A shriek of extreme fear rang out from the Queen Mother's chamber. All the dozing eunuchs and maids around the chamber were so frightened that they immediately came to their senses and rushed towards the Queen Mother's chamber in panic.
In just a short period of time, the Queen Mother's bedroom was already filled with people.
The Queen Mother was draped in a blanket, wrapping herself tightly, and was surrounded by eunuchs. The leader of the eunuchs, Hong Sixiang, was also in the dormitory.
But even so, the elderly Queen Mother still felt cold all over, her face was full of fear, and she completely lost her usual majesty and solemnity.
At this moment, she was not the Queen Mother who was above all others, but a frightened old woman who could only tremble with fear.
When she wakes up from a different sleep and sees the three items, Bai Ling, dagger and poisonous wine, lying beside her bed, she will be as scared as she is, especially for an old woman who stands at the top of power and doesn't sleep well.
Faced with this situation, he is even more frightened than ordinary people.
This fright almost made her soul fly away.
Hong Sixiang looked at the white silk, dagger and poisoned wine on the bedside of the Queen Mother, his heart was beating wildly and he was terrified.
Everyone knows what these three things mean. Someone is threatening the Queen Mother.
Who has the courage and ability to walk freely in the Ouchi Palace, sneak into the Empress Dowager's chamber, and let go of these three things?
Hong Sixiang thought of a possibility. There was only one person in the world who could do such a thing under his nose.
Great master!
Thinking of this, he was even more frightened. Although there were rumors outside that he was the hidden Grand Master in the palace, he knew what he was like. He just looked like a Grand Master. If he really wanted to meet a Grand Master, he would be beaten by someone.
A quick kill.
He cannot handle this matter and must leave it to His Majesty.
In just a moment, he understood that he had checked the Queen Mother's bedroom several times and found nothing. Except for the Grand Master, even the people closest to the Queen Mother would never be able to do this.
Because of the incident in the Empress Dowager's chamber, although it was still in Yinshi, it had already caused considerable chaos in the palace.
Emperor Qing, who had been studying the arrows all night, was woken up from his sleep and was very angry. But after learning what happened in the Queen Mother's chamber, he was so excited that he suddenly woke up.
"Go to the Queen Mother's chamber quickly."
He didn't even have time to change his clothes, so he put on a robe and ran to the Queen Mother's chamber.
As soon as he arrived at the Queen Mother's chamber, the old woman seemed to have found a backbone, and threw herself on him with a whoosh, yelling.
"Emperor, Emperor, someone wants to harm the Ai family, son..."
Emperor Qing hugged the Queen Mother with a look of helplessness on his face. If it had been anyone else, he would have thrown her away a long time ago, but this was the Queen Mother, so he could only endure it.
"Queen Mother, if it's okay, Queen Mother, I will take care of it. You can go to another dormitory to rest first."
But the Queen Mother grabbed his hand tightly, her cloudy old eyes almost bulged out, and said excitedly: "It's her, she's back, it's her, it must be her, Ye..."
"Mother!"
Emperor Qing interrupted the Queen Mother's words loudly, looked at the Queen Mother deeply, and said in a deep voice: "She is dead, Queen Mother, she is dead, very dead, and can't come back. Someone, come and take the Queen Mother to rest.
"
The Queen Mother was really frightened, or the eunuchs and maids supported her before leaving the palace.
Emperor Qing waved his hand for everyone else to leave, leaving only Hong Sixiang.
"Hong Sixiang."
"His Majesty."
Emperor Qing looked at the three objects with gloomy eyes, his expression extremely ugly.
"I asked you to guard the palace city. Is this how you guard it?"
Hong Sixiang fell to his knees, kowtowed to the ground, and replied in fear: "Your Majesty, this old slave deserves to die, this old slave deserves to die."
"You do deserve to die, even if you die ten thousand times, huh."
Emperor Qing's eyes flashed with coldness. He was really angry and wanted to kill Hong Sixiang, but he thought that Hong Sixiang was still needed now. If Hong Sixiang died, he would have no shield, so he could only suppress the anger in his heart.
.
"Nothing unusual was found at all. Who do you think it could be?"
Hong Sixiang didn't even dare to wipe off his sweat and hurriedly replied: "Only a great master can do it."
"Grandmaster?"
Emperor Qing's face became even more gloomy. This was not the first time that something like this happened. It also happened once twenty years ago.
"Grand master, or Wu Zhu? No, it's not Wu Zhu, it's him, Zhou Chen."
After gritting his teeth and spitting out a name, Emperor Qing smashed the three items to pieces with one palm.
"It must be him. He is the only one in Kyoto now. Okay, okay, revenge is on me. He really has no laws and despises the imperial power. What a great master."
There are only a handful of people who can do this. After thinking about it for a moment, he understood the reason.
Only Zhou Chen has this motive.
He just transferred Zhou Chen's aunt and uncle's family to Kyoto a few days ago. They came to disgust Zhou Chen. A few days later, something like this happened. Obviously, Zhou Chen didn't really want to kill anyone, but was just a threat.
He deliberately scared the Queen Mother.
Perhaps, this was Zhou Chen's response to his actions.
"Very good, the young grandmaster is really young and full of energy and high-spirited."
"Hateful! Damn it! Damn it!"
Listening to Emperor Qing's ferocious roar, Hong Sixiang trembled all over, his head touched the ground and he did not dare to lift it up.
"Get out!"
Hong Sixiang was granted amnesty and escaped from the Queen Mother's chamber in unison.
Emperor Qing was the only one left, and he no longer tried to hide himself, exuding an astonishing murderous aura.
"Great Master, if you don't surrender, you must die!"
Li Yunrui was also awakened from her sleep. Like Emperor Qing, she was in a very unhappy mood when she woke up. But when the maid told her what happened, she was stunned for a moment, and then burst into hearty laughter.
"Hehehehahahaha..."
Li Yunrui has not laughed so heartily for a long time, and she is really, really happy now.
"Okay, Zhou Chen, you really did something big that I wanted to do but didn't dare to do. That's great. That old woman deserves it. She deserves it for scaring her to death, haha."
"Your Highness, be silent, be silent."
The maid reminded her carefully, but the cheerful Li Yunrui didn't care at all and kept laughing.
"Shut up, this is my Guangxin Palace. Anyone who dares to talk nonsense will be sent to death."
Then she remembered the key question and asked: "Are you sure there are no problems with those three things?"
The maid replied: "Don't worry, Your Highness, we will never be found."
"That's good."
Li Yunrui nodded with satisfaction. At this time, she had no sleepiness at all.
"Go and heat up two pots of wine for me. I want to have a good drink. It's a pity that Duke Zhen Guo is gone. Otherwise, it will be more enjoyable with him."
The maid said cautiously: "Your Highness, is the Duke of Zheng a little too courageous?"
"Big? If you are not brave, can you become a great master?"
Li Yunrui had a cold look on his face: "The Grand Master is already at the top of the world's martial arts, and Zhou Chen is a young man with soaring arrogance. Your Majesty thought he could be easily manipulated, but he didn't know that he was ignored at all. Haha, it's so interesting."
Suddenly, her expression condensed: "For some reason, I actually saw a trace of an old friend in him. No, they are completely different."
Although the incident in the Queen Mother's chamber caused a lot of commotion in the palace, under the order of Emperor Qing, no news spread out of the palace. Even those forces with spies in the palace only knew what happened that night.
There is something related to the Queen Mother, but very few people know what happened specifically.
It was slightly cool in the morning, and Zhou Chen stood in the pavilion, enjoying the breeze.
"It will be a sunny day again today!"
Just after having breakfast with Sang Wen, a servant came over to report that someone from the palace came to see him.
s??????.???
Zhou Chen came to the front hall unhurriedly, and then saw Eunuch Hou next to Emperor Qing.
"Eunuch Hou."
"I've met Duke Zhen Guo."
As Emperor Qing's personal eunuch, Eunuch Hou knew much more than others, so he kept a very low profile in front of Zhou Chen.
He pointed to the two big boxes on the ground with a smile on his face.
"Your Majesty heard that the Duke of Zhen is fond of calligraphy, painting and engraving. Your Majesty personally selected this for the Duke. I believe that the Duke will like it."
Zhou Chen lightly clicked his tongue and said: "I usually stay at home, but your majesty actually knows that I like calligraphy, painting and sculpture. Your majesty is really insightful and insightful into people's hearts. Then please go back and report to Eunuch Hou. I like your majesty's gift very much.
It's a pity that my family doesn't have that condition, otherwise I would definitely give His Majesty a big gift."
Eunuch Hou blinked his eyes, with an innocent and flattering expression on his face, showing no other emotions at all, and it seemed that he did not hear the sarcasm in Zhou Chen's tone.
"This old slave will tell His Majesty the truth about the Duke's wishes."
"Thank you for your hard work, Tong Quan. I'd like to send you my Eunuch-in-law's greetings."
"I can't do it, I can't do it. I can go on my own. I can go on my own."
Tong Quan sent Eunuch Hou away and returned to Zhou Chen. At Zhou Chen's signal, she opened the two boxes to check.
First, he opened the box containing the paintings and calligraphy, and opened several paintings in succession. Then he frowned and carefully handed them to Zhou Chen.
"Oh, good calligraphy and good paintings, but why are there so many works that describe loyalty to the country and loyal ministers and good generals?"
With a smile on Zhou Chen's lips, he knew that Emperor Qing would definitely guess what happened last night and it would definitely make Emperor Qing furious. Emperor Qing would also know about his behavior and there was absolutely no possibility of surrendering. Only then would he
Give him these.
Tong Quan opened another box, which contained a wooden sculpture. He only took one look at it, and his expression became extremely solemn.
"Master."
Zhou Chen turned his eyes to the wooden sculpture and was happy.
"This is a tiger. The carving is good, but the lying posture is not very nice. Crouching tiger, interesting, interesting."
The two of them have not met yet, but they already understand each other's thoughts. Emperor Qing is reminding him and warning him not to go too far. When you should lie down, you have to lie down.
"Tong Quan, how about you, young master, give your majesty a wooden carving and make a coiled dragon?"
"Master, be careful that the wall has ears."
Tong Quan reminded in a low voice with a nervous look on his face: "Your Majesty knows that the young master likes calligraphy, painting and wood carving, which means there must be someone else's spy in our house."
Zhou Chen said with an indifferent expression: "Even the imperial palace has almost become a sieve. What's so strange about my government having someone else's spy? Besides, I've sent two boxes of gifts. Let him hear what I say."
If so, what can we do?”
"Actually, your young master, I am not a difficult person to get along with. As long as others don't mess with me, I usually don't bother to cause trouble. But some people are just used to being aloof, and they just like to play with things.
If you don't fight back, you really think I have a good temper and am easy to bully."
He had always felt that he was not the type that everyone disliked. Even if he traveled to this world and knew what Emperor Qing was like, he would still not be able to understand him.
But at the beginning, he didn't think about going against Emperor Qing or anything like that. Anyway, the main mission was not to fight against Emperor Qing. It was good that everyone was safe. After all, there were many people he couldn't stand, and he couldn't be all the same.
Go find trouble, he doesn't have time.
But Emperor Qing didn't want him to have an easy time. He started plotting against him even before he returned to Kyoto. One after another, he just passively counterattacked.
So strictly speaking, it was Emperor Qing who provoked him first.
"No, I'm a polite person. I come and go. If someone gives me a gift, I must return it. Tongquan, go and prepare a suitable piece of good wood for me. I must carve an exquisite coiled dragon."
"Master, it's not necessary, is it?"
Zhou Chen pretended to kick him: "Young Master needs you to teach him how to do things, so hurry up and find him for me."
Tong Quan looked for wood with a sad face.
Zhou Chen looked towards the direction of the palace.
"Don't you want to keep a low profile and curb your sharpness? I'm sure you will like this gift."
"Come here, please put this wooden sculpture of Crouching Tiger in the most conspicuous place in the front yard. Make sure you can see it when you enter the house."
…………
In the afternoon, at three o'clock in the morning, in the imperial palace, in the royal study.
"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, Your Majesty..."
Eunuch Hou's panicked cry interrupted Emperor Qing's thoughts, causing him to frown and stare at Eunuch Hou with cold eyes.
"If you don't have anything important to report, you can go get the Ten Court Staff later."
"Tell me, what's the matter?"
Eunuch Hou replied: "Your Majesty, just now, Duke Zhenguo sent someone to send a precious and rare object, saying that it was to be dedicated to Your Majesty."
"hehe."
Emperor Qing stopped reviewing, put down his pen, and looked confused.
"I just gave him a reward in the morning, and he asked people to present rare things in the afternoon. This Duke of the Kingdom is getting more and more interesting."
"In that case, let someone bring it over. I want to see what kind of strange thing it is."
Eunuch Hou opened his mouth and wanted to say something, but he didn't dare to speak because Emperor Qing saw him.
"what you want to say?"
"Your Majesty, the box in which the Duke of Zhenguo sent the gift is the box that Your Majesty gave you this morning."
Emperor Qing's expression froze, and he already had a bad premonition in his heart, but he still ordered with a stern face.
"Bring it up."
"Old slave obeys the order."
Under the command of Eunuch Hou, two guards carried the box into the imperial study.
Emperor Qing was only responsible for choosing the gift. As for what the box looked like, he didn't know, but Eunuch Hou told him that he couldn't help but take a look at the box.
"Open!"
Eunuch Hou opened the box as instructed, revealing the items in the box, and he took out the items inside with great difficulty.
But when the object was fully displayed, his expression changed instantly, and he fell to his knees, looking at Emperor Qing in horror.
Emperor Qing no longer had the mind to care about him, his eyes were fixed on the wooden sculpture in front of him, his face as dark as the bottom of a pot.
"His Majesty!"
"Get out! Get out!"
Eunuch Hou panicked and crawled out of the imperial study room. After going out, his heart was still beating wildly. He never expected that the Duke of Zhen Guo would be so bold.
The dragon is the symbol of the emperor. The Duke of Zhenguo gave Emperor Qing a wooden dragon sculpture. It was so lifelike that it was like a perfect piece of art, which fascinated people.
But the problem is, this dragon is coiled up.
Panlong.
In the morning, Emperor Qing gave Zhou Chen a Crouching Tiger, and in the afternoon, Zhou Chen gave Emperor Qing a Coiling Dragon.
Just thinking about it for a moment made Eunuch Hou tremble all over, wishing he could pluck out his eyeballs. Why did he see so many things he shouldn't have seen? It was so damned.
In the imperial study room, Emperor Qing stared at the wooden sculpture of the Coiling Dragon, exuding a terrifying murderous aura. After a long time, he suddenly took the arrow on the side, flicked it hard, and shot it at the wooden sculpture of the Coiling Dragon.
"boom!"
The wooden sculpture of a coiled dragon, which looked like a work of art, exploded instantly and turned into countless scraps, flying in the imperial study room.
But even so, Emperor Qing was still furious, gnashing his teeth and moaning like a devil.
"Zhou Chen, you are looking for death..."
"Come here, check for me where Chen Pingping is and ask him to return to Kyoto immediately."
At the Duke's Mansion, Zhou Chen was fishing by his own pond, thinking about Emperor Qing's expression when he saw the coiled dragon. It would be very interesting.
