After Tang Chen helped him hang up his cloak, he handed him the bird's nest and said, "Then I'll eat this bird's nest and go to sleep. Anyway, I don't have to get up early tomorrow."
Wang Yanzhou took a bite of the still warm bird's nest. He didn't know if someone had put a lot of honey in it today, but it warmed his stomach and sweetened his heart.
Tang Chen swallowed unconsciously and asked, "Is it delicious?"
"Want to try it?"
"Okay, okay!"
It was also from this warm night that Wang Yanzhou began to behave strangely. Tang Chen initially thought he was being overly suspicious, but unexpectedly, after several days, Wang Yanzhou became completely silent. He would spend the entire day hunched over his desk, writing, mumbling something incoherently as he wrote, as if possessed by a demon.
After Tang Chen confirmed that what Wang Yanzhou wrote had nothing to do with official business, he took advantage of Wang Yanzhou's inattention and snatched the paper he was writing on: "What on earth have you been writing these days?"
There were many words densely written on the paper, but the actual content was only two words: Wang Zhen. Tang Chen seemed to have seen this name somewhere before: "It sounds a bit like a woman's name. Tell me, do you have another dog outside?"
Wang Yanzhou burst out laughing, stood up and snatched the paper back: "What are you talking about? Aren't you afraid that your mother-in-law will come to you in your dreams and scold you in the middle of the night?"
After Tang Chen reacted for a moment, he quickly slapped his mouth: "Ahem, children's words are without restraint, children's words are without restraint!"
Looking at the words on the paper, it was as if I could see my mother’s voice and appearance again: “My mother was a very easygoing person, so easygoing that sometimes she had a childlike temperament, just like you.”
"Really? You have the same likable temper as me." Tang Chen looked at Wang Yanzhou's soft and shining eyes and knew that there was a story to be heard, so he simply took a stool and sat down next to him.
Wang Yanzhou gently stroked Tang Chen's hair and said with a smile, "It's not just your tempers. You two have many similarities."
Tang Chen said expectantly, "Really? Tell me about it!"
"It may be difficult to explain it in words, so just follow me." After saying that, Wang Yanzhou pulled Tang Chen and went to an abandoned woodshed deep in the courtyard.
The woodshed was filled with all kinds of useless junk, and it was dusty everywhere. Even the beams were covered with a thick layer of cobwebs, which showed that no one had set foot here for a long time.
Wang Yanzhou handed his handkerchief to Tang Chen, signaling her to cover her mouth and nose. With one hand covering her mouth and nose, he groped along the wall of the woodshed with the other. After a crisp sound, the wall, covered with thick dust, slowly opened up to reveal a passage.
After coming out of this secret passage, Tang Chen came to a place she had never seen before. She had always thought that the palace was located halfway up the mountain, but she never expected that the back of the palace was actually a steep cliff.
The exit of the secret passage was nestled in the steep cliffs of Qingliang Peak. Below the cliffs lay a bottomless abyss. Tang Chen, already somewhat afraid of heights, clung to the wall after witnessing the breathtaking scenery, refusing to move.
A man-made passage wound its way up the cliff face, its destination unknown. Wang Yanzhou knew Tang Chen was afraid, so after she had calmed down a bit, he covered her eyes with the handkerchief she had used earlier and led her carefully along the rock wall.
After the obstruction in front of him was removed, Tang Chen was already in a house built on the mountain. From a distance, this civil engineering building seemed to appear out of thin air on the cliff, just like the secret nest built by swiftlets on the cliff.
After adjusting his breathing, Tang Chen said shamelessly: "How come I have never discovered this secret room!"
Wang Yanzhou said, "This place is not easy to detect. If you can find it, you can be regarded as a rare person in the world. By the way, this is our secret. Even Nianqing and the others don't know it. You understand what I mean."
Tang Chen patted his chest and assured: "Don't worry, I'm the most strict person!"
Wang Yanzhou didn't know how many times he had heard her say this, but it seemed like she always agreed. As a result, within three days, everyone close to her knew about it.
After Wang Yanzhou took out the key he was carrying and opened the door, he found that the room was filled with all kinds of things, including tea sets, stringed instruments, calligraphy and paintings, as well as cooking utensils.
"Fuck, there are so many things, what are these?"
Wang Yanzhou gently touched the thick dust on the table and explained, "My mother left it before she left."
Tang Chen finally understood that the items here were all things used or cherished by the legendary queen during her lifetime. "Why don't you find a good place to store these relics? Instead, you just leave them here, without worrying about them being eaten by insects or having them taken care of properly. They're all covered in dust."
As he spoke, Tang Chen, for some unknown reason, picked up a book from the shelf. After blowing off the thick dust on the book, he casually opened it and saw rows of familiar English letters.
“……!”
This thick book was written entirely in English, and judging by the look of it, it looked like it was written with something like eyebrow pencil. As a student who had never been able to pass the CET-6, Tang Chen had a clear understanding of her foreign language ability. If her suspicions were correct, the author of the book was definitely from the same generation as her, or at least a representative of the English class who had passed the CET-6.
Without waiting for Tang Chen to ask, Wang Yanzhou snatched the book from her hand with a dark face, threw it casually in a corner, and pulled Tang Chen away without saying anything.
On the way back, the shock and the desire to explore made Tang Chen completely forget that he had recently been walking on the abyss: "Your mother, is she from the same place as me? Can you tell me more about her?"
Wang Yanzhou's mood was very complicated, very complicated. He didn't want to talk: "What you want to know is recorded in history books."
Tang Chen said, of course she knew that. The reason why Wang Zhen's name was familiar to her was because she had been reading history books recently. "Of course you know your mother better."
Wang Yanzhou stopped and said, "Maybe you will be disappointed."
"Um?"
This is not the place to talk right now. When she returned to the palace, Tang Chen rubbed her sore calves while preparing to listen carefully to Wang Yanzhou telling stories that she had never heard him mention before.
However, she never expected that the beginning of this story would be the end: "My mother died when I was very young. Since I was born, I have rarely had the opportunity to be with her."
Tang Chen asked: "Why?"
Wang Yanzhou said, "My mother was the empress, but she wasn't my father's first empress. Isn't the most taboo thing in the royal family the phrase 'hen crows at dawn'?"
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