In the cold palace of Guanyun City’s imperial palace.
Wu Ling'er was standing behind Empress Xiao, her eyes wide open and her face full of anger.
"Do you really want him dead?"
Empress Xiao did not look back, but put down the pen in her hand.
The ink on the paper was not yet dry, so she picked it up and blew on it. "Only when he dies will your brother's position in the Eastern Palace be secure."
"Have you forgotten Prince Ning?"
"Prince Ning... hehe."
Wu Linger's heart tightened, and an expression of disbelief appeared on her face. "Could it be that you also took action against Prince Ning?"
"The Queen Mother slaughtered all of Your Majesty's brothers in order to help Your Majesty ascend the throne... They were all descendants of the late emperor, and Prince Yu was even the Queen Mother's own son. The Queen Mother's sword was unwavering. What does what I did mean? This is the world we are fighting for!"
In Wu Linger's eyes, Empress Xiao became more and more unfamiliar. She found it hard to understand why her mother would do such a cruel thing! She could not believe that a woman's heart could be so cruel.
A hint of sarcasm appeared on her face. "It's a pity that your arrangement at Hanling Temple failed."
Empress Xiao turned around and looked at Wu Ling'er. "You might not believe me, but I heard Nangong Yiyu was in love with the Saker Falcon. I had someone capture that beast and gave it to him, but it was because of it that I failed. So, life is like chess, and the laws of nature are unpredictable. Your coming today might be the last time we'll see each other. Can we talk about something else instead of this?"
She handed the paper in her hand to Wu Linger, "I just found the poems in his book Dream of the Red Chamber to be very interesting. This is one I just copied. Take a look."
Wu Linger's eyes fell on the paper, which was the "Smartness is Tired" from the Dream of the Red Chamber:
You were too clever and planned everything, but ended up costing your life.
The heart is broken in life, and the soul is empty after death...
Suddenly, there was a loud noise as if a building collapsed, and the lights went out in a dim manner.
Ah! Joy suddenly turns to sorrow.
It’s a pity that the world is so unpredictable...!
She raised her head and asked, "So you regret it?"
Empress Xiao smiled softly, gazing at the sunlight outside. "My daughter, I have never regretted anything." The smile on her face grew even more intense. "I started my education at the age of three, entered a private school at five, studied the Four Books and Five Classics at Mount Li Academy at seven, and married Your Majesty at fourteen. I thought this was the beginning of life's success, but I never expected that Your Majesty only had one person in his heart..."
The smile on her face suddenly disappeared and became extremely cold.
"He was sleeping with the person beside him, but he was thinking about Xu Yunqing who was thousands of miles away... This was a failure for me as a mother, so I sent people to Linjiang to poison Xu Yunqing."
Wu Linger's eyes suddenly widened. "You killed Xu Yunqing?!"
"I thought that with Xu Yunqing dead, His Majesty's heart would finally return. However, I never expected that I couldn't even defeat that dead man!"
“Why?!”
Her expression turned ferocious, and her tone became violent. "Why can't I defeat Xu Yunqing? Is she prettier than me? Is she more talented than me? Or is she more gentle and considerate than me?"
She stared at Wu Linger, and Wu Linger unconsciously took a step back under the pressure of this gaze.
"Neither. I've finally figured it out over the years. It's simply because Xu Yunqing entered His Majesty's heart earlier than I did."
She cast her gaze toward the door again, a hint of sarcasm on her face. "All the civil and military officials in the court only believe that Your Majesty is virtuous, and that his vast harem only has one empress and one concubine. They don't know that if it weren't for the Empress Dowager's pressure, if it weren't for the desire to have a successor to the Wu Dynasty... given Your Majesty's personality, this harem would probably be completely empty, with not even a ghost in it."
"To put it nicely, he's infatuated, just like the picture of the sad mandarin ducks, which shows his infatuation. To put it bluntly, he's hanging himself on a tree, completely disregarding the widow's feelings..."
She looked at Wu Ling'er again, "I heard that Fu Xiaoguan wrote a poem for the painting 'Sad Mandarin Ducks'. Did you know about that?"
Wu Linger sat at the desk, picked up her pen and wrote the poem "Zhe Gui Ling, Infatuation", handed it to Empress Xiao, and said, "You actually don't understand what infatuation means."
Empress Xiao took it and read it, then recited in a low voice:
"If you have never felt lovesickness, then you will be tormented by it.
The body is like floating clouds, the mind is like flying catkins, and the breath is like gossamer.
A lingering fragrance remains in the air,
Where is the wealthy traveler going?
When do the symptoms appear?
When the lights are half dim and the moon is half bright."
Her expression gradually became solemn, and the cold look in her eyes gradually dimmed.
Her hands dropped limply, and the paper fell to the ground.
"My daughter, you must learn to be strong in the days ahead. You can hide your longing for someone deep in your heart, but don't let down the people who love you."
Wu Ling'er looked dejected. She looked at Empress Xiao with a mixture of sympathy and hatred. She did not respond to Empress Xiao's words, but said, "If Prince Ning dies, there is no chance of you surviving."
"What's the harm in death? I have no regrets!"
"You really don't regret it?"
"After I die, bury me next to the Yunqing Courtyard in Hanling Temple. I've never been there, and I really want to visit."
…
…
The spring sun shines like a golden thread.
The giant Buddha statue in Hanling Temple, covered in colorful divine light, stands majestically by the Tianhu Lake, appearing even more sacred and majestic.
The battle inside began silently and ended silently.
The students living around the square only saw a group of cavalrymen enter the giant Buddha. Half an hour later, they walked out again. No one knew that in that half an hour, four thousand people died inside the giant Buddha!
Their bodies were piled up on the head of the Buddha, and the bright red blood formed a pool, and blood flowed out of the Buddha's eyes.
When Fu Xiaoguan and his party arrived at the square, it was already full of people.
Ku Chan was staring blankly at the Buddha's eyes. He suddenly raised his hand and pointed, then said to Fan Tianning, "Could it be that something big is about to happen?"
Fan Tianning looked up and frowned suddenly. According to Fan Guo, when Buddha cries, the world mourns!
He took a deep breath, turned around and saw Fu Xiaoguan, who also pointed at the Buddha's head and said, "Look."
Fu Xiaoguan also looked up, but smiled indifferently, thinking that if it didn't bleed, the blood would probably dye the huge square red.
His understanding of Empress Xiao became increasingly profound.
I still remember her last words that day: "I don't want to go out. It's cleaner here...than outside!"
Is this what she meant by clean?
Four thousand lives were lost because of her one thought. If the palace had not sent the message earlier using the Saker Falcon, the lives of thousands of students in the square would have been lost as well.
It's really crazy!
"Brother Fu, I'm afraid something big is going to happen."
Fu Xiaoguan shook his head and sighed: "As you sow, so you reap. Everything is created by the mind!"
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