An Lingrong's Rebirth: The Lock of Qingqiu

The moonlight was like water, and two figures in the dim tunnel were bidding farewell to each other reluctantly. The man finally pushed the woman away from his arms reluctantly, and walked hurriedly and panickily along the dim tunnel. His slender figure left a slender figure on the stone wall of the tunnel. White light and shadow appeared at the exit, and they would soon reach the exit.

However, just as he was about to escape from the tunnel, a majestic and stern figure suddenly appeared in front of him. It was the emperor, who stood quietly at the exit of the tunnel, his eyes as sharp as torches, as if he had seen through everything. Longkodo's heart suddenly sank, he knew that he had nowhere to escape.

At this time, there was a sound of hurried footsteps and shouts from afar. It turned out that the Queen Mother learned that Longkodo would be stopped by the Emperor if he left the tunnel, so she hurried to stop him. Of course, the person she wanted to stop was the Emperor. She knew that Longkodo's crime was serious and the Emperor would not let him off easily. The Queen Mother and Aunt Zhuxi stood in front of the Emperor without hesitation, threatening to die and asking the Emperor to let Longkodo go.

The emperor looked at the queen mother solemnly and teased, "Mother, I know that you two are deeply in love, but the laws of the Qing Dynasty are not for show. From the emperor to the common people, everyone is equal before the law. I cannot indulge Lord Long because of my personal feelings."

The Queen Mother could not hide her disappointment after hearing this, and her eyes showed despair. It seemed that the Emperor had made up his mind. So, she turned to look at Longkodo, her eyes full of mixed emotions. She sighed deeply, and then slowly said: "Longkodo, you have to take care of yourself. I will let you go today. Go quickly. I am here to take care of the Emperor. He will not hurt you."

After hearing this, the emperor sneered and pushed the empress dowager away from him, saying: "Mother, it is not your turn to make decisions for me. Come here, Xia Qie!" At the emperor's order, Xia Qie slowly appeared from the darkness, with the sword in his hand unsheathed and pointed directly at Longkodo's shoulder blade, scaring Longkodo so much that he retreated repeatedly.

Just like that, under the Empress Dowager's nose, Longkodo was taken away by Xia Qian and his men, and was directly thrown into death row.

The Queen Mother was horrified. At this moment, she woke up from her dream. The Emperor was not joking with her. He was serious!

However, the Empress Dowager's three-day birthday celebration had only entered its second day, and tomorrow was still the Empress Dowager's birthday, but the Emperor had actually put Longkodo in death row. The Empress Dowager really wanted to cry but had no tears, and yet she could do nothing!

An Lingrong took Qin Sanyue, Qiaoyu and others to pick flowers in the imperial garden. Now that the Queen and Concubine Hua were gone, there was not much point in planting peonies and roses all over the garden. With the Emperor's consent, An Lingrong plucked the peonies and roses, tied them into bundles, and sent them in batches to the palaces of the concubines for decoration.

In the places where peonies and roses were originally planted, large areas of lush and verdant spiritual plants were planted. Some of these spiritual plants were transplanted from Cuihe Mountain, and some were transplanted from the back mountain of the Old Summer Palace.

Today is the last day of the Queen Mother's birthday. The Queen Mother promised that in order to thank all those who celebrated her birthday, there will be a grand fireworks feast in the evening, which is both exciting and surprising.

After the dinner, everyone gathered by the Emerald Lake. The fireworks feast arrived as expected, and the entire Emerald Lake was covered with colorful fireworks. However, no one expected that at the most beautiful moment of the fireworks, the explosion of the fireworks became louder and louder, and the smoke was everywhere. An Lingrong heard that the sound was no longer the sound of fireworks exploding in the air, but these huge rumbling sounds were more like... dynamite, which started with a crackling explosion and gradually turned into a loud "boom". The deafening sound and dazzling light stunned everyone present, and scared people to run away.

An Lingrong held Zhou Liufu tightly in her arms. Because Zhou Liufu was afraid of fireworks, she took Zhou Liufu to watch from afar. The water of Emerald Lake was blown up four or five feet high. The fish and shrimps in the lake turned up their white bellies, and an unpleasant fishy smell spread over a large area.

The emperor was so angry that he almost crushed the whisk in his hand. Who put so much sulfur in the fireworks? The emperor ordered Su Peisheng to investigate step by step until the truth was found. The emperor seemed to suddenly remember something. He took Xia Qian to the death row and questioned Longkodo: "Lord Long, I don't allow you to be with my mother, so you want to blow up the entire palace?"

Longkodo refused to admit it. “Your Majesty, I don’t know what you are talking about. What crime have I committed? Why are you locking me up in this barren place? Are you worried that I will take your throne? It is ridiculous that you want to accuse me of a crime that you did not commit just because you are worried about me.”

The emperor sneered and said, "Lord Long's ambition is evident to all. He has even put on this yellow jacket, and yet he still dares to say that he has no ambitions. Do I have to wait until Lord Long ascends the throne before I can take action against him?"

Longkodo simply closed his eyes and pretended to be dead. No matter what the emperor said, he remained silent.

The emperor said angrily, "Lord Long must be concerned about the position under me! Today is my mother's birthday, and the fireworks were arranged by Lord Long. How come the flower bubbles became explosives? Lord Long thought that if my people hadn't discovered the explosives in time, my mother might have been involved. So, Lord Long, you have never taken my mother's life to heart."

At this time, Longkodo saw that the emperor had seen through his trick, and slowly opened his eyes and said, "Then why did you keep me in this broken prison? Do you think you can hold me? To be honest, since I was put in this death row, I have been looking forward to the good news of the explosion. I imagined that after the dynamite exploded, the emperor would die, the court would be in chaos, and I could take the opportunity to escape from prison and regain the imperial power. I am only one step away from becoming the emperor."

Longkodo's voice gradually faded away, and the emperor continued his words: "It's a pity that reality is reality after all. What you are waiting for is not the good news of the explosion, but the bad news of the failure of the plan. I came to tell you this bad news in person, but it's a pity that you missed the target by one step."

Longkodo's face was twisted with anger and despair, but he was helpless. He knew that his plan had been exposed and he could no longer realize his ambition.

The emperor left the dungeon and the crowd outside had already been evacuated. Fortunately, Xia Qian and Qin Sanyue discovered it in time and no major casualties were caused. The location for setting off the fireworks, Emerald Lake, was also a good choice. The explosives almost blew up the Emerald Lake, but people were watching on the shore and heard something was wrong, so they all evacuated.