idle mistress

Chapter 17 The Secret Tunnel
Xu Weiqiu climbed up to touch it, and it turned out to be an ivory product, round in shape, with a diameter as big as the mouth of a bowl, with a hollow design, which looks good, but it takes a lot of effort to clean this kind of handicraft.

She buried her head in cleaning, turned around, and accidentally touched a wooden box on the desk with her feet, and the box fell to the ground with a "bang bang", and some objects fell out of it, which were several volumes.

Xu Weiqiu hurriedly went to the ground to pick them up, opened them curiously, but saw that there were not many words on these files, and they were almost all patterns. Although she did not study architecture, she recognized at a glance that these were the construction drawings on Guhuang Mountain.

At the beginning, she had secretly discussed with Goudan, what exactly was going to be built in such a large-scale construction project of Guhuang Mountain, Goudan told her that it was going to build a palace for the royal family.

Driven by curiosity, she looked at it while tidying it up. The design of the plan is very ingenious, including the court room, the Ming building, three doors, the ear room, the carriage room, and the main room...

However, Xu Weiqiu became more and more frightened as she looked further back. She saw the Baoding and the underground palace.

What kind of palace is built here? It is clearly the emperor's mausoleum.

She also finally understood why most of the hired workers and corvee workers were assigned to do some work such as digging foundations, moving stones, and transporting wood, while most of the more in-depth work was assigned to prisoners who had been convicted.

When she was studying, she learned from some documents that in order to still enjoy the supreme glory and wealth after death, the monarch will start to build a mausoleum for himself decades in advance.

A large number of funerary objects will be stored in the tomb. In order to prevent tomb robbers and ensure the safety of the imperial tomb, the tomb will be equipped with numerous traps, and those craftsmen who know the entrance and exit of the underground palace and master some core secrets will generally be secretly executed.

Turning to the back of the drawing, she found a very strange place from above. There was a long corridor extending from the back of the east side room to another hill, and there was a mark on the hill.

For a while, she also wondered why such a corridor was built in an imperial tomb?

Just when she was wondering, a question came from behind: "What are you doing?"

After Xu Weiqiu was frightened, he turned his head abruptly, only to see Zhao Yan standing two feet away with his hands behind his back, looking at her coldly with his long and narrow eyes.

I don't know if it was an illusion, but for a moment, she saw murderous intent in this man's eyes.

Xu Weiqiu's heart trembled, and soon, she realized that she had made a fatal mistake. If the people who built the tomb would be silenced, then she, who had even seen the blueprints, would surely die.

She was so nervous that she pretended to be calm and explained: "My lord, I just went up to clean up the pendant on the top, but I accidentally dropped the wooden box, and the order of the files was messed up. I can't read, don't you?" know how to sort it out."

While speaking, she rolled up the file in her hand, and hugged him together with the files on the case.

She remembered that she had mentioned to this man that she was illiterate, and hoped he would remember.

Zhao Yan looked down at her face, staring at her with fear and sweat, until she thought she was doomed this time, Zhao Yan reached out and took all the scrolls of drawings.

"Without my consent, you can't touch any books in my house, you know?"

"Yes, the servant knows."

Zhao Yan glanced at her and put the things back in her hands: "Let's put it away first, I'll tidy it up when I have time."

Xu Weiqiu had no choice but to obediently put the things back on the desk.

Zhao Yan sat down at the side, leaned against the back of the chair with a lazy expression, closed his eyes, and softly ordered:
"Go fetch a basin of water, I want to wash my feet."

"Yes!"

Xu Weiqiu breathed a sigh of relief, she knew that she had escaped a catastrophe this time.

Returning with a basin of water, Zhao Yan did not change his movements. He still leaned on the chair, closed his eyes, and seemed to be asleep.

Xu Weiqiu turned her head to look at the long case, but those files had not been touched again, she stepped forward cautiously: "My lord, the water is coming."

Zhao Yan didn't even open his eyes, he only stretched out one foot forward; Xu Weiqiu would feel sorry, so he had to step forward to take off his shoes and socks.

A pair of feet were soaked in the water. She scooped up the water with her hands and washed him one by one.

In her previous life, it would have been impossible for her to wash another person's feet in such a servile manner, but now, due to reality, she can only do it softly.

This allowed her to re-understand herself, and she laughed at herself in her heart. It turned out that she could act so humblely in order to survive.

After waiting for Zhao Yan to get on the couch, she retreated with the water. At night, lying on the hard wooden board, Xu Weiqiu tossed and turned, unable to sleep at night.

The next day, with her big panda eyes on her head, she followed Zhao Yan on a tour of the Ancient Phoenix Mountain.

The foot of the mountain is heavily guarded, and the hard laborers on the mountain are working hard under the scorching sun.

Seeing the prisoners yelling loudly and moving boulders one after another into the high wall, Xu Weiqiu's heart gradually became heavy.

If these people knew that they could not escape the fate of being silenced, would they still work so hard?

She seemed to have seen the cruel killing scene, and her whole body shuddered.

Zhao Yan patrolled for a week, and instead of leaving in a hurry, he drank tea leisurely under the temporary bamboo shed.

Xu Weiqiu couldn't be free either, besides serving tea and water, he had to fan him with a cattail fan.

Zhao Yan took a sip of tea, sat there and watched outside silently, for some reason, Xu Weiqiu felt that he seemed to be in a very good mood today.

In the evening, after everyone had eaten their dinner, Zhao Yan ordered all the prisoners to be called together.

Soon, all the prisoners were driven to the training ground where soldiers practiced on weekdays.

When Xu Weiqiu followed Zhao Yan into the training ground, he saw many people watching from the sidelines, and the entire periphery of the training ground was crowded with people.

The onlookers were more lively than the vegetable market. With the arrival of Zhao Yan, the noise quickly stopped.

Zhao Yan walked to the front, where a grand master's chair had been prepared long ago, he sat down on the grand master's chair, looked around the crowd indifferently, and then landed on a certain place.

Xu Weiqiu followed his gaze and saw someone setting up a firewood pile on the training ground. What was his intention?

Zhao Yan leisurely twisted the string of Buddhist beads in his hand, and said coldly: "Bring him up."

Soon, the officials brought up six prisoners, all of them were in ragged clothes, and their prison clothes were stained with blood; they hunched their shoulders and staggered, leaving a bloodstain with every step they took, which was obviously the result of being imprisoned. punished.

Seeing this, the atmosphere at the scene suddenly became solemn, and everyone was breathless.

When Xu Weiqiu heard Zhao Yan's order, Xu Weiqiu already had a bad guess in her heart, but when several prisoners were brought up and knelt in front of Zhao Yan, and she saw the conspicuous scar on the face of the leader, her heart still remained. Can't help but grab it tightly.

(End of this chapter)