Jing Jiu looked at her in Silence.
The Little Princess looked at him in Silence.
The two of them stared at each other's eyes, neither of them speaking.
After a long while, the Little Princess fell forward into Jing Jiu's bosom, probably because her knees were sore. She couldn't support herself with her hands.
An argument suddenly broke out in the grand hall; it was unclear what the two emperors were arguing about.
The Little Princess summoned up her courage and kissed Jing Jiu on his cheek. Then, she bounced back and sat down, as if she was scalded. She giggled twice at Jing Jiu.
Jing Jiu didn't have the sword fire, so he had no choice but to wipe off the saliva on his face with his sleeve. "What if you mistook me for someone else?" he asked.
The Little Princess was startled. She asked shyly while covering her face with her small hands, "Do … do you know who I am?"
Jing Jiu said, "Like I said, I'll recognize you if I meet you."
The Little Princess looked at Jing Jiu adorably through the gaps between her fingers, as she said, "Could you … could you pretend that you didn't recognize me?"
The conversation between the Chu Emperor and the Qin Emperor came to an end. The door of the grand hall was opened, and the old maidservant and the palace servant girl walked in.
The Little Princess felt as if she had been pardoned. She slid down the bed hastily and headed toward the outside of the grand hall while holding the Qin Emperor's hand.
Seeing the bouncing figure of the little girl and thinking of her demure and feeble appearance in the outside world, Jing Jiu thought it was a good thing for her.
He turned to look at the Blue Bird on the tree branch outside the window and said, "I don't want to be seen by anybody. I believe she doesn't want to see it either."
… …
… …
The people outside the Huiyin Valley saw the scenes very quickly. No matter how high their Cultivation states were, they could only see the general picture. What they could see depended entirely on the choice of the spirit of the Green Sky Mirror, which was what the Blue Bird flying back and forth wanted to show them.
The Blue Bird was Qing 'er. She was quite familiar with Bai Zao, and she had an indescribable closeness to Jing Jiu. As such, she listened to Jing Jiu and didn't show the scene of the two innocent lovers in the Royal Palace of the Chu Kingdom.
He Zhan's tragic story fell into everyone's eyes. Although there was no specific scene of him being castrated, one could imagine the pain.
Sensei clenched the dried fish tightly as she stared at the light screen in the sky and asked, "Who is that kid from the Eastern Village?"
Shui Yue Nunnery shook her head and said, "He seems to be a rogue cultivator, He Zhan should know him."
Sensei took a bite of the dried fish and said, "I'm going to kill him."
Shui Yue Nunnery was slightly shocked and persuaded, "That's something that happened in the illusion realm, you can't bring it to the real world."
Sensei forcefully chewed on the dried fish, her cheeks slightly puffed up as she hatefully said, "Can't I kill him?"
Shui Yue Nunnery replied, "Yes, these are the rules."
The dried fish was very hard. Sensei had a hard time chewing it. She spat it on the ground and said, "Then I'll kill him secretly."
…
…
The Qin Emperor stayed in the Royal Palace of the Chu Kingdom for a few days.
The little princess cried every day, asking to see the Ninth Prince. The old maidservants and the palace servant girls were puzzled, wondering why the little princess had suddenly become like this over the last few days since she was a little girl. The Ninth Prince of the Chu Kingdom was indeed good-looking, but he was merely a bag of skin, extremely boring. Why did the little princess want to play with him?
In fact, the little princess and Jing Jiu didn't play games, nor did they play chess or tell stories.
She didn't throw herself into Jing Jiu's bosom because there were always people by her side, but she looked at him with a sweet smile.
Sometimes, she would hold his hand and stroll in the royal garden of the Royal Palace, telling him in a soft voice that the Royal Palace in the north was full of killing intent, and there weren't so many flowers to see.
Jing Jiu let her do whatever she wanted, not because he spoiled her, but because he couldn't resist her because she was physically weak.
It was like a baby couldn't resist being fed milk, and a mortal couldn't resist death.
There would be separation when they met, no matter if it was in the real world or in the Illusionary Realm. It was the day for the delegation of the Qin Kingdom to return.
The Chu Emperor and the Qin Emperor were talking while holding hands. Not far from them, the little princess of the Qin Kingdom and the Ninth Prince of the Chu Kingdom were talking while holding hands.
Seeing this scene, the chancellors and populace of the two states couldn't help but laugh.
"I'm afraid … I won't remember you in the future, so I want to come and see you first."
The little princess said earnestly while looking at the Ninth Prince's eyes, "We will be opponents from now on. Don't show me any mercy."
"Alright," said the Ninth Prince.
…
…
In the days that followed, the old maidservants and palace servant girls in the Royal Palace liked to tease the Ninth Prince, "Do you miss her now that the little princess has left? Do you want to tell your father to take her as his wife? "
But one day, the teasing suddenly stopped. The old maidservant patted the Ninth Prince's back gently, sighing and wiping the corners of her eyes once in a while.
The Ninth Prince opened his eyes and looked at her in Silence.
He knew that the old maidservant would talk to him as long as he looked at her, no matter if it was here or outside.
As expected, the old maidservant said after a while, "Poor Your Highness. Do you know how miserable the little princess who liked you is now …"
The delegation of the Qin Kingdom suddenly disappeared after passing Cangzhou. It wasn't until the armies of the two states went to search for them that they found they had been ambushed. The corpses were everywhere in the mountains and fields. It was hard to tell who was who. They could only confirm that the Qin Emperor had been killed by the royal robe and some other features, but they couldn't confirm whether the little princess was dead or not.
It didn't take long before State Duke Pei, the younger brother of the Qin Emperor, returned to Xianyang, the capital of the Qin Kingdom from the frontline confronting the Northern Barbarians with twenty thousand cavalrymen.
A bloody massacre took place in Xianyang that night. State Duke Pei ascended the throne the next day.
On the day he ascended the throne, the new Qin Emperor announced that his elder brother had been killed by a shameless sneak attack by Master Jing Of Silla of the Chu Kingdom.
He demanded that the Chu Kingdom hand over the murderer and cede more than half of its territory as compensation.
The new Qin Emperor's accusation didn't have any evidence. What had happened afterward indicated that he was the real murderer. He didn't send troops to the Chu Kingdom for the rest of his life, but sent people to search for the whereabouts of the little princess.
The people of the Qin Kingdom were highly disciplined, but it didn't mean that they could accept any random order. In a few weeks, a dozen volunteer armies appeared in the territory of the Qin Kingdom, attacking Xianyang under the banner of avenging the late Emperor and helping the princess restore her kingdom. No matter what the real intention of those volunteer armies was, would they be able to find the little princess in time?
Jing Jiu didn't have much hope.
She was too young. No matter how hard she cultivated, she couldn't be compared with an adult. It was difficult for other disciples of the Zhongzhou School to come to her side, and it would be difficult for her to live in this chaotic world. What Jing Jiu didn't understand was that since she was the princess of the Qin Kingdom, the Crown Prince Jing should be Tong Yan. But why didn't Tong Yan predict this and make arrangements in advance?
Jing Jiu didn't spend too much time thinking about this. He continued sleeping in the Royal Palace, which was to say, cultivating.
Normally, he should have received the traditional education of a prince, such as the knowledge of books and the education of etiquette.
As a prince, he had a lot of experience in muddling through these things easily. But he didn't want to waste his time on these things, so he ignored them all.
As a result, his reputation as an idiot spread further and further.
…
…
At the age of ten, the Ninth Prince faced the first test of his life.
The Emperor of the Chu Kingdom died.
One day, he missed his late wife very much. After getting drunk, he wanted to pick up the stars in the Royal Lake to make a necklace for his late wife. Unfortunately, he fell into the lake and caught a cold.
The cold was severe, so the Emperor passed away that night.
This accident was weird no matter how one looked at it, but nobody paid any attention to it.
Maybe it was because the Emperor of Chu had seldom managed the state affairs in recent years, or maybe it was because the person who was going to be the Emperor was an idiot.
In the early morning of the next day, before dawn, the Ninth Prince was welcomed out of the Grand Hall by a few chancellors and carried to the Main Hall in a sedan, where he received the worship of the chancellors and heard the shouts of "Long live the Emperor".
Those chancellors obviously had their own thoughts, so he didn't want to pay any attention to them. Fortunately, those chancellors didn't want to pay any attention to him, either. Soon, they sent him back to the back palace.
However, he couldn't live in the old place anymore; he lived in the Emperor's bedchamber.
Yes, he was the Emperor of the Chu Kingdom now.
An Emperor was an Emperor. Even if he was just a puppet Emperor, many people would still be afraid of him. As such, some people would naturally listen to him. The first thing he did after he ascended to the throne was to ask the eunuchs to gather craftsmen and cut off the surface of the floor of the bedchamber with a small knife, turning it into a dense net.
The House of Peeled Skin in the Yingxian Valley of the Cloud-Dream Mountain had been made in this way, which left a good impression on him.
This project wasn't very big and didn't cost too much money, but it was very troublesome, giving people a feeling of extravagance.
The news spread out of the Imperial Palace very quickly. Driven by some people with ulterior motives, the situation took a certain direction.
The new Emperor had done such an unimaginable thing right after the death of the late Emperor, which naturally aroused the resentment of many people. For a moment, drunkards were everywhere in the capital, denouncing the new Emperor as an idiot. Of course, there were also many officials who submitted petitions to denounce the Emperor.
Those petitions entered the Cabinet like snowflakes, and were carefully folded. In the end, they were carried into the Imperial Palace by the Royal Tutor. The Royal Tutor severely criticized the Emperor's absurd behavior, and requested the Emperor to study the ways of an Emperor. He made it clear that he would go to the Imperial Palace every day to give lessons for the Emperor from the second half of the month.
Of course, the new Emperor didn't pay any attention to the Royal Tutor, because he was neither an idiot nor an Emperor. He was Jing Jiu.
…
…
The peeling project for the entire palace stopped.
In the next two days, three appointed chancellors and two royal uncles came to the Imperial Palace one after another. They either admonished the Emperor with tears on their faces, or instigated him with loyalty on their faces.
Jing Jiu sat on the smooth floor, cultivating with his eyes closed, paying no attention to them.
On the third day, the person he was waiting to meet finally showed up.
The Grand Scholar had an oval face, with delicate eyes and brows, but he didn't have the usual femininity of the people of Chu Kingdom. He had a long beard that reached his abdomen, looking majestic even when he wasn't angry, and the expression in his eyes was calm and serene.
He was so famous that even Jing Jiu knew him.
If the army of Chu Kingdom was under the command of Jing Of Silla, then the Imperial Court was under the control of this Grand Scholar.
During the ten years when the late Emperor was indulging in wine and pleasure, the Grand Scholar had defeated three Grand Secretaries, and he was the leader of the so-called Five Appointed Chancellors. Both in the officialdom and among the people, the Grand Scholar had a high opinion of the Grand Scholar. Even the eunuchs and old maidservants in the Imperial Palace were in awe of him, even more so than the late Emperor. They only dared to call him the Grand Scholar.
The Grand Scholar was indeed different from the other appointed chancellors. He didn't reminisce about his relationship with the late Emperor in front of the new Emperor, nor did he lecture him openly, nor did he nag him in secret. All he did was drink a cup of tea quietly, and then said, "As far as this official knows, those people didn't drink tea when they entered the Imperial Palace. This is the first cup of tea Your Majesty bestowed upon them."
He put down the teacup and continued, "Your Majesty is not an idiot who doesn't know the proper etiquette; why did you do these things?"
This was the first sentence Jing Jiu said after he ascended to the throne, "What do you think of it then?"
After a moment of silence, the Grand Scholar said, "Many people in the Imperial court have bad intentions, and the people are getting restless. Lord Jing Of Silla is far away in Cangzhou, so no one knows what he is thinking. The reason why the situation is like this is because Your Majesty is too weak and incompetent. If the turmoil starts and the wars break out, the soldiers of the three armies will be bathed in blood, and the populace will be destitute and destitute, can Your Majesty bear it? If you have been pretending to be weak, this official would like to ask Your Majesty to be strong from now on. "
Jing Jiu said, "I have been in the Imperial Palace for ten years. Have you ever heard that I was playful and mischievous?"
The Grand Scholar said, "Never. That's why this official has been curious."
Jing Jiu asked, "Did you kill the late Emperor?"
This question was like a thunderbolt.
If it were someone else, he would have been knocked unconscious by the shock.
Yet, the Grand Scholar replied calmly, "No."
Jing Jiu asked, "What is your family name?"
The Grand Scholar lifted his head to take a look and was surprised to find that the Emperor was not pretending. "The Zhang family of Jinling," he said angrily.
Jing Jiu said, "That's a good family name. I'll have to trouble you from now on. I don't want to go to the court. Don't bother me if there is nothing important, and don't come if there is something important."
… …
… …
Crown Prince Jing had his own team when he was ten years old. It had something to do with his innate wisdom, and it was also because he had won his father's trust.
He was lucky enough to find three participants of the Dao Competition, and one of them was Xiang Wanshu.
In the last few days, Jing Jiu had been paying close attention to the situation in the capital.
The late Emperor had died of illness. He was curious about how the young emperor would deal with the current situation, and how he would face his career as an emperor.
In the following days, the news came one after another.
The new Emperor started to build buildings on a large scale on the first day of his ascension to the throne, which caused a great deal of discontent among the populace and the imperial court.
A few chancellors and members of the royal family entered the palace one after another.
One day, the Grand Secretary Zhang entered the palace and had a long talk with the new Emperor. Later, the construction that had stopped not long ago started again. The sounds of cutting the wooden sheets could be heard incessantly in the Royal Palace. It seemed that the grand hall would become the House of Peeled Skin in the Yingxian Valley.
Crown Prince Jing thought about it for a long time, but he still couldn't figure out what the new Emperor intended to do.
Soon after, a shocking piece of news arrived.
The Royal Teacher was dead.
A strong wind rose in the capital. The imperial censors criticized each other, and the Grand Scholar remained silent. Many officials were stripped of their official positions, and some were even sent to prison.
After the wind and rain, the sky cleared up. The people took a closer look and found that the officials who were still standing in the imperial court were mostly on the side of the Grand Scholar.
Crown Prince Jing furrowed his thick eyebrows, feeling it more and more strange.
Was this the strategy of using the tiger to drive the wolf away? But what if the ferocious tiger obtained a breather and turned around to eat you in one bite?
The Grand Scholar was the regent; did he really not want the throne anymore? It was not a problem to be indifferent to fame and fortune, and being so lazy was exactly like his temperament. However, without the protection of the Imperial court and the identity of the Emperor, how could he survive in this chaotic world?
Here, he was not Jing Jiu.
Or was it that his idea was different from mine?
What was he going to do then?
This question consumed a great deal of Crown Prince Jing's energy, so much so that the spot between his eyebrows felt a little hot.
He picked up the bamboo stick and pushed open the window, letting the fresh air into the room. Only then did he feel a little better.
The breeze blew on his face, making him feel especially cold. Looking at the Snow Mountain in the West outside the window, he suddenly felt a little absent-minded, but soon came back to his senses.
With a vigilant expression on his face, he opened the secret compartment and took out a book.
The handwriting on the book was a bit strange. It was a special handwriting he had created himself. Even the Blue Bird couldn't understand it, let alone his father and teacher.
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