If you're made a fake emperor, why did you change the country's name?

Chapter 142 The Second Dream Encounter

As dawn broke, the morning light shone through the windows, casting golden rays on the golden bricks of the Hall of Mental Cultivation.

Qiu Ping entered the store to report.

"His Majesty."

Zhao Yu stopped his martial arts practice and said, "Speak."

"Last night the wind was calm and the waves were still; no one approached the Empress Dowager's palace."

"Um."

Zhao Yu had anticipated this and didn't react much.

The quiet of the night suggests that the other party has made their choice.

Zhao Yu, or rather the person behind him, abandoned the "coffin maker".

Next, he must deal with a newly emerged spy!

"Keep an eye on it." Zhao Yu's voice was flat. "Wait for news from the Empress Dowager."

"Yes."

Qiu Ping bowed and withdrew.

Silence returned to the hall. Zhao Yu's lips curled into a smile. It seemed that this game was about to reach its climax.

At the same time, at the Prince of Zhennan's Mansion.

In a secluded side room in the backyard, Princess Sun of Zhennan sat in front of her dressing table.

The face reflected in the bronze mirror was well-maintained and still retained its charm, but at this moment it had lost its color.

Her fingertips trembled slightly. A thin sheet of paper lay open in front of her, next to a black pill sealed with wax.

The letter was delivered by a trusted confidant of Eunuch Hai; its words were earnest, yet every word was piercing to the heart.

The letter said that she had been exposed, and the beggar emperor was using the empress dowager to investigate the imperial relatives, and would soon find the Prince's Mansion.

The letter also said that for the sake of the bigger picture, for your brother, and for the future of the prince, she had to proceed according to plan.

She was to be transformed into a poisoned blade aimed at the emperor's heart.

When only the emperor and she were alone, she took poison to commit suicide and defame the emperor.

Sun's fingers gripped the cold pill tightly, her nails almost digging into the wax seal.

My reflection in the mirror is distorted.

She closed her eyes, and the words "younger brother" and "prince" on the letter kept replaying in her mind.

Simultaneously.

Inside the Cining Palace, the atmosphere was so oppressive that it was hard to breathe.

The Empress Dowager hadn't slept all night, and the dark circles under her eyes were impossible to conceal.

"Your Majesty, all the princesses and noble ladies are already waiting in the side hall," the trusted nanny reported in a low voice.

"Where is the Princess Consort of Zhennan?"

"The Prince's residence sent someone to report that the Princess Consort had caught a cold and was feeling unwell, so it was inconvenient for her to enter the palace."

The Empress Dowager's fingers tightened suddenly on the armrest, her knuckles turning white.

"How could it be... her?"

She had been in charge of the harem for decades, and had seen all sorts of underhanded tactics.

At this critical juncture, everyone is afraid of being implicated and is eager to go to the palace immediately to prove their innocence.

She alone claimed to be ill and did not come.

Is there anything else you don't understand in this situation?

The Empress Dowager felt a tightness in her chest and could barely breathe.

But she was her brother's wife, the wife of her most beloved younger brother.

"Let them in," the Empress Dowager said, her voice slightly hoarse.

"Ask them one by one."

Inside the side hall, the female relatives of the clan were restless and felt insecure.

The Empress Dowager sat at the head of the table, expressionless, as her eunuchs and maids questioned and tested her in various ways.

They observed the martial artist's demeanor, tested their cultivation level, and even used a secret incense recipe from the palace, which could make the martial artist's mind uneasy and their true energy fluctuate.

An hour passed.

Two hours passed.

One woman after another was brought in and then taken out.

Every time the trusted nanny approached the Empress Dowager, she would simply shake her head slightly.

No.

No, that's not it.

That's not it either.

As more and more people were excluded, the Empress Dowager's expression grew increasingly grim.

All the clues, all the possibilities, are like invisible ropes, ultimately pointing to the one person who was not present.

The sister-in-law who claimed to be ill, surnamed Sun.

After the last female member of the clan was also eliminated, the side hall fell into a deathly silence.

The Empress Dowager waved her hand, her voice full of exhaustion.

"Everyone, you can leave now."

Night fell again.

Only a dim palace lantern remained in Cining Palace.

The Empress Dowager sat alone on the couch, gazing in the direction of the Prince of Zhennan's residence, motionless.

She couldn't understand it, she really couldn't understand it.

Why did Madam Sun want to harm her Yu'er?

The Prince of Zhennan's family is already related to the imperial family and holds a very high position. What more could they possibly want?

Or is it that Batian was unaware of it?

For a long, long time.

A long sigh came from the darkness.

She was, after all, Zhao Yu's mother.

"Someone come here."

An old eunuch appeared silently in front of her.

"Please deliver this to the Hall of Mental Cultivation personally."

The Empress Dowager handed over a folded piece of paper, her fingers still trembling uncontrollably.

"Yes, ma'am."

The old eunuch took the note, tucked it into his robes, and vanished into the night in a flash.

Not long after, at the Hall of Mental Cultivation.

Zhao Yu unfolded the slip of paper in his hand. There were only three words on it, but the handwriting was slightly messy because of the trembling of the person who wrote it.

Aunt Sun.

After reading it, Zhao Yu brought the note close to the candlelight, watching it curl up, turn black, and finally turn into a wisp of ash.

He glanced outside the hall again.

Dusk had fallen, and the last glimmer of light on the horizon was swallowed by darkness.

The time to drift off to sleep is almost here.

It was too late for him.

"Qiu Ping".

"Your humble servant is here."

"By imperial decree, the commander of the Imperial Guards is to lead a troop to the Prince of Zhennan's residence to 'invite' the Princess Consort to the palace for an audience immediately."

"yes!"

Qiu Ping bowed and accepted the order, then left without stopping.

Watching Qiu Ping's departing figure, Zhao Yu sat cross-legged, summoned the Human Emperor Sword and placed it on his thigh, closed his eyes and waited to enter a dream.

……

The Prince of Zhennan's Mansion.

There were no lights on in the side rooms of the backyard.

Madam Sun had changed into a long red dress, which was her favorite dress when she married into the Prince's Mansion.

She sat at her dressing table, carefully drawing her eyebrows in the faint moonlight streaming in from the window.

After finishing the last stroke, she took out the black pill sealed in wax from her sleeve.

Without hesitation, she put the pill under her tongue.

She didn't swallow; she just held it in her mouth.

Then, she took out a palm-sized black wooden puppet from a hidden compartment in the dressing table. The character "羽" (feather) was written in cinnabar on the puppet's forehead.

She then took out a pair of slender silver needles, the ends of which were connected by a red thread.

He then sat cross-legged on a strange "cloth" made of various animal and plant materials.

"Zhao Yu..."

She murmured softly, her voice filled with resentment.

"Today, it's either you or me who dies."

She raised the silver needles, aimed them at her acupoints, and then plunged them into the puppet's heart.

……

The Hall of Mental Cultivation.

As Zhao Yu was flipping through the memorials, a sudden wave of drowsiness washed over him.

The words in front of me began to blur, and my eyelids started to droop uncontrollably.

This time, he did not resist and chose to go to sleep.

……

Ring ring— Ring ring—

The noisy school bell, accompanied by the cheers of countless children, filled my ears.

Zhao Yu opened his eyes and found himself standing in a place that was all too familiar.

At the entrance of the primary school.

The children in blue school uniforms, like birds released from their cages, ran past him, chattering away.

On the roadside, a cotton candy vendor skillfully rotates a bamboo skewer, gradually shaping a pink cloud.

Nearby, an uncle with a lottery wheel was shouting at the top of his lungs: "One yuan per spin, one yuan per spin, the winning number is number seven, the grand prize is a remote control car!"

There was also a vendor squatting on the ground with a cardboard box in front of him, which was crammed full of chirping green chicks.

"Genuine peacock chicks, they'll grow up to be gorgeous with their tails spread wide! Only ten yuan!"

Everything felt so real, so real that it made him feel somewhat dazed.

He looked down at his hands; they were small and chubby.

Before he could think any further, a gentle voice came from behind him.

"Turn around, Mom is here."

He turned around and saw only a pair of black pants and a pink top.

He was so short that even when he looked up, all he could see was his pink shirt.

But those clothes put his mind at ease.

"Mother!"

Mom was pushing a 28-inch bicycle with a soft cushion strapped to the back seat.

"Come on up, Mom will take you home."

"Okay!"

Zhao Yu responded excitedly and skillfully climbed onto the back seat of the bicycle.

He hugged his mother's waist, resting his little head on her back, inhaling the familiar, sun-kissed scent.

The bike started riding smoothly, and the scenery along the roadside slowly receded.

A thought suddenly popped into Zhao Yu's mind, and he blurted it out.

"Mom, how much money do we have? Hurry up and give it to us. Let's buy an apartment in Beijing, one within the Second Ring Road. It'll be worth several times more in a few years!"

The woman on the bicycle stiffened for a moment.

The car shook.

She didn't answer immediately, and unusually fell silent.

After a while, she spoke in a very calm tone.

"Okay, Mom will take out all the money when we get home."

She asked again.

"Did your husband assign any homework today? Show it to Mom."

Zhao Yu was stunned.

gentlemen?

Schoolwork?

Shouldn't it be the teacher and the homework?

A strange feeling welled up inside him, but he still obediently started rummaging through the small backpack on his back.