Jiuxi

Chapter 828: 826 [Facing the Abyss]

The harem, Cining Palace.

"My son, I send my regards to my mother."

Lieutenant Li Zongjian of Fengguo knelt on his knees and paid homage meticulously.

"Flat body."

Empress Dowager Xu looked calm, but her hands in her sleeves unconsciously clenched tightly, and then she said to the people beside her: "All of you go down."

"Yes, Queen Mother."

The female officials and palace maids responded respectfully, and soon only the mother and son were left in the inner hall.

Li Zongjian noticed that Queen Mother Xu was still elegant and graceful, but her demeanor was much more gloomy than before. He felt ashamed for a moment and bowed his head, saying, "I am an unfilial son. I have caused you to worry about me. I deserve death."

"Sit down first."

Queen Mother Xu looked at her youngest son, who had changed so much, with a hint of sadness in her eyes and a softer tone: "At this point, it's good that you're still alive. There's no need to talk about the past."

Compared with two years ago, Li Zongjian's face has not aged much, but the timidity of his overall temperament is visible to the naked eye.

The imperial prison was not a cruel place, and Li Zongjian had never been treated excessively harshly there. It was just that he could hardly see the sky above his head all day long, and he didn't know when the dust would settle, so he couldn't help feeling anxious.

Under such long-term torture, premature aging is very common.

At the end of last year, Empress Dowager Xu took advantage of the royal family banquet to beg Li Zongben to release Li Zongjian. However, apart from the day when the mother and son met in public, Li Zongjian never had the opportunity to enter the palace to pay his respects.

He stayed in a house not too far from the imperial palace, never going out of the front door or the back door, appearing to be extremely honest and dutiful.

Perhaps because he had been sensible and docile enough in the past six months, when he once again requested to enter the palace to visit Empress Dowager Xu, Li Zongben finally agreed.

Normally, the mother and son had not seen each other for half a year. At this moment, Empress Dowager Xu had dismissed the palace maids. They should have a lot to say to each other, but the palace fell into a long silence.

"Have you seen Xu Ruqing recently?"

In the end, it was Empress Dowager Xu who broke the silence. She did not beat around the bush and went straight to the core issue.

Li Zongjian was stunned for a moment, then smiled bitterly and said, "Mother, let alone the fact that the place I live in now is full of people from the palace and the Weaving Bureau, even if I really have the ability to reach the sky and can contact the Xu family without anyone noticing, what's the point? Mother, don't you know that the Xu family is no longer what it used to be? In the past, at least we had money and secretly cultivated people. Before my father passed away, Qin Zheng swept a few sticks, and the Xu family is left with only an empty shell."

That was after the rebellion in the capital was put down. While Qin was eliminating the rebellion, he also followed the order of the late emperor to attack the assets of the Xu family, the descendants of the descendants. It didn't take much effort to make the Xu family fall into decline.

The late emperor's original intention was to save Li Zongjian's life. As long as he could no longer rely on the Xu family's support and posed no threat to the chair, he could live safely.

Hearing this, Queen Mother Xu sighed softly and forced a smile, "Of course I know that there is nothing wrong with being an empty shell. At least no one will be suspicious of you anymore. Zong Jian, I hope you can remember that in the future, you must not contact your former confidants again, and you must not have any other thoughts. For my sake, that person will be cautious. As long as you don't do anything reckless, you can save your life. Do you understand?"

"I understand, mother, please rest assured."

Li Zongjian agreed, but he felt something strange in his heart, but he couldn't figure it out for a moment.

He knew that the emperor had spies everywhere in the palace, but the whispered conversation in the hall at this moment would definitely not reach their ears. Empress Dowager Xu's advice seemed to come from the heart, not just empty words deliberately said for others to hear.

He could understand that Empress Dowager Xu did not want to create any more trouble after suffering so many setbacks, but it seemed that she did not have any resentment towards Li Zongben in her words.

This is not quite the same as the mother he remembered.

As if she could see what he was thinking, Queen Mother Xu said softly, "Remember, don't cause trouble. I don't have the ability to save you again."

Li Zongjian felt grief and guilt, and immediately knelt down and said, "Mother, I swear here that I will never do anything that worries you again."

"That's good, get up quickly."

Empress Dowager Xu felt both distressed and depressed, and tried her best to control her emotions.

Next, the mother and son could finally talk about some relatively relaxing topics.

About an incense stick later, Li Zongjian left the Cining Hall.

Empress Dowager Xu stood up and walked to the couch, leaning against the soft pillow with her eyes slightly closed.

Not long after, very gentle footsteps were heard nearby.

"Queen Mother."

The visitor was none other than Empress Dowager Xu's most trusted female official.

"You said, the emperor released Zong Jian because he wanted to find an opportunity to kill him?"

Queen Mother Xu slowly opened her eyes and looked at the other person with her deep pupils.

The female official lowered her head and said slowly: "I dare not speak nonsense, but as long as Lieutenant Fengguo follows the rules, I think no one can harm him. Even His Majesty has to consider the dignity of the royal family and the court."

Empress Dowager Xu showed a hint of sarcasm and smiled coldly: "Haha."

At the same time, in the imperial study room of Rende Hall, Yuan Yuji came to Li Zongben and bowed, saying, "Your Majesty, Lieutenant Fengguo has left the palace. I have asked someone to take him back to the palace."

Li Zongben supported his chin with one hand and flipped through the memorial with the other, and asked calmly, "How is the Queen Mother feeling?"

Yuan Yuji replied, "Your Majesty, the Queen Mother and Lieutenant Fengguo dismissed the palace ladies and had a secret conversation for quite some time. It is not clear what they talked about. When Lieutenant Fengguo left, he was normal and there was nothing wrong with him, but the Queen Mother seemed a little sad and seemed reluctant to let him go."

"We only see each other once every six months, so it's normal to feel reluctant."

Li Zongben closed the memorial, looked up at Yuan Yuji and said, "Except for those female officials in the Cining Palace, the others should be gradually replaced, and they should be kept under careful watch. I don't want rumors outside to disturb the empress dowager's peace." "I obey your order."

"What has Lu Chen been doing in the mansion these days?"

"Your Majesty, Duke Qin has followed your Majesty's order to introspect and has not stepped out of the house in recent days. No court officials have come to visit him either."

Li Zongben nodded slightly, his eyes fell on the memorial in front of him on the left, and his mood suddenly became very comfortable.

That was Lu Chen's self-reflection memorial, and it was also the first time in many years that Lu Chen publicly admitted his mistakes. Although some of the words in the memorial still seemed harsh, it was a hard-earned achievement for Li Zongben.

Ever since the officials in the capital heard that the Duke of Qin had bowed his head and admitted that his rash departure from the court meeting that day was inappropriate, they stopped attacking him with impeachment memorials.

"Lu Chen and Li Bingxue's wedding is about 20 days away. You should prepare two gift lists yourself and send them to Duke Qin's Mansion and Duke Wei's Mansion in a few days. You may want to make a bigger show so that the whole capital will know about it."

"The slaves obey the order."

Yuan Yuji quickly agreed.

What Li Zongben did was not actually giving a slap and then a candy.

According to the situation in which hundreds of officials impeached Lu Chen a few days ago, if Li Zongben added fuel to the flames, the attacks would definitely be more fierce than the ones Zhong Cheng encountered at the beginning, and it would be even more difficult for Lu Chen to step down.

Li Zongben asked Yuan Yuji to deliver the imperial edict of reprimand, and asked Lu Chen to write a letter of self-reflection, in fact, to help Lu Chen overcome this difficulty.

Li Zongben wanted to let all the civil and military officials see this clearly. Now he asked Yuan Yuji to prepare the wedding gifts. When that day comes, he will personally attend the wedding as an emperor. With three consecutive favors, the world will surely know how much the current emperor values ​​and favors Duke Qin.

By that time, if Lu Chen is unwilling to compromise on certain things, how will he face the criticism from the world?
Thinking of this, Li Zongben couldn't help but curl up the corners of his mouth slightly.

……

Lu Chen's memorial of self-reflection and admission of guilt caused a great response in the capital, and the officials who impeached him were very satisfied with it - they had never thought of using this incident to attack Lu Chen. A considerable number of officials just thought that Lu Chen was disrespecting the court and violating the relationship between the monarch and his subjects.

There were also a few officials who spoke up for Lu Chen, but in the current atmosphere, these people could only keep their mouths shut to avoid becoming innocent victims.

The atmosphere in the Duke's Mansion was relatively peaceful, except for Qin Zilong, who was a little worried because he found that Lu Chen had been in a very depressed mood these days, which was an extremely rare situation in the past.

In the inner courtyard study, Lu Chen sat on the armchair, looking very depressed.

"Go and call Tan Zheng."

He suddenly spoke, his tone stern.

"Yes."

Qin Zilong agreed and walked out quickly.

In less than a quarter of an hour, Tan Zheng walked quickly into the study, while Qin Zilong stood solemnly outside the door.

"The Duke."

Tan Zheng bowed.

Lu Chen raised his hands and crossed them in front of him, his eyes passing through the gaps between his fingers and falling on the table in front of him.

There was a piece of paper there.

"I need you to do something."

Lu Chen spoke expressionlessly, turning to look at Tan Zheng: "This matter may be a little dangerous."

Tan Zheng was refreshed and said without hesitation: "Please give your orders, Duke. I am not afraid of danger."

Lu Chen nodded and asked, "Do you know where the Imperial Hospital is?"

"know."

Tan Zheng replied, "The Imperial Hospital is not far from the Imperial Palace. It is about a hundred feet southeast of the Imperial Palace, next to the Ministry of Rites."

Lu Chen raised his hand and tapped the table, then slowly said, "There is a storehouse in the Imperial Hospital that is used to store the medical records of the nobles in the palace. Find out where the storehouse is, then take a few skilled brothers with you and sneak into the storehouse to find a file. This file is the sixteenth of the late emperor's medical records, and the date should be the fourteenth year of Jianwu. Get it back."

Tan Zheng said solemnly: "I obey your orders!"

"remember--"

Lu Chen said word by word: "Don't expose your tracks and attract other people's attention."

"Yes, I understand."

Seeing that Lu Chen had no other instructions, Tan Zheng immediately bowed and took his leave, and went downstairs to arrange the matter.

In the extremely quiet study, one can occasionally hear the chirping of insects in the courtyard outside.

Lu Chen raised his hand and pinched his brows, then continued to look at the paper on the table, muttering to himself.

"Actually, I can pretend I know nothing."

"But if you don't figure out some things, they will become a lifelong demon."

"So... you still have to see if your heart is completely dark."

(End of this chapter)