Lian Binglan took a few steps back for a moment, but couldn’t free herself from Cui Xingdi’s hand. His strong hand almost made her cry in pain.
She exclaimed in despair, “You’ve made me indifferent to my mother, and lately you’ve even decided not to let me go back to my parents’ house. You’ve already made up your mind to use my mother! Cui Xingdi, she’s your mother-in-law! When did she disappoint you? By treating her like this, don’t you feel sorry for me?”
Although she knew early on that Cui Xingdi had been secretly treating his leg, she never knew when he could stand up… Or perhaps he had already recovered and been pretending to be lame?
When he came to propose and persuade herself, he promised to let her become the princess consort.
Shortly after, Lian Binglan felt a bit regretful, and as she became more familiar with the man she married, her regret grew even greater. She felt trapped in a bottomless vortex, even involving her mother.
After Cui Xingdi changed his gentle demeanor and threatened Lian Binglan, he slowly regained his usual gentle self and watched Lian Binglan go hysterical, “Your mother has always felt that I, the concubine’s son of the royal family, am not worthy of her carefully cultivated daughter. Since that’s the case, she naturally needs to do her utmost to make me worthy of the Lian family… This is the end of the matter. Please continue to feel aggrieved. Otherwise, if Cui Xingzhou and his wife find out that I am the one behind the trouble, do you think they will spare you, the worthless cousin?”
Lian Binglan shrugged her shoulders at the sound, her whole body like eggplant beaten by frost. The man in front of her not only looks like Cui Xingzhou but also has a ruthless and unrecognizable nature.
She couldn’t control such a man, she was just a tool in his hand.
After saying this, Cui Xingdi only clapped his hands and called his subordinates outside the door, “The Madam is not feeling well. Just stay home these days or see anyone… Prepare the boat, I will set off tonight and arrive in the capital before Cui Xingzhou.”
The situation in the State of Zhen was hopeless. Since Cui Xingzhou didn’t need to worry about filial piety, he was expected to set off for the capital soon.
Today, he allowed Lian Binglan to enter the residence. On the one hand, as the wife of the concubine’s son, she has to greet the hostess, and on the other hand, he wanted to see if Cui Xingzhou was still in the residence.
While chatting with Liu Miantang, he got the message that Cui Xingzhou had been serving his mother for several days, exhausted and taking a nap in the inner room. It will take about a few days to rest before entering the capital.
He needs to make good use of this time difference and arrive in the capital earlier.
When he arrived at the dock, his fast ship was already ready to depart.
The express ship was specially designed with two decks, and the huge canvas hanging on this mast was painted with gold paint to depict a huge coiled dragon – with this sign, passing through anywhere within the Great Yan does not need to be inspected, because it was the sign of the Hidden Dragon Guard.
The founding ancestor of the Great Yan Dynasty was naturally suspicious, and in addition to the permanent secret inspection office in the court, a hidden dragon guard was also added to handle secret affairs for the royal family.
All the guards in the Hidden Dragon Guard are selected thoroughly from various places. Compared to the imperial guards who were selected from the legitimate sons and grandsons of the wealthy, the Hidden Dragon Guards were all outstanding men of each mansion, even poor ones, with no other way out except to crawl up the mud step by step on their own.
The Prince Huaiyang’s Mansion has always been taboo for emperors with different surnames, so it was natural to find suitable candidates for the Hidden Dragon Guard in the Huaiyang Prince’s Residence.
In the beginning, after losing the favor of his father due to his limp, he endured humiliation and became a potential member of the royal family. During this period, the Hidden Dragon Guard has been sending people to teach him. When the time is ripe, it makes him a sharp tool to penetrate the Huaiyang Prince’s Residence.
He used the Hidden Dragon Guard to secretly cultivate his power, and from time to time, he created trouble for his ninth brother.
At that time, the Crown Prince was harmed by the Demon Imperial Concubine, and the reason why Liu Yu was able to escape was not only due to the loyalty of his old subordinate of the Eastern Palace but also related to the Hidden Dragon Guard.
Although the Hidden Dragon Guard will not easily get involved in the struggle for imperial power, it does not allow external relatives to harm the prince. Therefore, after Liu Yu settled in the Mountain of Yang, Cui Xingdi was informed.
This hidden dragon guard, who has been hidden for a long time, was naturally willing to use this lonely prince to stir up his younger brother.
So at the beginning, he passed on the information about the food and grass of the soldiers from the State of Zhen to Liu Yu in the form of a secret painting.
Facts have proven that he bet on the right person. When Liu Yu ascended the throne, he supported Liu Yu all the way and gradually gained the favor of the emperor. He became the head of the Hidden Dragon Guard and secretly monitored the movements of Prince Sui and Prince Huaiyang for Liu Yu.
When he first went to the capital, although he claimed to be engaged in business, he actually went into the capital to lay wires and help Liu Yu overthrow his imperial uncle, Prince Sui. As he has been hidden for many years, his power and connections have gradually increased.
However, while fulfilling the duty of the Hidden Dragon Guard and dedicating himself to Liu Yu, the Fifth Master gradually became unwilling to hide in the dark.
After all these years of suffering, it was just for the sake of exerting one’s revenge. At that time, his mother was favored, and his father promised to help him become his legitimate son. However, in the end, he became the most pitiful and lame son in the residence.
Years of humiliation have honed Cui Xingdi’s character, and when he suddenly erupts, his fierce counterattack becomes even more virulent.
So he spotted the opportunity for his ninth brother Cui Xingzhou to enter the North Sea and wanted to use the hand of Takatsukasa to kill Cui Xingzhou, who was a sore to his eyes.
However, Cui Xingdi carefully arranged the sharp weapons to suppress the North Sea navy and designed a plan for Cui Xingzhou to die without a burial ground, but ultimately failed.
He calculated a thousand times but did not count the lecherous nature of Takatsukasa. He took possession of Liu Miantang and plundered her to the island, revealing the secret of the artillery. Not to mention that Zhao Quan, who was brought back by Cui Xingzhou, had become proficient in the rare method of dispelling poison insects in the Central Plains due to his long residence in the North Sea.
Later, seeing that Takatsukasa was no longer useful, he had to quickly eliminate the evidence of the crime and not let the emperor discover his secret activities with the Japanese. However, he has always been meticulous in his actions, and naturally, he has left a way out.
The mother and son poison that he had prepared at the beginning were not only used on Princess Consort Chu individually but also given to Shi Yikuan.
At present, Shi Yikuan is unable to sleep well.
Cui Xingdi had sent someone to assassinate Takatsukasa, but he left behind two imperial envoys who could accuse Imperial Uncle Shi of colluding with foreign enemies, intentionally trying to force the emperor’s father-in-law to have no way out.
Now he stews at just the right temperature, frying the outside of Imperial Uncle Shi to be scorched and the inside to be tender.
Just a few days ago, Cui Xingdi received a secret report that the child insect poison had already been secretly arranged for the emperor’s eunuch by Imperial Uncle Shi, and was given to the emperor. The poison had already matured enough to urge the mother insect poison and let the child insect poison break through its cocoon.
Let’s see if Imperial Uncle Shi can seize the opportunity and let the long-suffering emperor of the Great Yan Dynasty rest earlier.
As long as Imperial Uncle Shi supports the young Crown Prince to ascend the throne, then the first person the Imperial Uncle will have to deal with at that time must be Cui Xingzhou, who was rushing to the capital!
Cui Xingzhou would have misunderstood Emperor Liu Yu due to the artillery picture and would have taken extra care. At that time, the fighting between the two sides would be very exciting.
By then, he could take advantage of the competition between snipes and clams to gain benefits, making the Hidden Dragon Guard a hero in stabilizing the Great Yan River and Mountains, annihilating the rebellious Ministers of the Shi’s gang and the Cui’s parties, and spreading fame for generations… Thinking of this, Cui Xingdi wanted to laugh out loud.
At this moment, the night was dark, and the dragon patterns on the sailboat were also hidden by the thick fog. Under the cover of the night, they melted along the waves of the river and into the night.
At this time, the capital, as predicted by the fifth master Cui Xingdi, thunderstorms were already approaching.
The emperor has already not been able to get up early for many days. Although Liu Yu was often ill, the courtiers have become accustomed to it. But it was not common to not show up for so many days like this.
At this time, the emperor’s bedroom was filled with a strong smell of medicine. Empress Shi took the soft white porridge brought by the maid herself and tried to pour some into the sleeping emperor.
Due to taking care of the emperor, who had contracted a strange disease, Empress Shi seemed to have lost some weight again. Her usually round chin even appeared sharp, and her ordinary eyebrows and eyes also appeared much more delicate.
At this moment, a eunuch took small steps in and reported, “Empress, Imperial Uncle Shi requested for a visit.”
Empress Shi didn’t even raise her eyebrows and said, “Tell him that I’m tired and I’ll see him another day.”
But the eunuch says, “That’s what I just said, but Imperial Uncle Shi wouldn’t get up on his knees and insists on meeting you.”
Empress Shi had already poured half of the porridge into the emperor’s mouth, she closed her eyes slightly, looked up again, and said, “In this case, let’s go to see my father.”
After saying this, Empress Shi stood up and slowly walked out of the palace door with the help of her intimate nanny.
Shi Yikuan knelt outside the bedroom door with sore knees and cursed in his heart, ‘He has raised so many daughters, but the empress is a foolish and fat woman being unfaithful.‘. She firmly held the position of the main palace, but at a critical moment, he, as her father, could not rely on her strength at all. Fortunately, many ladies from the Shi family entered the palace again, some of whom are clever and sensible, and have also received the favor of Liu Yu. Two of them are already pregnant. When he gets rid of his disobedient son-in-law and stabilizes the political situation, it is hard to say which of his grandsons will be sitting on the dragon chair. As for this disobedient daughter, he doesn’t want it!
With this in mind, Shi Yikuan felt that the road ahead was becoming brighter and brighter.
Originally, these two days were the days when the child insect poison matured. But his daughter, Empress Shi, was investigating the emperor’s palace a few days ago. Not only did she replace all the eunuchs and palace maids who were closely serving the emperor, but she also strictly investigated all the utensils and dishes used. This mother insect poison cannot be transported at once, which also causes anxiety.
As long as the mother poison incites the child poison, the emperor can die naturally with a “stroke“, and when the new emperor ascends the throne, with a myriad of troubles, who can afford to investigate the father-in-law of a country? At that time, even if Cui Xingzhou moved here as a mountain of iron evidence, there was no way to bring him to justice.
But now, he needed to find a way to get the mother poison inside
Just as he was thinking about things, Empress Shi had already walked out of her dormitory.
She stood in front of her father and said with a faint tone, “I haven’t seen you for a long time, but you are still strong and healthy.”
Imperial Uncle Shi’s face was full of melancholy and he said, “The Emperor hasn’t been awake all along. I have difficulty sleeping and eating day and night. I wonder how’s the condition of the emperor now?”
Empress Shi sighed softly and said, “The imperial doctors in the palace are all at a loss, and the warehouses of the Ministry of Rites have begun to stock up on white cloth filial piety shirts. We have heard that Marquis Zhao, the close friend of Prince Huaiyang, is a famous doctor of the generation who specializes in treating various difficulties. Therefore, we sent someone to the State of Zhen early to invite Prince Huaiyang and Marquis Zhao together. Even if we cannot cure the illness of the emperor, we can still stabilize the situation in the capital.”
Upon hearing this, Shi Yikuan’s eyelids jumped, but his mouth respectfully said, “I haven’t seen the Crown Prince for a long time lately. I miss him very much. I have prepared some toys for him, and I would like the empress to take a look.”
Loveguy On CFRFGC Chapter 12