The rain was violent, the wind and clouds were staggered, and the six halls of the harem were like duckweed with nowhere to live in the stormy waves, and they could only bow their heads and tremble in awe under the power of nature. With the deafening thunder, the Hall of Long Live was indifferent under the pale light, and from above, the entire imperial city was blurred in the distorted rain curtain, leaving only an indistinct silhouette.

Shen Shuzhao's wet hand begged for the cumbersome hairpins, put them on the wooden box held by the palace maid, on the way from Ganquan Palace to the Long Live Palace, she and Wei Yang did not expect that the rain would get heavier and heavier, and it was uncontrollable, so they had to give up the umbrella halfway, and came to the Long Live Hall in time under Wei Yang's light work, the only shortcoming was that there was a lot of rain on the way to the light work.

Seeing them like this, the emperor hurriedly asked the two of them to go to the side hall to bathe and change their clothes first, and ordered someone to prepare some palace maids' clothes for emergency use, and said that they should not mind. Shen Shuzhao and Wei Yang were naturally not people who cared about these things, they naturally accepted it, and then they took off their clothes and went to bathe.

After taking a bath, Shen Shuzhao was wearing a plum green silk dress presented by the palace maid, and she felt that this fabric was already the best for the palace people, and it must be the new palace dress of the first-class palace maid. Shen Shuzhao saw the palace goddess in front of her was restrained and very unconfident, so she took it with a light smile and put it on as if nothing happened, the palace maid breathed a sigh of relief when she saw it, and then respectfully led her out.

When he came to the cabinet of the emperor's main hall, Shen Shuzhao saw Wei Yang who had already been freshened up as soon as he walked in. She and the emperor sat on the floor, with only a few faint candles around them, and the whole room was as dim as the weather outside. The cold rain was pouring like a dream, and the silent silence did not add any anxiety, but seemed even more cold and alone. The room was filled with navy blue melancholy, hazy and unpredictable. The dust in the corners danced up and down in the occasionally bright beams of light. Both of them were so silent, the flickering candlelight behind them looked ghostly against the light blue lightning.

Since Shen Shuzhao came in, his eyes have been on Wei Yang's body-

She was staring at the ground, and some of the wet, waist-length green silk hung loosely on her right chest, smearing the water on the ground. Her elongated collarbone could be faintly visible from the chest of her moon-white gauze skirt, and then she lay softly on her side on the ground, holding a brush in one hand, and a few sheets of rice paper on the ground, but she didn't put down her pen for a long time, and she didn't know what she was thinking.

As for the emperor next to her, he listened to the sound of rain outside the hall and was silent. Shen Shuzhao looked at the state of the two of them, and suddenly felt touched, this was the first time she had seen such a scene in the emperor, who had never been quiet, maybe it was because Wei Yang was here that he could show his occasionally gloomy side. The natural attitude between the two sisters and brothers made Shen Shuzhao feel a little warm, she had been in the palace for too long, so long that she almost forgot that there was such a thing as family affection here.

She walked over quietly, Wei Yang heard her subtle footsteps and quickly turned her head sideways, and Shen Shuzhao immediately smiled at her. "Come to me." Wei Yang beckoned. So she walked over gently, and Wei Yang wrapped his arms around her waist as she sat down, and then hugged her into his arms, "You're coming too slowly." Wei Yang whispered softly beside her ear. Shen Shuzhao's face flushed slightly, and he replied, "I'm already very fast." Unexpectedly, Wei Yang continued: "It's still slow, do you know that the slower you are, the more I think about it." "What do you want more? Shen Shuzhao wanted to blurt out, but then quickly reacted, her cheeks flushed, she turned her head and pretended to bite Wei Yang's shoulder, and said angrily: "Nonsense." ”

"Nonsense?" Wei Yang stroked Shen Shuzhao's long hair, which was also half-dry, she wrapped her fingers around the other party's hair, and said slowly while wrapping around: "I will always worry about a lot of things when you are not around, for fear that you will disappear in a blink of an eye." ”

Seeing that she had become serious, Shen Shuzhao had no choice but to say, "How come, I won't leave anywhere." ”

After speaking, she slowly leaned on Wei Yang's shoulder, and her eyes moved to the rice paper on the ground, she saw the Lizi on this pile of paper, so she was curious: "These are ......?" ”

"It's an investigation by the Taishi Mansion." The emperor replied to her.

"Can you find out who bought Zhou Qintianjian?" She knew that Wei Yang must have told the emperor about the matter.

The emperor shook his head, Shen Shuzhao's heart sank, she knew that she might not be able to find out anything in the future. Could it be that Gu Concubine buried the life of the entire clan in vain instead of herself?

"I remember...... The Queen Mother once mentioned that Concubine Xi had a distant relative who served in the Taishi Mansion. Shen Shuzhao relied on the information he had obtained in his previous life and said, "Did you find out that Concubine Xi really didn't make a move?" ”

"This person has already been investigated, and he has no personal contact with Zhou Qintianjian."

Shen Shuzhao said to himself: "This blood qin is so foolproof, according to the opinion of the courtiers, the person who can cover the sky with such a hand in the entire palace, except for the Xiao Mansion behind the queen, is the Xu Mansion of Concubine Xi and the palace of Concubine Xian......"

"And—"

The emperor paused, paying attention to Shen Shuzhao's expression, and finally, he slowly spit out four words: "Concubine Yuan." Shen Mansion. ”

Shen Shuzhao's face flashed a little unnatural, indeed, his own family is also possible.

It's a tricky one.

This investigation may involve several big families, not to mention, and there may be unexpected people.

She didn't want her Shen family to be implicated, suppressed by the emperor, and he would remember the old feelings; If you are suppressed because you have done something wrong, others will not let you go.

"Now there's only one way left." The emperor said, "Promote the official position of the Zhou family to show that you attach importance to it, until the forces behind it use him to make another move." ”

"And this time it must not be used by multiple people at the same time." Shen Shuzhao answered categorically.

"Never again." The emperor's eyes showed a bit of calmness, "Gu Concubine's biological father is now in the period of my reuse, his career is bright, and some people in the court are jealous here, so he borrowed his daughter to suppress the Gu family in the Sixth Palace, and I will not be soft if I find out." It's just a pity that Ruyan was framed like this at such a young age. ”

Shen Shuzhao looked at the emperor, when he said these words, it seemed that he had never separated the six palaces from the previous dynasty, in the previous life, she had always been the minion of the queen mother's henchmen, and the emperor treated her like a minister, in her impression, the emperor rarely showed his heart to the concubines. So she timidly tried to ask, "Your Majesty, if the person behind you ...... Is it someone who is important to you? ”

The emperor was silent for a moment, and then replied: "In the harem, there is no one important to me. ”

"It's the courtier's daughter who is too talkative." Shen Shuzhao hurriedly bent his knees and lowered his head.

"You don't have to be so restrained." The emperor motioned for her to let go of her worries, "You are an important person for the imperial sister, and I will not guard against you." ”

"Thank you for your trust."

"Get up." After the emperor finished speaking, he suddenly said sadly: "I am only for now...... There can't be important people yet. ”

What does that mean?

Shen Shuzhao looked at him suspiciously, while Wei Yang showed eyes similar to his. The emperor said slowly: "It has been more than two years since I ascended the throne at the age of sixteen. The women in the harem are all born in the eldest daughter of the great family in the court, once the heir is born, there is the bloodline of the family, which is the first time since the opening of the dynasty a hundred years ago. After her father became seriously ill, the queen mother has been controlling the government and acting like the empress. In order to gain the support of the ministers of the court, countless noble women continue to emerge around me. At first, my power in the previous dynasty was hollowed out, and the forces of my relatives in the Six Palaces were pervasive, living like a puppet every day, surviving for a long time, if it weren't for the victory of the military forces supported by me in the Northern Campaign, I'm afraid the situation would be even more difficult to say. ”

Shen Shuzhao listened quietly on the side, listening to the emperor in his prime tell his story.

"In the eyes of the queen mother, I will always be just a prince, even after my father died. At first, I only taught her strictly, so that I could do better...... But later I found out that the queen mother didn't think like that. In fact, in the eyes of the queen mother, she thinks that the position of the Son of Heaven should be done by her, not me. The emperor said lightly, Shen Shuzhao's face immediately turned pale, she felt that she shouldn't listen, but ...... This is indeed a fact, she has been with the Queen Mother for so long, and she has realized the ambition of an extraordinary woman she revealed, between the Queen Mother and the emperor, the so-called one mountain cannot tolerate two tigers, and one party will end up withdrawing in failure.

Then she heard the emperor continue: "I often feel that the queen mother loves me, but she doesn't love me. She always treated me with an extremely awkward and inscrutable attitude, she gave me the glory and wealth of the unnoble, and indifferently reminded me that she could take it back at any time. When I was born, my mother died, and my mother, who was told me at the time, that my mother was very cold to my birth, and she could even say that she was a little disgusted, but she still adopted me until she raised me to become the king of a country...... No, it can't be said to be a cultivation, maybe making me the throne is just one of the plans that the queen mother wants to control the Wei dynasty. ”

"Very indifferent to the birth of His Majesty?" Shen Shuzhao felt that the Queen Mother should be happy that she had succeeded to the prince.

"Well, my nurse is a gentle and honest old woman, and she won't lie to me." The emperor's expression fell into memory, "Do you know that in your childhood, you constantly wandered between whether the queen mother loved you or not, and finally chose to believe in the mother's love on the grounds of mother's respect, but was hit by the real facts in the face of the painful ......"

Shen Shuzhao showed a helpless smile, she didn't know, but she could understand. In her previous life, she never trusted the Queen Mother, because she and she had been an alliance with each other from the beginning, so it was not deeply painful to be betrayed and discarded, unlike the emperor who grew up under the Queen Mother since childhood.

The emperor said calmly in the face of the long and continuous rain outside the window: "So I understood a truth at the age of twelve, not all mothers in the world love their children, let alone other people's children. At that time, there were only three of them in the hall, so the voice echoed in the air, and it seemed extremely cold.

"Since the Queen Mother doesn't love Her Majesty, why does she choose to raise Her Majesty?" Shen Shuzhao asked puzzled.

"I don't know." The emperor said, "The nurse only said that she was entrusted by a person on her deathbed, and she had to accept it." ”

Shen Shuzhao sighed, how could the nurse even say such a thing, can you know how big a blow this is to a young child?

When the emperor saw her expression, he said, "I only learned about this qiē after I ascended the throne." ”

"Ugh." Shen Shuzhao continued, "At least...... It's better to know than to know at an age of ignorance and innocence. ”

The emperor suddenly smiled bitterly, "But she's not good." ”

She?

Shen Shuzhao followed the emperor's gaze and happened to fall on Wei Yang. Wei Yang looked at the rain outside the hall with great attention, and the lightning bursts were like injecting cold hoarfrost into the whole room every time it came, as if it froze the body and mind, and even the time for the flow of seconds gradually froze. Shen Shuzhao's heart suddenly cramped, "Wei Yang ......," she said worriedly. What really happened to the palace in the past? So that the three of them have become like this......

Wei Yang didn't look back, in the calm of the three of them suffocating for a long time, she just looked at the overcast sky outside, "On that day six years ago, it was raining the same heavily. ”