Si Tian Guan

The noise of cicadas suddenly sounded overhead, causing Qu Chenzhou to stop.

Before he could find out where the little thing was hidden, two young eunuchs hurriedly moved the ladder over, knelt down to salute him, and climbed up the tree with the ladder.

Qu Chenzhou watched the little eunuch climb down, waved his hands, and a little guy with a black body and thin wings appeared in front of him, already dead.

Seeing his disappointed look, the little eunuch hurriedly courted him: "If Qu Sitian likes it, the slave will catch the live one another day, and make a cage for you to play with."

He smiled and nodded, watching the people walk away.

Long, long ago, he also raised one.

It was still in Qisheng Building, when he was washing clothes by the well, he flew over and bumped into his arm, and rolled into the laundry tub again.

He was so panicked that he quickly wiped the drenched cicada clean with the corner of his clothes.

The thing was still moving, its claws hooked his hand, he was not willing to let it go, secretly took a few strips from the bamboo basket, wove a small cage for it, and stuffed it in his bosom.

The place close to his heart was accompanied by something, this kind of happiness made him excited for a long time, his cheeks turned red.

But it was only for a long time, when the cicadas rang from his body, he had just been brought into the wing to meet the guests.

His blood dripped on the squashed cage, and it was so dirty that he always thought that cicada's blood was also red.

At this time last year, Chongming saw him in a daze listening to the singing of cicadas, so he immediately rolled up his sleeves and climbed up the plane tree, and grabbed several of them for him to play with.

Before dawn, they went under the tree to dig the Cicada monkey that had not yet grown up, and put it on the gauze tent. The two of them huddled together, watching the Cicada monkey in the early morning light, and split its back.

The newly crawled cicada has soft and transparent wings, and has transformed into a shape that can flap its wings and fly high.

"Look at Shen Zhou." Chongming turned his face to look at him: "No matter how long you are trapped underground, you will always fly to the top of the tree one day."

Qu Chenzhou withdrew his gaze, smiled slightly, and walked down the toddler path.

Now that he is in charge of Xiaoying, he doesn't have to be trapped for a walk in the small garden like before. Apart from divination, he also has many official duties every day.

It was inconvenient for the deputy generals to enter the palace at all times, so he left the palace at Weishi and Shenshi the next day to go to Xiaoying's camp, and now he came back at this time, just in time for dinner.

A group of Jinwu Guards patrolled the front of the learning path, stood still, and when he came close, they all straightened up: "Qu Sitian!"

Qu Shenzhou nodded, motioning for them to continue.

He didn't care about the Jinwu Guard, but the 35 people who were absent that day were force-fed for seven consecutive days, and half of them were so drunk that they even vomited blood. Everyone, including Ding Lekang, lowered their voices twice when talking to him, as if afraid As if to scare him.

After passing through this gate, there is Guanxing Pavilion in front.

His foot had already stepped over the threshold, and he retracted it again. Someone turned the corner in his peripheral vision, and the distance was less than a hundred steps—the timing of his return was calculated so well.

With his current status, he only worshiped the emperor in the palace, and even when he met the empress, he only had to bow his hands, but he knelt down to the visitor.

"Chen Qu Shen Zhou, I have seen the Queen Mother."

Leaning on crutches with one hand and supported by Eunuch Xi with the other, the Empress Dowager nodded and smiled at him, and slowly entered the Guanxing Pavilion.

He brushed off the hem of his clothes and got up to follow behind.

The Queen Mother had already sat down at the table, Eunuch Xi led the people out and closed the door.

Qu Chenzhou stood by the table with his hands down, looked outside the door, and said softly: "I disturbed the Empress Dowager in the middle of the night earlier, and thanked the Empress Dowager for taking her in. I have not been able to thank you in person. I hope the Empress Dowager will forgive me."

"I won't talk about polite words," the queen mother looked at him with a smile: "Come and sit, we don't have much time."

She had said it so clearly, Qu Chenzhou took the tea cup and saucer over, and sat down at the table.

The Queen Mother looked at him, and chuckled: "Qu Sitian was so calm that he didn't take the initiative to speak, which made me admire you even more, and almost believed what you said before."

"It turns out that the Empress Dowager doesn't trust the minister." Qu Chenzhou got up to pour tea for the Empress Dowager, and asked softly, "Then why did the Empress Dowager come to see the minister today?"

"Does Qu Sitian still remember what he said to me that day?" The queen mother didn't answer his words and asked, "If I tell the emperor those words, what do you think will happen to you?"

"It's just a death, but the queen mother didn't tell the emperor," Qu Shenzhou calmly reminded: "You should know that we don't have much time, and your time is even less."

The queen mother was silent for a moment, she lost her arrogance just now, as if she was beaten back to her original shape by this sentence, she sighed softly: "I'm old, I can't wait anymore."

She glanced at the door, but the door was only half-closed, leaving a gap, and the sunlight on the ground pierced the bottom of their feet like needles, as if something alive was about to climb up along their feet.

"The death of Concubine Tang De had nothing to do with me. I was pregnant at that time and didn't have much energy to take care of the harem, so the late emperor asked Concubine De to assist me."

The Empress Dowager sighed quietly: "Concubine De suddenly died suddenly. The Tang family refused to quit at that time, and the late emperor also punished the murderer. I really did not expect that they would take their anger out on me."

Qu Chenzhou slightly changed her statement: "It's not about venting anger, but they think it's you behind the scenes. Concubine De was only inferior to you at that time. If you want to say that it is beneficial, you are the only one."

"Concubine De has no children, I don't even bother to argue with her. It's been a long time ago, and now the truth is unknown."

The Empress Dowager picked up the tea bowl, feeling confused, unable to take a sip: "The late emperor sympathized with the Tang family, and raised Tang Xilan in the palace. In the future, he must promise the prince to be his wife, but it turned out that he was raising a tiger."

She glanced at Qu Chenzhou: "You said that Tang Xilan used the convenience of going to and fro in the palace to attack Yuan'er? Who told you?"

"Your Majesty, I rely on the sky for my food, and I don't need anyone to tell me."

Qu Chenzhou saw suspicion in the Empress Dowager's eyes, and replied firmly: "The Tang family is best at insidious tricks in the private house. Tang Xilan is already ten years old, what do you know? But in the eyes of others, she is still a child. Think about what she would do."

"My lady, let's think about it again. You protect His Highness day and night, guarding against open guns and hidden arrows. Have you ever guarded against Tang Xilan? As a child, when Tang Xilan played with His Highness, did someone stare at His Highness and eat something?"

"If it is a poisonous outbreak, why can't you find it out? You will definitely not give up. But if the dose mixed in each time is not large, as time goes by, His Highness's body is getting weaker and weaker, and no one can find out the reason. .”

The Empress Dowager's hand holding the teacup trembled.

Qu Shenzhou slowed down his voice, and bit by bit smashed the cracked doubts into pieces.

"Your Majesty, the Tang family did not do these things once or twice, nor by one or two people, or even by one or two generations."

"Even if you don't care about foreign affairs anymore, do you really not know what the queen has done in the palace these years?"

"Do you still remember Tan Hanlin's second daughter, who died suddenly before marrying into the Lin family, because the queen didn't want to see the Tan and Lin families get married?"

"Let's not talk about it, Concubine Xian... Can't you see it?"

The queen mother's breathing became rapid: "Why?"

In fact, she could figure out the reason, because Tang Xilan and Yuan'er were too different in age, and they had to go out of the palace to marry before Yuan'er grew up and chose a concubine.

As long as Yuan'er is alive, Tang Xilan will never be a queen.

"Your majesty... Where is your majesty..." She tried her best to keep her voice from trembling so much: "Does your majesty know? Back then I lost Yuaner, and the emperor's biological mother also disappeared... Could it be a coincidence..."

"Sorry," Qu Chenzhou lowered his eyes, "I don't know everything."

The Queen Mother changed the phrase: "After you entered the palace, did the Emperor not let you see me?"

Qu Chenzhou corrected: "The emperor didn't let me see you."

The queen mother closed her eyes, unable to hide her tiredness.

"I've been getting weaker and weaker over the years. At first, I thought it was because I was getting older, or because Xiao Xizi cared about me, and I realized something was wrong."

"I can't drink too much of the Queen's soup, but if I don't drink it, I'll be very weak instead."

"The emperor's filial piety seems to want me to live longer."

As if she had given up all resistance, the words that had been suppressed in her heart for many years finally had a place to confide.

"Even if you don't say it, I have indeed thought about it a long time ago. Yuan'er's death is probably related to the Tang family."

"Now I want to understand, no matter whether the emperor participated or not, he must know, so he dare not let you see me."

"He let me live, because of what Tang Xilan did, I'm a reason for him to threaten Tang Xilan, right..."

Qu Chenzhou pursed his lips, looked at the precarious look in the old woman's eyes, and said softly, "My condolences to the Queen Mother."

The Empress Dowager suddenly drank half a cup of tea in one breath, touched the corners of her eyes with a handkerchief, raised her head and asked, "Qu Chenzhou, where are you standing? You have been planning to see me, and you have said these things, why? For whom?"

"Niang Niang, we don't have much time," Qu Chenzhou said again: "I said these words, for me, for myself, and for you, it is also the truth that you have always wanted to know."

"I don't want to do anything, I just want to remind you of the current situation. It is impossible for King Qi to come back. King Jing pushed me up. The emperor has ignored him. King Huai keeps a low profile and does not cause trouble. He has some money in his hands."

The queen mother's throat tightened: "You mean..."

"The empress dowager has lived in the harem for a long time, and her body is a little sick. She didn't know what happened in the previous court is justifiable. But since you have set your sights on the empress, don't you know that the emperor has handed over the military power of Shiliting to King Ning?"

"I can't think of a second kind of deep meaning in it."

The deep meaning of this is that the scale in the emperor's heart has been skewed.

The Empress Dowager stopped talking, but twirled the handkerchief lightly with her fingers uneasily, and when she spoke, her voice trembled slightly.

"Qu Sitian, you follow the emperor, does the emperor think so?"

"The Sacred Heart is unpredictable. I'm sorry, but I'm not sure. I just heard that Lord Ning recently encountered some troubles when he was rectifying the garrison at Shiliting. The Emperor is on his side."

The queen mother stood up, seeing the sunlight stretched longer under her feet, and had already climbed up to her knees. As if she suddenly made up her mind, she asked directly: "What do you want me to do? What can I do to prevent that bastard Mu Jingzhao?" Climb to the throne!"

Qu Chenzhou also stood up, and replied softly: "How dare I order the Queen Mother, and I really don't know what the Queen Mother can do, to what extent, I just want to tell you..."

He takes a step closer.

"Since you entered the door, I have been divination for you, but there is no way - no matter which way you go, you can only die."

"You're right, you don't have much time left."

The Empress Dowager was not as surprised as she imagined, and her face was calm: "Who did it?"

"I can't see it, I don't know, it means that anyone is possible, the only thing that remains the same is that you are doomed to be unable to escape from the time you set off to see me."

"How much time do I have?"

"Within three months."

"It's been long enough," she smiled sadly, "I've lived in a daze for these years, and I've lived long enough."

The Empress Dowager straightened her appearance, and the majesty of being in charge of the Six Palaces in her youth returned to her cheeks. She nodded slightly to Qu Chenzhou, turned around and walked towards the gradually fading light in the gap between the wooden doors.

As the door closed, Qu Chenzhou also sighed softly.

With the empress dowager's departure, sooner or later there will be great disturbances in the palace. He is in the center of the whirlpool, how should he protect himself?

"The Queen Mother only asked you this?" Emperor Yu asked with a frown.

"Yes." Qu Chenzhou knelt at the bottom of the steps.

Not long after the queen mother left, he just lifted the tureen for dinner when he was hurriedly announced.

"What did you say?"

"Back to the emperor, forgive me for speaking bluntly. The queen mother may be thinking of her child so desperately that she came to ask me about it." He lowered his head and replied calmly: "I can only divination, peep into the unknown, and understand the past. I didn't know about it. The Empress Dowager didn't believe it, so she asked the minister repeatedly, and when she saw that the minister really didn't know, she left."

Emperor Yu hummed.

Qu Chenzhou kowtowed again: "There is one more thing. Before the Empress Dowager left, the minister made a divination, asking the emperor to forgive the crime."

"What hexagram?"

"The hexagram of death," he replied softly, "there is nothing else, just the hexagram of death."

The room became quiet, and after a long time, Emperor Yu waved his hand: "Go."

Qu Chenzhou got up, stepped back slowly, and asked softly: "Your Majesty, if the Empress Dowager finds the minister another day, what should I do..."

"Go."

He could only back out of the door and let out a soft breath. Before he could turn around the corner door, he was grabbed by someone.

"Little Shen Zhou!"

His heart skipped a beat, and he was pushed into the corner by the man, until his back was against the wall, before he responded: "I have seen Prince Ning, is the prince going out of the palace?"

"It's about to be locked, I'll leave the palace soon," Mu Jingzhao squeezed his wrist against the wall, and rubbed against his neck: "Little Shen Zhou, I haven't seen you for a while, I miss you so much."

Qu Chenzhou drew out a hand, separated the two of them by a certain distance, and said softly: "Someone will pass here later, it's not good for others to see, I will go to the prince's mansion to look for you some other day."

King Ning stepped back with a smile on his face.

Qu Chenzhou glanced at him and asked: "The prince entered the palace today, was he scolded by the empress again?"

As soon as this was mentioned, Mu Jingzhao collapsed.

"Don't mention it, those people in Shiliting don't listen to me, especially the one surnamed Song, who does one thing in front of the other and keeps the other in the back. It's too difficult to lead the army. The queen mother doesn't know anything, she just knows to scold me, and she doesn't want to I think this is my first time..."

"It's not easy to lead troops if the tail is too big. The prince can take the time to ask General Bai and Commander Bo. They must have more ideas."

Suddenly his eyes lit up, and he pulled Qu Shenzhou.

"Little Shenzhou, it's the first time you've taken care of those ruffians. I heard that those bastards in the Xiaoying camp have been dealt with submissively by you. Quickly teach me!"

Qu Chenzhou pursed his lips and smiled: "I can have any good ideas, but relying on the emperor's favor, I can only use a cruel word."

"Ruthless?" Mu Jingzhao was puzzled, "How cruel?"

"If the minister's subordinates are disobedient and dare to obey the law and disobey the law," Qu Chenzhou's demon pupils smiled into crescent moons, with a demon-like voice: "Kill them, and just replace them with another batch."

The author has something to say: the separate lives are coming to an end, and it is very difficult for me to write this paragraph