Chapter 205 Why are you crying?
Huo Lang proved one thing with his actual actions:
If he wanted to rebel, it would be easy.
Zhao Kang's biggest mistake was to move the Wei family's pillar of support. If the Wei family was still there, Huo Lang would not have been able to overthrow the family so easily. Unfortunately, the situation had already been decided and it was too late to regret.
Huo Lang brought two thousand elite soldiers with him when he entered the palace today. He replaced the patrol rights of the Dragon Scale Guards and placed Zhao Kang under house arrest in the main hall. He quietly took control of the entire imperial city. It was a pity that Zhao Kang, that sickly man, was very stubborn and refused to reveal Lu Yan's whereabouts.
"I don't know what you are talking about. Beishu has only one emperor, so where does the substitute come from?"
Zhao Kang was so frightened that he was trembling, but he clenched his teeth and shook his head vigorously.
This cannot be said. This matter must not be said. If it gets out, the entire royal family will become a laughing stock and it will become an eternal scandal.
If the outside world knew that Emperor Beishu was a sickly man with not much time left and no children, and that the only two members of the royal family who were qualified to inherit the throne, Zhao Qin and Zhao Tai, were both dead, leaving only an unfavored princess, the Zhao family's empire would really be over.
It was not until this moment that Zhao Kang suddenly realized that he was the only male left in the entire Zhao family.
Huo Lang sat on the chair, lowering his eyes as he wiped the blade, wondering how many pieces of flesh would have to be chopped off before this sickly guy passed out. He asked with a hint of interest, "Are you sure you don't want to tell me?"
Zhao Kang gritted his teeth: "I don't know!"
The reputation of rebelling and regicide is too bad, and he is betting that Huo Lang will not do anything to him now.
"He has guts."
Huo Lang suddenly laughed. He put away the dagger and ordered a guard beside him, "Bring a pot. It should be a big pot that can boil people. It is said that the True Dragon Emperor is blessed by God. I am curious about how hard your bones are. What is the difference between your Majesty and ordinary people?"
"yes!"
The guard wearing the iron mask looked at Zhao Kang coldly and immediately went down to pick up the pot. Zhao Kang's eyes went dark and he almost fainted. He pointed at Huo Lang and trembled, "You, you, you...what on earth do you want to do?!"
"Nothing to do, just cook human flesh."
Huo Lang glanced at him with a half-smile. His deep and magnetic voice made people feel creepy for some reason, and a chill rushed straight to his forehead:
"Your Majesty, you don't know that when I was in the army, I used this method to torture foreign spies. I threw a living person into a pot and boiled him for a day and a night, and the meat fell off the bones. Your Majesty's bones are so hard, I'm afraid it will take three days and three nights to boil him."
When Zhao Kang heard this, his eyes rolled back and he fell to the ground, fainting from fright.
Wei Hong finally managed to get the pot in, and what he saw was the corpse lying there: "My Lord, the person has passed out, should we continue cooking?"
Huo Lang didn't even bother to open his eyelids, and uttered three words lightly: "Throw it in."
"My Lord, please show mercy!"
Wumei suddenly rolled and crawled over. He knelt at Huo Lang's feet, his old face looking particularly pale with despair. He protected the unconscious Zhao Kang behind him, lowered his head and uttered a few words with difficulty:
"That person is in the underground palace of the bedroom. The vase in the third compartment on the right side of the antique shelf is the mechanism. Your Majesty is born weak and has not much time left. Please, Prince Regent, show mercy and do not make things difficult for him!"
Huo Lang looked at Wumei deeply, neither agreeing nor denying. He stood up and left without saying a word.
There was a mutiny in the palace today, and the women in the eunuch palace were in a panic. Lan Yin discovered that a group of people wearing silver and black armor were walking towards this side, and she quickly closed the palace door and wanted to run to the underground palace to report the news to Lu Yan, but she never expected that the stone wall behind the antique shelf suddenly flipped over, and the other party came out from inside wearing a thin shirt, holding a medical book in his hand.
Lu Yan sat down behind the desk and put the medical book beside him. He saw that Lan Yin looked uneasy, as if he had guessed something, and asked calmly, "Did something happen outside?"
Too many things happened today, so many that Lan Yin didn't know where to start. Her usually nimble fingertips seemed clumsy, and she gestured in panic:
[Huo Yan stabbed the Prince of Lin'an to death with one sword...]
The footsteps outside were getting closer, and the sound of scales colliding could be heard faintly.
[The Regent Prince leads his troops into the palace and seizes control of the imperial city...]
After all this, the sky gradually darkened and a dim sunset light shone on the desk. The poem I had written early in the morning was still half finished and the scent of ink was lingering in the air.
[Your Majesty and Eunuch Wumei are in Qianyuan Hall and have not left yet. No one is allowed to enter or leave...]
Lan Yin gestured quickly and hastily. The crabapple tassel hairpin swayed slightly among her dark hair, and the beads underneath formed a knot.
[The Regent is heading here with the Thousand Machine Battalion guards...]
"Bang--!"
The bedroom door was kicked open by someone, and Lan Yin just finished her last sentence:
【Intent to rebel! 】
Huo Lang, rebelling?
Although Lu Yan knew that this day would come, he had to say that it happened much faster than he had imagined. He saw Huo Lang kick open the palace door, his eyebrows and eyes immersed in light and shadow, making it impossible to tell whether he was happy or angry. The other party's dark eyes were like an invisible whirlpool, ready to devour anyone at any time.
Lu Yan smiled inexplicably, waved his hand gently, and said to Lan Yin: "Go down, you don't need to serve here anymore."
Lan Yin glanced at Lu Yan worriedly, bit her lip and walked out of the hall, but was stopped by soldiers in silver armor at the door. Their swords intersected, blocking the exit tightly.
Lu Yan stood up from his chair and said softly, "It's just a maid. Let her go."
Huo Lang closed his eyes calmly, as if to acquiesce. The soldier at the door then let Lan Yin leave. The door of the hall closed again, blocking out the last ray of light. The flickering half-candle flame gave off a hint of ambiguity and charm.
Lu Yan did not wear a dragon robe today, but an ordinary black bamboo long gown with a jade belt around his waist. He was extremely elegant and graceful, but the scent of ambergris lingered on his body from years of fumes. When he walked in front of Huo Lang, he could smell it even more clearly.
He seemed to be the same emperor as before, but he was not...
"You know everything?"
Lu Yan lowered his eyes and looked at Huo Lang, smiling slightly and so perfect that there was not a single flaw in his smile. When he was still a prince, he often smiled like this, making it impossible to tell his emotions. If you stared at him for too long, it would seem like a fake mask.
He actually doesn't like to laugh, but he has been accustomed to it for so many years and can't change it for a while.
Huo Lang tightly grasped Lu Yan's wrist, his eyes flushed red, and he asked in a hoarse voice, "Why didn't you tell me?!"
Why don't you tell him...
One thousand three hundred and sixty-two lives were lost, the entire family was massacred, and he had to serve as a substitute for the son of the enemy who murdered his father.
How on earth did Lu Yan manage to endure such humiliating hatred for decades? !
If Lu Yan told him, he would have pulled the late emperor down from the throne even if it meant his death, and let the entire Zhao family be buried with him!
Huo Lang thought of the old case in Ruzhou that Gongsun Mo had told him about. He felt as if his heart was immersed in a pot of boiling oil and even breathing was painful. Lu Yan's various abnormal behaviors in the past were finally explained. The fog in front of his eyes dissipated, and the truth behind it was so cruel and ugly that it was shocking.
Lu Yan thought Huo Lang was angry. He raised his hand and stroked the veins on his forehead, whispering, "It's my fault for keeping it a secret from you for so many years."
He didn't know how to start over. That old story was sealed in his heart. He would only think of it in his dreams at midnight, and never recall it at dawn.
Every time he thought about it, the hatred in his heart grew deeper. If he thought about it every day, how could he survive under the eyes of the late emperor? He was afraid that the overwhelming hatred would drown him.
Huo Lang growled with red eyes: "I asked you why you didn't tell me?!"
Is he unworthy? Or has Lu Yan never taken him seriously?
Lu Yan knew it clearly.
He knew that with just one word from him, Huo Lang would do everything he could to get him to that position, even if the late emperor was still alive.
But he didn't say it, and no one else wanted to say it either.
Huo Lang knew that Lu Yan had used him in the past, but he still held a glimmer of hope in his heart. Could there be a little sincerity in this? But it was not until today that he discovered that the other party was using him to play a big chess game, which had been laid out several years ago, just to destroy the Zhao family.
Huo Lang pulled the corners of his mouth, as if he wanted to laugh, but he couldn't. His Adam's apple moved, and after a long while he finally uttered a sentence, which was full of self-mockery:
"...Since you used me to consolidate your power, why not use me thoroughly?"
Lu Yan wanted to kill someone, but he lacked a sharp knife, and he happened to be the knife in Lu Yan's hand. In this case, why not kill him completely? !
Huo Lang closed his eyes, suddenly turned around and walked away. Lu Yan's eyebrows jumped, and he subconsciously grabbed him: "What are you doing?!"
Huo Lang did not turn around, but instead tightly grasped the sword at his waist. His pale profile was immersed in shadow, his eyes were scarlet, sinister and cold, and he whispered word by word:
"Kill. Them!"
He wants to kill Zhao Kang!
Kill everyone who has anything to do with Zhao Kang!
Killed those who were involved in the old case in Ruzhou!
Kill all the people Lu Yan wanted to kill...
Huo Lang had been reluctant to hurt even a hair on his head for so many years, but they slaughtered all of his family members and made him a substitute in the dark underground palace for so many years. How could he not hate them? !
Huo Lang didn't mind rebelling, and didn't mind bearing eternal curse. As long as Lu Yan wanted, he would immediately make him the real emperor!
But before he took two steps, he was unexpectedly hugged from behind. The faint scent of ambergris enveloped his whole body, familiar to his bones. Huo Lang couldn't turn around, and couldn't see Lu Yan's expression clearly. He only felt that the other party seemed to want to strangle him to death. The voice in his ear was low and hoarse:
"Huo Lang, when have I ever used you?"
Maybe it existed in the previous life, but it really doesn’t exist in this life.
Lu Yan had already watched Huo Lang lose his life for him once, so how could he bear to let Huo Lang lose his life a second time? He hugged the other's thin body tightly. Even through his clothes, he could feel his arms trembling with anger. He closed his eyes to cover his slightly red eye sockets.
He thought Huo Lang would be angry. How could such an arrogant person tolerate being fooled like a fool?
Huo Lang was indeed angry, but he was not angry because he was deceived, but because Lu Yan had kept it a secret from him for many years and had to bear all the blood feuds alone.
Lu Yan once felt that God was too cruel to him. One life was enough to make him unable to sleep or eat, let alone the 1,362 lives in Ruzhou. That was a blood debt that made him unable to breathe day and night. But it was not until Huo Lang appeared that he realized that this messed up life was not entirely a dead end.
That's enough. That's enough.
Lu Yan asked himself, if someone in the world treats you like this, what else do you want?
He turned Huo Lang around to face him, and then he realized that he had been crying without knowing when. The tears were clear and could not be wiped away no matter how hard he tried. Lu Yan was startled at first, then he gently held Huo Lang's face, slowly kissed away the salty liquid, and whispered to him:
"Silly, why are you crying?"
In the past, Huo Lang was looked down upon in the marquis's mansion and had survived many life-threatening situations on the battlefield, but he never cried. So why should he shed tears for such a cold-hearted person now?
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