Chapter 185
When Concubine Yi knew that the Fourth Prince had returned, all the palace servants around the small shrine were cleared out.
Now there are only two of them here.
She closed the outer door, led the unresponsive Fourth Prince to the small shrine, and pulled him to kneel down.
There is a light mist in the incense burner on the incense table.
Concubine Yi said, "Since you have discovered it, I will tell you the truth." She turned her head and looked at the fourth prince, "You are not only a prince of the Great Zhou, but also a descendant of the Ling family of the former Wei Kingdom."
then.
Taizu of the Great Zhou Dynasty started a rebellion and invaded the imperial city of Wei, thus bringing an end to the previous dynasty.
The Wei Kingdom worshipped fire, and almost all of the last emperor and his family members died in the sea of fire, whether voluntarily or forced.
They refused to surrender or kneel, and in the raging fire, they and the dynasty whose fate was linked to theirs were reduced to ashes.
Over the next ten years, Taizu cleared up the accumulated evils, recognized the legitimacy of the previous dynasty, killed the rebels, suppressed the rebellion of the new dynasty, and ascended the throne with an iron-blooded strategy, thus establishing the Great Zhou Dynasty.
The old dynasty fell and the new dynasty was born.
Only the last emperor's youngest daughter survived. She was a little princess of only twelve or thirteen years old and escaped with several guards and palace maids.
They hid their identities and lived in seclusion around Zhennan Pass.
Later, when Da Zhou and Nanning went to war, they disguised themselves as ordinary Da Zhou people whose families were killed by Nanning soldiers, and successfully settled down near Zhennan Pass.
Once it falls, it will last for decades.
They have developed very well locally.
"...The little princess is my grandmother," Concubine Yi said calmly, "My mother told me that she was almost dead when I was born. Although she was a little princess of the previous dynasty, she did not have a strong desire to restore the country. She thought it was good to have a branch of the royal family of the Ling family living quietly in the world."
"My mother was not like that. She worked hard to learn a lot of things and opened her own escort agency. She became famous in the local area. She wanted to train thugs from the escort agency to assassinate the late emperor. However, she failed and she didn't even get to see the late emperor."
Just a few descendants of the previous dynasty, who dare not even tell their identities to the woman they marry into their spouse's bed, want to fight against a country. It is like an ant trying to shake a tree, just a dream.
But the fire of national restoration has never been extinguished and has spread for three generations.
Until Concubine Yi was born.
She didn't think that the only way to restore the country was to kill the Emperor of Zhou.
As long as the bloodline exists, the Ling royal family will always exist.
She also doesn't think that she can't move forward without huge financial support or connections.
She let the few people she had who could be used pursue careers in politics, and allowed them to go as far as they could. Even if they were chess pieces, they had to be qualified to appear on the chessboard.
The opportunity soon came: a riot broke out at Zhennan Pass, and Emperor Chongzhao came in person.
The drama of a hero saving a beauty was performed flawlessly. In order to make this drama come true, almost all the familiar people in the escort agency died.
Only Leng Yue, her bodyguard since childhood, was left outside the capital to assist her in her affairs in the palace.
Concubine Yi: "After you were born, I observed you for three years and found that you were born lazy. Although you are smart, you are not the kind of person who can obey orders and fight for the throne. This is very bad, but also very good."
At least the Fourth Prince's non-competitive character became her greatest protection.
She held the fourth prince's hand and said, "Now, the chess game has basically been decided. It's okay to tell you the truth. As long as you ascend the throne safely, the Ling royal family can be revived in this generation of the Great Zhou."
Grafting gives life to dead trees, giving them new life.
Since the Great Zhou Dynasty could transform on the bones of the previous dynasty, why couldn't the previous dynasty be resurrected on the tree of the Great Zhou Dynasty?
It's just a cycle.
It took the Fourth Prince a long time to digest these words.
He pulled his cold hand out of Concubine Yi's and looked up at the Buddhist shrine in front of him.
The Buddha statue with red cloth hanging down seemed to be blocked by the fireworks of human desires lingering in front of it, and the ordinary people kneeling in front of it could not be seen clearly.
The Fourth Prince: "Leng Yue has been with me since I left the palace and built my own residence. When I went out of the palace to hunt, my third brother lost his arm. Was he also involved?"
Concubine Yi said calmly, "The Second Prince is a ruthless man. His men originally placed poisonous snakes that could cause half of a person's body to become crippled in the pit where the Third Prince fell. However, the snakes escaped, and Leng Yue saw it and helped drive away a bear."
This matter was planned by the Second Prince and implemented by the Fifth Prince. Leng Yue happened to see it and helped to fix the mistake.
The Fourth Prince: "Anything else?"
Concubine Yi said nothing more: "Later, when you return to Zichen Palace, remember to control your emotions."
She handed the sachet back to the Fourth Prince.
"There's nothing else added to it. It's a normal sachet."
Now that it has been discovered, this method can no longer be used.
The black empty shell that the Fourth Prince took to test mainly serves to isolate the smell. Inside is the bone-penetrating incense of the previous dynasty. She slightly changed one of the incense ingredients, which would make the blood boil. A normal person would become irritable at most after smelling it for a long time, but for the emperor, this incense is tantamount to a death warrant.
The fourth prince did not move.
Concubine Yi bent down and touched his cheek.
"Good boy, just think of this as a dream. Once you get out of here, you will wake up from the dream. You don't know anything. Just think of yourself as someone who never found out about the sachet, okay?"
The Fourth Prince raised his head following her force, and the mother and son looked at each other.
One is in a trance and desperate, the other is gentle and shallow.
The Fourth Prince did not take the sachet. He stood up and walked towards the Zichen Palace alone.
Inside the Zichen Hall.
Emperor Chongzhao was bedridden and had difficulty getting up, occasionally coughing softly.
When he saw the Fourth Prince coming, he waved for him to come over and said, "Sit down."
The fourth prince sat on the small stool in front of the bed.
Emperor Chongzhao's expression was unusually gentle. "I heard that you often contact Xiaoqi. How is he doing recently?"
The fourth prince's mind flashed with his brother's face, and his lips moved, "...traveling around, that's great."
Emperor Chongzhao snorted, "You didn't even know to write a letter to me. Next time you write to him, give him some advice and write to me as well."
He passed away in February last year, and it’s already September this year. It’s almost been a year, and there’s not even a news message for him.
The Fourth Prince was silent for a long time, so long that Emperor Chongzhao thought he didn't hear it.
Emperor Chongzhao said in dissatisfaction: "Falling asleep again?"
The Fourth Prince: "Okay, I'll remember that."
-
Yangzhou.
Prince Yong's Mansion.
Qu Dubian locked himself in the study for the whole night.
The next day, he continued to ask Master Liu for help to check whether there were any writings related to the previous dynasty in Zhang Fanming's burial objects.
Unexpectedly, there was no hidden word on any of the paper in the box. Instead, there was an ordinary paper hidden in the wooden box. There was no need to decipher it. It clearly said:
end.
I don't know what it means.
But it definitely represents the end of something.
Qu Dubian randomly selected a pattern for the porcelain, asked Master Liu to keep the matter secret, and sent someone to send him back, but left someone from the Yongwang Mansion at his residence to keep an eye on him at all times.
After everything was settled, Qu Dubian returned to his study.
This wait lasted another whole day without food or water.
Until evening.
Concubine Xuan and others were very worried. Ye Xiaoyuan hesitated for a long time before knocking on the door. Finally, Xi Zixing couldn't stand it anymore and pushed the door open and rushed in.
Qu Dubian stood in front of the desk. There was a painting hanging on the wall in front of him.
When he was two and a half years old, Emperor Chongzhao posthumously conferred the title of empress on Concubine Yun and planned to hold a posthumous ceremony. As Concubine Yun's biological son, he was required to participate.
After eating the wheat soup, Emperor Chongzhao took out the painting and showed it to him, then kowtowed to him.
The person in the painting is Concubine Yun.
The original scroll was enshrined in the grid of Fengde Hall. This is a copy, which he brought to Yangzhou and kept. This is the first time it has been hung up.
The woman in green in the scroll is sitting on the city wall at the northern border, looking at the grassland ahead.
Qu Duanbian also went to the place where she was sitting.
He fought bravely there to protect the Great Zhou, and the blood of killing stained his armor.
The sun was setting outside, and it was also setting in the painting.
This mother and son who have never met each other, one in the painting and the other outside the painting, are shrouded in the same twilight.
Xi Zixing stood behind Qu Dubian and read the words on the painting, "Wild geese fly in the cold outside the Great Wall, and long songs are sung by Qu Dubian... Your name must come from this poem, right?"
Qu Watanabe: “Yeah.”
The original painting was drawn by Concubine Yun herself, depicting the freest time in her life, and the words on the painting also said the same thing. Since she herself would never be free again in her life, she gave this wish to her children.
He had taken off the black silk that usually covered his eyes and held it in his hands, staring at the painting calmly.
There is no sign of blindness at all.
He canceled the simulation, and reality, disguised as a cartoon, emerged, with a clarity that was a little uncomfortable.
Xi Zixing said: "Concubine Yi is a descendant of the previous dynasty, and so is the Fourth Prince. Concubine Yi's wolfish ambitions and plots are all laid out on the table. The Fourth Prince is already the crown prince, and the situation in the capital will change in an instant."
He walked to Qu Dubian's side and tilted his head to look at the boy's quiet profile.
"So, will you, the wild goose that flew out of the capital, fly back again?"
-
Capital city.
East Factory.
The Fourth Prince came to visit the Fifth Prince with a pot of wine.
The jailer told the Fifth Prince the news in advance, so he was transferred from the luxurious cell to the low-end cell. He sat at the table, waiting for the Fourth Prince to arrive.
After the latter came in, he greeted him: "Fifth brother."
The fifth prince is a little strange.
Because the fourth brother seldom took the initiative to contact them, their interactions were limited to the regular gift-giving during the New Year and other festivals. Although they grew up together, their friendship was really superficial.
There is some brotherhood, but not much.
Moreover, this bit of brotherhood was built up with Xiaoqi acting as the middleman, who would take them out to play from time to time when they were young.
The Fifth Prince: "Why did Fourth Brother think of coming to see me?"
The Fourth Prince: "I just want to sit here with you."
He looked around the small, square space. There were no windows, and he couldn't even tell the difference between day and night.
The Fifth Prince: "The place is a little small. I don't think Fourth Brother will be used to it."
The Fourth Prince: "Nowhere is more comfortable than here."
That sounds strange.
"Fourth brother," the fifth prince frowned slightly, "Why did you come? Did something happen to Xiaoqi?"
"Don't think too much, Xiaowu. I just came here to relax."
Although the Fourth Prince brought a pot of wine, it was obviously not for the Fifth Prince. After opening it, he only poured wine for himself and slowly drank one glass after another until he was almost drunk.
He looked around, disliked the narrow bed, and lay down on the floor.
Spread your arms and legs in a spread-eagle position.
The fifth prince: “…”
After a long silence, he sighed, raised his hand to call the jailer, and asked for a quilt.
He took the quilt and wrapped the Fourth Prince on the ground.
"I know you don't want to be the crown prince. If you are tired, you can come here to rest. No one will see you like this. But you have to hide it from His Majesty, otherwise he will be angry."
"But fourth brother, you have to change yourself too. You are not a child anymore. Why are you still taking naps anywhere?"
The Fifth Prince's hatred was eliminated, and while he was imprisoned, his spiritual world was fed very richly by Qu Dubian. He had something to do every day, and his personality gradually became less gloomy and silent than before.
He was still comforting the Fourth Prince.
After the Fourth Prince returned from Concubine Yi, his brain almost stopped working. When he calmed down again, he reviewed everything that had happened in recent years since his childhood.
It is not difficult to find that his mother also intervened in the death of his fifth brother's mother.
Or to put it this way, the subsequent developments had nothing to do with his mother, but it was his mother who ignited the fuse of the incident.
Not only the fifth brother, but also Xiaoqi...
The Fourth Prince: "Xiaowu, if Lanpin were alive now, would you kill her again?"
The fifth prince paused and said, "Yes."
He smiled and said, "You haven't experienced this before. Hatred lasts until death."
The Fourth Prince's eyelashes trembled slightly.
"But Fourth Brother, you're a little weird. It's not like you would ask such a question."
The fourth prince rolled over on the ground and said, "Go to sleep for a while, don't bother me."
"Why don't you go to bed?"
The Fourth Prince fell silent, and the Fifth Prince had no choice but to sleep with him here.
Only after it had become completely dark did the Fourth Prince leave the Eastern Depot.
He looked up at the stars in the night sky, his eyes clear.
The servant beside him reminded him, "Your Highness, you'd better not stay outside for too long."
The Fourth Prince: "Well, let's go."
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