Inside the gold plate were the clothes brought by the maid, Shan Chao flipped through them, and found that it turned out to be a brand new set of imperial guard uniforms, he couldn't help but pause a little.
"Put it on," Xie Yun said coldly, "If you don't have this, you will be shot to death if you can't enter the Xuanwu Gate."
The guard uniform is dark red cloud brocade, white gauze lining, dark golden flying fish pattern belt on black background, cuffs are tightly bound by wrist guards of the same texture, and the tailoring is extremely tight and neat. There was a bronze mirror standing in the corner of the outer room, Shan Chao looked him up and down, and suddenly he couldn't recognize the strong young man in front of him.
The maid came in from the corridor with a bronze badge of the imperial army, and was stunned when she saw Shan Chaoshi, then covered her mouth with a smile and said, "What a handsome gentleman."
Shan Chao looked away uncomfortably, and saw Xie Yun coming out of the inner room after changing clothes, but asked the maid: "Do you like it?"
The maid said, "Brother Junsheng, who doesn't like it?"
Xie Yun smiled and said: "Then you can go and serve him—but if he dies in the palace today, you two will have no destiny."
These words were very meaningful, and Shan Chao couldn't help but tremble in his heart.
Without explaining much, Xie Yun took the waist tag worn by the leather cord from the maid's tray, walked over and tied Shan Chao's belt on the belt with his own hands.
Xie Yun also changed into his official uniform—this was the first time in Shan Chao’s life that he saw him wearing the uniform of the commander of the imperial army, which was the opposite of that of ordinary imperial guards. The dark python pattern embroidered on the hem fluttered with the steps, as if alive.
A person like him who has practiced foreign kung fu to the extreme has a very outstanding body and temperament, but it is very different from Shan Chao.
Shan Chao is like a sharp sword out of its sheath, showing its sharpness and arrogance; while Xie Yun has gone through countless years of carving and polishing, showing his demeanor and power, but the real deadly edge is facing inward.
"When you enter the palace later, don't open your mouth, don't walk around, just follow me." Xie Yun fastened his waist badge, took half a step back to look at Shan Chao, and said, "Take the snow lotus."
Shan Chao wanted to ask something else, but Xie Yun put his index finger on his lips and turned away.
In the east, Daming Palace.
The carriage entered from the north gate, crossed the long street and came to a tall gate building. Several guards with swords stepped forward to salute, and asked the commander to dismount and walk—then further on was the boundary of the outer court. Shan Chao got out of the carriage, looked up and saw the gray morning sun passing through the three tall gates, and three big characters were written on the large plaque with gold on the blue background: "Xuanwu Gate," Xie Yun said.
Shan Chao glanced at the cracks in the blue bricks at the bottom of his feet, but he saw that the square was wide and endless, and the Chongxuan Gate in front of him and the Hanliang Hall further away cast majestic gray shadows in the mist.
"What are you looking at?" Xie Yun mocked, "The blood has already dried up."
The general wears the Xuanwu Gate at night, and asks the emperor of the five gates to sleep—forty years since the change of Xuanwu Gate, the hidden prince has been built, the former prince Chengqian, Qi Wang Yuanji, Wei Wang Li Tai, and even the former emperor himself has passed away, golden water surrounds Tai Chi In the palace, the clouds in the sparkling pool of Taiye reflected the clouds in the sky, drifting to the sky without a trace.
Passing Beiya, there was already a palace deacon standing there waiting at the end of the side street, and he stepped forward and bowed deeply: "Commander, please follow me."
After a pause, he said in a low voice: "The queen has been waiting for a long time."
Shan Chao felt a chill on his wrist—Xie Yun put five fingers on his wrist.
It's hard to tell whether it's a pull or a grip, and it's hard to detect what kind of emotion is conveyed in that instant, but it's just a moment. Immediately afterwards, Xie Yun let go and turned to the deacon politely: "Understood, please lead the way."
At the head of the north side street of the inner palace of Qingning Palace, next to the Zichen Hall, it took about half an hour to walk around the resplendent palace gate and walk along the long paulownia corridor to a gatehouse. At this moment, the surroundings were silent, and there was not even a single person in the square in the distance. The deacon stopped and said with a smile: "Please, Commander, the Queen is waiting for you upstairs."
Xie Yun's back seemed to pause before stepping over the high threshold.
Immediately afterwards, the deacon behind him smiled and turned to Shan Chao: "Guards, please wait at the side of the hall—do you want some tea?"
The question was quite abrupt, and before Shan Chao could speak, Xie Yun suddenly said, "He doesn't need any entrance."
There seemed to be some kind of confrontation-like stalemate in the air, and then Xie Yun turned his face and told Shan Chao: "Be careful, don't drop the snow lotus in your hand."
As soon as the words fell, the deacon's face changed slightly.
But he quickly restrained his expression, bowed and said yes, and then retreated.
Shan Chao stared at Xie Yun, whose eyes were like a pool of deep water, reflecting the tile-blue sky above Daming Palace and a few wisps of floating clouds further away.
The late autumn wind blew from the sky, curling up their clothes and hair and entangled them together.
Shan Chao moved his hand hanging by his side, then handed the small rosewood lock box to him, and said in a low voice, "You..."
But Xie Yun suddenly waved him away with his sleeves: "Keep yourself." Then he turned around and walked towards the apse without looking back, and soon disappeared in the shadows of the tall hall.
Shan Chao watched his back completely disappear before taking half a step back as if lost, and let out a long breath of foul air from his chest.
At this time, the sky was as clear as blue, and the Palace Gate Square was wide and lonely. Apart from the chirping of wild geese flying across the sky in the distance, the surrounding area was so quiet that only the sound of the wind could be heard. Shan Chao raised his head and looked up at the tall gatehouse, but suddenly caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eyes—a person was standing there by the high jade railing, watching him.
It was a woman.
She has golden red palace gauze and phoenix hairpin. She is not young, but she is gorgeous and majestic, like a goddess who descended from the nine heavens against the wind.
For some unknown reason, at the moment when they looked at each other, Shan Chao's heart suddenly trembled heavily, and an indescribable feeling suddenly rose from the depths of his soul.
But then the woman withdrew her gaze, turned and left the high platform, and the skirt embroidered with gold thread disappeared into the blue sky.
·
"Ma'am," the deacon said softly, "Commander Xie is here."
The high platform was connected with the gatehouse and the hall. Empress Wu raised the jade bead curtain and stepped into the inner hall. Sure enough, she saw the white python robes of the commander of the imperial army laid out on the ground, and half kneeled in front of the main seat with one knee upright.
"Ma'am—"
The confidant maid stepped forward quickly, but Empress Wu waved her hand and said, "Back off."
The palace maid remained silent, bowed and retreated behind the pillar.
The inner hall is extremely rich and elegant, with bricks paved with brocade, precious incense dust, and golden purple aromatherapy slowly emitting light smoke from the jewel-encrusted animal head. Empress Wu walked slowly to the main seat, looked down at Xie Yun's head condescendingly, and only after a long while said softly: "The commander has lost weight."
Then without waiting for Xie Yun's answer, he said again: "It can be seen that the journey has been hard."
There was a hint of sarcasm in the second half of the sentence.
Xie Yun's gaze was fixed on the gorgeous skirt in front of him, as if he was unaware of everything around him, and even his tone of voice was calm and calm: "Your Majesty has won an award, but I dare not be a minister—this morning's kindness Xinchao, a monk from the temple, brought snow lotus flowers to offer, but I didn't dare to be self-absorbed, so I specially brought him here to worship, and asked the empress to be the master." After saying that, he bowed his head and bowed down.
The confidant maid guarding behind the pillar couldn't help showing surprise on her face.
However, Empress Wu remained motionless until she saw that he had bowed to the bottom, and then said leisurely: "You kowtow... but I haven't seen you for many years."
Xie Yun said: "The minister and the empress have known each other for seventeen years, what is the gift of a knock?"
This answer was extremely quick and flawless. It would be impossible for anyone else to say it so smoothly. Empress Wu couldn't even imagine how many times Xie Yun had rehearsed it in advance.
But she was not angry, instead there was a smile on her face, but the smile was extremely cold: "Where is the snow lotus?"
"Nobucha outside the door holds it in his hand."
"Who is Xinchao?"
"The monk who offered sour fruit soup on the day the prince came to Ci'en Temple."
"Why are you wearing the bodyguard uniform?"
"I want to bring him to meet the queen with my own eyes, so I have no choice but to do it. Please calm down."
Empress Wu was quiet for a moment, and said, "I saw you outside just now."
No one made a sound in the inner hall, and the light smoke slowly dissipated from the beast's mouth.
"...Since we have seen each other, we don't need to see each other again." Empress Wu turned her head and ordered: "Come here, drag Xinchao outside the door and kill him with a stick."
The palace lady came out in response, but before she reached the door, Xie Yun suddenly raised her head and waved her sleeves, the Tai'a sword that had been hidden under her clothes swept across the air, the sword energy roared out, and the door was slammed shut with a bang!
Empress Wu shouted angrily: "Bold!"
Xie Yun drew his sword out of its sheath, backhanded the tip of the sword and deeply inserted it into the floor tiles, and said in a deep voice: "It is a felony to beheaded to show a sword in front of the emperor. If this is the case, please finish me with your own hands, Your Majesty."
"..." Empress Wu's chest heaved, she suddenly picked up the tea bowl on the table, and threw it out!
boom!
The celadon tea bowl wiped Xie Yun's forehead and fell to the ground, smashed to pieces instantly, a line of blood flowed down Xie Yun's cheek.
"He deserved to die two years ago," Empress Wu grabbed Xie Yun's lapel and looked closely into his eyes: "—Two years ago!"
The corners of Xie Yun's eyes were soaked in blood, and his cheeks were terribly white because of this, but his expression was very calm: "Although I bear the name of the number one in the university, I sometimes miss it. Please forgive me."
"Why did you miss it?!"
"..."
The confidant maid turned her back to them, although she was used to seeing the wind and rain in the palace, she still couldn't help shaking her hands at this moment, and she didn't even dare to turn her head.
Xie Yun's dark red placket was tightly held by Empress Wu's gold-and-enameled, hollowed-out and treasure-inlaid finger guards, and a thin leather rope worn around his neck was faintly exposed from the gap.
Empress Wu slowly let go of her hand, and hooked out the leather rope with the tip of her finger guard, only to see a dry, cracked pendant hanging from the end—her eyes changed slightly.
That's an eagle claw.
"... This is not the one I gave you." Empress Wu finally straightened up and said coldly, "Where did it come from?"
The frozen air in the inner hall finally began to flow slowly. Not far away, the maid secretly held the door frame, and breathed a sigh of relief silently like a collapse.
Xie Yun raised his head and stared at Empress Wu, the woman at the top of the empire was reflected in his eyes. Although his voice was hoarse, he was still very steady: "Back then in Mobei, the desert was deserted and lonely. I don’t know if the stone cave under the wall of the outer courtyard of Ganye Temple is still there. When I was thirsty and hungry and ran to hide drink."
Empress Wu looked away and didn't speak for a long time.
"...that's my saving case too," she finally whispered.
"I was ignorant back then, and it was hard to get enough food in the secret door, so I always asked my mother for food, but I didn't know that my mother could only live with difficulty in the temple. Later, I was injured and thought I was going to die. When I went to the wall of the Ganye Temple, I saw my empress waiting for me all night, saving me a basket of food and medicine... "
Empress Wu interrupted him: "You were just a child then, what do you know?"
Xie Yun smiled sadly: "Yes, at that time, I never thought that there would be today. I only thought that I would die in the secret door, and my empress would die in the temple... No, I didn't even know you were an empress back then."
There seemed to be some inexplicable emotions in Empress Wu's eyes, and she sighed slightly after a while: "Later, I was called back to the palace, but you were still trapped in the secret door."
Xie Yun also shook his head mockingly.
"Before she left, she caught the eagle at the secret door with her own hands, cut off two eagle claws, and gave one to me after drying. Unfortunately, there was a black storm in Mobei one year, and I couldn't move. At that time, everything that could be blown away from my body was blown away, and the eagle claws that I had worn next to my body for so many years also disappeared... "
"I rummaged in the desert for a radius of ten miles but couldn't find its shadow. I was exhausted and passed out. When I woke up, I saw another eagle claw beside the pillow, hanging by a rope on the side of the couch. Knowing that it was the people around me who falconed all night, they rushed to make it and delivered it."
Empress Wu suddenly looked at Xie Yun.
Xie Yun also stared at her, the gray and dry eagle claw on her neck hung silently on her chest.
After a long time, he finally bent down and bowed slowly under the eyes of Empress Wu.
"I have always remembered the grace of life back then, and I have never forgotten it for seventeen years. When I attacked Mobei two years ago, I suddenly remembered the old things about Ganye Temple..."
"Looking at Zhu Chengbi's chaotic memory, it's the first time in his life that he missed his hand. Please forgive me, Your Highness the Queen."
The inner hall was quiet, and Empress Wu's eyes flickered with an unknown gleam, and after a while, the corners of her mouth turned up, and she laughed softly.
"Xie Yun, sometimes I always feel that how can you be so similar to me..."
She stretched out her hand to gently lift Xie Yun's blood-stained cheek, and wiped off the blood with her cuff, her movements could even be called tender. Some traces had already dried up, and she didn't ask someone to put on a wet wipe, but wiped it gently several times until the obvious blood stains under the temple hair were completely wiped off, revealing smooth skin.
Empress Wu approached slightly, looking condescendingly at Xie Yun.
This is actually a very strange scene - although there is no blood relationship, these two faces have handsome eyebrows and deep contours, and there is a kind of hard-to-find coldness and sharpness hidden in the eyes, and there is an inexplicable resemblance in a trance.
"Why aren't you my son?" Empress Wu whispered in Xie Yun's ear.
"—If you were, how could this world be reduced to what it is today?"
Xie Yun stopped breathing suddenly.
Empress Wu stood up with a smile, passed by, and strode towards the door: "Commander Xie is injured, and the imperial doctor is here to pass on the medicine, so don't let your scars—"
"Let people inform His Majesty that Xinchao, a monk of Ci'en Temple, has contributed medicine to heal the prince, and he will be rewarded!"