Painting Doctor Jinhua

Chapter 165: Capturing Zu Ting and asking Xiao Luan about his past

A prayer for rain at the Bronze Sparrow Tower once again made Princess Lanling Xiao Jinyu famous. Since then, the deeds of Princess Lanling have become a household legend among the people of Yecheng. Some literati who witnessed the deeds have compiled them into a storybook, which is sung and performed in major brothels in Yecheng.

The largest brothel in Yecheng was Fengyue Tower, where Zu Ting often ate, drank and gambled with his friends. Occasionally, when he heard people praising Princess Lanling's stunning beauty and unparalleled wisdom, he could not help but feel distracted. Of course, he also paid a very painful price for his distraction.

Until now, he still hasn't figured out whether the person he brought home that day was a man or a woman. He drank too much and talked a lot. In the end, he was overjoyed and did whatever the "woman" asked him to do. Otherwise, how could he get beaten up and not know who beat him?

But he couldn't help but sigh: "This Princess Lanling is really different, too different. Not only is her beauty different, but her unruly personality is also different. I wonder how it would feel if I could hug her or touch her?"

"Master, are you still thinking about it? Wasn't the lesson from last time enough?" The steward reminded.

Zu Ting shuddered, stroked his still bruised face, and asked, "What did you just say? Did His Majesty send an order?"

"Yes! Master, His Majesty has an urgent decree for you to enter the palace!"

Zu Ting suddenly felt like he was slapped in the face again, and sighed, "It's over. Could it be that His Majesty has discovered what I did?"

"What are you waiting for? Get your official uniform ready. I'll be in the palace soon!"

After putting on his official uniform, Zu Ting got on an ox cart and soon arrived at the Zhuming Gate. After walking the long two-mile imperial road, he straightened his clothes and arrived in front of the Taiji Hall.

Taiji Hall is the main hall, where court meetings, banquets for ministers and reception of envoys were held. Like the Taiji Hall in Jiankang, it is divided into two halls, east and west.

Emperor Gao Zhan was sitting in the East Hall at this moment. The court meeting had ended and all the ministers had left.

Seeing Zu Ting coming, Taifu Gao Guiyan said with a smile: "What kind of delicacies has Zu Zhongshu eaten recently? Why does the flesh on his face seem to be even fatter?"

Zu Ting smiled and replied, "This is what a real man should do. Master, please don't laugh at me!"

After saying that, he hurried to Gao Zhan, knelt down with a plop and said, "Your Majesty, I am innocent. Please be careful and don't kill me by mistake!"

Gao Zhan looked at Zu Ting strangely for a long time. After he finished crying, he asked, "Zu Qingjia, what heinous crime have you committed that you want me to forgive your sins?"

"No, absolutely not!" Zu Ting looked up at Gao Zhan, then at the extra person beside him, and his eyes widened instantly, "Li Yonghe, why are you next to His Majesty?"

Li Mi smiled and said, "Zu Zhongshu is really not well-informed. I am now the Palace Attendant and the Director of the Imperial Library beside His Majesty. If you have anything to say, please tell His Majesty and I will take notes beside you!"

It looked like I was doing my job seriously and you guys were continuing, with his head down on the pen, ignoring everything.

Zu Ting turned his gaze to Gao Zhan again.

"May I ask, Your Majesty, what is the purpose of my visit?"

"I want to ask you, why did you take leave at home these two days? How did your face become like this?"

Zu Ting's face darkened, and he almost cried. He explained, "Your Majesty, two days ago, I brought a woman pretending to be the Princess of Lanling home. We drank and gambled with her. I didn't expect that the woman took advantage of my drunkenness, tied me up, and beat me up..."

"Wait, you just mentioned a woman pretending to be Princess Lanling? Why did you bring such a woman home?" Gao Zhan quickly grasped the key point and asked.

Zu Ting broke out in a cold sweat, and after rolling his eyes for a while, he replied, "Your Majesty... Your Majesty saw that the Princess of Lanling was extremely beautiful, so I wanted to invite her to my home to learn from her about painting skills..."

"Oh... Zuqingjia, you are very brave. I don't even dare to covet Lanling Wang's princess now. Your face is fatter than mine!"

Zu Ting kowtowed rapidly.

"Your Majesty, I deserve to die. I will never dare to dream of Princess Lanling again!"

Gao Zhan waved his hand in disdain:

"Alright, whether you deserve to die or not, Lanling King will take care of you!"

"I called you here today to tell you that in three days I will personally select scholars in this Taiji Palace to recruit talented people for the State of Qi. Among them is a talented man named Xie Zhen. I want you to come and compete with him in person! What do you think, Zuqing?"

A contest of talent! Fortunately, fortunately! I was scared to death! I thought that all the evidence fell into the hands of His Majesty!

"Yes, I will obey your orders and select talents for your majesty!"

"Okay, go back now! Come to the Tai Chi Hall in three days!"

"Yes! I obey your order!"

Zu Ting wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, stood up quickly, and ran away. Before he had run far, he heard Gao Zhan behind him ask, "Li Changshi, bring me the diary you wrote!"

Fortunately, he was not called. Zu Ting breathed a sigh of relief again. Li Mi's voice came from behind him:

"Yes!"

"You wrote no less than 30,000 words. What is it about?"

This is Gao Zhan's voice! What kind of daily record can contain 30,000 words?

Zu Ting was just beginning to feel suspicious when he heard Li Mi say in all seriousness, "Your Majesty, you slept with seven women last night, which was very heroic. I have recorded your great achievements, and I believe they will be remembered for eternity!"

Maybe because he was listening too attentively, Zu Ting did not see the road clearly for a moment and fell down the stairs with a thud. When he got up, the half of his face that had already subsided became swollen again.

……

"Hahaha... That's so funny, Fourth Brother, you didn't see how Zu Ting fell flat on his face. It's so ridiculous!"

Gao Yanzong, who occasionally saw Zu Ting fall down the stairs, could not help but describe the funny scene in front of Xiao Jinyu and Gao Changgong with great joy!

After laughing, he seemed to think of something, and showed a little anger on his face: "This Zu Ting often colluded with Lu Junjun and He Shikai, and often said bad things about us in Your Majesty's ears. My elder brother was harmed by these people's slander. I wonder what he said in front of Your Majesty today?"

"Fourth brother, fourth sister-in-law, you must be more careful in the future. Although Fourth Sister-in-law has gained fame for praying for rain and His Majesty has also granted her the position of Grand Historian, County Lord Lu is a very sinister person. I'm afraid that she can't deal with you openly, so she acts in secret!"

Xiao Jinyu smiled and nodded after hearing this, saying, "We will, thank you Yanzong!"

Seeing Xiao Jinyu's smile, Gao Yanzong was stunned for a long time before he replied, "You're welcome, Sister-in-law, you don't have to be polite to me. It's just that Sister-in-law is so beautiful, especially when she smiles. She's even more beautiful. It always makes people lose their minds!"

After a pause, he continued,

"And I never thought that a beauty like my fourth sister-in-law could have such talent and courage to compete with Lord Lu in a discussion!"

"I'm a little envious of Fourth Brother!"

"Yanzong——" Gao Changgong interrupted him in a deep voice.

Xiao Jinyu knew that this was a sincere compliment, so she supported Lanling Wang's hand and said, "It's okay, Changgong, Yanzong has no ill intentions. Let's hurry and do our business!"

"it is good!"

Gao Changgong still said yes softly and looked at her intently.

"Prince Lanling really dotes on his princess. Not to mention Zheng Yue, I'm afraid no other woman in the world would be pleasing to him!"

Because at this moment on the street in front of the palace, the three words "Lanling King" themselves are attractive, so at this moment, pedestrians who were watching the two of them from afar have spontaneously gathered together, and the number is increasing.

Phoenix followed behind the two of them, and suddenly turned around to look at where the crowd was surging. For some reason, he always felt that there was a pair of eyes watching him, and he vaguely smelled a hint of danger.

"Brother Qing, hurry up and get in the carriage! I'll help you get that person out!"

Fenghuang came to Xiao Jinyu and whispered.

Xiao Jinyu also noticed something strange, so she nodded and got into the carriage with Lanling King.

……

When Zu Ting returned home, he received a letter saying, "The things you lost are with me. Please come to the Dazhuangyan Temple to see them!"

The Dazhuangyan Temple was the royal temple of the Northern Qi Dynasty. If one was not a person of noble status, one might not be able to enter this temple.

Who on earth asked him to meet at the Dazhuangyan Temple?

Something was indeed lost in Zu Ting's house. Evidence of forged official documents and embezzlement and bribery were nothing. The most important thing was a secret letter in which he flattered Lu Lingxuan and her son and planned their future with them. If this secret letter fell into the hands of Emperor Gao Zhan, then even if he had a hundred heads, Gao Zhan would be enough to chop off his head!

So, when the butler handed the letter to him, he began to tremble all over. Without saying a word, he got on the ox cart and took a few servants with him to the Great Majestic Temple!

At dusk, the Dazhuangyan Temple looked particularly solemn and dignified. Zu Ting knocked on the door of the Dazhuangyan Temple. A little monk's head popped out. After asking his name, he let him in.

Zu Ting followed the direction in the letter and came to the backyard of the Dazhuangyan Temple, where there was actually a meditation room made of bamboo. In front of the meditation room stood a Xianbei boy of about eleven or twelve years old. Although the boy was still childish, he had a handsome appearance and was very eye-catching.

Zu Ting took a quick look and felt very familiar with the person, but he couldn't remember where he had seen him before, so he stepped forward to greet him and asked, "Is this..."

"My master is in this meditation room, go in quickly!" Phoenix said in a cold voice.

"Who is your master? What grudge do you have against me? Why do you want to..."

"You'll know once you get in. Why all the nonsense?"

Fenghuang glared at him coldly. Zu Ting dared not say another word and walked into the meditation room with a smile on his face. Several of his servants wanted to follow him in, but were stopped outside the door by Fenghuang's eyes.

This is the most intuitive feeling that Zu Ting and other servants had when they saw the Phoenix!

After entering the Zen room, he saw two masked people. One was tall, with broad shoulders and narrow waist, with a noble and sharp demeanor, and he was obviously a man who had been on the battlefield for a long time. The other had a slender waist and neck, skin whiter than snow, and a graceful figure. Even without looking at her face, one could tell that she was a woman with an extraordinary appearance.

"I wonder what business it is that you two have asked me to come here?" Zu Ting was the first to ask.

The man then took out a large stack of documents from his sleeve and placed them in front of Zu Ting. Zu Ting took a look and found that they were the documents he had lost that contained the altered official documents.

He was so scared that he rushed towards the documents and wanted to tear them up!

"Zu Zhongshu, you should know that it is useless for you to destroy these documents. This is also a copy of Yu's. Now that these things are known to others, there is more evidence than just the ones in front of you!"

"Oh, by the way, didn't you write a secret letter to Lord Lu? Maybe you have been thinking about it for a long time and haven't sent it out yet!"

Zu Ting was so frightened that he knelt down immediately.

"Who are you? I have no grudge against you, why are you trying to harm me like this?"

"Zu Zhongshu, if you behave properly, you won't be afraid of being harmed by others, right?"

The man said this with a smile, then held the hand of the woman beside him. The two of them found a couch and let the woman sit down.

"We invited you here today not to settle accounts with you for selling official positions, corruption and theft, and even for having private dealings with the wives of many high-ranking officials in the capital. We just want to ask you about an old matter!"

When Zu Ting heard this, he was overjoyed.

"What old things are you asking about?"

"We want to know everything about Xiao Luan, the imperial physician and doctor of Guanglu who served beside Emperor Wenxuan when he was alive, including the cause of her death..."

Upon hearing this question, Zu Ting's face suddenly darkened.

"Why are you asking her? I don't know much about her. I just..."

He was halfway through his words when he suddenly felt the light around him dim. A deep chill spread through the Zen room like a tide. An invisible pressure forced him to kneel down again.

Before he could understand what was happening, a sword with a cold glow was already placed on his neck. At the same time, a dark shadow stood in front of him, blocking his view.

"Okay, let me tell you. Actually, I don't know much about Xiao Luan. This woman is too mysterious. When she was an official beside Emperor Wenxuan, she never bothered to talk to me. But she is a remarkable woman with outstanding medical skills and extraordinary intelligence. She knows a lot of things that others don't know or can't think of. Oh, just like the Princess of Lanling..."

When mentioning Princess Lanling, Zu Ting's expression changed again. He subconsciously glanced at the woman who was sitting on the couch without saying a word, and continued, "When Emperor Wenxuan was alive, although he was cruel and killed people like flies, he would stop killing as long as this woman was by his side. Emperor Xuan Gao Yang also admired this woman very much. As long as he wanted any woman in this world, no matter if she was his brother's wife or his minister's wife, he would take her if he wanted her. But he was very respectful to this woman.

Xiao Luan once suggested to Emperor Xuan that he build the Great Wall to resist the invasion of the northern Hu. Emperor Xuan accepted her suggestion and later thought about taking this woman as his concubine, but she refused, so he gave her a third-rank Guanglu Dafu.

There was once a beauty who wanted to compete with Xiao Luan for favor. She slandered Xiao Luan in Emperor Xuan's ear, saying that he wanted to control the emperor with drugs. However, Emperor Xuan not only did not doubt Xiao Luan, but killed the beauty instead. He also took out her femur and made it into a pipa in public to show his respect for her! "

At this point, Zu Ting's expression became somewhat strange and puzzled.

"However, there is one very strange thing. Xiao Luan served as the exclusive imperial physician beside Emperor Xuan for about eight years. In the first seven years, Emperor Xuan was able to control his bloodlust. But in the last year, for some reason, Emperor Xuan's condition deteriorated drastically. He would often put on makeup and women's clothes and sing and dance in the streets.

In the end, he did something extremely cruel, which was to gather all the male members of the Yuan clan and kill them. A total of more than 700 people were killed, and even babies were not spared.

It seems that because of this incident, Xiao Luan fell out with Emperor Xuan, resigned from the positions of imperial physician and Guanglu Dafu, returned all the treasures and mansions given to her by Emperor Xuan, and left Yecheng quietly.

Later, Emperor Xuan drank too much and fell ill, and died!

When Emperor Xuan died, he was holding a piece of silk in his hand, on which was written: "I cannot save such a king!"

Hearing this, Xiao Jinyu fell into silence and thought. Prince Lanling once again held her hand tightly to comfort her.

After Xiao Luan left Yecheng, she settled down in Luoyang. Logically, she was far away from the political center of Yecheng. With her personality, she should have been able to live a peaceful life. But what happened later?

Just as he was thinking about it, he heard Zu Ting continue, "However, not long after Xiao Luan left, Gao Yan and the current emperor Gao Zhan launched the Qianming coup. Gao Yan seized the throne first. After Gao Yan succeeded to the throne, he ordered a search for Xiao Luan, but he did not find him. Two years later, Gao Yan also contracted a strange disease. He often dreamed that the former crown prince Gao Yin, whom he had killed, came to find him. This disease tormented him for half a year, until he accidentally fell off his horse during an autumn hunting trip. Since then, his condition worsened until he died, and finally passed the throne to the current emperor Gao Zhan."

"After Gao Zhan ascended the throne, he seemed to have sent people to look for Xiao Luan, but it is unknown whether they found him or not..."