Let's say that Bai Muguan carefully followed the man all the way out of the Miaoyin Palace, and went straight through the cobblestone path by the night light, turning around, and finally stopped when he walked into a pavilion.

Located to the north of the Imperial Garden, this pavilion is surrounded by shade trees, and the sound of the wind in the dead of night is chilling. In such a secluded place, tonight is Chinese New Year's Eve, and there will definitely be no palace people passing by.

Full of suspicion, Bai Muguan quietly hid behind a big tree, the shade and trunk of the tree covered her figure, the other party couldn't see her, and her eyes just happened to be able to perceive every move in the pavilion. As she had guessed before, the figure who went to the pavilion alone to avoid the eyes and ears was really Xiao Wu, the Duke of Hengguo.

Soon two more figures came, the leader was wearing a black hat to cover his figure, and the woman who followed him was Mama Luo beside Empress Dowager Xiao. Bai Muguan's heart moved, and he hurriedly held his breath and listened attentively.

I saw Xiao Wu arching his hand at the man wearing a hat: "Queen Mother." ”

"When the mourning family received your news today, they were taken aback, and they thought something big had happened." It was the voice of the Empress Dowager Xiao, because the distance was quite close, and Bai Muguan had excellent ears, but it was not difficult to hear clearly.

Xiao Wu's expression changed slightly, and he lowered his head and opened his mouth with emotion: "In the past few years, the Xiao family has not been as good as before, and it is inconvenient for the minister to enter the palace to visit the queen mother, and His Majesty will not allow several attempts." Alas, even if we meet, it is inconvenient to say much. ”

A few years ago, he asked to enter the palace to ask the Empress Dowager Xiao for peace, but each time he was politely rejected by the Son of Heaven for various reasons.

Empress Dowager Xiao snorted lightly, her eyes immediately brightened, and her tone was mixed with a hint of displeasure: "The Xiao family is not like this!" You are the younger brother of the mourning family, you are not a foreign man, few people come to Ning'an Hall now, you can enter the palace at any time after the New Year's Festival, so why do you have to rush to see each other here. ”

Xiao Wu had that little idea in her heart, how could she not know?

"Niangniang, should you go to Beiyuan Pavilion tonight to see that person?" Xiao Wu's voice was low and obscure, and his eyes subconsciously looked around.

Empress Dowager Xiao smiled quietly: "The mourning family goes to Beiyuan Pavilion to see her once every year on Chinese New Year's Eve, this is the rule, look at her until she dies." ”

"Queen Mother!" Xiao Wuchang sighed and said helplessly, "Thirty years have passed, and it has been twenty-four years since the death of the first emperor. According to me, the slut in Beiyuan Pavilion should have gone underground to find her son, and it would be a bane to keep it! ”

"The mourning family has never admitted defeat in this life, but she lost at Concubine Rong, and I saw her take away all the affection of the first emperor for me. The mourning family left her life to let her survive to this day, in order to always be vigilant and not be negligent. As for Concubine Rong, who has been imprisoned in Beiyuan Pavilion for thirty years, life is better than death, the mourning family wants to see with their own eyes that she can't survive and can't die, it's too cheap for her to die! ”

Under the starry river of night, every word spit out from the mouth of Empress Dowager Xiao swirled in the air, and the cold and piercing voice made people feel as terrible as falling into hell.

Bai Muguan, who was hiding in the shadows, couldn't help but gasp. Who is the resentful Concubine Rong in the mouth of Empress Dowager Xiao? She didn't know.

"My good sister, you are the most honorable in your life, from the queen to the queen mother, you have won very decently." Xiao Wu twisted his eyebrows into Sichuan characters, anxious and flustered, "Have you forgotten?" His Majesty grew up behind King He when he was young, and his brotherly relationship is the most cordial. Your Majesty is not your own child, even if he doesn't suspect that King He's matter is the work of our Xiao family, he is already very jealous of the Xiao family, in case he is suspicious one day......"

"Shut up!" Before Xiao Wu finished speaking, he was interrupted by Empress Dowager Xiao angrily, "Of course the mourning family knows that Yuwen Haotian has all kinds of suspicions in his heart, but unfortunately he has no evidence in his hands and will never have evidence!" King He colluded with the enemy country to rebel back then, which was a major case of rebellion tried by the first emperor Yubi himself, and the evidence was conclusive. The case of the son turning over his father represents disobedience and unfilial piety, Yuwen Haotian does not have the guts, although he is the son of heaven, he can't afford the word 'unfilial piety', unless he is not afraid of the history of future generations! ”

Xiao Wu twitched the corners of his mouth in the cold wind, he was inexplicably upset these days, and he wanted to say something at the moment, but he was frightened by Empress Dowager Xiao's fierce and resolute gaze, and quickly swallowed the words back.

Decades of sisters and brothers, a mother and compatriots, Xiao Wu has been in awe of her since she was a child, and rarely dares to disobey her will. Especially when she entered the palace and became Queen Xiao and until the queen mother's throne, the rise and fall of the Xiao family's honor and disgrace depended on her alone.

"Don't think that the mourning family doesn't know, because of your woman's kindness, you almost killed the entire Xiao family!" After that, Empress Dowager Xiao tilted her head slightly, and her eyes were too lazy to look at Xiao Wu again.

In her eyes, this brother is indecisive and lacks the ruthlessness of those who have achieved great things, which has always made her hate iron but not steel.

Xiao Wu was so choked that he couldn't speak, and his eyes were unpredictable. It's just that, the old things have passed safely for 30 years, and it is expected that it will not be possible to turn the tables in this life. The people who conspired to participate in this matter at the beginning were either killed by him, or died of old age, and even Prime Minister Tang Cheng, who really collaborated with the enemy back then, had already caused him to return to his hometown. King He's name, I'm afraid no one still remembers it now.

Thinking of this, Xiao Wu bowed his head as before: "Yes, the minister obeys the arrangement of the Queen Mother." ”

Empress Dowager Xiao laughed twice with satisfaction, and said in a slower tone: "You relax, once you ascend to the throne, many people and many things will be very different. Now His Majesty only has his Wandai country left in his heart, and he will no longer have the leisure to wash away his grievances for King He. Moreover, the mourning family is only temporarily hiding from the world for a few years, and will not hide in Ning'an Hall forever. ”

Xiao Wu nodded, and respectfully prepared to retire: "The hour is not early, the ministers have been delayed for a lot of time this time, and the banquet is about to end." Please take care of the phoenix body of the queen mother, and the ministers can feel at ease outside the palace. ”

"You go quickly, the mourning family still has to go to Beiyuan Pavilion."

After Empress Dowager Xiao saw Xiao Wu leave, she stood in the cold wind for a long time, her eyes looking a little misty in the distance. As for Mama Luo, she has been silently guarding the side, standing with her head down and not saying much.

Bai Muguan secretly slandered himself, it seems that this Mama Luo is not only the loyal servant of the Empress Dowager Xiao, but also the key person who knows all the plots of the Xiao family. It's just that she overheard what Empress Dowager Xiao and Xiao Wu said, and she became more and more confused, and she didn't know how to explain it.

Who is King He? Why was it involved in the collaborator rebellion 30 years ago? At Bai Muguan's age, she should have been ignorant of what happened thirty years ago, but she could be sure that all this was inseparable from the Empress Dowager Xiao's siblings.

At this time, she was a little embarrassed, Xiao Wu was in a hurry to rush back to the Miaoyin Palace, now she should follow the Empress Dowager Xiao to Beiyuan Pavilion to find out or return to the banquet if nothing happened?

After thinking for a while, Bai Muguan bit her red lips lightly, and she went out tonight. In order to explore the secrets that the Xiao family has hidden for many years, in order to help Yu Wenye bring down the Empress Dowager Xiao and the six princes in the future, and to solve her full of questions. The girl's ten fingers prayed silently, hoping that she could get the handle of the Empress Dowager Xiao tonight.

In fact, she was naïve. Before, she followed Xiao Wu all the way with ease, first because he was defenseless, and secondly, she walked on the trail to avoid people's eyes. Now she wants to follow Empress Dowager Xiao to Beiyuan Pavilion, and she walks on a spacious palace road, with no obstruction along the road, only two thick red walls. Bai Muguan had to be cautious, and always kept a distance of dozens of meters from the two figures in front of him, neither to be lost nor detected by them.

As we all know, Beiyuan Pavilion is a forbidden place in the palace, the palace gate is old and mottled and no one renovates, and it is locked here for 30 years, and no one dares to approach. It is rumored that there was once a bold concubine who wanted to come to inquire at night, and then disappeared inexplicably, and was found dead by the palace people a month later by the well near the Beiyuan Pavilion, and the death was extremely tragic. Since then, no one dares to come, a few years ago, the Empress Dowager Xiao even removed the guards, and only one of the small chamberlains who made mistakes and was punished for serving in the Shen Criminal Division sent two meals to Beiyuan Pavilion every day.

Empress Dowager Xiao stopped at the door of Beiyuan Pavilion, personally took off her hat and handed it to Mama Luo, and slightly tidied up her clothes and hair. In order to hide people's eyes, she is wearing a simple navy blue dress today, her hair mixed with silver threads is curled into an ordinary snail bun, and a phoenix dotted with emerald and inlaid with opal red gold steps shows her supreme honor.

Within a quarter of an hour, the old garden door was opened from the inside, and a fluttering figure in white slowly walked out.

Bai Muguan flew to the eaves with light skills, and found that the roof tiles were damaged and damp, and they were in disrepair due to the wind and sun, and it was normal for the appearance to be dilapidated. Looking down, I saw a woman in white with a thin gauze covering her face opening her mouth at Empress Dowager Xiao, her smile was hideous and cold as frost: "On Chinese New Year's Eve, the Empress Dowager is not respected and worshipped in the Miaoyin Hall, why did you come to the uninhabited Beiyuan Pavilion in Liao?" ”

Hearing this, Empress Dowager Xiao looked up to the sky and smiled, and she couldn't hide her sadness in her laughter: "The mourning family said that every Chinese New Year's Eve will come to take a look at your ugliness, so that you can open your eyes to see clearly that the mourning family is radiant, and you are only worthy of life rather than death." ”

The cold wind blew up her masked blue veil, revealing a frightening face in an instant, not to mention her old age and decrepitude, just to say that the wound on the right side of her face was rotten and disgusting. A pair of empty eyes were bloodshot and glared at the boss, and then a sad female voice pierced the night sky: "Xiao Shi, you haven't had a good time in the past few decades!" Although I am imprisoned here by you, I will definitely live longer than you, and I will live longer than everyone in your Xiao family! ”

Mama Luo scolded: "Presumptuous, dare to be rude to the Queen Mother!" ”

"You are like a ghost, and you have long since disappeared in the eyes of outsiders. Mourning makes you worse than dead, and makes you think of your tragic son day and night. Speaking of this, Empress Dowager Xiao lowered her phoenix eyes and said calmly, "I'm afraid you have forgotten that the person who ordered King He to be strangled was the first emperor, not the mourning family." Don't hate the wrong person. ”

"You poisonous woman, God has no eyes and won't even accept you to go to Shura Hell! You designed to bewitch the first emperor, deliberately killed my crane, and ruined my appearance, and I won't let you go as a ghost! She screamed desolate and broke through the sky, and was just about to reach out to grab the Empress Dowager Xiao, but the next moment she was slapped to the ground by Mama Luo.

Bai Muguan was shocked, and he couldn't imagine that Mama Luo would be able to martial arts. An easy palm can beat a person to hemoptysis, which is really good work.

The veil of the woman in white completely fell off, and the piercing blood stains left on the corners of her mouth made her even more embarrassed, and the disfigured right side of her face could not imagine the beauty of her youth.

Empress Dowager Xiao pursed the corners of her mouth, her eyes were particularly ruthless, and her tone was very leisurely: "Concubine Rong, don't talk nonsense and bite the mourning family, otherwise the mourning family will order someone to feed you and lose your soul." ”

The ecstasy is dispersed into a special poison in the palace, and after taking it, the person seems to be floating in mid-air, his limbs are constantly twitching, and he can't speak clearly, which is like madness and is very ecstatic. If there is no antidote, he will continue to be tortured and tortured for twelve lifetimes, and then die of painful convulsions.

Hearing this name that was not unfamiliar, the woman in white who was prostrate on the ground laughed loudly, and this laughter seemed to tear the sky apart and make people feel chills in their backs. Empress Dowager Xiao's cold eyes did not interrupt her wild laughter, and she waited until she was exhausted and finally couldn't stop laughing: "To this day, your methods are just ecstasy?" Back then, you sent someone to put a dose of ecstasy in my food, and coupled with your clever words, the first emperor believed that I was really crazy, and ruthlessly abandoned me......"

In the dark night, no one saw the jealousy in Empress Dowager Xiao's eyes, only to see her thick mockery: "Concubine Rong, I haven't thought that you are really confused to death after living for most of your life." Do you still think that the first emperor was sincere to you? The mourners think you are pitiful and pathetic. ”

Who is pitiful and pathetic?

For thirty years, Empress Dowager Xiao has repeated these words to herself day and night, but she still can't deceive the trembling heart in her chest. The haggard and ugly "crazy woman" with a ruined face in front of her was a smiling and peerless beauty thirty years ago, but it is a pity that she destroyed all the beauty of the people in front of her with her own hands. Every time she thinks about it, Empress Dowager Xiao can barely calm the lingering shame in her heart, and even the jealousy that she doesn't want to admit.

"I remember that you admitted that Concubine Yun was killed by your own hands, if Your Majesty knew that you killed his biological mother, I wonder if your honorable position would be overturned overnight?" After that, the cloudy eyes of the woman in white revealed strong resentment and unwillingness. At this moment, she had done her best to support her weak body, and she barely sat on the ground, like a candle in the wind.

Empress Dowager Xiao raised the corners of her lips and said indifferently: "If the mourning family dares to admit it in person, they will naturally not be afraid." At the beginning, you and Concubine Yun were like sisters, although she had been dead for many years, her son was the emperor who left a name in the history of the Tianxi Dynasty, and your son couldn't even enter the royal family tree. ”

Yes, God knows that the person she hates the most in her life is Concubine Rong, who is not as ghostly as she is in front of her. This woman snatched all the love of the emperor from her, and even had the idea of changing her son to be the prince.

Thinking that the prince of Empress Dowager Xiao's relatives died young, the imperial doctors took turns to diagnose that it was difficult for her to get pregnant, as the queen of the middle palace, she couldn't be childless, and the honor and power she cared about the most could not be missed. So, she had to decide to become a prince. As for why the fifth son of the emperor Yuwen Haotian was chosen, there is naturally a reason.

During the reign of the first emperor, Concubine Rong, the biological mother of the second son of the emperor, and Concubine Yun, the biological mother of the fifth son, entered the palace in the same year. Among them, Concubine Rong is an empathetic and stunning beauty, skillfully smiling and proficient in poetry and literature, and admired the first emperor before entering the palace, and the first emperor's feelings for her gradually became different, so that later the Empress Dowager Xiao had a murderous intention. As for the graceful and generous Concubine Yun, she was the biological mother of today's son, and she was also quite favored back then, the key is that her smart and clever son is very pleasing to the first emperor. Of course, Yuwen Haotian is just pleasing the first emperor, and he can't be compared with Yuwen Haohe, the second son of the emperor born to Concubine Rong.

To this day, when I carefully recall Yuwen Haohe, even a person as shrewd and ruthless as Empress Dowager Xiao can't help but sigh at his benevolence, righteousness, and virtue. Among the princes, the first emperor especially favored Yuwen Haohe, because of the ancestral system of the prince, the first emperor canonized the sixteen-year-old Yuwen Haohe as "He Wang", this honor showed his status but also caused death.

In the same year, Empress Dowager Xiao lost her son and did not want to live, which was the crystallization of her husband and wife with the first emperor, and she was the eldest son of the first emperor. It's a pity that on the day of their child's funeral, the first emperor stayed in Concubine Rong's palace to accompany her on her birthday. The hatred is unbearable, which completely slanders the Empress Dowager Xiao, who has been proud and noble since she was a child, and she can no longer tolerate Queen He's mother and son in her eyes......

After four years of careful planning, Empress Dowager Xiao teamed up with Tang Jinyi, the incumbent prime minister of the Tianxi Dynasty at that time, to secretly collude with the enemy generals of the neighboring border with Xijing, and the enemy country's iron cavalry tyrannically slaughtered millions of people on the border, and Xijing was suddenly in danger. At the same time, Xiao Wu, the hereditary prince of Hengguo, collected all kinds of ironclad evidence of the so-called adultery and treason of King He, and presented the first emperor on the Jinluan Palace, King He was wronged and couldn't argue, and the rebellion was quelled on the day when the first emperor strangled King He with tears, and then Concubine Rong "went crazy" overnight......

Empress Dowager Xiao, who was the initiator of all this, had mixed feelings in her heart, and ordered Concubine Rong to be imprisoned, not allowing her to die or live. racked her brains to torture her for more than ten years, if it weren't for Concubine Rong's grievances and unwillingness to hold on to the present, others would have died hundreds of times.

"Xiao, you are as poisonous as a snake and scorpion, I curse you not to die well! Back then, you were jealous of my grace, you could have killed me, why do you have to calculate the innocent and merciful crane, he has respected and loved you as a grandmother since childhood...... Not only did you let the first emperor personally order him to be killed, but you also made him a sinner of the Celestial Seal Dynasty even after his death...... You are extremely hateful, you are not as good as ......" The sharp roar seemed to be able to penetrate the entire palace, but it was a pity that Beiyuan Pavilion was a forbidden place in the palace, and no one dared to come within a radius of ten miles, even if she shouted heartbreakingly, it would not attract anyone's attention.

"Zhang Xiyue, you remember clearly to the mourning family that King He was born as a sinner of the Tianxi Dynasty, and he should not have survived in the world." Empress Dowager Xiao shouted out Concubine Rong's name, took two steps forward and stretched out her hand to suddenly jam her neck, the queen mother, who is a dignified and noble mother in the world, showed a look as terrifying as a devil at this moment.

Yuwen Haohe is only four months younger than the eldest son of the Empress Dowager Xiao, and when Concubine Rong was first fortunate to be the first emperor, it was when the Empress Dowager Xiao was pregnant and inconvenient to sleep. Before she became pregnant and gave birth, all the concubines of the first emperor did not dare to get pregnant, and even if they were accidentally pregnant, they would quietly abort on their own, for fear that the Empress Dowager Xiao would know about it and get into trouble. Only Concubine Rong dared, dared to almost get pregnant with her, the queen, at that time, she already hated Concubine Rong, but unfortunately the other party didn't know it.

Yuwen Haohe was able to grow up safely, thanks to the favor and blessing of the first emperor, and it simply broke through the limit of forbearance in Empress Dowager Xiao's heart. On the surface, she is a generous and charitable mother-in-law, although she is shrewd in the front of the harem, and she treats the princes kindly. But she couldn't accept the fact that her biological son was mediocre and incompetent, and she even imagined that even if her son didn't die of illness, the first emperor would eventually pass the throne to the emperor's second son, Yuwen Haohe.

Gathering her complicated thoughts, Empress Dowager Xiao suddenly let go of her hand, condescendingly looked down at the woman who fell to the ground desperately panting, and said in a cold voice: "Concubine Yun is actually stained with your light, and the mourning family is willing to support her son to ascend the throne, that is to make you more painful." ”

Yes, the son of a good sister has become the king of a country, but her son was hanged and abandoned in a mass grave, and he didn't even have a serious rank. One day, one earth, this gap is enough to torment people for a lifetime.

"It's time for the mourners to go, and I'll come back to see you next year. I hope you're still angry next year. With that, Empress Dowager Xiao held the back of Mama Luo's hand, turned around and strode away.

At the moment when Empress Dowager Xiao stepped out of the gate of Beiyuan Pavilion, Bai Muguan, who was lying on the eaves and peeping, clearly heard two laughter of different timbres, one from inside the garden and one from outside the garden. It's just that the laughter is just as poignant and terrible, the same helpless resentment, and the same creepy.

This is the fate of harem girls?

Bai Muguan couldn't help but sigh to himself, one seemed to be a winner and honorable, and the other was imprisoned in a forbidden place in the palace for thirty years. In fact, both of them are losers, poor women who have lost completely.

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