Since that night, Meng Hongyu has often come to Yongle Palace to spend the night.

He found that he enjoyed spending more and more time with Ziling. The feeling of being with her is as light as white water, a touch of joy, a touch of warmth, and a touch of sweetness.

He listened to her play the piano, talked with her about poetry and poetry, and debated with her. They often talk until midnight before they realize that it is late at night, and then they hug each other and fall asleep peacefully.

Since he was a child, he has never had friends who can be entrusted with his heart, and in the past, he did not bother to tell the hearts of big men and little women. But the strange thing is that he doesn't hide much from Ziling, he regards her as a confidante and will talk to her a lot.

That night, because of discussions with the minister, it was late at night when I went to Yongle Palace. The Yongle Palace was quiet, only Ziling's bedroom was still lit with a lamp. The light was dim, but it made people feel warm, because, under the light, there was the woman who warmed his wounded heart.

Gently walking into the bedroom, he saw Zi Ling standing in front of the window reading a book seriously. He quietly approached her and put his arms around her from behind.

She was startled, turned around, and saw that it was him, she smiled and joked with him: "Startled, Zi Ling thought it was a flower thief from somewhere." ”

He pinched her nose with a pampering face, and said with a smile: "I am a flower thief, specializing in picking your flowers." ”

Zi Ling couldn't help but cover his mouth and smile, he always thought that he was an indifferent and ruthless emperor, but he didn't expect that he would occasionally have such a naughty and funny side.

He lowered his head and whispered in her ear, "What are you looking at?" is so serious that he doesn't even notice that the flower thief is coming. ”

She raised the scroll in her hand: "Ziling is reading a story, it is the love story of Han Ping and his wife, has the emperor ever heard it?" ”

"I've never heard of it, you tell me about it."

"King Song Kang had a courtier named Han Ping, and Han Ping had a beautiful wife named He Xilu. King Song Kang fell in love with He Xilu's beauty, so he imprisoned Han Ping and snatched He Xilu to the palace. Grief-stricken, Han committed suicide in prison. ”

One day, King Song Kang and He Xilu took the stage to overlook, He Xilu took advantage of King Song Kang's unpreparedness, jumped off the high platform, and left a suicide note asking King Song Kang to bury her and Han Ping together. King Song Kang was furious, and in order to make them unable to live in the same room in life and die in the same cave, he insisted on burying the two separately. A tree grew on their graves overnight. ”

Ten days later, the two trees were full of branches, covered with branches and connected leaves, like a pair of lovers embracing each other. Later, a pair of mandarin duck birds, a female and a male, stood on the tree for a long time, did not go in the morning and evening, crossed their necks and screamed, and the sound was touching. The people of the Song Kingdom were moved by the love between Han Ping and He Xilu, so they called the two trees 'Acacia Tree'. ”

"But the reckless and tyrannical King Song Kang during the Warring States Period?" He asked.

"Exactly! Your Majesty, do you also know that King Song Kang is a tyrant? ”

"Of course I do." He laughed.

Zi Ling snickered in his heart and continued to say softly: "Your Majesty, you are a generation of Ming Jun, if this kind of thing happens to you, what will you do?" ”

"A gentleman doesn't take away people's love, I am not King Song Kang, I will make all lovers in the world become dependents."

Zi Ling suddenly knelt down, she raised her head, met his eyes, and pleaded: "Your Majesty, then please let Chu Tian and Liu Zhaorong go." ”

Meng Hongyu finally understood that he had fallen for this woman's scheme!

He was annoyed and angry: "You dare to intercede for them!" One of them deceived the king and the other killed the king, but they should all destroy the nine clans. If you intercede for them, aren't you afraid that I will kill you in a fit of rage? ”

"If the emperor is a tyrant, then Zi Ling will definitely know how to protect himself, but Zi Ling knows that the emperor is a Ming monarch and will not kill innocents indiscriminately, so he has the courage to intercede for them." This sycophant is really just right.

However, he didn't appreciate it, he sneered: "Do you think that by saying this, I am really a Ming Jun?" I can't kill you? ”

However, she was still not intimidated.

Shouldn't she kowtow and beg for mercy, he thought, and promise never to offend the monarch again? Why is she still so calm?

"Your Majesty, do you know what love is? Have you ever loved someone? Have you ever tossed and turned for a single person to sleep and eat? He suddenly gave rise to "her", and he had trouble sleeping for "her".

"Chu Tian can even give his life for Liu Zhaorong! Don't you think this kind of love is so great that it makes you cry? ”

He closed his eyes, chased away the "her" in his mind, and then impatiently interrupted her: "Say no more! I have made up my mind, and they will surely die! Don't try to beg for mercy for them. ”

He didn't know why he had to explain so much to her: "Have you ever thought about it for me? If they are spared, will everyone dare to assassinate me in the future? Does every concubine dare to come behind my back? At that time, what was my face? This emperor, am I still in charge? ”

Yes, from his point of view, his words are not unreasonable.

After a moment of silence, Zi Ling also spoke: "Since the emperor has decided, Zi Ling will no longer intercede for them. But I beg the emperor, you will spare the relatives of Chutian and Liu Zhaorong, they cannot be innocently implicated. Besides, they are all the emperor's people, and no parent will kill their innocent children, right? ”

Since there is no way to beg him to let them go, at least not to let him kill innocents indiscriminately.

"I didn't want to punish the nine clans." He said.

Fortunately, he is not a mad murderer, Zi Ling continued to dare to beg him: "Since they have been unable to escape death, Zi Ling begged the emperor to let Zi Ling arrange for them to drink the donkey, and also leave them a whole corpse, so that Zi Ling will bury them in the same cave, which is finally the emperor's last gift." ”

He was silent for a moment, then nodded in agreement.

Three days later, Chu Tian and Liu Wanruo were given to die.

On the outskirts of Beijing, the tombstone engraved with the names of Chu Tian and Liu Wanruo is not dry in red paint, and the new soil is damp.

In fact, it was a hollow hole to cover people's ears and eyes, Chu Tian and Liu Wanruo were not dead, all of this was a plan set up by Zi Ling in advance to hide from the sky and cross the sea.

It turned out that Zi Ling had already used the time to take care of everything. On that day, Chu Tian and Liu Wanruo drank not poisonous wine, but the turtle breath medicine that Zi Ling had asked Zhan Zhan to get in advance. After transporting their "corpses" out of the palace, Ziling asked Zhan Zhan to arrange a "funeral" for them.

After sleeping for three days, Chu Tianhe Liu Wanruo woke up, and Zhan Zhan told them in detail how Ziling saved them, and told them that the best way to repay Xiao Guifei was to go away and fly high, so that no one would find out the truth that she was not dead. That night, Chu Tian and Liu Wanruo rode the horse that Zhan Zhan had prepared for them and disappeared without a trace.

Under the moonlight, looking at their backs gradually moving away, Zhan Zhan was suddenly enveloped by a huge fear.

He didn't know if Zi Ling's ingenuity was a blessing or a curse? Although he did what she told without saying a word, if one day, someone found out that Zi Ling had crossed the sea to save Chu Tian and Liu Wanruo, then his Zi Ling would definitely die!