Chapter 4 The Smart Child

Chapter 4 The Smart Child

On the third night of being trapped in the Empress Dowager's palace, Han Ruzi curled up on the couch and silently recalled the experience of the past few days. As he wished, he was enthroned and proclaimed emperor on the day he entered the palace, which made him very angry.

"There must be a traitor to obstruct it, Yang Feng? He is a bad guy, but his position is too low, he must be Shen Mingzhi, the censor of the right patrol. Could it be that the prime minister Yin Wuxian and the military governor Han Xing also defected?" Donghai King said to himself For a while, I didn't dare to raise my voice.

Finally, the King of the East Sea was honest for a while, and then whispered: "I can't see that you are very courageous, and you are not afraid."

"Huh?" Han Ruzi thought about what he had eaten at noon and in the evening. Although he didn't come to any conclusion, he felt a lot more at ease, "Because—I didn't want to be an emperor."

"Hey, idiot, you don't know the benefits of being an emperor. When you become an emperor, you can...you can do whatever you want, do whatever you want, and do whatever you want." Could it be that the king's ministers', only the emperor is the master of the world, the others are tenants, and they have to pay rent to the emperor."

"I just want to be with my mother."

"Fool, only the emperor can achieve what you want. You can only hope for the emperor's gift. If you want to return to your mother, you must have the emperor's permission—that is, my permission." A slight snoring sounded.

Han Ruzi was also sleepy. He closed his eyes and listened to the sound outside the door. He didn't know if it was a hallucination or a real sound. He felt that he heard sobbing.

The emperor is the master of the world, but except his mother, no one feels real sadness for his death. Thinking of this, Han Ruzi began to sympathize with the elder brother who died young. They used to live together in the same mansion for nearly ten years. Years, but never met, at least not in Han Ruzi's memory.

He was woken up not long after falling asleep, thinking that this was his home in a daze, he snorted twice, suddenly felt that the smell was not right, opened his eyes immediately, and vaguely recognized a figure in the darkness.

"You can really sleep." It was the voice of the King of the East Sea.

Han Ruzi stood up and yawned while rubbing his eyes.

The King of Donghai sat up, pushed Han Ruzi away, and said in a low voice, "I've thought about it, we are brothers after all, both descendants of the Han family, with the blood of Emperor Wu, when I become emperor, I won't kill you. You, I will make you king, if you can always be honest, maybe I will let your mother and son leave the capital and go to a small county to be a small king."

"Thank you... thank you." Han Ruzi couldn't think of what to say.

"Brothers are of the same heart, and it is profitable to break the gold. We must work together and deepen our understanding. Let's talk casually first."

"Um."

The two brothers sat in the dark, and no one came up with a suitable topic for a long time, and the King of the East Sea was annoyed again, "You are really a lump of wood, you can't even speak, so let's take turns to ask questions, you come first. "

Han Ruzi thought for a while, "Why do you always say 'our Cui family'? Your surname should also be Han, right?"

"Nonsense, of course my surname is Han, but—" King Donghai's voice was originally low, but at this time it was even lower, "The Han family has too many descendants, and they don't take the prince seriously at all, everyone just stares at them. The emperor is alone, in the Cui family, everyone likes me, even if I'm just the King of the East Sea, they also like me, so I like the Cui family more."

Perhaps he accidentally told the truth, the East Sea King suddenly changed his words, "But my surname is Han, my name is Han Shu, a prince without any falsehood. Everyone says that I look like Emperor Wu the most. Are you called Ruzi? Why do you have such a name? Strange name? This is definitely not the real name, the names of our generation are all wooden characters."

"I'm... just called Ruzi." Han Ruzi said uncertainly, "Mother said... Emperor Wu had seen me and praised me as 'ruzi can be taught', so..."

The King of the East Sea laughed out loud, and hurriedly shut up. After listening for a while, he found that the laughter did not attract the attention of the outside world, so he smiled and said: "Your mother really knows how to make up stories, do you believe it?"

Han Ruzi said nothing.

The King of the East Sea gave Han Ruzi a heavy shove, "It's boring, your mother is a palace maid, didn't she teach you how to please others?"

Han Ruzi still didn't say a word, and the King of the East Sea was rather bored, so he jumped off the couch, returned to the big bed, fell down and went to sleep.

Han Ruzi couldn't sleep. He missed his mother, didn't like the palace at all, and even less liked his half-brother who shared the same room. Slowly, his thoughts turned to Yang Feng, imagining that the eunuch was somewhere. Fighting a group of enemies for... Han Ruzi hopes Yang Feng can win, but he really doesn't want to be emperor.

The King of Donghai came back again, touched the chair, knelt towards the window, and said worriedly: "It's not right, very wrong, the emperor is dead, we are the only people who are qualified to succeed the throne, the queen mother should be early in the morning. Make me the emperor, what is she waiting for?"

"The queen mother is mourning the emperor, who is her own son."

"Bah, how can there be such a stupid guy as you? Even if she is heartbroken, the queen mother has to establish a new emperor first. This is the practice, this is... This is the queen mother's responsibility, and she put both of us under house arrest, indicating that She's very sane."

Donghai Wang gently pushed the window, "Come here to help."

"what?"

"I want to escape, the ministers will make me the emperor. I really regret not going with the group of Taixue disciples at Dongqingmen, it's all their fault, they only shout, and none of them dare to come up and do it, Jing Yao That old eunuch pressed me to the death."

Han Ruzi knelt up, but didn't help open the window, "You can't escape, this is the Queen Mother's palace, there are two portals in front and back, if you want to go through Penglai Gate, you have to go through three portals and four long alleys, not to mention Talk about the forbidden army everywhere."

"You... actually remember the way you came in?" Donghai King was surprised.

"I don't remember very clearly."

The King of the East Sea murmured: "The hypocritical guy, almost deceived me, how can such a person stay?"

The door of the room was slamming, and the King of the East Sea had no time to return to the bed, so he hurriedly turned around and sat down on the couch. With an idea, he knelt up again, took Han Ruzi's arm, and pressed him against the window sill.

Han Ruzi was taken aback, but the King of the East Sea did not exert any special force, so he did not resist fiercely.

"You want to escape through the window!" Donghai Wang shouted loudly, the door opened, and the light from the outside came in, and he shouted even louder, "Come here, Ruzi wants to escape!"

Han Ruzi, who was unfairly accused, began to resist, but his strength was comparable to that of the East Sea King.

A soft voice said: "They are all brothers, what are they fighting?"

The King of the East Sea closed when he saw it, let go of Han Ruzi, and jumped to the ground, "My son, see the imperial concubine. Ruzi was about to escape, but I was caught."

"Do you recognize me?" The concubine Shangguan looked at the East Sea King curiously. Beside her, the eunuch Zuo Ji was carrying a lantern, and there was a palace maid holding a long wooden box.

"On the tenth day of the emperor's ascension to the throne, there will be a family banquet in the palace, and the child will greet the empress dowager and concubine."

The Concubine Shangguan smiled, "Yes, I remembered it too. You were only this tall back then. Children grow up really fast. Now they are almost as tall as me."

"Mother often complains about me because of my height, saying that it is because of me that she can't greet the empress dowager and concubine every day."

The imperial concubine nodded with a smile and turned her eyes to Han Ruzi, "I didn't seem to see you at that family banquet."

Han Ruzi had no idea what was going on with the family banquet, so the King of the East Sea hurriedly replied: "Three years ago, when my father ascended the throne, it was supposed to be a celebration of the whole world, but Wang Meiren was crying secretly in the palace. , so the royal father did not invite their mother and son at all during the family banquet."

The Crown Princess nodded, put away some smiles, and asked, "Why did you run away?"

Han Ruzi raised his finger and pointed at King Donghai, just as he was about to say that he was framed, King Donghai once again grabbed the lead, "He wanted to return to Wang Meiren, and from the moment he entered the palace, he cried and said that he missed his mother, I said You're right, Ruzi, didn't you say that?"

Han Ruzi was thinking about how to answer this half-truth question. The Crown Princess smiled and said, "You're so old, you're still a child. Come with me, and I'll take you to another place."

"When can we see the Empress Dowager?" The King of the East Sea immediately became alert.

The imperial concubine smiled and did not answer. She turned and walked out of the warm pavilion. The East Sea King had no choice but to follow. Han Ruzi was second, followed by the maid holding the box. Zuo Ji followed the imperial concubine with a lantern.

There were two palace maids in the main room, guarding in front of the Dongnuan Pavilion. The Queen Mother was inside. She summoned the two princes, but they never showed up. The East Sea King and Han Ruzi couldn't help but glance over there. Slowing down, he suddenly rushed towards the two palace maids guarding the gate and shouted, "The Empress Dowager! I am the King of the East Sea, and I want to see you!"

The maid with the box took a step forward, stretched out her hand and gently moved, the East Sea King involuntarily ran towards the door, staggering and almost tripped over the threshold, the maid turned her head and stared at the other prince, Han Ruzi stepped out on his own, secretly in his heart. I was puzzled that this palace maid looked very strange. She didn't have a half-curly shape on her body, but she looked like... a man.

The Concubine Shangguan turned around and smiled: "The smarter the child, the less obedient he is."

The King of the East Sea didn't care about the palace maid, sobbing: "The child also misses his mother, so he lost his temper for a while. The empress dowager is my real mother."

Empress Dowager Shangguan smiled without saying a word.

A sedan chair and more than a dozen eunuchs and palace maids were parked outside the palace. The imperial concubine signaled the two princes to go in, and stayed outside to walk by herself.

The sedan chair bumped forward, and the King of the East Sea pushed Han Ruzi and said in horror, "Do you understand?"

"Understand what?"

"The Empress Dowager hasn't shown her face for a long time. It's very likely... she's been killed. We're not under house arrest, but kidnapped. Maybe..." King Donghai leaned against Han Ruzi tightly, as if he would block the sudden stabbing. sword.

Han Ruzi thought for a while, "We are both dead, who will be the emperor?"

"Idiot, of course it's from the Shangguan family." King Donghai himself felt that this answer was too stupid, and hurriedly changed his words: "They will choose a puppet from the clan to be the emperor, we are too old, they have to choose one Babies who can't speak at the age of two or three, yes, this kind of thing happened in the old dynasties... God, I'm going to be killed!"

The King of the East Sea tightly grasped Han Ruzi's wrist, his body trembling slightly.

Han Ruzi struggled a few times, but couldn't get rid of the shackles, so he had to persuade: "No, if the Cui family is as powerful as you said, the queen mother will not kill you."

"Are you sure? Oh, yes, killing me is equivalent to forcing the Cui family to revolt, hehe..." King Donghai let go of Han Ruzi, still uneasy in his heart, and didn't speak any more along the way.

The sedan chair fell to the ground, and the eunuch Zuo Ji lifted the sedan curtain and probed in, "The Taimiao has arrived, please get off the sedan chair."

The King of the East Sea excitedly pushed Han Ruzi again, "The Taimiao Temple is the place to worship ancestors, I really want to be the emperor!"

(seeking for collection and recommendation)