Long live Emperor Wu!

Chapter 71 The Key
In the 17th year of Zhenguan, the 15-year-old King Jin was canonized as the crown prince and offered sacrifices in the ancestral temple.

The deposed prince Li Chengqian was demoted to a commoner and exiled to Qianzhou.

The King of Wei was demoted to the title of Prince of Shunyang County, moved out of Chang'an, and stayed in Junzhou. He was not allowed to enter without an edict.

A few sentences in the imperial edict are, in reality, a turmoil that causes people to flip up and down.

In the harem, in Chang'an City, and in the East Palace, people were rising and falling, people were coming and going, people were moving in, the East Palace had to be rearranged, the chamberlains were too busy to keep their feet on the floor, and Wu Rou didn't have much time to stay in the Wude Palace. .

Everyone is busy, and Princess Jinyang, who is in the center of the whirlpool, is like a forgotten person, uneasy, silent, and frightened in the turmoil, and can't sleep at night.

On this day, she suddenly woke up in the middle of the night and saw Wu Rou lying next to her. She breathed a little sigh of relief and rubbed against her again, grabbing her arm and not letting go.

It's like holding on to a piece of driftwood. If you let go, it will sink from the water.

Wu Rou was awakened by the hoop. She subconsciously patted Princess Jinyang on the back and asked:
"what happened?"

The 11-year-old Princess Jinyang opened her eyes in the darkness and said:
"Brother Ninth has become the crown prince and will no longer be able to follow me out of the palace. Then I will go out to build a mansion. It will probably be a long, long time before I see him again."

"...Tell me, what if my consort is killed by my father in the future? Otherwise, I will never get married for the rest of my life?"

"In the days when you were away, I dreamed that when my mother was around, it was the Mid-Autumn Festival, and several brothers and sisters were all together. The fourth brother wrote a poem. It was so nice. Everyone applauded him. Father The emperor and the empress even looked at each other, their eyes filled with relief."

"I don't know how the prince brother is doing. I haven't seen him since he was imprisoned. He will no longer be the prince...he is a commoner. He is no longer my eldest brother, and he can't enter the palace. , I will never see him again..."

Princess Jinyang cried as she spoke.

Wu Rou listened to her words and couldn't help crying along with her, but she didn't know how to comfort her, so she could only hug her hard and say:

"Princess, it's okay. When you leave the palace and build a mansion, we will be much freer. If we don't get married and don't have a consort, we will take the people to Qianzhou to see the queen...to see your elder brother, and we will travel in the mountains along the way. Playing in the water, talking and laughing, it’s not that difficult.

Also, isn’t there still me? Your ninth brother wants to do something big, so I can’t accompany you but I will accompany you. "

Princess Jinyang blinked, raised her head and said:

"You can't always accompany me, you both have to do big things... I want my rabbit."

Wu Rou sat up, rubbed her sleepy eyes, cheered up and asked:
"Rabbit? What rabbit?"

"On the Mid-Autumn Festival that year, my eldest brother gave me a rabbit biting an osmanthus branch. It was so lifelike, soft and fluffy, with red gemstone eyes, snow-white fur, and the osmanthus flower was made of golden branches and white jade. , then the sweet-scented osmanthus branch fell off, so I stopped playing. Go and find it for me."

Wu Rou felt that her brain was not working properly. She thought about it vaguely and asked:

"…Where to find it?"

Princess Jinyang ran off the bed and walked barefoot to her row of jewelry boxes. After rummaging around for a long time, she finally took out a key from one of the secret compartments and gave it to Wu. Rou said:

"This is the key my brother gave me. He keeps all the toys I no longer have for me, saying that they are all memories and should be kept well.

The box is in my brother's bedroom. He has a box specifically for old things.My brother is nostalgic about those things. The treasure house does not accept those things, and he is afraid that his father will see them and throw them away, so he hid them under the bed in his bedroom. Go and find them for me.Quietly, don't let anyone know. If anyone asks, just say that you went to find a veil for me. "

Wu Rou took the key, held it in her hand and looked at it. The copper-colored key glowed a little in the darkness, seeming to have warmth.

She put on her clothes, held the palace lantern and went.

There are many rooms and pavilions in Wude Hall, and the pavilions are connected to each other. Walk forward from Princess Jinyang's bedroom and pass two pavilions, which is the former sleeping pavilion of King Jin.

Now that he is the prince, he will move to the East Palace. Although this place still has things from when he was the king of Jin, no one lives there anymore.

In the middle of the night, everything was quiet. Except for the guards standing guard outside the palace, there was almost no one inside.

Wu Rou walked gently through the corridor, holding the palace lantern, and when she arrived outside Prince Jin's chamber, she found that the door was open.

She was startled, thinking that a palace maid with unclean hands and feet had entered the room, so she covered the light with her hand and tried not to make a sound as she walked in.

There was no one outside. She turned around the screen and went to the bedroom. She saw a bright yellow prince's uniform spread flatly on the low couch next to her.

Wu Rou quickly let go of her hand to block the light. When the light was far away, she saw Jin Wang Li Shan, wearing only a white undershirt and resting his head with his elbow. He was curled up sideways as if he was afraid that his hair would be messed up if he slept. , sleeping on the couch.

He seemed very tired, and there was a dark red shadow under his eyes.

The 15-year-old man has some edges and corners on his face, but they are not too obvious. His gentle and stretched eyebrows and slender eyelashes are neatly and gently closed, making him look cute.

Shouldn't he be staying in the East Palace at this time? Why is he curled up here like a homeless kitten?

Wu Rou was stunned for a moment, just holding the lamp and looking at the person on the bed, not knowing whether to say anything or turn around and leave.In the end, she couldn't stop being curious and shouted softly:
"Your Highness...Your Highness the Crown Prince?"

In his sleep, Li Shan vaguely heard a familiar voice. He subconsciously opened his eyes and saw Wu Rou holding a palace lantern. Her face had a quiet beauty in the darkness and light.

He blinked and looked at the figure in the darkness.

Her appearance made him feel relieved, but he was suddenly aware of the danger.

Why is she at his bedside? !

Li Shan suddenly woke up. He sat up from the bed and subconsciously tried to pull the quilt to cover his body, but there was nothing when he touched it.

Yes, he came back secretly to rest, because he was afraid that the palace people would find him talking too much, so he didn't even cover himself with a quilt!
"Why are you here?!" Li Shan tugged at the top of his shirt nervously, but he was afraid that she would find out his intention, so he tried to pull it down as quietly as possible, his face turned red.

Wu Rou was also a little embarrassed. She held the palace lantern in one hand, and slowly extended her other hand towards Li Shan, spread her palm and said:
"The princess asked me to help her find a rabbit. She said it was in Jin...in His Highness the Crown Prince's junk box."

Li Shan looked at her, and after a while he breathed a sigh of relief, and then lowered his head. His thick black hair made his skin white and shiny, with a natural dazzling halo. The purple gold crown and yellow crown on his head The headband became more and more obvious, solemn and noble...it was incompatible with his simple white undershirt.

He also stretched out his hand towards Wu Rou and said in a low voice:

"Give me the key."

Wu Rou obediently took two steps forward and gently placed the key in his hand.

Li Shan felt the remaining warmth of her body on the key, as if she had been burned. His hand tightened for a moment, and then he held it in his hand. He turned over from the bed, turned his back to Wu Rou, squatted on the ground, and put the key under the bed. A box was dragged out.

Wu Rou was afraid that he could not see clearly, so she took two steps forward, stood behind him, leaned forward slightly, and illuminated him.

With a "click", the key turned into the copper lock and the machine spring opened.

It was very loud in the quiet and dark room.

Wu Rou watched Li Shan keep rummaging in the box. She suddenly felt that she was very close to him. It was a psychological closeness. It was not like looking at each other four or five steps apart in the past, or being polite face to face. , glanced over with distant eyes, guessing each other's thoughts, but the kind of closeness that truly became one's own.

This closeness made her happy and happy.

She didn't think it was because she liked him at the time, but she just felt that with Li Shan's temperament of being able to see things from afar but never approach, when he allowed you to get close to him, she would have a great sense of accomplishment.

"Why did Your Highness sleep here? Be careful of catching cold." Wu Rou didn't realize that her tone was unusually gentle.

Li Shan's heart trembled, and then he reminded himself that this was an illusion caused by her speaking in a low voice.

He put one hand on the box, exhaled a sigh of relief, and said:
"I can't sleep in the East Palace. Everything in the East Palace makes me uncomfortable. Seeing those things always reminds me of my elder brother... I feel so sad when I think of me occupying everything he once had."

He said casually, and finally found the little rabbit. The rabbit was just as big as an adult's hand, and it was very alive, but its mouth was slightly open, which was a little strange.

He took it in his hand and looked at it twice, as if the rabbit also made him sad. He raised his hand and handed it to Wu Rou and said:

"Clean it well and dry it in the sun before letting the rhinoceros play with it."

"Yes." Wu Rou took the rabbit, and Li Shan stood up. When he turned around, he was face to face with Wu Rou. The two stood opposite each other, breathing each other's breath.

Wu Rou looked at his face so close, her heart skipped a beat, and she quickly took a step back. In order to cover up her embarrassment, she said with a smile:

"...Unconsciously, Your Highness is almost taller than me."

In the darkness, Li Shan lowered his eyes, and a trace of painful and tangled emotions flashed across his eyebrows. He did not answer, but walked directly past Wu Rou, went to the short couch, and put on his bright yellow dress. The prince picked up his court clothes and put them on.

Wu Rou could feel that he had become distant and indifferent again, as if she had just said the wrong thing, but after thinking about it, she didn't understand where she was wrong.

"If Your Highness feels uncomfortable living in the East Palace, why don't you tell His Majesty directly and let you come back and live there?"

Li Shan said while turning his back to Wu Rou and adjusting his clothes:
"This is a rule. You have to get used to it. It will get better as time goes by. Every three days of the court meeting, I will go to court with my father. I can just take a nap here while waiting for him in the morning."

Wu Rou pursed her lips and said nothing.

Li Shan arranged his clothes and was about to leave, only to realize that he was still holding the key in his hand, with the red string hooked on his little finger.

He turned his head and glanced at Wu Rou, hesitated, and finally put the key on the edge of the low couch and said:
"The key is here, remember to take it with you."

After that he went out.

(End of this chapter)