The old monarch in the upper position had been inactive for half his life, the royal family had declined, and the power of the government fell into the hands of powerful ministers. At this moment, after hearing the words of the prince, he felt so excited that he could not calm down for a long time.
He held up his palms and smiled and said: "If you don't have long-term worries, you will have immediate worries. My son has this insight at a young age. It's because of your mother's good teaching."
"Your Majesty has given you too much praise. It's Yan'er who is smart and studious."
The boy turned his gaze and saw a pair of navy blue peacock embroidered shoes.
He ran over and threw himself into the woman's arms: "Queen Mother——"
"Yan'er, be good, today is Yan'er's birthday party, what are your wishes?"
He said without hesitation: "My son does not ask for anything. I only hope that my father, king, and mother will be well, that the people will be prosperous, that the country will be in good weather, and that there will be no war for a hundred years."
The woman smiled and said, "My son is sensible and will definitely do something great in the future. God will fulfill Yan'er's wish."
"Actually, I still have a small wish..." The boy lowered his eyes, blinked his eyelashes, and showed a little childishness on his face, "I want to stay in the queen's palace tonight."
Shen Yan was the crown prince at the beginning and had a crown prince palace. However, when he saw other sons and daughters having their mothers as companions, he said he despised the "yellow-mouthed children", but in fact, he was very envious of them in his heart.
After hearing this, the woman nodded with a smile: "Yan'er will stay tonight."
In the middle of the night, Shen Yanchu slept in the queen's ear room.
He was so small that he was just a small ball in the silk mattress. If you didn't look carefully, it would be difficult to notice the boy sleeping on the couch.
The night was very dark, and the only light was the moonlight outside the window.
While sleeping, he vaguely heard a strange noise coming from the window lattice.
The boy sat up and looked out the window in a daze. The black shadows were those of several flower trees planted in his mother's yard.
Thinking of his mother, he turned around and looked at the inner room.
But he saw that the door that separated him from his mother's room was blown open by the wind.
The boy stepped onto the ground with his bare feet and walked straight to the door.
Through the crack in the door, he saw a thin and long shadow hanging on the beam, and a pair of peacock embroidered shoes spinning in mid-air.
He pushed open the door and walked into the back room, finally seeing the man's face clearly - his lips were slightly open, his eyes were wide-open, and a blood-stained white silk was wrapped around his neck, which was covered with hideous nail marks.
"Mother--" he screamed.
Suddenly, a big hand covered his mouth and nose from behind.
He kept struggling, feeling his eyes blurred, and gradually losing his breath.
In front of him was the lifeless body of his mother, and behind him was the murderer. Relying on instinct, he used all his strength to open his mouth and bite the man's finger.
Taking advantage of the pain, he let go and ran as fast as he could outside the house.
"Assassin - there is an assassin -" He finally ran to the open space and saw several palace people. He immediately waved and asked the palace people to catch the assassin.
"I've met the prince." The palace people walked towards the boy.
"Quickly, go catch the assassin in my mother's palace!" he said hurriedly.
The palace man raised his head and looked in the direction of the palace, and then saluted the person approaching him: "I've seen the captain of the guard."
"Chief of Guards?"
He turned around blankly and saw the man who taught him how to practice swordsmanship during the day, standing behind him. He smiled at him and said, "Why did the prince run out with bare feet? It's cold at night. I will take you back to rest."
The boy remained silent.
"Go and do your work. I will guard the prince's side." The chief guard said to the palace people.
"yes--"
After dismissing the palace servants, the guard crouched down and said with a smile: "The ground is not easy to walk on, why don't I carry the prince back on his back?"
"No need, Gu will go by himself." He flatly refused, then stretched out a hand in the man's surprised eyes, "It's too dark at night, you hold Gu."
"Oh, okay." The captain of the guard held out his palm.
The moment the palm was handed over to him, the boy glanced at it quickly.
A tooth mark suddenly appeared at the base of the little finger.
It's him!
The boy was horrified.
Hatred, fear, sadness, helplessness, his thin body was trembling slightly in the wind.
When the captain of the guard saw that he wouldn't leave, he reached out to catch him.
The boy was so frightened that he immediately turned around and ran away.
A majestic and dignified emperor, well-dressed and well-fed, yet he was running barefoot and desperate to save his life in the inner courtyard of the palace.
The night flowers were in full bloom, and his feet pricked bloody flowers in the gravel.
The moon was bright and the stars were sparse, and his face was restless in the shade of the trees.
The clear water became rippled, and in his haste, he fell into the lotus pond.
At the bottom of the bitterly cold water, sinking and sinking again...
Under the water, Liu Ruyan discovered something was wrong with him after swimming a certain distance.
She grabbed the palm of his hand, only to find that his palm was gripping her tightly like an iron pincer, with such force that she wished she could crush her entire hand bones.
She held back the pain and freed up her other hand to comfort him.
Until the intensity from the palm of her hand gradually weakened, her body became light, and the scenery around her quickly swept away, replaced by a palace.
The palace people were busy and passed by her, but they turned a blind eye to her.
Liu Ruyan looked around blankly, and was shocked to find that she was holding someone else's hand, it was Shen Yanchu.
Shen Yanchu remained silent and looked steadily at the boy lying on the couch behind the curtain.
Liu Ruyan looked with him and found that the boy's features were very similar to his, which should be his childhood appearance.
"Where is this?" she asked aloud.
Shen Yanchu still stood where he was, not responding at all to her inquiry.
"Host, I will help you sneak into his dream. If you want to wake him up, you can only help him get rid of the nightmare completely."
Liu Ruyan did not dare to neglect: "Then I will try my best."
The boy lay unconscious on the collapse, and the doctors who came to treat him came one after another.
He had a high fever for three days. The imperial doctors repeatedly administered acupuncture and prescribed medicine, and even invited a witch doctor to treat him. They said that the boy had been hit by a head drop. They took the blood from his fingertips and broken hair and burned them together with the charms.
Lift.
He slept in a daze for three days, and there was a sudden change in the palace.
The queen had an affair with the chief of the bodyguard, and when someone caught her, she committed suicide by hanging from a beam in shame. The chief of the bodyguard fled out of the palace that night, and her whereabouts are still unknown.
After Prime Minister Gao learned about this, he strongly advised the monarch to abolish the position of queen and not to be buried in the imperial mausoleum.
On the fourth day, the boy finally woke up.
He stared blankly at the palace attendants guarding the couch. He could not speak, could not read, and had no impression of the people and things around him.
"Imperial doctor, what's going on! Why doesn't my son know his father? I'm his father!" After the old monarch lost his wife and almost lost his son, he could no longer bear any blow.
The imperial doctors were sweating coldly and had to explain: "Perhaps the prince's fever has just subsided and his illness has not yet been cured. I will prescribe some more medicines to recuperate his body."
After a week, the boy could gradually pronounce a few simple syllables.
He stayed in his room all day long, staring closely at the various palace people around him, his eyes full of vigilance and fear.
Until late one night, the palace guards who kept watch saw him sitting up from the Maitreya couch, his eyes empty and lifeless, like a puppet being manipulated.
He walked around the room with a strange posture, then found a pair of scissors, and stabbed anyone he saw, while making a single sound "hiss" in his mouth.
He repeated in his mouth: "Hiss-hiss-"
The palace man hid in panic, and finally heard the meaning of this word.