Wishful Things

With this thought, Xu Mingyi immediately dodged silently and hid behind the thick bodhi tree.

Her back was pressed against the tree trunk, and she clenched the sleeve crossbow with her right hand.

The wind blew past, and there was a rustling sound in the dark surroundings. She was not even sure if she heard it wrong.

And if she hadn't misheard, such a subtle movement, there must not be many people on the other side, so it shouldn't be difficult to solve it.

When she was concentrating and gaining momentum, a cry from the Celestial Eye suddenly sounded above her head.

"Chirp!"

Xu Mingyi's expression changed when he heard it, and he subconsciously raised his head to look at the top of his head. The big bird was standing on the tree trunk, flapping its wings without regret.

Xu Mingyi felt wrong.

Tianmu can be regarded as a seasoned senior in the job of guarding the wind, and has never held her back like this.

unless……

Could it be—

Thinking of a possibility, Xu Mingyi's heart jumped a few times, he poked out half of his head from behind the tree, and looked in the direction he came from just now.

There was indeed someone behind her!

Although the footsteps were light at this time, compared to just now, they seemed to have been undisguised. In the darkness, a dark figure was walking towards her.

This place is outside the Mausoleum Hall, only a few yellow lights hung in the distance, and they couldn't see each other clearly for a moment.

It was the cry of the Celestial Eye that allowed them to identify each other.

The third eye has already flown towards that figure.

Xu Mingyi also ran out from behind the tree, and ran towards the person who came.

She rushed forward, stretched out her hands in the darkness and hugged him tightly.

She had great strength and ran so fast that she almost knocked him back a step.

He pretended to be bumped and hurt, and grunted and laughed.

Xu Mingyi could feel that he was wearing a fine silk black robe, the robe was very soft, but the figure under the robe was strong and powerful. The breath is clean and refreshing, and the body smells like it has just been exposed to the sun.

He also stretched out his arms to hug her, his tone filled with the joy of reunion, low and gentle, but he asked first: "Didn't you agree to stay in Beijing and wait for the news?"

Her identity has not been revealed, and it is safest to stay in the city at this time, which he also agreed with her in the previous plan.

When he learned that she was going to enter the city alone, he was extremely opposed to it. If he discussed it with him, it would be impossible to discuss it—she must also know this. When the letter was sent to Ningyang, she had already entered the city.

He can only step up and deploy everything to make the plan go as smoothly as possible.

"Didn't you also promise not to come to Lingshan? Just wait outside to be picked up?" Xu Mingyi raised his head from in front of him, and asked him in a tacit tone.

Both the left and the right are not obedient people, so let's not talk about anyone.

Wu Chiu sighed with a smile.

He knew she would not stay in the city obediently.

Without asking too much, she knew the reason—she might have something bad happen, so she had to keep an eye on her to feel more at ease. Even, she has other plans.

She will not let this plan fail.

And he is the same, because of the same reason, he understands the other party's thoughts.

The original plan was for the prince to come here, and he and Duke Zhen were outside to meet him. He knew what this meant—with the Duke here, why should he come to meet him? In the final analysis, it is the prince who wants to bear the risks and variables alone, and leave the stability and "results" to him.

He can't agree.

The prince—father, has taken on too much all these years alone.

And he, who has never shared anything for his father, is the one who is least qualified to sit back and enjoy the benefits.

So, he has to come.

Father is here, Zhaozhao is here, how can he not be here.

The number of people that can be brought in is limited, and the risk can always be lower if there are multiple people who can make up their own minds to deal with it in secret.

On this point, the ideas of the two coincided with each other.

"At this time, there are heavy soldiers guarding all around Lingshan, how did you get close to this place?" Although there was no movement around, Xu Mingyi still dragged people to hide in the dark.

The Tianmu also rattled to follow.

Wu Chao answered her: "I met Ji Xiu this afternoon—"

Xu Mingyi was a little surprised.

The emperor just arrived today, but his movements were fast enough, and he had already set up a line with Ji Xiu.

That being the case, it is not surprising that he can easily approach the palace.

She asked again: "Are the prince and grandfather ready?"

"Don't worry, everything is going according to plan and everything is ready." Wu Chao said, "It's just the day after tomorrow."

only--

"Why do you come here late at night?" He glanced around. This is the entrance of the mausoleum, and it is also the place where sacrifices will be made in the future. Although there are no heavy guards at present, there will be guards patrolling past. And she must be taking risks along the way.

He approached here tonight in order to find out the situation everywhere, and to hide in the palace in advance, so as to arrange things for the day after tomorrow.

Although he had the news sent by Ji Xiu as a reference, he always had to check it himself to be sure whether it was as the other party said.

When he came, he noticed that another equally suspicious person was approaching here, so he followed behind.

At first, he was not sure that it was Zhao Zhao, so he just followed and never showed up.

"I'm here to get something..." Xu Mingyi said in a very low voice, grabbed his wrist, and said, "Come with me."

Seeing the two leaving just like that, Tianmu's eyes widened extremely round, and he murmured twice in confusion—is the master who hasn't seen him for a long time blind, why can't he see it at all?

Wu Chao didn't rush to ask Xu Mingyi what he wanted to get, so he followed her all the way to the Baosha in the back hall, there was obviously someone there, and the breathing was heavy and mixed.

Coming outside that room, Xu Mingyi took out the smoke and lit it, squatted down and stuffed it in through the gap under the door.

Wu Chao was a little puzzled.

All the eunuchs who fell asleep here must be the eunuchs of the Mausoleum Palace, what are they going to do if they are stunned? Could it be that what you are looking for is in this room?

After the tube of smoke was exhausted, Xu Mingyi came to the window, pried open the window with a dagger, and explained in a low voice, "I'm going to get the key to the mausoleum..."

I was looking for a key——

Wu Chao grabbed her arm: "Wait, I'll go."

A room full of eunuchs, lest you see something you shouldn't see or touch something you shouldn't touch.

If he is not there, let it be. If he is, he should be exempted if he can.

He was happy to do his best, so Xu Mingyi didn't insist, nodded, and stuffed him with a clean sweat towel, motioning him to cover his mouth and nose.

Wu Chao took it, put one hand on the window sill, jumped up, and rolled in silently.

Most of the keys were hung on the girdle of the robe. He first came to the screen where the eunuchs used to hang their clothes. Behind the screen were chamber pots, wooden barrels and other things.

The eunuchs who are far away from the palace are inevitably lax, and they are not very particular about everything.

Wu Chao covered his nose and held his breath, thankfully he didn't let Xu Mingyi in.

Half a quarter of an hour later, he came out of the window.

Seeing that he got it, Xu Mingyi closed the window, and the two quickly left the place and headed for the front hall.

There are two big bunches of keys, there are fifty or sixty of them, and the two of them tried for a while before opening the door of the palace.

It's not impossible to pry open the window, but this is the main hall, and preparations for sacrifices will be made tomorrow, if traces are left, people may notice.

The more you get to the end, the more you have to be careful.

The moment the palace door was pushed open, there was light in the line of sight.

In the solemn and majestic hall, long lights were lit up and down, and there was a faint scent of incense candles that had lasted for many years. Inside the shrines are enshrined the spiritual tablets of the late emperor and Xie's ancestors, above which hung portraits.

Xu Mingyi's eyes fell on the portrait directly above.

It turned out that this was the first emperor.

She quietly glanced at the young man beside her.

Nothing like it.

Wu Chao resembled the Empress Dowager and King Yan in two parts, and the rest almost resembled the Wu family.

As for the late emperor...

Xu Mingyi's gaze fell back to the portrait. She looked at it, and Emperor Qingming was quite similar to the former emperor.

Next to the portrait of the first emperor, there was another portrait of a woman hanging. Xu Mingyi glanced at the memorial tablet - this should be the emperor's biological mother, the rumored Empress Duanxian.

Xu Shi was still very young when he died, and the person in the painting looked only in his twenties or thirties.

Wu Chao only glanced at it, then looked away, and asked her, "Zhao Zhao, where is the thing?"

Xu Mingyi led him to the incense case.

On both sides of the long case that runs across the hall, in the left and right corners are placed an enamel vase that is more than one person tall.

According to Princess Jingrong's previous explanation, Xu Mingyi tried to move the vase on the right, Wu Chao saw it and stretched out his hand too.

Behind the bottle body is the empty palace wall.

Xu Mingyi's fingers groped and tried inch by inch on the wall which was about the same height as his shoulders.

Wu Chao understood.

There are organs here.

And at this moment, he saw that where the girl's slender white fingers touched, the wall painted with colorful paintings suddenly and slowly sank in——

As the wall tiles recede and deepen, it can be seen that the depression is a square cavity about seven or eight inches in size.

Seeing that Xu Mingyi was about to reach out, he raised his hand to stop him: "Be careful."

He still didn't know that Princess Jingrong had informed about this mechanism, so he became vigilant, pulled out the long sword around his waist and probed inside it for a while, and when he realized that there was something inside, he stretched out his hand to take it out.

The thing should have been placed against the organ, and as soon as it was taken out, the organ slowly closed again, restoring the original flat wall.

What he took out was a long box made of dark wood and locked.

Sombre wood is not easy to split, and this lock looks unusual—

Wu Chao was thinking about whether to leave here first, and then find another way to open it, but saw a key handed to him.

He was a little surprised.

I thought Zhaozhao’s “coming to fetch” was a subtle and decent way of saying it… I didn’t expect that it really came to fetch, because there was a key.

Xu Mingyi said: "The key was given to me by the eldest princess, and she also hid it here in the early years—"

As for how the mechanism was set up, the eldest princess did not mention it in detail, but she used to live with the empress dowager in the mausoleum temple for a long time, so there is no shortage of opportunities.

She looked at Wu Chao and said, "Come and have a look."

It is more suitable for him to open it than her.

She subconsciously glanced at the portrait of the first emperor again, Wu Chao just met her here tonight, maybe it was some kind of guidance.

With a crisp sound of "click", the lock was opened by Wu Chao.

There is another chapter tonight, but it should be quite late, and you can read it tomorrow.