Chapter 13 Someone is dead?
Before Li Mian could raise any doubts, Chi Li spoke first, "Prime Minister Li, don't worry. The Crown Prince is fine."
"As for the coronation ceremony, let the Ministry of Rites handle it. First, draw up a set of rules for me to review. Chun'er is too young to manage the affairs, so I'll have to look after him. I'll also preside over the funeral of His Majesty."
Li Mian suddenly raised his head, his face full of disbelief, and his sparse eyebrows were tightly furrowed together.
According to the ancestral system, when a monarch passes away, the funeral should be presided over by the new monarch, who should read out the late emperor's will over the coffin, honor the empress as the empress dowager, reward the army, and instruct civil and military ministers before he can ascend the throne.
Queen Chi actually wanted to preside over the funeral. She did not hide her intention to sideline the new emperor and seize power at all.
Li Mian's face darkened, and he said solemnly: "Your Majesty, this is against etiquette—"
Chi Li interrupted him coldly, "I told you, the Crown Prince can't manage affairs. Doesn't Prime Minister Li understand what I'm saying? Rules are made by people. If I say it's proper, then it's proper. Or does Prime Minister Li also want to preside over the funeral?"
Li Mian's face immediately changed. It was at most against etiquette for Empress Chi to preside over the emperor's funeral, but for him, a prime minister, to preside over the emperor's funeral meant that he wanted to rebel.
"I have absolutely no such intention, but—"
"That's good," Chi Yan was too lazy to listen to his nonsense and turned to leave. "I'm tired after standing here for so long. Yuzhao, ask them to move aside and return to the palace."
Danying immediately stepped forward to support her, but Zhao Mingyue was faster and grabbed Chi Lan's arm and pushed her away.
Zhao Mingyue leaned close to Chi Yu's ear, lowered her voice, and said cheerfully, "Mother is amazing. She actually predicted that Prime Minister Li would do this and even silenced him. I think he'll be so angry that he won't be able to sleep tonight."
The two walked back side by side.
Li Mian was so angry that his face turned blue and he felt like vomiting blood. He never thought that after preparing for so long, he didn't even see the shadow of the prince.
That would be fine, but to let Queen Chi snatch the right to preside over the state funeral? How could this be allowed!
He immediately shook off Li Xiaoci's hand, his legs became nimble again, and he strode after him.
"Your Majesty, I have something else to say—"
Yuzhao stepped forward, knife in hand, to stop him. "Prime Minister Li, Her Highness the Queen is tired. If you have any important matters, you can submit them in writing. If they are not important, then there is no need to speak."
Li Mian glanced at Yuzhao, "Who are you? Why are you wearing the uniform of the Golden Crow Guard?"
Yuzhao said calmly, "Your Excellency, I am a first-class guard appointed by Her Majesty the Queen."
Li Mian frowned fiercely, "Since when have women been allowed to wait for guards? This is ridiculous."
He glanced at the guards and hadn't noticed before. But when he looked carefully, he found that there were several, no, more than a dozen women among the Jinwu guards. His eyes widened instantly.
Yuzhao ignored him and shouted, "Please make way for us, gentlemen, and don't block the imperial carriage. Otherwise, it would be disastrous if someone gets hurt."
When the officials heard this, they immediately started shouting, "How dare you! Who the hell are you to give us orders?"
"You're openly causing trouble and blocking the Queen's carriage. Don't blame me for being rude," Yuzhao suddenly drew his sword, "clear the way!"
The guards divided into two lines, walked over quickly, dispersed the officials, then raised their long swords, held them horizontally in front of them, pushed these people to the sides of the road, and made them stand on either side.
The officials didn't even have time to wipe the tears from their eyes before they were pushed all over the place, nearly falling to the ground. They immediately started cursing and shouting, "This is outrageous!"
However, looking at the cold long swords in the hands of the guards, they only dared to curse a few words, and no one dared to go up and attack. Besides, who would dare to be rude in front of the emperor?
The sound of orderly and heavy footsteps could be heard, and under the protection of the Golden Crow Guards, carriages and horses slowly drove into the city gate.
No matter how much they resented the rude behavior of Queen Chi and the Jinwu Guards, the officials had to kneel down again and watch the imperial carriage leave.
As soon as the queen's carriage passed by, Li Mian stood up with an extremely ugly expression on his face.
At this moment, a sharp voice rang out, "Prime Minister Li!"
Li Mian looked up and saw a carriage rumbling past in front of him. A familiar face appeared under the opened curtain.
"Prince, what are you doing...?" he asked doubtfully. Zhao Chun's rosy face didn't look like he was too sad to get up.
Zhao Chun looked anxious, "Prime Minister Li, I have something very important to tell you. Come to the palace and find me!" After he said that, the curtain fell.
Li Mian was shocked and wanted to ask more questions, but the carriage drove into the city gate at a high speed.
Li Xiaoci, standing by, was puzzled. "Dad, if the prince is not sick, why didn't he come out to see us just now? And Xianyou, if he is smart, he should have persuaded the prince to get out of the car!"
"I think there must be some conspiracy here. I'll know when I meet the prince. Let's go into the palace." Li Mian flicked his long sleeves and strode away.
Li Xiaoci also quickly followed.
Just then, someone called out to them, "Prime Minister, Minister, Young Master Xian... Young Master Xian is back!"
The two of them stopped in their tracks and turned around in surprise.
However, there was no Li Xianyou, only a mahogany coffin being carried over.
Both father and son had the same look of fear on their faces, "What?!"
A terrible thought arose in Li Mian's mind. Could it be that the person lying in the coffin was Li Xianyou?
He couldn't believe it and staggered to the mahogany coffin and asked someone to open it.
When he pushed open the lid of the coffin, the stench of corpse hit him in the face. A corpse with empty eye sockets and corpse spots all over the body caught Li Mian's eyes.
He had to admit that the person lying inside was his most beloved grandson, Li Xianyou.
His beloved grandson is dead.
The death was so tragic that Li Mian felt like he was hit on the head with a stick. His heart ached so much that he spit out a mouthful of blood and fainted on the spot.
"father--!"
The last thing I heard was Li Xiaoci's panicked cry.
————
After returning to the palace, Zhao Mingyue sent Chunying and Qiushi back to clean up the palace, while she stayed in Qingning Palace where the queen lived, preparing to have dinner with Chi Lan.
However, before that, she did not find a chance to talk to Chi Lan.
"During the time when His Majesty was on tour, a lot of memorials must have accumulated. Wu Shishu, please sort them out for me first. I will come to see them tomorrow morning." Chi Luo instructed Wu Wenxiu.
Zhao Mingyue looked up at the night scene outside the window. Mother was too harsh. She didn't even give Wu Shishu time to tidy up before tomorrow morning!
Turning to look at Wu Wenxiu, she just frowned slightly and nodded in agreement.
At this time, Danying came in and said that dinner was ready, so Wu Wenxiu took his leave.
Chi Luo asked for the meal to be served, and then she sat down to eat with Zhao Mingyue.
Although it is said that one should not talk while eating or sleeping, there is no such rule in Chi Lan's place. Zhao Mingyue tasted the shrimp roe tofu and thought it tasted good, so she took a spoon and scooped a spoonful into Chi Lan's bowl.
"This is delicious, mother, please try it." He looked at her hopefully.
Chi Li picked up her chopsticks and was about to eat when a man suddenly walked in from outside the hall, saying urgently, "Master!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the man walked in front of Chi Li. Zhao Mingyue took a look and realized that this was the first-class guard Yu Zhao.
Yuzhao leaned over and whispered something in Chi Lan's ear, and Chi Lan put down the chopsticks in her hand.
Zhao Mingyue glared at her with some dissatisfaction. What was so urgent? Why did she have to talk about it during dinner?
Yuzhao seemed to realize something and turned to look at her in confusion. Zhao Mingyue smiled at her and pretended nothing had happened.
Yuzhao withdrew her gaze and continued to report to Chi Lan: "Lingqiong got the news that the prince wanted to hand over the imperial edict to Prime Minister Li..."
Hearing this, Zhao Mingyue raised her head suddenly. Lingqiong? Wasn't she the palace maid serving Zhao Chun?
Along with this name, what emerged from my mind was a gray memory that had been silent for many years.
One winter, Zhao Mingyue went to Zhao Chun's palace and saw a thin palace maid squatting under a red plum tree. She was wearing thin clothes, her hands buried in the snow, and shivering.
She thought that Zhao Chun was playing a trick on the palace maid, so she walked over and wanted to take her into the house. But when she got closer, she saw that the snow was covered with bright red blood, which was even spreading and mixing with the crushed red plums, which was a shocking sight.
Zhao Mingyue was startled and immediately took the maid's hand out of the snow pile. Her fingers were terribly frozen, like icicles, and were blue and purple.
What was even more terrifying was that the ten fingers, where the nails had originally grown, were now bare, with only blood constantly flowing out.
All her fingernails were pulled out.
Zhao Mingyue gasped and felt pain in her fingers.
The maid looked at her timidly, her voice trembling, "Prince, the Prince told me to bury my hand in the snow, saying that doing so would quickly stop the bleeding."
Liar! Zhao Chun must be hiding in the warm room, laughing secretly!
Zhao Mingyue was very angry and immediately called the imperial physician to bandage her wounds.
After asking, I found out that the palace maid was called Lingqiong. Zhao Chun often teased and made fun of her because she was thin and had a very honest and dull personality.
This time, because the weather was too cold, she accidentally broke a teacup due to shaking hands. Zhao Chun became furious and had someone pull out all her nails with pliers.
Zhao Mingyue was both angry and terrified when she heard this. When did her brother become so cruel?
She wanted to bring Lingqiong to her palace, but Zhao Chun refused to let her go and even brought up her father to teach her a lesson.
Zhao Mingyue had no choice but to give up.
After this, she never dared to look Lingqiong in the eyes again, because she had given Lingqiong hope, but then shattered that hope with her own hands.
Ling Qiong seemed to know this, and gradually, she no longer appeared in front of her.
Zhao Mingyue always scolded Zhao Chun for being selfish and cowardly, but she knew very well in her heart that she was the most cowardly and incompetent person.
Later, as Zhao Mingyue grew older, perhaps because of guilt or perhaps because of her uneasy conscience, she began to learn to be brave.
Therefore, when Chi Qi wanted to kill the granary manager and the groom in the Nanyang Palace, she stood up so firmly to stop her.
But no one knew that she was scared to death at that time.
Looking back now, those two men deserved to be punished for killing A Niang's beloved horse.
But what was going on? When had Lingqiong become A Niang's mistress? What news had she given Yuzhao? And what about that imperial edict?
Zhao Mingyue was confused.
She had been with A Niang all the time during the time she returned to the capital from Nanyang, so why did she seem to be unaware of many things?
After Yuzhao finished speaking, she stepped aside.
Chi Luo turned around and told the palace maid, "Go and invite the prince to dinner."
Zhao Mingyue glanced at the leftovers on the table and asked doubtfully, "Are you planning to invite Zhao Chun over to eat the leftovers?"
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