box of hearts

Chapter 100
Qi She was stunned for a moment, and realized that Qing Tian was speaking Suzhou dialect—he had several concubines from Suzhou who could distinguish their accents—but the meaning was not quite understandable, and he vaguely knew that she was calling her mother there. He also knew that the mother she called was not Huai Yatang's second sister Duan, but the mother who sold her into a brothel when she was only five years old.He remembered that Qingtian mentioned in that chat that she had left home since she was a child, and she had long forgotten her Wu dialect, but now she was babbling nonsense with her local dialect, as if in the most desperate moment, she would still instinctively go to find that woman. betrayed his mother.

Qi She bent down and hugged Qingtian's upper body tightly through the silk quilt.She was still raving in her sleep, tears rolling down her face.Qi She patted her up and down, without saying a word, but appreciating almost fearfully: what a strange thing the heart is.What he has seen and heard these days, and what he has done with his own hands are all horrific things, beheading all over the house, exile for thousands of miles, poisoning and assassination... Once the secret report is opened, there are words such as cruel death, suicide, blood book and so on.However, no matter how many lives and how tragic, it is only worth a sigh to him, but now, just for the sake of a feverish abandoned child, he is suffering from a heart that cannot be eaten, making him feel like he is suffering on a frying pan.Qi She hugged Qingtian more tightly to her chest, full of deep guilt that should have been for many people but not for her.

Before dawn, when he had to leave, Qi She left.Qingtian is still having chaotic dreams, and there is an undercurrent of unexplained gloom on his withered and sickly face.

5.
A few days passed by, and when the red sun was shining again.

The courtyard is clear and spacious, and the windows are magnificent. In front of the window, there is a handful of mallows mixed with purple and white.

Behind the flower arrangement is Xihe, the Empress Dowager of the West Palace, who is smiling slightly, with a beautiful face, beautiful cheeks and white teeth, holding a pair of silver scissors, and three hands wearing silk enamel armor are picking among the flowers. Picking it up, he picked out a branch and was about to cut it off, but the eunuch Zhao Sheng came in, smiling more than the flowers on his rough and savage face.

"Master, the sun can come out from the 'west' today, and the people from the 'east' have come to see the master's illness in person."

Xihe half-closed her eyelids in a relaxed manner, "There will be such a day too! Logically speaking, my Zhan family is also an old family in Zifu. I am older than Dongfang, and I served the first emperor earlier than her, and I gave birth to a son. I am sorry for my ancestors. Dongfang only took advantage of her natal family's power and became a queen when she came here. These years, she has used her fame and status to make things difficult for me. This bad breath can finally be well vented. "Smiling dimples splashed around her mouth, and the silver scissors in her hand closed heavily.

In the main hall of the Compassionate Ning Palace, the Eastern Empress Dowager Wang was restless.The severe damage to the family caused by Wang Zhenghao's rebellion caused her to bow her proud head and show her favor to the Queen Mother of the Regent's faction.This was probably the first time in many years that she had set foot on low ground, so she looked at the strange furnishings in the palace one by one to pass the time of waiting.When every piece of decoration was rotten, and the cup of honey and bird's nest in his hand had been sipped from warm to cold, he just waited for the eunuch to return.

Zhao Sheng shook his black and thick eyebrows, and said in a tricky tone: "Going back to the Queen Mother, the Queen Mother, the Queen Mother is taking a nap, and she should wake up on weekdays, but she hasn't woken up yet today. The servant is waiting left and right, not daring to disturb. Why don't the mother, the empress dowager, please come back first? Wait for our master to recover later, and then go to the Ciqing Palace to make peace."

After hearing these words, the face of Wu Ran, the close eunuch of the Eastern Empress Dowager, was as black as shredded tobacco, and the Eastern Empress Dowager herself was like a smoking pipe, she put the porcelain cup on the table and walked away.

This release of pigeons was a great shame to the Wang family who was used to being a phoenix. Fortunately, not long after returning to Ciqing Palace, his elder brother Wang Zhengting came to visit.Mrs. Wang cried bitterly about what happened in the Compassion Palace in the afternoon, rubbing her face into the handkerchief.

"It's clearly an opportunity to take revenge, just because I asked her to kneel and wait outside the palace, but today I made me wait for a full quarter of an hour in front of so many servants, deliberately humiliating me."

Sitting under the phoenix chair, Wang Zhengting didn't seem to have changed. He always had a calm demeanor, and his eyes were quiet, "It's all because of the third brother. Since the accident, he has never had the opportunity to enter the palace. I found it with great difficulty today." I made my sister feel wronged by the excuse of being able to see each other."

Wang confides once, and finally relieves her depression.While wiping away the tears, he sniffed and asked, "Is Daddy better?"

Although he personally put the old father under house arrest, Wang Zhengting didn't blush and his heart didn't beat, and he replied in a very candid tone: "To save the royal family and appease the regent's anger, my father had to behead my elder brother with my own hands, and expunge all charges." It is really heartbreaking for him to bear it alone. It is not a bad thing to be able to temporarily ignore the government and take care of him in peace."

"Good thing?" Mrs. Wang snorted coldly, "Our Wang family has not yet reached the end of the day, and there are villains who can't help but jump out and show their teeth and claws. If there is a day when the tree falls and the monkeys disperse, I am afraid that the west will invite me immediately. The Eastern Empress Dowager moved to Renshou Palace, and died of old age alone with those concubines."

"My sister is too worried. After a little time off, my sister will find that instead of embarrassing my sister, the west side will be of one heart and one mind with my sister."

"Hey, where can we be of one mind?"

"Against the Regent."

Mrs. Wang almost burst into a horrified laugh, a pair of phoenix steps swayed on her head, and the red treasure picking beads rattled, "Third brother, you are talking in your sleep, the west will deal with the regent? Are those adulterers and adulterers right?" One piece of iron?"

"This statement is absurd." Wang Zhengting lightly scraped the tip of his slightly curled beard with his right thumb and middle finger, and said solemnly, "I think the queen mother of the regent is your own aunt—the Wang family. The prince is also the royal family. Isn’t it our royal family who are fighting with him to the death? The situation is stronger than others. The West’s initial alliance with the regent was also forced by the situation. In our royal family, she needs a foreign minister who is in charge of power, and the regent also needs a domestic aid who speaks of heaven and constitution in order to get rid of dissidents. Now our royal family is seriously injured, and the two of them have eliminated external troubles, and internal troubles will inevitably arise. "

"Where does the internal worry come from?"

"In terms of love, even a blind person can tell that the West is sincere to the Regent, but the Regent is only perfunctory to the West. In the past year, I heard that he has had a hot fight with a fireworks girl outside. If it is moving Let Xi Bian know the truth, with the dignity of the mother of the country and the jealousy of a woman, what should I do?"

Wang's heavy tears faded, "Third brother, you continue."

"In terms of situation, the emperor's special military talisman is now stored in the mansion of the regent, which means that the actual emperor in this world has become the regent. These years, the regent has worked hard and exhausted himself on the battlefield and in the court. In exchange for the power, in the future, he will be willing to give it to a little boy who enjoys it for free? The west has been held hostage by our royal family for many years. With the lessons learned from the past, how can she allow the past to repeat itself, and sit back and watch the regent monopolize the government without suspecting him of bullying? Orphans and widows, with a secret desire to usurp and kill themselves?"

There was no one in the hall, but Wang Zhengting still looked around vigilantly, and said in a low voice, "The people who are most likely to cause rifts in the world are men and women who have been in trouble together. The relationship is even more precarious than Jin Jian, not to mention the regent and the west. A pair of wild mandarin ducks full of flaws? Be patient, when the snipe and the clam fight, you and I will be fishermen. Right now, my sister can just relax, take care of her body, and hide your strength and bide your time."

One of Wang's hands was hanging down on his side, and the handkerchief holding the bird's mouthful of Ruihua was drooping wet, limp and disheveled, "I think, it's a pity that some people can't allow us to hide our strength and bide our time. I just heard from Wu Ranbao that just yesterday there was another 37 people were detained. Among them was an old pedant who was just a scholar with long-standing habits. He accused the current politics of being too extreme, and was sentenced to be executed by Qiuhou. Even those who were almost [-] could not escape the pain of being stabbed. The lame three really dared to commit crimes. If you keep getting involved like this-"

"I can't get involved anymore."

"how?"

"Epidemic disease." Wang Zhengting's brows moved slightly, as if there was a subtle turning point, "This disease broke out once 15 years ago. At the beginning of the disease, it was just a headache and fever, but the fever persisted for a long time, and then he coughed up blood, and died when he saw blood. At that time, hundreds of thousands of people died, and this time it was even worse. It started in the suburbs of Beijing a few days ago, and now it has begun to spread to the inner city. As of this morning, a total of [-] patients have been found. In this way, this For a while, disaster investigation, immunization, relief, and pensions alone are enough for the regent to be busy. In addition, the epidemic is a celestial warning, and the gods are angry, so let's wait for fasting and offering sacrifices, and amnesty for the world."

Slowly and slowly, the Wang family burst into a smile, "It seems that the sky is endless for our Wang family." The smile is as beautiful as spring hills and autumn waters.

However, this plague brought a completely different expression to his opponent Qi She.

6.
His thick eyebrows were deeply locked, and his eyes were half-downcast with a little tiredness. Kong stared at a half-approved document on the case, and listened silently to the eloquence of a bearded imperial physician behind the case:
"It was just a couple in Miyun who died of a sudden illness. They were not buried deep enough and were dragged out by wild dogs. Their chests were rotten and their lungs were exposed. This way the whole village was infected, and then from one village to one township, from one township to one Town, it was out of control. However, although the disease was severe, fortunately, it was exactly the same as the plague 15 years ago, and the "Testing Real Soup" 15 years ago was still effective."

With a curtain of flower shadows and a book room on the four walls, Qi She finally raised his eyes to show his inquiry, "Try the real soup?"

(End of this chapter)