The Events After Widowhood Chapter 7

Maxwell’s affair was not kept secret for long. Gabriel had no intention of keeping it secret, so the matter soon reached the ears of the emperor.

Gabriel held the position of a super-first-rank commander, but he did not need to attend court. His meetings with Emperor Alexander depended on whether he had reports or was summoned. If he met him frequently, he might meet him eight times a day before dark. If he did not meet him frequently, it was common for him not to meet him for ten days or half a month.

Last time, a corrupt family was raided. Those who should be killed were killed, and those who should be imprisoned were imprisoned. The human affairs have been almost dealt with. The follow-up cleanup are all trivial matters related to silver and money. It is not worth reporting to Emperor Alexander. Gabriel has not entered the palace for a few days.

Judging from the current situation, he would not need to see the emperor for at least three to five days. But at this time, Emperor Alexander came with a verbal order.

At that time, Gabriel was looking through the medication and daily life notes of Vivian provided by Leonard and Nathaniel. He closed it gently, changed into an outer robe, and followed the visitor into the palace.

---If nothing unexpected happens, the news of Maxwell's appointment will probably reach the emperor. It doesn't matter, anyway, Gabriel had no intention of hiding it from the beginning.

As expected, Emperor Alexander did not hesitate to ask Gabriel when he entered the room. He went straight to the point: "I heard that Taining Marquis's mansion invited Leonard from outside the city to see a doctor? But the old marquis is not in good health?"

Gabriel still maintained his usual respectful appearance, but his words were unpleasant to the ears: "Theodore's body is indeed getting worse day by day, but Leonard didn't come here for him..."

Hearing this, Emperor Alexander narrowed his eyes, leaned back in his chair and looked at Gabriel, wanting to see how much courage he had developed after so many years of fighting on the frontier.

Gabriel obviously did not disappoint him. He paused for a moment and said, "It's for Vivian."

"Oh?" Emperor Alexander smiled, "But is it your newly widowed sister-in-law?"

Gabriel actually understood long ago why Emperor Alexander interrupted his plan to speak frankly when he returned to Beijing to meet the emperor that day in a hurry, and only asked him to "go back to the palace first and take a look."

---Does he want to use secular ethics and public opinion to stop his almost crazy desire for Vivian?

That would be thinking that Gabriel is too much of a gentleman.

With the instigation of Gabriel, the news of the disturbance in the mourning hall has spread throughout the capital. The common people have never cared so much about the leader of the Jinwu Guard, and the officials of the court have never been so afraid of the commander of the Jinwu Guard - this Adrian is a complete lunatic!

These, whether they were declarations of war or reminders, were ultimately an outlet for Gabriel to express his inner thoughts to Emperor Alexander, and both people involved in the situation knew this well.

But Emperor Alexander could turn a blind eye to this matter, but when Leonard entered the palace, he lost his patience.

"It's not for my widowed sister-in-law," Gabriel bowed, "but for my former classmates."

Emperor Alexander thought to himself, you are good at giving yourself a way out, and you are still talking about classmates. I am afraid it is classmates like Liang Zhu, so he sneered and said, "I am afraid it is not just classmates?"

Gabriel was also generous, "In the past, we were just classmates, but today, I hope to go further."

Emperor Alexander gripped the armrest of the dragon throne tightly, "The descendant of the traitor! Adrian, you must remember his identity for me!"

Gabriel was indifferent, but he knelt down, "His family is broken and he is all alone, what kind of trouble can he cause?"

"But what if I really don't allow it?"

Gabriel kowtowed three times, and then raised his head with a look of indifference and fearlessness, "If I offend the emperor, then if the emperor wants me to die, I will die."

"Well, well, Adrian! You must be so arrogant because you know I won't take your life! You dare to be so rebellious!"

Emperor Alexander stood up, held onto the imperial desk and gasped for breath. He stared at Gabriel for a long while and saw that Gabriel was kneeling solemnly with no remorse at all, as if he was just a spectator in this quarrel. He was so angry that he picked up the gilded pen holder in his hand and threw it at Gabriel.

Gabriel did not move, and Ren Bishan smashed his forehead. Blood flowed down the corners of his eyes, quickly ran across his chin, dripped onto the front of the imperially bestowed crimson flying fish robe, and then disappeared.

Now, he truly declared war on Emperor Alexander.

They have known each other for several years. Emperor Alexander can control him, so how can he not control Emperor Alexander? The current emperor, although mean, is not ungrateful.

Emperor Alexander ascended the throne with great difficulty. The fight for the throne was not just about the undercurrents in the court like in the previous dynasties, but also involved the generals. The civil fight took place in the court, and the military fight took place in the army. However, Emperor Alexander was of low birth and had no support from his mother's family of generals. It was obvious that he would fail at the last moment.

At the critical moment, Gabriel stole his grandfather's tiger talisman, falsely conveyed his grandfather's military order, broke through layers of checkpoints, and smuggled 20,000 troops into Beijing to defend the king.

Of course, "serving the king" is just a term used nowadays. At that time, it was called "rebellion."

No one knows how the young Gabriel accomplished all this, but he did it. Twenty thousand Lin family troops entered the imperial city, and Gabriel took command and won a great victory.

Afterwards, Gabriel's maternal grandfather, General Dingyuan Lin Yi, beat his only child with a stick in front of all the Manchu soldiers, almost to death.

Gabriel's uncle and cousin led thousands of soldiers to kneel down and beg the "General to show mercy", but they failed to make Lin Yi relax at all.

In such a big incident, hundreds of people in the Lin family and the 20,000 soldiers who were taken away were almost killed by Gabriel, who was ignorant of the world and labeled them traitors.

I am not afraid of death, but the reputation of soldiers and their loyalty to the emperor and defending the country is more important than Mount Tai.

Finally, Emperor Alexander received the letter and sent someone to deliver the oral order, which saved Gabriel's life.

But that time, Gabriel was recuperating in bed for nearly a hundred days.

Lin Yi went to see him and asked him "why". Gabriel struggled to kneel down on the bed and kowtowed to Lin Yi, saying: "My grandson is unfilial and unrighteous, but not disloyal. Your Majesty, he will definitely win."

The friendship expressed in this one sentence was enough to serve as Gabriel's golden hook and iron seal with Emperor Alexander.

What's more, later on, Gabriel's uncle died on the battlefield, but he managed to save the important border area. Gabriel's maternal grandfather presented the tiger talisman for the border army several times, and Emperor Alexander kept half of it... The Lin family was indebted to Emperor Alexander and to the Great Jin Dynasty.

These were all brought by Adrian, and now they have become Adrian's reliance.

"Get out! Gabriel, get out of here!"

After ascending the throne for a long time, Emperor Alexander couldn't remember how many years it had been since he had suffered such humiliation. He couldn't kill but couldn't, and he had to beat... Emperor Alexander closed his eyes, and his internal organs felt as if they were being squeezed by a giant hand...

Gabriel didn't notice anything. He stood up and thanked the emperor politely, then pushed the door and slowly walked out of the imperial study.

Emperor Alexander summoned Zhang Fuquan, who waved his hands helplessly as if his strength had been taken away from him, and instructed: "Ask the useful people in the Imperial Hospital to check him out, and take good care of him, so as not to leave any scars."

*

As soon as Gabriel came out of the imperial study, he was led into a palace. Several of the most famous doctors in the Imperial Medical Bureau were already holding medicine boxes and standing by, with a look on their faces that said, "Please don't make things difficult for us, Commander. We must know that the emperor's orders are hard to disobey."

"How can I be so worthy of your kindness?" Gabriel sat down, raised his hands and clasped his fists, and said, "I'm sorry to trouble you, the imperial doctors."

But to be honest, Gabriel originally planned to go back home to get his wound bandaged. He didn't want to stay in this shabby place for even a moment.

In order to take others into consideration, he had to sacrifice some of himself. Gabriel entered the palace at the end of the hour of Hai, and when he was done it was already past the beginning of the hour of Yin. He originally wanted to go back to his residence to take a rest, after all, this night was really exhausting. But for some unknown reason, he ordered the coachman to go to Taining Marquis' Mansion.

The hour of Yin is usually when Vivian sleeps most soundly.

Gabriel stood in the corridor with his cloak gathered up, listening carefully to the noise inside - no noise was the best noise.

After listening for a while, Gabriel felt that everyone was quite peaceful inside, and his anger finally subsided a little.

He was contentedly planning to return home before daybreak when he suddenly heard a loud cockcrow, like the sound of a short blade cutting through the quiet night of Taining Marquis's Mansion.

Afterwards, there was some noise in the inner room, rustling, probably someone turned over because of the noise, and then there were a few coughs.

Gabriel's fire, which had just been extinguished, suddenly began to burn fiercely as if tung oil was poured on it. "Where did this mansion get the rooster?"

It would be best if he didn't hear that it was Theodore or Penelope who raised the chickens for their health. Otherwise, he could make sure that these two people wouldn't be able to eat a single bite of chicken for the rest of their lives.

Nathaniel explained: "This is the rooster that was used for the wedding ceremony at the mansion that day. It was originally kept in the kitchen vegetable garden. A few days ago, the rooster seemed to have become a spirit and ran out of the cage and jumped into Xu's yard. Xu hugged the rooster and cried for a while. From then on, she kept it in her yard."

So that's how it is... Gabriel didn't believe in such supernatural things, frowned and asked Nathaniel: "Riri is calling at this time? Can you listen to it?"

"The time of cockcrow is not fixed, but it is basically after the hour of Yin," Nathaniel answered truthfully, "It is not too early at the hour of Yin. At this time, people have already finished a set of boxing at the border. What's more, dogs guard the night and cocks announce the dawn. All things are created by nature. What's so hard to listen to?"

This is because we are in the city, where dignitaries gather, so we could hardly hear the crowing of roosters. If we were in the countryside, at this time, the roosters would have started to set up the stage and sing, competing with each other for louder and brighter sounds.

"You can listen to it, but I can't."

Gabriel was obviously not as considerate of others as Nathaniel, so he left after saying this.

*

The next morning, the weather was fine.

Penelope slept in for a rare night and when she woke up she felt refreshed for the first time in a long time.

---Ever since the rooster came into the yard, it has been crowing every day, disturbing her sleep. But she was worried that her son might come back, and she couldn't bear to let it go back to the vegetable garden in the cold winter, so she just endured it.

It's strange today. Could it be that he has a good life in the main house and is willing to give up his crowing habit?

Penelope washed and put on makeup leisurely, and after breakfast went to the side room to visit "Qian'er".

The door was gently pushed open, and a bright light with dust particles scattered around it cast into the room. Penelope walked closer and saw a big rooster lying on the ground, already stiff!

"ah---"