The biography of Concubine Lin in the harem

Chapter [-]

Flowers bloom and leaves fall forever (2)

The heavy rain poured down, washing away the dust, stirring up a wave of water vapor, wrapped in the wind, like a roaring giant beast rushing and neighing.

Zhu Chengbi knelt in the Tongming Hall, surrounded by huge arm-length candles, which were as bright as day, and the deep and strong smell of sandalwood diffused heavily, as if to suffocate people's breath.

In front of Zhu Chengbi, the [-]-foot-tall Buddha statue was painted gold all over, reflecting the dazzling golden light in the glowing candlelight, flickering like running water, as if to blur people's eyes.

The skirt stretching more than three feet lay flat on the mirror-like ground, like snow lotuses blooming one after another, and the wide cloud sleeves of the snow gauze clothes fluttered in the cold night wind. Zhu Chengbi's withered wrist showed that the emerald eighteen-child Buddha beads in his palm became more and more round and round.

Zhu Xi stepped forward lightly, revealing that he couldn't bear it, and whispered in a low whisper: "The Empress Dowager, you have been kneeling here for two days and two nights, and you are only willing to eat some thin porridge. Can't stop."

Zhu Chengbi spoke slightly, his voice was hoarse and desolate: "How is the matter going?"

Zhu Xi was helpless, but he didn't dare to hesitate, and hurriedly said: "It's all done."

It turned out that on the day Yizhen died, Zhu Chengbi ordered to block the news, and issued an order in the name of Yizhen, ordering civil and military officials to enter the court hall of Ziao City. In front of them are two gates of ghosts. , The attendant was stopped by Zhu Qizhen's hands, and he entered the second gate alone.In front of the second gate, Zhu Qizhen sat there holding a roll of roster, proofreading the names of the visitors and the roster.But for all the people on the roster, Zhu Qizhen ordered the attendants on the left and right to drag them down with a wave of his hand.And only those who pass through the two gates safely can enter to see Xuan Ling, and they will be told that the queen mother has personally killed the regent.In the process, all the ministers who supported the regent usurping power were all killed, and only the ministers who obeyed the emperor and the queen mother remained in the court.

Zhu Chengbi didn't look happy, and his tone was calm, as if he was listening to a play, and he only said for a moment: "Zhu Qizhen is the most neat in handling things, and the emperor must appreciate it very much."

Zhu Xi said slowly: "The emperor has just issued an imperial decree that the Prime Minister Miao Congzhe Miao will no longer be the Minister of the Ministry of Households, and Lord Gan Xungan will be the Minister of the Ministry of Finance, and the vacant Minister of the Ministry of War will be appointed by Zhu Qi Lord Zhenzhu, come and sit down."

Zhu Chengbi's hand gestures froze slightly, and her long-closed eyes suddenly opened. She looked at the Buddha statue in front of her in a daze, and muttered to herself: "As much as the emperor hates the regent in his heart, he will pay more attention to the fact that the regent's party members are falling apart. Zhu Qizhen played a major role."

Zhu Xi was silent for a moment, and then said: "Wan Zhaoyi's father, Lord Wanmoqiwan, has already entered the palace, and together with Lord Liu Ruji, Minister of the Ministry of Criminal Justice, tried the case of the Regent's Remnant Party. There are countless officials."

A gust of cool wind suddenly broke into the palace, carrying the abundant rainwater rushing towards the face, howling and moving like a running and rolling dragon, sweeping everything, which made people feel shocked.The prayer flags and heavy curtains were rolled up one after another, and they flipped randomly in the wind, like the jade arms of a dancing girl at a banquet.

"It doesn't matter." Zhu Chengbi didn't seem to realize it, and said indifferently, "There are still many courtiers who can be used in the court, Murong Jiong, Feng Sihe, and Zhen Yuandao can all be used."

Suddenly, bursts of shouts sounded outside the hall.

Zhu Chengbi frowned: "Who is it?"

Holding the silk, Zhu Xi wiped the sweat off Zhu Chengbi's forehead: "It's the empress leading a group of concubines, kneeling outside the Tongming Hall."

The sound of the rain became louder, and the outside of the hall was covered with whiteness, as if to cover people's eyes and ears. However, Zhu Chengbi listened intently, but he could distinguish Zhu Rouze's sincere and earnest voice: "Mother, please move away." Yining Palace! Queen Mother! Please move to Yining Palace!"

Indistinctly mixed with the voices of other concubines, some were hoarse or breathless: "Empress Dowager! Please move to Yining Palace! Empress Dowager! Please move to Yining Palace!"

Zhu Chengbi snorted coldly, a trace of hesitation flashed between his brows and eyes: "What are you doing?"

Bamboo sighed for disbelief: "The regent has been removed, and the empress dowager personally judged that he is a traitor and traitor. Since Father Qing is dead and Lu Nan is about to die, the empress dowager should naturally plan strategies in Yining Palace, chasing the turbid flow and leading the clean flow. It's not praying in the Tongming Temple."

"Is this what the queen meant? Or what the emperor meant?"

"The slave does not know."

Zhu Chengbi closed his eyes slightly: "How long have they been kneeling?"

"It's been more than two hours, it's thunderstorm outside, if this continues..."

There was a trace of resentment and sadness in Zhu Chengbi's heart. After a long time, she slowly opened her eyes, and her eyes were full of coldness: "Go back to the palace."

Yining Palace was immersed in dampness.

Thunderstorms rumbled like drums and waves, like gold and iron horses on the battlefield. Several times, snow-bright lightning could be seen piercing the dark sky, reflecting the original golden and magnificent Ziao City, like a hell on earth.

Zhu Chengbi sat quietly in front of the long window with vermilion lacquer carvings and phoenix patterns, his eyes occasionally passed the Pisces star pattern mirror, he was not surprised, but within a few days, the face that he took care of before was haggard and withered, and there were fine lines running across it, as if in an instant, The time of more than ten years has hurriedly escaped from the surface.

Zhu Chengbi stretched out his hand to open a gold-inlaid gemstone hollowed-out eight-treasure makeup dowry box on the ginkgo wood dressing table. Inside were several step shakers, including the King Butterfly Bingedi Begonia step, the purple sparrow pattern gilt jade step shake, and the gold inlaid step. The Jade Butterfly Wing Buyao, Suzaku's Southern Pearl Pattern Dongling Jade Buyao, Purple Gold Eight-sided Mirror and Tian Yubuyao, each one is priceless and shining.

Zhu Chengbi calmly said to Zhu who was standing beside him: "All sealed and sent to the warehouse."

Zhu Xi persuaded softly: "The Empress Dowager, several of them are still passed down from Emperor Taizu and Emperor Taizong."

"What do you want to do with those things? Don't you have a lot of cream? Who is suitable? He has already left. No matter how much I spend on dressing up, who can I show?"

Zhu Xi was silent for a while, waved to Zhu Yu, motioned Zhu Yu to take away the dowry box, and then sighed softly: "Empress Dowager, you still have the emperor."

Zhu Chengbi looked sideways slightly, and there was a bowl of lotus placed obliquely below the vermilion carved window sill. The flowers were as big as a wine glass, and the leaves were shrunk like the mouth of a bowl.

Bamboo breathed lowly and said: "The sixth prince ordered the flower house to cultivate and send it. The two ends were ground thin with old lotus seeds, put into eggshells to make chicken wings, and when the chicks were mature, they were taken out, and filled with long-term swallow's nest mud and asparagus for ten minutes." The second is to mash and mix well, plant in a small container, irrigate with river water, and expose to the sun."

"Xuan Qing?" Zhu Chengbi's tightly locked willow eyebrows slowly unfolded, "Yes, last month he came to pay his respects to Ai's family, and Ai's family just mentioned that he loves Wanlian, so he remembered it in his heart."

Zhu Chengbi smiled suddenly, stretched out his hand to grab the small bowl of lotus, accompanied by the lingering fragrance, but there was endless sigh and melancholy in his heart: "Do you know why I hate Concubine Shu so much? It's not for The favor of the late emperor, but because she did what countless women in the palace could not do in their entire lives, she won almost complete love from a man. After the late emperor left, she could always miss that A good time, and I, for the rest of my life, only hate myself."

Zhu Chengbi closed his eyes tightly, and Xia Mengxian's words from the past still lingered in his ears: "Women in this world never use power to determine victory or defeat! If you win the throne and lose the heart of your husband, then you still lose! Zi Ao Among the concubines in the city, no one can beat Ruan Yanran!"

At that time, I naively thought that I didn't need to care about Yizhen at all, as long as I could become the empress dowager in a legitimate way, I could get along with Yizhen day and night, and I could make up for the lost past little by little.It's a pity that now, it's him who has ruined the only remaining warmth and thoughts.

Love and power, the women in Zi'ao City are all flowers blooming on the tip of their hearts, one is astonishing as floating on water, and the other is shining like a brocade.However, Zhu Chengbi clearly felt that what he once owned has now been lost, as if the original fertile soil suddenly lost the moisture of the underground spring, cracked and dried up one after another.

Suddenly, another dazzling flash of lightning broke through the gloomy night. Zhu Chengbi was in a trance, as if seeing Qian Xiaoyi's distorted face, her laughter was like a night owl's shrill cry at dusk: "Zhu Chengbi! You are so precious!" So what about the Queen Mother? No woman in Purple Austrian City can win! You wait! You wait! One day you will live and die! It is better to die!"

Tears gushed out again like a bank bursting, the corners of the eyes seemed to be pierced fiercely, and the throat was also hot and sour, as if something was biting fiercely.

Zhu Chengbi stood up in a daze, but bumped into Zhu Xi. She felt that her heart and lungs were filled with intense regret, and she had nowhere to confide in.

Zhu Xi hugged Zhu Chengbi tightly, and she also burst into tears: "Empress Dowager, what should pass will pass, you can't always be immersed in sorrow..."

Zhu Chengbi broke free from the bamboo breath in panic, and stretched out her hand tremblingly, as if she wanted to hold something, but she seemed to be unable to hold anything.

"What's wrong with my eyes? What's wrong with my eyes!"

In late August of the third year of Qianyuan, the entire capital was immersed in heavy rain day after day, and there was no sunshine for more than ten days.

Zhu Chengbi's knees are painful every day. Every time Xuanling, Zhu Rouze, Zhu Yixiu, etc. ask about it, Zhu Xi just sighs: "In the past, the Queen Mother joined hands with Mrs. Yu'er to humiliate her, and made the Queen Mother kneel in the rainstorm. , Since then, the Empress Dowager's knees have suffered from old diseases, and it always happens when it is rainy."

That's right, even if he knew it well, Zhu Xi would never mention the words "new illnesses and old illnesses". Yizhen gave Gao Heng the imperial staff to punish him in the court, and Zhu Chengbi stumbled from the phoenix seat and rolled down the steps , The bad knee hurt even more.

What made Xuanling even more worried was that Zhu Chengbi's eyes were not doing well, and he couldn't see clearly from three feet away. When asked about Imperial Physicians Liu and Imperial Physician Meng, they only said that they were overworked day and night and hurt their eyes. We can only consider the medication and adjust slowly.

So, at the end of August, Xuan Ling and Zhu Rou braved the rain and went to the Taimiao to pray for Zhu Chengbi.

The new round of political earthquakes that began on August [-]th was even more thrilling than the downfall of the Bolinghou Party, the Xia Family Party, and the Xiting Party. The number of official positions vacated in the court has reached more than half, and everyone in the court and the public is in danger, for fear that if they are not careful, they will be impeached as the regent's henchmen and suffer disaster.

The charge of Sun Chuanzong's murder of Xiao Zhuyun was returned to Zhao Quanxin's head, and his bones were also removed from the mass grave, along with Xu Fujing and his son.

The huge rehabilitative work also started.

Ever since Xuan Ling ascended the throne, there have been endless rumors about Zhu Chengbi's affair with the regent.Ever since Zhu Chengbi killed the regent with his hands, took back the power even more vigorously, and killed all the henchmen of the regent in one go.The rumors are self-defeating, and the world praises Zhu Chengbi as a hero among women, and her heroine appearance is far away from the men of the world.

On the first day of September in the third year of Qianyuan, the torrential rain that lasted for more than ten days finally stopped, the sun was sunny, and Zhu Chengbi's old knee and eye diseases also improved.

On the second day of September, Fu Wanting came to Yining Palace to bid farewell to Zhu Chengbi.

Zhu Chengbi looked coldly at the woman in front of her. She was wearing a light long skirt, with a simple and elegant jade hairpin holding her green hair, bowed her head and ears, and said calmly: "I want to go to Ganlu Temple and become a nun for life. Your Majesty, pray for the Gospel for Da Zhou."

Zhu Chengbi remained silent, and after a while, nodded slightly.

This accident changed the trajectory of too many people. Zhu Chengbi watched Fu Wanting leave step by step in a daze, and felt that there were no winners among those involved.In Purple Austrian City, in the capital, if you want to compare, you can only lose as little as possible.

That's it.

!!