Concubine's true colors

Chapter 600
Emperor Qi, who had not been on the throne for a year, suddenly passed away, and Concubine Xiao, who had once been favored by the six palaces, became a poisonous concubine who killed the king and husband and was cast aside by all the people of the Zhou Dynasty.

Because the handsome mansion wanted to marry the royal family, and out of self-protection, Xiao Yiming, who had inherited the position of patriarch, had now removed Xiao Jinxuan's name from the family tree.

Therefore, relying on the Xiao family's great military achievements in the past, and Xiao Sanjiang's body is not cold, so he survived the death and was not implicated.

After all, with Zhou Xianrui's death, the court situation is already in turmoil. If it is going to shake the giant Shuaifu at this time, the royal family will actually have no idea and dare not take risks rashly.

And a country cannot be without a king for a day, so the third day after Zhou Xianrui's death.

The empress dowager, the Chen family, supported her youngest son Zhou Xianchen to take the throne in his brother's place and became the next monarch.

The country title was changed from "Qi" to "Wen".

Emperor Wen was only twelve years old. Although he had married Shen Wenqing's sister Shen Wenhui not long ago, the Empress Dowager Chen forced her to sit behind the curtain on the grounds that she was young and not good at governing.

So Zhou Xianchen was just like what Xiangping and Empress Dowager Chen had discussed in that snowy night, he had indeed started the life of a puppet emperor since he was in power.

Not only was Yuxi controlled by Empress Chen, but even the memorial for review had to be shown to the other party for review.

If Empress Chen feels that something is not to her liking, she will immediately change and delete it.

He didn't even inform Zhou Xianchen afterwards, so he, Emperor Wen, was indeed in name only.

Although all the political power is controlled by Empress Chen and Xiangping Ji Lingfeng who is beside her.

But Zhou Xianchen endured everything, except for the matter of arresting Xiao Jinxuan, he did not allow Empress Chen and others to send imperial troops to search people from house to house in the capital.

According to Zhou Xianchen, he said that this would cause panic, but in fact he was helping Xiao Jinxuan secretly as much as possible, hoping that the other party could hide well and not be caught.

After all, Zhou Xianrui died that day, although Empress Chen immediately sealed off the four gates of the palace.

But Xiao Jinxuan had the holy decree at her disposal, so she escaped from the East Dragon Gate first.

But now that the city gate is under martial law, Zhou Xianchen is like a puppet, isolated and helpless.

He was really worried that Xiao Jinxuan would not be able to escape from the capital, and that she would be charged with poisoning Emperor Qi, once she was caught, she would definitely die.

Although Zhou Xianchen prayed silently for Xiao Jinxuan many times.

Never believed that Zhou Xianrui's death would be Xiao Jinxuan's Zhou Xianchen.

He even knelt in front of his brother's unburied coffin, hoping that if the other party had a spirit, he would keep his sister Jinxuan safe and well, and leave the capital as soon as possible.

No matter how strong Zhou Xianchen, who had become Emperor Wen, had this desire.

But Xiao Jinxuan, who has escaped from the palace for three full days, is not in an optimistic situation.

Because she was still trapped in the capital, unable to pass the strict inspection at the city gate, she escaped completely.

And looking at the current Xiao Jinxuan, the silk and satin that she wore when she was out of the palace, the luxurious palace robes are completely gone.

What she was wearing was a piece of coarse cloth worn by ordinary people.

And behind her was a big basket, and what seemed to be placed on the top were all dry branches and small firewood for making fire.

In fact, it was inside the basket, and that child Zhou Yi was hiding in it.

When Xiao Jinxuan was in Meizhuang, she was deliberately abused by Diao Nu, so she lived the life of a country girl at that time.

So how to pretend to be an ordinary person is not difficult for her. The really difficult thing is to get some money in her hands first.

Xiao Jinxuan was busy running for her life that day, and Empress Dowager Chen even moved away all the things in Zhaoyang Palace for Sou Luo.

So in the end Xiao Jinxuan had no choice but to take off the ring on her hand.

But this thing belongs to the imperial palace, if it is pawned like this, it will definitely be discovered by experts, and her situation will be in danger.

So Xiao Jinxuan, who has always done things rigorously and rarely made mistakes, simply picked out the ruby ​​from the ring.

In order not to attract attention as a pawn, she even smashed the flawless ruby ​​the size of a broad bean with a stone.

In the end, she picked up two relatively complete pieces of gemstones that could be used after processing and pawned them. A ruby ​​that was supposed to be worth a thousand taels, but in the end she only got 30 taels of silver.

But Xiao Jinxuan didn't feel any pity about it. After all, a gem that is too good can easily cause her troubles.

On the contrary, broken gemstones would not attract too much interest from the pawn shop, so it would be safer for her.

Sometimes people have to learn to choose, otherwise they will only be greedy for gains and losses, but they will put themselves in danger.

And Xiao Jinxuan, who deeply understood this truth, went to the second-hand clothes store immediately when she had money in her hand, and bought ordinary people's clothes for both her and Zhou Yi.

In addition, Xiao Jinxuan deliberately messed up her hair, and rubbed her face with loess twice.

So she had a slender figure and ordinary appearance, so there were many soldiers on patrol, but she really didn't recognize her true identity.

Speaking of which, it also has something to do with Xiao Jinxuan hiding Zhou Yi's child.

After all, according to the news from the palace, she and Xiao Zhou Yi escaped from the palace together.

So the guards who searched subconsciously focused on the woman with the child, and thus ignored the real Xiao Jinxuan.

But even if it's okay now, Xiao Jinxuan knows that she can't keep Zhou Yi safe all the time.

If a guard searched the basket, she would be exposed immediately.

So hurry up and leave the capital, which is a place of right and wrong, so that Xiao Jinxuan can have a chance.

But now with her ability, it is obviously not enough to break through the inspection under the city gate, so Xiao Jinxuan knew that she might have to find someone to help her.

With such calculations in mind, Xiao Jinxuan, who was dressed as a daughter of a shabby family, cleverly avoided the guards searching and questioning on the street, while walking towards South Street.

When she came to a large mansion, she looked up at the word "Guo Mansion" on the plaque and the chaotic scene of distributing porridge to the poor in front of the mansion.

Xiao Jinxuan suddenly smiled lightly, and whispered with a hint of emotion in her voice:
"Guo Yi, you have a heart, and you have already thought of using this method to meet me. Otherwise, if I want to get close to your mansion, I really need to go through a lot of twists and turns."

After talking to herself like this, Xiao Jinxuan couldn't help but patted the basket behind her, signaling Zhou Yi to be patient.

Then she stood in the long line just like the common people who came to receive the alms.

Let's not talk about why Xiao Jinxuan has to wait in line, just say that there are people in the Guo Mansion who are in a hurry because of her affairs.

And this person was Meng Mian, who was first rescued from under the huge ice by Xiao Jinxuan, and later married his beloved wife with the help of the other party.

Xiao Jinxuan's kindness to him, even though Meng Mian is now the chief assistant of the officials and the prime minister, he still dare not forget each other.

Meng Mian, who also did not believe that Xiao Jinxuan would commit regicide, and was extremely dissatisfied with Empress Chen's administration, therefore came to Guo Yi to discuss a rescue strategy.

Although Meng Mian's character is upright and refined, Guo Yi's dissoluteness is unrestrained. It's true that the two get along with each other in harmony, but their opinions on government affairs are unified.

So Meng Mian was in a hurry, but looked at Guo Yi, who was still drinking tea leisurely, biting a couple of pastries from time to time, and he was very angry.

Immediately, he was really annoyed by the other party's loose appearance, and immediately asked sharply:

"Guo Yi, don't forget, if there was no Concubine Xiao, you would have been able to become an official and sit in the position of Shangshu. Now that the empress is in a dangerous situation, her life and death are uncertain, and you can still taste tea. I, Meng Mian, really misjudged you, since you want to avoid suspicion and refuse to help, then I will leave now and not disturb Guo Shangshu's elegant mood."

Seeing that Meng Mian had finished speaking, he flicked his sleeves and was about to walk out.

Guo Yi, who was sitting drinking tea, saw this scene, and immediately shook her head helplessly, but got up and quickly stopped the person.

Then Guo Yi frowned, pointed at Meng Mian for a long time, and finally said helplessly:
"If it weren't for the fact that you are also dedicated to the sake of the princess, I, Guo Yi, would not bother to talk to you, a nerd. I said that your upright and resolute character, Prime Minister Meng, is indeed a good thing, but I trouble you to change your mind occasionally. The entire court I know that both of you and I have a very close relationship with the princess. Don't you think that under such circumstances, our every move has long been controlled by Princess Chen and others. So the more anxious you are to find The princess, on the contrary, harmed her."

If the way of governing the country is the way of learning and wealth, Meng Mian naturally does not give way, and no one in the court can match it.

But it's time to use these heretics and schemes.

Meng Mian has been influenced by Confucianism since he was a child. The principle of being a man is to be worthy of the emperor at the top and worthy of the people at the bottom.

So when he heard Guo Yi's analysis, Meng Mian saw that it was not right to wait, and it was not right to look for it. He really lost his mind for a while, so he couldn't help asking:
"Master Guo, please don't be a fool. Now that the gates of the city are under martial law, the empress must still be trapped in the city. The empress dowager is political, and the emperor is benevolent. The empress Xiao has been kind to me several times in the past, so it is already a burden for me to be unable to help the court. According to the entrustment of the emperor, now even if I risk my life, I must protect my mother, otherwise I, Meng Mian, will be a servant in vain."

Seeing that Meng Mian would be very excited, Guo Yi forced the other party to sit on the chair, but calmly said with a smile:
"It's really rare for Meng Xiang to have such a heart to save the princess, but you seem to have forgotten that the princess is not an ordinary woman. It is true that the queen mother is in power, but I, Guo Yi, firmly believe that the princess will be completely unharmed. And if I donate porridge and rice to help, sooner or later the princess thinks the time is right, and she will take the initiative to come to us."

Naturally, Meng Mian knew about Guo's almsgiving, because Guo Yi declared to the outside world that after the death of Emperor Qi, as a minister, he should be willing to do good deeds to accumulate evil virtue for the other party.

Then, the eminent monks were invited to chant scriptures in the mansion for several days to commemorate and pay homage to Zhou Xianrui.

In fact, in the Great Zhou Dynasty, after the death of an emperor, apart from participating in the state funeral as a courtier, there was indeed a custom of worshiping in private.

But it will be heard that behind Guo Yi's donation, there is obviously another deep meaning.

Meng Mian was about to ask in detail, but he didn't want Xiao Jinxuan's voice to come from outside the hall after a chuckle.

"Guo Yi, you have a heart. If you hadn't guessed that I would disguise myself as an ordinary person. Then let Dani personally prepare porridge to meet me, and secretly bring me into the mansion. I'm afraid it's not easy for me to see you. I, Xiao Jinxuan, have written down the love of giving charcoal in the snow, and I will never forget it in this life."

(End of this chapter)