After returning from Chengqian Hall, Hongli was at a loss for a while.
He didn't want to go back to the Hall of Mental Cultivation. The table of the Hall of Mental Cultivation was full of memorials extolling his virtues. On the surface, he praised Naerbu for his good death, but in fact he praised him for his good killing.
Looking at the people who handed over the book, hehe, they are the real culprits who are greedy for money for disaster relief.
Hongli felt tired for a while, tired of both them and himself. He walked around and walked to Yanxi Palace unknowingly.
A burst of music came from inside, neither zither nor qin, neither flute nor drum.
Hongli paused, walked in again, and looked at the music box on the table.
A pair of puppet lovers in the music box, with blonde hair and blue eyes, wearing Western-style dresses, held each other's hands and danced to the music. Beside the music box, Wei Yingluo was also holding Mingyu's hand, wearing a cheongsam in the palace, and following the music. She danced, and then said, "Wrong, wrong, Mr. Yin said it's not like this, come again."
Mingyu's fingers are dexterous and can make all kinds of snacks, but her feet are not so dexterous. She staggered and jumped a few times before giving up: "The servant will not jump, he will not jump!"
Wei Yingluo: "Try again!"
Hongli watched for a long time, and when he saw two people stepping on my skirt, I stepped on your feet, jumping like a god, and couldn't help laughing.
Hearing his voice, the two hurried over to salute him.
"What are you doing?" Hongli excused her gift, fiddled with the music box with his hand, and changed a tune.
Wei Yingluo said with a smile: "This Western object is put in the Ministry of Internal Affairs to eat ashes. The concubine specially asked Mr. Yin from France for advice. He also demonstrated a dance for me."
Hongli was both angry and funny: "I asked the French missionaries to stay in the Forbidden City. They are specializing in calendars and firearms, not playing with you."
Wei Yingluo didn't answer his words, she just walked over with a smile, stretched out her hand to support his waist, and led him to dance.
Waltz - just like the relationship between men and women, you advance and I retreat, you retreat and I advance.
This is a kind of dance that is very suitable for couples to dance, even if one of them can't be at all, with the guidance of the other, they will soon be able to.
"How is it?" Wei Yingluo smiled, "Isn't it interesting?"
At this time, Hongli had already danced in a decent manner, but just after showing a smile, he suddenly raised his face again: "You dance like that with that foreigner too?"
"How?" Wei Yingluo asked deliberately.
Hongli snorted coldly and pinched her waist with his fingers.
There was a piece of itchy flesh there. Wei Yingluo laughed when he pinched him, and hurriedly grabbed his finger and said, "No, no, Mr. Yin showed me with the little eunuch."
Hongli's face turned cloudy.
"Your lord really has a way." Li Yucha said to Mingyu in a low voice when he saw this, "The emperor has been unhappy for the past two days, and when I came to your place, I only had a smile on my face."
Mingyu looked at the two people who were spinning in front of her, covered her mouth and kept laughing.
Li Yu was a little puzzled by her smile: "What are you laughing at?"
"Wait." On that side, Hong Li also felt something was wrong, frowning in confusion, "It seems... What's wrong?"
Wei Yingluo blinked innocently: "What's wrong?"
"..." Hongli's hand slowly slid down, grabbed Wei Yingluo's hand on his waist, raised his eyebrows dangerously, "I heard that Westerners dance, men's hands are on women's waists, what do you do? -Wei Yingluo, you are deliberately teasing me again!"
Wei Yingluo took his hand back and put it on her waist.
Hongli: "...Do you think that I will not be angry?"
"Your Majesty, don't be angry." Wei Yingluo slowly rested her head on his shoulder, "I just want to make you happy."
Depend on each other, the most lingering dance step in the waltz, accompanied by the waltz in the music box, spinning, spinning, spinning...
A bright moon rises into the sky.
Tired of jumping, the two sat side by side by the window, looking at the bright moon outside the window.
"Your Majesty." Wei Yingluo looked up at him, "Are you unhappy again?"
Hongli was always unhappy, and only a few times he was able to smile happily, but now he has returned to his usual serious look, and said lightly: "Yingluo, if someone has to be killed, what will you do?"
Wei Yingluo smiled: "Kill it."
Hongli was stunned and looked down at her: "What if he was wronged?"
Wei Yingluo: "Let it go."
Hongli: "...If he was wronged, but for the sake of the overall situation, he had to kill him?"
Wei Yingluo didn't hesitate: "As soon as you kill it, let it go."
At first Hongli thought she was right, but as soon as she said this, she felt she was perfunctory: "What is this called!"
"It's not wrong to kill on the face, but steal the dragon and turn the phoenix in private." Wei Yingluo said, "The emperor can find a death row prisoner with a similar description, and secretly replace the person, wouldn't it be enough?"
Hongli was stunned at first, and then he laughed: "You think the prison of the Ministry of Justice is a vegetable market, and the beheading must be verified!"
"Chen and concubine of course know that the identity of the body must be verified before beheading, and also know who the 'he' you are talking about." Wei Yingluo said.
Hongli stopped smiling.
After a long silence, Wei Yingluo spoke first: "... Lord Narbu, you still want to kill him, Your Majesty."
Hongli said in a loud voice: "Nonsense, I have never thought of it like that!"
"But even if you gave the queen grace and changed the beheading to exile, would he be safe during his exile? There is no one in the world that the emperor can't let go, and you simply—" Wei Yingluo paused, and still said that sentence, " I don't want him to live!"
Hongli stared at her gloomily, and after a long time, he smiled lightly: "You are right."
He stood up beside Wei Yingluo and walked towards the window alone, with both hands on the railing, overlooking the scenery below, the pavilions, the palace maids and eunuchs, everything shrank in his eyes.
"...Narbu was not greedy for ink and food, but he made a mistake and didn't report it, and he was incompetent. More or less, all parts of eastern Zhejiang faced a similar situation, but there was no riot, and no victims starved to death." Hongli Holding the railing tightly, he said slowly, "Sometimes, an incompetent official is no less harmful than a corrupt official. He has been wronged and aggrieved, and the empress defends him. Who will take care of the victims who died in vain? I sentence him to exile, But looking at the queen, choosing a decent way to die for him, I just didn't expect the queen mother to be one step earlier..."
After a little hesitation, he asked in a low voice, "Yingluo, do you think I am a cruel emperor?"
"meeting."
Hongli's expression darkened.
A hand slowly stretched out from behind him and wrapped around his waist.
"But so what?" Wei Yingluo leaned her face on his back, "Your Majesty, you always want to be perfect, but where can there be perfect people in the world? If you kill corrupt officials, corrupt officials will hate you. If you kill mediocrity, mediocrity will complain. You. If you want to hate, you will hate, if you want to complain, you will complain, you have no regrets, and you will never look back!"
Hongli laughed slowly: "You're right, you have no regrets, and you will never look back!"
The moon shines in the world, under the railings, under the pavilion, Zhener is scurrying around like a headless fly.
"Jin'er?" Seeing her distraught appearance, Hong Zhou frowned, "You're not waiting by the Queen's side, what are you doing here?"
"Chengqian Palace, Imperial Garden, Internal Affairs Office..." Zhen'er's eyes went straight, she shivered and said a lot of places, and finally she looked up at him and cried, "Nothing at all, I can't find the Empress at all!"
Hong Zhou was startled, he forgot to avoid suspicion and grabbed her arm: "What did you say? What happened to the queen?"
"The queen is gone." Zhen'er had been searching for a whole day, and she was so exhausted that she had no idea, so she just kept crying, "The servants have searched everywhere, but I can't find anyone, and I dare not tell others..."
Hong Zhou glared at the leading eunuch behind him, the other party understood, and hurriedly looked around, pretending that he didn't hear or see anything.
Turning around, Hong Zhou said to Zhen'er in a deep voice, "We split up, and we must find the Empress before anyone else finds out."
Although the Forbidden City is big, it is not very big after removing the few places that Zhener had already looked for. The two hurriedly allocated where each other was going to find next, and then split up.
Not here, not here, not here... Hong Zhou hurriedly walked under a corner tower, suddenly stopped, looked up, and when he could see the figure on the corner tower clearly, he said: "Queen!"
Dengdengdeng—the sound of boots scurrying across wooden steps.
Hong Zhou ran up the turret almost instantly, breathing gradually, looking at the queen standing barefoot on the railing of the turret in front of him, his voice trembled: "Queen, what are you doing, come down first, okay?"
Then she turned her head slowly, her face pale under the moonlight: "...Do you think I'm going to jump from here?"
After speaking, she turned her head, opened her arms, and walked towards the edge of the corner building step by step.
Following her pace, Hong Zhou only felt that his heart was in his throat, and without thinking much, he walked over with her.
If there is a mistake at this time... I am afraid that the next day the palace servants will find the bodies of two people.
"I stayed here for a day." Then he suddenly stopped and looked into the distance, "I just want to know how Fucha Rongyin feels when he is standing here."
Then she laughed, uncharacteristically, with a very relaxed laugh.
"Fucha Rongyin and I entered the house one after the other. She is the gentle and dignified descendant of Fujin, and I am the cautious and careful side Fujin. We have many similarities, but we are different. The same, we entrust our sincerity to Husband. It's different..." Then he looked down at his feet, "She jumped from here, and I became the queen on top."
It's no wonder that along the way, there are not many people here, and the palace maids and eunuchs seem to be deliberately avoiding this place.
It turned out that this place was the place where the first queen fell to her death.
The ground seems clean, but there is blood, tears, and dead souls.
Hong Zhou said solemnly: "Queen, the past has long since passed, why bother to bring it up again? You are not Fucha Rongyin, and you will not become her."
"Yeah, I'm not Fucha Rongyin. Even if I stand here, I never want to die." Then he sighed and looked back at him, "Do you know why?"
Hiroshi looked at her.
"Because I'm not reconciled." The follower said softly, "I thought that when I became the lord of the six palaces and became the queen of the Qing Dynasty, I would never be trampled on again, and I would never have to be cautious, but I was wrong. Concubine Xian can't protect E-Niang and her brother, and the current queen can't protect Ama, because the power in her hands is too little, too little..."
"No, it's not like this..." Hong Zhou wanted to comfort her, but he didn't know how.
He personally investigated what happened in Narb, and he knew the truth best.
He can even guess why he died...
Everything is as she said later, you are the queen, she still can't keep her father, because the one who wants his father's life is her husband - the current saint.
"It's not like this... you just..." Hong Zhou said sadly, "you just have hope for the emperor..."
And he lives up to your hopes...
He didn't say a word after that.
The moonlight shone on her thin shoulders, making her more and more lonely and pitiful.
And what about her husband? I'm afraid I'll be staying in Yanxi Palace again...
Hong Zhou looked at that shoulder, and stretched out his hand in a ghostly way, but he was a palm away and dared not put it on top.
"Go back." Afterwards, he suddenly said without looking back, "You and I, it's time to go back."
After speaking, she slowly turned her head and returned to her usual dignified and virtuous face. If it weren't for the tears on her cheeks, she wouldn't be able to tell that she had ever cried.
Hong Zhou also had to become a courtier, respectfully gave way to go downstairs, and looked at the lonely back that was gradually receding. , In the future, please tell me where you need Hong Zhou. I want to do something for you..."
The footsteps that followed stopped for a while, and without looking back, continued to walk forward.