On the afternoon of the next day after the Peony incident, the prince came to the sand room again.

For more than a month, the prince spent half an hour in the sand room every three days. On the sand table, he can create at will and gallop freely, as if this square inch is under his hands to conjure up an infinite world.

In front of people, he is still the flawless prince. But here, he can be himself.

Sometimes, he wants to turn into a dragon, a demon, he wants to light a fire, he wants to destroy everything, it doesn't matter, it's his world, he can do that.

Sometimes, he imagines himself as a big baby, lying flat on his back on the sand, doing nothing, rusty, moldy, and that's okay, in this world, no one asks him to be diligent and strong.

No matter what he did, this sand table, and the person sitting on the opposite side of the sand table, seemed to be able to accommodate it, and seemed to feel that it was nothing, just normal human nature.

Yes, although he has the name of the crown prince, he is actually just a person, a teenager, and he will have the fragility of all people, the laziness of people, and even the evil of people.

The strange thing is that when he used to be a perfect imperial prince, he always felt that his strength was just a layer of crispy skin on the outside, and he had to work hard to support this skin so that this image would not collapse.

And now, when he could express the anger, vulnerability, and helplessness that he had not allowed himself to express before, he felt a solid strength slowly growing from within him. He became solid, no longer like an empty tin man.

He knew that this transformation could happen because of the person sitting across from him. Her eyes, as if with light, could see the depths of his heart that had never been touched by the sun. And the darkness that hid in the depths of his heart, the barren places that he himself was not aware of, began to spread with greenery because of the entry of this light, and even became verdant.

Although when they met on other occasions, the two of them still strictly followed the difference in identity, as if everything in the sand room seemed to happen in another independent time and space, and had nothing to do with daily life. However, Chen Yucong knows that she is unique to herself.

However, all the furnishings of the sand game room have not changed today, but Chen Youcong feels that the atmosphere is completely different from the past. The feeling of warmth and fluidity is gone, replaced by a solemn and sluggish feeling. Even the sand tentacles are no longer so fluent and smooth.

Chen almost immediately understood what was going on. It's because the mood of the person sitting opposite has changed, and the light is gone.

Zhang Weizhao still looked so calm, and his complexion was no different from usual. But Chen Youcong could feel very clearly that there were strange emotions flowing in her heart.

He let go of the sand in his hand.

"Are you angry?" He asked.

"You feel it?" Zhang Weizhao returned with a wry smile.

"Did you scold the Emperor Grandmother for the pothos?"

Zhang Weizhao thought for a while and said, "I'm very angry, I feel that something is pressing here, so I can hardly breathe." She pressed her hand to her chest, paused, and then said, "But I'm not angry with the Queen Mother." I just have a lot of things I don't understand. ”

"What don't you understand?"

"Why did Peony not hesitate to push her colleagues to death just to compete for favor? Why do I have to put her to death in turn to protect myself? Why did the pothos do things that were just human nature, but put herself to death? What kind of place is it, and why is it dead everywhere? ”

The prince sighed lightly, he wanted to comfort Zhang Weizhao and tell her that she was safe, and no matter what happened, he would try to save her, but the words that came out of his mouth became: "I can't answer your question." All I can tell you is that everyone is like this here. Including the Queen Mother, including me, and even my father. If you are not careful, you will step into the land of death. ”

For some reason, he suddenly wanted to talk about it at this moment, so he asked, "Do you know the past of the Chen royal family?" Do you know that the Queen Mother and the First Emperor were once imprisoned in the South Palace, and almost died at the hands of the first emperor's half-brother several times during this period? ”

Chen Youcong knew that he shouldn't talk to Zhang Weizhao about this. These questions had been buried in his heart for a long time, and no one could discuss them, but today they flowed smoothly out of his chest without the slightest hindrance.

Zhang Weizhao seemed to be completely unafraid of hearing these private things, and nodded slowly.

"So you know what?" When Chen Youcong said this, his tone became sluggish, and it seemed that even breathing became difficult, "My mother left me when I was six years old, and the reason why she died was because she gave birth to me?" ”

Chen Youcong's theme of the sand table for more than a month is all related to the nostalgia and memorial of his mother, and it is also full of revenge impulse and suppressed pain, Zhang Weizhao has guessed that the death of his mother Ji Shufei is not simple, and also guessed who her death may be involved with from the power structure of the court. She didn't want to hide it, so she continued to nod.

With a bang, Chen Youcong's fist slammed into a few cases, and he said loudly: "Then why, a mother worked so hard to give birth to a child and raised him with hard work, and she had to be put to death because of this?" Innocent people die in vain, while murderers are in high positions and are favored, why is that? You asked me why the pothos was scolded with a rod just because of the sacrifice to the aunt who raised her, and you were upset for her. And my mother was innocently killed, and I couldn't even find someone to ask why! ”

Chen Youcong pounded the table again and again, blood stains oozing from his joints.

Zhang Weizhao stood up, held the hand that had self-harmed after a few cases. The hand was shaking.

"Why did you hold my hand? You seem to have told me," Chen Youcong said in a low voice, "There can't be any kind of physical contact here?" ”

"Yes, but if you want to stop the harm from happening, you can break the rule temporarily." Zhang Weizhao let go of his hand and sat back.

"It's a cruel world." Zhang Weizhao said. Both in the past and in the present.

"My mother was killed by Concubine Jin." Chen Youcong said.

"How do you know that? Weren't you only six years old when she died? ”

"I was told what happened some time ago."

"Does the Queen Mother know the inside story of your mother's murder?"

Chen Youcong lowered his head, and there was a kind of pathos on his face that was not commensurate with his age: "The Queen Mother couldn't do anything at that time. Because, the father is an accomplice. ”

"Does the Queen Mother know that you already know about this?"

"I think her old man already knew, some time ago she saw me depressed day by day, she was very worried, but she didn't say anything, just invited you, she said you can heal the heart."

So far, Zhang Weizhao has been able to connect the questions of why he was suddenly recruited into the court, why he was favored by the Queen Mother, and what role he played in Changle Palace to form a clear clue. These inside information were not far from what she had guessed, but getting confirmation from the prince's mouth still made her see everything much more clearly.

"Sometimes I hate it in my heart!" Chen Youcong gritted his teeth and said.

"It's not normal if you don't hate."

"But father and son, how can I hate my father and the king?"

"I hate it, what else should I say? If you say you shouldn't hate, don't you hate? ”

"It was my father and mother who gave me life......"

"It's not that they gave you life, they're just containers and pipes, and it was God who created you through them."

"Don't you know that what you say is against filial piety and disrespectful?"

"Filial piety is no bigger than the way of heaven."

"Don't you know that this dynasty governs the country with filial piety?"

"Filial piety is only a means for the monarch to coax his people into obedience. There is no emperor in this world who has won the world by filial piety, and no emperor has won a prosperous world by filial piety. The life of a son is no worse than that of a father. The same is true of the people compared to the monarch. ”

"You!?" Chen Youcong looked at Zhang Weizhao with wide eyes.

Zhang Weizhao's face is no longer as calm and tolerant as water, as usual, but with a kind of sharpness and firmness. In this era, she has been careful to hide the difference in her values, but at this moment, she doesn't want to hide it anymore.

Chen Youcong was not used to Zhang Weizhao's change, and stared at her for a long time before he said: "You today are very different from before." Haven't you been tired of wearing a mask before? ”

"You are very different today than you were before. Thirteen or fourteen-year-old children, but usually have to have an old pedantic face, aren't you tired? ”

"I'm the crown prince, and that's how the prince should be."

"I'm a healer, and that's how doctors should be."

After saying these two sentences, both of them laughed. It has dissipated a lot of the haze of the past two days.

"Don't blame Grandmother Huang. She has actually been protecting you, and she is very different from you and everyone else. The court is different from other places, and the things of gods and ghosts are taboo. Pothos is not punished, and it is difficult to convince the public. If the peony does not leave here, it will inevitably make waves. At that time, I don't know how many people will be implicated. There are many such people in the palace, and in order to be able to be promoted, they do not hesitate to climb up by stepping on the bones of others. ”

Zhang Weizhao sighed: "I'm not complaining about the Queen Mother. I just don't like the rules of the court. ”

Chen Youcong said: "I don't like it either. ”

"If you could choose, what kind of life would you want to live?"

"I still want to be a prince and a wise king in the future. But I don't like this harem, I hope to live with my father and mother like a family, and work together to make Dayan prosperous and rich, and the people live and work in peace and contentment. Instead of being like now, whether it is a king or a concubine, they have to consume a lot of spirit and energy in this bottomless harem. ”