Mountains and rivers pray for peace

Chapter 12
I saw the sycamore tree rustling, and a man turned over and jumped down.

Under the bright moonlight, the man was wearing a black wide-sleeved python robe, with auspicious clouds embroidered with gold thread on the cuffs, and a jade ornament with a double dragon pattern tied around his waist. He was extremely tall.Looking at it from a distance, there is an overwhelming sense of oppression, and it looks mysterious in the night.

Regardless of his identity, the fact that this man appeared in the deserted imperial garden during a night banquet in the palace is something worthy of scrutiny.

The young man in front of him conjured a fire pocket out of nowhere, "wiped" the ground, the fire light lit up the air, and clearly reflected the man's face.

He was an extremely handsome young man. His lips were painted red and his nose was like a mountain peak. Everywhere was beautiful.The thing that made people unable to look away the most was this young man's eyes.His eyes were like thousand-year-old ice. Even if there was fire shining in front of him, it could not melt the coldness in his eyes at all.

If he saw such a handsome man elsewhere, Huo Qi might still have a little bit of admiration for the beauty.

However, under such circumstances, Huo Qi's intuition told himself that something was wrong after living for more than 20 years.

The young man slowly walked up to Huo Qi, looked down at her lightly, and glanced at Xiao Zhu again, with an inexplicable smile on the corner of his mouth: "The young lady of Ningguo's family really has the guts to pose for Zhenyuan. Hou Shizi and others are still here to eavesdrop on the matter of the bed and curtain?"

Listening to the wind next to him, his heart skipped a beat. How could this strange man in front of him know that his girl is Miss Ningguo?

Huo Qi's heart trembled. Compared with being discovered by him, what was more shocking was that the man in front of her seemed to know her identity?
But after all, she is no longer a teenage girl. She has even experienced ghosts and gods such as rebirth, so she is really not that easily fooled.

A faint smile floated on her face: "My daughter has met the Seventh Prince."

"Oh? You know me?" Shen Yuning was a little surprised.

"The material and pattern of the clothes are all in accordance with the rules of the prince in the palace. The jade around the waist is a royal property, and there is a unique scent of sandalwood on his body." The seventh prince loves paying respect to the Buddha the most, besides His Highness and the monks in the temple, it is hard for the courtiers to imagine anyone else who can smell such a strong sandalwood fragrance."

Shen Yuning said with a half smile but not a smile: "Miss Huo's mind is poisonous, and her eyes are even more poisonous. Since you know the identity of this king, are you not afraid that this king will reveal what happened today?"

"What happened today?" Huo Qi smiled slightly, but the smile didn't reach his eyes, "I just happened to pass by today. Your Highness has nothing to say, so it's fine for my daughter. But, if you let His Majesty know, seven The prince made an excuse not to go to the Qiu Ju Banquet, but he hid in the imperial garden and eavesdropped in the corner, not knowing what to think."

"You seem to be fearless." Shen Yuning said, as if she felt that the yellow-haired girl in front of her was a little overwhelmed.

"The courtier is not fearless, but she understands a truth. A person needs motivation to do things, and His Highness does not have this motivation to meddle in other people's affairs." Huo Qi said softly.

Others don't know, but Huo Qi knows that Yuan Xianzhi, Marquis of Zhenyuan, belongs to the Party of Five Princes, and Yuan Shao is Yuan Xianzhi's son.

When she died in the previous life, the battle for the throne had reached a stalemate, but she had never heard that Shen Yuning had any involvement with the fifth prince, so he had no reason to keep Yuan Shao.

After hearing this, Shen Yuning looked seriously at the woman in front of him who pretended to be submissive.

Everyone outside said that Duke Ning's mansion is the most rule-abiding and general-minded, and Duke Ning Huo Ruhai is even more upright, honest and upright, a man of great character.

But what he saw in Huo Qi was that underneath his kind skin was vicious methods and treacherous thoughts, which surprised him time and time again.

He murdered his brother, visited the brothel in broad daylight, and now he is with Yuan Shao in the palace.

She turned out to be the daughter taught by Huo Ruhai?
Shen Yuning seemed to be thinking of teasing the woman in front of her, she put her face in Huo Qi's ear and said softly, "If this king just meddles in this business today, what should you do?"

There was an obvious threat in the words, and the dangerous aura of the man in front of him could almost sweep over every sense of Huo Qi, like a small boat being dragged into the rough sea.

But at this moment, because of the closer distance and the hazy night, the atmosphere seemed a little ambiguous.

Huo Qi took a step back and distanced the two of them.She raised her eyes slightly, looked at Shen Yuning, and said firmly: "Your Highness will not do it."

The girl's stature was comparable to Shen Yuning's chest, but her aura was not weak at all.What she bet on was not Shen Yuning's kindness, but her grasp and insight into human nature.

Shen Yuning's expression was ups and downs, as if she remembered something again, she smiled lowly: "You know me very well. This time I took care of this matter for you, but you owe me a favor."

Huo Qi breathed a sigh of relief when he heard this.

She had already prepared for Shen Yuning to be relentless, and was thinking about countermeasures in her heart, but she didn't expect him to expose the matter so easily?
But at the same time, she became a little uneasy.

She secretly looked at the young man in front of her, her thoughts drifting away.

In her last life, she had never seen Shen Yuning's true face, because Shen Yuning lived in seclusion on weekdays, not to mention she was just a minister's daughter, even some ministers might not have seen her.

I only heard rumors that Shen Yuning had the temperament of a wild crane, except that he often went to Wanfo Temple to offer incense and worship Buddha, and discuss Buddhist scriptures with the abbot, he rarely got involved with outsiders, and it can be said that he had almost no involvement in court affairs.

But she is Ning Guogong's daughter after all, and she knows some subtle things.

She once heard from her father that Shen Yuning had helped the emperor handle a refugee case. At that time, her father happened to be one of the presiding judges of the refugee case and had worked with Shen Yuning.After the case was closed, his father also said that the seventh prince, Shen Yuning, was fierce in methods, strategic in mind, and absolutely extraordinary.

Having just had a few confrontations with Shen Yuning, and recalling his father's words, Huo Qi's instinct told him that the man in front of him was by no means as harmless as the rumors said.

How could an extremely proud person with iron wrists be willing to submit to others?
For this kind of extremely ambitious and good at disguising people, it is wise to keep a distance.

But now he said that he owed him a favor?
Since ancient times, the most difficult thing to repay is the debt of favor. Who knows what Shen Yuning will force her to do?
If she is alone, she will naturally not be afraid.But she has the entire Duke Ning's Palace behind her, so she has to plan for the entire family and must not put the Duke Ning's Palace in danger.

Huo Qi settled down, and said: "This favor, my daughter agrees. I just hope that Your Highness agrees to my daughter's condition."

"Tell me." Shen Yuning raised her eyebrows.

Huo Qi said solemnly: "This favor is only related to the courtier's daughter and Your Highness, and has nothing to do with the third person."

If you have no choice, you can only maximize your own interests.

"Naturally." Shen Yuning readily responded.

He laughed a little in his heart. Could it be that she thought he would let her go up mountains of swords and seas of fire?He doesn't suffer any losses at all, he really knows how to calculate.

Huo Qi nodded: "That's it, it's getting late, the courtiers will leave first, and return all the autumn colors of the garden to Your Highness."

However, as soon as the words fell, there was a faint sound coming from the entrance of the imperial garden, which seemed to come from underground, mixed with the sound of people talking intermittently.

After listening carefully, it turned out that the emperor's guard of honor had arrived.

In the past, the chrysanthemum feast was held in the hall first, then the lamps were lit in the imperial garden, and finally the emperor drew up a theme. Everyone chanted poems and matched each other, each showed their magical powers, and the winner won the lottery. This year is no exception.

At this time, the moon was low, and it was time to light the lamps.

The sound was getting closer and closer, and she thought to herself that if she passed by now, she would probably bump into Emperor Xiaowen.

She was thinking about how to get out, but she only heard Shen Yuning next to her say quietly: "If you don't want to die, don't move."

After hearing this, Huo Qi asked, "What's your opinion, Your Highness?"

In fact, she had already calculated the time today.

First lure Huo Qinglan and Yuan Shao here, and then get away and go back by herself. When the palace guards in the imperial garden find out about the affair between this couple and run out in a panic, they will definitely bump into the emperor and his party. Pick a suitable gap to add fire.

It's just that she had calculated thousands of times, but she didn't expect to meet a plague god tonight.Hearing Shen Yuning's unkind words, he was immediately displeased.

As soon as the words fell, Huo Qi suddenly spun around in front of her. Before she could react, she was carried up to the sycamore tree in an instant.The whole tree rustled like it was raining.

Huo Qi has been well-behaved since he was a child, and he has never done such an extraordinary thing as a monkey climbing a tree.After living a new life, Huo Qi cherished his life the most. Seeing the wobbly and unsteady appearance of the tree branch, he had no choice but to hug the man's waist tightly.

She thought very clearly that even if she died, she would have to be held back.

Shen Yuning lowered her head to look at the girl who was holding onto her tightly, and for the first time, cracks appeared on her cold face, which had always remained unchanged before Mount Tai collapsed.

If he stood under the tree, he would soon be spotted by the guards beside the emperor, so he climbed up the tree to take shelter for a while, but he didn't expect that the woman in front of him would regard him as a living pillar.

He said coldly: "It turns out that Miss Huo's family is also afraid. It seems that I was wrong."

Hearing this, Huo Qi quickly let go of the man's waist, held his arms tightly on the branches next to him to stabilize his body, and said: "My daughter is naturally no better than His Highness. She is indeed a person who is greedy for life and afraid of death."

The life that was finally recovered, shouldn't it be cherished?

While speaking, the swaying sycamore tree has returned to calm, and there is no one on the ground, only the dead branches and leaves that have been shaken to the ground.Lefeng was also very obedient, presumably she found a bush to hide.

Time passed little by little, and the voice at the gate of the imperial garden was getting closer and closer.

Huo Qi pushed aside the leaves, and headed by the emperor's guard of honor, all the people in the banquet hall just arrived at the viewing pavilion in the imperial garden one after another.

The two teams of attendants who held the lamps bowed their waists slightly and carefully lined up on both sides of the crowd, illuminating the originally dark imperial garden like daylight.

Looking from the sycamore tree, the entire pavilion is surrounded by all kinds of precious autumn chrysanthemums, which complement each other and bloom proudly.Under the illumination of the night light, the petals of the autumn chrysanthemum are coated with a layer of gorgeous flowing color, which has a special charm.

Eunuch Li, who was next to the emperor, commanded a team of eunuchs to serve a pot of chrysanthemum tea to each of the ministers and wives seated in the pavilion, and set up an incense table in the middle, covered with high-quality rice paper and several squares of imperial ink. To be used for poetry.

According to tradition, before writing a poem, you must first select an auspicious time and perform a lighting ceremony.This move is to pray for Daqi, hoping that the weather will be smooth in the second half of the year and that the people will have a good harvest.

"Xiao Lizi, it's about time. Present the prepared lanterns." Emperor Xiaowen said in the middle of the pavilion.

Eunuch Li waved his hand, and was about to be presented with the palace lanterns that had already been prepared.

Suddenly, a black shadow passed quickly not far in front of the pavilion.

Eunuch Li looked sharply.

He has been with the emperor for decades and has experienced countless assassinations, so he is also a bit of a warrior.Today there were many people and many eyes were crowded. He immediately felt that the shadow looked suspicious and could not care about it. Eunuch Li exclaimed:
"There are assassins! Protect Your Majesty!"

　Sister Huo and Brother Shen finally talked
　　
　
(End of this chapter)