sword dance below the stage.
Zhao Mingshang played the guqin sometimes loudly and sometimes softly, plucking not only the strings but also the human heart.
Tang Xixu's red brocade headband fluttered with his sword moves, and the young man's moves were ruthless, like a general on the battlefield.
The old emperor stared at the young man intently, as if he saw that high-spirited man again.
"Wenqing, we will definitely win this battle. We will kill all those dogs from the Jin State without leaving a single piece of armor. Hahaha." When Emperor Ganping was still a prince, he and Mo Wenqing had suppressed a rebellion in Yanzhou together.
Who says I have no clothes? I will share my clothes with you.
I remember that Emperor Gan Ping and Mo Wenqing once slept in the same trench and wore the same battle robe. When his son Emperor Gan Ping's robe was torn, it was Mo Wenqing who mended it for him.
"Brother Zhan, I have patched your robe many times. Change it, change it." Later, Mo Wenqing couldn't bear it anymore and exchanged his robe with Yuwen Zhan's.
Tang Xixu stepped back, then quickly turned his sword forward, pointing the scabbard at Emperor Ganping in the distance.
Beneath the mask, Tang Xixu was already furious. He wanted to ask Emperor Gan Ping if he knew that his father was wrongly accused.
What does it matter if he knows? Tang Xixu doesn’t know either.
Emperor Ganping's eyes trembled, and Tang Xixu changed the sword's edge and continued dancing.
The Queen and Concubine Shen on both sides looked at each other intently.
"Your Majesty, I haven't seen anyone dance 'Looking to the Northwest' so well in a long time. It's almost catching up with your Majesty's style back then." Shen Xiu Yu picked up a piece of side dish for the emperor.
The emperor was silent for a long time, and the rest of the people held their breath. Since that incident, no one dared to mention anything related to this person in front of Emperor Gan Ping.
After half a minute, Emperor Gan Ping came back to his senses: "Okay, the imperial concubine is right. After the banquet, the young master of the Zhao family will come to my palace, and I will reward you alone."
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
After the banquet, the officials took their wives and children home, and the concubines returned to the palace to rest.
Jinyu Palace.
"My lady, it's time to take a bath."
There hasn’t been as much “fragrant soup” in the past few months as before, and I don’t know what happened.
Shen Xiu Yu was combing her hair in front of a bronze mirror. The woman in the mirror had a fair face. She was in her thirties, but she looked like a girl in her twenties.
The beauty in the mirror suddenly frowned, and her anger gradually burned, "Bang!" "Dang!" Shen Xiu Yu threw everything on the table, and the fine bronze mirror was broken into pieces.
The maid couldn't help but tremble as she picked up the broken pieces. Shen Xiuyu pinched the woman's chin and forced her to look at him: "How young, without a single wrinkle."
There were just a few more wrinkles at the corners of Shen Xiuyu's eyes.
Emperor Ganping had not been to Jinyu Palace for a long time. A few days ago, a new batch of people entered the palace, and His Majesty liked another empress very much, so he stayed in her palace for four consecutive days.
As the emperor's favor waned, the concubines looked on with cold eyes and ridiculed him, and the servants took advantage of the situation.
"You said that the emperor doesn't come to my palace. Is it because I'm old?" The once glorious Concubine Shen now asked the palace maid in a low voice.
The palace maid was so scared that she burst into tears. She didn't dare to speak. If she said something wrong, she would go crazy and kill people.
"What's wrong again?" A male voice came from outside.
When the palace maids saw Wen Liang coming, they bowed and hurriedly retreated.
Shen Xiuyu lay sideways on the man's shoulder. Wen Liang gently stroked the woman's black hair, and the corners of his lips curved upwards: "Don't be upset. Don't you know what His Majesty is like? He is just a temporary novelty. The emperor's favor is still yours."
Shen Xiuyu remained silent. This imperial city looked magnificent and was a place that everyone in the world longed to visit, but it was also a place where people were eaten without leaving any bones. Only Wen Liang's shoulder was a place of peace of mind.
"Don't leave tonight. Okay?" Shen Xiuyu's eyes were blurred with tears. Wen Liang's heart softened and he smiled dotingly, "Okay." His voice was unspeakably gentle.
…
Wenhua Hall.
Emperor Gan Ping looked at the blood letter in his hand and frowned.
"You said you wanted to seek justice, but do you have any witnesses?"
Tang Xixu knelt on the high hall for a long time without being able to speak. There were not many surviving soldiers of the Mo family, not to mention that ten years had passed. How could he possibly find them?
All the officials had been replaced by Wen Liang long ago, so where could they be found?
This is a complete dead end.
Tang Xixu still delusionally hoped that His Majesty would re-examine the case out of old friendship, but he overestimated it.
The night was dark and still a little chilly in February. The flags on the city walls fluttered gently, demonstrating the majesty of the royal family.
The old emperor looked at the young man's lonely back on the high wall, and his brows frowned even more tightly.
"Go check and find out how he survived back then and whether there are other people like him."
"Your Majesty, he is just a young boy and can't cause any waves." Li Dequan lowered his head and said in a low voice.
Emperor Gan Ping sighed, his intention unpredictable: "I am afraid that even the power of an ant can shake a giant tree."
It was already 10 p.m. when we returned to the inn. The inn was quiet and there were few people out drinking.
"I sneaked into the imperial concubine's palace today and saw that Wen Liang has a close relationship with the imperial concubine." Xu Ning toured the palace while Tang Xixu was meeting the emperor.
"There's one more thing. I heard from the palace maids today that Concubine Shen beat a royal physician to death last night. It's said that Concubine Shen wanted to stay young forever, but the royal physician's method didn't work, so Concubine Shen was furious and beat the doctor to death." Zhao Mingchang also asked around.
Tang Xixu remained silent, and Xu Ning noticed that he was frowning.
"Ah Xu, what's wrong with you?"
Tang Xixu came back to his senses when he heard the girl's gentle voice. The young man smiled faintly: "Nothing, I just think that things in this world are really ridiculous sometimes."
"ah?"
The young man waved and walked out the door.
Xu Ning was baffled, but continued to ponder the present moment. "It's definitely going to be hard to find witnesses. They've been scattered all over the world, and all of them are dead in the military household register. It's like looking for a needle in a haystack."
"We have to vent our anger. General Mo died in such unclear circumstances, we can't just let it go." Qu Yi didn't like to see people being wronged, especially when that person was Mo Wenqing, the hero he had admired since childhood.
"Wen Liang has killed so many innocent people. It's time to hold a memorial ceremony for the deceased soul." The flickering candlelight was reflected on Xu Ning's profile. The woman was still wearing the red robe she wore when dancing with the sword tonight. She held her forehead with her hand and looked at Tang Xixu's receding back.
The next day, the sky was bright. Emperor Ganping had not gone to any palace last night. He talked with the monks of Wanguo Temple until midnight before resting.
As soon as Emperor Ganping got up from his bed, he saw a dead body. The body had been dead for a day or two, with a pale face and black eye sockets.
"Dequan, Li Dequan, protect the emperor, protect the emperor!" Emperor Ganping ran out of the palace without wearing shoes and even slipped.
Eunuch Dequan rushed into the room and said, "Someone, come and clean this up."
Some imperial guards came, and all the palace maids came.
"What are you all doing here? You didn't even hear the loud noise in the hall!"
This morning, all the servants in Funing Palace were beaten with sticks, and each of them left with a sad face.
Emperor Ganping was taking a nap in a side hall, and the hair on his temples was visibly gray.
"How is it?" Emperor Gan Ping looked a little tired, and his frown could not be relaxed.
"Your Majesty, it was Imperial Physician Ren who died. It is said that he was beaten to death by Imperial Concubine Jin." Li Dequan was cautious. He had never guessed what His Majesty was thinking about Imperial Concubine Jin.
"Hmph! How bold! I think she is becoming more and more arrogant because of her favor! She should reflect on herself!" Emperor Gan Ping shook his dragon robe, and Shen Xiu Yu was confined to the palace for a month.
Emperor Gan Ping glanced at Li Dequan and said slowly, "Go and find out who it is that has the audacity to put his hands on me."
…
There was not much "medicine" for bathing, and Shen Xiu Yu needed it urgently. Wen Liang found some "medicine" outside the palace and sent it directly to the palace today. According to the usual practice, Wen Liang had to "process" it first before sending it over.
Concubine Shen invited people from outside the palace to sing songs today. Xu Ning, Zhao Mingshang and Qu Xiang disguised themselves as singers and sneaked in.
There were about ten singing girls, and they sang one or two songs. Soon, they were all hit by the smoke and fainted on the ground. Xu Ning and the other two had a plan, but they were just pretending.
Xu Ning felt something sharp scratching her wrist. It was cold and the pain slid through her heart for a moment.
"Your Majesty, the blood of these girls is good, and can be called top-grade." The old nanny was a little pleasantly surprised. Top-grade women's blood is rare to begin with, and the fairy products from Yaotai are even rarer.
Shen Xiuyu took a look and sniffed the blood in the bottle. It was indeed a fairy product.
"The strange man in Buhuo City gave me a medicine, sprinkle it in." Shen Xiuyu fantasized about returning to his youth.
"Your Majesty, this is terrible. Someone from Minister Zhao's household reported that Zhao Mingshang, the legitimate daughter of the Zhao family, had been 'abducted' into the palace. I heard she was taken to the Jinyu Palace."
The emperor, seated high on the throne in Wenhua Hall, was reading a scripture in his hands. This, bestowed upon him by an alchemist from the Western Paradise, contained the secret to longevity. Growing old, yet still unsatisfied with the throne and the conquest of his kingdom, Emperor Ganping sought immortality everywhere.
"What?" Emperor Gan Ping almost dropped the scripture in his hand.
Zhao Mingchang was abducted right in front of the Zhao family, who were counting on their eldest daughter to become the crown prince's consort. While Minister Zhao was still hesitant, the young master of the Zhao family, impatient, borrowed his father's pen to write a petition before the emperor.
Doctor Ren’s wife and children also filed a lawsuit.
No one knew where these people came from, but before the emperor gave any order, a large group of people had already arrived at the Jinyu Palace.
Wen Liang was out on business. When he heard about it, he rode his horse as fast as he could to the palace, but he was still too late.
Yuwen Yi led people to search the palace, and Yuwen Xin also came slowly.
All the powerful people in the palace came. The queen lowered her eyes and looked at everything here indifferently.
In the bathroom of Concubine Shen's bedroom, singing girls were lying in a mess. Each of them had a cut on their wrist, some deep, some shallow. Some were not bleeding, while some were still dripping heavily. There was a jade bottle under their wrist, open to collect the blood.
The bathtub was filled with blood, about half of it.
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