“…… The Huo family wasn't ruined by me......"

After a long silence, the Empress Dowager Shangguan spoke very aggrievedly, and then reached out to help the jade table, but did not lean on it, but pulled it in front of her as if she was disengaged, put her elbows on it, leaned forward, and sat in hiding. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

"I can't destroy the Huo family!"

Empress Dowager Shangguan closed her eyes and shook her head tiredly and weakly, her tone depressed.

“…… I can't do anything...... It's always been like this......"

Hearing her words become more and more self-pitying, Liu Xun came back to his senses, then frowned, stretched out his hand to push away the table in front of her, took her hand, sat directly in front of her, stared at her eyes, and declared seriously: "The affairs of the Huo family have nothing to do with you!" ”

As soon as the words came out, he saw the queen mother's body tremble, and her eyelashes kept fluttering, but she still refused to open her eyes.

"Xijun, you are the junior of the Huo family." Liu Xun knew that his words were actually ambiguous, but at this moment, his mood was extremely peaceful, and he explained to her without hurry, "Mrs. Xuancheng and Huo Yu, Huo Shan, Huo Yun, who will listen to you?" ”

The Empress Dowager Shangguan was stunned when she heard this, but her mood calmed down. She slowly opened her eyes and looked at Liu Xun quietly.

Seeing that she had calmed down, the corners of her lips raised slightly, and she whispered with a chuckle: "You said that the government and the opposition think that my queen should be the daughter of the Huo family, if I pursue Pingjun's death, once the Huo family is implicated in the end, I will only embarrass myself, because the general's loyalty is definitely not to the extent of sitting back and watching his decades of hard work ruined...... What is it? As she was talking, Liu Xun suddenly felt that she was holding something slippery and cool in her left hand, and her mind moved, turning her palm upward.

The Empress Dowager Shangguan was startled, and immediately wanted to withdraw her hand, but he forcibly held her wrist and pushed her fingers away.

A jade gourd (note) with a faint blue-gray hue was lying flat in the palm of the Empress Dowager Shangguan, shaking slightly.

It's not the first time Liu Xun has seen something like this. He remembered that this jade gourd had always been worn by the Empress Dowager Shangguan, and when he saw it a few times before, he thought it was something of special significance to her, and when he saw it again at this moment, he naturally wouldn't think like this.

"What is this?" Taking the jade gourd from her hand, Liu Xun looked at it and asked again.

The Empress Dowager Shangguan looked at the jade pendant that he had taken away, her expression was gloomy, and she didn't say anything for a long time.

“…… This is the ...... that my grandfather personally gave to me when he stayed at home on the eve of the ceremony."

*****

In Weiyang Palace, the most magnificent and luxurious palace belongs to the Jiaofang Palace.

On the north side of the front hall of Weiyang, a solemn Erchu Que shows the supreme majesty of the mother of the Han Dynasty, and the palace room with a wide and heavy arch is built on the high platform of the Xuanqi jade steps, with bamboo pillars, glazed windows, and a pink wall that is always diffused with the rich fragrance of peppercorns, so that everyone who approaches will involuntarily fall for it.

Whether it is Changle Palace or Weiyang Palace, Jiaofang is the name of the palace that belongs to the queen.

No matter how favored you are, as long as you don't become the owner of the Jiaofang Palace, in the end, you can only leave the luxurious Han Palace and the bustling Chang'an. Therefore, in order to compete for this palace with many sons, many women can be crazy and unscrupulous - or tyrannical and cruel, or colluding inside and outside, or hoping for witches, or pushing favors and relatives...... In the meantime, there are successes and failures, infinite honor, and difficulties and desolation...... In a word, it is like drinking water, and it knows its own warmth and coldness.

Today, the palace door of Jiaofang, which has always been full of attendants and constant control, is also uneasy, whispering, deeply worried about their future, no one has the intention of comforting the depressed queen, and Huo Chengjun, who has always been arrogant, is also familiar with this chaos, silently leaning on the table, sitting alone on the bed inside, at a loss.

Everything in the Jiaofang Palace is the best, the color decoration is delicate, the vermilion algae embroidery, the pearl is beautiful and jade, and there are many treasures such as jade fire and luminous pearls in various utensils and furnishings.

Looking at these things that she never cared about but were priceless, Huo Chengjun couldn't help but chuckle - she couldn't remember which of these gorgeous artifacts came from the palace treasury and which ones were brought into the palace by herself!

For as long as she can remember, she has often heard her bao'a say: "The son-in-law will be the queen in the future!" ”

When she was six years old, she was hugged by her mother and cried bitterly, and after her shocked father listened to the report of the slave maid, his already unsightly expression became even more gloomy - that was her first memory of her father - Later, she learned that on that day, the daughter of the eldest sister, that is, her niece, was welcomed into the palace by the then son of heaven - Emperor Xiaozhao and was named Jieyu. A month later, in March, Jiayin, the edict of Empress Shangguan was issued, and at the same time amnesty was granted to the world. From that day on, no one in the General's Mansion dared to say that she wanted to be a queen or anything like that.

At that time, she was ignorant, and she didn't know the meaning of the queen, she only knew that her mother expected her to be the queen like that, but because of the niece of the little word, she disappointed her mother.

Huo Chengjun suddenly thought that his dislike for the Empress Dowager Shangguan should be the seed planted at that time. It is precisely because of the seeds of disgust buried in her heart that after becoming the queen, she knew that she should pay tribute to the queen mother, but on the fifth day of the Changxin Palace, she mentioned her eldest sister from time to time, and watched the queen mother of Shangguan rise up when she heard the words, but saluted her, she felt happy.

She had the impression that the Empress Dowager Shangguan had always been a person who was so docile and peaceful that she had no temper. This was true during the lifetime of the first emperor, and even more so after the death of the first emperor.

After the Shangguan family was wiped out, she followed her mother into the Jianzhang Palace to meet the queen. Inside the tent, the nine-year-old queen, dressed in Qi Qi mourning clothes, calmly accepted their greetings, without the slightest trace of emotion - no sadness, no anger...... There wasn't even a hint of uneasiness...... It wasn't until their mother and daughter were supposed to leave the palace that she said anything other than the answer to the audience: "Madame sends a message to General An on my behalf." ”

Huo Chengjun remembered that it was also from that time that his mother did not say anything related to Shangguan and the queen until she succeeded to the throne.

No one knows what a queen should look like, but Huo Chengjun knows that in his father's heart, his granddaughter should be the queen. If it weren't for this, her father would not have been deeply angry at the decision of the Shangguan family, but still at the invitation of Shangguan Ji, as the guest of honor, to add a note and a congratulatory speech for him.

"The etiquette is ready, the moon is auspicious, and the word is announced. The word Kong Jia, the fashionable person is suitable. It is advisable to be fake, and it will always be protected. ”

——Huge people, dressed in fine clothes. The son of the Marquis of Qi, the wife of the Marquis of Wei, the sister of the East Palace, the aunt of the Marquis of Xing, and Tan Gongwei.

——The hands are soft, the skin is like clotted fat, the collar is like a grub, the teeth are like a rhinoceros, the head of the mantis is like a moth eyebrows, the smile is clever, and the eyes are beautiful

After all, her father cherished the little blood left by his eldest daughter, and couldn't bear to implicate it in more disasters, and even tried his best to defend her—how could she, her own daughter, ever be so favored by her father?

- Is it because she is the daughter of a servant girl?

- Why is a granddaughter with a different surname more valued by her father?

Huo Chengjun was deeply trapped in resentment and couldn't extricate himself, so much so that the nails on his hands were broken and he didn't know it.

"Her Majesty the Queen Mother has arrived!"

The sharp voice of the Zhonghuang Gate suddenly pierced the strange chaotic atmosphere of the Jiaofang Palace, and the palace people were panicked, and their voices were uneven: "The Queen Mother is happy for a long time." ”

Huo Chengjun suddenly came back to his senses, then raised his hand to brush away the table, rushed through the curtain of beads, and did not stop until the front of the palace gate, just blocking the queen mother at the door.

"Your Majesty does not return to the palace of the chief letter, but to the palace of the concubine, and the concubine is deeply disturbed." Huo Chengjun rarely used self-effacing words, but his tone was still aggressive.

The Empress Dowager Shangguan was unmoved by this, and was about to speak, when the Changyu behind her was already extremely dissatisfied and reprimanded: "The queen should really observe the courtesy, so she should respectfully ask Her Majesty to take the middle seat and pay a visit to the courtesy, instead of standing at the palace gate and blocking the path of the elderly!" ”

"It's okay!" The Empress Dowager Shangguan didn't wait for Huo Chengjun to speak, so she waved her hand and signaled that Changyu didn't need to say more, "I just have something to say to the queen, so you all step down." ”

The palace people of Changle Palace immediately saluted and agreed, but the attendants of Jiaofang Hall looked at each other, a little at a loss.

"Haven't you heard the edict of the East Palace?" The elder elder spoke again, still scolding mercilessly.

At this moment, everyone knows that the Huo family rebelled and the whole family was imprisoned, Huo Chengjun's close servants have also seen the emperor's attention to the queen mother, where do they dare to slack off, bow their heads, silently participate in the salute, and quietly withdraw from the Jiaofang Palace.

"Shangguan Concubine!" Huo Chengjun was furious, and yelled at the Empress Dowager Shangguan by name.

The Empress Dowager Shangguan didn't seem to hear it, and stretched out her hand to her: "I asked the county magistrate to come to see you, just to give this to you." ”

Huo Chengjun didn't look at it, and sneered with his head held high.

Seeing this, the Empress Dowager Shangguan couldn't help but smile bitterly, but she didn't have the heart to worry about her, reached out and pulled her left hand, and stuffed something into her hand.

"My grandfather gave it to me. He said at the time that the deep palace is impermanent, and if one day, no one can protect me, this is the last protection he can give me. ”

The cold words made Huo Chengjun's heart tremble, and she silently looked down at the thing in her hand - the blue-gray color of the jade gourd dimmed her eyes.

– There is never only one meaning of protection.

Note: gourd, one of the ancient names of gourd, because the word gourd did not appear until after the Northern and Southern Dynasties, so it can only be used before. (I didn't pay attention to it when I wrote it before, but now I changed it.) ）