The king turned his head.
Xiao Heng smiled.
Laughed too much.
He switched states in a second, weak and pale and dying, as if he could not support the corners of his lips: "You also take care."
"Yeah." The monarch nodded with a complicated expression, put his hands behind his back, and took Zhang Dequan and the grandmother holding the little princess out of the Qilin Hall.
…
Gu Jiao stayed in the intensive care unit until dawn.
She sat on a chair in the second half of the night, lay beside the bed and fell asleep, when she woke up, Master Guo Shi was no longer there.
Outside the iron gate, the guards of the two dead soldiers were restored, and the two of them didn't have much reaction when they saw Gu Jiao coming out.
"What did the national teacher tell you?" Gu Jiao asked the two of them.
One of them said: "Master Guo Shi said that apart from him and Young Master Xiao, no third person can enter."
Gu Jiao snorted and muttered, "It's almost the same."
Xiao Heng opened the door of the room and walked towards Gu Jiao: "Are you tired? I'll have someone make porridge and go drink some."
"Okay." Gu Jiao walked towards his room with him, "Where's the clearance?"
With the two dead men behind him, Xiao Heng thought about his words and said, "He went to school, and his sister came to pick him up."
This is to tell Gu Jiao that Xiao Jingkong is accompanied by Gu Chengfeng and everything is safe.
Gu Jiao was relieved and went to Xiao Heng's place to drink a bowl of porridge.
Although it was hot in summer, she was physically exhausted and had a good appetite. She ate another big meat bun.
"Where's the little princess?" she asked.
Xiao Heng said: "I went back to the palace with the monarch. In addition, the monarch seems to have regained my mother's status as a princess."
Although Xiao Heng did not go to court, the monarch personally addressed the third princess of Shangguan Yan this morning.
Gu Jiao nodded with satisfaction: "That's good."
After paying such a high price, it is not only the dethronement of the prince.
First restore the status of the princess, and the next step is to plan the position of the princess.
Mentioning this, Gu Jiao suddenly remembered the conversation with the national teacher in the intensive care unit in the middle of the night.
She took the veil, wiped her mouth, and said to Xiao Heng: "You don't need to find an excuse to go to the Prince's Mansion, I already know who the person who stabbed Gu Changqing. It's Concubine Han's staff, a very powerful expert. , People in Jianghu call it the dark soul."
"Dark Soul?" Xiao Heng murmured.
The name sounds vague.
"What did the national teacher tell you?" he asked.
"Yeah." Gu Jiao nodded, "He also told me the secret of Fifth Master Han. The young man's bald head was prematurely senile because of poisoning, but it also improved his skills."
Xiao Heng wondered: "Premature aging? Improve your skills? What kind of poison is such an evil sect?"
Gu Jiao shook her head: "I don't know, I'll look for a chance to ask Nan Shi Niang. But I think that Qi Xuan hasn't gotten rid of the poison on Han Ci's body for so long after coming to the Han family, I'm afraid the origin of this poison is not simple. In addition, the national teacher There is also a person mentioned, I don't know if it is Long Yi."
At that time, the late emperor left a total of eight Dragon Shadow Guards, the younger ones were given to His Majesty Zhao Guo, and the older ones were given to Princess Xinyang.
These dead soldiers were all bought by Lao Liang Wang through the underground martial arts field. When they were bought, the two parties signed a ten-year contract, and they were trained by special personnel according to the requirements of the late emperor.
The Long Yingwei for Princess Xinyang was the first batch of dead soldiers, and they had already been trained. If they still need to go to the camp for training, perhaps Long Yi was exposed early.
Life is full of coincidences sometimes.
Gu Jiao and Xiao Heng talked about killing the sky and the dark soul.
Xiao Heng asked, "Do you think Long Yi is killing the sky?"
Gu Jiao thought for a while and said, "If it was just the national teacher who said that, I might not easily think of the dragon's head, but last time I saw a portrait from the third floor in the library. Very similar to Long Yi."
Xiao Heng was silent.
third floor.
The entire National Teacher Hall, no, to be precise, the biggest secret of the entire Yan Kingdom is there.
If the person in the portrait is really Long Yi, then Long Yi is really too big and has a history.
…
A quarter of an hour later, Gu Jiao was taken by Ye Qing to the third floor of the Book Collection Pavilion.
She has obtained the license of the national teacher, and can read a certain area designated, and the rest of the place can't be turned around.
She looked at the three-meter-high bookshelf in front of her, and said in a daze: "I'm just looking for a portrait of Slaughtering the Heavens, so there's no need to be so pompous..."
Is this big bookshelf occupying almost an entire wall all she can read
Ye Qing pointed to the bookshelf and said, "There are portraits of slaughtering the sky, and there are also dark souls."
Gu Jiao was slightly startled: "What do you mean?"
Ye Qing explained: "Sky Slaughter and Dark Soul never show their true faces. These are portraits painted by people who claim to have seen Sky Slaughter and Dark Soul. My master collected them here."
Gu Jiao squeezed out a few words between her teeth: "This, so many... I have to see the year of the monkey and the month of the horse?"
Why don't I draw it directly for you, and you can help me recognize it
Ye Qing said again: "We have never seen Heaven Killing, you can only identify it yourself."
I recognize a hammer.
So even if I see Long Yi's portrait, you can't be sure that he is Heaven Killing, right
…
Father and son cannibalism is a scandal.
If this kind of thing happened to the Emperor of the Zhao Kingdom, the Emperor of the Zhao Kingdom would definitely uphold the idea that family ugliness should not be made public, keep the news secretly suppressed, and then find some other reason to punish the prince.
This is not the case with the King of Dayan. He doesn't care. As soon as he went to court, he announced that Shangguan Qiju had ulterior motives, slandered Shangguan Yan and killed his father and murdered the king. Zhang Dequan publicly announced the imperial decree to abolish the prince.
The imperial decree to restore the identity of the Shangguan Yan royal family was promulgated together with the imperial decree of the abolished reserve.
Since then, Shangguan Yan has become the third princess of Dayan.
The hall was amazed.
Even though the news had been received last night, it really came from the Golden Palace, which still made Concubine Han very angry!
She was so angry that her chest was about to explode: "What kind of assassination! What a slander! That man named Long Aotian is the meticulous work of Shangguan Yan'an who went to the Prince's Mansion! Is Your Majesty old and confused? How can you even see such a big flaw? Don't come out!"
She had sent someone to the Prince's Mansion last night and learned about the whole process of Long Aotian's Prince's Mansion, traps, all traps!
"Oh, madam, you can't talk nonsense!" Xu Gao, the eunuch, took a step forward in fright, "Be careful that people will listen to you."
Concubine Han snorted: "This is the palace's bedroom, who dares to spread it out?"
Xu Gao laughed dryly: "That's what I said, but be careful to sail the ship of ten thousand years."
About Long Aotian, Xu Gao went to the Prince's Mansion to inquire about it. To be honest, the third princess's trick is really subtle, and the monarch's mind is calculated to death.
He has been in the palace for so many years, and it is rare to see someone who can be considered a quasi-monarch.
Whoever the monarch punishes and who he doesn't punish is generally the monarch's own will. Those who take advantage of the situation to take advantage of the opportunity to stumble upon the victim are actually just the monarch turning a blind eye, not how smart they are.
Xu Gao said, "Niangniang, I am afraid that there is someone from an expert behind the third princess."
Concubine Han pondered: "You have some truth in what you say. Ben Gong watched Shangguan Yan grow up, she was a straight-up person, and she didn't have much heart, otherwise she would not have been calculated back then."
Xu Gao hurriedly said: "Isn't it, Niangniang? She has such a scheming, why wait until now? Back in the early days, he and the Second Highness competed for the crown prince. And the temperament of the emperor's eldest grandson is also different from before. The change is barely justified, the two of them have changed at the same time, if there is no expert behind it, who would believe it?"
Concubine Han Gui said in a cold voice: "We must find out the expert behind them! I want to see who has eaten the bear's heart and leopard and dared to oppose this palace!"
Xu Gao smiled proudly: "Don't worry, madam, our people have been sent to the National Teacher's Hall."
Concubine Han smiled when she heard the words: "Oh? So fast? There won't be any flaws, right?"
Xu Gao smiled and said, "All of them were chosen by Zhang Dequan himself. All of them are his confidants. Even if we investigate the eighteenth generation of our ancestors, it has nothing to do with us."
Concubine Han Gui smiled coldly: "It's not easy to have a confidant beside Zhang Dequan. The chess pieces that have been buried for so many years were originally intended to be used in more important places, but whoever made Shangguan Yan's mother and son so annoying, I borrowed Zhang Eun's hand to eradicate this palace. Get rid of these two thorns!"
Xu Gao flattered: "My lady is wise!"
Concubine Han Gui has already begun to imagine the fruits of her victory: "After this is done... Who is better to frame it? This palace looks at Concubine Wang Xian as good, and Concubine Dong Chen is not bad either."
As she said that, she laughed outrageously.
On the other side, Zhang Dequan took four palace servants to the National Teacher Hall.
Gu Jiao went to the library, only Xiao Heng was in Shangguan Yan's room.
Zhang Dequan bowed respectfully to Xiao Heng in the seat: "Your Highness, the eldest grandson, there are a few palace servants selected by servants. They are quick-witted, diligent, and smart, so let them serve the third princess first. With His Highness the eldest grandson. Please rest assured, His Highness the eldest grandson, their backgrounds are all clean."
"Understood." Xiao Heng said.
Zhang Dequan smiled: "If there is no order, the slave will go back to the palace first."
Xiao Heng nodded.
After Zhang Dequan left, Xiao Heng lifted the curtain and looked at Shangguan Yan, who was sitting cross-legged on the bed, holding half a watermelon and digging with a spoon to eat: "Can Zhang Dequan be trusted?"
Shangguan Yan ate a spoonful of watermelon balls: "Oh, others are not bad."
Xiao Heng said: "So, how many people can stay outside?"
Shangguan Yan thought for a while: "Keep it for now, Zhang Dequan is the only person in the palace who won't hurt me."
…
Lingbo Academy.
A carriage stopped in the alley across from it.
This alley was originally used to park the carriages for the students of the academy, but because the carriage came first, it took the first place.
At this point, the driver's task was completed, and Lao Jijiu settled the car money for him.
The driver took his reward and left satisfied.
Lao Jijiu and Empress Dowager Zhuang were waiting in the carriage.
"Are you sure you're waiting here?" Queen Mother Zhuang asked.
The old sacrifice wine said, "Jing Kong is taking classes at Lingbo Academy. After a while, A-Heng will definitely come to pick him up, and Jiaojiao will also come if A-Heng doesn't come."
The summer in the country of Yan is hotter than that in the country of Zhao, and the weather is extraordinarily hot today, so the carriage was baked into a steamer in a short time.
Empress Dowager Zhuang became a small steamed shrimp, sweating like rain.
She leaned reluctantly against the wall of the car: "Didn't it just rain at night? Why didn't it cool down for a long time, and then it got hot again?"
Lao Jijiu took a fan to fan her, and he was sweating profusely: "The country of Yan is really hot, and I don't know how many children can't stand it."
Empress Dowager Zhuang didn't even have the strength to speak. She felt that she was suffering from heat stroke, and she collapsed on the seat like a soft-footed shrimp.
Seeing that she was so hot, Lao Jijiu couldn't bear it, and said, "The tea shop is next to it. You can go to the tea shop and have a cup of tea. I'll just wait here."
Empress Dowager Zhuang glared at him and said feebly, "I don't want money for tea?"
The price of things in the country of Yan is so expensive, and the entanglements brought by a few children must not be enough to spend, so she has to save Jiaojiao.
Of course, there is another very important reason, she wants to see Jiaojiao as soon as possible.
Although it may not be Jiaojiao who came to pick up the empty space.
The two waited from the morning to the afternoon, and the heat was so hot that they lost their temper.
Finally, Lingbo Academy began to dismiss, and students in uniforms came out of the academy in high spirits.
Empress Dowager Zhuang was eager to see through her eyes: "Why didn't you see the child? Go and ask, is the prodigy class after school?"
The old sacrificial wine went.
However, since the small county master was hijacked near the academy, the academy's vigilance level has increased a lot.
The guard said sharply, "Don't inquire about the academy! If you don't leave, be careful that I will arrest you!"
There are really additional patrol officers nearby.
The old sacrificial wine was a black household, so naturally he could not fall into the hands of officials. He wanted to say that he was a family member of a certain student, but he looked down at his shabby dress, and swallowed the words that came to his lips.
Along the way, in order not to let the thieves worry about them, they all dressed very poor, the clothes were the simplest, and the carriage was the worst.
Lao Jijiu planned to go to a nearby shop to ask. As soon as he turned around, he heard the guard and his companion say, "Keep an eye on the old man."
The corner of Lao Jijiu's mouth twitched, is he being treated as a thief
What happened to the academy of Yan Kingdom!
I didn't ask for information, so I could only wait honestly: "Don't worry, I have inquired about it in the inn. After school, only this door can be walked, and the clearance will definitely come out from inside."
"Don't interrupt, go to the side!" Empress Dowager Zhuang turned his face away mercilessly and stared at the gate of Lingbo Academy.
Finally, the emperor paid off, and a ten-year-old child came out.
Her eyes lit up: "The prodigy class is over!"
The prodigy class is indeed over.
But Xiao Jingkong and Xiao County Master are always the slowest two. They received the book and received Master Lu's doubts about life.
The little princess said to the little classmate: "Clear empty, you go to my house to play today!"
Xiao Jingkong asked, "Where is your home?"
"Well... it's there!" The little princess pointed in the direction of the palace (thinking it was), "I've gone to your place to play so many times, but you haven't been to my house yet!"
Small headroom is such a reason.
"Okay, but I'm going to talk to Master Cheng."
He has tutoring from Master Cheng after school today.
But in his opinion, it is possible to ask for leave for tutoring, and he didn't think much about it anyway.
The two little Doudings put their book bags on their backs and went to Master Cheng's place to ask for leave.
The little county master put his arms on his hips and looked at Master Cheng eagerly. Master Cheng didn't dare to agree or disagree.
"Just now, someone was asking when the prodigy class ended. I wonder if there is another thief thinking about the county master? To be safe, let's go directly to the academy to pick up the little county master."
"Yes!"
A carriage that looked ordinary but was in fact extremely luxurious drove into Lingbo Academy with the privileges granted by the monarch, and stopped directly at the door of the prodigy class.
The four big inner masters lined up.
The grandmother got off the carriage and took the little princess's book bag over: "Little princess, we should go back."
The little princess said: "Today I want to invite Qingkong to play at my house!"
The grandmother smiled: "If the little son's family has no objection, then of course."
"No opinion, no opinion." Xiao Jingkong became his own master.
It wasn't a bad brother-in-law anyway, so brother Chengfeng couldn't control him.
The two little peas got into the carriage.
Two of the four big inner masters sat on the carriage, and the other two escorted them on both sides.
The old sacrifice wine looked around at the alley.
The carriage passed him by.
After another half an hour, the last student came out of Lingbo Academy, and the guards of Lingbo Academy began to close the door.
The old sacrificial wine was shocked: "Hey! What's the situation? Why is the door closed?" He looked back at the Empress Dowager Zhuang in the carriage, "Have you just cleared out? Did you see it?"
"I didn't come out." Queen Mother Zhuang said.
She was old, but she wasn't so old that she was very sure that she hadn't missed it.
Lao Jijiu said suspiciously: "Could it be... Qing Kong didn't go to school today? Could it be that they didn't come to Lingbo Academy, something happened to them? They... "
Empress Dowager Zhuang said coldly, "Shut up!"
The old sacrificial wine was silent.
After a sultry day, dark clouds began to roll, and it looked like it was going to rain.
The old sacrificial wine said: "Or, find an inn to stay at first, and come back tomorrow."
Empress Dowager Zhuang stared and said, "The door hasn't been closed yet, there is a gap left, just wait."
The aroma of fried pork with garlic sprouts wafted from the restaurant next door, and the old sacrificial wine was hungry for a while. Then he remembered that they were just waiting for others and had not eaten for a whole day.
He was hungry, and Zhuang Jinse was so greedy, it couldn't be better if he thought about it.
"I'll go buy something to eat." He said, touched his shriveled purse, coughed lightly, and said to Empress Dowager Zhuang, "I've run out of coils."
All his money was spent along the way.
Empress Dowager Zhuang vigilantly hugged the burden in her arms: "For Jiaojiao!"
Not a penny can be spent!
The old sacrificial wine had no choice but to dig up and down his pockets, and finally found two knife coins that fell into it at some point in the broken interlayer of his sleeves.
He was lucky. On weekdays, two knives can only buy one steamed bun. Today, it is about to rain. The boss hurried to close the stall and gave the last two steamed buns to Lao Jijiu.
The old sacrifice wine gave the bigger one to the Queen Mother Zhuang.
The heavy rain in Shengdu is coming.
The sky was torn apart, and the heavy rain couldn't wait to pour down, mixed with the howling wind, and the stalls on the roadside were blown over!
Lao Jijiu grabbed the remaining half of the steamed bun with his mouth, and quickly pulled the car window tight and lowered the car curtain.
However, the weather was so bad that the curtain of the car was snapped and the wind and rain poured in relentlessly towards the carriage.
Lao Jijiu hurriedly stood up, intending to block the wind and rain with his thin body. He clasped the door frame with both hands, but the roof of the carriage was blown away in the next second.
The old sacrificial wine was so soaked that he couldn't open his eyes. He went to grab the umbrella, trying to open it to protect Empress Zhuang from the rain, but he didn't know that the umbrella was not opened, and he was blown to the ground first.
"You can't go on like this! You have to find a place to shelter from the rain!" He wiped the rain off his face, opened his eyes hard, and stretched out his hand to the Queen Mother, "Come down! I'll catch you!"
It is a very dangerous thing for two elderly people to be exposed to this extreme weather, and they may fall and never get up again if they are not careful.
Empress Dowager Zhuang couldn't open her eyes for a long time, so she naturally couldn't see the hand he stretched out. She hugged the burden in her arms tightly with one hand, grabbed the wall of the carriage with the other, and moved down step by step with difficulty.
She slipped, and the all-powerful Empress Dowager Zhao State sat in a puddle in embarrassment.
The old sacrificial wine asked loudly, "Are you alright?"
Empress Dowager Zhuang protected the burden in her arms: "It's okay."
She tried to stand up, but fell back several times.
It took a lot of effort for Lao Jijiu to finally come to her vicinity, and Lao Jijiu stretched out his hand and grabbed her arm.
He had just pulled Empress Dowager Zhuang up, and before they could stand firm, they both fell to the ground.
At this moment, a beggar in his early twenties suddenly rushed over from behind the two of them, grabbed the burden from Empress Dowager Zhuang's hand, and ran away!
"money for the journey!"
Empress Dowager Zhuang's eyes turned cold!
That was the money she brought to Jiaojiao. She was frugal along the way, and she didn't spend a single silver note, so she was robbed by a little thief
Empress Dowager Zhuang is angry!
She didn't know where the strength came from, and regardless of the injuries and bruises on her body, she picked up the stick on the ground and threw it at the little beggar!
"oops-"
The little beggar was hit by a stick and fell into the rain with a bang.
Empress Dowager Zhuang took the steps of the old lady to chase the unfilial grandson, and angrily came to the young beggar, picked up the stick on the ground again, and beat the beggar indiscriminately!
"I'll let you rob Aijia's things!"
"Let you steal Jiaojiao's money!"
"Let you steal chickens and dogs!"
"Let you do nothing serious!"
The rain was extremely heavy, and the Empress Dowager Zhuang spoke in Zhaoguo dialect in a rage. The beggar didn't understand a word, but the stick on his body was very clear.
"Ouch! Stop fighting! Stop fighting! Give it back! Can't I give it back to you! How can you be so powerful!"
The beggar is about to be beaten into a pig's head.
How could he expect a little old lady who fell down and couldn't get up to fight so hard
This is too heavy!
Empress Dowager Zhuang went down with a stick again, almost knocking out his thousands of sons and grandsons. The beggar shuddered and looked at the stick that fell between his legs.
If the stick were half an inch further forward, he could—he could—
He looked at the old lady in front of him again, and saw that the other party's eyes showed a powerful murderous aura from a superior, and he felt fear in his bones.
He didn't even dare to play tricks, he threw the burden in his hand at the old lady, and took advantage of the time when the old lady went to pick up the burden, and ran off and on.
The burden was scattered, and the silver ingots inside fell to the ground. The silver bills were blown out by the strong wind and floated everywhere in the alley.
Empress Dowager Zhuang squatted down to pick up the banknotes.
The old sacrificial wine had just lost his foot, and he limped over after a long time. He looked at the Queen Mother Zhuang, who was squatting on the ground picking up silver and silver notes, and suddenly had mixed feelings in his heart.
She is the direct daughter of the Zhuang family. She was born with dignity. When she entered the palace, she was the queen.
She has been standing in the clouds all her life, and she has never bent her noble body to pick up things from the ground, let alone a mere pile of silver bills, even if an antique worth thousands of gold fell to the ground, she never took a second look.
But right now, she...
He opened his mouth: "Zhuang Jinse..."
Empress Dowager Zhuang picked up a silver note that had floated into the cesspool and wiped it on her sleeve: "When I first arrived in the country, my family was not wealthy, and Jiaojiao had to go to the mountains to dig wild vegetables and pick up mountain goods every day before dawn. She went to the market to sell. In order to save two copper coins for the car, she was carrying a heavy load of mountain goods and walked a dozen miles. "
"She was only fourteen at that time, and she was reluctant to eat a bowl of hot noodle soup outside. In the winter, she only ate a hard cold steamed bun at the market. But Rokuro's bundle repair silver was not short, and the family ate it. She never lacked the meat and vegetables she had. She didn't eat it herself, but left it for Rokuro, Xiaoshun and Aijia. The little monk came later, and she spared no effort to buy all the things that should be bought for the little monk. She only bought it for herself. A pair of cloth shoes, still with Rokuro."
The old sacrifice wine was shocked.
Empress Dowager Zhuang lowered her eyes and said, "If the money is not enough, she will always only short her own... Aijia doesn't want Jiaojiao to suffer, and she doesn't want her to suffer at all."
The old sacrifice wine's eyes were slightly red, and he didn't know if it was for Gu Jiao or Zhuang Jinse.
He crouched down: "I'll pick it up with you."
The two of them squatted on the ground and silently picked up the silver bills wet by the rain.
Empress Dowager Zhuang picked it up and suddenly felt that someone was coming.
She moved her body forward, blocking a few silver notes in the puddle in front of her.
A young man wearing a shoji, a bamboo hat, and a red tassel spear entered the alley from the direction behind her.
Empress Dowager Zhuang didn't care too much and continued to pick up the banknotes.
The boy walked past her.
When he reached the alley, the boy's steps suddenly stopped.
There were only the last few banknotes left, and more people seemed to be coming to the alley. Empress Dowager Zhuang accelerated the speed of picking up the banknotes.
Her legs were about to go numb when suddenly, a familiar voice came from behind.
"… Auntie?"
(End of this chapter)