Chapter 223: In the Palace

The autumn wind blows, and the grass and trees turn yellow.

The long steps in the courtyard are covered with deep moss.

In the Taishi Mansion, the white gauze lanterns under the eaves sway in the wind, and the rows of black tablets in the ancestral hall stand neatly like inverted coffins, with their shadows hanging long under the dim candlelight.

Qi Yutai was buried yesterday.

The Taishi Mansion's legitimate son was buried, but the funeral was extremely simple. The death of a person in a ceremony is a very ominous sign, so the cause of Qi Yutai's death was not publicized, and the palace was forbidden to discuss this matter. As for the outside world, it was only said that Qi Yutai had a sudden illness and died of a serious illness.

Although the ceremony was not spread, the people could not help but suspect it. Qi Yutai was in his prime, and he had never heard of any chronic illness in the past. It was unreasonable for him to suddenly fall ill and die. However, the previous fire in Fengle Building was brought up by the streets and alleys and talked about it with relish. What is the truth is confusing.

A low cough came from the house.

Qi Qing sat in the house.

His already aged body weakened rapidly due to his hard work on Qi Yutai's funeral, and his skinny and withered body showed a decaying and dead air.

Qi Huaying had already gone to rest. Qi Yutai had passed away, and as the only daughter of the Qi family, she also had to receive guests who came to pay their respects, which was quite tiring.

Emperor Liang Ming thoroughly investigated the cause of Qi Yutai's death, and the third prince obstructed it. How Qi Yutai died was not important. In comparison, the funeral ceremony and the ominous omen became a greater sin. The people who came to pay their respects all showed sorrow, and their faces were different, some pitying, some gloating, some taking advantage of others' misfortunes, like a variety show painted with oil paint at a funeral.

He looked at them one by one.

The surroundings became even quieter, the pale lanterns were blown around by the wind, and the green moonlight fell on the ground and on his face, like a ghost suddenly appearing in the hall alone.

He suddenly spoke in this silence.

"Where is the medical officer convoy going to Southern Jiangsu?"

The housekeeper bowed and replied: "Yesterday I heard that they were about to cross the Guangyun River, but the continuous rain delayed them for some time. After crossing the Guangyun River, they will reach Mengtai."

Qi Qing's eyes widened.

The medical officer convoy going to Southern Jiangsu set off a few days ago.

On the last day, Lu Tong's name was suddenly added to the list of medical officers for epidemic relief.

Chang Jin dared to pretend to obey but secretly disobey, which was certainly the work of Pei Yunying. However, Qi Qing, who was busy with Qi Yutai's funeral and dealing with the embarrassment of the third prince, was too busy to do anything, so Lu Tong cut off the firewood and fled away completely.

Now that Qi Yutai's funeral is over, it's time to settle the old accounts.

He said calmly: "Find someone to follow, find an opportunity on the way, and kill her."

The housekeeper shuddered: "Yes." He was worried again, "But Pei Yunying..."

The last time Pei Yunying came to threaten, his words were still fresh in my mind. If Lu Tong gets into trouble, he will not let Qi Huaying go.

Qi Qing said coldly: "You are so arrogant."

The young commander of the Palace Front Division has no idea how high the sky is and how deep the earth is after winning a few moves in a row. He only has a pair of children. For the dead Qi Yutai and the living Qi Huaying, Lu Tong must die.

No matter if she is in Shengjing or Southern Jiangsu.

No matter whether the Qi family wins or loses in the end.

The housekeeper dared not say much and obeyed the order.

Qi Qing was silent for a while, and suddenly said: "Wait."

The old man lowered his eyes and slowly turned the Buddhist beads on his wrist.

Pei Yunying was concerned about this woman, and he must have arranged someone to follow and protect her secretly along the way. If he took action at this moment, it would inevitably alert the enemy.

After a moment, he said: "Take action after arriving in Southern Jiangsu."

"Yes, master."

...

The cold night is dark, the lonely lamp is like a ghost, and the moonlight tonight is more desolate than before.

There were no windows in the secret room of the Privy Council. The candles on the table and the torches on the wall reflected each other, illuminating the stone walls of the old prison cell.

Xiao Zhufeng walked down the stone steps and placed a silver pot on the table.

Pei Yunying took a look and asked, "Tea?"

"Life is bitter enough. Let's drink some wine." Xiao Zhufeng said, "Dispel your ugly sorrow."

Pei Yunying smiled and watched Xiao Zhufeng pour a small cup of wine and push it in front of him.

He picked up the wine cup and played with it between his fingers. He said, "Tsk," "Drinking before leaving, how can it have the meaning of a beheading wine?" He paused and said, "Isn't it a bit too unlucky?"

"No." Xiao Zhufeng sat down opposite him and said calmly, "You failed in love but succeeded in gambling. You failed miserably in love. Our plan must be surprisingly smooth..."

Pei Yunying: "..."

He sneered and held the wine cup to his lips. When the wine entered his mouth, it was spicy and pungent. Pei Yunying frowned slightly.

"Fragrant wine?"

Xiao Zhufeng shrugged: "Teacher took it."

When they were young, they worked under Yan Xu. Xiao Zhufeng came first and Pei Yunying came later. After all, they had a friendship like brothers from the same school.

Yan Xu was harsh. Training martial arts often made them fight. They always fought until they were bruised and swollen.

When they were young, they could not endure hardships. Yan Xu would wait until the lamp oil burned out before releasing them from the cell. At that time, they only hated that there was too much lamp oil and it was difficult to get through the long night. Looking back many years later, they sighed that there was too little lamp oil and regretted wasting time.

At that time, after each fight, Yan Xu would let them drink a pot of fragrant wine. The fragrant wine was spicy and unpleasant, but it was quite effective in healing wounds. Both of them drank it with frowns.

It has been a long time since they drank it.

After a while, Xiao Zhufeng laughed: "Do you still remember the first time you and I fought. You were knocked to the ground and were in a very bad state."

Pei Yunying sneered: "You remembered it wrong. When choosing the palace commander, you were almost chopped to death by me."

The two were silent again.

Xiao Zhufeng is an orphan.

He grew up in the Charity Bureau and was taken away by Yan Xu when he was five years old and became Yan Xu's apprentice.

Before Pei Yunying came, Yan Xu valued him the most. After Pei Yunying came, the situation changed.

When I was young, I always had a strong desire to win. Xiao Zhufeng hates Pei Yunying, but Yan Xu wants to choose one of them to be the thorn in the palace.

There was a lot of competition at that time, and they both disliked each other and fought openly and secretly. Until one time, the two of them were performing the same mission and alerted others. Xiao Zhufeng was ambushed and Pei Yunying had already escaped, but turned back at the last moment and escaped with him.

Both of them were seriously injured that time. Afterwards, Yan Xu scolded Pei Yunying severely, but asked him to enter the Palace Commander's Mansion by name.

Later, Pei Yunying became the commander and he became the deputy commander.

The torches on the wall illuminated the room in a chaotic light.

Xiao Zhufeng said: "Did Duke Zhaoning come to see you?"

"found."

"I want you to save the Pei family?"

"It is clear."

Xiao Zhufeng was polite: "Shameless."

Pei Yunying sighed.

"You are an orphan without a father, and I am worse than an orphan without a father. I don't know who is more unlucky."

As soon as he finished speaking, a voice came from the cell: "You still have your own thoughts and gossip. I think the person who is implicated by you two is the most unlucky."

The two turned their heads and Yan Xu walked down the stone steps.

He was dressed in black, with golden goshawk embroidery on his robes. He wore wrist guards, a long sword, and light armor all at once. The scars around his eyes were extremely hideous under the light.

"Are you all ready?"

The two agreed.

"Your sister and Baozhu, I have arranged for someone to hide her, so there will be no worries." Yan Xu glanced at Pei Yunying, paused, and said: "Since you have been abandoned, there is nothing you can't let go of. Cheer up for me. . Just learn from your sweetheart."

Pei Yunying was speechless.

Lu Yan has left, which is indeed quite straightforward.

Before she went to Sunan and was locked up in the Palace Commander's Mansion, he received a letter from Yin Zheng at night. It was written by Lu Zhuo himself.

What was written in the letter was to ask Pei Yunying to protect everyone at Renxin Medical Center after her death. Many of them used their past friendship as a reference, and the words were full of emotion and thought.

I am afraid that Qi Qing, who lived a long life, would not have been more thoughtful and straightforward in his last words before his death.

It was precisely because of that letter that he made up his mind not to stop Lu Zhu from going to Southern Jiangsu.

In this letter, he glimpsed Lu Zhuo's death wish. She was a person who wanted to die. If she was left in Shengjing with Qi Qing, something would definitely happen.

Yan Xu looked him over and saw that his eyes were startled, and he squinted slightly, as if he didn't like her: "You really like her."

Pei Yunying twitched the corners of his lips.

He met many women.

As gentle and graceful as his mother, as kind and open-minded as his sister, he had received a lot of sincerity and admiration, but he never thought that he would eventually fall in love with such a person.

A woman who can frame him in public, a woman who is calm and calm on the face, but secretly has poison in her palm, ready to die with her enemy at any time.

A woman who doesn't like him very much.

The heartbeat that cannot be escaped, the feelings that cannot be denied...

Like the crumbling wood on the top of the wooden tower in his study, with just a slight touch——

There was a loud bang, and the defense line collapsed.

"What should we do?" He smiled lazily: "We are three masters and apprentices. All of us had bad relationships and were abandoned. Maybe it's because the feng shui here is not good, so things always go against our wishes."

Xiao Zhufeng: "..."

Yan Xu didn't want to pay attention to him: "Get the knife and get out of here."

The two stood up, picked up their knives and walked out. When they reached the door, they were stopped by Yan Xu again.

"You two," he said after a long silence, "be careful."

"Long-winded."

The two walked out of the secret room, with Pei Yunying in front of them, Xiao Zhufeng said: "I want to ask you something."

"explain."

"When you were competing for the position of former secretary of the palace, you obviously escaped. Why did you turn around to save me?"

Pei Yunying was startled and laughed: "Why do you still remember it?"

"Do not talk nonsense."

He said nonchalantly: "I am a hero. Seeing you being beaten so badly, I felt so sorry that I did it as a good deed."

"Oh." Xiao Zhufeng took a step forward, crossed him and said, "Hero, then you should be more careful tonight."

"If you are hacked to death, I will never come to save you."

Pei Yunying clicked his tongue several times: "He has a heart of stone."

He held the silver knife at his waist again, looked at the thick night in the distance, and said with a smile: "Okay, I will kill as many as I come tonight -"

…

"when--"

The distant bells drifted along the night wind, and in the Qinzheng Hall, Emperor Liang Ming suddenly started.

On the imperial desk, a bowl of brown soup was slightly steaming.

"Your Majesty." The eunuch in charge whispered, "The medicine is almost cold."

Emperor Liang Ming stared at the silver medicine bowl in front of him, his eyes gloomy.

In the royal family, all bowls, cups and utensils were made of gold. After the death of the previous emperor, Emperor Ming of Liang ordered all the utensils he used to use to be replaced by silver. For this reason, he was impeached by the imperial censor, saying that it violated the rules of his ancestors. .

However, the rules are set by people. After he dismissed several old censors from their posts, no one mentioned this matter again.

Emperor Liang Ming pushed aside the pile of memorials on the imperial desk, reached out to take the medicine bowl, raised his head and drank the medicine in one gulp.

The medicine was bitter, and after drinking it all, there was still a sour and bitter taste in his throat. He raised his hand and wiped the medicine marks from the corners of his lips with a silk handkerchief.

"In the evening, the Queen Mother came and bumped into the Imperial Concubine outside the door. The two had a dispute." The steward looked at the emperor's face and spoke cautiously, "The Empress Dowager came in the evening, and the Queen Mother and the Imperial Concubine returned to the palace respectively."

Emperor Liang Ming rubbed his eyebrows.

The queen is here for the prince, and Concubine Chen is also here for the prince.

The prince had been under house arrest for a long time, and both sides were a little impatient.

There were signs that he wanted to change the crown prince. The two factions in the court argued endlessly, but the emperor's mind never changed. Yuan Yao was the one who inherited the throne in his mind from the beginning.

Yuan Yao was smart and brave, and he was most like him.

Just as he was like the late emperor.

Because of this resemblance, the late emperor particularly favored him, so that his brother, the crown prince Yuan Xi, although he was elegant and far-reaching, and talented in both civil and military affairs, was still not as good as him in the heart of the late emperor.

Some court officials who supported him said that the late emperor might have the intention to change the crown prince. He hoped in his heart, but was disappointed in the end.

His father, who was partial to him in words, still wanted to hand over the country to his brother. So Yuan Xi died in the autumn flood, the late emperor died of illness, all his brothers died or were disabled, and he ascended the throne and became famous.

Fate is like a roulette wheel, turning endlessly. When he had Yuan Yao, he favored Yuan Yao the most.

Yuan Zhen was reckless and mediocre, not a talent for an emperor. He also disliked the queen. What he feared most was the Qi family, the Grand Tutor who had supported him to ascend the throne and now supported the crown prince to succeed to the throne.

However, Qi Qing was old after all.

The old tiger was not to be feared, and his only son had died in the sacrifice ceremony, so he did not need to take action. Qi Qing had no fighting spirit and was not to be feared.

Emperor Liang Ming looked at the empty silver bowl on the table, and a trace of murderous intent flashed in his eyes.

He would never learn from the ignorant and hypocritical previous emperor. He wanted whichever son he liked to be the emperor. The imperial power was supreme. Since he had reached a high position, why should he be afraid of others? Naturally, everything would go his way, without restraint, and without relying on the rules of his ancestors.

He would clear all obstacles for Yuan Yao——

"Did the queen mother leave a message?" Emperor Liang Ming asked the steward.

"No." The steward said: "Your Majesty, please forgive me. I saw that the queen was angry at the time, and I was afraid of upsetting the emperor, so I did not dare to report it."

Emperor Liang Ming waved his hand impatiently.

The queen came here just to plead for Yuan Zhen. Now the situation has been decided, he chose Yuan Yao for his two sons.

The queen mother worshipped Buddha all year round and never asked about the court, which is why she has been safe and sound all these years.

Emperor Liang Ming is willing to play the drama of motherly love and filial piety with her to the end.

But there is still one person——

"Is there any movement from Prince Ning?"

"Your Majesty, His Royal Highness Prince Ning has not left the palace for several days, and there is nothing unusual."

Emperor Liang Ming's face was gloomy.

Prince Ning was the only brother he left, because when he returned to Beijing that year, he had already ascended the throne, and his brothers and sisters had accidents one after another. If Prince Ning had an accident again, it would inevitably cause gossip.

He kept Prince Ning alive and raised him as a joke, looking down on him and guarding against him.

But recently, he had a sense of crisis.

After keeping him for so many years, it was time to get rid of the last useless chess piece.

Outside the window, the night is deep, the dark black is like a bottomless pit, the whistling night wind makes a faint shriek, accompanied by some chaotic exclamations.

Emperor Liang Ming suddenly looked up.

"What's that sound?"

Tomorrow, we will enter the last Sunan dungeon. The Sunan dungeon is mainly about Liutong's self-redemption and Xiao Pei's emotional line (at most two or three days for those who don't have a long-distance relationship). You can wait and see! The comment area function is under maintenance and I can't reply, so I will answer here again. There are weddings and kisses, don't worry, there are all~