CH 17

Everyone came to watch their scene because of the famous rivalry between Jiang Zheng and Ji Muye. “Dongnu Country” reversed the status of men and women and created a different kind of plot that was very emotional. In it, Ji Gongzi[1] was always being suppressed by the big devil Jiang, and he didn’t even dare to let out a fart.

Director Xing Weimin called the two together to talk about the movie. In Tang Qinlan’s heart, Cui Ling was brave and resourceful, and a talent, but his identity was a mystery. She deliberately asked him to climb up the palace tower and go into her room. The brocade box in the dark compartment was nothing but smoke and fog, in order to test Cui Ling. He dared to go up and come back, which actually made Tang Qinlan less vigilant. She asked him to enter the wooden ladder to go up to the hall together. One was to show her affection, and the other was because he was good at martial arts. If there was danger on the wooden ladder, he could save her. Third, she was afraid that Cui Ling would escape. As for why she was worried he would escape, maybe Tang Qinlan didn’t understand it herself.

Therefore, in this wooden ladder play, Jiang Zheng wanted to express Tang Qinlan’s complex psychology with micro-expressions displayed in a nuanced way, so she even used her eyebrows where necessary. And Ji Muye needed to show Cui Ling’s mysterious, tangled, withdrawn and fearless- contradictory emotions.

Xing Weimin: “Oh, I can rest assured about your acting skills. As long as you play your normal level.”

Ji Muye said modestly: “In front of Teacher Jiang, I’m just a layman.”

Xing Weimin: “?”

Jiang Zheng waved her hands repeatedly, “No No no, if Teacher Ji is a layman, then I am a laywoman.”

Xing Weimin: “??”

After the two bosses humbled themselves with no bottom line, they continued filming.

The camera moved to the front.

“You want to run away?” Tang Qinlan asked lightly, her red lips slightly raised.

Cui Ling’s lower jaw was raised high by the whip handle, his eyelids drooped, and his eyelashes trembled slightly. With a cowardly look on his face, he said that this grass person dared not.

But Tang Qinlan still didn’t believe that he was really scared.

“You accompany Gu.” A smile appeared on Tang Qinlan’s severe face, but this smile made people shudder even more.

Cui Ling’s heart swayed, and he slowly raised his eyes. Only then did Tang Qinlan realize that this person’s eyes were clear and gentle when he was serious, like the gurgling river in the summer of Mount Mordo. When he was not serious, the ends of his eyes were raised, and his eyes were cunning and tricky.

“This wooden ladder is not for this commoner. It’s not proper to go over. This commoner doesn’t dare.” Cui Ling said word by word, full of benevolence and morality.

Tang Qinlan’s eyes narrowed, and she was amused by his words. She retracted the whip handle and arrogantly turned her back, “When you were hugging Gu, did you throw all these considerations in the Ruoshui River? What? I want to pick it up now.”

“This commoner is guilty!” He said.

Xing Weimin: “…” Oh. False humans.

Next, Cui Ling was forced into desperation, so he stepped onto the wooden ladder, and knelt at Tang Qinlan’s feet.

Amidst the creaking sound, the wooden ladder slowly rose, and the strong men pulling the rope shouted: “Her Royal Highness will live for a thousand years.”

Inside the hall. Prime Minister Su took out the edict from her arms, saying that the late empress issued a decree before her death, that if Her Royal Highness the princess was unable to inherit the throne, her husband, Su Mingchen, would be the successor.

As soon as these words came out, everyone was shocked. You must know that in the Dongnu Kingdom, women had been in power for generations, and men were inferior to women. This was the basic state system.

However, to the east of Dongnu, there was the deterrence of the prosperous Tang in the east, they were being coveted by the Tubo in the west, and also being stared at by Nanzhao in the south. Surrounded by strong enemies, all of whom were rich and brave, in recent years, there had indeed been a secret ideological trend in the Dongnu Kingdom, where some people believed that the country was weak because women were in power. Coupled with the frequent border wars in recent years, the men of the Dongnu country had been sweating but unable to go on to official careers, and their private dissatisfaction had intensified. But changing the national system was tantamount to changing the dynasty. This matter had been brewing in secret, and people were not even allowed to discuss it in private. Therefore, whether this edict was true or false, the ministers present had a clue.

Suddenly, Tang Qinlan’s father, Su Mingchen, was pushed out. He was sitting in a wheelchair, with a sick face and thin body, obviously not a long-lived person.

The Su family had always been a famous family, and Su Mingchen was the elder brother of Prime Minister Su. It was a pity that in the Dongnu Country, women were respected, and men were inferior. Su Changqing could enter the dynasty as prime minister, while Su Mingchen could only enter the palace as the empress’s consort.

Su Mingchen coughed twice, “Where is Qinlan’s corpse?” People lived to see people, and people died to see corpses. It was not that as soon as the mouth was opened, the person would be gone.

Su Changqing pretended not to hear, lifted her robes, knelt down, and shouted, “Long live the emperor, long live.” She wanted to quickly cut through the mess, as long as her elder brother took the seal, the Dongnu Kingdom’s class structure would be said to be completely changed.

Su Mingchen’s cough became more and more violent. Su Changqing glanced at the guard next to him, and the guard hurried over with the jade seal.

What followed was the first climax of the show.

Her Royal Highness, holding a long whip and wearing a crown of gold jewels, appeared outside the hall with a sneer, like a ghostly shadow.

Prime Minister Su fabricated a false edict, colluded with foreign enemies, and intended to rebel, and was captured on the spot. Not a single one of her group could escape.

Tang Qinlan walked in front of her father, and with a trembling voice, she said, “Father, you have always been looking forward to daughter’s return.”

Su Mingchen suddenly covered his mouth and spat out blood, and said in a hoarse voice, “Go quickly. Look at your mother emperor.”

Tang Qinlan’s eyes flashed with disappointment. However, she suppressed her emotions, picked up the jade seal from the guard’s hand and stared at it, as if she had a lot of words to say which finally turned into a sigh, then she turned to look at the ministers.

The new empress ascended the throne, and they started shouting “Long live the empress”.

Next, the funeral of the former empress was held, the civil strife was pacified, and finally the enthronement ceremony of the new empress was performed. In less than half a month, the national capital was peaceful again.

However, who was the strange man who followed the new empress step by step?

The new empress ascended the throne, her husband was however undecided, this man was probably the new empress’s… Everyone suppressed this thought in their hearts, and poured it into their mouths, intimidated by the new empress’s majesty, and dared not say much in order to protect themselves.

The crew worked overtime and were divided into two groups so they could film day and night.

Under the guidance of the leading man and woman who were dedicated pioneers, everyone was very motivated, striving for one shot pass, so that they could end shooting and go home early.

On this day, the crew moved to the bedroom of the father, Su Mingchen, to film the scene where the new empress greeted her father.

It was now the end of spring, but Su Mingchen’s bedroom was still burning smokeless charcoal. His body was afraid of the cold, he coughed when he was cold, so the place where he lived was warm all year round.

Tang Qinlan used to come here every day to greet her mother, the empress, and her father. At that time, her mother always warned and instructed the servants that there should be enough charcoal fire, and the medicinal soup should be timely served to the consort.

Now that one person was gone, and the other was left alone, the four corners of the charcoal still couldn’t stop the feeling of bleakness from spreading here.

Cui Ling stopped and bowed two meters away from Tang Qinlan.

Su Mingchen’s eyes swept over him and finally landed on the new empress.

“The Su family has been punished, the female members have been exiled, and the males have been turned into slaves…”

Before he could finish speaking, he heard the new empress sneer, “Does father want to say that this daughter is resolute or cruel? Maybe, you want to say, you are also from the Su family, if your daughter really wants to punish fairly, you should be put in jail too?”

Su Mingchen covered his mouth and coughed, and the servant next to him quickly stepped forward to beat his back and stroke his chest.

Cui Ling listened silently and felt more and more that it was not appropriate to stay here for a long time. The new empress was ruthless, even daring to use her words to satirize her own father and refuse to show even the slightest decency.

However, these days, Tang Qinlan took him wherever she went, and sometimes she lazily held his palm and asks him, “Are you thinking of a way to escape again?”

Su Mingchen coughed for a while, then said in a hoarse voice, “The Empress had a sudden heart attack, and the Imperial Hospital has medical records to testify. Su Changqing stole a fake edict, I didn’t know about it in advance.”

Tang Qinlan laughed softly, as if she didn’t mind at all, she slowly got up and looked around. “Father, you can take care of your life here in peace. The other ministers don’t know.”

Cui Ling pursed his lower lip, she still gave her father some respectability after all. Or, it was better said that she gave him a decent way to live.

Tang Qinlan bowed slightly and said goodbye. Su Mingchen suddenly said, “He…what are you going to do with him?”

Cui Ling subconsciously felt that he was referring to himself. He didn’t dare to look up, so he could only shrug his shoulders and pretend to be dead.

Tang Qinlan walked up to him and smiled slowly, “He, I’ll let him go in a few days.”

After that, the new empress moved to the martial arts field.

Cui Ling was her sparring coach and was almost thrown by the whip several times.

Anyone could see that the new empress was unhappy.

On the way back to the bedroom, as usual, Cui Ling accompanied her up the wooden ladder. It was just that Tang Qinlan was sitting, and he was kneeling.

The atmosphere had turned solid.

Tang Qinlan suddenly looked sideways at him, “What’s your name?”

The two had known each other for more than half a month, but Tang Qinlan had never asked him his name, so he naturally didn’t dare to report his family name.

Cui Ling lowered his head and said softly, “Answering Your Majesty, this commoner’s surname is Cui Ling.”

Cui Ling? Having mausoleum in one’s name was unlucky.

“Let’s change it. Ling Yun, Ling meaning ambitious.”

Cui Ling, oh no, Ling Yun paused and bowed down to thank her.

Tang Qinlan suddenly patted the throne, Cui Ling glanced up, and hurriedly lowered his head.

“You will have a place here sooner or later.”

“You will die as soon as you try to run away.”

“You bumped into me, and Gu gave you a chance to escape.”

“If you escape, I will rummage through Dongnu, Tang nation, Tubo and Nanzhao, and I will definitely take you back.”

Jiang Zheng’s voice had just fallen, when Xing Weimin shouted cut.

The coldness and determination in Jiang Zheng’s eyes had not been withdrawn, and Ji Muye’s face was still full of shock.

Everyone moved their steps cautiously, not daring to disturb the two people on the wooden ladder.

Ji Muye’s heart was pounding, and in the plot, the queen expressed her heart to a humble person with a stern tone.

I will give you my heart. If you dare to trample on it or ignore it, I will kill you.

These lines seemed to be dignified and persecutory, but they appeared extremely sincere.

Ji Muye could handle and endure if this scene was performed by others, but Jiang Zheng said these words, and he was a little out of it… and felt that he was blushing.

Jiang Zheng saw that Ji Muye was still kneeling, and subconsciously reached out to help him. At this moment, Han Yi walked over with a cough.

Jiang Zheng retracted immediately, and said seriously, “Mr. Ji, don’t your knees hurt?”

Ji Muye came back to his senses, stood up, and calmly squeezed onto the throne, sitting side by side with Jiang Zheng.

Jiang Zheng: “?”

Ji Muye smiled lightly, “You said, there will be my place here.”