Chapter 60

Lu Erlang lowered his eyes and asked: "Why did my cousin write these two lines of poetry?"

Luo Lingyu blushed: "I sit alone on a summer night, doing nothing. Something in my heart touches me, so I write it down."

…

The moon is like frost and snow, and the ground is shining silvery.

In the Hengyang Palace, after the young master came back, he locked himself in the room. Mr. Kong and other guests knocked on the door anxiously, but Liu Mu looked at them with eyes like wild beasts in the forest, like steel knives on fire, alert and strange. Mr. Kong's heart skipped a beat, and Liu Mu had already closed the door with the wine altar - "Don't call me!"

Liu Mu sat against the wall in the house, with jars of wine at his feet. He drank jar after jar with great generosity.

He drank quickly, and the sake dripped down his throat into his shirt. Liu Mu covered half of his face with his hand, and the half that was exposed showed a look of confusion at times and anger at times.

“Bang!”

Liu Mu smashed jar after jar of wine, trembling all over, and saw the moonlight floating like water, wave after wave. In his eyes, the moonlight was like a distorted shadow and a protruding bayonet - just like his brother had been wary of him as an enemy for so many years. He thought his brother loved him!

The bayonet was ready to stab him at any time.

Liu Mu murmured to himself: "...and what have I done?"

Did he try to stop his brother from ascending the throne? No.

Was he dissatisfied with his brother's appointment of the crown prince? No.

The late emperor's preference for him has made him a thorn in your majesty's eyes. This assassination is just a one-time attempt. If he is more incompetent next time, your majesty will want to see him beheaded.

Liu Mu's lips curled down and he smiled grimly. He threw away the wine jar in his hand, and the handsome face of the young man looked a little distorted and sinister: "You think I'm your enemy? You are so old, incompetent, and the government is in chaos. You rely on the support of the aristocratic families. Do you think you are a good emperor? Do you think the aristocratic families really care about you? You are just a tool for them to seek personal gain. You are so inactive, but you are still wary of me... Hey, you don't want to give it to me, but I want to get it."

"You are such a person that you can become an emperor, but why am I the one you assassinated? This is ridiculous!"

"Brother... Cheers! From now on, you and I will be brothers... just brothers in name only."

Hengyang Prince Liu Mu drank alone, and the more he drank, the more desolate he felt, but he also became more sober. As the night deepened, the lights gradually went out, and people's breaths also weakened in the darkness. Liu Mu hugged his wine altar and cried and laughed. Luo Lingyu put away the words she had written and went to sleep. Lu Erlang Lu Xian returned to his room with a sad heart.

Lu Erlang was a weak scholar with a frail constitution and prone to nightmares.

After drinking two cups of tea before going to bed, Lu Xian was restless. He always felt that the two lines of Luo Lingyu's poem were very familiar, and he should have seen them before. Then, Lu Xian clapped his hands together, guessing that he would dream again. It seemed that it was like this every time. He found some clues and traces in reality, and correspondingly, his dreams would tell him something again. He was troubled by his dreams, and asked Taoist and Buddhist masters for help, but it didn't work. Gradually, he sadly got used to his dreams, as if they had little to do with him.

Sure enough, after he fell asleep, he began to dream again. However, this time the dream was very short and he did not fall ill; at the same time, perhaps because he always kept thinking that he was not in his dreams, this time, Lu Erlang finally appeared in his dream.

Lu Erlang, like a ghost, wandered in the dream world. With a strange mood, he saw another Lu Erlang appear. That was the real person in the dream, Lu Xian one year later. The outsider of the dream, like a wandering ghost, saw Lu Erlang in the court dress in the dream and finally accepted the world in the dream. One year later, Lu Erlang was really appointed as Zhongsan Dafu.

He was a person who didn't care about politics, but he held an important position a year later!

But that was no use.

Outsiders like Lu Erlang, who had had several dreams, saw the sky dark, light and lightning wandering, palace maids fleeing, and heard the voices of Taoist priests and wizards chanting in their inner strength. He suddenly realized that this was the last dream, in which he saw that after Jianye City was captured, the new emperor Liu Mu killed Empress Luo Lingyu and then committed suicide with a sword.

Is this not the end yet? Is it not the end yet?

Like a wandering ghost, Lu Erlang wandered around the inner palace anxiously. The strange incantations of Taoist priests and wizards gave him a headache. On one side, the palace gate was destroyed by the army, and on the other side, the wizards were still performing magic... The palace maids cried and hurriedly fled out of the palace with their bags. However, everyone was fleeing outside. Lu Xian suddenly saw himself in his dream holding a young lady's hand and walking against the flow of people.

The wandering soul in the dream was startled: "Hua'er——"

He floated past.

Seeing herself and Luo Yunhuan in the dream trying to squeeze through the crowd and run to the inner palace, Luo Yunhuan choked up and urged: "Cousin, why haven't you seen my sister yet..."

Lu Erlang was anxious, seeing the fires everywhere in the palace, and was also disturbed by the humming sounds of the magician. He also had to comfort Luo Yunhuan: "Immediately, immediately! Why do you have to go to the palace to find your cousin Luo? Why don't you flee south with the Lu family? Your Majesty will protect your cousin Luo..."

Luo Yunhua burst into tears: "No, no! Your Majesty will not protect my sister! She has been very sad since my third cousin left... Second cousin, please take me to find my sister! I'm so afraid that she will be depressed..."

The young lady, who was already over ten years old, had a dirty face and was covered with gray streaks from crying. She was led by Lu Erlang to run around the inner palace. Whenever she saw a palace maid lying dead, she would cry and look for someone to see if she was dead. Lu Erlang felt strange. He didn't know why his cousin was so sad that she made his younger cousin worried when his third brother died... However, Jianye City was broken, and the northern army entered the capital. The aristocratic families in Jianye fled to the south in panic. Lu Erlang agreed to let Luo Yunhuan enter the palace, first because his cousin was his relative, and second, he wanted to persuade His Majesty to evacuate with them.

Even though the conflict between Your Majesty and the aristocratic families has become so serious, with the enemy at the doorstep, shouldn't both sides cooperate?

Taoist priests and wizards were still ringing bells, and yellow talisman paper flew everywhere like debris. The wind was blowing hard, dark clouds were rolling in the sky, and lightning was flashing. Lu Erlang's head began to hurt as the wizards were talking, and sweat was dripping from his forehead. At first, he led Luo Yunhuan away, and later it was Luo Yunhuan who dragged him deep into the inner palace. They ran and hid all the way, and finally arrived at the Queen's palace, panting.