coobybook Chapter 297 Autumn Hunt
Chapter 297 Autumn Hunt
Chapter 297 Autumn Hunt
One day, Ye Yanxun left Wensong Academy and went home with several close friends. He rode a tall horse, his handsome features and loose clothes swaying in the wind. He was incredibly dashing and attracted the attention of girls on the roadside, which greatly satisfied his vanity.
Ye Yanxun chatted and laughed with his friends as he walked home. When he passed through the bustling city, he caught a glimpse of a familiar figure flashing by in the crowd. He paused for a moment, then made an excuse to part ways with his friends. After confirming that no one was following him, he headed towards Yanliu Lane.
Upon returning to the Xu residence, he saw Xu Pingyue waiting for him inside as soon as he entered. He bowed to Xu Pingyue and told her some interesting stories from the academy, but Xu Pingyue had never been to school and did not understand these things, so she could only listen with a smile. As he talked, Ye Yanxun himself found it a bit boring, so he smacked his lips and stopped.
After serving Xu Pingyue her meal, Ye Yanxun said he had to return to the Marquis's residence. Xu Pingyue thought of the current mistress of the Marquis's residence, clenched the handkerchief in her hand with resentment, and reluctantly sent her son away.
As Ye Yanxun left the Xu residence, he looked to his right and saw the assassin who often accompanied Ye Yingrou nodding at him.
He followed the assassin to a deserted courtyard, where Ye Yingrou was peeling melon seeds and playing with a puppy. When she looked up and saw him, she instantly shed the coldness she had shown during their argument and stood up to greet him with a smile, showing him great warmth and concern.
Although the two had some disagreements before, they were siblings after all, so Ye Yanxun asked her how she had been doing lately and whether she had been bullied by Chunyu Jing.
Seeing that he had gotten to the point, Ye Yingrou told Ye Yanxun about Ronghua Tower's submission to Chunyu Jing and Chunyu Jing's plans for the autumn hunt.
“Brother, since we are siblings, we are in the same boat. If the Fourth Prince succeeds in this endeavor, the whole world will be his one day, and you and I, as the meritorious officials who helped him ascend the throne, will rise to great heights and enjoy boundless wealth and glory.”
Ye Yanxun was so shocked by Ye Yingrou's words that he couldn't speak, and his heart was pounding wildly.
This is treason! If it succeeds, you'll rise to power, but what if you fail? You'll lose your head!
Seeing that he seemed unmoved, Ye Yingrou continued to persuade him:
"Gongsun Yuan has taken everything that Mother should have had, and so has Gongsun Zhan. If it weren't for his power, Father would have brought Mother into the manor long ago. Once Gongsun Zhan is eliminated, Gongsun Yuan will have no one to rely on. As long as the Gongsun lineage gets involved in treason, Father will definitely try every means to sever ties with Gongsun Yuan and bring Mother back to the Marquis's manor. Brother, Mother has suffered outside for so many years, can you bear to see her continue like this?"
Thinking of Xu Pingyue, Ye Yanxun recalled the scene when he took care of her at the Xu residence earlier. The Xu residence was huge, and Marquis Anshi only came to visit occasionally. Because he was busy with the autumn hunt recently, he came even less often. Only his mother and a few maids and servants were there, which was quite desolate.
After all, a mother's heart is connected to her son's. Thinking of Xu Pingyue, Ye Yanxun gritted his teeth and agreed to Ye Yingrou's request.
Returning to the Gongsun residence, after Gongsun Zhan brought Zheng Yan back, in order to ensure her safety and out of pity for her tragic background, he kept her by his side at all times except when she was sleeping, doing small tasks such as serving tea and water.
Although the girl was a bit slow-witted, she was quite efficient in her work. She neither bothered others nor annoyed anyone, so no one paid any attention to her coming and going from the study. She secretly took some of Gongsun Zhan's calligraphy every day.
Influenced by the blood puppet, she actually had no consciousness of her own. Every move she made was directed by Ye Yingrou. Once Gongsun Zhan returned to the Prime Minister's residence, when she went to serve him, she would take advantage of the fact that no one was paying attention to poison Gongsun Zhan.
The poison was not a potent drug that could kill instantly, but rather it could slowly invade a person's internal organs, gradually causing them to show signs of decay, and then suddenly die from some extremely minor illness, without anyone noticing.
Gongsun Zhan never expected Zheng Yan to poison him. He had only vaguely felt unwell these past few days, had no appetite, and didn't want to wake up once he fell asleep.
He consulted the imperial physician, but the physician couldn't find anything wrong, only saying that autumn had arrived and he might be experiencing some autumn fatigue.
Everything proceeded slowly beneath this seemingly calm yet treacherous undercurrent. And then, in the blink of an eye, the day for the autumn hunt arrived.
On this day, the sky was cloudless, banners fluttered, and the warm sun hung high. The people of the capital, eager to catch a glimpse of the emperor, crowded from the outer edge of the imperial city all the way to the city gates. When the golden palanquin, a symbol of the emperor's status, emerged from the palace gates, the entire capital knelt on the ground, kowtowing and shouting:
Long live the Emperor! Long live the Emperor! Long live the Emperor!
The unrehearsed yet perfectly synchronized shouts soared into the sky, reverberating throughout the capital and stirring an inexplicable sense of fervor in everyone who heard them. The emperor, seated in his palanquin, listened to the people's submission, a look of profound satisfaction spreading across his aged face.
In the several equally prestigious carriages following the emperor's palanquin, Chunyu Jing imagined a future where he would be the one receiving the kneeling worship of the people, his body trembling slightly with excitement.
After the royal procession left the city, the carriages and horses of other princes, nobles, and high-ranking officials followed, trailing behind the procession. The royal autumn hunting procession, stretching for ten miles, set off from the capital towards Xingzhou under the escort of the Xuanjia Army.
The spectacle was beyond description; anyone who saw the procession was awestruck by the majesty of the imperial family.
Marquis Anshi, holding the title of Marquis, traveled in a carriage not too far from the Emperor's. He brought both Ye Yanxun and Ye Pianran along for this autumn hunt. The former was to ensure he achieved something at the hunt that would catch the Emperor's eye, while the latter was brought along entirely because of a bet made by the three princes.
Even if he didn't take Ye Pianran with him, she would have plenty of ways to go. After all, she had a maternal grandfather who held a high position.
Thinking of her maternal grandfather, Ye Pianran's brows furrowed involuntarily.
In her previous life, she had heard the servants of the Marquis's mansion talk about the magnificent scene of the royal autumn hunting procession. In fact, she could have gone out, but at that time, her face was injured by Ye Bijun and poisoned by Ye Yingrou. Her wounds never healed. Marquis Anshi was afraid that she would disgrace the Marquis's mansion if she went out, so he ordered her to stay in the Marquis's mansion and not go anywhere.
She also remembered that after the autumn hunt, her maternal grandfather gradually lost the emperor's trust. Two years later, when Prince Yue's rebellion failed, the emperor found letters between Prince Yue and her maternal grandfather while searching Prince Yue's personal belongings. Without asking any questions, the emperor arrested and executed all members of the Gongsun family.
Her rebirth did indeed change her own and her mother's fate through her own power, but it also altered the original trajectory of the world line. For example, she and Chunyu Yang, who should have had no interaction, are now connected and share the 666 space.
Furthermore, she also brought forward some events that were supposed to happen later. She just didn't know exactly how much earlier these events, which were supposed to occur two years later, would be.
However, the autumn hunt was so important to the royal family that if anything went wrong, the person in charge would be held accountable by the emperor.
She had a premonition that this autumn hunt would not be as peaceful as she had imagined.