This year's Mid-Autumn Festival was not a lively one, as the Queen Mother passed away.
Such a tragic incident made the Sixth Palace shed tears, and His Majesty did not go to court for several days. The whole country mourned.
The custom of having banquets and admiring the moon in various palaces is also dispensed with. This Mid-Autumn Festival is an unfortunate Mid-Autumn Festival.
One disaster follows another, catching people off guard.
Just in time for the Diaoti rebellion, His Majesty was very anxious and had trouble sleeping and eating. The rumors in the palace were that Li Xiuning was about to go out to quell the Diaoti rebellion. This was not groundless.
The military minister waiting outside the door dared not look up at His Majesty every day. Everyone knew that His Majesty's temper had become increasingly bad recently.
The great cause has just been captured by Beiqiu. Nowadays, there are wars and wars, and people's hearts are unstable. His Majesty is still young. Sometimes he is decisive and reckless, and sometimes hesitant. Even he knows that if Li Xiuning cannot help him to rise to power, he will not be able to do it. Today's achievements.
But Li Xiuning does not love power, is not lustful, does not amass wealth, and has almost no weaknesses, which makes His Majesty feel depressed all the time. Naturally, his temper was getting weirder and weirder, and even he himself couldn't explain why. In fact, he didn't know where Li Xiuning's eyes were focused, he just couldn't stop it.
He never stayed long in the queen's palace. Instead, he stayed in the palace of Liangmei for a long time, but he always found fault with her. The fish in the pond raised by Liangmei were all filled with fish by your majesty, let alone serving Liangmei. The eunuch's maid next to the beauty has a terrifying temper. There is not a day when he doesn't hit someone, and a day when the board doesn't ring seems to be sorry for the dragon robe he wears.
In the absence of the Queen Mother, no one dared to restrain his violence, but few people dared to call him a tyrant, even though he had already gone a long way on that road.
On this day, after taking a nap, he got up and sat blankly for a while, then asked someone to grind a cup of thick ink carefully and spread out three feet of Gong Xuan.
He didn't write it himself, so he asked her to stand in front of the case, concentrate her energy, and write a word for him to read.
Mingkang picked up the ivory pen and waved his hand to write a Lingyuan post.
After writing, he looked at it carefully for a while. It was obviously an excellent handwriting, but in his mouth, it was either not sparse or dense, or there was no sense of connection between the muscles and veins, or the charm was solid and sloppy.
After saying that, he laughed and said, "Not one of them is good enough."
Then he punished her by kneeling outside the palace, saying that she had insulted his eyes.
There was silence in Changning Palace. Except for a few maids on duty in the corridor, everyone else avoided it. Who dared to watch His Majesty punish Princess Mingkang to kneel down.
At this time of year, the leaves have begun to turn yellow, the wind blows, and a few dead leaves fall.
Autumn wind, yellow leaves, she lowered her eyebrows and looked at the lines on the square tiles on the ground, no one knew what she was thinking.
Two hours later, she was still kneeling in the cold wind. No one in the palace knew how the beautiful lady had angered His Majesty. They only knew that she was punished by His Majesty to kneel down again.
The legitimate princess of Daye was humiliated like this by King Beiqiu.
Since the beginning of summer, Mingkang has been sick continuously. From time to time, he feels fullness in his chest and abdomen, and a dull pain under his ribs.
She knew that she might not be able to live a long life, but the end of these twenty years turned out to be so unsatisfactory and unsettling.
The breeze passed over the golden roof and hit her face coolly. She was thinking about how long she could live. When she lowered her head, she couldn't help but vomited on the ground, and all she vomited was blood.
In the crystal stone pool not far away, the red-tailed goldfish swung its bright red tail, as if it was covered in the blood vomited by Princess Mingkang.
The autumn sun made her head shudder a little. She swayed, her face fell in a pool of blood, and she couldn't raise her head.
"What happened to her again?" His Majesty asked unhappily, "'If it's nothing important, just ask her to kneel in peace."
"Master, this time..."
"how?"
"Liangmei coughed up blood and is now unconscious by the stone steps outside."
He frowned and did not answer the eunuch's words, but asked the servant of the Li Mansion who was waiting aside: "Master Li, has he finished ordering the troops recently?"
"Go back to the master, your Excellency is ready. All I need is for your Majesty to give the order." The peripheral vision drifted out of the door and focused on the beautiful woman.
The palace servants who were waiting for the beautiful lady felt a little anxious when they saw that His Majesty was preoccupied with military matters.
His Majesty tapped the memorial with his fingers and said, "Go back and tell Li Xiuning to ask him to come to the palace in the middle of the month."
The servants of the Li Mansion passed by the beautiful lady and saw that her face was getting paler and her symptoms of frailty were obvious, so they knew that she would not live long.
"Your Majesty, the beauty has passed out and burned a stick of incense on the ground. Please be kind to your Majesty..."
His Majesty said coldly: "Slave, do you have a place to speak here? Even if she dies in front of my eyes, it won't be your turn to speak."
No one paid attention to His Majesty's sudden change of expression. They were so frightened that several people turned over and knelt down, banging their heads on the brick floor like garlic: "You deserve to die! You deserve to die!" They were angry at this talkative maid.
The things he didn't like accumulated together, and he always took it out on Mingkang.
Now this servant dared to meddle in his business, His Majesty frowned.
Following an order, ten messengers came out of the small corner door to handle the execution of the chief prisoner. Each of them carried a bag on his back with several bamboo boards in it.
Ten people formed a formation, surrounding the talkative maid just now.
Two people came over and pushed her down with their legs bent, one in front of the other, one pressing her arms and the other lifting her legs. The standing supervisors used boards to hit her, and started beating her while singing and counting, " Five…ten…fifteen…”
The maid twisted her body and shouted hoarsely: "Have mercy on your majesty, have mercy on your majesty!" Each sound was worse than the last.
Everyone in Changning Palace stood aside calmly and watched, who dared to come forward and beg for mercy.
When the twenty boards came down, His Majesty ordered to stop, "These twenty boards are for your ignorance of the rules and your talkativeness."
Just as the maid was about to thank her, His Majesty continued, "Thank you later. There are still twenty boards below. It's because you disturbed my good mood."
Before he finished speaking, the twenty board went down again.
Next, he found different excuses to continue the punishment.
"Keep fighting!" His tone was decisive and sharp, and he was already eighty years old.
The sound of the board and the shouting came again. As the board rose and fell, the tone gradually became lower until it turned into a weak gasp.
After finishing the last stroke, she could no longer stand up.
"How is it? Are you still talking too much?" His Majesty stood condescendingly on the corridor with his hands behind his back, looking at the body of the maid as if admiring some masterpiece.
The two eunuchs held up the bleeding maid and dragged her out of here.
After doing this, he seemed to breathe a sigh of relief and sent an order to the imperial doctor to cure the beautiful woman's disease. He repeatedly told her to treat the disease carefully. If she was cured, she would be rewarded heavily. If she could not be cured, they would die.
The imperial doctor stood aside, trembling and afraid to move. He clenched the corners of his clothes tightly out of fear, lowered his head and stared at his feet, trying to keep his voice from trembling.
He didn't understand why His Majesty cared so much about her since he wanted her life. What's the purpose
The new king is violent and eccentric. Maybe he has a kind heart, which is unknown.
The osmanthus flowers in the garden are in bloom, and every corner of the palace is filled with the rich fragrance of osmanthus.
During the osmanthus appreciation season every year, the queen not only had to write the characters "Fu" and "Longevity" and distribute them to dignitaries, but she also had to pick the osmanthus flowers herself, pickle them with sugar, and keep them in the palace for enjoyment at any time.
Good beauties were also picking osmanthus. She walked under the osmanthus tree, and the golden flowers rained down on her, reflecting the golden light. Every woman in the palace was not impressed by the beauty of Princess Daye. She's just an empty beauty, not much of a threat.
Less than half a year after Li Xiuning sent out troops, he drove the Diaoti people back to their territory three hundred miles away. It was obviously a great victory, but His Majesty was extremely anxious about it, tossing and turning and unable to sleep at night.
The Queen didn't understand what was going on, nor did anyone around him understand what was going on.
In the middle of the night, His Majesty opened the bed curtains and stared at the moon outside the window in trance.
After thinking about it, he suddenly put on clothes.
"Where is your Majesty going?"
"Queen, go to sleep. I can't sleep alone. Get up and walk around. There's no need to ask anyone to follow you."
"But… "
He had already walked out of the queen's palace.
Mingkang seemed to see a figure appearing next to her while she was half asleep. She rubbed her eyes and sat up.
Sure enough, he was right, he came again.
"Sleep inside."
Mingkang didn't move, as if she didn't hear him at all. In fact, she heard him clearly, but she just didn't want to pay attention to him.
He lost his patience and turned her over on her inside.
Mingkang kept falling and closed her eyes. She was so upset that she wanted to stab him in the stomach, but she didn't dare. The opportunity she was waiting for shouldn't be now, at least the chance of success now was slim. .
"Do you know that Li Xiuning agreed to the title carving?" His Majesty asked her.
Mingkang closed her eyes, and her rhythmic breathing revealed that she was pretending to sleep.
"This time, Gu must take action as soon as possible and get rid of him."
Mingkang's eyes were closed, but his brows were furrowed.
Li Xiuning had dedicated his whole life for him, and if he wanted to get rid of him, it was as simple as brushing away a speck of dust, which showed that the emperor's heart was truly unpredictable.
"Do you feel bad if I want to kill him?"
Mingkang thought to himself that it was best to take action as soon as possible to avoid affecting her subsequent assassination plan.
The following year, Li Xiuning returned to the court with his troops, and people praised him as the God of War in Beiqiu, who was invincible in battle.
His Majesty has already laid a dragnet on the hunting ground. Li Xiuning could not refuse this hunting, but he also knew that he would not see the sun the next day.
During the second half of the hunt, there was a sudden loud noise in the forest, which made the horses scream.
Li Xiuning dismounted and held the bow and arrow firmly in his hand. He looked at the corpses rolling down the slope from a distance and heard people outside shouting, "Your Majesty has been assassinated! His Majesty has been assassinated!"
Whether he was assassinated or not, Li Xiuning knew very well who the assassin was here to kill. He couldn't help but know.
There was another loud noise, and Li Xiuning ducked and hid behind a tree.
He closed his eyes tightly and listened to all the sounds around him. The sound of explosions was not far away, getting closer and closer.
Someone started fighting with his close soldiers, and there were screams, fights, and the sound of horse hooves... one after another.
But no one could find his trace. In such a mountain forest, he disappeared and no one could find his footprints.
Just as he was about to turn around, he suddenly noticed something strange behind him.
He gradually tightened his grip on the dagger in his sleeve.
The person behind him clung to the back of his neck strangely.
She gently stood on tiptoe and breathed on the back of his neck, as if she was smelling something, or just feeling his presence.
He remained motionless and slowly let go of the dagger in his hand.
Suddenly, his eyes widened and his Adam's apple moved quietly up and down. After waiting for a moment, he slowly turned his face and stared at the eyes in front of him.
There was no light in the huge mountain forest, and as night fell, there was no light at all.
The faint mountain breeze passed over their shoulders, making them even more lonely and melancholy in the long night.
The moonlight was also blocked by the thick leaves, not even a single bit of light was shed, and everything was in darkness.
He sighed softly and found her hand in the darkness.
Occasionally, there was moonlight reflected in the gaps in the clouds, but it was also blocked by his tall figure, so she was no longer in the light, always in the darkness, and no one could see her in the darkness.
Originally, she could not see the light when she appeared here, and he knew it in his heart.
But he didn't know what she wanted, did she want his life? Ridiculous, His Majesty had already planned to take his life, so why should she take the extra step
He and she never spoke, not the first time, not now.
For some reason, he always felt that even if she didn't speak, he and she seemed to have known each other for a long time. He seemed to be able to imagine her sleepy eyes in the early morning, her smile when she was feeding fish by the pond when she was young, and her smile. There was her giggling behind her brother, her eyes filled with tears when she felt wronged...
Why does this exist
Obviously, he never understood this woman.
She came over and put her arms around his waist, hiding in front of him. Li Xiuning froze, not knowing what to do.
He didn't know how to ask her.
Finally, he spoke his first words.
"what you up to?"
Unexpectedly, Mingkang wrote on his palm, "Cold."
Because it was cold, I hugged him.
She suddenly stepped forward and pushed him against the tree trunk, leaning against his chest.
Li Xiuning's whole body felt hot, "How on earth did you get out of the palace? He would not bring you to such a dangerous place. This is a hunting ground."
"Who is the prey?" she wrote in his palm.
Only at this moment did Li Xiuning understand that Princess Mingkang was not ignorant. She understood what happened today better than anyone else. She also knew what happened in the past clearly. Everything was remembered in her heart, hatred, strategy, tolerance, It's all part of her.
"You should really want my life. Aren't you happy that he killed me?" Li Xiuning asked her.
As soon as she lowered her head, she stood up on tiptoes again, and this time she kissed his Adam's apple.
"You do not dare?"
She wrote along his wrist.
Li Xiuning smiled deeply, turned over and pressed her against the tree trunk behind him.
"What am I afraid of?"
Mingkang looked at him blankly.
"I'm afraid you don't dare."
"Why are you doing this?"
"You want to use me?"
"You hate him, so you want me to help you? With your own strength, I'm afraid you are no match for him, but with me, you might be able to give him a try. Is that what you think?"
Mingkang lowered his hand twice, signaling him to bend down. Li Xiuning didn't know what she was going to do, but he still did as she said.
Unexpectedly, as soon as he bent down and knelt in front of her, her hand reached to the back of his neck and rubbed it softly.
"how do you know?"
Li Xiuning smiled.
Mingkang didn't answer him, but leaned over and kissed him, as if they were separated from each other at the first touch.
(End of chapter)