Why are they here? Did I hear the conversation between me and Jiaqingzi after the screen, or did my unusual behavior of rushing out just now arouse their suspicions?

These questions flashed through my mind, but I didn't have time to think about them. I knelt down and cast a pleading look at him, but not for myself.

Ignorant of this, he strode past me, suddenly pulled out the handscroll from the hands of the princess and Cao Ping, raised his hand, and threw it on the bookshelf on one side with a "snap", and the handscroll immediately fell heavily to the ground, and the sound was particularly shocking in this originally dark and quiet place to store books.

This sudden incident made the pair of young lovers stunned for a moment, and it was Cao Ping who immediately reacted. He quickly knelt down in front of Jinshang, and arched his hand: "Uncle, today's matter is abrupt and has nothing to do with the princess. The minister is willing to accept any punishment, but please uncle do not punish the princess. ”

The princess took two steps forward, then knelt down, intentionally or unintentionally slightly covered Cao Ping, and said to her father: "Daddy, it's none of his business, it's his daughter who asked him out." ”

"You asked him out?" Imakami asked, "How did you make an appointment?" He turned to me and asked, "Is that you?" ”

Before I could speak, Mr. Zhang had already defended me from the side: "Your Majesty, if Huai Ji is the princess on his behalf, he will not be so anxious when he goes out to find the princess." ”

The princess also said something to protect me: "It has nothing to do with Huaiji, he doesn't know about it." ”

Imami didn't seem to want to draw attention to me, he frowned slightly, his lips pursed, and his cold gaze fell back to Cao Ping's face.

I noticed that his ears were red—something that happens when he's so angry.

"Mao Ze," he stared at Cao Ping, and ordered Mr. Zhang in a suppressed low voice, "go out and find two people from the Imperial City Division to come in." ”

He meant to summon the guards of the Imperial City Division to come over and take Cao Ping down for punishment.

"Your Majesty, this must not be done!" I bowed down to him and pleaded, "Don't let outsiders in, or the princess's reputation will be ruined." ”

Mr. Zhang also bowed to him and persuaded: "Your Majesty, the current second government governor and all the ministers are in the national prison, if you suddenly summon someone from the imperial city to enter, the ministers will ask for the reason, and the news of this matter will also cause discussion, and the Taiwan government will impeach and investigate the responsibility of the relevant people, and I am afraid that it will not only be the princess and the prince Cao who will be affected in the future." ”

Imakami was noncommittal, and his chest rose and fell visibly and slowly, as if adjusting his breathing, trying to avoid an outburst of anger.

Seeing this, Mr. Zhang suggested softly: "Now, Hu Fuzi should continue to preach, Your Majesty, please return to the lecture hall." If you have been away for a long time, there will be people looking around. ”

Jin Shang was still silent, and after a while, he finally spoke, and commented to Cao: "I don't punish you now, because I haven't thought about what kind of punishment will be enough to punish your sins...... Hello for yourself. ”

"Yes......" Cao Ping reluctantly pulled out a faint smile and bowed, "Uncle Xie." ”

Jinshang had always treated the Cao clan well, and authorized Cao Ping and others to pay him family salutes in private, calling him uncle. But now, listening to Cao Ping's call again, it has caused him a different kind of emotion.

"Uncle?" He sneered and asked Mr. Zhang instead, "Does she know about this?" ”

Mr. Zhang was stunned and immediately bowed: "Your Majesty, the queen doesn't know anything about this matter. ”

At this delicate moment, Mr. Zhang's quick answer also seemed unwise. The chill in Jinshang's eyes deepened, and he asked him, "Do you still go to see her every day?" So that you know what she knows, what she doesn't know, what she says, what she thinks? ”

Mr. Zhang didn't dare to answer again, but was silent.

After glancing coldly at the kneeling people on the ground again, he brushed his sleeves and turned to leave.

When he went out, Mr. Zhang stood up, helped the princess and Cao Ping, and said to Cao Pinghe: "Master Cao, go back with me to listen to the lecture, don't be seen as abnormal." ”

Then he instructed me, "Huaiji, you stay here with the princess first, and then you go out." ”

After returning to the palace, Jinshang immediately grounded the princess in the Yifeng Pavilion, and drove Yun Guoer and Citron to serve in the Yaohua Palace, where the deposed concubine lived, but there was no punishment for me for a while.

I told Miao Shuyi about what happened in the Guozi Prison, and also briefly talked about the princess and Cao Ping's good feelings for each other before, but I didn't mention the details of how many times they were alone and filled in the lyrics and sang harmony, only that they met at the banquet, and then met by chance in the Tibetan Academy.

This was enough to make Miao Shuyi shocked. She first scolded me for not keeping a prison princess, and then hurried to the queen to consult. When she came back, she looked sad and said, "After the queen learned about this, she went to the Funing Palace to ask to see the official family, but the official family was very angry and refused to see her. ”

The princess was locked up in her room, and all day long, she didn't think about tea and dinner, either crying bitterly or staring out the window in a daze for a long time. Sometimes when I went in and brought tea and water to her or persuaded her to eat, she didn't care about it, but only grabbed me and asked, "What's wrong with Cao Ping?" ”

I don't know if I know, and her tears will fall again: "Is he dead?" Daddy said he wouldn't let him go......"

In order to appease her, I promised to try to find out about Cao Ping.

I found Zhang Chengzhao and asked him to find an excuse to leave the palace and go to Cao Tong's house to inquire. After he came back, he was speechless and said, "It's amazing, before I approached the gate of his house, I saw a lot of people from the Imperial City Division around, so I had to turn back...... However, they were all dressed in civilian clothes, and perhaps the officials just wanted to monitor Cao Ping, but they didn't want to be known by outsiders. ”

I took advantage of this time to ask him: "The princess and Cao Ping exchanged news, did you intervene to help her?" ”

He jumped up: "You can't wronged people without evidence!" ”

I sneered: "You knew in advance that the princess and Cao Ping met in Guozijian, so you didn't go that day because you were afraid that you wouldn't be able to escape after the incident." ”

He still didn't admit it, but the vehemently denial was quite unnatural. I didn't pursue it further, there are too many things to worry about at this time, and I can't care about pursuing this matter, not to mention, I don't have a clear conscience about the princess and Cao Ping.

The princess did not eat or drink, and soon became extremely weak. It wasn't until the queen came to visit in person and was comforted by Wen Yan that she reluctantly drank some porridge.

"Sorry," she didn't finish her porridge, and tears fell again, "What will Daddy do with Brother Cao?" ”

The queen hugged her, patted her on the back, and said kindly, "It's okay...... The son of a son will persuade your father that he will be fine......"

But in fact, she is not sure what decision she will make in the end. After coming out of the princess's room, I heard the queen say to Miao Shuyi: "After my brother learned about this, he secretly passed Zhang Shu into the internal impeachment and asked for the official to be dismissed for punishment, but the official family burned Zhang Shu and did not answer, I am afraid I don't want this matter to spread...... I also ordered that no palace people should be allowed to talk about the official's grounding order for the princess, otherwise they will be severely punished...... It's just that if you want to persuade the official family to calm their anger, you have to wait. In the past few days, many courtiers have been sparse and asked him to make a prince, but he is already very bored, and the dragon body is also indebted......"

Since the eighth princess, in the past ten years, not only has the concubine not given birth to a prince, but even a princess has not been added. Although the thirteen regiments are said to be the emperor's adopted sons, because they always hope that the harem will give birth, they have not officially issued an edict to confirm the identity of the prince of the thirteen regiments. Now the ministers saw that the emperor was getting higher and higher, and he had no biological sons, so he frequently asked for the establishment of the emperor, and now he has been delaying, which has also become a heart disease that troubles him.

Another bad news that came later was that Zhang Mao was no longer ordered to stand in the court or follow the support, and the people who served left and right every day were replaced by Shi Zhicong, the governor of the city, and Wu Jilong, the deputy governor, who had little contact with the queen.

No matter how Miao Shuyi begged, for more than ten days, she didn't see the princess today. But just when Miao Shuyi was about to despair, Shi Zhicong suddenly came to Yifeng Pavilion and reported: "The official family is coming to see the princess, please ask Miao Niangzi to prepare to take over." ”

Then he recounted the reason for the incident:

Recently, in the imperial history, Zhang Yu often went to the court to impeach the important ministers of the second government, and on this day he was summoned to the right and asked him: "Qingben is lonely and cold, but why do you repeatedly mention the close ministers?" ”

Zhang Yu bowed again and replied: "The minister is not lonely, Your Majesty can be called lonely." ”

Today, when asked what is the solution, Zhang Yu said: "The ministers are close to the cloth clothes, drag the waist gold, the family has wives and children, and there are relatives outside, and Your Majesty has no virtuous ministers and no famous generals outside, isolated above the court, and when he returns to the harem, there are only one or two concubines opposite, isn't it lonely and cold?" ”

Imagami was depressed because of this. After returning to the dormitory, after meditating for a while, he decided to visit the princess in Yifeng Pavilion in person, so he first ordered Shi Zhicong to pass on the message.

Miao Shuyi raised her hand to thank her, and she was very glad that Zhang Zhongcheng's words reminded the official family of the blood relationship with the princess. Then she went around, ordered someone to clean up the room in the pavilion, and ordered Han and the maids to go and dress up the princess.

But the princess refused all, and lay on the bed with tears on her face.

At the time of the ride, the princess had not yet gotten up. Imagami hesitated, but finally entered her room to visit.

Seeing that the princess was pale and haggard, she was fooled even if she had tears. He turned his head and quietly erased it, then walked to the edge of the princess's bed and sat down, and called her with a smile: "Huirou, Daddy has come to see you." Are you feeling better? ”

The princess looked at him blankly and called out "Daddy" vaguely.

Today agreed, a little happy.

The princess gradually became conscious and tried to sit up, but said to her father: "I don't want to marry Li Wei." ”

Today was gloomy, but he didn't refute it, turned around and ordered Han to take a bowl of porridge, took it himself, and said to the princess gently: "You haven't eaten for a long time?" Come, drink this porridge first, and we'll talk about it when we're done. ”

He took the spoon and fed it to the princess spoonful by spoonful, and the princess looked very calm and swallowed it one bite at a time. After drinking the porridge and putting down the bowl today, the princess immediately reiterated: "I don't want to marry Li Wei." ”

Jinshang sighed, as if he wanted to persuade: "Hui Rou ......"

The princess interrupted him and asked her the most concerned question: "What happened to you about Cao?" ”

Jinshang held her hand: "Huirou, you listen to what Daddy said......"

The princess suddenly stretched out her arms to him, put her arms around her father's neck, as she had done in childhood, and laid her chin on his shoulder, preventing him from saying the following words, and she herself may have been silent for a long time.

This intimate action seemed to move Imajo a little, and he gently hugged his daughter.

I was standing behind Imagami, and from this angle, I could see the princess's face clearly.

At this time, her distracted eyes flashed a little ghostly, with a strange cold smile, she said firmly and clearly in her father's ear: "Daddy, if you kill Cao Ping, I will kill your only daughter!" ”

Imagami's back immediately trembled violently, as if someone had slapped him, and it was as if he had suddenly vomited. But he then fell silent again, no longer reacting. He continued to hug the princess, and after a moment he slowly let go, and then, without saying a word, turned around and walked out.

I noticed that he kept his mouth covered with his sleeve as he went out.

I followed him and escorted him out of the attic. He was floating and staggering, and I went to help him, but he waved his sleeves and pushed him away. At that moment, I noticed that there was bright red blood on his lips.

I was still hesitating to warn the attendant who had come with him that he had fallen down in front of me.