"Your Majesty!" The imperial concubine cried bitterly and knelt down on the ground, almost fainting. "I am willing to die..."
This cry broke the stagnation in the palace, but made everyone's hearts fall into an ice cellar.
It’s finally about to begin…it’s unstoppable…
Prince Jin'an looked at him, took a step forward and was about to open his mouth when a shrill voice from the servant came from outside the door.
"The Queen has arrived."
It seemed that the heavy door was opened by the chambermaids, and the queen, who had not been out of bed for a long time, walked in slowly with the support of two palace maids.
The queen was wearing a formal dress, and her phoenix crown and harem made her look even thinner, as if a gust of wind could blow her down.
After a period of silence, the imperial concubine cried and saluted the queen.
"I am guilty."
The voice rang in the hall.
The imperial concubine couldn't help but cover her mouth, with a bit of panic. She actually said this. How could she be said to be guilty?
"Jingrong, what are you doing? Get up quickly," the Queen Mother said.
"I am guilty," the queen said again.
The imperial concubine breathed a sigh of relief, it turned out to be the Queen who said it, but she immediately became nervous again. The Queen confessed her guilt, could it be that she refused to give up?
The Queen Mother obviously had some thoughts and stopped talking, her expression was a little complicated.
"Everyone, step back," the emperor said.
Everyone in the hall rushed out in a swarm as if they had been granted amnesty, not caring about the indecency in front of the emperor. Everyone who walked out of the hall looked pale and sweating profusely, as if they had walked through the gates of hell.
Only the Emperor's family was left in the main hall, and the hall became increasingly empty. The door of the hall was closed tightly, and the sunlight seemed not to come in, making it dark and dim.
"Jingrong, get up quickly, you are not in good health. It's about Sixth Brother..."
The Queen Mother said, her voice was trembling, she looked at the Queen, her eyes were sad but also a bit decisive.
The hall fell into stasis for a moment, and everyone's breathing seemed to have stopped.
"It was an accident."
In just four words, the outcome of this incident was announced and the Queen Mother's attitude was expressed.
As soon as these words came out, the imperial concubine still covered her face and cried, while the emperor sat on the couch with no expression.
The room was stagnant again.
A smile slowly appeared on Prince Jin'an's face. Standing in front of the couch, the young man laughed silently and looked very strange.
"This was not an accident."
Prince Jin'an, who opened his mouth but had not yet spoken, was stunned for a moment and looked at the queen who had stolen his words.
After saying this, the queen who was kneeling on the ground raised her head and reached out to take off the phoenix crown. Her hair immediately fell apart, and the white spots in the loose hair were clearly visible.
The imperial concubine couldn't help but stretched out her hand to cover her mouth and almost screamed in surprise.
The empress was younger than the emperor. Although she had been ill for a long time, she took good care of her hair and had good hair. I didn't expect that it would turn out to be so gray at this time.
Was it already white these days, or did it suddenly turn white after hearing the news?
The queen pushed the phoenix crown forward, and the maid on the other side also pushed out the queen's seal.
"Huo Jingrong, please resign as queen." The queen leaned over and said.
The Queen Mother's expression became gloomy, while the Emperor's face remained expressionless with no hint of happiness or anger.
"Jing Rong, what do you mean?" the Queen Mother said slowly.
The queen raised her head, with a sad smile on her frail and yellow face.
"Mother, this is Jing Rong's fault." She also said slowly, "This is not an accident, this is Jing Rong's fault. If Jing Rong hadn't praised Sixth Brother for his filial piety, how could he have broken plums on the mountain in winter?
If you please me, he will not fall and get hurt. He is a child. He does not understand anything. He is a child, and he is a child whose biological mother died young and was raised by me. Madam, he is a child.
, but he knows everything. He wants to please me and please others. Your Majesty, he is just a child. I am an adult. I did not educate him well. I coaxed and indulged him. In fact, I don’t like to be so beautiful.
Don’t like it at all…”
The queen stretched out her hand to touch her heart and patted it heavily. Her speech speed became faster and faster, and her expression became more and more excited. On the contrary, the queen mother's expression relaxed, and the determination in her eyes disappeared, replaced by compassion.
"Jing Rong, Jing Rong, stop talking. This has nothing to do with you. This is an accident..." the Queen Mother said with tears.
"This is not an accident!" The queen let out a sharp cry, reached out and grabbed her clothes, her eyes widened, "It was me, it was me who hurt him! It was me who hurt him! I don't like those plum blossoms, and I don't like those plum blossoms.
I like being served and taken medicine by him. I don’t even like it, but I pretend to like it. I want everyone to see that I like it. I am the one who hurt him! If I had told him to reprimand him earlier, he would not have broken the plum blossoms.
How could he fold plum blossoms! He was still a child, but I coaxed him to fold plum blossoms with his own hands. Only in this way could he show his filial piety. He was still a child, and I hurt him. I hurt him..."
The queen's voice became shriller and echoed in the hall, and she reached out to grab her clothes and hair.
"Hurry up and hold her!" The Queen Mother finally stood up and shouted.
The imperial concubine also cried and rushed over, hugging the queen's hand tightly and calling her empress.
The emperor was no longer expressionless, and as the queen spoke, his expression became depressed and sad.
"No, it's my fault..." he said, "It's too much. Honey is also arsenic. He is still a child, with a pure heart. I praise his pure filial piety. He respects me and pleases me, but I hurt him...
.”
The Queen Mother stamped her feet.
"Your Majesty, please don't cause trouble! This is an accident! Who can guarantee that a person will be fine in this life? He will choke to death even if he drinks water! How can it be said that it is the fault of the person who made him drink the water? It is the fault of the water
?" she shouted.
The queen over there was almost mad with grief, and the noble concubine couldn't hold her back.
The palace was filled with cries and shouts.
"Imperial physician, imperial physician!"
The Queen Mother shouted urgently.
The door of the main hall was opened, daylight poured in again, and the palace maids and imperial doctors also poured in. The palace was once again filled with noise. Although it was noisy and chaotic, it dispelled the coldness and suffocation just now, and filled the palace with everything that should be expected of human life.
of freshness.
Prince Jin'an stood motionless as before, watching with a blank expression, watching the changes in the world in the blink of an eye.
He didn't look back, he just slowly backed away until he hit the couch and then slowly sat down. The child behind him fell asleep quietly.
The day was fine, but the wind blew up at night. The night wind blew through the palaces, whistling high and low like ghosts crying.
The door was pushed open, and the fat figure huddled in the back of the couch began to tremble.
Are you coming to kill him?
Are people coming or ghosts coming?
"Fourth brother..." A female voice sounded outside the tent, the curtain was opened, and the imperial concubine walked in.
The palace maid lowered her head and lit the palace lanterns on both sides. The room became brighter, illuminating the tired face of the imperial concubine.
Lifting the bed curtain and looking at the shivering person under the quilt, the imperial concubine's eyes flashed with impatience. She glanced around, and the maids immediately bowed their heads and retreated.
The imperial concubine sat on the couch and reached out to lift the quilt.
The eldest prince tried to run away as if he had seen a ghost, but the imperial concubine reached out to hold him back.
"What are you afraid of!" the imperial concubine shouted sternly.
This scolding overwhelmed the fear in the eldest prince's heart and he did not dare to move again.
The imperial concubine took a deep breath, put her arms around the eldest prince, patted his back with one hand, and lowered her soft voice.
"Okay, okay, it's okay, it's okay." She said soothingly, "Brother Six is not dead..."
As soon as these words came out, the eldest prince who had been relatively relaxed suddenly tightened his body and was about to crawl away in an instant. The imperial concubine held him tightly, and the mother and son looked at each other with equal amounts of horror on their faces.
He's not dead... He's not dead... Does anyone else want to know that he let go of him...
The eldest prince's face was as pale as trembling chaff.
To be so scared, to be scared when I heard that I am not dead is not to be happy, that means...
The turmoil in the heart of the imperial concubine.
What happened...
"The two princes left the emperor, passed by the imperial garden, and then went to pick plum blossoms..."
In the Queen's Palace, a chamberlain knelt on the ground and said tremblingly. At this point, he raised his head and added.
"This was the suggestion of the second prince. The eldest prince was reluctant at first, but after a few words from the chamberlain around him, he followed..."
The queen who was carried back from the second emperor's palace remained motionless and seemed to have fallen asleep.
The waiter did not dare to raise his head again and continued.
"...Then they went up the mountain together. The eldest prince asked the servants to pick it, while the second prince picked it himself. Later, the second prince talked to the eldest prince and asked him to see the plum blossoms, and then...then the soil and rocks over there loosened, and the second prince
Accidentally hit the mark…”
"No, he was pushed by the eldest prince."
A voice interrupted him.
The waiter lowered his head and didn't even look.
In the darkness beside the couch, the silhouette of Prince Jin'an was faintly visible.
The servants who were serving at that time had all been killed with sticks. There were only a few people in the world who knew what had happened, but the King of Jin'an County actually knew. What did this mean?
Either the palace was leaking from all sides and there was no secret at all, or the prince's hands and eyes, which were originally dispensable and just a decoration, were all over the palace.
No matter what it means, this is not a good thing.
"Go on."
The Queen's voice came, breaking the stagnation in the room.
"..The second prince missed the mark. The eldest prince reached out to grab him, but he didn't have enough strength. By the time the others rushed over, it was already too late..." the chamberlain finished in one breath.
There was silence in the room, only the howling of the night wind outside could be heard.
"You go down," the queen said.
The chambermaid hurriedly kowtowed and retreated. When he closed the door, his soaked back was bitten by the cold wind, but he still breathed a sigh of relief. He looked around, lowered his head and disappeared into the night.
The lamp in the room was like a bean, and the queen had sat up on the couch. Although her face was still yellow and her hair was hanging down, there was no madness on her face, and there was not even a trace of sadness on her face.
"You have been in the palace for so many years and you are living so well. I thought that no matter what happens, you don't need help from others."
The queen's voice echoed faintly.
Prince Jin'an sat on his knees in front of the couch, his head lowered to cover his expression.
"I really didn't expect that you would seek your own death today," the queen continued.
Prince Jin'an, who was sitting on his knees, clenched his hands tightly at his side.
"What do you think is the point of doing this? Other than risking your own life?"
The Queen's voice then fell from the top of her head, because the Queen's voice, which had been ill for a long time, was not pleasant to hear, especially after she had cried and screamed a lot during the day, it was hoarse and weak.
The second prince was injured. This was a fact that everyone knew. No one would take the initiative to question how a prince was injured, especially when the Queen Mother had already announced that it was an accident.
Under such circumstances, Prince Jin'an actually continued to ask questions, and his questioning was so terrifying.
What did the eldest prince say?
Everyone knew what he was asking.
Kill your brother.
No matter what the final result is, this sentence alone is enough to mess up the world and bring the eldest prince to the forefront. Not to mention whether the concubine and the queen mother will spare him, not even the emperor will spare him.
he.
Why doesn't he know? Of course he knows. He has lived cautiously and cautiously for so long, read so many history books, and carefully observed the ups and downs of the struggles between officials in the DPRK and China. Is there anything else he doesn't know?
He knew that if he opened this mouth, he would become an unforgivable person, and the wish he had planned step by step to wait until he could safely leave the palace and be free from then on would come to nothing.
He also thought that as long as he knew something and understood the truth, he could see through it and let it go, but it turned out that was not the case, it was not true.
Some things are really...
"Not willing..."
Prince Jin'an leaned over and kowtowed, his voice hoarse and choked with sobs as he uttered three words.
Not willing! Not willing! Not willing!
************************************
PS: The typographical errors in the second prince’s personal names in the previous pictures have been corrected. You can take a look again. (To be continued)
