hamster
Jiang Nian curled up in the closet, waiting silently for You to leave the pavilion.
All I could see were complicated clothes, and looking at their outlines in the darkness, some of them looked like monsters devouring flesh and blood.
The conversation outside the house stopped abruptly. After a moment of silence, You seemed to have made up his mind. He stopped trying to persuade the goddess and turned to walk towards the door.
After a moment, the crisp sound of pearls and jade colliding resonated with the sound of the wooden door opening and closing.
The air was stagnant for a moment, and the urgency of being discovered suddenly dissipated.
Jiang Nian breathed a sigh of relief.
The goddess in the top pavilion was still doing her own thing, as if she had forgotten that she existed in the compartment.
Jiang Nian changed her posture and lay down, her mind relaxed, and she had the energy to think about the goddess's attitude towards her.
From pushing open the door of the top pavilion to passing by the goddess and opening the door of the compartment, the goddess didn't even look at her during this series of actions.
Ignoring her action is like implicitly allowing her behavior.
Unable to figure out where the goddess's attitude of gradually giving in to her came from, Jiang Nian could only figure it out based on the various connections she had learned so far.
But the only ones who have a close connection with the goddess are Xi Zhen and Yu He.
Excluding Yu He, who had no involvement in this operation at all, the only one left is Xi Zhen.
......
Will the goddess show leniency to Xizhen because she knows that she has a connection with her and wants to get along with her in a less distant relationship tomorrow?
Otherwise, she really couldn't think of any other reason that could make the goddess, who only wanted to reunite with her brother and didn't care about anything else, be so tolerant of her, her enemy.
Jiang Nian leaned against the wall of the closet. After leaning against the cold side of the closet for a long time, he was warmed by his body temperature.
After running around in Zuihualou for a whole day, she didn't have to worry about Lu's men or You. She could just lift up her clothes and tell her with a smile, "You've been discovered," and then she would have nothing else to worry about.
Xizhen had taken away Princess Qingping's antidote and blueprints, and had also told Mo Qing how and where the plague was triggered. All that was left was to wait until tomorrow to hear the conversation between Lu and the goddess and learn about the mine.
Jiang Nian curled up his body, hugged his legs with his arms, and fell into darkness in his confused thoughts.
—
The sleep was not peaceful. There were chaotic footsteps outside the room from time to time coming from the crack of the door. During this time, someone opened the door of the lower compartment, but was stopped by the goddess.
The beaded curtain was rustled by the sandalwood wind as the wooden door closed. The footsteps receded like the tide, and then moved forward like clapping.
The noise continued for a while, and in his dark sleep, Jiang Nian clearly heard the maid's instructions to the goddess.
"Lady Goddess, the time is approaching. Lord Lu has instructed you to prepare everything and go outside to pray."
The silver bell-like ornament was carefully lifted up, and the personal maid brought the complicated and heavy headdress to the goddess's head, and took out the clothes prepared in advance from the side and helped the goddess put on them.
The personal maid who was kneeling on the other side lowered her head and raised the object in her hand.
The goddess remained silent as the people around her fiddled with her long black hair, which was a necessary decoration on her clothing according to the blessing ritual.
Only after her personal maid had fixed her clothes and checked her from head to toe to make sure everything was in order did she withdraw her hand with satisfaction.
The personal maid guarding outside the pavilion opened the door to reduce the inconvenience of the goddess's movements.
“…”
The goddess, who had remained silent all this time, spoke at this moment.
"Is he down there? I have something urgent to tell him. Please ask him to come up. Once we have things sorted out, I will go and pray."
The personal maid opened her mouth, not expecting the goddess to respond like this.
But it is not a good idea to drag the goddess out by force.
The leading maid was the first to react. The time that was just right was obviously not enough because of the interruption of the goddess. She bowed to the goddess politely, responded to the goddess' request, then turned around and hurried downstairs.
—
Jiang Nian woke up from his sleep.
There were no windows in the compartment, and it was surrounded by cold walls. Because of this, she could not be awakened by the sunlight outside.
Yesterday's run was so exhausting that I didn't expect to wake up in the afternoon of the next day.
She stood up and quietly walked to the door of the compartment, put her hand on the door, and listened to the movement outside the room.
The personal maid was worried that the blessing would be interrupted by an incident, so she walked quickly and soon called up Lu, who was waiting for the goddess downstairs in the pavilion.
The footsteps going up the stairs were as heavy as drums. Even through a room away, Jiang Nian could still hear the footsteps coming from the fourth floor stairs.
In a moment, the bead curtain was flipped over by someone, and the pearls and jade collided with each other, making a chaotic and crisp sound.
"You called me here, what do you want to discuss?"
Today was a day to pray for blessings, so the unpleasant fishy smell on Lu's body was covered up by a large amount of perfume. Poison fights poison, and the two overlapped and blended with each other, leaving little smell.
The goddess's expression was calm and composed, she simply stared at Lu: "Before praying, did you forget to give me any news?"
"News?" Lu thought of something and laughed. "For a traitor like you, what news do I have to give you?"
The goddess did not respond to his question, as if she had not heard it. She held the sharp prop for praying in her right hand and glared at him coldly.
"I've already said that we must first confirm whether the epidemic can be carried out before we can pray."
"Those 'people' in the mines now are the remnants of the previous generation. Since we can't order them to give us the herbs that can create the plague, we must first resolve this matter before praying."
"...But you're asking me to pray now. Are you planning to ruin the plague?!"
Lu chuckled sinisterly and took a few steps forward. "The envoy from Donglan is already in the pavilion. I am doing this to show my filial piety to the envoy!"
"The leader is our reborn parent. Jian Shijun, you want to betray the leader, so I will now present the traitor to the messenger! And then I will complete the task of the plague..."
"Those plague victims are in You's hands, right?"
Lu's eyes were glued to the goddess's face, trying to see every change in her expression.
"You don't want him to die, right? Then you should live well so that he can live."
"Come with me now and pray for blessings. I can even say a few words to appease the envoy, an unrepentant traitor, and the child will be able to live."
Lu spoke for a long time, as if he had not said enough.
Finally, he thought of something and smiled sinisterly again.
"Do you think those things in the mines are not finished?"
"Forget it. Seeing you struggling to survive like this, I feel sorry for you. So I'll tell you something."
Noticing the subtle change in the goddess's eyes, Lu sneered and said, "Those 'people' in the mine have been used by this old man."
"——And, Lu died on the night the statue collapsed."
"You don't know, do you? Those people were in a terrible state. They wanted to escape with that stack of loose leaves, but they didn't expect the villagers to throw burning sticks into the basement at the bottom of the statue."
"The basement beneath the statue is a closed space. It was hit by so much fire all at once, reaching a level that could be destroyed, and it exploded."
"The villagers didn't realize that throwing a few sticks would cause the entire statue to topple over, so they fled."
"So, those people were pushed to the ground and trampled to death by other villagers as they fled."
Lu stared directly at the goddess's slightly bewildered face and chuckled, "So you'd better not expect those corpses to come back to life and take away my right to control the production of plague herbs."
"The leader entrusted this matter to me, which clearly shows that he doesn't trust you!"
—
Jiang Nian leaned against the door, feeling confused and uncertain.
Are those people in the mines, who increasingly mine minerals, real people, or are they just puppets that can be manipulated, like the flat-faced people that You can control?
Also, since the goddess chose to launch the plague on the day of prayer, the infection would not spread quickly. After all, most of the residents in the civilian area were attracted elsewhere by the propaganda of Zuihualou.
Does the goddess want to make this epidemic within the control of Yu He and others, and use the fact that "the epidemic occurs early" to cause unrest in Zuihua Tower?
......
Jiang Nian was a little confused about the definition of whether a goddess was good or bad.
Even if she escaped from this cage today, she would be discovered by the soldiers surrounding Zuihualou, kidnapped and brought to Yu He for handling.
But Jiang Nian had no idea how Yu He, such an impartial man, would view this goddess with whom he had a special and intimate relationship in the past, and what conclusion he would make.
Will he show mercy, or will he follow the rules and order the killing on the spot?
The dispute outside the house did not stop because of Jiang Nian's clone's thinking.
The goddess looked at him for a moment, her expression softening as she spoke in a neutral tone:
"So, according to what you said, you'll first pretend to pray for the heavens to quell the plague and gain a group of new believers. Then, use those 'people' you control to obtain a steady supply of herbs to create the poison that can produce the plague, and then unleash the plague."
"...As for me, if the plague is successfully deployed, I will be handed over to the envoy by you, and then be accused of slander?"
Seeing the goddess being so understanding, Lu laughed and said, "Yes, the messenger is now testing your loyalty to the Wu Mi people. If you listen to me, you can be forgiven."
“…”
The goddess suddenly smiled.
There was no trace of sarcasm hidden in her faint smile.
"Then your plan will fail."
"That messenger's body...should be floating on the river outside Cang County City now, right?"
Jiang Nian suddenly paused, remembering the words he asked about You the day before.
At that time, You said that the goddess would go out this morning, and she had planned to sneak into the top pavilion during this time, but plans could not keep up with changes, so she entered the top pavilion early yesterday.
But I didn't expect that what he meant at the time was that in order to ensure the smooth implementation of the plan, the goddess would eliminate those who she thought would hinder the plan.
Now that we've eliminated the messengers from Donglan, what's next?
Jiang Nian raised his eyes and paid attention to the movements outside the house.
The goddess said this to tell Ru before killing him - am I going to kill you?
So when You came in yesterday to ask the goddess, was she indirectly confirming that the goddess would not regard her as an enemy?
Because her arrival did not hinder the progress of the Goddess Plan at all, but instead promoted the progress of the Goddess Plan.
——After all, the goddess planned so many things just to escape from the Wu Mi people and meet Xi Zhen.
In order to investigate the mines and the plague, she came to Zuihualou, and Xizhen followed her.
This saves the goddess from having to arrange new events, and allows Xizhen to visit Zuihualou in person.
This also explains why the goddess knew from the beginning that she was not the daughter of the Cui family, and did not kill her, but kept her in Zuihua Tower, was tolerant enough to let her run around, and gave her the position of personal maid.
“…”
A little hamster?
From the very beginning, Xizhen gave her the answer.
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