My wife has a secret

Chapter 152 Ceremony Night
The sound coming from inside the house was sweet and delicate, like the chirping of a yellow oriole. As soon as you heard it, you could tell it was made by a young jade-like girl.

In the entire royal palace, there is only one person who can be called a girl, and that is Princess Danyang Li Jiner.

Although Xu Qing had not met Princess Danyang many times, every time she appeared she left a deep impression on him.

From the first meeting in the palace to the second meeting in the square, this young girl was extremely intelligent, with a lively mind, and even had some of Shen Shuangxu's erudition and talent.

"What on earth is this princess doing in her room... why is she making such strange noises?"

Xu Qing hesitated for a moment, but curiosity prevailed over everything else. He poked a hole in the window paper with his finger and moved his right eye up.

When the blurry interior scene froze, he finally got the answer.

I saw this petite, pretty and beautiful girl taking off her gorgeous and complicated long skirt to her waist and spreading it on the bed.

Her clothes were disheveled, her legs were slightly closed, her hair was disheveled, and the hairpins and hair accessories she had brought with her today lay quietly on the floor tiles in front of the door. She looked extremely indulgent.

"elder brother……"

A pretty girl with messy hair, bright eyes, white teeth, red lips and a delicate nose cried out softly, which shocked Xu Qing, who was standing outside the door, and made him lose his composure.

This is the royal bedroom where the grand ceremony of offering sacrifices to heaven is held. Logically, one should abstain from sex, worship the gods, bathe, and recite scriptures.

But what is Princess Danyang doing?
On the second day of the second month, Xu Qing hurriedly withdrew from the palace, forcibly calmed his pounding heart, and walked in another direction.

But when he was passing by the door of Princess Danyang's bedroom, he suddenly discovered that there was no bolt on the door, but a large copper lock.

Thinking of the instructions that the female official gave him before she left, Xu Qing's right eye twitched wildly, and he felt that he had guessed what the Queen Mother was thinking.

Wait, that’s not right!
Xu Qing picked up the door lock carefully and looked at the hole on it carefully. He found that the shape of the keyhole was different from that of the key, proving that the key given by the female official could not open this copper lock.

"This lock was locked from the outside. The one who has this right must be Lord Lianhua... Why did Lord Lianhua lock Princess Danyang in the house?"

Xu Qing thought for a moment and accidentally turned the button of the copper lock. The crisp clicking sound was so loud in the silent night sky that it almost made his hair stand on end.

"Who?"

Hearing the question coming from the bedroom, Xu Qing hurriedly squatted down and imitated the cat's meow twice.

From the reflection of the candlelight in the house, one can see the petite and graceful girl getting closer and closer to the door frame, and finally stopping in front of the door.

The other party pushed the door gently, but because of the door lock, the door frame shook for a moment and then stopped.

The girl therefore gave up the idea of ​​opening the door to check, and said as if to comfort herself: "It turned out to be a disobedient wild cat."

When the footsteps in the house became farther and farther away, Xu Qing hurriedly crouched down and retreated from the door, away from this place of trouble.

But what he didn't know was that in the brightly lit bedroom, Princess Danyang was standing in front of the bed, looking at the conspicuous gap on the window and smiling slightly.

In this seemingly well-behaved, pure and flawless smile, Princess Danyang could not hide the slightly upturned corners of her lips, making her whole expression full of charm and playfulness.

"Brother Xu Qing, you can't escape..."

Her beautiful eyes are extremely charming and moving.

The beautiful legs, like carefully carved jade, are slightly exerted, the knees are close together, and the delicate, smooth white feet are spread outward. Every detail is full of vitality and feminine charm.

The ticking sound echoed in the empty room, making the cold and smooth floor even wetter in winter.

……

After confirming the general direction through the Danyang Princess's bedroom, Xu Qing returned to his room smoothly.

As soon as he opened the door, he caught a glimpse of the key left by the female official out of the corner of his eye, and an idea suddenly came to his mind.

Although this key cannot open the Princess Danyang's bedroom, from what he had just seen along the way, Xu Qing discovered that most of the palaces in the bedroom were locked.

From this, we can judge that during the ceremony of offering sacrifices to heaven, the bedrooms of various royal dignitaries were locked, and this key must be able to open someone's door.

Since it is not Princess Danyang's room, it is unlikely to be the Queen Mother's house, so there are only a handful of rooms left in the entire palace.

"Lotus is the Queen Mother's personal female official. I think she doesn't need to use this method to see me, so it can only be opened..."

Xu Qing took the key and walked out of the room, his eyes falling on the other side of the palace, the Hanyuan Palace.

……

As the venue for the Li Qi royal family's grand ceremony of offering sacrifices to heaven, the Hanyuan Hall does not worship the three immortals, gods and Buddhas, but instead enshrines plaques and tablets of the Li family's ancestors.

Now, under these spirit tablets, there is a six-foot-long and wide nanmu coffin quietly placed. The person lying in it is the seventeenth emperor of the Great Qi Dynasty, Emperor Xuan of Qi, who was assisted by Empress Dowager Xu to ascend the throne.

Everywhere in the room visible to the naked eye was covered with white silk and white candles by the eunuchs and palace maids, and the entire room was illuminated as if it were daytime.

Empress Gongsun was wearing a gorgeous dress with an elegant and delicate pattern of a flying phoenix, and every stitch seemed to tell an ancient story.

The unique jade pendant on the neckline adds a touch of elegance and refinement to this young and beautiful queen.

But no matter how exquisitely and beautifully Empress Gongsun was dressed, her gorgeous appearance could not hide her numb expression and disheartened eyes.

This woman, who was supposed to be the mother of the country and the one with the highest power in the imperial city, knelt in front of her husband's coffin, waiting for time to pass, hoping that all this would end soon.

Except for appearing together in public, Empress Gongsun and Emperor Xuan rarely met in private.

Moreover, because Emperor Xuan of Qi was still young, although the two held a banquet to entertain all officials and a wedding ceremony, they did not have their wedding night.

Therefore, her feelings towards Emperor Xuan were very complicated. At one time, it was her mission as the queen of the family, at another time, it was pity, and at another time, it was hatred.

But the hatred at this moment could not solve any problem. Empress Dowager Xu was already high above everyone else and held the power of life and death in the harem. She was thrown into the Hanyuan Hall by the other party to look after a dead person, and she could only kneel on the ground and kowtow to express her gratitude.

As a result, Empress Gongsun dared not imagine what kind of life she would face in the future.

Moreover, rumors were spreading in the palace that after the ceremony of offering sacrifices to heaven was over, Empress Dowager Xu would naturally take over the emperor's affairs.

If the Queen Mother really ascends the throne and becomes the first empress in history, I will not even be worth being used.

"Click."

At the moment when Empress Gongsun lowered her head in deep thought, a strange sound suddenly came from the coffin. She raised her head in astonishment and looked at the coffin with some horror.

After thinking about who was under the coffin, Empress Gongsun turned pale, stood up, and stepped back. When she leaned against the door with her back, the quiet and cold Hanyuan Hall was almost the last straw that broke her tense nerves.

For some reason, a human face appeared in Empress Gongsun's mind.

Along with the sound of door knock, as if a pious prayer was answered, the heavy palace door that Empress Gongsun was leaning against suddenly opened, and the man she had suddenly thought of actually appeared in front of her.

“Is it really here?”

After unlocking the door and opening the palace door, Xu Qing only had time to sigh before he felt a soft, tender and crisp body rushing into his arms.

When Xu Qing saw the phoenix pattern on the woman's skirt, he figured out the identity of the woman in his arms. His hands, which were originally intended to push Empress Gongsun away, froze in the air. Instead, he hugged the empress's shoulders and patted them gently to comfort her.

Xu Qing, who was reborn in a second life, was not an ignorant child. He knew that although Empress Gongsun was the empress, she was only 23 years old when she married the young emperor and moved into the Changsheng Palace in the harem.

After the death of the previous emperor, the empress dowager took over the government for three years. Empress Gongsun, who was just 26 years old, was in her prime.

She had never left the mansion and was actually just a young girl who had never experienced the world and only knew some simple political schemes.

Leaving a little girl with a dead person overnight would definitely scare her.

"never mind."

Hearing Xu Qing's words of comfort, the queen broke down and cried out, but because she was afraid that her voice would attract the patrolling imperial guards, she hurriedly pulled Xu Qing into the palace, and after looking around to see that there was no one around, she quietly pushed the palace door shut.

"Xu...Xu Qing, why are you here?"

Empress Gongsun wiped away her tears and hesitated for a moment before calling Xu Qing's name and asking him the purpose of his visit.

Now she is keeping vigil for Emperor Xuan and is the empress of the Great Qi Dynasty. She is no longer the maid in Xu Qing's bedroom.

However, when Xu Qing told Empress Gongsun the whole story of how he got the key, the pretty woman's face showed some surprise, and then she seemed to have thought of something, and stood there with a numb expression, as if she had suffered a great blow.

After Xu Qing called her twice, the young lady with eyebrows as fine as a painting and skin as white as cream finally came to her senses and asked in a lost voice, "Mr. Lianhua, did she...did she order her female servant to give you the key?"

"Yes, the copper locks of each palace are almost all specially made. I tried them outside... Only the lock of Hanyuan Palace can be opened with this key. I don't know why Lord Lianhua went to so much trouble to do this."

Xu Qing looked somewhat puzzled, but he knew that the Empress Gongsun opposite him was not much different from himself.

So he sorted out his thoughts and said, "I, Xu Qing, promised you before that I would not let you suffer any grievances in the palace, so just follow me back to the house and come back when it's almost dawn."

Although it was immoral for the Queen to enter and leave his own residence, Xu Qing felt that by giving him the key, Lord Lianhua must have tacitly allowed him to take Queen Gongsun out.

With the Empress Dowager backing him up, nothing he did was excessive.

"you……"

Empress Gongsun was silent for a moment, then stared at Xu Qing's face for a long time.

A trace of loneliness suddenly flashed across her beautiful face, and she reached out and lifted up a few strands of hair that were scattered on her forehead.

Xu Qing, who was stared at by Empress Gongsun's beautiful eyes, felt an indescribable strange feeling.

"What do you think about me?"

Xu Qing originally thought that Empress Gongsun wanted to be honest with him and tell him some secrets, but after hearing her say such a confusing statement, he frowned slightly.

"It's pretty stupid."

Empress Gongsun's chest was heaving slightly. She turned her head to look at Emperor Xuan's coffin not far away and said, "Before you came, there was a noise coming from the coffin. I was a little scared... Go check it out for me."

"Hey, I came to Hanyuan Palace with good intentions to help you avoid disaster, but you used your status as queen to pressure me? Do you really think I'm easy to bully?"

Xu Qing was very dissatisfied with Empress Gongsun's attitude, and even had the thought and impulse to turn around and leave, but who knew that the Empress seemed to be determined, and stretched out her slender, white jade hand, tightly grasping his sleeve.

"I know you don't know martial arts. If you don't help me to see what's inside the coffin, I will... shout and scream in this palace to attract all the guards, maids and eunuchs around."

Xu Qing looked at Empress Gongsun coldly. Although he knew that the Queen Mother would suppress everything, compared with the troubles that would follow the ceremony, it would obviously be less troublesome to open the coffin and perform an autopsy.

So Xu Qing said in a cold voice: "After I checked the contents of the coffin and found that they were correct, I will go back. You can stay in Hanyuan Hall until dawn."

Empress Gongsun bit her thin lips lightly, her thick eyelashes trembling slightly as she responded.

"it is good."

Xu Qing turned around and strode towards the coffin of Emperor Xuan.

When he came to the nanmu coffin, Xu Qing suddenly noticed that there was a slight gap between the nanmu board and the coffin body, and the grease used to seal the coffin had also broken off next to this fine crack.

Could it be that something unusual really happened in this coffin? Was it not a lie made up by Empress Gongsun out of fear?

Given the level of craftsmen in the capital, it was impossible for such an obvious mistake to occur when sealing the emperor's coffin, unless his entire family did not want to live anymore.

While thinking, Xu Qing felt a muffled sound behind his head, and then his eyes went dark and he fell forward.

……

Behind Xu Qing, Empress Gongsun, who was holding a heavy candlestick, couldn't help but shudder all over, and beads of sweat appeared on Bai Jie's forehead.

Empress Gongsun, who was committing a crime for the first time, felt her ears and neck burning and her heart beating wildly.

She bit her red lips tightly, and after making sufficient mental preparation, she placed the lamp in her hand somewhere else, turned over Xu Qing, and hugged him so that he could lean on the coffin.

"I can only, I can only do this..."

Unlike what Xu Qing thought, after Empress Gongsun asked about the origin of the key, she understood her only way out.

The Queen Mother was very powerful, and after marrying into the palace, she couldn't even rely on the Gongsun family and could only live under her majesty.

But what if I were pregnant with a dragon seed...

Empress Gongsun was slightly confused, and her face flushed with shame and anger. She untied Xu Qing's belt as if in a fit of anger, and then untied her dress.

Although Empress Gongsun, who had read comic books and received instruction from her mother-in-law in the palace, understood what Wushan Yunyu was, she had never experienced it before and still had only a vague understanding and could not find the way.

Until there was a "puff" sound.

(End of this chapter)