I have a book to play

Xie Zhang sat cross-legged on the ground with his hands tied behind his back, and behind him were several guards holding swords.Hearing the sound of the door being pushed open, the corners of his lips curled up into a cold sneer.

The room was especially quiet because of what had happened before.Even the guard's breathing was extremely low.His sneer was very clear at the moment, with an undisguised sarcasm.

Emperor Xihe, who was approaching, obviously heard the sneer, and immediately lowered his face: "Zhang'er."

Xie Zhang moved his hands, turned his head, and stared expressionlessly at Xi Hedi who approached him.He reeked of alcohol, his eyes were bloodshot and red, no matter how he looked, he looked like a drunk.

Xihedi raised his hand to touch his head, Xie Zhang shrank his neck subconsciously.

"Go back."

Seeing Xie Zhang's reaction, Xihedi said suddenly.

The guards didn't dare to disobey, but they didn't dare to go far, they just stood outside the door, just in case.

"Really drunk?"

The tone was totally different from that in front of Concubine Xian before, Xihe Emperor seemed to have taken off a mask, and spoke to Xie Zhang with a different expression.

Xie Zhang didn't reply, he smelled of alcohol, as if he was still stuck in his own world.

"I know you're unhappy, but you have no choice but to be honest, whether it's your elder brother or your third younger brother, they can keep you safe and prosperous in the future. If you want to kill people every now and then, aren't you afraid that I won't be able to protect you?"

Xie Zhang still didn't speak, but staggered and hummed something.

Xihedi's patience ran out, he raised his leg and kicked Xie Zhang hard on the waist.

Seeing someone being kicked to the ground, he said angrily, "I can't keep you from what happened today! Just wait for your brother to come back and see how he will deal with you, a bastard!"

"Gu is a beast, so what are you, father?"

Xie and Di wanted to leave, but Xie Zhang, who had been lying on the ground without saying a word, giggled and made noises.

"Father, tell me, what kind of monster is a person who can give birth to a beast? He is an old beast, right?"

"Brute, old bastard, little bastard...little bastard, old bastard, and a big bastard..."

Xie Zhang seemed to be really drunk, lying on his side on the ground, repeating the same content over and over again.

No matter how good Xi Hedi's patience was, he was worn down to nothing but disgust. He immediately flicked his sleeves and left him alone.

The footsteps behind him got farther and farther away, the door was pushed open and closed again with a creak.The rambling words in Xie Zhang's mouth gradually became lighter with the sound of closing the door, and finally it was so soft that he could hear the conversation between Xi Hedi and Xie Yu outside the door.

"How did you come?"

"My son heard that the second emperor's brother was drunk and hurt his mother, concubine and aunt, so I came here specially to see what happened."

"You have a heart..."

"Old bastard..." Listening to the conversation between the father and son outside the door, Xie Zhang turned over with great effort on the ground, the place on his waist where he was kicked felt a faint pain, and the arms and wrists tied behind his back were also very sore.He laughed: "There's another little bastard..."

*****

Empress Yuan was very ill.If it wasn't for the desperate blocking of the maids around her and the protection of the concubine Xian, she might not have the strength to move half a step when Xie Zhang's knife fell.

Since she became ill, she could only lie in bed, or cough, or sleep deeply.Even if Concubine Xian's blood splashed all over her face, she still just lay there with her eyes closed, as if everything had nothing to do with her.

Fortunately, seven days after the accident, before Emperor Xihe decided to demote Xie Zhang as a commoner and drive him out of the palace regardless of the empress dowager's obstruction, the Empress Yuan woke up.

Just when he woke up, he coughed up a mouthful of blood.

"Where is the person? How come the person who sent the letter hasn't brought His Highness back yet?!"

Xi and Emperor Ben were discussing matters in the Xuanzheng Hall. When they heard that the Yuan Empress woke up, they immediately left Manchu Wenwu and ran to Sixiang Palace.Looking at the pale and depressed Empress Yuan, he said angrily, "Is it possible that the letter hasn't been delivered to Xizhou after so many days? If this is an important military situation, it will be delayed!"

Knowing that this was to vent his anger, the chief servant who followed behind could only agree with him a few times, seeing that Xihe Emperor's anger could not rest for a while, he had no choice but to look at Concubine Xian twice.

Concubine Xian sat on the bedside of Empress Yuan, holding her cool hand, her eyes were already red from crying.There was still a puddle of blood at the foot, which was coughed up by Empress Yuan just now, and she hadn't had time to clean it up yet.While wiping her tears, she caught sight of the head servant, she pursed her lips, and turned to look at Emperor Xihe.

"Your Majesty, don't worry, maybe something went wrong on the road."

"What could go wrong?" Xi Hedi frowned.

On the road from the capital to Xizhou, if one follows the official road, with fast horses and whips, running day and night without interruption, seven days will be enough for the courier to deliver the letter to Xie Chen.What's more, what Yixi and Diman wanted to send was not an ordinary letter from home. What Yixi and Diman wanted was to thank Chen for returning to the capital as quickly as possible.

No one knows how long this disease will torture people.

Maybe it will be a few months, maybe it is only a few days.

"Maybe... was intercepted?"

Xie Yu's voice was soft, as if a little timid.

Only then did Emperor Xihe notice that he was also in the hall, and he was taken aback, and asked, "What's the meaning of this? Yu'er, what do you mean being stopped?"

*****

The messenger was indeed intercepted.

Although the Wang family was defeated, with the Queen and Wang Youzhi around, it was obviously impossible to liquidate it completely.

The messenger sent by Emperor Xihe to deliver the letter to Xizhou died within half a day after leaving the capital, and died at the hands of the soldiers sent by Queen Wang, so how could he deliver the letter to Xie Chen.

Xie Yu looked like he said it casually, but Xi Hedi was not stupid, and immediately called someone to go out of the city to look for it. Sure enough, he found the clues and found a corpse that had been hastily hidden.

Everything that could prove the identity of the corpse was stripped away, and even half of the face was eaten off by wild dogs.If it wasn't for the messenger's family members in the capital, and the birthmark was found on the heart when identifying the body, I'm afraid it would be really difficult to distinguish the identity.

But whether the murderer belonged to Queen Wang or not, there was no evidence for a while.

Seeing that Empress Yuan's health was getting worse day by day, Emperor Xihe didn't dare to delay any longer, and immediately sent a small group of people with a letter to rush to Xizhou for [-] miles.

On the other hand, because of the incident in Xizhou, and knowing that Empress Yuan was seriously ill, Xie Chen, Sun Peng and his party had already embarked on the journey back to Beijing.Accompanied by her was Pei Chu who was already married to Sun Xian.

Pei Chu's status is special, although he is a military household, but before his father Pei Yuan, the Patriarch of the Pei family, is cleared of his crimes, he is still only a guilty minister, and he cannot return to Beijing without reason.It's just that Xie Chen's trip was originally to bring back the Pei family, so naturally he wanted to take him on the road.

"How long will it take to arrive in the capital?"

It rained frequently recently, and the road was full of potholes. Compared with the men riding horses, it was obviously not easy for Sun Xian, a female family member, to sit in a bumpy carriage.Sun Peng was always thinking about Elder Sister's physical condition, even though Pei Chu was always by her side, he would still ride his horse and look back at the carriage from time to time.

I have asked the same question many times on the way, and as usual, the handlebar looked up at the sun, and replied: "If you go back to your husband, you will be able to cover half of the distance at about dusk."

Sun Peng nodded: "Let's find a place to stay before the sun goes down." They just made do with the dilapidated temple in the mountains last night, so it's all right for them, but Sun Xian is still there, so they still want her to find an inn to be safe and secure. to sleep.

Xie Chen heard the words: "I remember there was a small village nearby when I came here, I should be able to find a place to stay overnight."

Just as he finished speaking, he suddenly heard rustling sounds from the woods next to the official road.Everyone immediately stopped their horses and vigilantly supported the sabers at their waists.

Then, I saw Chen Yi riding a big black horse, carrying something, rushing out of the woods in a hurry.

"Brother!" Chen Yi yelled, "Hurry up, someone is chasing after you!"

Almost at the same time as Chen Yi's voice fell, Pei Chu rushed out from the carriage, led people past Chen Yi, and went straight into the woods.

Hearing the sound of swords facing each other in the forest, Xie Chen frowned: "What's going on?"

"This man is wearing the badge of the palace. I just asked. He is the messenger sent by His Majesty to the palace to deliver the letter to the senior brother!"

Only now did Sun Peng see clearly that the person being carried on the horse by Chen Yi turned out to be a half body covered in blood.

On the shoulder that had been split open by the knife, the bone was deeply visible, and half of the body was covered with blood, and it was not known whether he was alive.

"What the hell is going on?"

Sun Xian lifted the curtain of the car and asked the injured to be taken to the carriage to take care of them.

The man might have been holding his breath all the time, and the movement was so loud that he woke up from the pain: "The last general...the last general..."

"Slow down..." Seeing the man's pupils dilated and tremblingly reaching out to his arms, Sun Peng hurriedly supported his elbow.

"My, Your Highness... will be ordered by the pen... to send a letter... Empress Yuan... is seriously ill... Please... Your Highness... hurry back..."

The man wasted a lot of strength, and finally took out the blood-stained letter from his chest with trembling hands.The letter was still hot with wax, and no one opened it halfway.

Xie Chen frowned, and reached out to take the letter.

He just took hold of a corner of the letter when the man's hand fell down, as if the breath he had been holding on for had finally completely dissipated.

"Take his waist card." Xie Chen said, "Write down his name, return to Beijing another day, remember to make good arrangements for his family."

Chen Yi bowed his head and said yes, and respectfully performed Namaste, then lowered his head to touch the waist badge on this person.

At this moment, Pei Chu also came back with someone.

"Your Highness." Pei Chu handed over a blood-stained waistband, "This is something found from the killer who chased and killed this person."

The role of the waist card is to distinguish the identity of the person.

The waist badge on the messenger is specially made in the palace.The piece that Pei found was not much different from the messenger's in appearance, but after careful identification, it was not actually a waist card in the palace.

"It belongs to Queen Wang." Sun Peng recognized the badge.

"It's also Wang Youzhi's person."

Xie Chen took the waist card and put it in his arms.

When Pei Chu heard this, his brows immediately frowned: "What is the identity of that person, and he actually asked the Wang family to send a killer?"

"Is there no one alive?" Sun Peng tightened the rein of the horse, intending to go into the woods.Pei Chu stopped him and shook his head.

"No one alive?"

"No." Pei Chu sighed, "If he was caught, he would take poison and kill himself."

This is obviously well prepared.

Sun Peng didn't go into the woods any more, his thoughts were all about what happened in the palace.

When he came back to his senses, Xie Chen had ordered someone to bury the body in the woods, and the resting team quickly continued their journey.

Sun Peng asked: "What's wrong?"

Xie Chen looked at him: "Xie Yu teamed up with the concubine Xian in advance, raised troops to rebel, and forced the palace."