Zui Gu🔞 ( mtl)

61

　　"The Empress is back in the palace—"

　　The leading eunuch waved his whisk and chanted loudly, and all the palace maids and eunuchs on the palace road knelt down to greet her.

　　Yan Zhaozhao looked forward and walked steadily on the palace road with a calm step. Although she had a bun like a lady from an aristocratic family, with only a few plain hairpins on her head, and her dress was not a gorgeous palace dress, but just a piece of brocade shawl bought from a ready-made clothing shop, she did not look vulgar at all, but instead made her look graceful.

　　Knowing that she had returned to the palace, the emperor, the empress dowager and all the concubines were sitting in the Zhengde Hall, waiting for her to come in and greet her, but no one came to greet her. When Yan Zhaozhao got closer to the Zhengde Hall, no one stood up, but those eyes still couldn't help but curiously stick to her. She stepped on horse-faced embroidered shoes, her steps were light, and the hem of her skirt fluttered gently in the breeze, like a willow swaying in the wind, swaying and beautiful, so beautiful that people couldn't take their eyes away. It was not

　　until Yan Zhaozhao entered the inner hall of Zhengde Hall that the concubines who were sitting upright stood up and bowed to her with indignation on their faces, "Welcome the Queen back to

　　the palace." Yan Zhaozhao ignored the concubines who were kneeling down, and did not let them stand up. She just walked to the emperor and the empress dowager and bowed, "I will return to the palace to pay my respects to the emperor and the queen mother." The empress dowager

　　paused in turning the Buddhist beads, then opened her eyelids and glanced at Yan Zhaozhao. She pondered for a long time before slowly speaking, "Everyone stand up and answer."

　　The empress dowager spoke, and Yan Zhaozhao and the concubines all stood up. The only difference was that they all sat down one after another, but the empress dowager did not give her a seat, so she could only stand with her back straight. The emperor sitting next to the empress dowager did not even look at her, and kept playing with Yan Zhiman's hand sitting next to him out of boredom, as if Yan Zhiman's hand was much more interesting than everyone else present, and he was unwilling to look away.

　　"Queen, please tell me in detail what happened on the hunting day. As the mother of a country, how could a queen disappear in the forest out of thin air? How did you get back to the palace?!"

　　Yan Zhaozhao knelt down and bowed her head to answer, her back straight, full of noble lady style, neither humble nor arrogant. "To answer your mother, I accidentally lost my way in the forest that day, and encountered a tiger that had been hungry for several days. I almost died in the mouth of the beast. The horse I rode was also frightened after seeing the tiger, and it ran around in the forest uncontrollably. I was frightened and scared. I never thought that the beast would run to the cliff and throw me off. I couldn't hold the reins, so I fell off the cliff. Fortunately, there was a lake under the cliff, which saved my life." Her voice trembled a little, as if she was still a little scared when she recalled the thrill of that day. "When I woke up again, I was already in the military camp. Thanks to General Huo Sui's rescue, I was fortunate enough to return to the palace to see His Majesty again."

　　She said everything according to Xie Ci Yan's instructions, adding emotion, and concealed the fact that someone shot an arrow at her in the forest. A fierce tiger would definitely leave various traces in the forest, all of which were ironclad evidence to confirm her words. But there was no clue about the shooting of the arrow, and there was no evidence. If she told it now, it would not only complicate the matter, but also alert the person who ordered the shooting of the arrow. Then he would think that she only regarded the shooting of the arrow as a simple accident, and let down the guard of the person behind the scenes.