Rong Tang felt that something was not right, but he couldn't tell exactly what was wrong.
Su Huaijing would still act like a spoiled child to him every day, and would kiss him after he drank the medicine, otherwise he would say his mouth was bitter; but after being kissed, he would smile cunningly like a naughty child, making people hate him so much.
The system would still come to see him on the 15th of every month, talking a lot, its thoughts more vibrant than the light spots on its body.
Jiangnan wrote a letter every month. Ke Hongxue would pick up his pen and talk about things that Rong Tang cared about, including Wang Xiuyu, Yuanyuan, the branch of Linyuan Academy, and of course him and Mu Jingxu. The life described in the letter was ordinary and vivid.
Everything seemed normal, but Rong Tang just felt something was not right.
The capital will soon become colder as autumn arrives. Due to the passing of the empress dowager, Emperor Renshou will not celebrate his birthday this year, and envoys from all over the world will not enter the country.
Friends and relatives leave Beijing, and foreign enemies will not invade.
The peace and tranquility went too far. Before going to sleep one day, Rong Tang finally realized that something was wrong.
It's too quiet. Even when a storm is about to come, there is still wind in the building. It is true that an undercurrent is surging now, but it is unlike any previous life, nor like the scene described in the original book.
—The kind of scene where every step you take seems like you are struggling forward in a sea of corpses and blood.
He could not see Su Huaijing's plan to seize power.
Rong Tang suddenly opened his eyes, stretched out his hand and pushed Su Huaijing, using a little more force. The villain groaned, grabbed his fingers, and asked in a hoarse voice: "Can't sleep?"
These three simple words inexplicably carry a hint of danger, and in the deep night, reveal an undisguised desire for aggression.
Rong Tang didn't intend to spoil him this time, and asked directly: "What are you doing recently?"
Su Huaijing was pushed awake by him, and his sleepiness gradually faded away. His other hand had already slipped into Rong Tang's inner clothes through the collar, and his warm palm moved along the thin and tough skin. Su Huaijing narrowed his eyes slightly, moved his head, and put his face against Rong Tang's neck.
His breath sprayed on her neck. Su Huaijing extended his tongue and moved it vaguely, teasing the fragile and flexible cartilage and the nerves attached to the skeletal texture inch by inch: "I like Tangtang."
"Not just recently." He added softly, "I like Tangtang more every day than the day before."
His palm had completely invaded his abdomen. Su Huaijing turned over and pressed on him. Without waiting for Rong Tang to continue asking questions, he bit his ear lightly and said in a hoarse voice, "Come on."
The touch of the skin and physical desires paralyzed his brain. Rong Tang almost forgot what he wanted to ask the moment he woke Su Huaijing up. It was very common for the soul to be indulged in desires and the body to be loyal and wild.
Rong Tang raised his eyes, struggled for a moment in the foggy darkness, but finally swallowed his doubts.
—Su Huaijing was unwilling to tell him.
Rong Tang had this realization before he became completely addicted.
Not wanting to answer, but also not wanting to deceive, he simply used other methods to divert his thoughts and attention.
Rong Tang was silent for a moment, rising and falling with him, and said nothing in the end.
The autumn wind blew the leaves in the courtyard. Rong Tang leaned on the beauty's chair, holding a storybook in his hand, flipping through it absent-mindedly.
Su Huaijing seldom hid anything from him, or it could be said that Rong Tang rarely had a strong desire to explore. When he was curious, the villain was usually more excited than he was.
He will spare no effort to satisfy all of Rong Tang's curiosity and exploration, and will also find ways to bring him into his own world.
The complicated situation had nothing to do with Rong Tang, but Su Huaijing never concealed anything when they were honest with each other.
But now his hiding was too obvious, Rong Tang couldn't help but suspect that what he was about to do was actually related to him.
There was a connection between them and there was a possibility that he would be hurt, so Su Huaijing was unwilling to tell him.
but…
Rong Tang closed his eyes, and the half of the black fog in his consciousness space had turned gray-black, and was persistently assimilated and rendered by large patches of gray, eventually causing the black that should have been at the end of the color system to lose concentration and turn into the main body of gray.
In the capital today, the only person who was related to him and needed to be kept secret from him was Sheng Chengli.
Su Huaijing and Sheng Chengli…
Was some kind of agreement reached
for what
Rong Tang opened his eyes, thinking with some uneasiness in his heart.
-
The rumors that were suppressed by officers and soldiers finally made a comeback and were even worse than the last time.
There was an opera troupe in Beijing called Ziyu, which performed erotic and explicit works, and was bold and innovative.
In early July, the Zi Yu troupe performed a new play, but only had one show and sold only thirty seats.
But it was these thirty seats that once again pushed the royal secrets to the forefront in just three days.
The first time Rong Tang went to Zi Yu Troupe to listen to an opera, Su Huaijing discovered his secret of reading pornographic novels; the second time he went to Zi Yu Troupe, he squatted on the ground and tried his best to "coax" Su Huaijing.
So after that, no matter how the villain coaxed him or how Ke Hongxue invited him, he never agreed to go there to listen to opera again.
Therefore, all news or rumors were conveyed orally by Shuangfu.
It was obvious that both the nobles and the common people kept it a secret, but somehow, within a few days, the news spread throughout the city.
In the first scene, the elder brother is in charge of the family's prosperity and decline. However, the younger brother is dissatisfied with his own life, as he has less power and wealth than his elder brother, so he colluded with the family's hostile forces, took advantage of his elder brother's unpreparedness, and killed his elder brother in one fell swoop, thus stealing the power of the head of the family.
In the second scene, after the younger brother became the head of the family, the quaint house became extravagant and absurd day by day, and bright colors filled the once heavy and heavy yard. There were many women in the family and three sons. Then one day, the younger brother discovered that his beloved youngest son was actually someone else's son, and anger immediately swept away his reason.
In the third scene, the younger brother plotted to kill the younger son's father, but the old lady discovered the younger son's identity. The mother and son had a heart-to-heart talk at night. The old lady asked him why he didn't drive him out of the house since he was not her child. The younger brother replied: "It's not that I don't want to obey my mother's order, but because there are only three sons in the family. The eldest son is deep, the second son is dull, and the youngest son is naive. The three sons check and balance each other and don't interfere with each other. If one of them is killed, the other two will be ready to move and want to take my position!"
The old lady was deeply saddened and angrily scolded him for being foolish: "My son is worried about his position today, but he is willing to make wedding clothes for others. Have you forgotten that you killed your brother to seize the throne?"
The younger brother who had become the head of the family was horrified. After returning home, he had nightmares every night. He could still hear his mother's angry scolding, as if she wanted to tell the whole world where he got the position of head of the family. He woke up from the dream and spat out a mouthful of dark blood. He was in great grief, and tears of blood flowed from his eyes. He knelt on the ground and kowtowed three times to the air, confessing with tears in his voice: "Mother, please forgive me for being unfilial!"
The scene changed and soon the old lady fell ill.
First she couldn't speak, then she couldn't see, and finally she died miserably one winter. On the day of her burial, black crows accompanied the coffin all the way, and then rushed down in a flock the moment the coffin was buried, opened the coffin, and gnawed at the old lady's corpse bite by bite. The rotten flesh fell on the white snow and was instantly eaten by the black beaks.
Crows eat the dead, and the living kill their predecessors. The house that once was splendidly decorated with carved beams and painted buildings suddenly became like a flower in full bloom, attracting countless carrion-eating crows to circle around, as if to cover up the sun and the moon.
The combination of traditional drama and shadow puppetry vividly portrays the secrets of a family home.
There were few spectators in the garden, but after the play ended, no one dared to move for a long time. The usually wild and lively place was so quiet that one could hear a pin drop.
Thirty theater tickets. The powerful bought them with a lot of money. The gambling addict won them in a casino. Some people got them by chance in a restaurant. Some people got them as gifts from people they met.
There are thirty closed boxes and small square houses arranged in an interlaced manner. Every visitor entering the park is led by a special person and has a black rope over his eyes, which can only be removed after he sits down.
No one knew who was sitting in the same room watching the show with them, and everyone was extremely panicked and kept silent.
But only three days passed, and this heinous and treasonous drama full of innuendo became an unspoken secret among the people of the capital.
No one dared to say it, but everyone knew something about it. The first three scenes of carrion-eating evolved to the end, with bones, blood, and flesh added to the scenes. The inner stories that were not reflected in the short few scenes of the drama were filled in by others one by one.
By the time the government noticed something was amiss and went to arrest the Purple Jade Troupe, the most prosperous opera troupe in the capital had already been deserted, leaving only a theater that was about to fall into disrepair over time.
As for the thirty spectators, they dispersed into the vast crowd and it was impossible to tell who was who.
Such a magnificent and wealthy mansion, such a vast and vast territory.
Who could guess what this play was about
Sheng Chengxing's last words in the Golden Palace were finally spread.
Emperor Renshou spent his entire life creating such a good reputation for himself and put on so many masks of kindness and compassion.
In the end, because of three plays and thirty audiences, the bubble of hypocrisy and whitewashing was punctured, leaving only a rotten heart to rot in broad daylight, attracting crows to circle around.
After hearing this, Rong Tang was stunned for a long time.
This was not any development he had seen or experienced in the story. In the original text told to him by the system, after the villain ascended the throne, he did not even vindicate his parents and siblings.
Because there is no need. He does not love this country or its people. He thinks they are all ignorant, stupid, and just follow the crowd. So what is the need to gain their approval and correction
Everything Su Huaijing did in the story was just for revenge.
The person who takes revenge does not actually need to tell the person being avenged why he died. That is a kind of pity, and the villain has no mercy.
He only wants his enemies to die and the world to be destroyed. As for this land, it will still be multiplied, and new travelers will coexist with old souls. They will move forward along the wheel of history, and Dayu...
Just disappear into his hands.
Therefore, it was easy for him to ascend the throne. When he had enough power and military strength, when he could easily obtain the imperial seal, when he could leisurely watch Sheng Xuyan write the imperial edict of succession...
All public opinion and power are just icing on the cake and are not necessary.
But in this life that Rong Tang witnessed, developments had changed.
Su Huaijing began to lay the groundwork for his own orthodoxy and Sheng Xuyan's heresy, just as Emperor Renshou had spent a lot of effort compiling so many false history books after the military coup and before he ascended the throne.
When the play "Eating Carrion" was performed, the whole city was filled with fear.
Autumn leaves fell on Xuanwu Avenue, and a morning glory crawled out from the burnt-out courtyard.
All the officials finally waited for the emperor, who was claiming to be ill, to come to court, but they jointly submitted a memorial.
"Your Majesty, I beg you to appoint a crown prince as soon as possible!"
Su Huaijing stood in the crowd, neither kneeling nor speaking. He raised his eyes slightly and looked at the prince who was elected by the ministers.
The past was all over. Up to now, Sheng Xuyan and Sheng Chengli were just vicious dogs standing on the same stage, barking at each other. That was all.
They are all extremely selfish and will both suffer losses and die miserably in the end.
(End of this chapter)