pappabearbooks Chapter 672 Drugging
Chapter 672 Drugging
After entering the Taihua Palace, Yan Shu bowed directly to the old emperor.
"Daughter of the people, see your majesty!"
At this moment, the old emperor was sitting in front of the couch, fiddling with a game of chess in front of him.
Yan Shu quickly glanced around, but did not see Yang Zhong, and even the other palace servants were not serving him.
"Can Miss Cui play chess?"
Yan Shu walked straight to the couch and said, "I am not good at this."
"Sit down, I will teach you."
Yan Shu glanced at the old emperor and said, "Your Majesty, are you having a headache? Let me give you acupuncture first."
The old emperor glanced at Yan Shu calmly and said, "Don't worry, I feel much better now. Please sit down first."
"Yes!"
Yan Shu walked to the other end of the chessboard and sat down. The old emperor took the initiative to pour a cup of tea for Yan Shu and handed it to her personally.
"The newly-delivered tribute of fine spring wine, let's try it and see how it tastes."
"Thank you, Your Majesty!"
Yan Shu reached out to take the teacup, secretly sniffed the tea, and made sure there was nothing suspicious in it before taking a few sips.
"how is the taste?"
"The tea has a sweet taste. The tea that can be presented as tribute to the imperial palace must be of the highest quality."
The old emperor stared at her for a while, then raised his hand and pointed at the chessboard in front of him.
"What do you see?"
Yan Shu showed a look of shame on his face: "I know nothing about Go, and I can't see what's so special about this game."
"This is an ambush from all sides. We will lure the enemy deep into our territory and set up ambushes on all sides to annihilate the enemy, making it impossible for him to escape!"
Yan Shu's heart skipped a beat. It seemed like this dog emperor was hiding something from his words?
Meeting the old emperor's cold eyes, Yan Shu became more certain of his guess.
"Your Majesty must be a master at chess."
"Haha, a chess player needs to be steady and take things slow. Don't be greedy for victory. Watch the game calmly and react flexibly. Seize the enemy's weakness and kill him with one strike. Never give him a chance to survive."
After saying this, the old emperor picked up a black piece from the chess pot and said, "I have hesitated for a long time about this chess piece in my hand, not knowing where to put it most appropriately. Now that you are here, I suddenly have an idea. If our new champion knew what you and I were doing in Taihua Palace, would he force his way in?"
Yan Shu's eyes turned cold: "What do you mean, Your Majesty?"
"Snapped!"
The chess piece fell onto the board, and the old emperor looked at the woman in front of him with a knowing gaze.
"I do admire Cui girl, but I didn't expect you to be the girl that Jiang Ci likes."
Yan Shu secretly clenched his hands and pretended to be calm and replied: "Your Majesty has misunderstood. I don't know Jiang Zhuangyuan."
"Haha, do you think I'm easy to fool? Listen, here he comes."
Suddenly, there was a sound of violent collision of weapons outside, and Yan Shu's heart sank instantly. If the old emperor already knew about her and Jiang Ci's relationship, he must have set an ambush outside Taihua Palace. If Jiang Ci forced his way in, the old emperor would have a reason to sentence him to death.
In order to kill Jiang Ci, this dog emperor really went to great lengths.
Yan Shu immediately stood up and tried to rush out of the hall, but two men in black who were hiding in the dark at the door suddenly appeared in front of her and pointed their swords at her coldly.
The old emperor stared at Yan Shu quietly with a deep gaze, as if he was looking at a bird trapped in a cage.
"Girl Cui, I don't want to kill you. I even like you a little. Jiang Ci cannot leave Taihua Palace today. As long as you are willing to stay by my side from now on, I can forgive you and take you into the harem to become my most beloved concubine."
Yan Shu felt a sense of nausea in his heart and turned to look sarcastically at the old emperor who looked confident of victory.
"Your Majesty, you have underestimated Jiang Ci. His talents and strategies are far superior to yours. Isn't this one of the reasons why you are afraid of him? Haha, so it's not certain who will win or lose today!"
At this moment, a voice of gloating suddenly rang out from the inner hall: "Yan Shu, why are you still showing off at this time?"
Su Qingqing walked out with a proud look on her face and bowed to the old emperor.
"Your Majesty, everything I said is true. She is not the legitimate daughter of the Cui family but the daughter of an ordinary farmer in Nanwei Prefecture. Moreover, she is the sister-in-law of the newly crowned number one scholar Jiang Ci. The two of them have been secretly having an affair against the moral code. I don't know what shady means she used to enter the Cui family and become the legitimate daughter of the Cui family. Keeping this girl will only bring disaster. You must not let her go!"
The old emperor showed displeasure: "I have made such a decision, and it is not your turn as a little prince's concubine to interfere!"
Su Qingqing was so frightened that her face turned pale and she quickly knelt down and kowtowed to the old emperor.
"It is your concubine who has overstepped her authority!"
The moment he saw Su Qingqing, Yan Shu knew what was going on. Su Qingqing must have revealed her identity to the old emperor, and the old emperor had always wanted to get rid of Jiang Ci secretly. Now that Jiang Ci had passed the imperial examination and was the top scorer, the old emperor could not take action openly, so he came up with this trick of luring the emperor into a trap.
If Jiang Ci forced his way in with a sword, the crime of murdering the emperor would be confirmed. Attempting to murder the emperor would mean death. The old emperor was not going to leave any chance of survival for his son.
No, she must find a way to get Jiang Ci away from here safely.
Yan Shu looked at the old emperor coldly and said, "Your Majesty, are you going to convict me just based on a few words from Concubine Su?"
The old emperor looked at her indifferently.
"Girl Cui, I admire your medical skills. As long as you are obedient, I will not hurt you. It doesn't matter whether you are Yan Shu or Cui Youran, and I will not pursue it. As long as you cooperate with me to get rid of that evildoer outside, I will make you my concubine and let you enjoy wealth and glory forever."
After hearing what the old emperor said, Yan Shu felt sick. Did the damn emperor really think that all the women in the world wanted to marry an old man like him? Who gave this scumbag, whose half body was already buried in the earth, the confidence?
"Your Majesty, if Jiang Ci is an evil creature, then what are you?"
Su Qingqing shouted angrily: "How dare you, Yan Shu, you bitch actually dared to insult His Majesty, you are simply courting death, Your Majesty, such a person should not be kept around, you should execute her immediately."
The old emperor's face was also as dark as a stone. As the emperor, no one had ever dared to humiliate him in public like this.
"Yan Shu, I will forgive your rebellious remarks this time, as you have done a great job in curing my headache. However, my patience is limited, so please do not push your luck!"
Yan Shu sneered twice: "May I ask your Majesty if I have ever said anything wrong?"
"boom!"
In a rage, Emperor Hongwu raised his hand and threw the chessboard on the table to the ground. The crisp sound of the chess pieces hitting the Yuyao floor tiles made a harsh sound, which scared Su Qingqing so much that she screamed and took two steps back.
Yan Shu stared at the old emperor without fear.
"Your Majesty is so angry because I predicted it, right? Back then, you relied on the power of the Feng family to seize the throne. As soon as you took the throne, you couldn't wait to find a trumped-up crime to kill the entire Feng family. You even refused to let go your wife and your own son who accompanied you in your youth. How can you call such a cold-blooded and ungrateful person a scoundrel?"
The old emperor stared at Yan Shu coldly, his eyes as sharp as a knife. If he could really kill people, he would have tortured her to death long ago.
Suddenly, the old emperor laughed.
"Do you know whose residence is Taihua Palace? Haha, this is the bedroom of the late queen. That evil creature should have died in a fire in Taihua Palace, but he was lucky enough to escape. All the officials of the previous dynasty pleaded for him and I had no choice but to throw him into the cold palace to fend for himself. But this evil creature has survived many disasters like a weed, and now he even dares to appear in front of me as the top scholar. How can I let the blood of the Feng family continue to cause trouble to my country? So he must die today! And this Taihua Palace is his burial place."
A surge of anger spread in Yan Shu's heart. Not everyone in this world is worthy of being a father or a mother. Did Jiang Ci, who was tortured and bullied in the cold palace more than a decade ago, ever hope that this man would visit him? He must have longed for fatherly love, but it was a pity that his father was not worthy of being a human being, even worse than pigs and dogs!