The emperor summoned King Jing to the palace again. The imperial edict clearly stated that King Jing should bring the fish.
Li Yu didn't know the arrangements of the third prince and King Jing. Because this was the first time for him to receive an imperial edict, he felt a little uneasy.
He cooperated very well and jumped onto the crystal bottle, letting King Jing take the responsibility. King Jing's face was a little gloomy, but not towards the fish, because King Jing touched the fish's head very gently.
Li Yu remembered that the same hand had held the fish in his arms and taught the fish to write, so he hid away embarrassedly. After a while, the fish's temper broke out and wanted to be rubbed again.
He could see that King Jing was in a bad mood. Although he didn't know why, he hoped that King Jing would feel better.
The little fish who took the initiative to ask for rubbing finally made King Jing raise his lips. After rubbing the fish, King Jing took the fish and entered the palace as ordered.
Outside the Qianqing Palace, Eunuch Luo came to greet them personally. When they entered the palace, they still saw the emperor sitting on the dragon throne, and several people dressed as officials. Strangely, the third and sixth princes were also there.
Li Yu couldn't help wondering. Last time when the palace caught fire, the third and sixth princes came to the palace to visit the emperor. What did these two come for this time?
The third prince is a bit reckless, and the sixth prince is scheming. They should not be underestimated together.
And as soon as King Jing led Yu into the main hall, the eyes of the two princes were cast over, making Yu a little nervous.
Li Yu also looked at the two princes from time to time.
When the emperor saw King Jing coming, he smiled and said, "Tianchi, you came at the right time. Your fish has given birth to golden scales, so I asked Qin Tianjian to calculate it."
So that's it. Li Yu nodded secretly. The emperor summoned him because of something auspicious.
Whether his fish was a good omen or not, it would be hard for the emperor to convince everyone with just one word. After all, the emperor found a good omen for himself, and it would be inappropriate to spread it out. But if it was calculated by Qin Tianjian, it would be genuine. The emperor
had just finished speaking when an official with a long face stepped out and said a bunch of book bags that Li Yu couldn't understand. Finally, he said: "Congratulations, Your Majesty, congratulations, Your Majesty, the golden scales of the fish are indeed a rare auspicious sign. I have combined it with the astronomical phenomena I have observed recently. The purple star is dazzling and rising slowly. This auspicious sign indicates that our country is peaceful and the people are safe, and the weather is good. It is beneficial to our dynasty and Your Majesty."
The official praised the fish in four words, basically praising the fish. The little carp couldn't help but twitch its tail.
He had guessed it long ago. People who can observe celestial phenomena and deduce are very smart and will definitely not go against the emperor's wishes. His reputation as an auspicious person is estimated to be very stable.
The shadow of the fire in Zhongcui Palace has disappeared from the emperor's mind. He smiled and nodded: "Great, I think so too."
Qin Tianjian official received a great reward and thanked him with satisfaction.
"Father, is this the end?"
The third prince waited for a long time, but he didn't get the verdict he needed. Shouldn't Qin Tianjian say that fish with golden scales is a sign of turning into a dragon? Why didn't the people he placed in Qin Tianjian work!
The emperor was also surprised and asked, "That's all. What else could there be? Judging from your tone, is there more?"
"No, that's not what you meant."
The third prince had realized that something must have gone wrong. Not willing to waste this opportunity, he said with a stiff upper lip, "Father, I am not familiar with the operation of Qin Tianjian. I wonder if it was calculated by only one official or by multiple officials? If it was only one person, would there be omissions?"
Mu Tianming thought that it was possible that his people did not get the opportunity to meet the emperor this time, so he could just replace them with someone else.
The official who just congratulated the emperor was Sun Simiao, the chief of Qin Tianjian. Sun smiled and said, "Your Highness, you are too kind. The results I have given for your majesty and our dynasty are the result of the deductions of all the colleagues of Qin Tianjian. If your Highness does not trust me, it will be the same even if someone else comes."
Li Yu: ???
Li Yu was startled by the third prince. Why did the third prince suddenly ask for a replacement? He felt that he had bad intentions.
He just shook his body in surprise, and King Jing, who was sitting next to the crystal bottle, stroked his back with his fingers, touching him intermittently, as if to comfort him and let him feel at ease.
Of course, Li Yu still listened to the tyrant master. The third prince was nothing but a cannon fodder, while King Jing had the aura of the male protagonist. He was the next emperor. He was already clinging to his master's thigh, so what else could he worry about!
Those who could serve in Qin Tianjian were all capable people. Although Sun Simiao's official rank was not high, he still had some weight in front of the emperor. The third prince questioned Sun Zhushi for no reason, but Sun Zhushi was generous and magnanimous. The emperor trusted Sun Simiao, so he felt that the third prince was still a child.
The emperor scolded loudly, “Tianming, since you don’t know the affairs of Qin Tianjian, you should stop interfering.”
The third prince was scolded and lowered his head to glance at the sixth prince. Mu Tianxiao understood and took the initiative to step forward and said, “Your Majesty, it’s not that your royal brother is talking nonsense. It’s that your son and your third brother privately heard a children singing a nursery rhyme among the people, which is contrary to what Qin Tianjian said… Your third brother and your son are afraid that they have misunderstood it, so they specially invited several eminent monks to come and ask them to help take a look.”
When the emperor heard the word nursery rhyme, his heart skipped a beat. He looked at the sixth prince and asked, “What nursery rhyme is it?”
“Individual words and sentences are so unbearable that your son dare not read them. Please take a look, father.”
The sixth prince took out a piece of paper that he had prepared long ago from his sleeve and handed it to the eunuch chief Luo Ruisheng to present.
After the emperor got the note, he read it carefully. Although his expression did not change, Li Yu felt that the atmosphere around him had cooled down.
He wondered what was written on the paper, and why did the emperor feel so unhappy?
Could it be something like "The third generation of Tang Dynasty was ruled by the female king Wu"?
After reading it, the emperor lightly signaled Luo Zongguan to pass the note to King Jing for reading.
The note fell into King Jing's hands, and King Jing quickly unfolded it and scanned it. He read it very quickly, and the ancient characters were not easy to understand. Li Yu only caught a glimpse of the sentence "Golden scales are not things that stay in the pond. Once they ascend to the sky, they will become dragons."
Li Yu: ???
Even though Li Yu didn't know much about ancient Chinese, he knew that just this sentence was the rhythm of framing Li Yu!
And it's not just blaming the fish, this sentence also contains the name of King Jing. On the surface, it means that the fish will turn into a dragon, but in fact, it means that King Jing will ascend the throne?
Although King Jing did ascend the throne in the end, it was sung in a nursery rhyme at this time. Is it because they are afraid that the emperor will not take a fancy to King Jing? After all,
the emperor is the ruler of a country. Even if he has mercy on King Jing, he can't stand such provocation!
"Tianchi, what do you think?"
The emperor asked King Jing calmly. No one knows what the emperor is thinking at this moment. Mu Tianming and Mu Tianxiao only hope that the emperor will be jealous of King Jing.
After learning about the Sixth Prince's evil plan, King Jing ordered people to secretly follow the Sixth Prince, and unexpectedly discovered that the Sixth Prince also sent people outside to teach children to sing nursery rhymes. Therefore, even if it was a nursery rhyme, King Jing was prepared. King
Jing glanced at Wang Xi calmly, and Wang Gonggong stepped out and said on behalf of his master: "Your Majesty, this is completely nonsense. Your Highness is also very surprised that such a song would be spread among the people, intending to provoke the father-son relationship between the Emperor and Your Highness. Your Highness earnestly asks the Emperor to investigate and see when this song was spread. If it was in the past two days..."
After all, the Emperor only recently learned about King Jing's fish-for-scales scheme, and he was afraid that someone was deliberately targeting him.
The emperor thought for a moment and nodded in agreement: "King Jing is right, I have the same idea..."
The emperor did not lose his temper with King Jing because of the nursery rhyme. Instead, he ordered the guards in front of him to check the earliest time when the nursery rhyme was sung and the person who first spread the nursery rhyme.
The three princes looked anxiously at the six princes as the frame-up against King Jing failed one after another. The six princes looked calm, but actually they were sweating.
This was a cruel trick that the six princes came up with, but it did not go as planned. The emperor did not pay attention to the nursery rhyme itself. The earliest time when the nursery rhyme was sung could be found out by checking, and it could not be hidden.
The monk that the six princes ordered to be brought into the hall also arrived at this time. When he saw the row of monks, Li Yu, who had been at a loss, suddenly remembered that there was a similar plot in the book that mentioned monks.
Because of this little butterfly, the original storyline of the book was completely messed up. When the Sixth Prince and King Jing were competing for the throne, the monks were ordered to spread rumors in front of the emperor to frame King Jing. However, the rumor in the book was that "King Jing was born mute and unlucky", but now it has become "fish with golden scales are a sign of turning into a dragon"?
This is nonsense, of course. Fish with golden scales are not particularly rare. For example, koi basically have golden scales. The emperor has many koi in his lotus pond. How can it be that a koi for food turns into a dragon? !
However, this is the truth, but it cannot be used to persuade the emperor.
Li Yu thought to himself, it was the Sixth Prince who came up with the same rumor-mongering method, but the medicine remains the same. Will the same thing happen in this section of the book?
In the original book, the Sixth Prince framed King Jing too hastily, and he could not find any trusted monks at the moment. Besides, ordinary monks were not stupid and would not get involved in the dispute between the princes. Therefore, the monks that the Sixth Prince found in the book were all fake confidants, and even their bald heads were shaved not long ago, without any marks of ordination!
Thinking of this, Li Yu stared at the monk in the front without blinking, trying to find some clues from the monk.
Because he stared at him very carefully, he slowly discovered that the monk's neck would rub against his collar from time to time, which was a bit abrupt.
Li Yu suddenly realized that if you shave your head in a hurry, there will usually be broken hair stuck in it, and this is because you are uncomfortable.
Therefore, it can be concluded that the Sixth Prince brought a fake monk this time!
As long as the fake monk can be exposed in front of the emperor, the emperor will not believe these people even if they say something fancy.
Li Yu thought it through, and of course he would give King Jing some water and send him and himself out. However, the Sixth Prince did not give King Jing any chance to breathe, and rushed to the emperor and said: "Father, the words of the nursery rhyme need to be slowly investigated, and may not be reliable. These monks invited by my son are all great monks. Why not let them check the fish of the fifth prince, and they will know."
Li Yu: "..."
Although the emperor ordered the guards in front of him to check the nursery rhyme, he still had doubts about King Jing in his heart. He thought that it would be okay even if the monk took a look, so he nodded in agreement.
But the emperor did not explicitly ask King Jing to hand the fish to the monk. King Jing tightened his hand around the crystal bottle. Wang Xi, who knew King Jing's thoughts, said to the monks with courage, "You don't have to do anything. His Highness will hold the crystal bottle and show it to you."
The emperor knew that King Jing was very concerned about the fish, and the monks could see the fish. Because the emperor suspected King Jing and felt some hidden guilt, he acquiesced to King Jing's actions.
At this time, Li Yu had no time to find another opportunity to inform King Jing. If he wanted to make a long-term plan, the Sixth Prince would probably not agree first. Moreover, these fake monks were right in front of him. Li Yu could not tolerate these monks saying anything about the golden scales turning into dragons to alienate the emperor and King Jing.
Children's Rhyme King Jing could suggest that the emperor check it out, because this was the first time the emperor heard such a rumor, and he might not believe it easily. But if the monks also said so, three people would make a tiger. Would the emperor trust King Jing again?
He usually stayed with King Jing and knew it best. King Jing had no intention of disrespecting the emperor. The father-son relationship between him and the emperor was hard-earned and should not be subject to such suspicion!
The most urgent task was to expose these fake monks in public. Once these people left the palace, it would be difficult to find them again. There was a chance, even if it required him to take a little risk!
While King Jing was bringing the fish closer to the leading monk and pointed the fish to the monk, Li Yu desperately hit the monk in the crystal bottle.
The power of the fish body had been strengthened by various mainline missions and had increased several times. Li Yu exerted all his strength again. With a click, the crystal bottle was actually broken into a big hole, and the small carp instantly flew towards the leading monk.
The monk never thought that the fish would escape from the crystal bottle. He was stunned for a moment and subconsciously raised his arm to block it.
But it was too late. The small carp had already jumped over the other's hand and landed on the monk's shoulder. At this moment, the system sound rang in the chaos, but Li Yu didn't care about what task update it was. He had been aiming well and waiting with his tail raised. As soon as he jumped onto the monk's shoulder, the fish tail swept out horizontally.
He originally intended to knock off the monk's hat, believing that only by doing so, King Jing would be able to find out that these monks were fakes. In order to expose these people, he no longer cared about his mission, nor about being a food carp. He didn't have extra time to think about how outrageous it would be to knock off the monk's hat in front of the emperor. He just wanted to instinctively protect King Jing and prove that it was the Sixth Prince who framed King Jing.
The monk was frightened by the fish and opened his mouth wide. His monk's hat fell to the ground, and he even forgot to cover his head.
"Father!" The Third Prince and the Sixth Prince shouted in unison. They both saw that the fish broke out of the bottle for some reason and knocked off the monk's hat!
King Jing had been paying attention to the little fish. Ever since he approached the monk, the carp spirit had been lingering anxiously in the crystal bottle. He thought it was very likely that the monk had some problem. The carp spirit seemed to want to tell him something important. He had made all kinds of assumptions, but he didn't expect that the carp spirit would forget its own safety and directly pounce on the monk!
Seeing that the carp spirit had broken out of the bottle, King Jing could not allow the fish to have any mishaps. He had to take care of the fish. Most of the remaining fragments of the crystal bottle were still in his hand. King Jing concentrated on his wits. While everyone was looking at the fish, he tightly grasped the fragments in his hand, letting the fragments cut his hand and bleed.
"Your Highness!" Wang Xi beside King Jing exclaimed.
King Jing waved his hands. Time was running out, so he had to do this.
Wang Xi stamped his feet, wavering between bandaging King Jing and protecting the little fish, and finally chose the little fish, because King Jing's expression wanted him to do so, and he couldn't go against King Jing's wishes.
After the little carp knocked off the monk's hat, it fell to the ground and kept tumbling. Wang Xi quickly took the spare crystal bottle and retrieved the fish.
As soon as the fish was fine, King Jing focused on the monk's broken hairpin. He found that the monk's hat had been knocked off, revealing a bald head with nothing on his head.
King Jing reacted quickly. It turned out that... this was a fake monk. This was what Xiaoyu wanted him to know!
"Tianchi, what happened just now, your hand..."
The emperor was distracted and saw that the fish had somehow thrown itself on the monk. When he looked again, King Jing's hand was also injured.
Wang Xi was anxious to speak for his master, but King Jing would not let him. Instead, he dipped his hand in blood and wrote directly on Wang Xi's lapel -
Father, I have seen clearly that the monk is fake and has not received the precepts. In a hurry, I threw a crystal bottle at him, forcing him to reveal his broken hairpin.
Emperor: “…”
The emperor has been a little uncalm since he heard the nursery rhyme. At this moment, he repeatedly looked from his blood-stained collar to the crystal fragments on the ground, and his heart was struggling. The fake monk put on his hat again in a panic, but it was too late. The emperor ordered the guards to hold the monk down and check his head. After taking off the monk's hat, it was found that he had not received the vows. The emperor
understood. He saw the fish flying out. In fact, it was King Jing who broke the crystal bottle in a hurry. King Jing could not speak, nor could he clarify himself in time. He could only expose these fake monks in this way.
Because he questioned King Jing out of the habit of an emperor, he almost got taken advantage of by a group of fake monks!
King Jing's hands were bleeding and his face was pale. The emperor was very regretful. He patted King Jing on the shoulder and said softly, "Tianchi, good boy, you have suffered. Go see the doctor."
The emperor ordered Luo Ruisheng and Wang Xi to help King Jing go to the side hall to wait for the doctor.