box of hearts

Chapter 260 Looking at My Hometown (4)
Hearing this, Qingtian persuaded him from the side: "The concubine never urges you to return home, something must have happened, you should go back quickly, you don't need to come over at night, I'm fine, don't worry." She opened her eyes wide, and her expression was almost childish.

Qi She looked at her, and the anger in his chest died down little by little, turning into a handful of ashes; his whole heart was ashes.He sighed through his nose, put his hand on her thin shoulders and squeezed, "Then I'm leaving, eat well and rest well."

He turned and left, with the texture of the cut and embroidered gauze on Qingtian's body under his hands, which was riddled with holes.

When I arrived at the palace, it was not too early or too late, just before the beginning of the day.As soon as you enter the Fengyue Shuangqing Pavilion, the Western self-ringing clock in the main hall makes a "beep", and two dancing butterflies jump out from behind the small gold skylight on the top of the clock.

Mrs. Zhan had been waiting in front of the hall and saluted hastily.Qi She also knew that it must be a bad thing, but he never expected it to be——

"Concubine Rong is dead."

"What?" Qi She's heart skipped a beat, but her tone was still calm, "Why did you die all of a sudden?"

"Suicide by swallowing gold, what happened last night, when the girl found out this morning, she was hardened."

"Suicide?" Qi She was terrified, "Why?"

Zhan took out her handkerchief and wiped away the remaining tears, "It's a long story. In August last year, Concubine Rong and Concubine Wan went to Beifu together. Did Duan and the prince mention this? "

Qi She shook her head, faintly understanding.

"Alas..." Mrs. Zhan also shook her head, seeming to be very worthless, "Shortly after Mrs. Duan returned to Beijing from Jingjizhuang, Concubine Rong and Concubine Wan came to make trouble and beat Mrs. Duan. It was not too late when people told me, so I rushed over, otherwise the consequences would be even more disastrous. Later, due to illness, Mrs. Duan regained her favor. Since then, Concubine Rong and Concubine Wan have been out of order, and they say things that don’t make sense all day long. Shi is a goblin, who only uses demon methods to confuse the prince. In the past, Cuiyi and Concubine Concubine Shou were killed by the prince, and that Taoer was also killed by the demon method. Anyone who offends her will not end well. I advise you Several times later, Concubine Rong and Concubine Wan said that the Duan family just wanted to torture them to death bit by bit. They didn't eat well, they didn't sleep well, they either told fortunes or offered incense, and they frightened themselves. Especially Concubine Wan, the situation The deterioration was very fast, and it was useless even to hire a few imperial doctors. Last month, I thought it was useless, so I asked someone to lock her and Concubine Shun together. As a result, there was a careless girl two days ago She secretly led Concubine Rong to see her. Concubine Rong was greatly stimulated when she saw her. She insisted that Duan Shi cast a spell to harm her, and that Duan Shi would also come to harm her. I even asked the people in Concubine Rong's room to put it aside. How could she have found such short-sightedness without making a sound. The prince doesn't need to feel sorry for them, they are a pair of foolish people."

Hearing this, Qi She's heart jumped even more violently, "You said that Concubine Wan and Concubine Shun were 'locked' together, and she—?"

Zhan once again sighed, "I didn't say anything for fear of worrying the prince. Why don't the prince go and see for himself."

Immediately, the sedan chair was passed on, and Zhan personally accompanied Qi She to Chunhe Jingmingxuan.Chunhe Jingmingxuan was also the residence of Concubine Shun when she was a side concubine, and its regulation was second only to Zhan's Fengyue Shuangqing Pavilion, which was magnificent and magnificent.But Concubine Shun was abolished as a commoner because of her affair with the actor Zha Dingkui. She has been confined here for many years. The courtyard has been abandoned for a long time, and there are vines and weeds everywhere.

"My lord, I won't go in. Tonight, you take the lord in."

Zhan waved her hand to summon the maid, and she and Zhou Dun accompanied Qi She into the gate.The two rough maidservants guarding the gate first led them to a hut under the east verandah in front of the main hall, where there was only one bed and one kang.There was a woman lying flat on the bed, with disheveled hair covering her body, her complexion was yellow and swarthy, except for the slight delicacy of the two curved willow eyebrows, the whole face had been severely distorted, with exposed pores, fine lines piled up, two eyes Half-open and half-closed, but the mouth kept murmuring, with white foam flowing from the corners of the mouth.A pair of maidservants knelt by the bed, sobbing and waiting for questions.

The only thing Qi She wanted to ask was: who is this?He knew it was Concubine Wan, but he couldn't recognize her at all.Just as she was waiting to take a closer look, the woman on the bed suddenly stretched out her hands like a corpse, and screamed: "Here she is, here she is, that goblin is coming to take my life! Help! Help!"

The maids immediately rushed over to hold her down, and Concubine Wan was held in their hands, her whole upper body was stretched forward, she stared at Qi She with round eyes, and giggled inexplicably, "My lord, you scared me to death!" , So it’s the prince! Prince, come quickly, come quickly and hug Wan’er, if you hug Wan’er, that goblin will not dare to come.”

Qi She hesitated and took half a step forward, but Concubine Wan turned her head and flinched back, trembling all over, "Go, stay away from me! I forgot, you and that goblin are in the same group Yes, you are one, you are all one, you are going to kill me, everyone is going to kill me! Go, let me go! Pooh, goblin! I am not afraid, come on, I am not afraid!  … "

She turned her head and spit at him, her face was ferocious, like a ghost.Zhan's maidservant hurriedly gave Qi She a hand at Wanwan, "My lord, let's go, Master Wan doesn't recognize anyone anymore, so there's no need to be as knowledgeable as her, let's go."

Qi She was sent out the door as if in a dream, and he was still crying and shouting inside, his voice was extremely shrill and piercing, but he still heard a light song coming from the main hall.He didn't ask anyone to lead the way, and walked on by himself. He hadn't walked this way for nearly ten years, but he still walked it very well.At that time, he often went along this road to Concubine Shun's fragrant boudoir, shaking the candle torches, drinking with mandarin cups, and listening to her sing one after another a song about the joy of the two.

The singing was right in front of his eyes, and Qi She stopped.

Concubine Shun's sleeping hall is called Qiaoqian Hall, the plaque is still hanging on the lintel, but the door is gone, replaced by a fence, the whole room is no different from a prison.Looking in through the fence, the paint on the walls inside has peeled off so that only bricks and plaster are left. The walls are empty, not even a table, chair, bed or mattress. The felt blanket was so old that the original color could not be seen.Then there was a figure curled up on the felt blanket, with his back to this side, his face up in the sunlight passing through the torn window paper.

"Xiao Shun..."

Even Qi She himself didn't know how he called the name out, the singing that had been hovering low in the hall landed like a bird, and the man turned his head towards him.

There was a kind of dizzy clarity in the sunshine, Qi She gasped, and took a step back.

Wan Wan supported him from behind, and explained in a low voice: "I've been crazy for several years, and one year I burned my own face with a candle, and when I recovered from the injury, I became like this."

Concubine Shun turned her face away again, and continued to sing as if she hadn't seen anyone or anything.The sweet voice that used to be like an oriole has now become like an old raven, no, a vulture, the vulture is hovering, hovering, hovering above her own head, like hovering over a carrion.

Qi She only stayed in Chunhe Jingmingxuan for less than a quarter of an hour, but when he stepped out of the gate, he felt that a lifetime had passed.He tried to recall the time he spent with those women, but he couldn't remember anything.Looking back, in the bright and sunny April of Mengchun, the Hongdian behind him is full of spooky shadows, as if he was with someone at night with silver rings and gold pillows, lingering and ironing. A handful of bones.Qi She shivered, and his clothes were drenched in cold sweat.

When he saw Xiao Xinzi running quickly from the front, he felt totally amnesty.He desperately needed something to happen, anything, human.

"My lord, Wanan." Xiao Xinzi saluted, then came and whispered in his ear.

After Qi She heard this, he hesitated for a moment and said, "Tell him to the He Dao Hall."

3.
The emerald bamboos and phoenix tails outside the Hedao Hall are dense, and when the wind blows, there is a dragon singing softly.

Crossing the bamboo path is a pair of footsteps as quiet as cats and nimble as wolves.When the steps finally stopped, they were less than a foot away from Qi She.

"Slave Qiao Yunze, send greetings to my uncle, the Regent."

That's right, it was Qiao Yunze who came in front of Qi She.He deliberately proclaimed his name in front of him, chanting three times, as if it was a poem or a song, but it was actually another story with twists and turns——

Since the morning, the Empress Dowager Xihe has been restless, without combing her hair, without applying powder, walking back and forth with a bald face, and then screaming: "Yuming! Quanfu! Go, go tell those outside People, open the palace gate, I want to go out!"

Yuming and Quanfu looked at each other in embarrassment, and Yuming came forward, half sad and half timid, "Master, since the change of Nightmare Town, we and Ciqing Palace have set up guards inside and outside. Having been isolated from the outside of the palace for many years, going out is easier said than done?"

Quan Fu then wiped away the two tears in his eyes, "Master thinks he's suffocated and confused. Fortunately, they haven't dared to abuse the master. There is never any shortage of monthly supplies. Whatever the master wants, the slave will pass on the message. "

"I want to go out!" Xihe overturned a chi beast incense burner on the table, and the incense ash "boomed" out, like hatred and sorrow, and it couldn't be wiped clean.She stomped her feet in the ashes on the ground and roared to the servants: "Go, you go to me immediately! Tell them to open the door and let me out! I want to go out! Go! Go!"

Yuming and Quanfu did not dare to disobey their orders, so they had to approach the gate of the palace.After some pleading, not only did none of the guards in front of the door show any intention of giving way, but all of them raised eyebrows with anger.Yuming and Quanfu were about to retreat, but they saw Xihe walking out with her head unkempt, her yellow and thin face seemed to be crushed by swarms of locusts, her madness was overwhelming , "Get out of the way, I am the empress dowager, I want to go out! How dare you disobey Yi's order? Get out of the way! Get out of the way!"

(End of this chapter)