Chapter 42
The group of carriages and horses rushed to Jietai Temple, but on the way they met the carriage of Prince Shou who was also turning back from the way back home. Qingzhu went down to pass on the news and found out that Prince Shou had already expected this and had not yet lit the lamp for his uncle, so he rushed over while no one was paying attention.
I happened to meet the Yue family's carriage and learned that my aunt had entrusted Qingning to do this matter.
The carriage stopped at the foot of the mountain. There were still 181 stone steps to climb to the temple. Prince Shou was already in poor health. Yue Qingning looked around several times but saw no one coming to help him. After a long pause, he had to step forward and hold out his wrist for him to support.
Prince Shou was also stunned by such thoughtfulness, but his black pupils turned, and he put his hand on her arm. He didn't even look at her, but just looked quietly at the pines and cypresses in the valley, as if he was used to being served.
Yue Qingning followed him on the left, a little slower than half a step. After accompanying him up more than twenty steps, he suddenly heard him speak.
"You're scared today, right? Aunt is the most stubborn one in our Xiao family, and so is father. When the two of them collide, it's inevitable that there will be bumps and scrapes."
She naturally understood that the eldest princess had always been reluctant to give up her thoughts, so this was within her expectations. But what did the eldest princess know that led to this incident today?
Since she had already seen that Prince Shou and the eldest princess were in cahoots, she was unwilling to hide it any longer.
"In the ancestral hall, Her Royal Highness the Princess once said that someone owed my uncle a debt and that person must repay it. Does Your Highness know who that person is?"
Halfway through the journey, Lian Yue Qingning was a little out of breath. She took a step a little lower and tripped on the stone steps, almost falling. Fortunately, Prince Shou beside her helped her and lifted her up by her arm.
"It's okay to tell you. The clues I found are that the Marquis of Qingyuan secretly persecuted my uncle and gave him a strange poison. This poison is difficult to detect, and when it occurs, it feels like heart palpitations. Aunt is right. My uncle has a strong body and has never had such a symptom. It is impossible for it to suddenly attack and kill him."
When Yue Qingning heard this, it seemed as if his heart was also implicated in the invisible and colorless trick, and it began to beat rapidly.
It turns out that the death of the great uncle who lived in everyone's memory was not an accident.
"Your Highness said so, but is there any evidence pointing directly to the Marquis of Qingyuan?"
Upon hearing this, Prince Shou turned half his body towards her, as if blaming her for not believing him. However, Yue Qingning had no such intention. She was just afraid that the eldest princess, who had wasted her entire life, had already given up on finding the truth. If it was not a conclusive fact, how would she cope with the future?
After hearing her unclear arguments, Prince Shou smiled slightly and led her all the way up without stopping.
"That year, my uncle entered the palace and collapsed as soon as he left Xuanzheng Gate. I checked with all the palace servants who knew about this incident and finally got a clue. That night, the Marquis of Qingyuan also entered the palace and brought a pot of sake from Fusang. My uncle was a teetotaler, but when he returned that night, his breath clearly reeked of alcohol."
"I followed this lead and discovered that after that night, all Japanese merchants disappeared overnight, and the traded goods could no longer be traced. Furthermore, Japan has stopped sending sake as tribute since then."
The two of them climbed the stairs and finally arrived at the temple gate. Yue Qingning felt bitter and painful in his heart, thinking that the Marquis Qingyuan had dared to poison and persecute him openly in front of His Majesty, and His Majesty had chosen to conceal the matter afterwards.
The weight of a court official is even heavier than that of the emperor. Anyone who hears this will think that the Great Sheng Dynasty is about to perish!
She felt bitter and embarrassed for a moment. Prince Shou could see by lowering his eyes that she stood at the temple gate for a long time, swallowing her emotions with bitterness. The unmoved Mu Xin was suddenly confused by her reluctant endurance.
Even the girl is concerned about her country, but the emperor, sitting alone in a high position, is stepping on the people and doesn't know where to look.
Seeing that she was difficult to restrain, Prince Shou did not make things difficult for her and entered the temple alone.
Yue Qingning straightened his posture and followed him in. He saw nine palaces arranged in order from east to west, with lilac, pine and cypress trees interlaced in the background. The abbot came and led the two to the Jietai Hall to offer lamps. Along the way, there were flower beds and screen walls stacked one after another, which was very elegant and peaceful.
But when I think about the fact that this temple was built for that person, and he hasn't set foot on these blue bricks for ten years, I just feel it's ridiculous that I can't see the beautiful scenery.
Entering the palace, there were 113 gods placed in the two-story pavilion, and the red candles underneath were spread out like piles of snow. Prince Shou easily found the lamp of his son-in-law among the 100 or so lamp rooms, and Wang Xuan on his left handed him a new lamp and replaced it.
The lights are still on, the candle wicks are touching, and in the blink of an eye another year has passed.
After placing the new lamp, the two looked at the white wax with a sense of loss. Year after year, they didn't know when the person who hurt him would be brought to justice. The road ahead was full of fog, and perhaps even if they persisted in finding it to the end, it would be in vain.
However, someone has to do these foolish things, otherwise this world would be too hopeless.
Prince Shou lifted his robe and bowed towards the shrine. Yue Qingning looked at his tall back slightly raised from behind as he bent down slowly and respectfully. His mind was filled with mixed feelings and he had a deeper impression of him.
He should be a good person. Even though he has the blood of the Xiao family flowing in his body, he is at least willing to bow his head for some things, which is much better than his father.
The two of them stood up and walked to the door. Prince Shou seemed to remember something and suddenly turned around to wait for her there, as if he wanted to say something important. Qingning hurried forward in two steps, waiting to be ordered.
Unexpectedly, at the moment she stopped at the door, a young monk walked around her from behind, holding the old lamp and was about to take it out. Unexpectedly, an arrow suddenly broke the silence, flew over, and pierced the monk's neck.
A half-foot-high spurt of blood splattered out. Yue Qingning didn't even have time to look back before he was knocked to the ground at the door by Prince Shou who pounced on him.
The arrows that followed were like falling stars, crackling and piercing her feet, frightening her so much that she almost lost the ability to move.
"Protect the emperor!"
Someone shouted from somewhere, and the guards following behind her suddenly rushed out and closed the door. Someone else pulled her behind a pillar in the temple.
Layers of arrows pierced through the window paper and were nailed to the ground. Yue Qingning looked at this life-and-death scene, his voice choked in his throat and he couldn't even scream.
The blue-white collar that supported her body was wrinkled into a ball by her. He did not lower his head, so Yue Qingning could only see his Adam's apple moving up and down. At such a close distance, she could actually smell the incense on his sleeves for some reason.
"Go out the back door! Follow the corridor to the monks' quarters for shelter."
She was dragged up, and a group of tall and strong guards surrounded her on both sides. As she rushed out from the back door, she could even hear the sound of arrows cutting through the air.
Fortunately, the guards were all top masters. After they were pushed into the monk's room and the door was closed, the sound of arrows raining down outside finally subsided.
"Qingning..."
"How is your highness?" The voice was suddenly interrupted.
Yue Qingning turned around in a daze, only to see Prince Shou sitting on the couch with a gloomy face. When he saw her looking at him, he frowned slightly and comforted his subordinates.
"I'm fine. Go check on Qingning. She might have been hurt."
Yue Qingning was carried closer. The scene of the young Sengmi being shot by an arrow just now kept lingering in her mind. If the arrow had not been blocked by Sengmi, it would have hit her head the next moment.
She was so frightened by this possibility that she became a little dazed. She didn't even hear Prince Shou calling her several times, and she was immersed in the fear of being shattered and killed.
Had she done something wrong? The fate of her previous life had happened so sooner, and it was about to happen to her again. They hadn't even attacked her in public; they had dared to kill her when Prince Shou was still with her.
If Prince Shou had not reacted in an instant and knocked her down, she would have been pierced like a hedgehog by the rain of arrows.
Xiao Yan...what did he see through? He hadn't even met Que Ming yet, so why was he so anxious for her to die?
"Qingning!"
Suddenly a sound startled her awake. She stared blankly in the direction where someone was calling her, but there was no emotion in her eyes. She lowered her eyes and a line of tears flowed quietly down her face. A man who had never seen such a scene would be scared and scream, but Qingning was so cautious even in her fear that it was heartbreaking.
She is too sensible, so sensible that it is a little frightening.
Prince Shou lowered his eyebrows and looked at the tears gathering on her slender chin. He couldn't help but put his hand on her head. She also leaned over obediently, gently tugging at the corner of his clothes with both hands, crying silently.
"Who is it?"
The subordinate stood by the window, carefully lifted a little of the window paper, and replied in a low voice.
"The arrow has neat feathers and a sharp tip. It must be used by the military. Judging by the force, it was able to penetrate a man's spine. It must have been trained by a specially trained archer."
As he said shoot through the spine, Prince Shou felt the trembling petite figure in his arms shrink again, as if wanting to bury herself completely in his robe. Rather than being surprised by being affected, it was more like fear that came from the bottom of her heart.
"Qingning, do you know who's outside?"
He asked softly, which seemed to give her a little courage. She exhaled tremblingly and said.
"It's the prince."
With such certainty, without even a hint of hesitation, Prince Shou paused for a moment, thinking back to the moment when she had just encountered Xiao Yan embarrassment. But why did Xiao Yan want to kill her? The first arrow was indeed aimed at her. Could it be that Xiao Yan had really discovered something?
Both of them felt a surge of emotions in their chests. In this small and dilapidated room, more than a dozen people were crowded together, and even their breathing was deliberately light, which exacerbated the tension.
The sound of arrows outside seemed to have stopped. The leading guard pushed aside the window paper and looked outside. Behind the arrow feathers on the ground, it seemed that someone was passing by in a hurry. Because he couldn't see who it was, he couldn't open the door first.
Unexpectedly, one wave of troubles arose after another. Seeing that they could not catch the target, the people outside immediately changed to rockets, which kept buzzing across the sky, and the flames on the arrows quickly ignited the wood.
The guards hiding in the house tried to put out the flames but to no avail. The man outside seemed to really want them dead, as he dared to set fire to the Royal Zen Temple.
Seeing the flames on one side rushing into the room and rushing into the house along the window frame, everyone was in chaos. Some people tried to open the back window, but were hit by stray arrows and fell out of the window, rolling down the hillside of the temple built on the mountain.
Everyone had to take shelter at this moment. Seeing the curtains in the room were on fire, no one dared to move to put out the fire.
Fortunately, the arrow stopped for a moment after it was shot. The leading guard did not dare to wait any longer and immediately pulled His Highness Prince Shou to help him jump out.
In the rush, they didn't even have time to listen to Prince Shou's advice to rescue Qingning first. In the blink of an eye, his subordinates had already sent him out, climbing the crooked pine tree by the rear window, one after another to help him down.
"Qingning! Go save her!"
The guards received the order and turned back to look for him. Who would have thought that a wet shadow suddenly appeared from nowhere and flashed by, scaring the group of people guarding His Highness half to death, thinking that there was another assassin.
But the figure didn't even spare him a glance and jumped into the burning house before anyone could react.
Yue Qingning was choked by the thick smoke in the room and couldn't open his eyes. He was kneeling on the ground and couldn't see anyone half a foot away. He was confused and didn't know which way to go.
However, the person who disappeared from her side came back again, with his wet clothes draped over her. She didn't know who this person was, and she lay dizzy in his arms. He held her tightly and jumped towards the light.
The ground outside was uneven, and the two of them fell outside and rolled twice in a daze. Fortunately, this man protected her intact and stopped suddenly when he hit a tree root.
Yue Qingning opened the clothes, thinking that it would be one of His Highness's guards, but she did not expect that the person who came was Que Ming.
Seeing her two sparkling pupils on her smoke-blackened cheeks staring at him in a daze, Que Ming knew that she was probably okay.
"Why are you here?"
The young lady's question had to be answered, but he lay on his back in the pile of fallen leaves, relaxed and let out a long chuckle.
"Master Qingzhe asked me to protect the young lady, and Queming has fulfilled the mission!"
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