Looking at Tai'an from the full moon

After everything was arranged, everyone began to eat with peace of mind.

Xiao Zuochen could only take Chu Yao with him. If there were too many people, they would be too conspicuous and would be discovered. Besides, except for Chu Yao and Xiao Zuochen who knew Qinggong, the others were not good enough.

After dinner, everyone dispersed, and Xiao Zuochen and Chu Yao prepared to set off.

--------

At this time, the guards patrolling the palace were meticulously patrolling according to the prescribed time and route. Xiao Zuochen and Chu Yao hid according to the time and route provided by Yun Wei. It was indeed very safe. The two of them were even leisurely, as if they were taking a walk in the palace.

"Your Yun Wei is a veteran. Does he often sneak into the palace?"

"Ah."

"Why are you always sneaking around in your own home?"

"My own home? You mean the palace?"

"Isn't this your home?"

"There are people in this palace who hate me and want to harm me, people who don't see me and ignore me, and a bunch of people who come to my father every day to complain about me. Who dares to treat this as home? The Prince Yun's Mansion is my home."

"Is it? It seems that Prince Yun's Mansion doesn't make you feel at ease and comfortable?"

Chu Yao was joking when a figure suddenly appeared in front of them. The man was walking towards them, his steps were a little erratic.

Upon seeing this, the two of them subconsciously turned around and walked away quickly. At this moment, they reached a consensus - just don't let anyone see their faces!

I had only taken two steps when I heard a voice coming from behind me.

"Eh? Isn't this Sixth Brother?"

It turned out that the floating figure was the third prince. He seemed to be a little drunk and was walking unsteadily.

Xiao Zuochen was called out by name, and he didn't plan to hide. If a normal person had discovered him, he would have pretended not to hear and slipped away. But the one who discovered him was the third brother, so wouldn't it be easy to fool the third brother?

Xiao Zuochen stepped forward and bowed respectfully.

"Third brother~"

The third prince narrowed his eyes, stretched his neck and leaned forward to take a look, and the smell of alcohol all over his body rushed towards Xiao Zuochen. Chu Yao, who was standing behind Xiao Zuochen, smelled it and couldn't help but wrinkled his nose.

"Oh~ It really is my Sixth Brother! Am I dreaming?"

Normally, a prince who was given the title of king could not stay in the palace at night unless the emperor allowed it. When the third prince met Xiao Zuochen in the middle of the night, he naturally thought that he was hallucinating because he had drunk too much.

Xiao Zuochen did not speak, still maintaining his salute posture. Chu Yao also bowed his head respectfully behind him.

"Hmm~ Not bad! The brother in my dream is still the best~"

The third prince had a gratified smile on his face. He raised the wine jug in his right hand and took another sip happily, while his feet staggered twice.

"Mmm~ good wine!"

The third prince was talking to himself and didn't seem to pay much attention to Xiao Zuochen and the others.

Seeing the third brother's behavior, Xiao Zuochen no longer needed him to fool around, so he turned around and winked at Chu Yao, and the two of them planned to slip away.

It would have been better if he hadn't moved, as this movement instead attracted the attention of the Third Prince.

"Eh? Where are you going?"

The third prince suddenly widened his eyes and looked at Xiao Zuochen, then narrowed his eyes and moved closer to stare at him.

Xiao Zuochen had no expression on his face, but Chu Yao behind him was a little nervous. He was worried that the Third Prince would suddenly wake up. But the next words made him completely speechless.

"In my dream, you are still so dishonest~ Come on, drink with me!"

After the Third Prince finished speaking, he passed the wine jug to Xiao Zuochen's mouth, pretending to feed him. Fortunately, Xiao Zuochen was quick and blocked the wine jug with his hand when it was about to touch his mouth.

"Third brother, you've drunk too much."

At this time, Xiao Zuochen still looked respectful.

"Come on, come on~ You usually ignore me, why are you so shy in my dream~"

It seemed that the Third Prince was about to put his arms around Xiao Zuochen's neck and force him to drink.

Chu Yao, who was standing behind him, finally couldn't stand it anymore, so he rushed forward, stretched out his hand knife and chopped the back of the Third Prince's neck, and the Third Prince fainted. After the chopping, Chu Yao rubbed his hand on his clothes in disgust, as if he had touched something dirty.

Xiao Zuochen also kicked the Third Prince and confirmed that he was completely unconscious, then the two of them ran away, leaving the Third Prince lying there with his arms and legs spread out.

"Why didn't you just leave? You let that kid get away with it for nothing."

Chu Yao put his hands on his hips, looking angry.

"What's the bargain for him?"

"He just touched you. Isn't that taking advantage of you?"

Xiao Zuochen spread his hands. Chu Yao seemed to feel that others always took advantage of him because of his appearance.

"We are both men..."

But this reason obviously made Chu Yao dissatisfied.

"It's not okay even if they're all men! How do you know what they're thinking? They can't just let anyone touch them!"

Chu Yao was very determined and no one was allowed to touch him!

"Okay, okay! Got it~ Don't you know he's drunk? Otherwise I wouldn't have paid any attention to him."

Faced with such a Chu Yao, Xiao Zuochen had no choice but to admit his mistake, but Chu Yao heard another key point.

"Why? If he were awake, would you still want to tease him?"

"..."

Xiao Zuochen rolled his eyes at him and quickened his pace.

After dodging several patrolling guards, the two finally entered the inner court. Following the route they remembered during the day, they finally reached the courtyard of Mingxiang Pavilion, where they hid behind the weeds.

"Is this here?"

Chu Yao looked at the attic which was overgrown with weeds and in disrepair and asked.

"Ah."

After getting Xiao Zuochen's affirmation, Chu Yao was about to rush out, but suddenly he heard a woman's voice. He was so scared that he almost fell. Fortunately, Xiao Zuochen behind him pulled him and brought him back successfully.

"...Madam..."

"Is this where the Emperor and Prince Yun came during the day?"

It's the Queen's voice!

Xiao Zuochen recognized it immediately. But Chu Yao didn't know who it was. He looked at Xiao Zuochen and raised his eyebrows, as if asking him.

Xiao Zuochen didn't say anything, but used his mouth to indicate to him that it was the queen. Chu Yao repeated it again, wanting to confirm whether it was the queen, and his expression was full of doubt. What was the queen doing here?

Xiao Zuochen raised his eyebrows in reply to confirm.

"...I only saw the emperor and Prince Yun enter the pavilion. I don't know whether they went to the second floor. Later, no sound came from the building. I didn't dare to get too close for fear of being discovered."

"Well, I understand. You can go down first."

"Yes, slave, please leave!"

Chu Yao quietly stuck his head out and saw a maid dressed in a maid's clothes retreating. On the other side stood a woman wearing a phoenix crown and red and yellow clothes, and next to her was a maid holding a lantern.

"Tsk tsk tsk~"

Chu Yao looked at it and shook his head.

"what happened?"

Xiao Zuochen was puzzled, but Chu Yao had an envious expression.

"It's a blessing to be an emperor, and all the women you marry are beauties~"

"..."

"You can see clearly from such a distance?"

"Of course! How can you not even see the beauty?...Hey! She went in!"

"Oh."

"What are you saying 'oh'? She's in!"

"Just go in, I can't stop her."

"Why does the Queen want to enter Mingxiang Pavilion?"

"The Queen has her own influence in the palace. I guess one of her spies reported to her about my father's whereabouts today, so she came here to take a look out of curiosity, right?"

"Then what should we do?"

"What should I do? Just wait~"

"How long will it take?"

"How should I know~ You are anxious now, but I didn't see you anxious just now."

"..."

The two of them waited outside for a stick of incense, but the queen still didn't come out.

"Cough cough~"

The wind gradually picked up at night, and Xiao Zuochen felt a lot of cool air taking into his lungs.

"Are you okay? How about we sneak down to the first floor?"

Chu Yao saw Xiao Zuochen tightening his clothes and knew that he might be cold, so he wanted to go in and avoid the wind first.

"No, what if we run into them?"

"If I bump into them, I'll knock them out too!"

Chu Yao said, gesturing with his hands, and Xiao Zuochen rolled his eyes at him again. The Third Prince collapsed in the outer court, and it could be said that he was drunk and collapsed outside. If the Queen was knocked unconscious in Mingxiang Pavilion, the Queen would also be suspected by her father, but it was obvious that she could not escape her father's questioning, after all, she had just been here during the day.

Just as he was thinking about it, the queen came out from the pavilion.

"My lady, be careful! There's dust everywhere."

dust!

Xiao Zuochen's heart was instantly lifted. If the queen noticed...

"Wait a moment!"

The queen suddenly spoke, as if she had discovered something.

"The area around the bookshelves on the first floor seems much cleaner?"

The queen was about to turn around and check, but the maid stopped her.

"My lady, I think the emperor must have stepped on some of the dust over there when he was talking with Prince Yun on the first floor during the day."

"is it?"

The queen was skeptical and turned her head to look outside the attic. There were windows built all around the building.

The maid did not reply, but started talking about something else.

"It's too dark at night, my lady, be careful not to hurt your eyes. Why don't I come here again tomorrow to check it out?"

"Hmm... With so many windows, it probably won't be possible to make a secret room."

The queen looked around again and left with her maid.

Xiao Zuochen secretly breathed a sigh of relief. The queen had actually thought of the secret room, but fortunately she did not expect that the secret room was underground.

"Let's go, let's go!"

Seeing this, Chu Yao hurriedly pulled Xiao Zuochen out, ran straight into the building, and took out the fire starter in his arms as a light source.

"Is this where my sister used to live?"

"It is said that Mingxiang Pavilion was not yet completed at that time, so your sister probably didn't move in."

"No, Mingxiang Pavilion has been completed."

Xiao Zuochen looked at Chu Yao in confusion, but found that he was very determined in his idea. Then he saw him walk straight to the empty bookshelf, reached out and fumbled behind the bookshelf twice, and with a little force, the bookshelf slowly opened to both sides.

Xiao Zuochen opened his mouth in surprise.

"How do you know where the mechanism is?"

Chu Yao did not show his usual boastful expression, but was very serious instead.

"The structure of this building is exactly the same as the room my sister used to live in Shenyin Pavilion, except it's a little smaller."

"Exactly the same? Is there also a secret room in the place where your sister used to live?"

Chu Yao nodded.

"My sister always liked to make her things different from others, so she renovated her room herself. When I saw her empty room, I thought she hadn't finished it, but in fact, she moved all the things into the secret room. The layout here is the same as it was then, even the bookshelf is exactly the same."

Chu Yao said as he looked down into the secret room. It was pitch black and the tinderbox couldn't illuminate anything. But Chu Yao seemed to be able to see through things. He walked down the stone steps step by step, feeling along the wall with his hands, lighting the lamps on the wall along a straight line.

When there are enough light sources, the scene in the secret room can be seen clearly.

Just as Xiao Zuochen stood on the stone steps and walked down, Chu Yao turned around and looked at him.

"Don't come down here. It's very cold down there."

"But I'm worried about you going down alone."

"Don't worry, there's no trap down there. Just keep watch for me, and I'll go up after I've finished looking around."

Xiao Zuochen nodded. It was too cold down there and he really couldn't stand it. The cold wind at night was already hard enough for him to bear, not to mention that the cold was even worse down there.

Xiao Zuochen walked to the steps at the door and looked up at the bright moon hanging in the sky. The moon was missing one side, but it still looked bright against the dark night.

With his toes lightly tapping the ground, he used his Qinggong to fly to the top of the attic. The window paper on the second floor was already torn, and Xiao Zuochen could see the ground on the first floor through the window. He turned around and slowly sat down on the rubble on the roof. At this time, Xiao Zuochen suddenly thought that if he had accepted the wine from the third prince just now, he would be able to drink to his heart's content under the moon.

When was the last time I watched the moon? It seemed to be last year, or the year before? I don’t remember, but it must have been when I was bored, like now, so bored that I could only watch the moon.

Xiao Zuochen just stared at the moon and thought about all sorts of things. After an unknown amount of time, Chu Yao walked out of the secret room and closed the mechanism.

"Xiao Zuochen?"

When Chu Yao first came out, he didn't see him and shouted quietly to the surroundings.

"Up there."

Chu Yao looked up and saw Xiao Zuochen standing on the roof. He waved at him, indicating that he should go up as well.

"Why are you imitating me and climbing onto the roof? It's windy up there, come down quickly~"

Chu Yao didn't go up, but called Xiao Zuochen to come down quickly.

"Have you seen it? Have you found any clues?"

Chu Yao sighed.

"There's nothing in the chamber."

"It doesn't matter. We can always find clues somewhere else. Come up and take a look. We'll leave after you've seen it!"

Xiao Zuochen invited him again, and Chu Yao flew up upon hearing that, standing side by side with Xiao Zuochen, facing the moonlight and looking into the distance.

"..."

I thought I would see some beautiful scenery, but in the end, there was nothing except the walls surrounding the yard.

"There's nothing here!"

Chu Yao turned around to "question" Xiao Zuochen, only to find that he had already run away.

"You fool me?"

Chu Yao flew down and stretched out his hand to scratch Xiao Zuochen's waist. Before he touched him, Xiao Zuochen sneezed.

"Look, I told you not to blow the wind, but you still stood on the roof. Go home quickly and take a hot bath!"

Xiao Zuochen asked with a smile.

"Am I so delicate in your eyes? I need to take a hot bath just for sneezing~"

"Of course, you are a sick beauty. Don't think that you will be strong just because you learn Qinggong. You still need to pay attention to what you should pay attention to."

"Yes, yes, all up to you!"

"Well, that's about right~ Let's go back home and rest first, and we'll talk about the rest tomorrow."

Finally, the two returned along the same route and arrived safely at Prince Yun's Palace.