Chapter 477: Who told you that the Queen Mother and Gan Luo wanted to kill me?
Queen Mother Zhao slowly turned her head, and in front of the tablet of King Zhuangxiang of Qin, she looked at the man whose hands kept flapping, and said to him, "The man she feared the most in her life:
"You bastard, are you a bug?"
The long-dead memories began to attack Ying Chengjiao frantically. He slowly lowered his hands, remembering the follow-up words his father always said after teasing him.
"I am really prescient, hahaha!"
The king who knows nothing, goes to the prime minister for help, doesn't care about state affairs or family affairs, and has little presence in Qin. He always likes to laugh and seems to care nothing.
Including his name, Cheng Jiao.
The 蟜 is a poisonous insect.
To become a 蟜 means to become a poisonous insect.
What father would give his son such a name?
Poisonous insects certainly don't like insect repellent incense.
"Do you know why your name is Cheng Jiao?"
In the empty Qin ancestral hall, in front of the Qin ancestors and in front of her deceased husband, Zhao Ji asked slowly and softly, like a kind mother.
"Know."
Ying Chengjiao grinned and shrugged his shoulders at Zhao Ji's slightly surprised look.
"I am a boy who likes reading."
Zhao Ji stroked her forehead with her jade hand.
"Mother, I almost forgot that you have read all the books in Qin State, so you naturally know that '蟜' is a poisonous insect. Well, you can't blame me for that. You have been pretending to be a scoundrel for ten years, doing whatever you want and being absurd. You have stayed in the tower longer than in the Chang'an Jun Mansion. Who can still remember what you looked like back then?"
Ying Chengjiao pretended to be helpless and spread out his hands.
"Is it Cheng Jiao's fault?"
"Then do you know why Ying Yiren gave you this name?"
Although the name of King Zhuangxiang of Qin recorded on the tablet was Ying Zichu, Zhao Ji always called him Ying Yiren unless she had some ulterior motive.
She only recognized the hostage Ying Yiren, and did not know King of Qin Ying Zichu.
"I don't know about that, but mother knows?"
Zhao Ji nodded, her eyes were distracted, the corners of her mouth were raised, and a bright smile spread across the face of the empress dowager, like a young girl in love.
"When Ying Yiren married me, I had nothing."
Zhao Ji paused for a moment, looked back at the tablet of King Zhuangxiang of Qin, and her smile grew.
"That's not the case. At least he's very handsome and very strong. When he talks to me, I don't listen to him. When he puts his legs on me, I feel so tired. But when he puts his whole body on me, I listen to everything he says and don't feel tired at all."
Ying Chengjiao rubbed his face.
"What does this have to do with my name?"
Zhao Ji's smile faded slightly, and she said unhappily:
"Young man, be patient. Where did your patience go after pretending to be a scoundrel for ten years?"
I actually have a lot of patience, but you were telling dirty jokes about your son and his father in the Qin State Ancestral Hall. Even a pervert like me thought it was abnormal!
"What do you mean by pretending? I was just acting myself... My father is not completely without anything, right? At that time, Lu Buwei was my father's retainer, so he couldn't satisfy my mother financially."
Zhao Ji sneered and was too lazy to respond.
Merchants are inferior to the common people and are of low status.
If it weren't for Zhao Ji leading him, Lu Buwei wouldn't even be able to enter her parents' home.
"In the second year of our marriage, we had a child, and Yiren named him 'Zheng'. He told me that he would return to Qin to rule the country and become king. And our child, Ying Zheng, would inherit his throne and become the king of Qin."
Zhao Ji tilted her head, her face as white and tender as egg white showed no signs of aging, and she had a bright smile.
"At that time, I said that I would call this child Zhao Zheng and that I would introduce him to the court of the State of Zhao. But that bastard refused to respond and pushed me down on the bed after he could not argue with me."
"Mom, let's skip this part."
Ying Chengjiao had a headache and rubbed his temples.
"Go to the next paragraph, go to the next paragraph."
Zhao Ji's face turned cold when she was interrupted for the second time, and her face was as cold as ice crystals, no less than that of a young girl in her twenties.
“I can’t jump over it.”
Ying Chengjiao took a deep breath and shouted towards the tablet of King Zhuangxiang of Qin:
"Can you take care of your husband?"
"Oh, except in bed, he couldn't control me when Ying Zichu was alive , let alone now that he's dead?"
"That's not necessarily true. Mother, be careful with your words. Watch out for father scolding you in your dreams at night."
"night……"
Zhao Ji had a complicated expression.
"That depends on whether you give me a chance or not."
Ying Chengjiao raised his eyebrows slightly.
"What does this mean, mother?"
Zhao Ji didn't respond and continued with her previous sex talk.
"He lives up to his name, Yi Ren. He is an Yi Ren in bed. It is said that there are no fields that are plowed to death, only cows that are tired to death. However, he has never been tired. In my battles with him, I always lose my armor and weapons and collapse like mud..."
Ying Chengjiao listened expressionlessly, complaining in his heart.
Let’s just say, does this paragraph have to be said?
"…After making love, I leaned in his arms, touched his chest hair and asked him with a smile:
"'Can our Zheng'er really inherit your throne? You won't pass it on to your other sons?'
"Honestly, I didn't take it seriously. How could he, a hostage of Zhao, want to be the King of Qin? How is that possible?
"It has only been a few years since the Battle of Changping, and the people of Zhao hate Qin to the core. If he had any power, he would not have been sent to Zhao as a hostage."
Zhao Ji pointed at the spirit tablet of King Zhaoxiang of Qin, Yingji, placed on the table.
"Ying Ji may have long forgotten that he has a grandson named Ying Yiren.
"But he was extremely serious and promised me very earnestly: even if he had a son in the future, only Zheng'er would inherit his throne.
"I saw that he was so serious and cute, so I pretended to be unconvinced and teased him:
"'How do you guarantee that?'
“He said:
"'If I, Ying Yiren, have any more sons in the future, they will be named Chengjiao, Chengxie, Chenglue, and Chengyi. Jiao, Xie, Lue, and Yi are all insects. Except for Zheng'er, all my sons are insects and cannot compete with Zheng'er for the throne.'"
Ying Chengjiao opened his mouth slightly and nodded in understanding.
Zhao Ji looked at Ying Chengjiao's face and didn't see any resentment on it, which made her a little disappointed.
"You don't seem to have any resentment towards your father. Do you think this is something your mother made up?"
"It's true that my father named me 'Cheng Jiao', and it's also true that he loves me in every way. The name is just a fictitious code name, and the happiness of getting along with my father is real. What can I complain about?"
"No wonder you always give people names and surnames. It turns out you don't care about these things at all...but your father is not like that."
Zhao Ji's eyes were unfocused and her soul seemed to have returned to the past.
"He really became the King of Qin, and he really named you Cheng Jiao. I was very happy in Zhao State, waiting for him to come and take us mother and son day after day and year after year. I didn't feel bitter even though I left my family and lived in a thatched hut and ate corn.
"I waited year after year, but what I got was a son like Cheng Jiao, a Qin You Qilin son... For you, Ying Yiren gave up us mother and son.
"You may not know that he was a trustworthy person who never broke his promises. When Lü Buwei compiled Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals, he said that anyone who could add, delete, modify or reduce a word would be rewarded with a thousand gold coins. Thus, Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals became known as "one word is worth a thousand gold coins".
“But these four words did not originally refer to Lüshi Chunqiu, but to Ying Yiren, who always keeps his word and whose every word is worth a thousand pieces of gold.
"Everyone in the world thinks that Lü Buwei was Ying Yiren's benefactor, who saved Ying Yiren from leaving Zhao and returning to Qin, where he ascended the throne. Many people think that if Ying Yiren were replaced by them, they could also become the King of Qin.
"Oh, speaking of hiding one's shortcomings, you and your son are really similar."
Zhao Ji gave Ying Chengjiao a cold look.
Ying Chengjiao was very calm and said seriously:
"My father is like me."
“…”
Zhao Ji paused for a moment and continued:
"Before I came to Qin, besides resenting Ying Yiren, most of my thoughts were about you. How amazing is this Master Cheng Jiao to be able to snatch my man away?"
The corner of Ying Chengjiao's mouth twitched. He hoped that Mother Zhao would be more careful with her words in the following remarks and try to say less words that might cause misunderstanding.
"Just when I was feeling discouraged and planning to take Zheng'er back to my family, Lü Buwei arrived as an envoy from the State of Qin to take Zheng'er and me to Qin.
"I am not happy. If it were not for Zheng'er, I would never come. My Ying Yiren is dead. The person sitting on the throne of Qin is called Ying Zichu..."
Ying Chengjiao frowned as he heard a lot of noise outside the ancestral hall.
That was the sound of military boots tapping the ground, the sound of the Qin sword being unsheathed, and the sound of the archer drawing the longbow.
He looked at Zhao Ji, who still had no intention of stopping, and said softly:
“I didn’t come here alone.”
Zhao Ji continued talking, as if she didn't hear what Ying Chengjiao said at all.
Ying Chengjiao shut his mouth.
"…After arriving in Qin, I realized that it was you who wanted the King of Qin to take my mother and me to Qin. I was shocked. After the shock, my first reaction was that you wanted to get rid of my mother and me to eliminate the troubles you would cause as the King of Qin."
"That's my mother's idea, not mine."
"Yes, if I were you, I would only have this reason to take back Ju Zhao and his mother. And after I got to know you better and better, especially knowing that you once wanted to use Liuli to cause chaos in the six kingdoms, I became more and more convinced of my idea."
Ying Chengjiao was speechless.
At that time, he did not have much sense of integration into this world, and his three views only applied to the people, things and objects in front of him.
In his mind, the six distant eastern countries were obstacles to the unification of China.
In order to unify the Qin State as soon as possible, any means can be used.
The possible death toll of the people of the six countries did not cause any ripples in the heart of a Prince of Qin like him. Who would feel something about the excessive number of casualties of foreigners?
Such a sinister man was not thought well of by Zhao Ji, and even he himself thought it was normal.
"You are so smart, just like Zhuge Liang in the book Romance of the Three Kingdoms that you wrote, so wise that he is almost a demon. Did you write this character based on yourself?"
"...Mother, you flatter me too much."
Wu Hou, I'm not trying to scam you. If you want to blame someone, blame yourself for being born four hundred years later.
"Alas, you are still hiding your incompetence. I don't understand why. Your status in Qin has long been transcendent. Who are you hiding your incompetence for? Are you like your father, trying to make the kings of the six countries look down on you?"
"Because I think my brother is more suitable to be the King of Qin than I am."
"You had never met Zheng'er before he entered Qin."
But I have studied history.
Ying Chengjiao thought to himself.
The noises outside the door became increasingly chaotic. There were shouts and screams, the sound of weapons piercing flesh, and the sound of flesh hitting the ground.
And as time passed, with every breath, the sound became louder and louder.
The person who made these noises was rapidly approaching the Qin Ancestral Hall.
"Why aren't you talking? Don't you have anything to say to mother?"
Ying Chengjiao placed his hand on the palace door.
"My mother asked me to come to the ancestral temple just to kill me?"
The door of the hall was gently opened, leaving only a crack, and the sounds of shouting, roaring, and clashing weapons rushed into the Qin Ancestral Hall all at once.
A palace door opened wide, and along with the light, many blood-stained figures came in.
Swords flashed and blood splattered.
In front of the sacred ancestral hall, blood gathered into streams, flowing down under the corpses that were like reefs.
After the battle, Ying Chengjiao glanced outside the door and was stunned.
The leader walking towards him was not his retainer Jing Ke, but...
"Meng Yi?"
The young historian, dressed in armor and who loves generals more than scholars, holds a three-foot Qin sword stained with blood in his hand and holds the sword with his fist.
"Your servant Meng Yi pays homage to Lord Chang'an!"
Ying Chengjiao narrowed his eyes.
He originally thought that it was the followers who secretly followed him who resolved Zhao Ji's ambush.
But looking at the situation, his followers had not even taken any action before the ambushers were all dealt with by Meng Yi.
"I heard from the Queen Mother that Gan Luo was planning a rebellion and had ambushed his troops in Yongdi to assassinate Lord Chang'an. I have come to rescue you!"
"Gan Luo..."
Ying Chengjiao muttered softly, raising his voice slightly.
"Where are the others?"
"Drag Gan Luo's body here."
In response to Meng Yi's order, two city defense soldiers dragged a body out from among the dead bodies on the ground and brought it in front of Ying Chengjiao, facing up.
Although the face was covered in blood, fortunately it was not disfigured, and it was clearly visible that it was Gan Luo.
Gan Luo's eyes were wide open, as if they were about to burst, and his expression at the moment of death was frozen in deep hatred.
Ying Chengjiao leaned over and saw hatred in Gan Luo's eyes, which were unable to close, that was a hundred times deeper than his expression.
Ying Chengjiao reached out and touched Gan Luo's eyes.
As soon as he let go of his hand, Gan Luo's eyelids suddenly lifted.
Die with eyes wide open.
"Who told you that the Queen Mother and Gan Luo wanted to kill me?"
Ying Chengjiao didn't try again. He looked at Gan Luo's face and said lightly.
Meng Yi was silent.
Ying Chengjiao turned around and looked at Zhao Ji.
"So what Mother said just now, that she wanted to see if I would give her a chance, should be done at this moment... Mother, if she wanted to die herself, that would be fine, but why did she have to drag Gan Luo into it?"
Zhao Ji stood up, walking gracefully with lotus steps, her white clothes fluttering in the cold wind. She looked elegant and graceful, yet also exuded a pure and beautiful beauty.
Although he is already at an advanced age, with the help of all the resources in the world to maintain his health and daily deliberate exercise, he looks no more than 30 years old.
If it weren't for her mature face and slender figure that were completely different from her childishness, just looking at her smooth skin, she would look like a 28-year-old girl.
Walking up to Ying Chengjiao who was squatting beside Gan Luo's body, Zhao Ji looked down at him and gave him orders.
"He has hands and feet, and I didn't tie him up, so who can I blame?"
"If it weren't for my mother taking the lead, my cowardly brother would never dare to assassinate me at this time."
"Yes, I deceived Gan Luo with the letter and the seal. Do you want to avenge him?"
“…Why is it so?”
