Who among the gangsters wants to fall in love?

Chapter 119 The Queen was kidnapped! (6k)

The snow is flying in the wind and the silver moon is hanging high in the sky.

The Queen walked in the corridor at a leisurely pace and with graceful manners.

Lian Xue, the personal maid, was holding a palace lantern in her hand, but her eyes were still dizzy and looked round.

Why did the Queen Mother rush to wait nearby after learning that Zhao Wumian was taken to the Eastern Palace, and then rush in again when she heard the sound of fighting coming from the Eastern Palace?
Why did the Queen want to save Zhao Wumian? Although Zhao Wumian was escorted into the Eastern Palace by Lin Daoren, it did not look like he was going to assassinate the Crown Prince, but as Eunuch Lin said, what if Zhao Wumian colluded with Lin Daoren to assassinate him?

And when did the Queen find out that Bi Ziding had peeped at her bathing? If so, was I also seen naked by Bi Ziding?

The more Lian Xue thought about it, the more confused she became. She felt a sharp pain and dullness in her head, so she gave up thinking and believed what the Queen said with all her heart.

That is to say, it is possible that Zhao Wumian attempted to assassinate the crown prince, or it could be someone from Taixuan Palace, but he did protect the queen from being taken advantage of by Bi Ziding just now. Because of this contribution, the matter must be investigated by the queen herself, and Eunuch Lin must not interfere.

But it's not good to keep this suspect around like this, right? And if we really want to investigate, we have to arrest Lin Daoren for questioning, right? Why didn't you let Eunuch Lin arrest Lin Daoren just now?

It’s over. I started to wonder about it again and my head started to hurt again.

Zhao Wumian followed behind the queen, and the fullness of her breasts under her phoenix skirt swayed as the queen walked, but Zhao Wumian's brows were furrowed, and his mind was not on the queen at all.

This infiltration into the Eastern Palace was purely a collusion between Zhao Wumian and the Queen.

He had arranged in advance to throw him into the Sky Prison and even have the Queen wait outside the East Palace so that she would rush to the rescue as soon as she heard any noise from inside the East Palace... When he saw Eunuch Lin, he took action immediately to remind the Queen that it was time to rescue him.

This is why the Queen arrived so timely.

This plan was extremely risky, but one cannot gain a tiger cub without risking it. Zhao Wumian had thought of ways to sneak into the East Palace and a way to retreat, but he had never expected that Wu Kui's strength would be so extraordinary, and that he was not even on the same level as the Grandmaster... Zhao Wumian killed the guards of the hall and captured Lin Daoren in one breath, and he could even hear the noise from an unknown distance away.

But where there are risks there are rewards. Even if Eunuch Lin is not the leader of Dong Yan, he is undoubtedly the second in command. He has already gotten to know Dong Yan pretty well during this trip. Zhao Wumian has even guessed most of Dong Yan's plan. He just lacks some necessary evidence, but his guess is pretty close.

The most important thing is...Eunuch Lin is the first person who knows Zhao Wumian after he came to this world.

According to Eunuch Lin, Zhao Wumian sneaked into the imperial treasury half a month ago and stole nine bells, and it seems he succeeded... No wonder the relics of Xiao Xitian would react to Zhao Wumian.

What about the nine bells that Zhao Wumian stole?

He had died once after being poisoned by the Cold Jade Gu, and the Cold Jade Gu was not used by Eunuch Lin. It was obvious that Zhao Wumian was intercepted by someone and killed to steal the treasure.

Of course, it is also possible that after Zhao Wumian was infected with the Cold Jade Gu, he broke out of the siege and fled thousands of miles away... Where did he go?
On the mountain of Qinfengzhai in Jin!

Even Zhao Wumian escaped with Jiu Zhong, why? Mu Lier once said that there were clues about Jiu Zhong in northern Shanxi, so she even took Luo Xiangzhu, who could sense Jiu Zhong, to run around in Shanxi.

Zhao Wumian sorted out the whole story according to the timeline.

A month ago, Emperor Jingzheng passed away, and the palace was secretly preparing for the crown prince to ascend the throne. However, a few days later, the crown prince was poisoned and fell into a coma. The court concealed the news, and Eunuch Lin stayed in the East Palace all the time. Dongyan's plan officially began.

These include but are not limited to, kidnapping the Prince of Jin, seizing the pearl relic treasure tower, sending Wu Ming to Qinfeng Village to capture Luo Chaoyan alive, etc.

After Chief Constable Su learned that the prince was in a coma, he wrote a letter overnight and asked the Tie Luosha couple to take Luo Chaoyan back to Beijing secretly, and at the same time sent Su Qingqi to pick them up.

At this moment, he sneaked into the palace, stole the Nine Bells, and after succeeding, fled the capital, but was intercepted halfway and poisoned by the Cold Jade Gu. It is suspected that he fled to Jin with the Nine Bells, and later died near Qinfengzhai. The whereabouts of the Nine Bells are unknown.

Then came a series of events that happened after Zhao Wumian woke up.

There are certainly some differences in the details and timing, but this is the overall context.

Zhao Wumian took a few seconds to sort out his thoughts, and then he saw Lian Xue frowning and looking back at him with a slightly wary look on her face. She said in a delicate voice:
"The Queen has saved you from Eunuch Lin, you must thank her sincerely and not talk back...ah!"

Before Lian Xue finished her words, she saw Zhao Wumian suddenly pointed at her, and then he actually hugged the empress's slender waist, stomped his feet on the ground, and ran forward with big strides. His speed was frighteningly fast. In the blink of an eye, Zhao Wumian, holding the empress, turned into a small black dot and disappeared from Lian Xue's sight.

The palace lantern in Lian Xue's hand fell to the ground with a clatter. She looked a little dazed, and then she was stunned for a second or two before she reacted. Her face turned pale as paper, and tears fell down. She was about to shout in a hurry, "The queen was kidnapped by thieves!"

But when the words came to her mouth, no sound came out... Zhao Wumian pressed her mute point.

It's bad, it's bad, what Eunuch Lin said is true, there is indeed something wrong with Zhao Wumian... But he didn't want to assassinate the prince, he wanted to assassinate the queen!

Lian Xue felt that everything that happened tonight was wrong and illogical, but she didn't even have the energy to think at the moment. When she saw the queen being captured, she almost fainted.

Fortunately, the secret guards who were guarding Kunning Palace were not idlers. They followed the queen secretly when she went out. After seeing Zhao Wumian kidnapping the queen, their faces froze and they immediately chased after him. They saw a series of black shadows chasing after Zhao Wumian at a rapid speed.

One of the secret guards took out a letter tube and was about to light it to put the entire palace on alert, but was stopped by an older sister.

"Wait a minute, he can't run fast with the Queen, and the palace gates are blocked, so he can't escape the palace. If we light the letter tube now, the whole city will know that the Queen has been captured by thieves... Do you still want the Queen's innocence and reputation?"

Hearing this, the secret guard was about to take back the letter tube, but then he saw a firework not far away shooting straight into the sky and exploding in mid-air, forming the shape of a flying bird. The overall color was green with red, which was extremely gorgeous.

The secret guards were slightly stunned, and one of them murmured, "The Queen's personal mailbox... The Queen was abducted by thieves, but she found a chance to set the mailbox on fire!?"

"Now that things have come to this, we must chase them first! Once we catch the thief, we can block the news and control public opinion... This is the only way!"

On the other side, many imperial guards who were patrolling back and forth at the palace gate and the city wall were stunned when they saw the queen's exclusive mailbox blooming in the night sky, and then their expressions suddenly changed.

“Puff—Hoo ...

The imperial guards immediately blew their horns, and the long, dull sound echoed throughout the imperial city.

Countless soldiers wearing black armor and holding swords, spears, and halberds strode with heavy steps towards the direction where the fireworks came from. For a moment, the entire palace was in complete chaos, filled with the sound of armor rubbing against each other.

Then someone climbed up to the observatory and rang the bell with all his might.

"Dang—dang—dang—dang—dang—"

The clear and deafening sound of the bell spread throughout the capital at an extremely fast speed.

The soldiers at the eight major city gates of the capital were all stunned, and then quickly blocked the gates.

The capital was silent at first, but then it became noisy in an instant. The sound was so deafening that even in the imperial palace one could faintly hear the capital's crazy shouting.

"Five bells! This is a signal that someone has sneaked into the palace. Seal off the city and conduct a thorough investigation!"

"Didn't you see the flying bird-shaped fireworks in the palace earlier? This is the Mingfeng letter tube! It is the current queen's exclusive letter tube!"

"The Queen was assassinated by thieves!?"

"It could also be that they were being picked..."

"The previous emperor passed away, the crown prince fell into a coma, and now the queen is in trouble too!?"

"Da Li is about to change..."

"Who is the thief who sneaked into the palace?!"

"Could it be that all of this was done by the same person?!"

People from all walks of life in the capital, both the black and white worlds, merchants and common people, no matter what their status was or what they were doing before, all stopped what they were doing and went to the streets and alleys, and even to open places such as eaves and rooftops, to look at the bird-shaped fireworks in the capital and were shocked beyond words.

A question popped up in everyone's mind.

Who is trying to assassinate the queen in the palace at this moment?

Earlier, Zhao Wumian pressed Lian Xue's mute acupoint, then hugged the queen in a "princess hug" and fled.

The Queen's mature, beautiful and majestic face showed a bit of panic like a little girl. She thought that Zhao Wumian was getting bolder and wanted to pick the most noble flowers in the world.

She wondered in her heart if she had been tricked by Zhao Wumian. But the letter she found on Zhao Wumian was indeed written by Shen Xiangge.

Moreover, as far as the Queen knew, only her niece could use the secret method of transmitting sound. Since Zhao Wumian could use this secret method, he must be at least a close confidant of Shen Xiangge.

So it was her niece who trusted the wrong person and ended up hurting her?

Then I heard Zhao Wumian's voice transmission into the secret passage:
"Eunuch Lin just wanted to kill us. He will definitely not tolerate this loss. I know his secret... He will definitely disguise himself and come to capture me. If he continues to be so slow, something bad will happen."

The queen was about to resist, but was stunned for a moment when she heard the words. Then she paused and was about to speak, but her speed was too fast. The cold wind penetrated into the queen's lips, causing her to cough a few times.

Zhao Wumian used his arms to hold the Queen tightly and shield her from the wind.

The Queen did not appreciate his kindness. Her beautiful eyes glared at Zhao Wumian. Needless to say, she knew what she meant:

"You can run away if you want, but why did you capture me? Do you want to hold me hostage? Do you really think I don't have a temper? Don't think that you can use me however you want just because you were sent by Xiangge to investigate Dongyan!"

Zhao Wumian and the Queen did not have the same telepathic connection as Guan Yunshu, but they could understand the general meaning at this moment, so they continued to transmit their voice into the secret passage:

"First of all, Eunuch Lin has been a martial arts champion for decades. I am no match for him at the moment. If he wants to hunt me down secretly, it will be difficult for him to escape. But if I make a bigger noise, reinforcements will come to support me." So you want to capture me!? Aren't you still using me!?

The Queen's anger had no effect. Zhao Wumian remained unmoved and continued:

"Secondly, the Empress is also aware of the current situation of the Shen family. After the death of the Crown Prince, if the eldest grandson succeeds to the throne, it would not be difficult for the Empress to rule the country from behind the curtain. I don't know if the Empress has ever had such an idea..."

Hearing this, the Queen's eyes flickered slightly, and then she heard Zhao Wumian say calmly:

"No matter what the Queen thinks, the Shen family is now at the center of the storm and has become Dong Yan's shield.
When I entered the capital, people in the streets were talking about who poisoned the prince. The people needed the court to catch the poisoner as soon as possible and give them an answer. I heard that most people speculated that the Shen family was the mastermind... If the court fails to catch the poisoner, the Shen family will sooner or later be attacked by people with ulterior motives on the grounds of "public opinion", such as the political enemies of the head of the Shen family.

And my kidnapping of the queen at this moment is a signal that the queen has been assassinated by thieves.
If everything goes well, the Queen can just use the excuse of being 'frightened' and falling ill, or pretend to be seriously injured, or be forced to take poison by me. No matter what the process is, as long as the result is to spread the message that 'you don't have much time left', the danger of the Shen family will be solved without any attack...

After all, the queen who can "rule the country from behind the curtain" is going to die, so the biggest beneficiary will naturally not be the Shen family, so even if there are still people who suspect that the Shen family poisoned the prince, it doesn't matter, it won't cause any trouble..."

Hearing this, the Queen's eyes gradually changed from anger to surprise, astonishment, approval, and gratitude, but she never thought that Zhao Wumian had a reason.

"Third, although the reason why the Queen took me away from the Eastern Palace is logical, it is still a bit far-fetched. If I disappeared afterwards, everyone present in the Eastern Palace at that time would guess that the Queen and I were in cahoots... The Queen has lived in the deep palace for a long time. If Eunuch Lin wanted to kill you, those secret guards would definitely not be able to stop him."

As the words fell, the Queen's eyes gradually became complicated. All these were what Zhao Wumian could think of in just a few breaths after leaving the East Palace?

But I didn't expect that he would still be willing to protect me at this critical moment.

Zhao Wumian seemed to know what the Queen was thinking, and smiled slightly, "Miss Shen has helped me a lot, and I have also promised to be the 'Queen's personal master'. Now that I have found out Dong Yan's secret, I can't stay in the palace for long, so I can only do this for now."

The Queen’s personal master?
After saying this, even though the situation was so dangerous, the Queen couldn't help but smile faintly. Then she saw Zhao Wumian sighing lightly, hesitating a little, and continued to transmit the message into the secret passage:
"But this method also has its drawbacks... People in the martial arts world are quite gossipy. If they hear that I carried the queen for such a long distance, the queen's morale would be ruined. But as long as the secret guards don't put the letter tube, and the palace suppresses the news, the specific details of this matter won't be spread, and everything will be fine... Now that they haven't put the letter tube, I guess they have thought of this."

The queen was slightly stunned, then she lay in Zhao Wumian's arms, looking up at his face.

Zhao Wumian had just exchanged a few moves with Eunuch Lin and was seriously injured. Now the secret guards were chasing him relentlessly. Zhao Wumian had almost exhausted all his potential in escaping, so at this moment he was already panting like a cow, and his heart was beating like a drum.

To be honest, this was the first time that the Queen was hugged by a man. However, this man was still distracted at this moment to explain so much to her using secret voice transmission...

The Queen reached out one hand and held Zhao Wumian's neck, allowing him to use less force when hugging her, and then her other hand reached into... a deep groove below the neck.

Zhao Wumian was a little dumbfounded and almost fell down. The Queen glared at Zhao Wumian with her majestic and beautiful face, telling him not to look, but the two were so close that Zhao Wumian refused to look. He could catch a glimpse of the northern hemisphere out of the corner of his eye.

It's just too big.

But the Queen took out a small letter tube tied with a rope from the northern hemisphere, and then, in front of Zhao Wumian's slightly surprised gaze, she pointed it at the sky and pulled out the fuse.

Phew—bang!

Brilliant fireworks bloomed above the heads of the two people who were fleeing in a hurry.

There were many threatening words coming from all around, such as "Thief, put down the queen!" and "How dare you, thief?" However, because the queen was in Zhao Wumian's arms, none of them dared to use long-range weapons such as bows and crossbows, or hidden weapons, for fear of hurting the queen, so they could only chase after them.

Zhao Wumian glanced around and saw that these secret guards were still some distance away from him, so he lowered his eyes to look.

Under the snow curtain, the emerald green fireworks were reflected on the queen's mature and pretty face and a pair of beautiful phoenix eyes.

The smell of gunpowder from the mailbox mixed with the Queen's body fragrance and reached Zhao Wumian's nose.

At this moment, even the snow curtain swept by the evening breeze is green.

The queen pulled up her skirt with one hand to cover her northern hemisphere, and then she put her arms around Zhao Wumian's neck and moved forward... At this moment, the speed was too fast, and she couldn't transmit the secret message. If she wanted to talk to Zhao Wumian at this moment, she could only whisper in his ear in this posture.

The Queen said calmly:
“Although I am the queen, before entering the palace, I was both a young lady of the Shen family and a child of the Jianghu…

There are always people who sacrifice themselves generously. Although you are not endangering my life now, since you are willing to risk your life to sneak into the East Palace and help my Shen family out of this crisis, and you are also risking the world's disgrace and taking on the bad reputation of assassinating me, what is the point of leaving my reputation behind at this moment?"

"Didn't you say that the louder the noise, the faster the reinforcements would arrive? The commotion at this moment alone is not enough for your reinforcements to find your location in time. If you delay any further, something might happen. You might as well take a gamble."

"And I will help you."

"It's only five minutes to seal the city. As long as you can escape from this deep palace, Xiangge will use the power of the Shen family to protect you."

Capital, Shen Mansion.

Empress Canghua was wearing a crimson long dress and was pacing back and forth in the back garden with her hands behind her back. From time to time, she looked up into the deep palace, her mature and beautiful face full of worry.

Although she is a member of the Demonic Cult and regards human life as worthless, she is actually very sentimental...but she is sentimental only to certain people.

Queen Shen was naturally one of them, but after Zhao Wumian entered the palace, the palace gates would not be opened until at least tomorrow morning so that he could bring news about the queen... Therefore, Queen Canghua was tossing and turning at this moment, unable to fall asleep.

At this moment, the emerald green light of the Mingfeng letter tube illuminated the imperial city and the capital.

Empress Canghua looked up, a look of surprise appeared on her beautiful face, and then her expression suddenly changed. She went back to her room and casually put on a black robe to cover her face. Then she climbed onto the eaves and stepped lightly with her embroidered shoes. It seemed that she was not exerting any effort, but her figure suddenly disappeared among the snow curtain.

My aunt would have used the Mingfeng letter tube only if she was being assassinated. However, the only person who entered the palace tonight was Zhao Wumian... It was impossible for Zhao Wumian to assassinate her, so there was only one possibility left.

He was discovered by Eunuch Lin, the chief eunuch of the imperial palace, and it was difficult for him to escape from Wu Kui, so he sent a signal for support.

At the same time, on the city wall of Xuanwu Gate, there was already panic among the trees and grass, and the guards in black armor and holding bows and crossbows were all on high alert, staring at the direction of the inner city.

General Sun Ji Jianming, dressed in a constable's uniform and holding a sword at his waist, was also among them.

He looked at a man beside him in shock.
"Captain, your intuition is incredible. You said something might happen in the palace tonight, so you brought a group of brothers to patrol the city wall. Now we didn't expect it to happen. Could it be that after the bridge of heaven and earth is connected, even intuition and perception, such mysterious things, can be strengthened?"

Chief Constable Su was a man in his thirties with a short beard, a tall stature, a calm and handsome face, and his eyebrows and eyes were somewhat similar to Su Qingqi. However, when he heard the words, he didn't know why, so he just smiled bitterly and didn't respond.

This is not intuition at all... Su Qingqi forced him to do this.

When Su Qingqi came to get the palace map for Zhao Wumian this afternoon, she went straight to Chief Constable Su and told him that someone was going to sneak into the palace tonight. If he was discovered and hunted down, you must help him no matter what.

If you don't help him and cause him to die, I won't live either.

Being threatened by his own sister, Chief Constable Su had to come even if he didn't want to.

Su Qingqi's biological father died when she was just born, and Chief Constable Su was sixteen years older than Su Qingqi. As the elder brother was like a father, he naturally agreed to whatever the younger sister wanted.

What's more, Chief Constable Su also knew who the man Su Qingqi was talking about... the mysterious man who escorted Luo Chaoyan, Zhao Wumian.

However, Zhao Wumian was always in a hurry and busy all the time. He had only been in Beijing for a day and a night, but he had not met Chief Constable Su.

Chief Inspector Su had received the favor of Luo Chaoyan's mother, which enabled him to take the position of Chief Inspector of the Detective Department. With the favor on his side, he is naturally a staunch supporter of the "Empress Faction".

Therefore, he will come both for public and private reasons.

The reinforcements Zhao Wumian mentioned were actually him.

It’s just… I don’t know whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing that my sister cares so much about Zhao Wumian.

Anyway, Chief Constable Su was in a pretty shitty mood.

He placed his hand on his sword, turned around and walked away, speaking quietly:
"With so many encirclements, one more officer is enough... I will go to search other places. The thieves are so bold, maybe there are reinforcements. I will go and intercept them."

And within the imperial city.

Eunuch Lin was dressed in disguise and wearing a veil. Not long after he left the East Palace, he saw Lian Xue running around in a panic in the corridor.

He frowned slightly, took off his scarf, and flew down, "Why are you so anxious? Where is the queen?"

Lian Xue's mute point had been untied by a secret guard sister long ago. Seeing Eunuch Lin, she immediately cried, "The queen has been captured by that thief!"

Eunuch Lin was slightly stunned. Based on the Queen's reaction just now, he was actually certain in his heart that Zhao Wumian and the Queen were in cahoots, but now it seems...

Phew——bang——

When the light from the Mingfeng letter tube reached Eunuch Lin's eyes, he was stunned again, and then he was overjoyed.

It is naturally better to act directly than in secret... Zhao Wumian has captured the queen. At this moment, the Mingfeng letter tube rings. No matter how Eunuch Lin chases Zhao Wumian, it will not be excessive.

This is a good excuse, and it is finally not worth offending the queen.

There are also countless imperial guards in the palace to help... How can Zhao Wumian escape from such a trap? ?

Eunuch Lin tore off his black robe, revealing the red official uniform underneath, and leaped onto the roof of the hall. He immediately saw Zhao Wumian, who was fleeing in panic with the queen in his arms, and immediately stomped his feet and flew after him at an alarming speed, while whistling:
"Thieves, please leave!"

(End of this chapter)