Xiao Yu's erratic footsteps suddenly stopped.
The dazzling sunlight shone on his face, causing him to shrink back. After the dizziness passed, he opened his eyes again and looked in the direction of the majestic Tai Chi Palace.
It was the place where he grew up, from the Taiji Palace to the East Palace, every brick and tile inside is very familiar.
Up to now, he has become a prisoner, and the person waiting to see him is the former wife.
He couldn't tell exactly what he felt in his heart, but he felt that the changes in people were unpredictable. After a trance, a twisted resentment flashed across the dead wood-like face.
In the end there are still unwilling, there are still things that have not been clear, it is also time to ask carefully.
"Let's go." He tried his best to stand up straight, straightened his rough prison uniform, pursed his lips and walked towards the Tai Chi Palace.
…
In the Hall of Ganlu, Chu Ning sat in front of the dressing room in the inner room, staring at himself with a calm face in the bronze mirror.
Cui He pulled out the newly made hairpin jewelry and placed them on the table one by one: "Look, Your Highness, which one should you use?"
These are all made in sets according to the queen's specifications, inlaid with gold and jade, so delicate and dazzling, they are dazzling.
Chu Ning came back to his senses, looked at Jin Yu who was full of eyes, and couldn't help laughing: "What are you doing with these? You don't need to be so troublesome."
Cui He bit her lip, being a little stubborn: "His Royal Highness is now the queen, so it should be so..."
Chu Ning knew that she was resentful and wanted to show her most luxurious side when facing Xiao Yu.
"Just wear this one." She didn't push it all the way, and picked out a golden step and inserted it into her hair. "Whether we're doing well or not is not based on this."
Cui He saw that her face was less restrained and restrained than when she was in the East Palace in the past, she slowly calmed down, nodded and said, "Your Highness is right, it's the servant who thought too much."
After a while, the servant outside said: "His Royal Highness, someone has been brought here."
Chu Ning's hand holding the teacup paused, then slowly raised his head, looked at himself in his glasses, got up and sat down on the couch outside, and said, "Let him come in."
With a creak, the heavy hall door was pushed open from the outside, a thin and frail figure appeared outside the door, and the sunlight came in, casting a thick shadow on the ground.
"When you meet Her Royal Highness, why don't you salute quickly?" The imperial servants who were waiting on both sides saw Xiao Yu standing at the gate of the palace with a blank expression, and couldn't help raising their voices.
"Hmph, Empress." Xiao Yu's face was a little distorted, he didn't even look at the servant, just stared straight at Chu Ning sitting on the main seat, and walked down the steps step by step, without salute at all, "Back then I promised you the position of Empress, you always seem to not care much, I thought that you don't care about your name, it turns out that it is just that."
In the face of the sudden change in status, the edges and corners that had been smoothed out in the past two weeks suddenly became clear. Even if he had been reduced to a prisoner, he would not show any timidity when facing the woman who had surrendered to him in the past.
Chu Ning was not angry at his words. On the contrary, the more he spoke ill of him, the calmer her heart became.
"If I'm your queen, I really don't care." She smiled at him and said what was in her heart lightly.
"You!" Xiao Yu froze for a while, and his eyes gradually filled with anger, he couldn't help but ask the words that had been in his heart for many days, "When did you and him—you said that I treated you badly, he Can someone like that treat you well?"
Chuning knew what he was asking. She had thought many times before, what would happen when he discovered the truth one day, and now, he would see it.
"The day and night you left Chang'an and went to Huazhou, I came to Ganlu Temple."
Xiao Yu was stunned for a moment. He didn't expect that the two of them had secretly communicated with each other at that time. Suddenly, he felt a sigh of relief, a burst of uncontrollable anger surged up, and even his eyes turned red.
"You bastard, you have no sense of shame! No wonder you were able to betray him! I just hate that I thought you were different from that Zhao Erniang, but it turned out to be a raccoon dog!"
His chest heaved with anger, he was panting heavily, and his legs, which had little strength, swayed, almost unable to support him.
I thought she was forced to leave the East Palace by him later, and she hated her and entered the Taiji Palace. Who would have guessed that the two of them would have done such an unethical thing under his eyes.
After Chu Ning heard his accusation, he still felt a little embarrassed and ashamed.
In her upbringing, women really shouldn't do anything to betray her husband, especially if they have illicit affairs with others, and they should be cast aside by the world. This, anyway, she is wrong.
But it wasn't her intention.
She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, looked up at him, and said, "This is indeed my fault, and I will not deny it. However, if there is a choice, I will choose to leave you without hesitation."
Not to mention that he is the prince, but an ordinary man. As a woman, she has no right to choose to leave. The so-called "harmony" is also a man who takes the initiative to let go.
She said this to show that she had long wanted to separate from him.
"You lied to me for so long, and now, are you still unwilling to tell the truth?"
Xiao Yu stared at her suddenly: "What are you... talking about?"
She didn't speak, but took out the prepared envelope and handed it to him.
Here is the letter that Fang Bo wrote before he went completely crazy.
Xiao Yu took it with bated breath, took out the letter under her calm gaze, and quickly browsed it, the more he read, the more frightened he became.
"You sure know."
He suddenly laughed, only to feel that most of the injustice and anger had been quelled, and the secret that he had kept for three years was exposed, which even gave him an inexplicable relief.
"You killed my father, insulted my brother, trapped me in the East Palace, deceived me for so long, you said, I shouldn't hate you, shouldn't I leave you?" Chu Ning put away his expression and looked at him coldly , trying to restrain his emotions, "In the past few years, you have been on guard against me in every possible way, and the remaining relatives and servants in my family, whether it is a servant, get rid of one by one, my two cousins, if it is not because of their young age, nothing. I don't know, how can I stay alive?"
In the face of her powerful statement and questioning, he subconsciously wanted to dodge, and he hardly dared to look her in the eye.
"I-Aning, do you think I'd be willing to be such a person?" He recalled the past and couldn't help shaking his head in pain, "Who doesn't want to be clean? But me, as the prince, as the heir , I have never had a day of peace. My father is weak, and he treats me far less than his younger brother. The queen mother does not like me. They oppose me everywhere. For so many years, I have never had a day of peace. So, how can you live to this day?!"
Chu Ning looked at the way he was still making excuses for his actions, and couldn't help but break it directly: "You don't have to deceive yourself anymore, your situation is not good, it's not an excuse for you to do so many evil things. You are the prince. , but never pointed the finger at the evil villains in the DPRK. Instead, in order to win people's hearts, condone their misdeeds, enrich their personal pockets, and even never consider the life and death of the people in matters of family and country. Betray your own people and collude with foreign enemies?"
Even the Qi family, who have been serving for so many years, have never done such infidelity and injustice.
Under her rebuttal, Xiao Yu felt more and more at a loss, but kept shaking his head, trying to deny all this.
"Now that I'm down, everyone is scolding me for being incompetent, weak, unfaithful and unrighteous. You are not me, so how do you know the pain in my heart?"
"I really don't know." Chu Ning looked at him quietly, and her eyes were wet, "If I didn't meet Your Majesty, I'm afraid I would find many excuses for you - after all, you also have difficulties, and you have faced many last resorts. But look at Your Majesty, is he better than you in the past? You are still a legitimate son, and you were raised and cared for him from a young age. He was very honorable. When he was a teenager, he was forced to go far away from the frontier, left unchecked, and lived on his own. Self-destruction, but you know respect, responsibility, and courage, you can distinguish right from wrong, and you can stick to the bottom line, so do you still feel that everything you do is justifiable?"
Xiao Yu was blocked by her sharp rebuttal and was speechless. He took two steps back and gritted his teeth: "Yes, he is the emperor, he is good in everything, I am useless, everything is wrong... , are you satisfied? You see me today because you want to see my embarrassment, what a shame, right?"
Chu Ning lowered his eyes, waved away the complicated emotions in his heart, and motioned to the waiter who was waiting beside him to bring up the prepared case.
"I saw you today, I just wanted you to take the initiative to confess to the fact that you framed my father, and give him a clean name behind him."
This is her biggest wish in the past three years, and it should be fulfilled by herself.
Xiao Yu glared at her, with a twist on his face: "Why should I listen to you? You betrayed me, do you think I will rectify your father's name? You can't find it for so long. Evidence?"
She was silent for a moment, then said softly, "Yeah, I can't find any evidence. But don't forget, besides you, Xu Rong was also involved in this."
"Wai Du!" His pupils shrank, subconsciously denying, "He won't betray me!"
"Of course he won't, but the more he does, the more punishment he will have to suffer. He has worked hard for you for so many years, but now he is old and frail, he still has to endure the torture in prison for you. Can't bear it at all?"
"I… "
His legs were weak, and he took two steps back again, swaying from side to side and barely able to stand.
Xu Rong has been a student in the East Palace since he was a child. Over the years, the relationship between the two is not only a monarch and a minister, but also a father and son, and they are very close. He has lived for more than 20 years in this life, and only Xu Rong is the one who sincerely stands by his side and strives to remove all obstacles and pave the way for him.
He shuddered and took a deep breath, silently closed his eyes, his shoulders slumped, slowly knelt down in front of the desk, picked up the pen and slumped to write down what happened back then.
The vermilion ink pad was placed beside the desk. He stretched out his trembling hand and pressed it. When he saw that it was about to fall on the snow-white paper, he stopped again, and said in a hoarse voice: "When I finish drawing, give these to me. Take a look at it."
Xu Rong is stubborn and stubborn. Even if someone tells him that everything has been checked out, he will never say a word. Only by letting him see this confession with his own eyes can he be spared the punishment for not opening his mouth. The pain of prison.
"it is good."
Chu Ning looked away and didn't look at him. This was probably the only time in his life when he was truly willing to think about others.
The red fingerprints fell between the black and white words. He struggled to get up, and without saying a word, he stumbled out of the Nectar Palace like a walking corpse.
The sun was still scorching hot outside the hall, and everything was wilted and lifeless.
He walked numbly as if unconscious, and finally couldn't bear the scorching heat, and fell headfirst on the hard and hot ground.
The fine gravel was embedded in the flesh of his palms and arms, leaving shocking bloodstains.
He was lying on the ground weakly, looking up at the scorching sun above his head, and couldn't help spitting out a mouthful of blood.
In his entire life, he was truly defeated.