slave like jade

Chapter 120 Tracing the Origin
The master and servant were startled by the sudden appearance of the person, An Ge's first reaction was to stand in front of Yu Ruyan, handed the palace lantern in his hand to the visitor, and said in a low voice, "Who are you?"

And after Yu Ruyan smelled the faint sandalwood on the visitor, the palace lantern shone on the irises embroidered on her shoe, Yu Ruyan slightly bowed her knees and saluted the visitor, "Hello Si Huangjie!"

After hearing her words, Brother An looked back at her ignorantly, and when he looked at the visitor again, the visitor had already taken off his cloak, and under the palace lantern, that beautiful face was indeed the Fourth Princess Yu Huaizhu.

Ever since Yu Huaizhu was brought into Yanghua Palace by the Queen Mother, she has never stepped out of the palace gate. She has been devoutly following the Queen Mother in chanting scriptures and reciting Buddhist scriptures, cultivating her mind, and never caring about the kindness and resentment in the harem. Seeing her like this this time When the appearance appeared in front of her, Yu Ruyan was suspicious, but she said calmly, "Chunjing Palace is adjacent to the Empress Dowager's Yanghua Palace, why don't you see Fourth Sister coming out of the palace today to have fun together?"

Compared with Yu Huaizhu, who was hot-tempered before, after several months of meditation and self-cultivation, Yu Huaizhu has changed a lot compared to before. Both in terms of temper and the way she looks at people, they are much calmer and more stable. Yi Sweep said: "Would Fifth Younger Sister have the honor to go to my nunnery for some tea?"

There is a small nunnery in the Huayang Palace of the Empress Dowager, Yu Huaizhu usually stays there most of the time, but now she suddenly invites Yu Ruyan to drink tea in the nunnery at night, no matter how you look at it, it feels like something happened.

Yu Ruyan didn't refuse, nodded obediently and said: "It's just right, I drank too much wine tonight, go to my sister's place to ask for tea to soothe my hangover!"

Following Yu Huaizhu, he quietly entered the nunnery from the back door of Huayang Palace, and saw that the small room was filled with cigarette smoke, and a heavy sandalwood smell permeated the room. The furnishings in the room were simple but elegant. Simple and unsophisticated, as soon as people enter, they feel that their minds are instantly at peace, and they are less impetuous!
Yu Huaizhu led Yu Ruyan to sit down at the round table by the window sill, and after ordering the maid to serve tea, she waved away the palace servants in the room, leaving her and Yu Ruyan alone.

Seeing her posture this time, Yu Ruyan's eyes turned slightly - it seems that Yu Mingzhu had something important to say to her.

When there were only the two of them left in the room, Yu Huaizhu suddenly became panicked, and said in a deep voice, "Sister, would you like to do me a favor?"

Yu Ruyan's heart paused for a moment when she said something abruptly, she put down the cup of tea and said softly: "What do you want my sister to do for you?"

Yu Huaizhu took out two letterheads from her close-fitting clothes, handed them to Yu Ruyan with trembling hands, and said, "Sister, let's see for myself."

Yu Ruyan opened the letter suspiciously and looked at it, her expression was startled, her eyes became serious...

When she carefully read the two letters from beginning to end, she already thought of something in her heart, and her hands began to tremble uncontrollably——

She knew that the mother and daughter of Chunlan Palace had always been ruthless, but she never expected that they were so ruthless!
Swallowing her throat with difficulty, Yu Ruyan tried her best to calm down the shock in her heart, and said with difficulty: "Sister... how did sister get this letter?"

Yu Huaizhu's face was shrouded in a very light smoke, which added a trace of sadness to her face. It was also difficult for her to speak, and it took a while to suppress the turmoil in her heart, and said in a slow and deep voice: "That day , even though it was he who was ruthless before and left me to marry Yu Mingzhu, but... but the moment of anger that came to my heart after that... I did such cruel things to him, after all, I did too much..."

"After practicing Buddhism with the Queen Mother every day, I calmed down a lot and understood a lot of things. I felt more and more that my impulsive actions that day were too cruel, and my heart was full of guilt. His understanding..."

"But later, when the wedding date between him and Yu Mingzhu was approaching, news of his suicide suddenly came out. I didn't even have a chance to redeem myself..."

"After his death, Yu Mingzhu didn't even want to go to mourn. The queen mother finally felt ashamed of the Shangguan family, so she asked Yu Mingzhu to wear hemp and mourning for him for a month..."

"...I blame myself day and night. If I hadn't cut off his tongue cruelly, maybe he wouldn't have thought about suicide. Pleading guilty before the spirit, hoping to get a little forgiveness from his parents..."

"When I was about to leave after worshiping the spirit, Shangguan's mother quietly pulled me aside, handed this to me, and said it was..."

The rest of the words were not finished, but the two people who had read the letter knew it well.

Neither of them spoke anymore, and the room fell into a dead silence...

After a long time, Yu Ruyan recovered from the initial shock, and calmly said: "What is sister doing? To seek justice for him and find the murderer?"

Yu Huaizhu's face turned pale, and the hand holding Cha Huai trembled slightly, and said, "Is there still a need to look for the murderer? It must be the vicious mother and daughter from Chunlan Palace!"

The two letterheads were quietly placed on the table, Yu Ruyan's eyes were deep, and she sighed: "I didn't expect that the person who is willing to help that heartbroken man is actually my sister!"

"...When I pleaded guilty before his spirit that day, Mrs. Shangguan said that if my conscience is really disturbed, I will help him find out the murderer who killed him and let him be avenged. So, I agreed..."

Having said that, Yu Huaizhu's eyes flashed, and she actually shed tears, but she wiped them away embarrassingly.

Seeing her like this, Yu Ruyan knew that she still couldn't let go of Shangguan Xianzhong in her heart, and couldn't bear to sympathize with her in her heart, and said helplessly: "But sister, just because of the love poem he wrote to Yu Mingzhu and another letter to him The conversations overheard in Chunlan Palace are not enough to convince the father that her daughter actually committed the crime of killing her husband, and convict Yu Mingzhu."

"That's why I came here to ask you for help. You have always been smart. You must have a way to force that poisonous woman to show herself and let the emperor condemn her!"

Yu Huaizhu is a real person with an anxious temper. Even though she knew that the person who killed Shangguan Xianzhong was Yu Mingzhu, she still couldn't think of a way to make her accuse her of the crime.

But fortunately, after being nurtured by the queen mother, she was not as impulsive as before. She didn't directly take the letterhead to ask Yu Mingzhu Xingshi for her crimes, but she also knew how to tolerate it and quietly consulted with Yu Ruyan.

Yu Ruyan thought of King Qi's tolerance and indulgence to the mother and daughter of Chunlan Palace over the years, her heart sank, and she said worriedly: "Sister, just rely on the words and phrases left by Shangguan Xianzhong, and these words and phrases are still He quietly overheard it in Chunlan Palace, and he couldn't help Yu Mingzhu at all. Don't even think about it, if the evidence is convincing, why the dignified Shangshu didn't personally come forward to avenge his son, but also quietly asked you to do it in private! "

"Mrs. Shangguan told me that Mr. Shangguan has been an official for many years. He has been more or less in the hands of Concubine Lian's father, Huo Xiang. Huo Xiang is in charge of the civil servants. How can Mr. Shangshu escape from his palm? Therefore, in order to The An Ning of the Shangshufu family had to swallow their teeth, and dared not say a word."

"But Mrs. Shangguan loves her son dearly. She couldn't bear the death of her good son like this, so she begged me quietly to help her to come forward, and I... already agreed to her!"

Yu Huaizhu also understands the danger and embarrassment of this matter. If she is a little careless, not only will Yu Mingzhu not be brought down, but Shangguan's family will be implicated. I'm afraid that in order to keep his mouth shut, Huo Xiang will find a crime and place it on Shang Shu's head. I'm afraid that when the time comes, everyone in the whole family will suffer, and maybe there will be - Zhu Jiuzu!

That's why she thought of asking Yu Ruyan for help. First, because Yu Ruyan had been able to escape the poison of Concubine Lian's mother and daughter so many times in the palace these years, she must be extremely clever. With Qi Youen's husband by his side, he is like a tiger with wings added. Therefore, looking at the entire harem, only she has the strength and ability to help her bring down Yu Mingzhu.

Seeing that Yu Ruyan remained silent, Yu Huaizhu thought she would not agree, and gritted her teeth, she lifted up her robe and knelt in front of Yu Ruyan, kowtowing: "The only demon in my heart now is that I met Shangguan Xian that day. The evil thing I did again, only by helping him this time, my debt to him will be settled, and my uneasy heart will be at peace, so I ask my sister to help me and settle this knot for me."

Seeing Yu Huaizhu's appearance, Yu Ruyan felt very sad——

In fact, as the queen mother said, tracing back to the source, all the causes and effects were caused by Yu Mingzhu. It was she who destroyed her younger sister's marriage, which caused Yu Huaizhu to hurt others later, and then she herself hated it. Shangguan Xianzhong became dumb and crippled, and he became murderous towards him!
And Shangguan Xianzhong himself was also at fault, if he hadn't turned towards Qin Muchu, the fourth princess was thinking of the eldest princess in his heart, and he didn't have the courage to express his intention to reject the marriage in front of the Holy One, but he was unwilling to deal with the problem in the right way , but came to refuse the marriage with other ideas, which angered Yu Huaizhu, which led to a series of subsequent events, which involved her own life.

Therefore, the most fundamental reason for all this is Yu Mingzhu, but in the end Yuhuai has to pay her back. Although Yu Ruyan disapproved of her doing this, but seeing her resolute look, she knew that if she didn't help her, her matter would be lost. She will do it too, but with her personality, I'm afraid she won't be Yu Mingzhu's opponent.

Sighing, Yu Ruyan finally stepped forward and pulled up Yu Huaizhu on the ground, saying: "Forget it, I will help you, I also have old and new grudges and want to settle accounts with the mother and daughter of Chunlan Palace!"

Early the next morning, not long after Yu Ruyan returned to Jinying Palace, Mu Lingzhi also came back from outside the palace, with three midwives behind him.

Mu Lingzhi said: "The doctor is a man, so it's not good to bring him into the palace too early, but he has already found a good candidate, and he will stay in Chen Xiang's mansion on standby. These midwives came first."

After Yu Ruyan returned to the palace, she found an excuse to drive the two maids out of the yard, so Yu Ruyan asked Brother An to tell the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs that the three women were the ones she was on the battlefield before. When she fell ill on the road, the benefactor who took care of her, because of the war, their family members were gone, so they were left to serve by their side, and the three midwives were left in Jinying Palace.

Brother An was puzzled and said, "Princess, it's almost the end of the month, why doesn't the princess send these three midwives to Chunwu Palace, and why do they stay in Jinying Palace?"

Slowly turning the teacup in her hand, Yu Ru said solemnly: "Now Chunwu Palace is under the surveillance of Concubine Lian, and every move will be heard in her ears. If she finds out that there is a midwife beside Wu Zhaoyi, she will be ashamed." You will understand that Wu Zhaoyi has discovered her plot, and Wu Zhaoyi will be killed by then, without waiting until the day of delivery."

Hearing this, Brother An was so terrified that he was too scared to speak.

In fact, there is another reason why Yu Ruyan didn't tell her, for fear of scaring her——

That is, she wanted to use Wu Zhaoyi's time of childbirth to expose Concubine Lian's conspiracy, so that she would fall into hell and never get up again!
Brother An went to the House of Internal Affairs. Yu Ruyan asked Mu Lingzhi what happened to Chen Yiqing and Princess Yuhan, and Mu Lingzhi told her helplessly that he originally wanted to send Xie Yuhan back to Daqi with a copper coin He asked Chen Yiqing to go to Daliang with the road to formally propose marriage, but Xie Yuhan already knew that her family would not be willing to marry her so far away, and would not agree, so she secretly brought her dowry to Daqi to join Chen Yiqing, how could she agree again? go back?

Chen Yiqing kept Mu Lingzhi's words in mind and didn't dare to do anything wrong, but Xie Yuhan was afraid that her father would chase Da Qi, so she forced Chen Yiqing to marry her, and Chen Xiang and his wife were so satisfied with this daughter-in-law, It is agreed to the marriage.

Mu Lingzhi had no choice but to write a letter back to inform his uncle about Daqi's affairs, while busying himself with preparing for his cousin's wedding.

After all, he is the only relative by her side now.

After dinner, Yu Ruyan asked An Ge to set up the chessboard under the lamp, and posted a battle post to Mu Lingzhi: "Your Highness, I haven't played chess for a long time, do you want to play a game with me?"

Mu Lingzhi looked at her posture, lifted his robe and sat down at the table, and said with a clear face, "Tell me, what are you thinking about me?"

Knowing that she couldn't hide it from Mu Lingzhi, Yu Ruyan pushed the chessboard away and said with a smile, "Since His Highness asked directly, there is no need to play this chess, I just say it."

Seeing her move the chessboard away, Mu Lingzhi stopped her, amused and angrily said: "You always ask me to do things for you on the condition that you win me at chess every time. Why, are you so confident that you will always win me?"

Seen through by him, Yu Ruyan blushed and said embarrassingly: "Actually, I know that His Highness let me win many times before, but I do have something to ask for your help now, so I just want to... ..."

"Stupid lady, are you stupid? Instead of racking your brains to win me, why not—"

With a smirk on his face, Mu Ling deliberately put his index finger on his mouth, and moved his lips with that finger, bending and bending his fingers cheerfully and nimbly at Yu Ruyan, who had a black face. with a hook.

Yu Ruyan might not understand what was going on in his heart, but there was nothing she could do, her pretty face blushed, she leaned over and pecked lightly on his mouth...

But a quick peck there could satisfy Mu Lingzhi. In the next second, before Yu Ruyan could raise her head and leave his lips, her body was tightly bound, and her lips pressed tightly against each other. Mu Lingzhi's kiss Already affectionate and fanatical...

Seeing that someone's hand was restlessly touching her, Yu Ruyan stopped immediately, pushed him away and said angrily, "Your Highness is too shameless, if I had known this earlier, it would be more straightforward to ask for grace if you win in chess! "

Mu Lingzhi looked at her slightly pursed mouth, and smiled with satisfaction: "Tell me, what do you want me to help you with? Go up the mountain of swords and go down into the sea of ​​fire for you!"

"This is what His Highness said!"

Looking at the sly gaze in Yu Ruyan's eyes, Mu Lingzhi suddenly felt that he had been trapped by her, and sighed deliberately: "Little fairy, I, the wise one of the palace, fell into your hands, tell me, Where are you going to sell this palace?"

Yu Ruyan was provoked by his pretentiousness into a 'puchi' smile, took out a piece of paper from her arms and put it gently in front of Mu Lingzhi, and said with a smile: "I'm willing to sell my husband, but I just let you Recite the love poem on this paper."

Mu Lingzhi took the paper and read it carefully under the lamp, and said, "This nasty love poem is really well written."

As soon as the topic changed, he turned cold again in the next second, and said angrily with a sour tone: "It seems that I really can't leave you for a moment, and I've only been away for a day, and the love poem is delivered to your door. Say it, write a love poem Who is it?"

After all, his face was already gloomy.

Seeing his angry and serious look, Yu Ruyan had no choice but to tell her plan.When Mu Ling heard this, he frowned, and couldn't help saying angrily, "You want me to read love poems to that woman?! I can't do it!"

Without even thinking about it, Mu Lingzhi refused.

Yu Ruyan knew that he hated Yu Mingzhu, and it was really embarrassing for him to do such a thing like a dignified prince, but besides him, she didn't know who to ask for help?
Seeing her embarrassed look, Mu Lingzhi couldn't bear it anymore, got up and walked to the courtyard of Jinying Palace, snapped his fingers, and immediately a black shadow appeared in front of him, and said extremely respectfully, "What is your Highness' order?"

Mu Lingzhi looked at the iron-blooded man in front of him, a little embarrassed: "This mission——"

Suddenly, in the entire palace, at midnight, many people heard the man's indistinct voice. Listen carefully, but the voice is the man repeating something...

A single stone stirred up a thousand waves, and from that night onwards, rumors spread everywhere in the palace that the palace was haunted, only human voices could be heard, but no one was seen. She, it's very scary to listen to people's ears in the middle of the night!

Moreover, not only many people in the palace heard it, even King Qi heard it in his bedroom. For a while, the whole palace was in a strange state, and everyone was too scared to go out of the palace at night.

For several consecutive nights, such weird things happened every night, but after a few days, the voice became more and more concentrated around the Peony Pavilion of Chunlan Palace, and the voice became more and more clear, it was actually chanting love poems, He also shouted grievances loudly, accompanied by ghostly shadows that appeared from time to time, making people creepy.

Rumors abounded in the palace, saying that the ghost was the dead Shangguan Xianzhong, who loved to write love poems to the eldest princess when he was alive. Coupled with that vague voice, it was exactly the same as the description of him who lost his tongue and couldn't speak clearly!
When the ghost incident became more and more serious, a rumor suddenly spread in private in the palace that Shangguan Xianzhong did not commit suicide, but was killed by Yu Mingzhu. The underworld turned into a lonely ghost and came to look for Yu Mingzhu.

Such rumors would of course spread word by word into Chunlan Palace, and even into Peony Pavilion.

In broad daylight, the door of the always lively Peony Pavilion was closed. Yu Mingzhu understood the content of the strange sound from the first night, and was frightened out of her wits——

That voice resentfully recited repeatedly was the last love poem Shangguan Xianzhong wrote to him!
So far, she still clearly remembers that a few days before the marriage, Shangguan Xianzhong came to Chunlan Palace to look for her with great interest, but she stopped him outside the door and refused to let him in.

Every time she sees him, Yu Mingzhu can't help but think of the half bloody tongue on the Ruyi Palace that day, and feels as uncomfortable as swallowing a dead mouse, and then sees his strange look of wanting to speak but can't speak, her mouth There was a void inside, which made her sick and terrible!
She didn't have much true feelings for Shangguan Xianzhong, so, on the basis of no love, once she saw something happened to him, instead of sympathizing with him, she became even more disgusted!
Shangguan Xianzhong did not give up, and guarded the gate of Chunlan Palace all morning, and asked the palace servant to pass a note to her. On it was the latest love poem he wrote for her. He also wrote on the paper, Even if he can no longer speak in the future, he will still write love poems for her every day, and write sweet words on paper for her to read, so that she will not dislike him!
Yu Mingzhu didn't care about what he wrote at all, and threw these love poems to the palace servants disgustingly, asking the palace servants to return them to Shangguan Xianzhong, and let him go!
However, he did not expect that Shangguan Xianzhong originally wanted to make her happy with a low self-esteem. Sneaked in through the back door, trying to find her a theory.But he didn't expect that he heard that Yu Mingzhu and Concubine Lian were conspiring to kill him, so as to avoid marrying a mute and crippled man!
After Shangguan Xianzhong went back, he was in a state of panic all day long, he never dared to enter the palace to look for the jade pearl, and he didn't dare to mention the matter of marriage, he was bored in the room all day long, and when he thought of what he overheard, he was terrified!
But no matter how he evaded, he couldn't escape the murderous hands of Concubine Lian's mother and daughter, who threatened a servant in the mansion with a cup of tea and half a bottle of dove feathers to make him die quietly.

Everyone in the Shangshu Mansion knew that he died strangely, and they also called for him to do an autopsy, and the result was that he died of poisoning!

Lord Shangshu was shocked, and was about to order someone to investigate the real culprit, but Mrs. Shangshu found the note left by Shangguan Xianzhong from Shangguan Xianzhong's belongings, and learned the fact that Concubine Lian and Yu Mingzhu wanted to kill him.

In order to protect the lives of the old and young people in the mansion, Shangguan Shangshu gritted his teeth and endured the revenge of killing his son, and only claimed that Shangguan Xianzhong died of sudden death.

But Mrs. Shangshu loves her son dearly, and finally couldn't hold back and told all this to Yu Huaizhu who came to the mansion to express her condolences!
Therefore, when Yu Mingzhu heard that the eerie voice read all the love poems rewritten to her by Shangguan Xian, she was frightened out of her wits and never dared to go out for half a step. Shangguan Xianzhong's wronged soul came to demand her life!
But since it was a murderous soul, how could she escape?

(End of this chapter)