Chapter 88: Cruel to the End
Everyone in Chengming Hall had left. The Emperor of Southern Qi sat quietly for a long time. At some point, a person knelt down at his feet.
The man appeared silently and knelt silently.
He knelt there with his head bowed, like a statue.
The Southern Qi Emperor frowned: "Gan Jun?"
Gan Jun knelt at his feet and kowtowed three times in a row: "Your Majesty, please give Yao Niang a chance to live. I dare to guarantee with my life that she will never betray the country!"
The Southern Qi Emperor frowned and said, "I did not sentence Yao Niang to death."
The emperor's heart is unfathomable. Gan Jun has been accompanying him for many years and knows very well that what the emperor says may not be from his heart. The head of the Shadow Department of the Forbidden Cavalry Division knows many secrets of the Southern Qi Dynasty. What's more, there is the bloodline of the Prince of Nanyue. There is no way Yao Niang can escape unscathed.
He knelt there, extremely humble, almost begging the Southern Qi Emperor: "Your Majesty, since Yao Niang has resigned from the position of the Shadow Department Director, why not let her go to Zhulin Temple to be the shadow guard of the Queen Mother?"
There is a concubine with a special status in Zhulin Temple. She is the younger sister of the deceased empress dowager. After the current emperor ascended the throne, the concubine was sent to Zhulin Temple to worship Buddha, and it was announced to the outside world that she was praying for the late emperor.
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In the camp of the Forbidden Cavalry Sifeng Division, Tang Ying has transformed from a delicate girl into a strong man. In addition to worrying about her future career path and shamelessly asking Lord Fu for advice, she also fantasizes about Yao Niang's retirement life: "Aunt Yao always said that she felt suffocated staying in the capital. Now she can go out and see the world." With her wealth and abilities, she shouldn't be too free.
Yuan Jian grew up in the palace, so he had a thorough understanding of the royal family. “Can Aunt Yao really leave the capital?”
Usually, people who know too many secrets of the emperor are either his loyal confidants or they keep their mouths shut forever.
Fu Chen stared in silence.
Tang Ying jumped up: "No way? You want to kill people to silence them?" Isn't this too fucking inhumane?
You work hard while you are alive, but you can't even have a stable retirement. The end of your career means the end of your life. Is this fair?
Fu Chen: "No need to kill to silence the witnesses, Yao Niang knows what to do."
Tang Ying: "...I'm going to go find Aunt Yao." She didn't know what else she could do for Yao Niang. Since she joined the Forbidden Cavalry Division, although Yao Niang loved to tease her, she really treated her well.
Fu Chen grabbed her wrist. Tang Ying was upset and thought he was going to stop her, but unexpectedly, Master Fu took his cloak and covered her head with it: "I'll go with you."
Yuan Jian was not familiar with Yao Niang, so he stood up and said goodbye.
When they went there, Wan Yu was guarding Yao Niang's door and didn't dare to go in. She was so happy to see Tang Ying that she grabbed her hand and refused to let go: "Yingying, are you okay? There have been rumors for the past two days that you were poisoned. Aunt Yao was so sad that she refused to eat. She took people to track down the suspect..." She said a lot of nagging, and saw Tang Ying stretching her neck to look into Yao Niang's room. Unfortunately, the doors and windows were closed and she couldn't see what was going on inside. She started to worry again.
"After my aunt came back, she locked herself in her room and refused to see anyone. Hongxiang tried to persuade her, but she scolded her and ran away. Now I don't know where she has gone." She seemed to have found someone to rely on: "Yingying, do you dare to go in?"
Don't look at Yao Niang as a person who doesn't agree with her. She is very strict with her subordinates. Wan Yu is a little timid and usually laughs and jokes with Hong Xiang. But once Yao Niang gets angry, she is so scared that she dares not even breathe.
As soon as Tang Ying arrived, she dared to reject Yao Niang's request. After entering the Film Department and following behind Yao Niang, she never changed her bold attitude. Wan Yu envied her courage very much and wanted to push her out to take the blame at the critical moment.
Tang Ying lived up to her expectations and knocked on the door a few times: "Aunt, I'm coming in."
The room was very quiet, without a sound at all.
Tang Ying: "Aunt isn't here?"
Wanxiang: "I have been guarding the door since my aunt came back, but I haven't seen her go out."
Tang Ying tried to push the door, and found that it seemed to be bolted from the inside. She raised her foot and kicked it, but the solid door could not withstand her two kicks and collapsed in front of several people. She walked in on the dust and the dead door, and almost bumped into a teapot thrown at her and an angry voice: "Asshole, who allowed you to kick the door?"
She dodged to the side, and the teapot hit the door frame and shattered onto the ground. Yao Niang, wearing a mid-length dress and with her hair loose, sat up from under the quilt. The makeup on her face was completely removed, but in her rage she showed some signs of a middle-aged woman.
"Don't be upset, aunt. If you keep getting upset, the fine lines at the corners of your eyes will start to show." Tang Ying's unruly look was really asking for a beating. She even got closer to take a closer look at Yao Niang: "Tsk tsk, if I were your age, I'd probably be like a dried orange peel, unsightly."
Fu Chen smiled and thought to himself: If you were a dried orange peel, you would probably be the kind of orange peel that deserves a beating, right?
Yao Niang quickly touched the corner of her eyes, and when she realized what was happening, she slapped her on the head twice, saying what Master Fu was thinking: "You bastard girl, I think you deserve a beating!"
Tang Ying was not afraid of boiling water, so she just acted like a rogue: "Since Auntie thinks I deserve a beating, why don't you hit me a few more times?"
Yao Niang slapped her hard on the shoulders several times. One could tell from the sound that she used quite a bit of force. Add to that Tang Ying's sincere cries of pain, and Wan Yu was so scared that she touched her shoulder and shrank back, sighing at how brave Tang Ying was.
She didn't dare kick open her aunt's door so blatantly and anger her.
However, the scene in the room was quite different. Tang Ying was slapped down on the bed by Yao Niang. She pretended to be exhausted and rolled around on Yao Niang's bed like a monkey, which made Yao Niang hit her hard several times. After being teased by her, she gradually began to smile.
"You rascal, why are you here to make trouble instead of staying in Lord Fu's barracks?"
Tang Ying simply lay down beside her and grabbed her sleeve to cover her face: "Master Fu is very boring, and my aunt is more fun. Why don't I move in and live with my aunt?" She was very worried about Yao Niang, so she had no choice but to use this trick.
How could Yao Niang not understand the meaning of her words: "How can I have a good life with you here? I'm afraid you will disturb me and I can't even sleep peacefully. It's better for you to stay with Master Fu."
The wide sleeves of her robe covered the little girl's face, and she could only be heard saying sullenly, "It's all because of me that I've caused trouble for my aunt."
Fu Chen smiled bitterly. She was soft-hearted towards everyone, but she seemed ready to be cruel to him.
Yao Niang on the bed rubbed her covered face twice, with enough force to deform her face: "It's not a question of who is dragging down who. Even if it weren't for you, the Grand Princess and I would have had this day sooner or later. It's just a coincidence."
She didn't expect that Zhao Jiang would bring Zhao Ji into the capital, nor did she expect that the emperor also intended to abolish the Forbidden Cavalry Department. The Grand Princess abandoned her but forced her to take sides... Putting all these things together, she could only sigh that this was her fate.
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Zhao Jiang heard about the palace maid who delivered the medicine from his son, and he was absent-minded when hunting in the following days. Except for the necessary guards, all the others were sent out to search for people secretly.
However, the Southern Qi emperor's harem was strictly guarded and not a place that could be entered or exited at will.
The father and son were busy for a few days, but two days before the end of the winter hunt, they received a letter asking them to meet at the foot of Beifeng Mountain outside the hunting palace.
When Zhao Jiang saw the familiar handwriting , he hurriedly asked the person who delivered the letter. The guard at the door said that it was a little girl who delivered the letter and left without leaving any words.
His heart was filled with emotion: "Son, she, she...your mother, she..."
Prince Zhao snatched the letter and asked, "Did my mother really write it?"
The father and son could not wait until the agreed time, so they packed up early and rushed to the foot of North Peak. After waiting for almost an hour, they finally saw a horse galloping towards them in the distance.
The woman on the horse looked to be in her early thirties, with lightly drawn eyebrows and rouge on her face. She pulled the reins when the father and son were three steps away. When she met the father and son, the corners of her eyes turned red: "Ji'er has grown so big!" When she left, she was still a little chubby girl, smart and cute, who had just learned to call mother.
This feeling remained in her heart for several days, and she wanted to say it when she delivered the medicine that day.
Since childhood, Zhao Ji was often held on his father's lap and told stories about his mother. In the heart of King Zhao Jiang of Nanyue, there was nothing bad about his mother. He sometimes thought that maybe his parents separated too early and he didn't have time to get tired of his mother.
"My son greets his mother!" Zhao Ji knelt down and looked up at the middle-aged woman on the horse, while Zhao Jiang held out his hand: "Come on Jingyi, I'll support you."
Yao Jingyi, the concubine Yao in the mansion at that time, was the mother of his only son.
Zhao Jiang personally helped Yao Niang off the horse. After she got off the horse, she smiled and said, "It's been many years since we last met. The prince has gained weight. I can't even recognize him." He leaned over to help Zhao Ji: "Ji'er, get up quickly!"
Zhao Jiang never thought that the family of three would be reunited one day. He touched his big belly and laughed: "Great! Great! When Ji'er was five years old, he was naughty and I scolded him. He packed a small bag and quietly left the palace, saying that he was going to Nanqi to find his mother. He made a mess in the palace and almost scared everyone to death..." He talked on and on, as if he wanted to pour out all his experiences over the past years in one breath and tell them to Yao Niang.
Compared to Zhao Jiang, Yao Niang and Zhao Ji were both very silent. The mother and son looked at each other. Yao Niang gently stroked her son's cheek and found that his eyebrows and eyes were four or five points similar to hers. The more she looked at him, the more reluctant she became. She forced back the tears that welled up in her eyes and held her son's hand, unwilling to let go.
"Did Ji'er have fun along the way?"
Zhao Ji: "The portrait that my father left is too old. We should paint another one for mother." He held Yao Niang's hand and begged like a child with some unspeakable hope: "Mother, why don't you come back to Nanyue with us? The new painter in the palace last year is the best at painting portraits, okay?"
Zhao Jiang's eyes had not left Yao Niang's face. When he saw the pain flash across her eyes and her eyes almost shed tears, he felt cold in his heart. He pretended to be happy about the reunion, "Child, you mentioned painting a portrait after just meeting and we didn't say a few words. What's wrong with the little portrait that your father kept?"
Zhao Ji chuckled: "There's nothing wrong with it, it's just... every time I look at that little portrait, I always feel that my mother doesn't look like my mother, but more like my sister, who is younger than me."
Zhao Jiang patted him on the head lightly: "You are so unruly!"
