After the young man walked in, he stopped beside Jiang Rao in the center of the hall and saluted to the Queen and Emperor who were sitting on their seats.
When he raised his head, his handsome face was revealed, and there was a slight smile on his thin lips, which seemed to bring glory to the palace where he was staying.
His every move was dignified and graceful, but Empress Jiahe, who was always dignified beside Emperor Zhaowu, could no longer maintain her dignity and propriety. She stared at the tall figure in the hall, her eyes almost popping out of their sockets, in horror.
The envoy saw who was coming and stood up in surprise. The table in front of him shook and the wine almost spilled all over him. "Your Highness the Ninth Prince?"
Emperor Zhaowu, however, looked nonchalant, as if he had known about this for a long time.
Jiang Rao trembled when he heard the noise outside the hall and turned to look back.
Rong Ting walked to her and stopped, lowered his eyes to glance at her, hooked his long fingers over, pried open Jiang Rao's fingers, and took out the crumpled rice paper from her tightly clenched fingers.
He glanced at the little girl whose almond-shaped eyes were trembling, obviously she was frightened. His eyes darkened, and when he was about to withdraw his fingers after getting the secret letter, he moved his fingers forward and gently touched Jiang Rao's hand.
Jiang Rao was touched by his cold fingers but did not dodge.
It was just a brief touch, Rong Ting quickly removed his fingers, looked at Emperor Zhaowu and Empress Jiahe, and said, "I am a little late."
These words were spoken to Empress Jiahe.
Empress Jiahe couldn't stop trembling as she looked at Rong Ting standing tall in the palace.
The trip to Huaizhou did not take his life, but instead cured his leg?
What went wrong?
She glanced at Jiang Rao. The little girl was sitting upright, with no expression of joy or anger on her face. She looked as if she was facing a powerful enemy just now. She was not relaxed at all, nor was she frightened.
Obviously he knew something long ago.
No wonder she had a smile on her face when I bumped into her just now after walking out of Qingluan Terrace.
Just as Empress Jiahe was about to explode, Emperor Zhaowu's words came to her ears with a hint of irony, "I think the Empress will be happy to see Ting'er return."
Queen Jiahe was startled and turned to look at the man beside her.
She saw Emperor Zhaowu's gaze, calm and composed, and suddenly understood something.
He knew Rong Ting was not dead.
Then what were those words of comfort he had said to her when she was pretending to be heartbroken, and those words he had used to praise Rong Ting in front of her over the past six months?
Empress Jiahe felt a sharp pain on her forehead. She stopped her aggressive look and said to Emperor Zhaowu in panic, "I am not feeling well. I want to go back to Jinxiu Palace first."
Emperor Zhaowu did not allow her to stand up, and said indifferently: "You must give an explanation for Adanu's matter."
Empress Jiahe was terrified and had a sinister premonition, but she could only force a smile. She stayed in the Golden Palace, feeling uneasy. Although she had a forced smile on her face, she looked as if a dark cloud was looming over her head.
She noticed the sudden change in Emperor Zhaowu's attitude towards her after Rong Ting appeared, and tried to get closer to Emperor Zhaowu and wanted to hold his hand.
Emperor Zhaowu raised his hands and placed them on the table, as if intentionally or unintentionally, just avoiding Empress Jiahe's fingers that were about to hold him, and his eyes were as cold as frost.
He looked at Rong Ting, "Since you wrote the secret letter, do you have any basis for it?"
"Of course I dare not lie."
Rong Ting was followed by the Black Guards. Rong Ting made a gesture, and the Black Guards led a middle-aged woman tied up with hemp ropes and dressed as a palace maid and said, "Someone in the inn saw with their own eyes that someone put drugs in the food of the Qiang warriors. They followed that person all the way and found that she came to the palace gate and met with this Qi Ma from the Jinxiu Palace. Moreover..."
"Madame Qi has confessed everything."
He pulled the cloth from the maid's mouth, and the maid kowtowed several times and shouted, "Your Majesty, it was the Queen who wanted the Seventeenth Prince to defeat Adanu, so she put a muscle softener in Adanu's food. The medicine is colorless and tasteless, and will not affect the pulse. The imperial physician will certainly not be able to find out, but it will only take seven days, and Adanu will be able to recover as usual. If Your Majesty does not believe what I said, just wait seven days and see."
The queen's face changed drastically. Ever since she saw the old maid in her palace being arrested, she knew that there was no way out of this matter. However, she did not believe that Emperor Zhaowu would really punish her. She shook her head and pulled Emperor Zhaowu's sleeve: "There must be some misunderstanding. Your Majesty, please do not doubt me. Someone wants to wrongly accuse me..."
Emperor Zhaowu brushed her hand away and asked, "Who do you think gave the Black Guard permission to search the Jinxiu Palace?"
There was no trace of tenderness in his eyes, and he said coldly: "It's me."
"There is no injustice, no misunderstanding, I know what you did."
Empress Jiahe suddenly collapsed and looked as pale as death.
Emperor Zhaowu looked at the Qiang envoys and said apologetically, "I will give you and Adanu an explanation for what happened today."
He stood up and asked the Black Guards to take the nanny to the Dali Temple for further questioning. Empress Jiahe still refused to give up and chased after her, shouting in grievance and complaint, "Your Majesty!"
Emperor Zhaowu strode out of the Golden Palace without looking back.
Empress Jiahe felt a sharp pain in her heart and fell to the ground in the hall, unable to figure out what had gone wrong. She slammed the ground heavily twice, looking in a disarray.
…
Not long after Emperor Zhaowu left, he issued an order to imprison Empress Jiahe in Jinxiu Palace, and she was not allowed to leave the palace without his permission.
The news that the Queen had drugged Adanu's food in order to help the Seventeenth Prince defeat the Qiang warriors spread widely in the palace. The palace servants with some experience shook their heads and said that the golden seal in Queen Jiahe's hand, which showed her status as the mistress of the six palaces, might be changing hands.
Empress Jiahe naturally knew what the experienced palace maids could see.
She still couldn't understand why Rong Ting was able to come back alive, and couldn't understand when Emperor Zhaowu realized something was wrong and actually started playing a trick with her.
When Empress Jiahe thought about the tenderness and sweetness of the past few months, she realized that it was just a test, a mirage that could never be retrieved, and her eyes became red and swollen from crying in just a few days. Her vision became blurred and she could not recognize objects or people.
Even when the Seventeenth Prince hurried into the Jinxiu Palace to see her, she almost didn't recognize him. When the maid beside her told her that this was the Seventeenth Prince, hope ignited in the Queen's eyes. She reached over and tightly grasped the Seventeenth Prince's hand. Her voice was hoarse like a broken gong, "Yuan'er, go and tell your father that I did all this not for the reputation of Dazhao."
But just like Emperor Zhaowu shook her hand away, the Seventeenth Prince also shook her hand away.
The seventeenth prince's eyes were red with anger as he looked at Queen Jiahe angrily, "Did my mother really drug Adanu?"
The queen tightened her fingers, hearing the questioning tone in the seventeenth prince's voice, and became furious.
Who was she in trouble for? How could he be qualified to scold her?
The queen's face turned cold, "If you were not inferior to others, why would I use the muscle softening powder to deal with that warrior?"
The seventeenth prince clenched his teeth, clenched his fingers into fists, and trembled a few times at his side.
He held it in for a long time, and finally his eyes turned red. He raised his voice and yelled at Empress Jiahe: "When did I ask my mother to help me again!"
He defeated Adanu, but his glory only lasted for half a day before he was ridiculed and laughed at again!
No one believed his words that he knew nothing about it. Others said that he asked his mother to help him put drugs in Adanu's food in order to defeat Adanu!
Empress Jiahe couldn't see the expression on the Seventeenth Prince's face, she could only hear the resentment in his voice. His strong hatred for her made her tremble uncontrollably. She stretched out her hand and shouted in panic, "Yuan'er..."
No more answer.
The hand she stretched out did not touch the corner of Seventeenth Prince's clothes. The sound of running footsteps gradually faded away, and Seventeenth Prince rushed out of Jinxiu Palace in tears.
…
Back garden, by the pond.
The forsythia in the garden is in full bloom, with goose yellow stamens. Jiang Rao held the pomegranate and stayed beside Concubine Yun. Concubine Yun threw fish food. It was cold at the moment, and it was hard to find the red and white koi in the pond. Concubine Yun threw fish food in, but soon got tired and asked the palace maid to take the fish food away. She tilted her head and said to Jiang Rao, "I thought you said you found the Ninth Prince, but you were sick and confused because of your longing."
Concubine Yun paused for a moment and said, "You shouldn't be called the Ninth Prince. You should be called the King of Qi."
In the battle of Huaizhou, Rong Ting was rewarded for his merits and was granted entry into the palace of Prince Qi.
Her expression changed slightly. "No wonder the emperor didn't mention conferring a title on him after the battle in Huaizhou was settled. It turns out that he knew his ninth son was alive and had already made plans."
Concubine Yun pondered, "What do you think? Will the position of Crown Prince fall to Prince Duan in the future?"
Jiang Rao shook her head. "It's hard to figure out this kind of thing. Just take it one step at a time."
She said one sentence and nothing else, seeming a little absent-minded. Concubine Yun looked at Jiang Rao and pinched her face, "Instead of saying you want to accompany me, you are clearly waiting here for the King of Qi."
Jiang Rao blushed but did not refute. That was what she was thinking and there was nothing to refute.
A figure passed by the moon gate on the east side of the back garden. Jiang Rao glanced over and saw the figure clearly, but her eyes were a little disappointed.
It’s the seventeenth prince, not Rong Ting.
The seventeenth prince also saw Jiang Rao.
His eyelids were swollen. After seeing Jiang Rao, he hesitated for two steps, as if he wanted to rush forward to explain something.
In the end, he took back his steps.
Concubine Yun felt very strange. She glanced at the direction where the Seventeenth Prince left and whispered to Jiang Rao, "Could it be that the Seventeenth Prince is also interested in you?"
Jiang Rao frowned as if she had touched something dirty, "Aunt, don't say such things to scare me."
"Don't make wild guesses."
Concubine Yun narrowed her eyes slightly, "Be careful, I think something is wrong."
After staying in the back garden for too long, Concubine Yun waited until noon and returned to Shuxiang Palace. Jiang Rao stayed here, thinking that she might not be able to wait for Rong Ting today.
Emperor Zhaowu was investigating something and kept Rong Ting in the imperial study room every day. She had no chance to see him. Although the wedding date was postponed, it was delayed because of the affairs of the previous dynasty, and no one knew when it would be.
Jiang Rao felt sad and sat in the pavilion.
It was a cold spring day, and the spring breeze was chilly. Ming Shao went to get a cloak for Jiang Rao.
Jiang Rao had been waiting for too long and was a little sleepy. She lay on the stone table in boredom until Ming Shao came back. Looking at Jiang Rao lying drowsy on the table, she leaned over and whispered in her ear, "It's so cold. Miss, you fell asleep here. Don't catch a cold."
Jiang Rao was unmoved. Ming Shao frowned, then moved closer and said, "Just now I heard two palace maids chatting on the road, praising His Royal Highness the Prince of Qi."
Jiang Rao suddenly became much more sober, rubbed his eyes and asked, "What are you praising?"
"Of course I'm praising His Royal Highness the Prince of Qi for his handsome appearance, courage and wisdom." Ming Shao smiled. "I felt wronged for the young lady before, but now I don't feel that way at all. The young lady has a good eye. Those noble ladies from aristocratic families who once looked down on His Royal Highness the Prince of Qi must be regretting it now."
After listening to Ming Shao's words, Jiang Rao did not feel proud, but frowned slightly.
She felt inexplicably worried.
They were on the road when the queen asked someone to drug Adanu's food.
But Rong Tinghuan knew everything the queen did.
It was as if nothing in this world could be hidden from his eyes.
As she looked at him at this moment, she vaguely had the same impression of the Jiu Ye in her dream.
——He has absolute power and is in control of everything.
He was no longer the poor, hungry and cold kid she had met when she first met him.
Finally, he became such a person, so she was naturally happy for him.
But some things in the dream that she had overlooked were also remembered.
In the dream, there are many women who covet his power and want to be his women.
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