"No, I ......," the queen could not utter a word of explanation after all.

"Queen, are you also involved?" Liu Ying turned around and looked at Zhang Yan. He avoided the rumors that his uncle married his niece, and tried not to get close to Jiaofang Palace, but he still had a kind of love for Zhang Yan from the elders to the younger generations, and he usually only called her Yan'er. At this moment, after listening to An Su's questioning, when the words came to his mouth, he could only call out such a blunt title as the queen.

The queen just lowered her head and didn't speak, and An Su connected the whole thing together: "Just now I hid outside the inner hall and listened, it was unusually quiet for a while, I originally thought that the queen mother was telling the queen mother and Cheng Jiao to tell things, but I didn't expect the queen mother to be a part of this game." The Queen Mother never intended to let them go from the beginning, and when Cheng Jiao went to the emperor, he knew that the emperor was kind-hearted and would definitely send them out of the palace. And the queen mother promised me to let them go when I found someone, just to let the queen mother deliberately lead me here, so that we could stop the carriage in time and call the emperor down, so as not to hurt the emperor by mistake. ”

After An Su finished speaking, it took a long time for the queen to finally raise her head slowly: "Yes, you have said it all." ”

"The queen mother obviously sympathizes with those palace maids, why didn't she tell them in advance and save their lives?" Ansu had anger in her eyes, and some disappointment that was hard to hide, not only for the queen, but also for herself. If she had figured it out earlier, she might have been able to save them.

"The Queen Mother's order, who can disobey it?" The queen sighed lightly, "Even if they are lucky enough to let them out of the palace for a while, if the queen mother really wants their lives, she will send someone out to deal with them in the future." What the Queen Mother wants to do, we can't stop it no matter what, it's better to go with her will, at least let yourself live a more stable and quiet life. ”

In fact, An Su understood that what the queen said was reasonable, but when she saw so many lives disappear in front of her eyes, but she had nothing to do, the anxiety and despair were really uncomfortable. Liu Ying stood next to him and held back tears, after all, he didn't say a word, he also understood, the queen said the truth, who would not understand it present? There's just nothing you can do.

The three of them walked all the way on the palace road in silence, Liu Ying called the eunuchs around her to arrange for someone to collect the corpses for them, and the queen didn't want to go to Changle Palace again, so she only let Lixin help her back to the Jiaofang Palace.

"Ansu, I won't go to Changle Palace to see my mother. You help me inform the queen mother, and say that I will not spoil the palace maid in the future, so that the old man doesn't have to bother to warn me anymore. After Liu Ying finished speaking to An Su with a tired face, she was carried back by the eunuchs beside her.

An Su looked at Liu Ying's back, he was still so young, but from a distance, he looked like a weathered lonely old man, and he could judge his loneliness just from his shoulders. He seemed to have lost his strength, and almost the weight of his whole person was pressed on the eunuch's body, and if a gust of wind blew violently, he might even fall to the ground suddenly.

An Su originally knew the bitterness and suffering of the harem concubines, but now she understands that it is not only the concubines who are struggling in this deep palace. It turns out that the emperor is the same, maybe even more tired, and under the tough appearance of the queen mother, it may be the same.

Returning to Changle Palace without giving up, although An Su was very tired physically and mentally, according to the rules, he still had to go to the Queen Mother to reply. She stood at the door of the inner sanctum for a moment, then took a deep breath, gritted her teeth, and walked in.

The Queen Mother seemed to be waiting for her, and she was not surprised to see her walk in with an unhappy face. Instead, he quietly waited for her to bow and salute, and then smiled and said, "You're back?" Saved? ”

"The queen mother is clever, and the slave admires it." There was still a little tremor in An Su's voice, the kind of tremor that tried to endure after facing death.

"Look at you, they're supposed to be dead?" The Queen Mother was very calm, as if whatever happened was expected by her.

"The Queen Mother carefully set up a situation, and the result was naturally as the Queen Mother wanted." As soon as An Su spoke, he remembered Liu Yingrang's words, and said, "The emperor has witnessed the whole process, and the slave and maid are clear, and they will not spoil the palace maid in the future, and please don't bother to warn the queen mother." ”

"The mourning family thought that he would at least have the courage to face the mourning family in person!" As soon as the words fell, there was another sigh, I don't know if it was because of the estrangement of the mother and son again, or because the emperor was too benevolent and worried.

"Since the Queen Mother cares about the emperor so much, why do she force people to come here?" An Su wanted to hurry up and go back to rest, but when he heard the sigh of the Queen Mother, he couldn't help but ask.

"Forcing people so far?" The Queen Mother's gaze suddenly turned cold, "The mourning family forced the emperor?" Or did you force the queen? Or is it that the mourning family is forcing you? ”

When the Queen Mother saw An Su like this, she had already guessed that she knew the role of the queen in this matter. Holding Songhe's hand and standing up, the Queen Mother slowly walked towards Ansu.

"Do you think the mourning family has never given the emperor a chance? He wanted to take back the power of the government from the mourning family, but unfortunately he was still young and didn't know the essentials. The emperor's child's temper is like a mourning family. The mourning family asked him to accompany the queen more, and he preferred to spoil the palace maid. The Queen Mother seemed to realize that she shouldn't mention this in front of An Su, so she covered her mouth, "Tell me, who is right and who is wrong in this matter?" ”

An Su originally only felt that all those palace maids were executed, and the queen mother's heart was too ruthless, but she didn't expect that under one thing, it was inextricably linked. Now it seems that it is whose fault it is, and it is not clear in one word. If the queen mother shouldn't be so ruthless, then the emperor shouldn't act recklessly, and those palace maids shouldn't think about competing for holy favor.

An Su choked for a while, and then listened to the queen mother continue: "The mourning family has given you the opportunity to save people, if you find out that the queen has a problem earlier, or find out that there is a problem with the carriage, they can have a chance to live." The mourners promised you that if you could find someone before they died, you would let them go. It's you! It's you who aren't cautious enough, it's you who hurt them. ”

In the end, the Queen Mother's voice suddenly rose, which scared An Su all over, but she didn't realize it, just stared at the ground in front of her silently. What the Queen Mother said was reasonable, it was obvious that she had already found them at that time, if she was more cautious, checked more, or asked again, maybe they would not have died.

An Su suddenly felt that the responsibility for all this was on herself, as if she was the culprit who killed them. My mind began to get muddy, and I could barely tell where I was.

However, the queen mother's voice continued: "The mourning family guessed, they must have died just outside the palace, the little eunuch Cheng Jiao was looking for had long wanted to get out of the palace, and now that he has this opportunity, he must have done it as soon as he leaves the palace." You saw it with your own eyes, isn't their death very miserable, think about it, if it weren't for your stupidity, they would have settled outside the palace at this moment, and they would have slept peacefully. ”

"It's a pity, so many women who are like flowers and jade, because of your carelessness, they died, all died, and they died in front of you. And the children in their wombs, they are all little beings who are about to be born! Those little dolls who were killed by your negligence may come to you at night! They want to ask if you killed them on purpose. ”

"The emperor is interested in you, how can you really help these people? If they and the child in their womb die, one day you become a concubine and give birth to a prince, maybe you can also sit in the position of mourning family. That's what you think, right? They are in your way, so you are going to kill them. You came to question the mourners, but you just wanted to put the blame on the mourners, so as to alleviate the guilt in your heart. ”

But can these guilts really be alleviated? Think about it for yourself, will they resent you? You watched them die in front of your eyes, just a distance away from the palace gate, and you watched like this, and you didn't do anything. ”

“......”

The queen mother's voice sounded in An Su's ears like a spell, her headache was terrible, her mind seemed to be turning over the river and the sea, one moment was the galloping carriage, one moment was the palace maids with blood marks on their necks, and the other was the emperor's hidden tears. Not only her brain, but Ansu's stomach was also very uncomfortable, and her whole body was protesting with her emotions, and she felt that she would vomit in the next second.

But no, now in the inner hall of Changle Palace, she is facing the Queen Mother, and she must maintain the due courtesy. So, An Su raised his head and kowtowed to the Queen Mother, who was as hideous as a hellish ghost: "The slave knows her mistake, please punish the Queen Mother." ”

This is the only sentence that An Su can squeeze out, her mind was completely disturbed by the Queen Mother's words, and she really didn't have the energy to deal with the current situation.

The Queen Mother said that she was thirsty, and when she returned to the desk and drank a few sips of tea, she regained her usual calm and showing image. She waved her hand at An Su: "There is no need to punish him, you can go back and rest!" ”

These words were fluttering, and there was a bit of concern in them, as if they were like the Queen Mother who was constantly stimulating An Su before. But no matter what, Ansu breathed a sigh of relief, bowed forward, and quickly supported himself to escape from this demon cave.

When An Su stepped out of the palace gate, Songhe couldn't bear to walk to the Queen Mother: "Queen Mother, why bother? An Su is a daughter's family after all, and seeing the tragic situation of those palace maids, she must be stimulated today. You still irritate her with such words, I'm afraid I'm going to have a serious illness. ”

The Queen Mother is cautious, and the requirements for employing people are also quite high, if she can get into her eyes, she will always have to be whipped to do something for her. It's just that for Shangguan Ansu, the queen mother seems to be too strict. Songhe also accompanied the Queen Mother all the way, and he had never seen the Queen Mother train a girl so ruthlessly. Shangguan Ansu suffered so much that even she couldn't bear to look at it.

"She is the same as the emperor, she has a good heart, which is the most important thing." The Queen Mother returned to her previous planning, "If you want to be useful, you must remove some of the kindness in your heart." ”

"That being said, there's no need to be in a hurry." Songhe looked at the Queen Mother's face and persuaded tentatively.

"Do you think the mourning family is just for this?" The Queen Mother sneered, "If you want to train her to be able to afford the plan of the mourning family, you must learn to know what you should and shouldn't do under any verbal bewitchment, or coercion and temptation." Seeing that her performance just now is not bad, even if her expression is already in a trance, she has not made any big mistakes in front of the mourning family. ”

"Queen Mother, you don't have to be like this to train the palace people of Changle Palace, do you want her to go to ......" Songhe stopped halfway through guessing, she knew that speaking of this, the Queen Mother must have understood what she meant.

"You've guessed right, that's what the mourning family wants." The Queen Mother picked up the pen and explained while writing on the paper, "I also selected a few clever girls before, but unfortunately they are not perfect, but staying in the palace is quite top-notch, if you send them out, you may not go wrong." Only this Shangguan Ansu is a little more in line with the mourning family. ”

The Queen Mother sighed and looked ahead, as if looking at herself a long time ago through that layer of window paper.

Looking at her, the mourning family always felt that she saw her young self, and she was also so energetic, and she wanted to mix everything. At that time, the mourning family was also full of kindness, and felt that they could save everyone, but unfortunately in the end, no one could save them. The Queen Mother retracted her gaze, put down the pen in her hand, and stretched out her hand to Songhe, "That's it, it's all a long time ago." The mourning family is tired, you help the mourning family to go in and rest! ”

Songhe hurriedly stepped forward to help, his eyes inadvertently crossed the table, where the Queen Mother waved the pen before, a word "generation" jumped on the paper.

On the other hand, An Su obviously can't be as comfortable as the Queen Mother. She walked out alone, originally thinking of going back to her room to rest. But all kinds of thoughts lingered in his head, and he forgot to control his steps when he thought about it, and when he reacted, he had already walked out of Changle Palace, and he didn't know where he was. Looking at the nearby palace wall, as if it was near the shelter, An Su sighed and walked back along the Changle Palace.

There were unforeseen storms in the sky, perhaps to reflect Ansu's mood, but the sky was still clear just now, and raindrops the size of beans began to fall. The rain came so quickly and heavily that An Su didn't have time to hide, or maybe he didn't want to hide, so he fell on his body by the raindrops. It didn't hurt to smash, but it felt like it was hitting again and again, and An Su counted these raindrops, and felt that he could forget the words of the Queen Mother.

A thunderclap exploded in the sky, startling Ansu. It was already dark in front of me, and the rain had caused a haze to envelop the entire palace, and there was no light everywhere. Ansu raised her head, and the front seemed to lead to the palace gate outside the palace, which was where she had been in the morning. It was here that she witnessed the tragic deaths of the palace maids, and she didn't know if their bodies were still outside at this time.

An Su remembered that the emperor said that someone would come over to collect their bodies, so he shouldn't be there!

The sky was getting darker and darker under the pouring of heavy rain, and An Su felt that he could no longer see the road ahead. With another burst of pain in her head, she staggered two more steps, and finally fell limped and fell crooked in the heavy rain. And at the moment of falling, she seemed to see a pure white figure running over not far away, with eyes full of eagerness and distress.