CH 50

Chapter 50: The Painting of Autumn Jú

At the beginning of the founding of the dynasty, there was a major rebellion.

The great general Xia Weiming, who once conquered the Great Zhou with Emperor Taizu, led an army of 100,000 to approach capital city after the death of Emperor Taizu, in an attempt to overthrow the succeeding Emperor Xiao and establish himself as emperor.

After half a month of fighting between the rebels and the 50,000 imperial troops stationed in the capital, Xia Weiming finally entered the palace and killed Emperor Ming Xiao, who had only ascended the throne for less than three months. On the second day, he announced the establishment of a new dynasty.

It’s a pity that Xia Weiming is only a martial artist after all, he is good at war, but he doesn’t know anything about political tactics. The Xia clan’s new dynasty lasted less than a hundred days, and Xia Weiming was inexplicably poisoned and killed on the dragon bed.

After Xia Weiming’s death, Li Min, the heir of the Li clan, and several young generals took the opportunity to launch a palace coup, killing Xia Weiming’s two sons and taking control of the palace.

Because the Taizu emperor’s lineage had been slaughtered by the Xia family, all officials elected the clan’s heir Li Min as the successor to the throne and restored the title of Great Zhou. Li Min was the later Emperor Gaozu.

Although the royal family of the Li family has always refused to acknowledge the existence of the new dynasty established by the Xia family that was less than a hundred days old, it is an undeniable fact that the Li family has raided and destroyed the ancestral temple. Therefore, this incident was an unbearable shame for the Li royal family.

People in the Great Zhou Dynasty knew more or less about the history of the Xia clan’s seizure of the throne, but because the Li clan didn’t want to hear about it, many details were deliberately forgotten.

Therefore, many people don’t know that the day when Xia Weiming launched the rebellion coincided with the time of the Ju Flower Festival in early September. The Jing Ge iron horse smashed the yellow gold armor all over the ground, leaving only the bright red in the Yi River outside the capital city wall. It is said that the water level of the Yi River rose six or seven feet in half a month, which was caused by the blood and corpses of 50,000 forbidden soldiers entering the river.

The painting of this jú flower may be painted by Ren Shimin in the evening when the sky is full of sunshine, so the river is bright red, and there is no hidden connection to Xia’s rebellion that year.

However, in the last life, after Ren Shimin’s death, this painting became Zeng Yu’s handle to threaten Ren’s family. It is said that the Ren family’s rebellion against Huai is to support Prince Yanbei to imitate the Xia family and raise troops to rebel.

Ren Yaoqi always thought that this painting of “Autumn Jú” was fabricated by Zeng Yu, because she had never seen it among Ren Shimin’s paintings.

Now it seems that Ren Shimin did paint such a picture, but it was painted when he was going to the capital, and it happened to be given to Han Yunqian on his way back to Yanbei, so she had not seen it.

The only thing is how did this painting end up in the hands of Zeng Yu, and even become the handle for him to threaten the Ren family? What role did the Han family play in this?

Ren Yaoqi thought about it, and couldn’t help staring at Han You a little bit erratically.

Han You was at a loss for words and couldn’t help but take a step back.

Ren Yaoting frowned and stood in front of Han You: “Fifth Sister, what are you doing?”

Ren Yaohua was also felt something strange and couldn’t help but push her.　　

Ren Yaoqi came back to her senses, looked at the surprised faces of the crowd, and forced a smile: “It’s okay, I suddenly thought of a dream.” As she spoke, she turned her gaze back to Han You standing behind Ren Yaoting, only stayed for a moment, and then showed a gentle smile, “I’m sorry, I thought of something else just now, didn’t I scare you?”

Han You breathed a sigh of relief and showed a relieved smile: “I was shocked. I thought I said something wrong and offended you. It’s okay. What dream did you just think of? Do you want to say it? My mother said nightmare isn’t scary if you talk about it.”

When she met Han You’s pure eyes that were slightly worried, Ren Yao’s heart was complicated: “That dream… I was standing on the top of a high cliff, there was no one around, and the only way was a steep staircase leading to the bottom of the cliff, and if I wasn’t careful, I would be pulverized.”

This dream is not something she made up, she often had that dream after she left the Ren family in her last life. No matter how she climbed down the mountain steps, there was no end and no way out. The ending always ended with a full fall from the cliff and woke up.

However, Ren Yaoyu sneered and said: “What kind of terrible dream is this? I thought it was some kind of fierce ghost!”

Ren Yaoqi smiled slightly and did not defend herself.

Children always think that ghosts and beasts are the scariest thing. They still don’t understand that despair and hopelessness are the most frightening things in this world.

“I have never had such a dream, but I also feel it isquite scary.” Han You kindly comforted.

“If you think less nonsense, you won’t have these messy dreams!” Ren Yaohua said unconcernedly.

Ren Yaoqi exhaled gently, with a relaxed smile on her face: “Well, where are we going next?”

Ren Yaoyu immediately jumped ahead and said, “Let’s go to the street behind Guan Gong Temple, I heard there is a long dragon dance and ‘Nine Curve Dragon Gate Lantern Formation’.”

Ren Yaoyu and Ren Yaohua were fine with it, while Ren Yaoting looked at Han You, who smiled and nodded, “Yes, I have heard that there will be a ‘Nine Curve Dragon Gate Lantern Formation’ in town this year, and I heard that this kind of lantern formation takes a lot of effort and requires experts who know the eight trigrams and formations to make the diagrams, so it only happens once every five years. I’d like to come and see it.”

“Then let’s go and have a look.” Ren Yaoting nodded his head in agreement.

“Let’s leave the carriage here and walk over there, right? It’s not far away anyway, and there are so many pedestrians on the road, how lively it is.” Ren Yaoyu suggested.

At this remark, Han You’s eyes also lit up. She seldom had the opportunity to go out, let alone walk on the street with her friends so openly. Looking at those teenage girls strolling around the street in twos and threes, she couldn’t help but be very envious. But she is shy, she won’t say this kind of proposal.

Ren Yaoting, however, read the words and immediately agreed, and then asked Ren Yaoqi and Ren Yaohua, “Where are Third Sister and Fifth Sister want to go? Do you want to go with us?”

She asked this question politely, but it meant that they had already decided to walk whether Ren Yaoqi and Ren Yaohua agreed or not.

Ren Yaohua looked at the pedestrians on the street and was also a bit moved, so she glanced at Ren Yaoqi.

Ren Yaoqi was always unconcerned about such things, so she nodded and said: “Then let’s walk, just don’t go too far away from the maidservants. It’s not bad in Baihe Town, but people come and go after all.”

Ren Yaoyu interrupted with joy and impatience: “You still need to say that! These people wouldn’t dare to lose us!”

So they took a bunch of maids to the street behind Guan Gong Temple.

Ren Yaoting and Han You walked ahead of them, while Ren Yaoyu took her maids and servants to the roadside stalls and bought a dozen lamps for the people behind her to carry back with them.

Ren Yaoqi and Ren Yaohua walked together.

“Third sister doesn’t want to buy lamps?” Ren Yaoqi asked.

“If you want it, you can buy it yourself. I don’t want it. Where do you want to hang it?” Ren Yaohua just watched the excitement and was not interested in the lights.

Ren Yaoqi was just asking casually, she was still thinking about the painting in her heart, no matter what, she must find a way to get it back.

The two walked silently all the way, and when they came to the back street, they met a team of dancing dragons. The crowd rushed towards this side, Ren Yaoqi and Ren Yaohua stopped outside the crowd and watched for a while.

“Huh? Where are Seventh Sister and the others?” Ren Yaohua looked around and suddenly asked.

Ren Yaoqi also looked around, there are a lot of people but  but the three people were nowhere to be seen.

“I think they must have squeezed to the front.” Ren Yaoqi said uncertainly.

Ren Yaohua looked around again, but there were too many people in front of them, so how could they see who was playing tricks? “Forget it, they must go to see the Nine Curve Dragon Gate Lantern Formation. Let’s go there and wait for them.”

Ren Yaoqi nodded and had no objection.

The two of them bypassed the lively crowd and went to the place where the formation was set up.

Nine Curve Dragon Gate Lantern Formation was set up on a flat area behind the Guan Gong Temple, about two acres wide. It is poured with water to form a seven-foot ice wall, and there are 360 lamps inside. The entire light array has only one entrance and one exit. People who don’t know the formation method go in no matter how they go around, they will always come out from the entrance. This is the peculiarity of the ine Curve Dragon Gate Lantern Formation.

Setting up this kind of light array takes time, effort and money.

When Ren Yaoqi and Ren Yaohua walked to the entrance, they saw that there were already some spectators, but there were not many people who really dared to go in and have a try. Everyone was afraid that they would not be able to get out.

“This array of lights is so beautiful!” the maids said happily.

The ice lantern array was illuminated by the lights like a crystal, and Ren Yaohua and Ren Yaoqi couldn’t help but stare in amazement.

“Isn’t that Young Master Han?” Xiang Qin pointed not far away.

“Huh? The Third Young Master is here too?” Xiang Qin added belatedly.

Ren Yaoqi looked up, and sure enough, she saw Han Yunqian and Ren Yijun talking outside the light array. It’s no wonder that Xiang Qin only saw Han Yunqian at first. Although he was young, he had a calm and outstanding demeanor. Ren Yijun’s handsome appearance and gloomy demeanor were naturally compared to him.

Ren Yaoqi couldn’t help frowning. Isn’t Ren Yijun dislike Han Yunqian? How could the two appear here together?

After thinking about it, Ren Yaoqi said to Ren Yaohua: “Since we met, it’s time to say hello.”

Ren Yaohua did not object, and the two walked up to Ren Yijun and Han Yunqian.

She happened to hear Ren Yijun say: “If you can come out within a quarter of an hour, I’ll believe you, how about it?”

Han Yunqian was about to speak when he raised his eyes and saw the two sisters.

“Yaoqi, you’re here too?” Ren Yijun turned a blind eye to Ren Yaohua and only greeted Ren Yaoqi with a very friendly attitude.

Ren Yaoqi and Ren Yaohua bowed and saluted, and Han Yunqian bowed his hands in return.

Ren Yaoqi smiled and said to Ren Yijun: “I wanted to invite Third Brother to watch the lantern before, but I heard that you have already gone out. So you are with Mr. Han?”

Ren Yijun rolled his eyes: “Who came with him? It was just a coincidence that we met at a friend’s party. I said I wanted to see the Nine Curve Dragon Gate Lantern Formation, and he wanted to see it too, so we went on the same road.”