Before Su Huaijing's coronation ceremony, the Ministry of Rites also secretly held a very small coronation ceremony.
When Lu Jiaxi received the order, he was stunned for a long time and didn't come back to his senses. He repeatedly confirmed with the eunuchs who announced the order in the palace, and the answers he got were affirmative.
Thus, witnessed by the eunuchs from the Imperial Household Department, the master of ceremonies from the Ministry of Rites, and a group of jailers, Dayu experienced the first most bizarre and puzzling coronation ceremony in history.
The emperor didn't even have a decent dragon robe. He merely picked out a few clothes of the previous emperor that had not been damaged in the palace coup. He hastily and sloppily enthroned Sheng Chengli without regard for an auspicious time, place or people.
Even the person involved had a look of confusion and fear on his face, but when he came to his senses, he suddenly laughed heart-wrenchingly, and at the end he started coughing, almost coughing his heart out of his throat.
After coughing, he started crying again, crying while laughing, tears of blood flowing from his eyes, dripping onto his clothes, making the already wrinkled dragon robe even more shabby, a look that should not have appeared on the body of an "emperor".
Sheng Chengli could only move one hand, and he was so angry that he wanted to tear off the dragon robe. However, the ceremony was not completed. The jailer even did not allow him to move. One person held him up on each side and made him listen to the entire process of the emperor's enthronement as preached by the Ministry of Rites.
Only after Sheng Chengli nominally became the emperor of Dayu did the jailer withdraw from him. Sheng Chengli angrily tore off the dragon robe and threw it to the ground.
The eunuch who announced the decree hurriedly picked up the clothes, put them in his arms, and gently brushed off the dust on them. He said in a feminine voice, "Your Majesty, why do you have to make such a fuss? Isn't this what you have been looking forward to?"
He patted his clothes and bowed: "Long live His Majesty!"
This is simply ironic, it's like peeling off Sheng Chengli's face and stepping on it.
He finally couldn't help it and said angrily: "Where is Su Huaijing? Let him come out!"
"Oh my, your majesty, don't you understand the situation? You are not allowed to call the Seventh Prince's name. Aren't you afraid of having your tongue cut off?" the eunuch said again, with a contemptuous tone.
Sheng Chengli stared at him intently, his eyes seemed to be sharp as knives, his hatred turned into substance, as if he would pounce on him and bite off his neck at any time.
But he was an old eunuch who had been in the palace for many years and was very familiar with the ways of the world. How could he be afraid of an "emperor" like him who was not legitimate
He just took two steps back and waved his hand. The jailer stepped forward and pressed Sheng Chengli to the ground, then stripped off the clothes that had just been put on him piece by piece.
"His Highness said that these clothes are made of good material and cannot be eaten by rats and maggots in this prison."
Those rats and maggots were obviously referring to Sheng Chengli.
He was pinned to the ground, unable to move, his eyes were bloodshot and tears of blood flowed from the empty eye socket. It was horrifying, like a ghost being tortured in hell.
Lu Jiaxi's heart trembled when he was swept by that gaze, and he took a step back uncontrollably.
He was kind of... scared.
But before he could leave the cell, he heard several footsteps behind him. He turned around and saw Su Huaijing leading a group of people into the Sky Prison.
Seeing Sheng Chengli's embarrassed look, he even frowned and said in a deep voice: "How did you become like this?"
The eunuch who had just been mocking and provoking Sheng Cheng suddenly felt weak in the knees and quickly knelt down to admit his fault: "I know I was wrong. It was really this prisoner who was disobedient..."
"What death row prisoner?" Su Huaijing interrupted him, "This is His Majesty."
The scene fell into silence for a moment, and no one dared to respond to him easily. Shen Feiyi brought him a chair, and Su Huaijing sat down lazily. With a wave of his hand, all the people in the prison retreated.
Sheng Chengli maintained the same posture as before when he was stripped of his clothes. He lay on the ground, glaring at Su Huaijing fiercely, and making a beast-like "ho ho" sound from his throat.
Su Huaijing leaned back in his chair. For some reason, there was a fresh red bite mark on the side of his neck, which made him look eroded and beautiful. It was shocking and captivating.
If such beauty appeared on other people, it might bring disaster, but when its owner was Su Huaijing, it would only make people feel scared. They would unconsciously imagine it as a poisonous flower on the top of the mountains and in the clouds, holy, rare, but extremely deadly.
Su Huaijing smiled softly and asked casually, "Do you know what your father looks like now?"
Sheng Chengli was startled, as if he thought of something horrible. His whole body trembled slightly uncontrollably, and for a moment he even forgot to maintain that look of deep resentment.
Su Huaijing nodded: "It seems you remember."
"I hung him on the beam for a day and a night, his hair fell all over the floor, I chopped off his limbs and penis, dug out one of his eyes, and cut off one of his ears." Su Huaijing counted slowly, not feeling that there was anything wrong with using these tortures on the emperor of a country. He just asked softly, "Compared to him, don't you think you are very lucky?"
Not only did he not lose any limbs, but he also got to be emperor for a day, fulfilling his dream of so many years.
Su Huaijing said: "What else are you not satisfied with? Hmm?"
The ending tone was slightly rising with an almost indulgent emotion, and he asked casually, as if if Sheng Chengli said it, he could really make it happen for him and satisfy him.
Sheng Chengli gritted his teeth, opened his mouth and spat out a mouthful of blood. His mind was too agitated and the blood rushed up his throat.
Su Huaijing sighed and commented, "How can you be so unmannered? Didn't you grow up in the cold palace without a nanny to teach you what a gentleman's manners are?"
Sheng Chengli was so angry that he asked word by word, "You are talking about gentlemanly etiquette with a death row prisoner?"
After the words fell, the air was silent for a few seconds. After a moment, Su Huaijing lowered his head and laughed. He raised his eyes and stared at the person on the ground. His expression was clearly smiling, but the smile did not even reach his eyes, and it did not heat the words he spoke at all.
Su Huaijing said: "How ridiculous, your focus is on death row inmates."
Sheng Chengli fell silent and didn't speak.
Su Huaijing bent down, clasped his hands in front of him, and asked softly, "How can you be considered a gentleman?"
He personally questioned Sheng Chengli whether he had never learned the etiquette of a gentleman, but he also said coldly word by word: How can you be considered a gentleman
Su Huaijing said: "I can't help wondering who caused all the suffering that happened to me."
"I originally thought it was Sheng Xuyan, but after I cut off his limbs and turned him into a human pig, I still felt empty inside. It seemed like I had taken revenge, but in fact I was still not satisfied. So I wondered if I had chosen the wrong person."
Sheng Chengli was shocked. There was clearly no change in the prison, but for no reason he felt an oppressive feeling that was almost suffocating.
He swallowed, supported himself on the ground with one hand, and was about to sit up, but Su Huaijing said impatiently: "Don't move."
After hearing these two words, Sheng Chengli suddenly stopped moving for unknown reasons.
So Su Huaijing swallowed his impatience back into his stomach, and leaned back in his chair, revealing a lazy temperament that made people unconsciously look at him a few more times, like a beast that had just been satisfied with a delicious meal.
He took out a sandalwood waist badge from his side. When this object first came into his hands, it was brand new and clean, but after years of touching and rubbing, the edges and corners of the waist badge became smooth, and the cloud pattern was polished to a warm luster.
Su Huaijing said: "Later I thought, if Tangtang came down to save me, then all the suffering I went through must have been for the purpose of meeting him."
Sheng Chengli snorted sarcastically.
So the smile froze on his face, and Su Huaijing spoke slowly, without any violent emotional fluctuations, just calmly stating a fact: "He is not, he came to save you, so in this way, can I understand that all the things I have experienced in the past were actually caused by you?"
Sheng Chengli froze in place for a moment, not daring to move, staring at Su Huaijing.
However, the other party just calmly played with the badge repeatedly, and slowly said: "But if I become miserable because of you, you are clearly the perpetrator, why did Rong Tang come to save you?"
Sheng Chengli gritted his teeth and dared not say a word, but his heart was chilled. The right hand with the tendons cut was shaking uncontrollably, showing its owner's panic and fear.
Su Huaijing took a look, then looked away, changed the subject, and asked casually, "Tangtang likes to read storybooks, did you know that?"
Sheng Chengli: "I..."
"You may not know." Su Huaijing interrupted him, as if he didn't have any intention of getting a definite answer: "You are so stupid, Rong Tang must have spent all his energy to help you deal with me. He probably doesn't have the energy to read the storybooks. He may listen to a few plays occasionally-"
He paused for a moment, his mind wandering for a moment. After a while, he lowered his head and smiled softly, a smile that was much gentler than any of the previous ones. He whispered softly, "So this is how we know each other..."
He was originally curious. Ke Hongxue clearly had no real intention of helping Sheng Chengli, so how did these two get together? It turns out this is the reason.
Su Huaijing shook his head. The episode passed in a flash. He looked at Sheng Chengli and continued, "The stories in vernacular novels, dramas, Pingtan, and the strange stories told by storytellers under the overpass are essentially stories written by others. They are conceived in the mind, written on paper, and then sung. The protagonist may be one person or a group of people."
Sheng Chengli became colder and colder as he listened. He looked at Su Huaijing as if he had seen a ghost. After trying for a long time, he finally found his voice and asked in a hoarse voice: "What are you talking about!?"
Su Huaijing asked: "Do you know what the commonality of those stories is?"
Sheng Chengli didn't answer, so he answered himself: "That is, no matter what the protagonist does, it is right, even if it was wrong in the past, it will definitely be right in the end. In contrast to the protagonist, there must be a villain in the story, no matter whether he is good or bad, what he thinks in his heart, and what past he has not been completed and written about. In order to contrast with the righteous, kind, brave, talented, and handsome protagonist, the villain must be bad, wrong, and disgusting."
When Su Huaijing said these words, the expression on his face did not change at all. With a hint of mockery, he looked at the person lying on the ground coldly.
"After thinking about this, I suddenly realized that if you are the protagonist of this story, I am the villain who is against you. All my miserable past is to enrich the character setting and serve as a natural reason for me to be your enemy." Su Huaijing paused and said with a smile: "I should have been defeated by you again and again, but it's a pity that you are too useless and lost to me, so the person who created you, or the existence whose fate is bound to you, was forced to find someone - or a reader, to come here to help you defeat me."
His voice was very soft, and it sounded like a piece of gunpowder exploding in the wilderness even in the dead silence of the prison. At first there was fear, and then there was endless fear and confusion.
Su Huaijing lowered his head, not looking at her like an old enemy, but just gave her a calm look with a hint of teasing and mockery. He said, "In this way, can everything be explained?"
Sheng Chengli's teeth began to chatter and he couldn't utter a word for a long time.
Su Huaijing admired his ugly appearance for a while, then stood up and condescendingly offered him a gift: "I will not kill you for the time being. Since you need to be the emperor, I will let you be the emperor for this day. I will not cut off your hands and feet. Your father is still short of a servant, so you should go and take care of him every day. As for seeking death, I advise you not to. I think you should know me a little bit. I have many more ways to make someone live a life worse than death than to kill people."
Su Huaijing smiled slightly: "By the way, since you serve Sheng Xuyan, don't let him die, otherwise I will turn you into a human pig and replace him. Speaking of which, aren't you and your son the same bloodline and coveting each other?"
Sheng Chengli could hardly feel his own teeth. He clenched his fists in resentment, and didn't feel any pain even when his fingertips dug into his flesh. He seemed to have forgotten his fear. He struggled to get up, staggered to his feet, and stared at Su Huaijing: "Why? Why don't you kill me?!"
The prison was dark and deep, and the sunlight from the sky seemed to never shine in here. Su Huaijing put the badge back on, raised his hand, and touched the bite mark on the side of his neck as if inadvertently. His expression was gentle, and he whispered, "Maybe it's because I found you to be quite useful."
He said: "Your curse is also very interesting. Tangtang has been very indulgent to me these days. I feel happy, so I decided to let you live a little longer."
Sheng Chengli couldn't believe it, it was almost unbelievable. He stared at Su Huaijing with his only remaining eye: "You... know all this?"
Su Huaijing said with a smile: "Is that poem difficult to understand?"
—The star Shen rises in the west, and the star Shang rises in the east. If they never meet in life, their movements will be like Shen and Shang.
It was nothing more than a curse that he and Tangtang would never see each other again in this life.
Sheng Chengli asked in a trembling voice: "Aren't you afraid?"
"Afraid?" Su Huaijing repeated, smiling sarcastically: "Do you know what I thought at first?"
"At first I thought that this world is full of fools and there is no kindness in this world. After I have taken revenge, I will set the world on fire and burn it all to ashes."
He said, "If you were the protagonist, and someone sent Rong Tang in to save you, and I threatened to burn the world to ashes, do you think I could tie Rong Tang to my side?"
Sheng Chengli shook his head desperately: "No, you won't..."
"I will." Su Huaijing nodded and kindly explained to him: "If there is no power of ghosts and gods, Rong Tang will not leave me; if there are ghosts and gods, then this world is just a few short lines of words on a piece of paper, so why should I worry about not destroying it?"
"Anyway... I'm just a villain." Su Huaijing smiled casually: "You can curse me, I will always find a way to make your curse fail."
He said: "That's the only use you have for me."
Because of this illusory curse, Rong Tang has been extremely indulgent towards him these days, and Su Huaijing feels that this is not too bad.
He curled his lips and walked out of the prison. This absurd coronation ceremony finally came to an end.
-
To the west of the imperial palace, on the Wentian Tower.
The white-haired monk was watering a potted plant. He seemed to sense something and suddenly stilled his body. Before the water was about to overflow, he raised his wrist again, and not a drop of the water in the pot fell elsewhere.
He shook his head and smiled warmly, which was not very indulgent, but more of a helplessness.
There was no plant in the pot, just a small white cloud.
Huimian reached out and gently stroked the cloud, talking to himself or someone else: "Master Rong, do you know that my seventh brother is actually a white-cut black sesame dumpling?"
When Rong Tang brought this ball of - system that day, it was still a dead thing that could not speak or move. Now, this little thing was trembling violently under Hui Mian's palm, and its whole body was shaking. It was obviously very angry and was about to float out of the basin and rush to Rong Tang's ear to complain.
Huimian let go of her hand and asked in surprise, "Ah, you think it's dangerous, right?"
The clouds are shaking violently! Very dangerous!
Huimian stared into deep thought, and after a moment, he made up his mind: "Then I have to leave, otherwise Xiaoqi will find out that I want to persuade her husband to join Buddhism..."
The monk thought about it, felt a little toothache, and hissed softly, "No, no, it's better to go on a journey early. When our kid gets angry, he doesn't care whether you are his brother or not."
"… After all, I haven't even caught a rabbit for him."
Huimian smiled softly, clearly complaining, but her expression was exceptionally warm.
He turned around and began to pack the scriptures he was going to take with him. Outside the attic, Dayu was experiencing a vibrant life, and the passing clouds and wind were gentle.
(End of this chapter)