Mountains and rivers pray for peace

Chapter 107 The Jade Statue Collapses
The beams of the main hall suddenly collapsed and directly hit the Jade Guanyin in the center. The base of the Jade Guanyin jolted twice, and finally it was teetering on the verge of falling down.

The incident happened so suddenly that the ladies at the rear of the palace were dumbfounded. Then there were chaotic and hasty screams and figures running around holding their heads, and the situation suddenly became a mess.

Emperor Xiaowen and the empress were escorted to a safe place by the inner guards who rushed out from the side. Most of the inner guards were guarding outside the hall today, and there were not enough people in the hall. Those inner guards ensured the safety of the empress, so they wanted to rush back to save Li De Queen Mother Pei from far away.But the ladies behind them were so frightened that their faces turned pale, and they crowded into a group and rushed toward them.They lost their sense of propriety for a moment and were unable to move forward, leaving only Queen Mother Pei standing directly in front of Jade Guanyin.

"Empress be careful—"

At this moment, a clear voice suddenly sounded in the chaotic hall.

What was faster than the sound was a human figure, and a green figure suddenly appeared behind the Empress Dowager Pei, like a gust of spring breeze.Huo Qi was already standing in the front when she entered the incense, and her eyes were accurate and quick, and her body was nimble like a spirit snake. She squeezed through the crowd and grabbed Empress Dowager Pei's wide sleeves and ran back.

Everyone in the entire hall was focused on escaping for their lives, and this figure rushing forward was particularly conspicuous.

It's just that Huo Qi is a lady from the official family, and the shoes she is wearing today are peony embroidered shoes that are not convenient for running. She dragged the Queen Mother Pei and did not run a few steps. The huge black shadow behind her was like a giant beast, and it was about to envelop her completely. devour.

Huo Qi made a quick calculation in his mind. If he blocked the Guanyin for Queen Mother Pei, he would lose one of his left hands at most, but he would be able to earn a good future, protect the Huo family from worries for a hundred years, and save the second prince and his wife. The Nie family all pulled down their horses, and it was not a loss after all.

Thinking of this, she gritted her teeth, pushed Queen Mother Pei forward, turned around and raised her hand to block the Guanyin statue that was about to hit her.

At the same time, there was another heart-piercing scream from behind, the sound was hoarse and shriller than the wailing of a crow.

Shen Yuning and several other princes had just been ordered by Emperor Xiaowen to go to the small Buddhist hall to light a lantern for the previously deceased prince. When they heard the screams coming from nearby, they were shocked to hear what had happened and hurried over.

Although he had known that something would happen today, as soon as he entered the hall and saw Huo Qi looking like he was dead, a strange feeling suddenly passed through his heart, as if his heart had been gently touched by a hand.

The movements on Shen Yuning's body were faster than the thoughts in his mind, he jumped into the air, and flashed behind Huo Qi like a black lightning bolt, pulling her into his arms.Lifting and kicking the long legs, the Guanyin statue fell lightly towards the open space next to it.

In the blink of an eye, Jade Guanyin fell to pieces.

Huo Qi heard a loud "bang" and suddenly opened his eyes. In front of him was not the terrifying jade statue, but the familiar face of Shen Yuning.

He let go of his hand a long time ago, but his tone was flat at this moment, but there was an inexplicable emotion hidden in Taohua's eyes: "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine." Huo Qi dazed for a moment, looked at Shen Yuning blankly and shook his head.

The jade statue collapsed suddenly, and all the inner guards outside the hall came rustling in. The situation in the entire hall had been settled, and many married women were surrounded by the inner guards outside the hall and entered the hall again.

Suddenly, there was an abrupt scream from behind: "Lian'er!"

It was the voice of the second princess.

Although the Qin family is usually a strong person, she is well-known in the capital for being dignified and prudent, and she seldom loses her composure like this.At this time, her hair was in a mess, and the hairpins on her head were all scattered, and she just stood there crying, how could she still be as proud as before?
Everyone followed her gaze, but saw a mummy lying on the ground, the corpse was still pressing the beam of the main hall, and the beam had already been burned into charcoal, and a torch bucket was poured beside it, and the ashes inside were scattered all over the ground. There are also some unburned paper money.

You don't need to look to know that the maid's clothes were accidentally set on fire by the fire bucket, and then she was hit by a beam and couldn't escape, and then she was burned to death.

Those wives were so busy running for their lives that they didn't pay attention to the chaotic screams in the hall.After what happened just now, she was already in shock. Seeing such a terrifying situation, the timid young lady couldn't help trembling at this moment.

The second prince at the entrance of the palace also came over with Shen Yuning after hearing the screams. He narrowed his eagle eyes and glanced at the Jade Guanyin that was kicked away by Shen Yuning and was broken into pieces. He glanced at the charred corpse on the ground, his face so dark that he could shed tears.

He originally ordered the abbot to put a fire bucket for burning paper money behind the Guanyin statue, and to burn the fire as big as possible. He waited for the jade fat on Jade Guanyin's face to melt and fall off, and then looked at others as if it had nothing to do with him. joke.

As a result, he became the joke.

Lian'er, who was burned alive, was Qin's dowry girl. She grew up with Qin's since she was a child. The relationship between master and servant is comparable to that of sisters.However, this girl was quite pretty. The Qin family knew that there could not be only one concubine in the second prince's house, so in order to maintain his favor, she sent Lian'er to his bed and became his maid, but she still followed Qin on weekdays. Serving at his side.

The lovely person who was lying soft and fragrant in his arms last night had turned into a terrifying charred corpse today. This made him shudder and at the same time, a raging fire ignited in his chest.

The second prince pushed aside the crowd and rushed to the front. With a gloomy face, he helped Qin Shi up: "The emperor's grandmother and father are still here, you are crying so much because of a maid, who are you crying for?"

It was already annoying, but it was even more annoying to see Qin's ineffective appearance again.Crying and crying in front of the emperor, with tears running down his face, at a young age, it is a disgrace in front of the imperial court, but at an older age, it is crying and mourning, which only makes people feel unlucky.

Although the people in the temple were still in shock, the order had finally stabilized.Emperor Xiaowen, who was surrounded by inner guards, calmed down a long time ago. Looking at the torn Guanyin on the ground and the mess in the hall, and hearing Qin's intermittent sobbing, his face sank like water: "Where is the abbot of Baotan Temple?"

The abbot was also one of the members who was busy fleeing for his life just now, he was full of ugly appearances, how could he look like an eminent monk?Seeing Emperor Xiaowen's ugly face, he felt hundreds of wooden fishes knocking on his head at the same time.He hurriedly squeezed in front of Emperor Xiaowen from among the monks and replied, "Your Majesty, I am here."

"Why did this beautiful beam collapse?" Emperor Xiaowen's tone was not very angry, but under this calm tone, he could smell the majestic anger. It made Emperor Xiaowen displeased.

The abbot was as anxious as an ant on a hot pot, and a layer of cold sweat broke out on his bright head, and he had to hold back a lame reason under the gaze of Emperor Xiaowen: "Recently, the temple has been plagued by termites. It must be that the little novice who was inspecting at the bottom was not careful enough..."

After saying that, he knelt down and kowtowed: "The poor monk deserves to die, the poor monk deserves to die..."

Empress Dowager Pei, who was standing next to her, sneered when she heard this: "If the Ai family remembers correctly, last month the Ministry of Rites approved a sum of money to renovate Baotan Temple in order to welcome the emperor today. The imperial court allocates so much money for repairs every year. Is it possible that the Baotan Temple is actually made of paper? Besides, February has not yet reached the rainy season in the capital. Where can the termites come from that can chew through such a thick beam? That’s it. If nothing happens sooner, nothing will happen later. You just calculated the right time and something happened in front of the emperor and the Ai family. Are you trying to fool the emperor and the Ai family into thinking they are fools?"

The Empress Dowager Pei has been cultivating her self-cultivation all these years, and the small troubles in the palace can't be seen by her old man, so she just doesn't ask, it seems that she is much more talkative than the previous few years.But at this moment, Emperor Xiaowen saw the sharpness of Empress Dowager Pei many years ago, so it can be seen that he was really angry.

Emperor Xiaowen has always been a monarch who ruled the world with "benevolence and filial piety". This trip to Baotan Temple was originally intended to use the name of offering incense to hold this Jade Guanyin in front of the Queen Mother to make her happy for a while. Seeing that Queen Mother Pei was angry , he felt even more unhappy.

Anyone with eyes in the palace could see how ugly Emperor Xiaowen's face was, and he was so frightened that he didn't dare to fart. Suddenly, someone stood up from among the married women, and slowly spoke: "Your Majesty, I dare you to say something." . It had been decided long ago that His Majesty and the Queen Mother would come to Baotan Temple to offer incense. Baotan Temple was given a month to prepare. Not to mention that it was done perfectly, but it was impossible for such an obvious flaw to happen. The beam collapsed today. , It seems that the date was calculated accurately, and it didn’t collapse until His Majesty and the Queen Mother arrived. It’s very strange.”

(End of this chapter)