Crossing the Palace Fighting Fox Harem

Chapter 249 The Emperor Arrives

After hearing Hua Rong's words, Ji Anni could no longer relax.

"Your Majesty, the Queen Mother was frightened last night. In order to appease the ghost of the fox demon, she will most likely hold an apology ceremony for the Fox Demon Queen in the Demon-Suppressing Temple. You and Concubine Shui Cong must not be absent at that time." Hua Rong had already guessed the Queen Mother's thoughts.

"But..." Ji Anni remembered what Yan Niang said yesterday. Yan Niang had warned her not to get close to the Demon-Suppressing Temple.

Hua Rong didn't know why Ji Anni was worried, and said to herself: "Your Majesty, if the Queen Mother really wants to hold an apology ceremony, it may be a good opportunity for the Imperial Master..."

"National Master?" Ji Anni was stunned for two seconds before she reacted, "Yun Zhen? Why?"

The Queen Mother, the Demon-Suppressing Temple, and the Ceremony of Apology, what do these three items have to do with Yun Zhen?

Hua Rong nodded and said calmly, "Your Majesty, if nothing unexpected happens, the Imperial Master may be able to return to the palace for this reason."

"Really?" Ji Anni immediately became excited. She only heard "return to the palace" and completely ignored the number "one trip".

Shui Furong listened carefully and asked Huarong, "Is the Imperial Master only coming back to the palace once? After the apology ceremony, will he leave the palace again?"

Hua Rong said: "It depends on the Queen Mother's opinion. In short, if the Queen Mother wants to hold an apology ceremony at the Demon Suppression Temple, then the Imperial Master will definitely return to the palace. As for whether he can stay in the palace, it depends on how tolerant the Queen Mother is of him."

"It seems that last night's fox demon rebellion was not all a bad thing, haha." Ji Anni smiled and was in a good mood.

Although everything was just Hua Rong's guess and whether the Queen Mother would hold an apology ceremony was still an unknown, Ji Anni was already looking forward to Yun Zhen's return to the palace as if it was a foregone conclusion.

"Why does the Imperial Master have to return to the palace after the apology ceremony?" Shui Furong still didn't understand this, so she asked Hua Rong for advice.

Hua Rong asked, "I wonder if the Majesty knows that there is a room with a huge lock in the Demon-Suppressing Temple?"

"A room with a huge lock?" Shui Furong murmured, and the strange room behind the execution ground immediately appeared in her mind. She had long felt that there was some secret hidden in that room, and after hearing Hua Rong's words, she was even more certain.

Ji Anni finally calmed down from the joy of Yun Zhen's upcoming return to the palace and joined the discussion: "There is indeed a room that is locked, and there is no keyhole on the lock, only a lot of strange spells pasted on it."

"That's right, it's that room." Hua Rong's eyes turned gloomy, and she said in a sinister tone, "Although the Demon-Suppressing Temple was sealed during the reign of Emperor Taizu, wasn't there a ghost in the palace three years ago? At first, it was suspected that the demons in the Demon-Suppressing Temple were causing trouble, so the Imperial Master sealed the room in the Demon-Suppressing Temple that contained the fox beads again. The talismans on the lock were all pasted by the Imperial Master three years ago, and no one can open it except the Imperial Master. If the Queen Mother wants to hold an apology ceremony, she must first ask the Imperial Master to come back and open the lock."

"Wait." Ji Anni interrupted Hua Rong and suddenly realized a major problem, "What did you say was in the room?"

"The fox bead." Hua Rong answered again with certainty, "Don't you know, Madam? It's the fox bead that made a terrible crying sound in the ghost story that Princess Tianning told."

"Such a scary thing, why do you want to open the lock again after it's already been sealed?" Ji Anni rubbed the goose bumps on her arms. Whenever she thought of the ghost story Princess Tianning told her, she felt shivering all over. At first, she thought it was just a palace ghost story and could be treated with a normal heart, but now after so many stories, she has long believed in the legend of the Demon Temple.

Hua Rong said, "The fox bead was left behind by the Fox Demon Queen after she was burned at the stake. The bead contains the Fox Demon Queen's spiritual power and resentment. Legend has it that the bead can make a crying sound and call for her baby. The bead was sent out of the palace before, but it came back the next day. With no other options, the fox bead was sealed in the Demon Suppression Temple. If you don't open the room, you can't communicate with the spirit, and if you can't communicate with the spirit, you can't talk to the Fox Demon Queen."

"Can he still speak?" Ji Anni felt that this was like a fairy tale. The other party had been dead for so long...

"As long as you use the psychic technique, you can talk to the vengeful spirit in the fox bead." Hua Rong was already used to this, and answered Ji Anni very experiencedly, "If the fox demon rebellion last night was really because the fox demon queen was angry, only by apologizing to her can her anger be calmed down - at least that's what the queen mother thinks."

"So what do you think?" Ji Anni felt that there was a mystery hidden in Hua Rong's last sentence, "The Queen Mother thinks so."

Hua Rong didn't dare to say anything, but lowered her head in worry, and said softly: "I don't know... but I always have a premonition that the fox demon chaos last night was not caused by monsters, but... by humans."

"Man-made?" Ji Anni's heart skipped a beat and she almost couldn't breathe. "Who would do such a thing?"

"Your Majesty, can I speak frankly?" Hua Rong asked with a frown, and used her eyes to signal Ji Anni to show her the presence of Shui Furong.

Judging from Hua Rong's expression, she must have already had the answer in her heart, but because Shui Furong was present, she did not dare to say it out loud.

Shui Furong could tell that Hua Rong thought she was getting in the way, so she shouted unhappily, "How can I not know? Why do you have so many secrets? Forget it, forget it, if you don't want to listen, then don't listen."

After saying that, he left angrily. Just as he was about to leave, Ji Anni called him and said, "Furong, wait a minute, you stay."

"Empress." Hua Rong hurriedly let out a low, rapid cry, obviously thinking it was inappropriate to let Shui Furong stay.

Ji Anni said, "It's okay. Shui Congfei and I are already friends. He has helped me many times, and I also know his secrets, so there are no outsiders here, so you can talk without worry."

Seeing Ji Anni trust her so much, Shui Furong's eyes lit up immediately. She turned around and sat back in her original position. She pushed Ji Anni's shoulder and said, "That's right. You are really nice." After that, she glanced at Hua Rong and said, "In fact, even if you don't say it, I can guess that the so-called 'artificial' refers to Yun Zhen, right?"

"Yun Zhen?" Ji Anni's eyes suddenly widened in shock.

Hua Rong did not answer, but looked at Shui Furong silently. Her silent attitude and vigilant eyes proved that her thoughts were the same as Shui Furong's without her having to say anything.

"Is it really Yun Zhen?" Ji Anni lowered her voice and asked Hua Rong for confirmation again.

This time, Hua Rong nodded slightly.

When Shui Furong saw Huarong nod, she immediately became proud and said boastfully, "I told you, it must be him. Xiao Zhao, do you remember? I told you that the national teacher had a sinister aura, so there must be something wrong. And when I saw Xuanjizi's expression when he stared at Zhihu last night, I knew what he saw. Who else is the person who is most familiar with Xuanjizi and is well versed in Taoism, except Yun Zhen?"

"And the most important thing," Hua Rong added, "After the fox demon's disturbance last night, the Queen Mother was frightened. Because of this, the Imperial Master had the opportunity to return to the palace. After all, if there are no mice in the palace, who needs a cat to catch mice?"

This is the most important reason. Thinking about it this way, Yun Zhen is indeed the most suspicious.

Hua Rong said: "However, there is still an obstacle for the Imperial Master to return to the palace. Someone around the Queen Mother is against holding a ceremony of apology at the Demon Suppression Temple."

"Is it Yan Niang?" Ji Anni knew that Yan Niang would not let anyone approach the Demon-Suppressing Temple easily.

Hua Rong nodded and sighed, "As a palace maid, Yan Niang is really too unusual..."

How could an ordinary palace maid dare to oppose the Queen Mother? And why did the Queen Mother indulge Yan Niang so much?

Indulgence is like... fear.

#

At this moment, there were two knocks on the door.

The door was not closed, and when everyone looked up, they saw a tall man standing at the door.

The man was dressed in simple white clothes and looked like a scholar from Wenhua Academy.

Shui Furong thought that this person had heard their discussion, and shouted angrily to the outside of the door: "Who are you? How can you be so rude! Don't you know that you can't just come in here? Woo woo..."

Before he could finish shouting, Ji Anni covered his mouth.

At this moment, half of a eunuch's head suddenly popped out from behind the man, and the eunuch shouted, "How dare you not kneel before the emperor."

"Your Majesty?" Shui Furong's brain went blank.

Hua Rong and Ji Anni knelt down together and whispered in unison: "Long live the emperor."

"Is it really the emperor?" Shui Furong whispered in Ji Anni's ear. Although he followed Ji Anni's kneeling obediently, he still couldn't believe that this ordinary man in front of him was actually the emperor of the Tianyou Dynasty.

"Shh." Ji Anni didn't dare to answer and signaled Shui Furong with her eyes to stop talking nonsense.

The eunuch glared and gritted his teeth, as if he wanted to teach Shui Furong a lesson for her disrespect for the emperor.

Fortunately, the emperor forgave Shui Furong's rudeness and calmly helped him out with a faint smile, saying, "In Wenhua Academy, there is only the distinction between teachers and students, not the distinction between the emperor and his subjects. I am here to listen to the lessons today, and my status is the same as everyone else. You don't have to be so polite, just stand up."

No wonder the two guards at the gate did not stop him, it turned out that it was the emperor who condescended to come.

Although the emperor allowed them to stand up, the three people kneeling on the ground looked at each other, and no one dared to stand up first.

Hua Rong was a maid, so of course she didn't dare to stand up before the Empress. Although Ji Anni had the status to stand up first, she always seemed a little timid in front of the emperor and behaved very carefully. Shui Furong had just made a small mistake, so of course she didn't dare to stand up shamelessly.

So the emperor waited for a minute, but still no one stood up. He couldn't help but laugh at himself and said, "Am I so scary?"

The eunuch hurriedly shouted, "The emperor ordered you to stand up, all of you get up."

The three of them then slowly stood up. After they stood up, they all seemed very reserved, not daring to speak or move.

"What? Did I come at the wrong time?" Long Mohan's eyes swept across the faces of the three people one by one.