On the way from Xuanwu Gate to Weiyang Palace, you will pass through winding laneways and countless courtyards separated by tall palace walls.

The clouds and mist brewed a drizzle, and Chu Zhixia was led by the little eunuch, and suddenly stopped in front of a courtyard.

A cherry blossom climbed out of the wall, soaking out a clear white in the light rain.

The courtyard gate was wide open, and the pictures of ladies and gentlemen, birds with feathers clearly visible and splashed ink landscapes were overturned on the ground, rolled with sewage, and viciously imprinted a few footprints.

This is the Academy of Paintings.

There was a young man's angry scolding in the painting courtyard, which made the pear blossoms tremble.

Chu Zhixia raised his eyebrows, left the little eunuch and walked in.

——

"You dog minions, you dare to use such a thing to bewitch you, who drew it, hurry up and get out of here!"

The three princes took a group of chickens and dogs to steal Yu Linwei, overturned all the shelves in the painting courtyard, and the four treasures of the study were smashed as if they didn't want money, and the paints of vermilion, indigo, and cherry powder were splashed on the ground, rendering the rain on the ground dazzling.

He lifted the corner of his robe and jumped onto the table in the center of the room, kicking away the old painter who had come to confess his guilt, and his baby face was fierce.

The old painter clutched his chest and moaned, and the rest of the painters and eunuchs knelt on the ground in horror, trembling incessantly, and could not even say words begging for mercy.

"I ask one last time, who painted this picture?" The third prince shook off a scroll of paintings, and the painting was an unrecognizable but heart-shaking silhouette, "I can't say it, none of you want to get out alive today!" ”

"It's me."

Out of the room was a thin young man, dressed in a simple plain robe, without any ornaments to show his status. The young man was born with thin eyebrows and big eyes, and his complexion was sickly pale, and he was as weak as a girl compared to the domineering third prince.

"This painting is from my hand. Third brother, this matter has nothing to do with others, don't implicate them. The boy bowed his head slightly and said calmly.

The third prince almost couldn't remember this person's name, but when he heard the word "third brother", his anger immediately burned on the heavenly spirit cover.

"Bai Ziche, it turned out to be you cheap thing! I should have known ......"

The third prince angrily threw the scroll in the young man's face, but he heard a "whoosh", and the scroll was missed. The pierced scroll fell, and a copper plate swirled on the ground.

Everyone looked at Chu Zhixia who appeared in the court in astonishment.

"Your Royal Highness is so angry." Chu Zhixia was playing with a copper plate in his hand, and he wanted to laugh or not, "I don't know how Your Majesty feels when he hears your lofty remarks?" ”

"It's none of your business." When the third prince saw her, he was even more angry, "Chu Zhixia, you'd better stay away, and don't use your father to suppress me!" ”

"Not to mention Your Majesty, has His Royal Highness the Crown Prince allowed you to bully your brother like this again?"

"He deserves to be my brother too?!" The three princes were furious.

He jumped off the table and pulled out Yu Linwei's knife holder and put it on Chu Zhixia's neck.

The people in the painting academy were so shocked that they gasped, and they wanted to go up to stop them at a loss, but they were afraid that their necks would not be enough for the three princes to cut with a knife. Even the lawless Yu Linwei panicked, for fear that Chu Zhixia would die here, and they would also die.

Chu Zhixia looked at the bright blade on the side of his neck with contempt, and his gaze swept inch by inch to the wrist of the third prince holding the knife.

It was a pair of pampered hands, with snow-white fingers and thin skin, and the posture of holding the knife was unstable.

The third prince was immediately stung by her eyes, "Do you really think that no one dares to kill your surname Chu?" No matter how great your military feats are and how many soldiers you lead, you are just our dog. How dare a mere dog shout at its owner? ”

The third prince's wrist shook when he cursed, and the blade immediately rubbed a scar on Chu Zhixia's white neck, oozing wisps of blood.

"Third Highness, no!"

"The Chu clan in the clouds has merit, Your Highness can't do this!"

"Your Highness is angry, quickly take back the knife!"

Chu Zhixia, who was held to the neck with a knife, was the calmest person.

"Third Highness, read more books." Chu Zhixia sighed, as if he was helpless, "Since the founding of our dynasty, I have never insulted a courtier for the emperor. Monarchs and ministers, how can a 'lackey' in the legend of the market be covered up in one word? ”

Chu Zhixia suddenly moved, his fingers quickly clicked on the wrist of the third prince, and the third prince only felt that his entire arm was numb, and he couldn't lift the knife at all. The waist knife fell steadily into Chu Zhixia's hand, and she twisted the arm of the third prince and pressed the person to kneel on the ground.

"The Chu family guards the clouds and guards the world. The Third Highness claims to be my master, do you think that all the four seas are in your hands? Are you Your Majesty, or are you the East Palace? ”

This is said heartwarmingly, the third prince was so choked that he couldn't answer, no matter how he answered, it was wrong.

In a word, he was beaten into a rebellious minister and thief who coveted the throne!

"You don't sow discord," the third prince shouted with a stalk around his neck, "let me go!" ”

"The minister doesn't dare to let go of His Highness, what if His Highness cuts off my head?" Chu Zhixia said casually, "Let's let His Royal Highness the Crown Prince let you go!" ”

As soon as Chu Zhixia raised his hand, the hilt of the knife slammed heavily on the back of the neck of the third prince.

Yu Linwei didn't dare to come out, and looked at her in shock. Chu Zhixia threw the fainted person into Yu Linwei's arms, and easily inserted the waist knife back into the sheath.

"Send the Third Highness back to the East Palace." Chu Zhixia glanced at that Yu Lin Wei, "Be smart, if you let Your Majesty know what happened here today, you won't be able to eat and walk around." ”

The third prince said that someone used a painting to confuse him, and he called it "Qingjun side". But if the emperor knew that the three princes were making a lot of nonsense here, and they also intended to beat the other princes, Yu Linwei who followed him would be punished.

Chu Shixia didn't want people to know that she had beaten the third prince, lest the regent make a fuss.

Yu Linwei was just arrogant, not stupid, and nodded again and again.

——

"This Miss Chu," the young man who was called "Bai Ziche" by the third prince handed her a soft and clean handkerchief, "wipe the blood on your neck." ”

A faint and vague memory surged up in Chu Zhixia's mind.

The fourth prince, Bai Ziche, whose biological mother is unknown, was raised by the queen. In his previous life, he lived uneventually until the new emperor ascended the throne and finally went out of the palace to live. In the treacherous imperial capital, he is a person who will not even be noticed for breathing.

The appearance is not outstanding, the bow and horse are not outstanding, and the resourcefulness is not outstanding, Bai Ziche is really a mediocre person who can't find the advantages and can't find the mistakes, and even the emperor himself doesn't remember having such a son.

Chu Zhixia took the handkerchief and pressed it on the wound on his neck, cautiously took two steps back to keep a distance from him, and said, "Thank you, Your Highness." ”

——

The emperor was sick.

The warm incense was lit in Weiyang Palace, and the layers of veils hung down, and Chu Shixia could only see a weak figure lying on the couch. The emperor barely sat up with four or five soft pillows behind his back, and a painting hung opposite him.

Chu Zhixia could only vaguely see that the person on the painting was a person, and he didn't know whether the person in the painting was a man or a woman, how old he was, and what his appearance was.

"I have six sons, but when I get sick, no one dares to see me except you." The emperor's tone was long and plain, and he dissected this secret and spread it out to Chu Shixia, "I will also be afraid, I am afraid that my sons will leave the Weiyang Palace with their front feet, and they will go to order the Ministry of Rites to start preparing for the enthronement ceremony." ”

When the others heard this, they probably knelt down in fear and begged him not to say anything, lest the emperor should remember this incident when he was sick and bring the person back and behead him.

Accompanying the king is like accompanying the tiger, and most of the people who have a heart-to-heart with the emperor will not end well. The emperor is also a human being, but the emperor himself will always forget this at some point, and thus cannot tolerate any stain on himself, nor can he tolerate anyone who knows his stain.

Chu Zhixia screamed in his heart, and he couldn't wait to plug his ears.

"Mo Xue, I know that you use this imperial capital as a cage, but for me, how can it not be a cage within the palace walls?" The Emperor sighed sadly, "We are all trapped here. ”

Chu Shixia sneered in his heart, You use a golden shovel to loosen the soil for flowers, and when there are still people in the clouds who starve to death due to the snow disaster, don't you think this is a cage.

Everyone in the world is like this, and they want this.

But how can there be such a good thing?

"Your Majesty is rich all over the world, and the palace walls are merely the walls, how can it be Your Majesty's prison cage?" Chu Zhixia said calmly, "Your Majesty is just in poor health, so he is just arrogant." ”

The emperor looked at the person on the portrait stupidly and muttered, "The crown prince and the third are the sons of the Chen family, the second is the son of the Li family in Longxi, the fifth is the son of the Cui family of Qinghe, and the sixth is the son of the Pei family of Guanzhong." Where is my son? ”

Chu Zhixia secretly slandered himself, even at this time, the emperor also left the four princes. I don't know if the four princes are really inconspicuous, or because of the birth mother's body, they don't even have the qualifications to be remembered?

"Your Majesty, you are tired." The eunuch really couldn't listen to it, so he had to interrupt the emperor and said, "Miss Chu is also tired, why don't you let her go home?" ”

The emperor suddenly woke up, waved his hand and said, "Mo Xue, I can't get up to send it off, you can pick a pot of favorite flowers from the backyard and bring it home." ”

Chu Zhixia responded and retreated.

——

There are nearly 100 kinds of flowers on the shelves in the backyard of Weiyang Palace, almost turning this small world into a dense and shady outside the world. The eunuch didn't dare to take the emperor's words as nonsense in his illness, and led Chu Shixia to pick flowers here.

"Your Majesty doesn't like antique calligraphy and paintings, and likes to plant some flowers and trees on weekdays." The little eunuch accosted Chu Shixia and said, "Didn't Your Majesty reward you a lot last time?" ”

Chu Zhixia responded a few words, pointed casually, and picked a pot of Junzi Orchid.

The little eunuch hugged Junzilan for Chu Zhixia and sent her out of the palace.

Halfway through, the light rain turned to heavy rain, and the raindrops crackled on the ground and smashed a snow-white foam.

The little eunuch and Chu Zhixia had to go to the eaves to take shelter from the rain.

At this time, a pale figure came out from the deep palace wall, like a wisp of ash that would be erased at any time on the picture scroll. He held an oil-paper umbrella painted with green bamboo, a bunch of picture scrolls in his arms, and his eyebrows were sparse when he looked up at the rain.

"It's the Fourth Highness!" The little eunuch said in surprise, "Miss Chu, why don't you let His Royal Highness send you out of the palace?" ”

Chu Zhixia raised his eyebrows in surprise, "You still dare to call the prince?" ”

The little eunuch said that he didn't dare to say again, "The fourth highness is easy to speak, but if you change it to other princes, the slaves and maids don't dare." ”

"The fourth highness is easy to talk to, why doesn't the third highness like him?" Chu Shixia asked rhetorically.

The third prince is a man who can only be touched by hair, according to Bai Ziche's knowledgeable and interesting character, even if the third prince hits him on the left cheek, he will silently hand over the right cheek. But how can a painting offend the three princes so thoroughly, it seems that he has been grudging for a long time.

The little eunuch smbabbed and said, "Don't say it's the slave who said it. There are so many brothers in the Third Highness, but except for His Royal Highness the Prince, no one looks down on him. His Royal Highness did not have a mother to take care of him, so he was naturally squeezed everywhere. ”

Chu Zhixia laughed and laughed, only felt that the third prince was naïve, and felt that this person was bullying the soft and afraid of the hard. The fourth prince has no mother, so naturally he has no maternal support, and there is no emperor's care, and he is a dough that can be handled by others in the hands of the third prince.

The little eunuch said indignantly, "The Fourth Highness has been bullied by the Third Highness until ......" He wanted to speak and stopped.

Chu Zhixia had an epiphany.

It wasn't until Chu Zhixia entered the imperial capital and offended the three princes thoroughly, that the three princes were busy making trouble for Chu Shixia and applying eye medicine, which solved the predicament of the four princes.