[Ancient Style] The notorious minister turned out to be beautiful, strong and miserable

The red plums on the painting screen are as colorful as blood.

Zhao Minghou has been in the living room for several hours.

The last stick of incense ashes fell.

The more drums sounded, the fireworks burst into the dark night sky, and sparks scattered around.

The feeling of being strangled by the throat became clearer.

He pursed his chapped lips for no reason, and picked up the cold tea with trembling hands.

Cold water entered the throat, washing away the bitter taste of dryness.

With a creak, Zhu Hong's front door was pushed open from the outside.

Zhao Ming raised his eyes and saw King Qin in armor pushing the door and entering. He seemed to be coming down from the banquet, drunk but not drunk, his eyes were serene.

"Zhao Ming, I have something for you to look over."

King Qin handed over a few thin sheets of tissue paper, and Zhao Ming took it with a bow.

These few thin pages are clearly the life of Zhao Yan written by Cheng Mu who stayed up all night during his illness, word by word, painstakingly.

From the 15th year of Jian'an to the end of the third year of Yongli, the ups and downs of the official career are recorded in black and white, and the unknown past is presented in front of Zhao Ming's eyes. Zhao Ming reads it word by line, and still knows every word , connected together but cannot understand the meaning.

There were other reasons for the gossip between Zhao Yan and the first emperor that he despised.

His weak elder brother even killed himself.

Zhao Ming recalled the appearance of Zhao Yan when she returned to Zhao's house dying, but her mind was blank.

He hated Zhao Yan's vicious behavior because of the Lu family's confiscation of the family. It turned out that it was not Zhao Yan's intention. The late emperor wanted to copy the Lu family and abolish the cabinet.

All the things he spied as a young man had reasons behind them, but he was blinded and didn't know anything about it.

Zhao Ming raised his eyes to meet King Qin's sarcasm, and said in a difficult voice, "Your Highness, about my uncle..."

Standing with his hands behind his back, Chu Qin said in a cold voice, "At that time, if Zhao Yan pleaded for your uncle, your Zhao family would also be involved in the situation of the court at that time. The civil and military officials of the court were all waiting to catch him. The Cui family saved their lives. 50 taels, how could the Shen family in Jiangnan afford such money? At that time, His Majesty ordered me to check the accounts, Zhao Yan came to me personally for the 50 taels, and it was the king who kept it a secret for him."

When Lan Qing was still at the mansion, Zhao Ming found out the family ledger. The 50 taels of gold in the ledger came from the Lu family, but the whereabouts were unknown. It turned out that the 50 taels of gold protected his uncle's life.Thinking about it now, I'm afraid that the 50 taels of gold is not what he thought at the beginning, and it came from Zhao Yan's embezzlement of public funds that the Lu family fined and confiscated.

Zhao Ming continued to look down, and saw "the emperor bestowed cinnabar on Zhao Yan."

The tip of my heart jumped.

He looked up at Chu Qin, his eyes blank and bewildered.

Chu Qin said indifferently, "The time when the 50 taels was credited to Zhao's family coincides with the time when the late emperor bestowed Zhao Yan Dansha. The 50 taels are your brother's life-saving money. And he exchanged the life-saving money for your uncle life."

Chu Qin went to the Dali Temple the night before to look through the files, and the account books of the Zhao family were impressively there.

A brief comparison of the time shows that the 50 taels of gold from the Lu family was secretly bestowed by the late emperor.

So he understood why Zhao Yan wanted to conceal the origin of the 50 taels of gold at all costs.To Zhao Yan, this sum of money is like a maggot attached to the bone, gnawing at his flesh and blood every day, reminding him of the humiliation he has suffered.

Zhao Ming's breathing became heavy.

The snow-white paper, the pitch-black characters, like the obituary of a ghost, brought Zhao Ming, a living person, into the gloomy hell.

Chu Qin laughed, "I'm afraid you don't know what cinnabar is. The first emperor was afraid that he would take power in the future. From then on, your elder brother will have less than ten years to live. He alone supported the Zhao family's family status." , you entered the army under my name, and he came here regardless of face and asked me to take care of you, do you understand him a little bit?"

Zhao Ming's eyes were red, and he gritted his teeth tightly, like a lion cub whose tail was stepped on, his fists were clenched, and his flesh and liver were torn apart inch by inch.

"A few years ago, someone secretly revealed Zhao Yan's itinerary and abducted her into a brothel. If this king hadn't gone, I don't know what would have happened. Even so, there were still rumors inside and outside the city on the second day. This king reminded Zhao Yan The butler of the family should be an inner ghost, you are under his wing and you don't even know it."

Zhao Ming had heard those unpopular rumors. At that time, he hated Zhao Yan for ruining the Zhao family's innocence, and wished to sever ties with Zhao Yan. How did he know the details behind it.

There is an inner ghost in the Zhao family, who is it?

Zhao Ming's whole body trembled violently, his face was as pale as the skin of a dead body.

He knows who it is.

Lan Qing.

At that time, Zhao Yan was very disgusted with Lan Qing, and Zhao Ming was dissatisfied because he knew nothing about the government.

Now he is practicing in the Northwest, and he has heard a lot from Qin Wang.

Perhaps the reason Rong Ying approached him at the beginning was to insert Lan Qing, the inner ghost, into the Zhao family.

He actually broke up with Zhao Yan because of such a woman.

What did he say when he left Zhao's house?

"Guard the tomb of the living dead in the Zhao family. From now on, only you will be left."

He cursed his dependent brother so viciously that he never realized that the thorn bushes on Zhao Changning's body had pierced the marrow of his bones.

He didn't know what kind of expression Zhao Yan had at that time.

Because he rushed out of the rain curtain and never looked back. It seemed that he heard someone chasing him out amidst the bursting spring thunder. He didn't hear clearly what that person said at a loss.At that time, Zhao Changning only had less than ten years to live.

He is weak and got caught in the rain when he came out. Will he be seriously ill again when he goes back?

Zhao Mingsi and he even showed Lan Qing the accounts of the Zhao family, and felt horrified. Since Lan Qing was an internal response, she must be pretending to be illiterate for him to see.

Zhao Ming closed his eyes.

The veins on the back of his hands were bulging, the blood flowed backwards all over his body, he was breathing with difficulty, his limbs and feet seemed to be cut off by sharp words, and he lost all consciousness.

Counting nine cold days, big drops of sweat appeared on his forehead.

Beads of sweat trickled down his cheeks that had been attacked by the desert wind and sand into the old collar of his clothes.

The lights in the room illuminate the painting screen.

On the screen, the red plum blossoms are bleakly blooming in the snow.

Intense and brilliant, desolate and pitiful.

Zhao Ming finally turned to the last page.

"In the third year of Yongli, Emperor Xuan accused Zhao Yan of embezzling 50 gold and more than a hundred crimes. The Zhao family was sealed off. Wan, sentenced to the Liu Mansion as a handyman, died of illness in the Liu Mansion in the winter of the third year of Yongli."

Zhao Ming stared blankly at the last five words "died in Liu's house", and looked at King Qin helplessly, like a child who was abandoned and betrayed by his elder brother.

Chu Qin's voice fell on Zhao Ming's ears like a reply from the ghost hell.

"Zhao Ming, the Zhao family is gone, and Zhao Yan is dead."