Painting Doctor Jinhua

Chapter 186 Liyang and Gao Cheng (The Princess of a Lost Nation and the Dark Minister)

The name Gao Cheng sounded very familiar, as if she had heard her royal grandfather and father mention him before, but her mind was so confused at the moment that she couldn't remember anything. She just helplessly placed all her hopes on the man in front of her.

"Will you take me away?" she asked pleadingly, with tears in her eyes, which made her look very pitiful.

The man couldn't help but stay gentle with her for a while, kissed her tearful eyes, and whispered in her ear: "Yes, but not now. Don't be afraid. I will come to pick you up after I finish my business."

"Besides... I hate Hou Jing even more than you do. I have castrated, killed, and even boiled his sons. I have even disabled him himself. It is probably impossible for him to be treated humanely. So, don't be afraid of him... I will help you kill him!"

"Also, in order to ensure the implementation of the plan and let me kill him successfully, don't tell my name to anyone else. Don't let others know that you have seen me!"

Li Yang was very scared at the time, but apart from the man in front of her, she didn't know who to trust. Even her father had abandoned her, who else could she trust?

She only hopes that this man, to whom she gave her first time, can cherish her, love her, and treasure her!

She followed all his arrangements and just waited quietly.

But the passage of time soon made her taste the pain of waiting. Every day she waited for his arrival in the cage set up for her by her father, until this hope was emptied from her heart bit by bit, until Hou Jing arrived!

That was the first time she met Hou Jing. All the guards and servants in the palace had been beheaded. The corpses were scattered on the ground, blood was everywhere, and lewd laughter continued. The moment this ugly man saw her, his eyes were shining. His mother was stabbed through the chest in order to protect her. This rude man who called himself the General of Yu Temple broke into the palace with a group of soldiers who burned, killed, looted and committed all kinds of evil. He even lived in the palace openly, holding her in his arms and drinking and having fun every day. Although it was not humane, he used all kinds of means to torture her.

If she disobeyed, this beast would kill a member of the Xiao family in front of her, and even threaten her with her father and grandfather.

Only then did she realize that her father and grandfather had been trapped in Taicheng and had been starving for many days, and this beast had not even sent anyone to bring them a bite of food.

Thinking of her grandfather's love and care for her, she gradually gave in and gradually realized that the person she was waiting for would never come again! The innocence of her youth finally disappeared in the face of the cruel facts!

Gradually, she also learned how to flatter and smile every day to seduce and deceive this ugly man, so that he would let down his guard and reduce the killing of Xiao clan members.

As expected, Hou Jing gradually became addicted to her gentleness and beauty, and gradually neglected state affairs. After that, more and more princes came to attack Hou Jing, but because of her instigation, some of Hou Jing's trusted generals advised him not to indulge in her beauty, and became hostile and wary of her.

On the 130th day of Hou Jing's siege, she heard the news of her grandfather Emperor Wu Xiao Yan's death and starved to death in Wende Hall. Afterwards, Hou Jing let her father Xiao Gang succeed to the throne, but less than a year later, he was deposed and killed.

Her brothers, Crown Prince Xiao Daqi, Prince of Xunyang Xiao Daxin, Prince of Wuning Xiao Dawei and more than 20 other princes were killed one after another.

At this moment, she was completely desperate. Her grandfather, father, mother, and brothers, all the people who had ever doted on her were dead. She became a penniless princess of a fallen country, and had to serve her enemies every day.

But she did not forget revenge, and still hid all her hatred in her heart, looking for the right opportunity, until a man named Chen Xu came to her. She cooperated with all of this man's plans, lured Hou Jing into an ambush city, saw him ambushed, was forced to flee by the chaotic soldiers, and was finally killed by the subordinates around her.

After Hou Jing died, his body was pickled with salt and shared by all the people in the city. She also had someone send her a piece of meat, which she swallowed greedily.

At that moment, the tears that she had been holding back for so long finally burst out, and all her hatred was vented.

After her revenge, she felt that the burden and responsibility on her shoulders had been completely lifted, and she became relaxed, but at the same time she lost the courage to live.

When she arrived at the Qinhuai River where she first met him, she wanted to jump off the Zhuque Bridge, but someone held her back.

This person is Chen Xu.

He told her that someone who cared about her wanted to see her!

She started laughing.

"All my relatives are dead. Do you think there is anyone in this world who cares about me?"

But Chen Xu didn't care and forced her, "No matter what you think, he wants to see you, and I also want to get what I want, so I can only use you in exchange!

He wants to live, so you must live for me!"

After she was knocked unconscious, she vaguely felt that she was taken on a ship. Later, in order to prevent her from committing suicide, Chen Xu stayed by her side every day and fed her personally until the ship reached Eastern Wei.

At that time, the government of the Eastern Wei Dynasty was already controlled by Gao Cheng. He had been appointed as prime minister and general, but the whole Jinyang was spreading the news that he was going to be granted the title of king and the nine special gifts.

This is a precursor to plotting to usurp the throne!

When they arrived in Jinyang, Chen Xu took her to a palace filled with the imposing Xianbei troops.

Gao Huan originally established the Gao family's kingdom with the Xianbei military and political forces headed by the Lou family, and the secondary capital of Jinyang can be said to be the stronghold of the Xianbei warlord forces.

The Xianbei people were all tall and strong, and an army of hundreds of people standing out had the momentum to overwhelm the rest, let alone an army of thousands or tens of thousands of people.

It was early spring that day. Standing at the front of the army, a man in noble black clothes and a cloak was particularly eye-catching. He had a handsome appearance and an imposing manner, like a king who looked down on the world. From such a distance, he was even more out of reach.

Li Yang recognized him at a glance. If she could have deceived herself in the past that the Gao Cheng she knew was not the powerful official of the Eastern Wei Dynasty whom she had heard about from her father, then at this moment, this self-deceiving fantasy had completely collapsed.

My father said that it was Gao Cheng who wanted to set up the Hongmen Banquet to kill Hou Jing, but was discovered by the clever Hou Jing, so Hou Jing fled to Southern Liang. Originally, Hou Jing wanted to cooperate with my grandfather Xiao Yan, but Gao Cheng took out the bargaining chip of exchanging Xiao Yuanming for Hou Jing to tempt my grandfather. This was a counter-espionage plan used by Gao Cheng, the purpose of which was to break the cooperative relationship between Hou Jing and the emperor of Southern Liang and force him to rebel.

In order to test the sincerity of the Emperor of Southern Liang, Hou Jing, who was already extremely suspicious, wrote a letter to the Emperor's grandfather in the name of Gao Cheng, saying that he would immediately exchange Xiao Yuanming with him. The Emperor's grandfather did not notice anything unusual in the letter and immediately agreed to the exchange conditions.

As a result, Hou Jing became completely rebellious, led his troops to attack the city, and marched all the way to Jiankang.

If you really think about it, the chaos in Southern Liang is closely related to him, Gao Cheng!

Thinking about it this way, she finally understood that her meeting and getting to know him, and even the fact that her heart was stirred by him, were not accidental. All of this was part of his conspiracy!

He was a very lustful man, and he was just playing with her to satisfy his desire to conquer her and have some fun with her.

When she was thinking like this, she heard Chen Xu say to him: "I have brought the person you want, and the things I want, King Bohai, please don't speak out of turn, otherwise..."

Chen Xu pushed her in front of him and strangled her neck with his hands.

"I'll kill her!" he said.

Liyang closed her eyes and thought, she could finally be free!

It turns out that Chen Xu brought her from Southern Liang to Jinyang in Eastern Wei just to use her to threaten this man who only wanted to play with her body and didn't care about her at all. How ridiculous!

But she heard that familiar voice saying, "Okay, I've prepared the coffin, you can take it away right away, and at the same time, send her to me right away!"

Immediately afterwards, she saw a carriage loaded with heavy objects coming towards her. Chen Xu sent someone to inspect the goods and then pushed her towards the man.

"Go, you will live the life you want by following him, don't try to commit suicide anymore!"

"There is hope when you are alive, but there is nothing when you die!"

Chen Xu finally whispered something to her.

But she sneered.

"Why do you decide my fate? Life and death is my own choice!"

"I don't know him, why should I follow him?"

"Besides, I don't want to be a bargaining chip anymore!"

After saying that, she didn't even look at the man, and ran towards the city wall with all her strength. At the same time, she heard the man shouting in fear: "Stop her!"

Although she used all her strength, she was still entangled by a long rope and pulled back. Finally, she fell into someone's arms!

"I told you, stop trying to commit suicide. She wants you to live well!"

She heard Chen Xu speaking angrily in her ear, but she didn't know who the "she" he was talking about was?

At this time, Gao Cheng came over and said to Chen Xu in a very fierce tone: "Give her to me, she is my woman, you have no right to touch her!"

"Then I hope you can treat this little princess of Nanliang well!"

After Chen Xu said this, he threw her hard into Gao Cheng's arms.

"Thank you!"

After Gao Cheng thanked her, he carried her towards the palace in Jinyang. At the same time, he ordered his soldiers to let Chen Xu go and not to chase him!

She didn't know when Chen Xu left. She just wanted to struggle out of Gao Cheng's arms, but this man held her tighter and tighter until she was exhausted and finally had to give up.

Gao Cheng brought her into a magnificent palace. It was early spring and still a little chilly, but the palace was very warm. Outside the palace, peach blossoms in bud were hanging on the branches.

"Liyang, I said I would take you to my country. See, I kept my promise, didn't I? You don't have to be locked up in that cage anymore!"

She laughed, as if she had heard the funniest joke in the world, and said sarcastically, "Don't you think this is ridiculous? What you mean by coming to pick me up and rescue me from the cage is that you will come to pick me up after my country is destroyed, my family is ruined, all my relatives are gone, and I have been insulted by my enemies and no longer dare to have hope in anyone in this world.

You feel that at this moment, I am helpless and can only wag my tail and beg for even a little bit of your love and affection, and you will be very happy, right? "

Perhaps it was because she laughed too miserably that she actually saw pity and love in the man's eyes.

"I'm sorry, Liyang, I didn't know you would suffer so much? I actually went to look for you, but..."

"I won't believe what you say anymore. I'm no longer the ignorant girl you could trick into bed with just a few words. In the past year, I've learned a lot, more than you can imagine..."

"And I can guess what you have done in the past year. As someone who has absolute power over the court of Eastern Wei and is arrogant enough to scold and beat the king directly, would you be incapable of saving an insignificant person like me?

If you don't go, it only means that you haven't thought about it at all. I guess you are busy fighting with Western Wei for the territory of Southern Liang while Southern Liang is falling apart, right?"

Gao Cheng didn't say anything, but hugged her tightly and said, "I will treat you well in the future, Liyang, it's true that I like you, I can give you whatever you want!"

"Really? Then...can you let me be the queen?"

She made this request just to disgust him. After all, there was no such thing as deposing the legitimate wife in Qi State. Moreover, it was even more difficult to give her a suitable status as a princess of a fallen country and a widow who had once been nominally married.

Moreover, being the queen is indirectly forcing him to rebel quickly. Maybe he will die if the rebellion fails.

But she didn't expect that he would actually do it, but the result was still within her expectations.

She was already disheartened and didn't care about the outcome at all. Perhaps in her opinion, the only thing that mattered was life and death.

But since the first day he brought her to the Jinyang Palace, she was under extremely close care. Apart from court affairs, he spent all his time playing with her and doting on her.

He said that he wanted to give her a new home. With a child, she would have something to look forward to and wouldn't have any more wild thoughts!

And sure enough, three months later, she became pregnant. At first she didn't want a child, but as time went on, she felt the beating of life and slowly began to look forward to it.

Wei Qi also advised her to give birth to the child and live a good life.

With Wei Qi's earnest persuasion, she finally began to slowly accept her current life until the child was born.

Everyone said that the child was very beautiful and looked 70% like her. When she held the child, her heart was filled with warmth and a sense of happiness she had never felt before.

But Gao Cheng's mother, the Bohai Concubine Lou Zhaojun, disliked her very much, saying that she was a seductive monster who once bewitched Hou Jing so much that he lost his mind and ended up being dismembered and eaten.

Because he didn't like her, Gao Cheng would not allow her to be a concubine, let alone the queen, and even the historians were not allowed to record her surname.

She became an abandoned person again. Gao Cheng was busy winning over court officials to usurp the throne and gradually had less time to care about her. Gradually, the conflict between her and Gao Cheng became deeper and deeper. A feeling of suffocation made her want to escape, but for the sake of her children, she endured it for a few years. When the child grew up, she wanted to take the child and escape to Jiankang, but she would eventually be found by Gao Cheng.

Finally, she simply left the child behind and found an opportunity to completely escape Gao Cheng's control. She first went to the Zhou Kingdom to find a place to hide, and later brought Wei Qi back to Jiankang in the Southern Dynasty to learn how to do business together, find some old people from the Xiao family, and slowly build up her own network of contacts.

Later, I was lucky enough to have a successful business, and I had more of a foundation for my own livelihood. I no longer had to be controlled by anyone, nor did I have to rely on others for protection. I could live a good life.

"When Gao Cheng died, the princess actually came back. It's strange to say, because she had always wished that he would die sooner, but when he actually died, on the eve of his Zen ceremony, it was as if the curse in her heart had finally come true, and the princess burst into tears again."

"Even over the years, she has been investigating the real cause of Gao Cheng's death, because everything was too coincidental. It was so coincidental that as soon as Gao Cheng died, his second brother Gao Yang arrived immediately and took over all his power. He directly replaced Wei as emperor and founded Northern Qi."

At this point, Madam Wei sighed again: "You see, people are so strange sometimes. They hate someone to death, but in the end, when this person is gone, they can't help but think of his good points..."

"Are you saying I regret it now?"

Suddenly a voice interrupted, Madam Wei shuddered, and in the blink of an eye she saw Princess Liyang, who had been standing outside the side hall without her knowing when, had walked in!

Xiao Jinyu looked at her, feeling confused and speechless for a moment, not knowing how to address her.