Chapter 92 – The Anger of Decades of Past Events

Several dossiers of varying thicknesses lay quietly on top of the desk table in the Imperial Study Room, having been thumbed through by that pair of steady hands an unknown number of times in these short days, and then resting here as if they had been forgotten, quiet and unusual. There had not been enough time for dust to settle on these volumes, yet the crisp, light air of early fall had caused the pages to buckle as if they had been roasted by fire.

The pair of deep and burning eyes slowly moved away from the scrolls, cast to the outside dusky, want to be mesmerizing in the morning before the Palace of Xi light. The light from the east had already illuminated the highest green stone brick of the Kyoto city wall, but it had not yet been able to shine into the palace that was deeply locked in the darkness by the city wall and palace wall.

Emperor Qing expressionlessly picked up the teacup in his hand and took a sip, the tea was cold, the little eunuchs who habitually served by his side didn’t have the guts to come in and replace it with hot one as they usually did. The whole night passed, he drank is cold tea, however, like a fish drinking water, cold and warm, these cold tea into his chest and abdomen, but turned into a hot current that burns himself.

Is it difficult to suppress the anger, is it the hurt after being deceived by the trusted person, or is it a sense of humiliation that has never existed before? That old dog actually hid it from me for decades!

The more angry, the more calm, the Qing emperor has long been unlike a few days before that kind of anger, face and eyes calm as if two pools of ice water, cold extremely cold extremely calm extremely, not like an ancient well, only like the water that will become ice, a cold. This cold spread around the imperial study, so that everyone who stays outside, feel a kind of fear from the depths of the heart.

A familiar sound was faintly heard in the distance, the sound of a wheelchair crushing over the verdant stone slabs of the palace. The special round chair and the gap between those lapis lazuli boards kept rubbing, the width of the lapis lazuli boards was fixed, the distance of the wheelchair’s circle was fixed, so the rhythm of the wheelchair’s crushing the lapis lazuli boards sound and the time period was also fixed.

This fixed rhythm, in these decades, do not know how many times in this quiet palace resounded, whenever Emperor Qing has something big to do, or …… just want to talk, the sound of the wheelchair will be from the outside of the palace all the way to the palace, all the way to the imperial study.

Recently these years the sound of the wheelchair rang less, that old black dog hiding in the Chen garden to enjoy the happiness, throw me alone in this cold Qin Qin palace to be tortured. However, three years ago, when it was time to deal with Yun Rui and those three old monsters, the wheelchair still entered the palace twice …… The Qing Emperor s expression was indifferent, and he remembered many past events in a moment. Then he slowly raised his head.

When his calm and deep gaze landed on the closed wooden door of the imperial study, the sound of the wheelchair rubbing against the lapis lazuli board also happened to stop outside the imperial study.

The emperor’s gaze suddenly became complicated.

Eunuch Yao’s trembling voice rang out from outside the Imperial Study Room, not that the head eunuch was deliberately trying to use this frightened voice to express his importance to that wheelchair-bound figure, but just that at this time, inside and outside the Imperial Study Room, Emperor Qing’s coldness that naturally emanated with his Great Master state of mind had already taken control of the vast majority of the people’s hearts and minds.

The door to the Imperial Study Room opened, and several eunuchs carefully and fearfully carried the black wheelchair in, before leaving as fast as they could under the leadership of Eunuch Yao. This line of eunuchs from the inner court left the imperial study room extremely far and far away, and even went all the way to where the imperial study room surrounded the stone arched garden gate, leading straight to the hall of taiji.

Eunuch Yao wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and glanced at Marshal Ye and Grand Maester He who were waiting outside the garden gate, not saying anything, not even a hint of an expression. Ye Chong’s face was heavy and he just sighed in his heart. These top figures of Qing Guo, after escorting that black carriage into the Imperial Study Room, all consciously hid themselves far away from here, because they knew that under the shroud of His Majesty’s coldness, every word and every sentence he would say to the one in the wheelchair, he didn’t want anyone to hear.

Elder Dean Chen returned very peacefully and gently. Although they were a little unaccustomed to such an easy resolution, although they knew that Old Dean Chen was not a simple and terrifying figure, yet including Eunuch Ye Chong Yao, they were not worried that anything would happen in the Imperial Study to frighten the driver.

His Majesty the Emperor was a great master, and after the Great Eastern Mountain, no one in the world would ever be able to harm him again.

The door of the imperial study was tightly shut, isolating all the air, sound, light, scent, and autumn feeling outside, leaving only His Majesty the Emperor, who was sitting upright on his couch, and Chen Pingping, who was casually sitting on top of her wheelchair.

By hiding in the small building, the duo of the ruler and the minister had isolated the wind and rain of the Qing Kingdom from the outside, because the wind and rain of the Qing Kingdom in the past few decades had originally been set off by these two powerful people.

Emperor Qing quietly looked at the old guy in the wheelchair, not knowing how long he had been looking at him, until he had to see all the wrinkles on Chen Pingping’s face as chrysanthemums under the Hanging Temple, before he said quietly: ”He Zongwei is secretly checking on Gao Da, and he wants to deal with Fan Xian, and I have known about this matter for some time now, and I have sent three people from the inner court over there. The other day when you passed by Dazhou, He Qi Gan should also be there, have you seen?”

If a bystander were here at this time, they would be extremely surprised to see this scene. His Majesty mobilized so many characters, the whole of Kyoto in the key Yamen stood by, the cold Prince in the Supervisory Yuan also began to carry on His Majesty’s will, launched the internal suppression, before this old cripple on the black wheelchair was invited back to Kyoto, who all know that there is no more place to turn between the ruler and the minister, yet His Majesty was facing the first sentence of Chen Pingping’s opening, but he said a very unremarkable Name.

However, Chen Pingping was not surprised, he knew his own Emperor Majesty too well, he smiled slightly and said with a slightly sharp and sandy voice: “When I was sent to the Cheng Wangfu, He Qi Gan was still young, and met him outside of Dazhou, I think that he could not remember me at all.”

“Not surprisingly, the name Chen Wu Chang has disappeared from the palace for a long time.” The emperor nodded, a single sleeve of the dragon robe on his body flew, a cup of tea slowly left the desk and flew to Chen Pingping’s front.

Chen Pingping took it, respectfully nodded and saluted, holding the piping hot cup of tea, sighing comfortably, “Tea is still good when it’s hot.”

The emperor flicked his finger on his own cold teacup, took a slight sip, and calmly said, “Tea gets cold when people leave, otherwise how could He Qi Gan not recognize you?”

Chen Pingping shook her head and said, “Other than Hong Si Itchy, not many people know that I used to stay in the palace back then.”

The emperor’s curtains drooped slightly, revealing a hint of mockery, saying, “Later on, you even did some fake beards on your own to stick on top of your jaw, of course you don’t want people to know …… that you were originally a eunuch.”

Chen Pingping face unchanged, slightly bowed his head, said faintly, “I also thought about it many years later, I was originally a eunuch, why should I hide it from the world.”

“But you still hid it from the world after all.” The emperor put the cold tea cup on the case, stared at Chen Pingping’s eyes and said, “Back then, you were sent by the palace to the king’s house, in order to monitor the movements of the father, however, even the palace did not expect, but you secretly revealed your identity to me, and are willing to help my king’s house to rise up …… even the last even the palace’s old eunuch Hong were all convinced by you and stood on the side of Father. Therefore, the identity of the palace’s permanent eunuch back then was of great merit to you, to me, and to the Kingdom of Qing, so why do you always keep this matter in mind.”

“The reason why the late emperor was able to ascend to the throne did not have much to do with the lackey.” Chen Pingping mouthed lackey, yet unlike in the past, there was not too much of an inferiority complex flavor in this lackey, it was just following the past, very naturally. He slowly raised his head, looked straight into the cold eyes of Emperor Qing, and said word by word: “That is because someone killed the two princes, so it is the turn of Prince Cheng to sit in the dragon chair, so that His Majesty can have today’s 10,000 miles of rivers and mountains, and unparalleled success ……”

The emperor’s eyes suddenly became sharp, obviously he didn’t want to hear any words related to this matter and said, “But why, in the first place, did you betray the nobles in the palace and cast your allegiance to the royal family to serve …… me?”

Chen Pingping looked at Emperor Qing with a smile, seemed to be looking at a big joke, after a long time before slowly said, “Your Majesty, you were still a young man, the heart is open and far-reaching, treating people with great sincerity, treating the next very good. Minion bias is a strange nature, as long as people treat me well, I will treat him well.”

The emperor fell silent, he sat upright on top of the soft couch, seemed to still savor the words uttered by Chen Pingping, his sharp eyes became as if the beginning of autumn long day, gradually unfolding the high and refreshing side, the corners of his lips curled up slightly, mocking, “So you still know that I’m not bad to you.”

“Back then, the old prince didn’t have the slightest status in the dynasty, didn’t have any help in the dynasty, the Cheng Wangfu wasn’t big and inconspicuous, and I was actually the most useless little eunuch of the palace’s permanent guards, that’s why I was sent to the king’s palace. A powerful person like Hong Si Itchy is of course always guarding the side of the nobles in the palace.”

Chen Pingping also seemed to recall many past events and sighed languidly, “However, small is as good as small, and simple is as wonderful as simple. At that time of the year, three big boys, plus a little one, did their best to toss and turn, and Fan Ma yelled at the side from time to time, and no one seemed to think that was bad.”

“At that time, King Jing was still young, who wanted to pay attention to him.” His Majesty raised his eyebrows and said, “Even if Fan Jian and he teamed up to come to beat me, in the end, it was not all stopped back by you, the two of us joined hands, there has always been no one who is our opponent …… even today it is still like this.”

As soon as these words were uttered, Chen Pingping and the emperor fell silent at the same time. Only after a long time did Chen Pingping gently touch the armrest of the wheelchair and sighed, “After all, Fan Jian is Your Majesty’s milk brother, while a lackey is only a lackey after all, I didn’t think much at that time, I just wanted to protect you.”

Emperor Qing’s facial lines gradually softened, but his eyes drifted into the distance, seemingly drifting to those scenes when there was absolutely no dissent between the ruler and the minister, when they were hand in hand with each other, and said quietly, “I must admit, you protected me many times during those years, and if there were no you, I don’t know how many times I would have to die.”

After saying these words, the corner of his eyes suddenly glanced at the several scrolls on a few, his eyes slightly, gently took out the first one, slowly lifted it and looked at the scene and scene that was said above, including his sister, his son, and many, many things.

“When Daqing first began to expand its borders, it did not alarm the iron cavalry of the Great Wei Dynasty, so you and I were a little careless, and when we were spying on the layouts of what was then the Little Chen State, which is now Yanjing, our party was besieged by Hu Yue, the number one killing general under the command of Battle Qingfeng, in Ting Mountain, and the man’s archery skills were good …… “Emperor Qing sighed and said, “After so many years, the only one who can be better than Hu Yue’s archery skills is Xiao Yi.”

Speaking of Yan Xiaoyi, the Great Governor of the Conquest of the North who had once betrayed himself, Emperor Qing’s tone didn’t have a trace of hatred or anger in it, all he had was pity. Emperor Qing was a man who cherished talent, and even more so a man of supreme self-confidence, and he was not at all afraid of Yan Xiaoyi, which was why he had displayed this emotion. However, judging from the setup of the Supervisory Court these days, in his heart, Chen Pingping was a far superior character to any other courtier.

He turned his head and looked at Chen Pingping in the wheelchair and said, “That arrow from Hu Yue that day, if you had not given up your life to block it, I might have died then.”

Chen Pingping calmly responded, “This is my duty as a slave.”

Emperor Qing smiled mockingly and glanced at the dossier in his hand, which stated that three years ago, when Kyoto rebelled, Chen Pingping secretly connived with the Princess to raise an army to invade Kyoto, and eventually succeeded in besieging the Imperial City. Although the Supervisory Yuan to do extremely fine-tuned, and this dossier, there is not too much evidence, however, to the emperor’s eyesight, naturally can clearly see inside the hidden heavenly woe.

He casually threw this dossier aside, no longer care about it, and then picked up another one, squinted his eyes and read it again, said: “Hanging temple, why would you think of letting the shadow out to assassinate?”

Earlier it was still recalling the past with a gentle breeze, but at this time in the imperial study, the sound of questioning suddenly rang out, and a faintly fishy flavor of blood and rain gradually filled the air. However, Chen Pingping looked like she knew nothing about it, and respectfully replied, “The slave wants to see what exactly is the last card of His Majesty.”

“Want to see my bottom card.” The emperor’s eyes stared at the wrinkles on Chen Pingping’s face, and after a long period of silence, he calmly said, “It seems that wanting me to die is something you have thought about for a long time.”

Chen Pingping did not open her mouth to reply, she only smiled gently, acquiescing to this heavenly charge.

“Is Shadow really the youngest brother of the Four Gu Swords?” Emperor Qing asked.

“Your Majesty’s gaze is like a god, on that day, he drank out the true origin of the Shadow in one gulp, I truly admire you.” Chen Pingping mouthed admiration, but in his heart, he did not know if he really admired it.

Emperor Qing closed his eyes, thought for a moment, threw this dossier aside again and said, “When the first Northern Expedition took place, my divine power was breaking through the realm when I suddenly went off the rails, and was trapped in the mountains by the war Qingfeng’s army, and had entered the land of the end of the mountain, if not for your rate of the Black Riders risking their lives to come to the rescue, and exchanged their bodies for my life along the way, I was afraid that I was going to die for a tenth or eight times. ”

Chen Pingping’s eyes moved along with Emperor Qing’s manual, watching him throw the sealed dossier about the truth of the assassination of the Hanging Temple to the side, but the smile in his eyes was getting more and more prevalent, blooming and withering, incomparably despondent, and a hint of ridicule was sandwiched between the despondency.

“Your Majesty, don’t go on counting like this. To use a piece of credit for saving the emperor to exchange for a great crime of deceiving or stabbing the emperor, no matter whether it is in terms of the Qing law or the regulations of the institution, it is the old slave who has taken advantage of the heavenly advantage.” Chen Pingping’s face calmed down, looked at His Majesty the Emperor and said indifferently, “How many times during these decades, the slave saved His Majesty, the slave can’t remember, but the slave also didn’t have the luxury of using these merits to offset his own death sentence.”

“Using heavenly merits to exchange for heavenly sins.” Chen Pingping’s eyes narrowed and said with faint mockery, “That was the little eunuch in the story she told back then, however, Nucius is not that little eunuch, and Your Majesty is not that foreign emperor, so why waste so much more time?”

“You think I am wasting my time?” The emperor’s voice went cold, but his eyes blazed, staring at Chen Pingping as if he was staring at a dead person, “In the hearts of the people of the world, you are just an old black dog beside me, yet after raising a dog for a long time, it also has feelings.”

“His Majesty is certainly a person with affection and righteousness to the old slave, over the years, the power of distinction that His Majesty has given to the old slave is no longer something that an ordinary subject can enjoy.” Chen Pingping slightly leaned on top of the wheelchair, coldly looked back at the emperor, and said word by word: “It’s just that at this time to come back and say something like this, probably your majesty is also trying to find some better reasons for killing the dog for yourself, and to be able to comfort your own feelings.”

“Could it be that you shouldn’t kill?” Emperor Qing was furious and laughed up to the sky, his laughter penetrating out of the imperial study and straight into the entire quiet imperial city, his laughter carrying a rare anger.

He turned around and grabbed those dossiers on the case and violently slammed them over, the thick and thin dossiers slammed on Chen Pingping’s body and the wheelchair, making a snapping sound.

Qing Emperor’s eyes became extremely deep cold, he stared at Chen Pingping’s face, said word by word: “You want to kill me, you also want to kill my son, to the abomination, actually forced me to kill my own son …… you this shameless eunuch, should not be killed?”

Chen Pingping slowly brushed off the pages of the book on his body, with a hint of a smile, a hint of pleasure to appreciate the world’s most powerful monarch this life are rare to reveal a loss of form, which is probably originally one of the biggest wishes of his trip back to the capital? The dark desire for revenge that had been entangled in the bottom of his heart for decades as well as that touch of disappointment and sadness towards His Majesty that no one could say clearly were gathered together, making this old cripple’s state of mind actually become so complicated.

“If you, Your Majesty, have not moved to kill your own children, how could the slave force you to do these things?” Chen Pingping looked at His Majesty the Emperor and said quietly, “So in the final analysis, the slave just wanted to kill Your Majesty, and as for these people of the Li Clan’s royal family here in the palace, the slave just wanted them to accompany you to your funeral.”

The emperor calmed down, apathetic, getting out of that rare anger. An earthly supreme being, a great master of martial arts, but in front of Chen Pingping, he revealed such a side that looked like a very mortal man, one could only say that these decades of interaction and trust between the monarch and the courtiers had long since become some kind of spiritual need that Emperor Qing couldn’t get rid of, and this spiritual need suddenly became a mirror flower and a moon shadow in a flash, and after the shadow of the flower and the moon shadow, it was even more so, it was hiding that kind of venom of being betrayed, and even though it was him, it was difficult to bear this kind of emotional The impact of.

He looked at Chen Pingping indifferently. Said: “What I am most angry about is not that you want to kill me, or that you want to kill all my sons, what I am most angry about is that since you have left Kyoto, why do you still want to come back.”

“Even in such a situation, I still left you a way to live, as long as you are willing to leave, I will not keep you.” The emperor looked at him indifferently, those far-reaching eyes were like ancient angry dragons, holding infinite power within the calmness, “If I really want to pounce on you in one fell swoop, I will do it myself, I won’t let those useless sergeants do the job. However …… why do you want to come back? Why do you have to force me to kill you with my own hands?”

This is a very wonderful sentence, this is a very strange sentence, at this time those big people outside the imperial study, including the general Shi Fei who has returned to the camp of the guard division, all of them can’t guess clearly what his majesty’s heart is, they all don’t know the so-called Dazhou’s change, is still the kind of heart temptation between the emperor and Chen Pingping, the pair of monarchs and ministers, about the last trust between the emperor and Chen Pingping.

The whole world probably only Chen Pingping can understand. If he left with the black riders in Dingzhou, it means that he was ashamed of his majesty and couldn’t face it. Instead, he didn’t leave, he returned to Kyoto, coldly and timidly looking at His Majesty’s face, with an open and unashamed heart, forcing the other party to make a move to kill one of the ministers who was considered to be the most loyal minister in the history of the Kingdom of Qing.

After a long time, Chen Pingping’s eyes were like knives as he stared at the Emperor and asked word by word: ”Did you ever give her any way to live back then? I returned to the capital just to ask Your Majesty one thing, why did you kill her!”