Liu Yan remembered the food box sent by the concierge in the afternoon, saying that it was a snack sent by the palace. Since Liu Yan took office, no one has ever sent anything to the palace. Today's snacks came strangely. He opened the food box and saw that there were four cakes inside, but they were the flavors he never ate. The chef of the palace was not so ignorant of him. He thought about it and broke the cakes.
There were four words hidden inside-be careful of the queen mother!
The words written in cinnabar were bloody and full of warnings.
In Liu Yan's mind, the queen mother was a majestic and fair elder. She rarely smiled and was not gentle, but this made Liu Yan respect him more. The letter from the palace told him to be careful of the queen mother. Could it be that they knew that the queen mother was hostile to him...
Liu Yan smiled bitterly in his heart. Now that the queen mother wanted to drive him out of Beijing, she did nothing wrong. He should have left long ago...
If he left earlier, did not think about making achievements, and just became a prince who enjoyed himself, perhaps he would not have killed so many people.
Liu Yan held the wine glass with shaking hands. The liquid in the glass was a dark red, just like the tragedy of that day.
He could not avenge their hatred after all, and he could not pay for their lives.
Liu Yan smiled bitterly and raised the wine glass. Perhaps, he was the one who should have died long ago. He should have died as early as 26 years ago...
"Brother Yan, mother!" Suddenly a call came from outside the palace, and the palace maids and eunuchs immediately knelt on the ground and shouted "Long live the mother" three times.
The queen mother and Liu Yan looked at the Zhaoming Emperor in astonishment, their faces changing unpredictably.
"Your Majesty, didn't you go to the summer resort? Why did you suddenly come back so late?" The queen mother asked in a deep voice.
The Zhaoming Emperor seemed to be in a hurry. There was a thin layer of sweat on his forehead, his face was unnaturally red, but his lips were bloodless. Liu Yan looked at the Zhaoming Emperor's appearance and knew that he should be extremely weak at this time. He subconsciously stood up and wanted to go over to help him, but when he moved his feet, he still stopped where he was.
Emperor Zhaoming walked towards Liu Yan and said with a smile, "I suddenly remembered that I forgot to bring something important, so I hurried back to the palace."
The Queen Mother frowned and said, "Nonsense, how can your body withstand such a rush? If you forgot to bring something, can't you ask the palace maids and eunuchs to come back to get it?" Emperor Zhaoming sighed softly and said, "I'm afraid that they will come to get it, and the Queen Mother won't give it to me." Emperor Zhaoming grabbed Liu Yan's arm and said, "I have important matters to discuss with my brother Yan. Mother, I'll take my leave first."
Liu Yan looked at Emperor Zhaoming inexplicably, and suddenly felt that Emperor Zhaoming pinched his arm lightly three times, and he couldn't help but feel moved.
This was a secret code between him and Emperor Zhaoming. Every time they wanted to do something without telling the Queen Mother, they would secretly pinch each other three times to hint to each other.
Liu Yan couldn't make up his mind whether he should follow Emperor Zhaoming to leave at this moment.
"Since you have already returned to the palace, there is no need to rush to get it." The empress dowager's majestic voice came, "Sit down, everyone. Your Majesty is here, let's give Prince Ding a farewell party together."
"Farewell party?" Emperor Zhaoming looked at Liu Yan in surprise, "Where are you going?"
Liu Yan said, "I will return to my fiefdom tomorrow. The empress dowager... has arranged a marriage for me."
Emperor Zhaoming's eyes moved, and he breathed a sigh of relief. He smiled at the empress dowager and said, "My son has misunderstood. Brother Yan is getting married, which is a great thing. I will stay for dinner."
As he spoke, Emperor Zhaoming sat down next to Liu Yan and said to the palace maid, "I'll sit here."
Liu Yan looked at Emperor Zhaoming in confusion. His behavior tonight was indeed a little unusual.
Liu Yan hesitated and sat down. The maid immediately brought tableware to Emperor Zhaoming. Emperor Zhaoming poured a glass of wine and said to Liu Yan, "Brother Yan, this glass of wine is my farewell gift to you and my apology to you."
The Queen Mother interrupted, "Your Majesty is confused. The imperial physician said that you are not allowed to drink!"
Emperor Zhaoming laughed and said, "Brother Yan is going to his fiefdom and getting married. As his elder brother, how can I not offer him a glass of wine?"
Liu Yan also held Emperor Zhaoming's hand and shook his head gently, saying, "Brother, it's not necessary. I understand."
Emperor Zhaoming put away his smile, looked seriously into Liu Yan's eyes, and asked, "You don't let me drink, so you don't forgive me?"
Liu Yan quietly looked into Emperor Zhaoming's eyes and at himself reflected in those dark eyes. They are brothers. They don't look alike and are not born of the same mother, but he has never doubted Liu Ju's feelings for him. He remembered that when he fell into the water at the age of six, he hugged him tightly and lifted him up even when he was exhausted. He remembered that he had been punished for him time and time again, and said with a smile that the brother's mistakes were due to his brother's failure to set a good example. He remembered that he was poisoned and woke up from a coma, and saw his brother's bloodshot eyes, which were filled with regret, self-blame, and ecstasy...
Suddenly, his eyes became sour, and Liu Yan lowered his eyes and said in a slightly trembling voice: "Forget it..."
He didn't know whether this "forget it" meant the brotherly love or the hatred.
Emperor Zhaoming's voice was choked with sobs: "These years, I have let you down and failed to protect you well."
Emperor Zhaoming was about to raise his glass, but was interrupted by the Queen Mother in anger: "Your Majesty! You don't listen to the words of the imperial physician, and you don't listen to my words either!"
Liu Yan and Emperor Zhaoming were stunned, looking at the angry Queen Mother in astonishment. Emperor Zhaoming looked at the anger and worry in the Queen Mother's eyes, and then looked at his own glass. Suddenly, he understood everything, his shoulders twitched slightly, and he actually laughed.
"Royal brother, you..." Liu Yan looked at Emperor Zhaoming who suddenly laughed inexplicably, only to see that Emperor Zhaoming laughed so hard that tears came out, followed by a violent cough.
The Queen Mother hurried over, held Emperor Zhaoming's arm, and said anxiously: "The imperial physician said that you must not get angry!"
Emperor Zhaoming coughed for a long time before stopping, and when he let go of his hand, he saw a bright red palm.
"You are coughing up blood again!" The Queen Mother was shocked and turned back and shouted, "Call the imperial physician quickly!"
"No one is allowed to go!" Emperor Zhaoming roared, scaring the palace maids and eunuchs to kneel down.
Emperor Zhaoming took a deep breath, and then slowly said: "Everyone, leave the hall, and don't get close!"
The palace maids and eunuchs hurriedly ran out, leaving only the three most senior people in the State of Chen in the palace.
Emperor Zhaoming smiled bitterly and looked at the Queen Mother: "Mother, didn't you let Brother Yan return to his fiefdom? Didn't he agree to leave? Why... do you still want to kill him?"
The Queen Mother had a gloomy face and stared at Emperor Zhaoming.
Liu Yan came back to his senses, looked at the glass of wine on the table, and said in a hoarse voice: "The wine... is poisonous..."
"If your majesty had not come back, he would have died by now." The Queen Mother no longer denied it. She glanced at Liu Yan coldly, "Even if your majesty came back, could he have saved him? Doesn't your majesty know who I did all this for? Your majesty left the palace and Prince Ding died suddenly. He was already suffering from an old illness, and the world would not suspect that you did it."
Emperor Zhaoming leaned on Liu Yan, coughed, and said with a smile: "I know, I know... Mother did it all for me... So, I never dared to resent your mother... But... Mother... can you please stop... hurting the most important person to me?"
Liu Yan grabbed Emperor Zhaoming's arm and looked at the Queen Mother in disbelief: "It was you? It was you who asked Xue Xiaotang to betray me, it was you who killed so many soldiers on the border, and it was you who sent people to hunt me down?"
The Queen Mother said coldly: "So what if it was me who did it, you should have stopped ... Dead, twenty-six years ago, if it wasn't for Concubine Yun's caesarean section to take the child, you would have died. Three years ago, if it wasn't for Chen'er to save you, you would have died too!" The Queen Mother's breathing became rapid, and red bloodshot appeared in her eyes. She stared at Liu Yan like a ghost, "Why don't you die!"
Liu Yan's heart was like an ice cave, and he looked at the Queen Mother in disbelief: "My mother had a difficult delivery... It was you who did it..."
The Queen Mother sneered, but did not deny it. She looked at Emperor Zhaoming with a sharp eagle-like gaze: "When did Your Majesty know about it?"
Emperor Zhaoming breathed hard and said slowly: "Three years ago... Brother Yan was killed. I sent secret guards to track him down and finally found out... Mother, do you know how painful and disappointed I am! He is my younger brother, and the son you raised with your own hands! Don't you have any affection for him for so many years!"
“No!” The queen mother stood up, pointed at Liu Yan with a ferocious face, and roared, “No! Why should I have any affection for him! His mother took away my husband. If the late emperor had not been determined to die, if it was not for the sake of keeping the late emperor alive, I would not have let him live at all!”
“But I not only have to support him, but also support him well…” The queen mother staggered back half a step, her eyes full of pain and nostalgia, “Only if he is alive and well will the late emperor have a thought and be willing to live for him. Juer, he is also your father and my husband. We are still alive. Why would he rather die for that woman than live for us! You can’t understand how much pain I feel in my heart! I thought that as long as I killed her, he would eventually change his mind and live a good life with me, just like before she appeared… But he didn’t… he didn’t…”
Emperor Zhaoming stared at the queen mother who had lost her composure. She was the most dignified and virtuous daughter of the Zhou family, a thousand-year-old family, and the queen mother respected by the people of the world. No one knew that she had so much hatred and pain in her heart.
"Mother..." Emperor Zhaoming stretched out his hand, trying to grab the corner of her clothes, but couldn't touch it.
"Juer, you are my son, why do you side with him? In this world, we are the only two who depend on each other..." Two lines of turbid tears flowed from the red eyes of the Queen Mother, "If you hadn't sent secret guards to protect him, I would have found a chance to kill him long ago! You and your son, and Chen'er, all of you side with him! What about me! Who am I doing all this for!"
"Mother... I don't know that you have so much hatred in your heart... But Concubine Yun is dead, my father is also dead, and brother Yan is innocent..."
“Do I deserve all this suffering? I had a husband!” The queen mother glared at Liu Yan hatefully. “When he died, he only left me one sentence, asking me to take good care of Liu Yan, and then... he was free... he was going to see the woman he loved... I regarded him as my husband, but in his heart, I was just a queen, never his wife... He was already dead, so why did he care about Liu Yan? I wanted to kill him at that time, but he went to the battlefield. I thought he would die on the battlefield sooner or later. Unexpectedly, not only did he not die, he also made great contributions...”
Liu Yan's heart seemed to be tightly grasped by someone, making him feel suffocated. He gritted his teeth and said, “If you love father, you shouldn’t kill the person he cared about most. You forced him to death!” The
queen mother She sneered, as if she had heard the most ridiculous thing: "The person he cares about the most is dead, so he has to die with him? Is there nothing else in this world except love? What about his responsibility! I loved him so much, but he died, and I have to live on, carrying his responsibility. I raised you, stabilized the harem, and won a good reputation in the world. Did I do anything wrong? This is one thing that children from our aristocratic families have learned since childhood - you never live alone, you live for your family. And your Liu family, huh..." The queen mother sneered disdainfully, "You are all romantic people. Not only do I hate him, but I also look down on him!"
Liu Yan looked at the crazy queen mother in silence, but was unable to refute. He should hate her, but at this moment, he couldn't help but feel pity and guilt. The Queen Mother
slowly knelt in front of Liu Ju, trembling and grabbing Liu Ju's cold hand: "Ju'er, don't learn from them, don't abandon me like your father did..."
Liu Ju's eyes were full of sadness and discouragement: "Mother, I understand your hatred, but... stop it... Do you know why Brother Yan has not been able to find out the truth in the past three years?" Liu Ju smiled bitterly, "It was me who cut off all the clues, and it was me who sent the secret guards to kill Deputy General Yuan and Xue Xiaotang's people... I am not a benevolent monarch. In order to protect my loved ones, I can only pick up the butcher knife and kill innocent people... Mother, you are my most important relatives. I can't watch you kill Brother Yan, and I don't want him to find out the truth and take revenge on you..."
Liu Yan was startled and grabbed Liu Ju's arm: "Royal brother, did you really kill Deputy General Yuan?"
"Cough cough..." Liu Ju coughed violently and held Liu Yan tightly, "Yes, I'm sorry... but I have to do this... I'm just a despicable person. In order to protect the people I care about... I can only do this... Brother Yan... can you forgive mother?"
Liu Yan looked at the queen mother absentmindedly: "She killed my mother and killed so many people. The blood and hatred of those people are flowing in her blood. Can I forgive... Am I qualified to say forgiveness? The only way is to ask those dead people..."
Liu Ju let go of his hand, coughed, and said sadly: "Yes... We... are all guilty... I am not either Can stop your hatred..."
The Queen Mother held Liu Ju's hand tightly and said, "Ju'er, don't worry, he can't do anything to me, I have already let the guards ambush outside!"
Liu Yan looked at the Queen Mother coldly: "You asked me to leave the fiefdom just to divert my attention, you never intended to let me go." "As long as you are alive, they and their son will eventually be deceived by you!" The Queen Mother's eyes flashed with ferocious hatred, "As long as you die, everything will be over."
Liu Ju struggled to sit up, the violent cough made his face even uglier, and he made heavy breathing intermittently.
"How... will everything end..." Liu Ju smiled bitterly, his eyes fell on the cup of poisoned wine on the table, "Brother Yan, you have a blood feud to avenge, mother, your hatred cannot be eliminated... Brother Yan, the imperial guards outside the palace have been withdrawn by me, and no one will know what happened tonight. You have a large army, and mother can't kill you."
Liu Yan looked at Liu Ju's eyes, and for some reason a panic filled his heart.
"You... you should also let mother go... She is just a poor person who has lost her husband and son..." When
Liu Yan heard this, his pupils shrank immediately. He suddenly realized what Liu Ju was going to do, and subconsciously reached out and knocked the wine glass in Liu Ju's hand away - but it was too late, and half a cup of poisoned wine spilled on his lips.
The Queen Mother was so upset that she rushed forward and hugged Liu Ju tightly, shouting heartbreakingly: "Ju'er! What are you doing! What are you doing!"
Liu Ju sipped the wine on his lips: "Mother... it's the Resurrection Powder... just a little bit... can kill people... leave no trace... no one can know..."
Liu Ju said, frowning, and suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood.
"Imperial Physician! I'll call the Imperial Physician!" The Queen Mother tried to wipe the blood off him in a panic, but she watched in despair as the blood continued to pour out.
Liu Yan pressed the acupuncture points on Liu Ju's body, but it was useless. He trembled and wanted to pick up Liu Ju, but was held back by Liu Ju.
"It's useless. You know the properties of this medicine..." Liu Ju smiled, "I heard that it can make people who have faked death come back to life. Sure enough, I am much more energetic now. I have never... felt so good..."
"Ju'er, Ju'er..." The Queen Mother burst into tears, sobbing, "Why did you do this! Don't you want your mother too!"
Liu Ju stretched out his hand with difficulty and held the Queen Mother's hand.
"Let your son take the responsibility for what the queen mother did wrong... Brother Yan, let the queen mother go..."
Liu Yan bit his lip with trembling hands, a trace of blood overflowed from the corner of his mouth, and he nodded painfully: "Okay, I promise you."
"Queen mother, don't cry... You are so strong... You are so sad when the emperor passed away, but you still hold on. I am gone, you still have Chen'er..." The blood on Liu Ju's face became lighter and lighter, and his body was already covered in blood, "I am very tired... After so many years, I am really tired..."
Liu Ju smiled, let go of the queen mother's hand, and fell heavily to the ground.
"Ju'er——" The queen mother cried in pain, hugged Liu Ju's body, and cried.
Liu Yan watched Liu Ju's breath completely cut off in his arms, as if a string in his mind was broken. His face suddenly changed, and he spit out a mouthful of bright red blood, which fell to the ground and merged with Liu Ju's.
They are brothers whose blood is thicker than water...
Liu Yan clenched his fists, and finally couldn't help but shed tears.
The Queen Mother held Liu Ju's body and cried bitterly. Suddenly, she raised her head and beat Liu Yan hysterically: "You killed my son, you killed my son, get out - get out -"
Liu Yan staggered to his feet, and walked out of the hall step by step, stepping on the bright red footprints.
In the empty hall, a woman's painful and desperate wails echoed.
The shrill voice filled Liu Yan's ears. He vaguely remembered the day when he went fishing with his brother. He smiled gently, looked at the calm lake and chatted with him. When talking about his own life and death, there was no ripple in his eyes. He had already made up his mind to die and was disheartened...
The green mountains and white snow buried not only the bones, but also the ambition.
This magnificent splendor was eventually swallowed up by the night.
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