"Tell me, who sent you here?" He Ming sat on the chair with his legs crossed, took a sip from the teacup lazily, and glanced at the palace maid who was kneeling on the ground, with a mocking smile on his face. Other palace maids approached His Majesty, perhaps for the sake of glory and wealth, but this one's intentions are hard to say.
Not to mention the walking posture of the empress at night, but also to know exactly where the emperor will appear, which is not something ordinary palace maids can do.
Nowadays, the emperor has more and more prestige in the court, and many people in the court have other thoughts, but some people are trying their best to attract His Majesty's attention, while some people plan to send the woman to the palace.
In He Ming's view, these people who want to rely on nepotism to secure their position are really a disgrace to an aristocratic family. Even if such a family can flourish for a while, it cannot be glamorous forever.
The maid who was kneeling on the ground did not move, let alone speak. He Ming didn't care, he put down the teacup, raised his eyebrows and said, "It's fine if you don't want to say it. It just so happens that the eunuchs who use torture in the palace also have the opportunity to practice their craftsmanship more."
The palace maid's whole body twitched. Obviously, He Ming's words evoked painful memories in her body, causing her to have this reaction unconsciously.
Seeing her reaction, He Ming showed a smile on his face, and seemed very satisfied with her appearance, "Okay, that's it, our family doesn't have so much time to accompany you to talk nonsense."
Several eunuchs next to him nodded and bowed and sent He Ming out of Shen Xingsi, and looked back at the ignorant palace maid, with cruel pleasure on their faces.
Such a woman as flowery as jade, falling into their hands, couldn't be happier.
"Your Majesty." He Ming returned to the imperial study and saluted Jin Yang. Bai Xian, who was grinding Jin Yang, raised his eyelids and glanced at him.
"Have you recruited?" Jin Yang asked without raising his head.
"The slaves are incompetent," He Ming pleaded guilty, "This palace maid is very tight-lipped, and I think she has a handle on the people behind the scenes."
"It doesn't matter who she is behind the scenes, the important thing is that the inside and outside of the Zichen Palace has to be cleaned up again," Jin Yang looked up at He Ming, "I want to ensure that the Queen is safe and sound!"
"Please rest assured, Your Majesty, the servants who are currently serving the Queen have carefully checked their four generations of grandparents and their relatives and friends. They will never let any suspicious person approach the Queen." He Ming knew how much the Emperor valued the Queen and the Queen. The child in the mother's womb, so she has done a lot of hard work in the safety of the queen's mother.
"That's good." Jin Yang put down his pen and sighed: "I seem to have not been to the palace for some days?"
He Ming unconsciously straightened his back.
The Jinxing Palace was still dilapidated and decayed, Jin Yang walked into the palace, smelled the musty smell inside, and frowned.
When the unkempt Qi Lian saw Jin Yang coming in, he was stunned for a moment before he reacted: "Your Majesty the Emperor, why did you come to such a dirty place?"
Now Qilian can still see the appearance of a country, with a black face, dirty hair, and clothes that can't be seen. This is no different from beggars on the street.
"Take him to take a bath and change his clothes." Jin Yang frowned, then said, "I will come back in the afternoon."
Qi Lian originally wanted to make a few sarcastic words, but thinking of the rare opportunity to take a bath, he swallowed the sarcasm, fearing that Jin Yang would be unhappy, and this rare opportunity also flew away.
After changing three buckets of water, Qi Lian washed his body and put on the clothes that the eunuch threw him. He didn't think the fabric was not good enough. Standing in a shabby house with his hair down, he felt that he was alive.
"That's how you look," Bai Xian walked into the room, holding a tray in his hand. On the tray was a bowl of white rice and a slightly greasy roast chicken.
If it was nine months ago, he would never have looked down on this kind of thing, but at this time, he just glanced at the roast chicken, and his mouth couldn't help saliva automatically.
When Bai Xian put down the tray, he didn't care about his image, he rolled up his sleeves and nibbled at the roast chicken, even his wet hair stuck to the roast chicken legs, and he didn't have time to lift it.
Seeing his appearance, Bai Xian couldn't help but recall how handsome he was when he represented Gao Luo as an ambassador to Dafeng. It can be seen that such things as manners and etiquette can only be perfected when you have enough food and drink. If even eating and drinking is a problem, who cares about this
After eating more than half of the whole roasted chicken, Qi Lian slowed down. He sucked the grease on his fingers and looked at Bai Xian: "Tell me, what exactly does Your Majesty want me to do?"
After detaining him for so long, he ate pig food, drank raw water, and even thought about taking a bath and changing clothes. Now that he was given such a good treatment suddenly, if he said it was all right, he would never believe it.
"Your Majesty's thoughts, how can our family know," Bai Xian said with a smile, "Don't worry, Mr. Qilian, you will naturally know when your Majesty comes down."
Knowing that he could not get any news in front of this eunuch, Qi Lian simply buried his head and ate, and after eating the roast chicken and rice, he wiped his mouth and said, "Here... I'm afraid it is an unused palace in the palace. Bar?"
Back then, the empress could easily come to see Sima Xiang, and the emperor even came and went here at will, indicating that the emperor was not afraid of revealing his whereabouts and would not arouse suspicion from others.
The so-called most dangerous place is the safest place, so in all likelihood this is the inside of the palace.
Bai Xian smiled and said, "Mr. Qilian is really smart."
"It's not that I'm smart, it's that you didn't plan to hide it at all." When Qi Lian was first brought into the dark prison, he was still dizzy, and he didn't know where others took him until Sima Xiang was also brought in. You can probably guess where you are.
Without him, the interior of Gao Luo Kingdom would have become a mess, not to mention the invasion of Dafeng. Who would have thought that, as the prime minister of a country, he would be imprisoned in such a place
Hearing what he said, Bai Xian did not refute, and still stood aside with a smile, as if he was not watching over him, but serving him.
Qi Lian thought to himself, it is no wonder that he can get along well in front of the emperor, such a person is very smart.
At this time, in the Zichen Hall, the dish was fragrant, and when Jin Yang saw Gu Rujiu yawning several times, he couldn't help asking, "Are you sleepy again?"
"Yeah." Gu Rujiu put down his chopsticks, took the cup handed by the palace maid and rinsed his mouth, rubbed his forehead and said, "I'll go to sleep first, and I'll eat it after I wake up."
Jin Yang put down the tableware and accompany her to the inner room. Seeing her lying down, he fell asleep. He couldn't help but smiled helplessly. After putting down the gauze for her, he turned and left.
"Your Majesty..." Seeing Jin Yang coming out, the eunuch serving looked carefully at the dining table, not knowing what to do.
"Withdraw," Jin Yang walked out without even looking at the food on the table. Seeing this, He Ming immediately followed.
After leaving the Zichen Palace, He Ming saw something wrong with the sky and whispered, "Your Majesty, it looks like it's going to rain today."
Jin Yang looked up and saw that the sky was covered with dark clouds and the sun was so gloomy that it made people breathless.
This reminded him that in order to be able to enter Beijing, he tried his best to let the minister who passed the decree see him. The weather that day seemed to be the same. In order to avoid the people who were filmed by his stepmother to stop him, he drilled holes, climbed trees, jumped off walls, and used all methods.
Before he was about to appear, he deliberately changed his dirty robe outside, trying to make himself look clean and motivated, but his life was not as good as his younger siblings.
"Your Majesty?" Seeing that Jin Yang's face was not very good, He Ming looked at him worriedly.
Jin Yang's eyelids moved slightly, and he put his hands behind him: "Go to the palace."
I wish to go to the side of the palace, Qi Lian has stretched his stomach several times, and now that his stomach is empty, he finally stopped. I haven't eaten greasy food for too long, and my stomach can't take it anymore.
He sat weakly on the worn-out chair, glanced at Bai Xian who was expressionless in the corner, and said, "Father Bai is good at self-discipline."
Now that he is so embarrassed, Bai Xian is able to hold on to it. Not only did he not watch his jokes, but he also had someone boil him a bowl of antidiarrheal medicine. Such a good attitude made him uncomfortable.
Just as Bai Xian was about to speak, he suddenly heard the faint sound of footsteps outside. His expression suddenly became serious, and he turned around to greet Qilian without looking at Qilian.
Qi Lian was wondering, and it didn't take a while to see Jin Yang walking in, while Bai Xianzheng followed behind him.
No wonder he can be the emperor's confidant, and he can distinguish the footsteps of the emperor from such a distance. This ability is really incomparable to ordinary people.
Jin Yang saw Qi Lian's face was pale and his legs were trembling. He didn't ask the reason, and said directly, "I'm here today to tell you something."
"What?" Qi Lian subconsciously felt that this matter had something to do with him.
"I have decided to retry the case that the prince was poisoned by Concubine Lin." Jin Yang looked at Qi Lian blankly, "If this case really has nothing to do with Concubine Lin, I will not only restore the innocence of the Lin family, but also let Concubine Lin be buried in the concubine's mausoleum. Get the incense of future generations, instead of being a lonely soul outside."
Qilian's expression changed slightly, and after a while, he said, "It's been so long, how do you check?"
"There are only cases in this world that you don't want to investigate, and there are no cases that can't be investigated," Jin Yang curled his lips, "I just want to know if you want the Lin family to be reconciled."
Qi Lian sneered and said: "Even if our Lin family has been wronged, what can we do? Hundreds of our Lin family's lives will not come back. The face of your Jin family is really disgusting."
"The person who wronged the Lin family is the late emperor, not me." Jin Yang didn't care about Qilian's scolding of the Jin family. In his opinion, the late emperor and some Jin family members were indeed disgusting, and Qilian did not scold them. Wrong, "At least thousands of years later, what your Lin family left in the history books is that they were killed by injustice, not that they were beheaded by the whole family for poisoning the prince."
After a moment of silence, Qi Lian tried his best to suppress the excitement in his heart: "Aren't you afraid of repeating old things and making the Queen Mother sad?"
The wind picked up, and the dilapidated windows in the side hall were blown.
Jin Yang looked at the dilapidated window that was swaying in the wind, and said in a flat tone: "I just don't want the children of the past to disappear without understanding."
"Heh," Qi Lian sneered, sneering at Jin Yang's high-sounding words, "Tell me, what do you want me to do?"
After he said these words, Jin Yang looked up at him.
Qi Lian saw that these eyes were enough to make countless men jealous and make countless women crazy, hiding countless ambitions and murderous intentions.
"I want you to stand up and testify that King Rui colluded with foreign enemies."
"That's all?" He squinted at Jin Yang, not believing that things would be so simple. He, the Prime Minister of Gao Luo who had disappeared, suddenly stood up to testify against King Rui, but it was not just a matter of two sentences.
Jin Yang suddenly raised the corners of his mouth, revealing an unintelligible smile: "Apart from this, what use do you have?"
Qi Lian felt that his personality had been insulted, and when he wanted to refute, Jin Yang had already left the door.
"Ouch, I..." Qi Lian felt that he wanted to swear.
"Mr. Qilian," said Bai Xian, who was still in the same place, "you have been living here recently."
Qi Lian looked back at the room, the tables, chairs, and beds were a bit shabby, but compared to the dark prison, it was much better, he squinted at Bai Xian: "Your Majesty is not afraid that I, a foreigner, live here. Palace, eh?"
He didn't say it clearly, and Bai Xian knew what he meant. So Pi Xiaorou said without a smile, "Then the Lin family is really going to be cut off, if our family is you, you will stay in the house honestly, and you won't even take a step out of the door, and you will be found and killed as a thief by others. Can't blame anyone else."
Being warned in secret, Qi Lian snorted, but he was very sensible and didn't say any more.
Seeing him being honest, Bai Xian nodded with satisfaction, "Mr. Qi Lian is not feeling well, so let's rest early." After speaking, he ignored Qi Lian, turned around and left.
"If there is a master, there must be a slave." Qi Lian shook his head and lay on the bed, the expression on his face gradually gloomy. Thinking of Lin's house full of doors, he closed his eyes in pain, and he didn't want to open his eyes again despite the wind and rain outside.
"It's going to rain outside, why are you here now?" Empress Dowager Zhou was in a good mood when she saw Jin Yang coming. Last time, because of her family's affairs, she knew that Jin Yang was a little unhappy, and seeing him coming , and let go of that worry.
"My son just happened to be passing by, so he came to see his mother." Jin Yang said with a smile.
Empress Dowager Zhou smiled and asked someone to serve him tea and snacks. She did not ask him why he was passing by from Zichen Palace to Kangquan Palace. Jin Yang did not explain. This was a tacit understanding between their mother and son.
"The tea here is still so delicious." Jin Yang took a sip of tea and drank a familiar taste.
"You're not praising me, you're praising Jiujiu," Queen Mother Zhou knew what kind of personality he was, so she didn't speak too politely, "This tea was brought over by Jiujiu last time. I drink it and it works well, and I can sleep well. much better."
"It's good that the mother doesn't dislike it." As soon as the tea came in, he drank the kind of tea that Jiujiu often asked him to drink this year. "My son is here today, and there is something else I want to discuss with the mother."
"What's the matter?" Queen Mother Zhou asked with a smile.
"My son wants to retry the case of Concubine Lin's poisoning of the prince."
"Bang!" The wind blew the window, and the window smashed against the wall, making a loud noise. The smile on Empress Dowager Zhou's face gradually disappeared, and the hand holding the teacup trembled, "Why do you suddenly have this idea?"
"Because the son suspects that there is someone else behind the scenes," Jin Yang stood up and gave a big gift to the Queen Mother Zhou, "The son didn't want his brother to go away so vaguely."
The Queen Mother Zhou opened her mouth, but she didn't know what to say. After a long while, she leaned her whole body on the back of the chair tiredly. She closed her eyes so as not to reveal her emotions: "Who is the object of your suspicion...?"
"King Rui."
Empress Dowager Zhou's understanding of Jin Yang has four or five points, if not seven or eight points. If it is something that has no effect, Jin Yang will never mention it to her. Now that he dares to speak directly and say that he doubts King Rui, then this matter must be related to King Rui.
"I see." She opened her eyes, "Go and do it."
Thinking of the pair of children she gave birth to that year, the Queen Mother Zhou felt like a knife twisted in her heart, and she could no longer cope with Jin Yang.
Jin Yang also knew that he would not be popular at the moment, stood up and said, "My son retire."
Empress Dowager Zhou waved her hand and did not speak.
Their mother and son both knew very well that no matter how harmonious and close they were to perform on weekdays, they were not biological mothers and sons.
His status in the Queen Mother's heart is not as good as that of the prince who died at the age of two. The empress dowager chose him just to choose a suitable emperor, and he filial piety to the empress dowager was only grateful to the empress dowager for making him an emperor.
As for feelings...
When he walked out of Kangquan Palace, it was already a gust of wind outside. The hem of his sleeves and the corners of his robes were fluttering in the wind, which was a bit wild.
"Your Majesty, the wind is too strong outside, be careful." He Ming took two steps forward, blocking the direction of the wind for Jin Yang just now.
Jin Yang glanced at him without speaking, and walked all the way to the outside of the Zichen Palace. When he saw the figure standing at the door, he involuntarily quickened his pace and ran to the jade steps.
"Jiu Jiu, why are you here?" He touched Gu Rujiu's hand, making sure that his hand was not cold before he felt relieved, "It's so windy outside, what are you doing out here?"
"I woke up just now, and when I saw you weren't there, I knew you were out," Gu Rujiu smiled and dragged him into the house, "It's windy outside, and I can't sleep, so I'll come out to see, if it's raining, I can have someone bring you an umbrella."
"Where do I need to send an umbrella specially, there are so many places in the palace," Jin Yang smiled, but his heart became warm.
The five-day court meeting, just when everyone thought that today's discussion was almost over, the emperor suddenly spoke again.
This person has always been silent, and when he speaks, he will definitely scare people to death, so after Jin Yang opened his mouth, everyone waited in earnest, held their breath, and thought to themselves, which one is going to be unlucky.
Who knows that this time the emperor did not trouble anyone, but gave a person a title.
Adding a title to the title is not a big deal. As long as the person who is ennobled does not have a character problem, everyone can accept it. It's just that the person who has been conferred by the emperor this time is really...
"Your Majesty, the first prince will die early, I'm afraid..."
"It is precisely because of this young brother's early death that I can't bear to let him have no incense to continue in a hundred years," Jin Yang looked at the official who spoke, "It would be more appropriate for me to name him Prince An."
According to the rules, early death should be regarded as unfilial, because the white-haired person is sent to the black-haired person. But this matter didn't have much to do with them originally. To be more careful, he wanted to please his titular mother today, so he added the title of the titular mother's biological son.
Anyway... the emperor is just happy for himself.
Everyone, look at me, I look at you, and I think this is a big deal or a small one. If it goes big, it's bad manners. When I was younger, it was a distressed younger brother who was an older brother. Let's see what they think of these courtiers.
"Your Majesty is kind!" Zhang Zhonghan stood up, wiped his eyes and said with a very moved look: "His Royal Highness Prince An knows about it, and he will be moved too."
Hehe, you have already called his Royal Highness Prince An, and you even said something woolly!
They expressed their strong contempt for Zhang Zhonghan's flattering behavior, and then countless people came forward to express their opinions.
Anyway, you have no problem with being the emperor. They still care about these nostalgic things, as long as you don't idle and seal the little prince as the emperor.
After the news that the emperor added the prince as Prince An spread to Kangquan Palace, the Queen Mother Zhou cried with red eyes, took Aunt Liu's hand and said, "My son will finally have incense and filial piety in the future."
"Niangniang," Aunt Liu comforted the Empress Dowager Zhou, "the emperor made this decision despite his filial piety to you. If you burst into tears and hurt your body because of this, wouldn't it be contrary to the emperor's wishes?"
"You're right," Empress Dowager Zhou wiped away the tears from the corners of her eyes, and then said, "Go and see the things in my private library. If there is anything suitable for the queen, send it over."
She is not good for the emperor, and the same is true for the queen.
Aunt Liu breathed a sigh of relief, the Queen Mother did not get carried away, otherwise it would spread...
After all, it is not biological, and it is always right to be careful when doing things.
"Father, what does your majesty mean by suddenly adding the title of the little prince?" Prince Rui looked a little worried, "could it be..."
"Impossible," King Rui said firmly. "It has been more than ten years, and it is impossible for anyone to know. Those who know have no chance to speak again."
"Then why did the emperor make such a move," Prince Rui didn't quite understand. "If it was to please the queen mother, he could have done this when he first ascended the throne. Why should it be delayed until now?"
"When he first ascended the throne, it wasn't that he was the empress dowager. How could a smart woman like the empress dowager bring up such a thing by herself and cause the world to criticize it?" King Rui sneered, "Now that he is in power, it would be wrong to bring it up again. The idea of the queen mother is that he is filial to the queen mother, and when it is spread in the future, the people will only say that he is filial and filial."
"So it is," Prince Rui sighed in relief, "I thought it was the emperor who discovered what happened back then."
"My father told you a long time ago that as a man, if you don't get into trouble, you can't be in a mess. You still owe a lot of money now," Rui Wang frowned, "Starting today, I will write ten more big characters every day. "
"Yes." Prince Rui did not dare to refute, and immediately agreed.
"Yeah." King Rui nodded reluctantly, thinking of his current style of behavior, if this was really his son, he wouldn't bother to calculate so much.
I didn't expect that King Cheng's useless son could give birth to such a good son.
But thinking of his current attitude towards King Cheng, after King Cheng's death, and the downfall of King Cheng's mansion, he smiled again with satisfaction.
What's the use of having a good son? He has a life but no happiness. When he dies, he thinks that Jin Yang is not his own son, which is really pitiful and ridiculous.