Chang'an is good

Chapter 173 Can You Still Be Friends?

Chang Suining raised his eyes and looked forward.

In addition to the two monks who are usually seen outside the pagoda courtyard, there is another line of imperial guards guarding at this time.

Looking into the courtyard again, I saw the Holy Book Emperor in Dagon uniform standing in front of the three-legged bronze censer in front of the pagoda, holding green incense and worshiping the gods of heaven and earth. After three worships, he slowly inserted the green incense into the bronze censer .

Accompanied by Cui Jing and Wujue.

Cui Jing turned her head to look, Chang Suining met that gaze, seeing him there at the moment, it is impossible to say that she did not have the slightest guess.

She never knew who Cui Jing was loyal to. It was rumored among the gentry that he was the empress' minion. Although she disagreed, she was not sure of his true thoughts and positions.

But what she can be sure of at this moment is that if there is indeed a secret in the Tiannv Pagoda, then Cui Jing must be an insider who shared the secret with Empress Ming.

And if her intuition at this time is right—if the secret in the Tiannv Pagoda is related to Li Shang, if it is not sure which one is related, there is a possibility of hostility between her and Cui Jing.

Cui Jing has helped her a lot, and she has truly regarded him as a trustworthy friend along the way, but it is Chang Suining who is friends with Cui Jing.

If the other party knew that she was Li Shang, would this friend still be successful?
The answer to this question cannot be answered with any emotion, but needs to be decided by the truth.

Now, she is going to try to walk into the truth.

After seeing Ming, he turned around and looked towards him slowly. Chang Suining raised his foot and stepped into the formation.

At this moment, Chang Suining seemed to hear the sound of this world using the wind as a blade, piercing through her body in Chang Suining's mind.

Her eyelashes fluttered silently, but her face remained unchanged.

The girl's embroidered shoes stepped on the painted ground and walked forward.

Ming Luo looked at the painting on the ground that was stepped on by the girl, and felt ironic. He really had no sense of awe. How could such a person be Princess Chongyue?

The wind blew the golden bell hanging from the eaves of the tower, making a crisp sound.

The Holy Book Emperor stared fixedly at the girl wearing a sandalwood cloak who was walking towards him, and many old images suddenly flashed before his eyes.

The girl came to her and bowed her head: "My daughter, see Your Majesty."

At the same time, another voice sounded in Emperor Shengji's mind - sons and ministers see mother queen.

The girl's face in front of her was not similar to the girl in her memory, but because of that guess, she actually felt that the two faces overlapped at this moment.

A wave appeared in the eyes of the Holy Book Emperor.

The withered and yellow bamboo leaves fell, and the light smoke that was rising slowly in the bronze furnace suddenly changed direction under the force of the wind and scattered.

After a while, Emperor Shengji said slowly: "There is no need to be too polite."

The voice fell into Chang Suining's ears very dimly and far away, but she didn't show any abnormality on her face, she just straightened up as usual.

It is not appropriate to look left and right in front of the emperor, so she stood still with her eyes downcast.

But even if the consciousness is weakened, Chang Suining can still feel that the emperor's gaze on her has a strong sense of inquiry, just like the invisible sharp blades around her at this moment, it seems to pierce her and make her original revealing.

The Emperor Shengji couldn't see the strange reaction from the girl for a while, so he said: "Let's go in with me."

"Yes."

When Emperor Shengji was about to turn around, a servant outside the pagoda courtyard hurried forward to ask for an audience.

After approval, the servant went into the hospital and saluted the Holy Book Emperor.

"...Your Majesty, there are many refugees outside the temple. There are as many as a hundred of them. They gathered outside the temple and cried out to see the saint. They only said that they hadn't eaten for a long time, and begged the saint to save their lives..."

The servant's expression was very disturbed, for fear of offending some taboo.

When praying for blessings, a group of sallow, emaciated and sick refugees came to gather around to ask the emperor for help, which was unlucky after all.

"Where did the refugees come from?" Emperor Shengji frowned slightly and asked, "Daozhou?"

"Return to Your Majesty, it is..."

Chang Suining has also heard about the severe drought in Daozhou since the spring. The drought involved a very wide area. Not only did the whole Daozhou have no crops, but also the wells and springs dried up, and the daily drinking water for the people was difficult to sustain.

Even though there are disaster relief strategies, the effect is very little. The victims have no food and water, so they cross the Huai River to the north to save themselves. As a result, there are even chaos between refugees and soldiers in the states along the way...

These refugees who were able to come to the capital alive did not know how many hardships and obstacles they had gone through.

There was a trace of compassion in the emperor's tone: "It is really not easy for them to come here from Daozhou. Cui Qing, you can take care of these people on behalf of me for the time being."

As the Son of Heaven, it is impossible for her to meet these refugees in person. These people can travel long distances and come to the capital alive. Let them give up the idea of ​​making trouble.

Cui Jing responded, looked at Chang Suining before leaving, and nodded slightly to her.

Chang Suining also nodded in response to him, as usual.

But she could sense the unusual look in Cui Jing's eyes, although she couldn't tell what it meant.

Cui Jing left the pagoda courtyard, and Yuan Xiang, who was guarding not far away, greeted him.

Cui Jing turned her head and took one last look at the girl who was walking into the tower.

Master Wujue's fingers and those slightly changed formations can only relieve her pain a little bit, so she must be enduring it very hard at this time.

He couldn't even imagine what she was going through right now.

"Governor, those disaster victims..."

"According to the original plan."

Cui Jing strode away, took off the saber at his waist and held it in his hand.

The moment Chang Suining walked into the tower, he realized that the feelings he had just had outside the tower were not worth mentioning.

Her internal organs seemed to be tugged by an invisible force, as if her soul was about to leave her body in the next moment, but another force seemed to firmly bind the soul inside.

And this pain intensified with every step she took forward. It seemed that there was an invisible resistance in front of her that was blocking her from going forward, and there were countless voices in her body calling to stop her.

The girl's complexion did not change, and she continued to move forward.

Wujue squeezed his sweat secretly, worried in his heart.

He can only do this now, and His Highness doesn't know how long he can last. He just hopes that everything goes well...

Since Chang Suining entered the tower, he silently paid attention to the layout of the tower.

This formation was far more complicated than she had imagined, and it was different from any military formation she had seen before.

In accordance with the principle of "everything remains the same", she wrote down the layout of the formations around the place, and gradually noticed something strange after distinguishing it along the way.

Although these formations are complicated, but upon closer inspection, there are gaps. The formations and positions are also divided into primary and secondary. If you use primary and secondary, what you see at this time is secondary. The real main formation Instead, I didn't see it.

The thing in the main formation is the eye of a burst, and the eye of the formation is related to the rise and fall of a burst, and it is the most critical existence.

Is this necessary for the formation, or is it to prevent the formation from being easily destroyed, so the eyes of the formation are placed in a hidden dark place?
Chang Suining thought about it, and he followed the Emperor Shengchi to the edge of Yuchi.

The ethereal voice of Emperor Shengji rang in Chang Suining's ears.

"Madam Chang, do you know why I summoned you to Dayun Temple?"

"It is to pray for the blessings of the generals and the courtier's father." Even Chang Suining's own voice sounded very weak.

Most of her tactile and auditory perceptions have been weakened, and she needs to pay extra attention to listen carefully in order to distinguish what the Holy Book Emperor is saying.

"Yes, but not all." Emperor Shengji turned his head slightly to look at the girl: "Actually, there is something I don't understand, and I want to ask Mrs. Chang."

Chang Suining remained calm: "I don't know what His Majesty is referring to."

"Miss Chang is quite outstanding. I had intended to give you the position of female officer serving cases before, but you did not accept it." Emperor Shengji's tone was not coercive, but the words he said made people unable to relax.

"Afterwards, both Li Lu and Cui Qing wanted to marry each other, and you refused all of them—so I'm very curious. You don't want the official position I give you, and you don't want the good marriage and good son that ordinary women value. What do you really want? ,What will it be?"

These are clearly things that her Ah Shang will do.What ordinary women are eager to desire, but her A Shang will not see it.

Ming Luo's gaze never left Chang Suining for a moment.

At this moment, there was still no abnormality on the girl's face, nor could she see the uneasiness and hesitation under the temptation.

"I know that my heart is uncertain, and I am afraid of causing trouble in the palace, so I dare not accept the post of female official. As for marriage, in my view, the difference between good and bad needs to be based on mutual affection. Communicating with each other is considered a good relationship."

After a pause, the girl said again: "If you ask me what I want to do, I just want to be my father's daughter, stay in Changfu, and live with my father and brother who love me, that's enough."

Emperor Shengji smiled slightly when he heard the words: "If you have such an idea, you probably haven't grown up yet."

The girl heard the words and said: "Father said that the minister does not need to grow up, the minister can be by his side for the rest of her life, doing what she likes."

This naive and willful words seemed to make Emperor Shengji a little distracted.

"It's a blessing that you don't have to grow up." Emperor Shengji said, "My child has grown up since he was very young."

"This is also my failure as a mother. I gave birth to them, but I failed to give them a stable life..." Emperor Shengji looked at the statue of the goddess: "And when I finally have the ability to make up for it, my The child is gone, perhaps this is the retribution God gave me."

Chang Suining lowered his eyes and did not answer.

Her body, which was originally torn by pain, even felt numb for a moment when she heard these words.

She didn't know the truth of the guilt in Minghou's words, or she really felt a little guilty after getting everything in her old age, or maybe it was just a way to test her. After all, she had experienced this kind of method once.

In the past, in her eyes, her mother was calm, cold and unscrupulous. She never showed any kindness or soft words to her.

She thought her mother was used to this, until her mother grabbed her hand before the kiss, and the kindness that she said was even pleading "Ah Shang, let's help A Niang one last time".

The mother even touched her cheek tremblingly, with tears of guilt she had never seen in her eyes, and said that she would definitely take her home.

Only then did she know that her mother could treat her with kindness.

She stared blankly for a while, and realized that the kindness was not even pretended, the true love was to the extreme, and this extreme true love never left any room for her to refuse.

At that time, she suddenly wanted to ask, does A Niang know what she will experience after marrying Beidi?
But she didn't ask after all.

Her aunt is not an ordinary woman, nor is she a naive concubine who is ignorant of the affairs of the state, so she doesn't know what this marriage represents.

It is precisely because of knowing that that she calls herself "A Niang" and feels guilty, but this guilt will not affect her A Niang begging her to go to that purgatory.

And the reason why she knelt down was not because she felt that her mother had done something wrong, on the contrary, even if her mother didn't come to beg her, she had already made the decision to agree to the marriage.

At that time, Dasheng was unable to fight anymore, his soldiers and horses were exhausted, and his national power was weak. Succeeding in peace was the only way to survive.

At that time, what Dasheng needed was no longer a general who went to the battlefield, but a princess who went to make love.

Then she will go.

She could go, she should go, she just felt that maybe a mother shouldn't treat her child like this.

But that’s okay, as long as she can remember, her loving and ambitious mother only brought her endless demands and requests. She has been repaying the gift of childbearing, but it seems that she still can’t figure it out. Let's take advantage of this thing she was about to do to end it, it's also considered opportunistic.

Since then, when she thinks of "mother", she feels relaxed, because she finally doesn't have to bear the hostage of the grace of giving birth.

From the time she obeyed Empress Ming's arrangement and pretended to be A Xiao, she came all the way, and she broke free from the cage called family affection with her life. After paying such a price, she will never go back to the mother who made her unable to breathe. In a female relationship.

What's more, she still has unsolved mysteries, and she hasn't found out who was going to kill her in the previous life. Even if she wants to save her life, she can't let herself be exposed to the bright side at this time.

As for whether Empress Ming's guilt at this time is true or not, she has no way of exploring it, and she doesn't care about it anymore.

"Ms. Chang, have you read the "Da Yun Jing", have you heard of the legend of the heavenly maiden saving the world?" Emperor Shengji asked.

"My daughter has heard about it."

"The one who saved the world with her own body is also my Chongyue..." Emperor Shengji said: "Chongyue's experience and deeds must have been heard many times by Chang Niangzi. , are there similarities in common?"

Chang Suining subconsciously looked up at the white jade statue.

The moment she looked at it, her fingertips under the cloak trembled.

This goddess statue...

Her eyes fell on the lifelike face of the statue, and the eye-catching crack on the neck...

So, what is "enshrined" in this Heavenly Maiden Pagoda is never the Heavenly Maiden in the Great Cloud Sutra, but her? !

While "looking" into the eyes of the jade statue, Chang Suining only felt that his limbs and bones were being captured, and he was bewildered.

Sensing that Empress Ming's eyes moved towards him, Chang Suining closed his eyes for a moment, and said: "I have never seen Princess Chongyue with my own eyes, so I have no way of comparing whether Princess Chang is similar to this goddess statue, so I dare not Answer in vain."

The Holy Book Emperor said nothing, just looked at Chang Suining quietly, as if determined to find the answer he wanted from the girl.

Chang Suining stood there with downcast eyes, trying his best to control every part of his body, so as not to make himself look strange.

I don't know how long it took before the Holy Book Emperor spoke again.

　Good night everyone, see you tomorrow~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)