Zhang Gu and Gui Qing, one inherited his grandfather's domineering chess skills, and the other inherited Qin Fang's weird and changeable chess style of twisting needles and lightly embroidering. The chess skills of both of them are among the ranks of national players, so the game played in front of them is extremely exciting, like thousands of cavalry colliding with each other, the momentum is rising one after another, and it is thrilling.
Time passed little by little, and the originally empty chessboard was gradually filled with criss-crossed black and white chess pieces. It was not until both boards could no longer produce a single chess piece that the two players stopped playing.
Zhang Gu stared at the chessboard and said with a smile: "Your Highness the Princess is very good at chess. I have been running a stall in that dilapidated alley for several years, and I have never played chess as hard as today."
Gui Qing said: "Your chess skills are extremely domineering, but they are a little more royal than your grandfather. In my opinion, this is where the best is better than the old."
"Your Highness the Princess is so complimentary."
Zhang Gu reached out to touch the tea cup. Because he had played chess for too long, the tea was no longer warm. This fine Laoji Dahongpao was roasted with lychee wood and fermented for five years. Finally, the tea leaves were enough for people to boil. Less than one tea leaves in ten are naturally rare and precious.
So because he was too focused on the game, he didn't even take a sip, and the whole pot of tea was left to cool down. Zhang Gu felt a little regretful.
He hesitated for a moment, then decided to make another pot, but when he stood up, he was stopped by Gui Qing.
"This tea is not as good as drinking it when the king and his ministers talk in the future. If you really want to entertain me, just bring two jars of about the same amount of wine."
Zhang Gu smiled bitterly and shook his head, "I'm afraid this won't work. Unless there is a banquet, drinking on weekdays is a heavy penalty in the Imperial College. "
Gui Qing suddenly felt that the chessboard in front of him was a bit unsightly, so he acted rogue and destroyed the entire chessboard with a wave of his sleeves. The chess pieces fell to the ground one after another, big beads and small beads fell on the jade plate, and the sound was clear and sweet.
After there was room on the table, Gui Qing leaned forward, cupped her chin with her hands, and said softly: "Zhang Gu, you should play a game with Li Zixin."
"I haven't seen the legendary Chunwei examiner who made the imperial court furious. Why, he is very good at chess?" Zhang Gu asked curiously.
Gui Qing replied: "Just like him, they are all bad chess players."
Zhang Gu was stunned for a moment, then suppressed his laughter and whispered: "Your Highness the Princess should have heard of that famous article. It said that Qu Shengren was exiled and swam in the rivers and lakes. A fisherman saw him, Then I asked you, aren't you a Sanlu doctor? How come you are so haggard and withered, and end up being exiled here? Qu Shengren replied, "The whole world is turbid, but I alone am pure. Everyone in the world is drunk, and I alone am sober. This is why I am sober."
Guiqing thought softly: "The saint is not stagnant in things, but can move with the world. The world is all muddy, why not dig out the mud and make waves. Everyone is drunk, why not feed the bad and sip it? Why raise your thoughts and lift yourself up? Order Fang Wei?"
Zhang Gu said with emotion: "Yes, His Highness the Crown Prince is such a person. He is unwilling to change with the world. His body cannot be inspected by the touch of things. The whiteness of Hao Hao cannot be stained by the dust of the world. So His Highness the Crown Prince plays chess and We are different. In order to win the chess game, we sometimes regard the opponent's chess pieces as our own, and then infer the correct solution. In the eyes of His Highness, black is black and white is white. There is an absolute boundary between the two, which is absolute. They cannot be confused, which is why he obviously has chess skills, but he always fails to win."
Zhang Gu looked around, murmured, and then lowered his voice and said: "Your Royal Highness, please allow Zhang Gu to boldly say that the court can have many upright ministers with clean sleeves, but it cannot have not one treacherous minister. When the water is clear, there will be no fish, but when people are careful, there will be no fish." Then there will be no disciples. His Highness the Crown Prince’s current temperament will cause many problems for him in the future.”
What Zhang Gu said was very cryptic, but Gui Qing understood what he meant instantly. She immediately narrowed her eyes and said coldly: "He can't sit on that dragon chair. How can he let you, Zhang Gu, sit on it?"
It seemed like a remark that was outrageous in the world. Zhang Gu felt as if he had been struck by lightning. Cold sweat broke out in his eyes. He quickly bowed and said, "Zhang Gu was just discussing the matter, and he had absolutely no intention of doing so!"
"No?" Gui Qing said slowly: "No, you have to give it to me today."
Zhang Gu suddenly raised his head, in disbelief, just because he heard or understood wrongly.
Guiqing stood up and said, "You heard me right, that's what I meant."
"Zhang Gu, let me ask you on his behalf, are you willing to be the emperor of Dafeng?"
Gui Qing put her hands behind her back, and without waiting for Zhang Gu's answer, she pressed her words step by step, "He gave you a choice, but with me, you don't have any choice."
The breeze stopped and there was silence for a long time. Zhang Gu asked softly, "Why do you want me to be the great emperor?"
"If you want to ask why, my parents can tell you, the sacrificial wine can tell you, Li Zixin can also tell you, and he can talk to you for days and nights when he comes in person. But here, I will only tell you, He stayed alone in Dafeng for you and almost died several times. I don't like what he did, and I don't agree with his idea of letting you be the emperor, but I don't want him to suffer in vain. I am His sister, I feel sorry for him. So today, you, Zhang Gu, must give my consent no matter what."
When Guiqing said these words, there was a vague murderous intention.
He will only come back after completing these two tasks: putting down the rebellion of the Eight Kings and deposing the Imperial Family. But how long will this take, three years? Five years? If it’s a little rougher, maybe ten years?
What if he really stayed in Dafeng, thousands of miles away from home forever?
She really didn't dare to think about it.
So she absolutely couldn't watch his life go in vain, and she definitely couldn't accept Zhang Gu saying the words "I refuse"!
Gui Qing's voice was cold and piercing, "Zhang Gu, I will only ask this once. He wants you to be the emperor. Do you agree or not?"
"I am willing to follow His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's original intention, just to become an official in Dajing, not to become an emperor."
Gui Qing was furious, "Stop talking nonsense! No answer or no!"
"No."
Zhang Gu's face was so calm and he said these words without any hesitation.
Gui Qing took a deep breath and said, "If that's the case, then just go and die."
The sky suddenly changed. The cloudless sky was instantly obscured by evil spirits. The whole capital city seemed to be in darkness.
At this moment, Gui Qing's whole body was shrouded in violent evil aura, like an evil ghost.
She slowly raised a hand and said in a voice without any human emotion, "If I kill you, he will have no reason to stay in Dafeng."
Zhang Gu nodded, "I failed His Highness the Crown Prince. Zhang Gu deserves his death."
He closed his eyes and waited for the woman in front of him to take his life.
"Gui Qing, stop it!"
Qin Fang, who ran all the way here, looked at this scene with disbelief, and was so nervous that even her voice changed, "Gui Qing, if you dare to kill him, your brother will definitely hate you for the rest of his life! He will never be like you again. I forgive you like that before!”
Guiqing shook her head desperately and murmured: "So what? Let him come back to confront me. I would rather he beat me, scold me, and look at me with disappointed eyes than to stay in a place where he could die at any time. Great service!"
Guiqing has taken a step forward.
Qin Fang roared: "Gui Qing! If you do this, your brother will really hate you to the core!"
Gui Qing stopped and turned to smile at her, the smile was so bleak.
"Let him hate me. Anyway, I am a disobedient sister. This time is the right time."
"Stupid! Do you think you can solve the problem by sacrificing yourself?" Qin Fang burst into tears and cried with all her strength: "Don't forget who forced him to run away from home! Do you want to make the same mistake again? !”
The sound was like a harsh scream, penetrating through Gui Qing's heart. She stopped suddenly and froze in place.
"Do you think you're the only one who's about to lose your heart and go crazy with sadness? Do you think you're the only one who's looking forward to it like crazy? So does your mother! So does your father! But why can't you trust him? When his life is at stake, how can you If you can hurt him, you should believe in him and pray for him!"
"Gui Qing, stop it!!"
What Qin Fang said came true. The overwhelming evil spirit receded instantly. The sun once again warmed the entire capital. The sky was clear and peaceful.
The woman in the white dress fell to her knees with a plop, covered her face with her hands, and burst into tears.
"Qing'er." Qin Fang slowly squatted down in front of her.
He slowly opened her hands that were holding her face, revealing a face that was so sad and miserable that it made people cry. Qin Fang's heart was as sharp as a knife and she hugged her hard.
"I just want him back, I just want to be a good sister, what's wrong with me!"
At this moment, even the grievances of everyone in the world combined could not compare to the extremely sad woman in front of him.
Qin Fang said in a trembling voice: "No, listen to my mother, you are really a very good sister. You are really great."
Guiqing hugged Qin Fang tightly, with tears streaming down her face, and choked with sobs: "Mom, you let him come back, you let him come back."
"That day at the top of Qingfen Mountain, it was obviously him who took me home. But now he doesn't want me or our family anymore!"
Gui Qing's eyes were flooded by a natural disaster, and unstoppable tears burst out of her eyes, as if a breach had been opened.
It's so miserable, everything seems to wither when seeing this.
Qin Fang has never seen such a sad and sad Guiqing in her life. At this moment, no words can restore the heart that has been broken into millions of pieces.
The only thing she could do was to hold her hard, let her feel the warmth, and allow her to cry and vent her pain without restraint.
Zhang Gu stood there in a daze, looking at the sad woman kneeling in front of him, his whole body trembling uncontrollably.
During the year when she was crossing south from Yongjia, she also knelt in front of him like this, crying uncontrollably.
The world doesn't know why this grandson of the emperor's master is willing to live in seclusion in a back alley, just playing chess and earning a few copper coins that jingle in his pocket, despite his great talents.
It's nothing to see Dafeng's orthodoxy being overthrown, and it's nothing to see his grandfather sacrifice his life to seek the Dharma. These are not the reasons why Zhanggu Dayin has withdrawn from the world. Even though he was the best at breaking the chess game with dominance, he could never defeat the chess player in his heart.
That person is himself, the person who insisted on going his own way back then.
It wasn't until he watched her being squeezed into the water on the shipwreck, watched her struggle desperately, watched her exhale her last breath in the water, and then slowly sink, that Zhang Gu realized how stupid and helpless he was when he was young. Medicine can help.
If at that time, he had not listened to his grandfather's words and chose to flee, if he had tried to control the government and acted personally, would the country not have been overthrown, and would his sister not have died in Yongjia Nandu?
He will always remember Wang Sizhi's words.
"In fact, your Dafeng was not exhausted at that time, but it has already turned around. Unfortunately, you only listened to the destiny and did not do your best, so Dafeng still perished."
His sister died right in front of him, so Zhang Gu understood the sadness of the woman in front of him better than anyone else.
If the brother and sister really lost each other because of him, this would definitely be a life-long pain that Zhang Gu could not bear.
"I, Zhang Gu, have become my own sinner and can no longer be the sinner of others."
This Confucian scholar, who is good enough to govern the country and enter the temple, put his hands on his chest, bowed, and said solemnly: "Zhang Gu is willing to guard the country for the rest of his life, and is willing to die of old age in the country for the rest of his life! Zhang Gu is willing to be the emperor!"
The sound is not loud, but it lingers for a long time.
On this day, even if Zhang Gu still did not truly enter the officialdom, he truly entered the world.
He reconciled with his former self and won the chess game.
I have been around for a long time
I'd rather be me
