Chapter 6 Ching Ming

Cold Food Festival.Feihua, Dongfeng, Yuliu. With the candlelight down, the sky is almost dark.I went to Anfu Lane to divide the orchids with her. I couldn't do anything but help her cut the window screen and spread it on the bottom of the pot. I feel that I and her are like ordinary flower-growing couples, so my heart is full of happiness. She moved the flower pot to a corner, washed her hands and said to me: "Han Shi did not stir the fire. In order to thank you for helping me for so long, I invite you to Fan Lou for dinner." "I have no money like last time." I laughed.

"Now I am richer." She changed her clothes and smiled rarely. It's like a pearl giving birth to a hazy light under the candlelight. I thought that such a smile was no longer Zhao Congzhan's, but my own, and my face turned red. I'm such a villain. However, being a villain makes me so happy. If I had to choose, I would rather be a villain. The name of the private room is Yulutao. As soon as I sat down, she warned me: "Hey, don't order too expensive things. I can't afford the things in the palace!" I smiled obediently: "I know..." Look at the menu of the dishes, what are the new method quail soup, Qunxian soup, white scorpion, double-cooked perilla fish, goose and duck steak with steamed lychee kidneys, roasted lotus duck, silk sheep's head in virtual sauce, and golden belly soup , all of which are not available in the palace, so I ordered several.

The guy laughed: "Guest officer, today's cold food, there are none of these." "So what's in your store?" she asked. "Lettuce lettuce, Xijing bamboo shoots, Ringo black plums, plums and cherries, and steamed pastry with various fillings yesterday. There are various cold dishes." The man said. I asked her in a low voice, "Did you invite me today on purpose?" She giggled: "I don't even know the customs, so blame me!" The waiter asked from the side: "Guest officer, do you want a drink?" "No, just serve tea," she said.

"It's not suitable to drink cold tea today, you must drink wine." The man said. She looked at me and nodded: "Okay, but less, children can't drink too much." Who--is a child?I was surprised to see her upright look, and snorted hard in my heart. After all, it is Fan Lou, and the cakes that come up are Qianjin Minced Fragrant Cakes, pinch of high-quality cakes packed in altars, and dry-baked cakes filled with gypsophila and pulp.I lost my appetite when I saw the last one, and the clerk was still saying, "This is a new law from the current Queen Guo's family, not the old way."

She looked at me with a smile, and I turned my head away. Heard a commotion nearby. I just happened to be next to the board wall, so I put my ear on it, and smiled at her, "Someone is crazy about drinking." Someone faintly shouted over there: "Who... who said the Queen Mother? I said Li Shunrong..." "Drink less! Brother!" The sound of the glass falling to the ground. I recognized that it was Chengshou's voice.Then the eldest brother is Cheng Qing. "She's dead... the officials don't know the truth until now. Do you think the queen mother is powerful? The emperor is getting old, and everyone who knows current affairs knows that he will rule the world in the future, but... the power of the queen mother... is... deep-rooted ... You said, if he finds out about this, won't there be another storm? How are we... going to get along? Which way is the way out?"

Talk about what the truth I do not know? There are so many things I don't know.I wanted to laugh it off, but the side was still saying: "Maybe it's over with some kind of concubine... The official family is really pitiful. Chengqing, please stop talking to me." The voice was their fifth uncle in German. I put down my drink in surprise.What does Li Shunrong have to do with them?Why are you discussing my pity here? She asked, "What's wrong?" I said casually, "It's nothing, Concubine Li Chen, who guarded the tomb, has passed away." She said "ah", looked at me with a strange expression, and asked hesitantly, "Concubine Li Chen?"

"Yes. You also know?" I asked strangely. She looked at me for a long time and said, "No..." I frowned at her. She lowered her head and tore a piece of cake, chewed a few mouthfuls slowly absent-mindedly, but was lost in thought. "What's the matter?" I couldn't help asking, "Concubine Li Chen and I, what will happen even your people know? There was nothing serious about her before she was alive, and now she is dead, and nothing will happen again." Right? Why do I not know that I am poor?" She looked at me silently and didn't speak.

"Is it the secret of my father's dynasty earlier?... The affairs of the women in the harem are at most a matter of fighting for favor for themselves. Isn't her only daughter already dead?" Suddenly there was a strange wet light. "Does she have any children?" I asked. She stood up, put her hand through my hair, as before, and said, "Yes, she has a good boy." "Didn't you grow up?" I asked. "Grow up." She sighed, let go of me, and turned her face to the bustling crowd below. I looked at her blankly and shivered. As if something was coming.

"That child...is..." She finally looked at me with compassion and said, "If you go now, you may still see her remains... She is your mother." The north of Songshan Mountain is Yin, and the south of the Yellow River is also Yin, sandwiched in the middle, Gongyi is the land of dragon veins. Leave Kaifeng overnight.About me being willful.It doesn't matter, anyway, if they want to mess up, let them go. The closer the carriage we hired got to Songshan Mountain, the more frightened I became.In the end, with the bumps of the car, I trembled all the way in the dark. She seemed to know that I was cold, so she reached out to hold my hand and put it in her palms.In the darkness of losing everything, there are no stars and moons in the sky, only the sound of wind and desolation.The branches on the road slanted and hit the bamboo body of the carriage, making a rattling sound like trembling teeth.At the window of the car, occasionally passing by the wild store or the lights of the town, I saw for a moment that I had grabbed her hand, which was white and bloodless.

We didn't say anything and remained silent.Only I was in the dark, tears slowly streaming down my face. The sky was getting brighter outside the window, and her silhouette could be vaguely seen, and she looked at me with quiet eyes. So the surrounding wind all receded thousands of miles away. On the east side of Junji Peak, the main peak of Taishi Mountain, is Wansui Peak, and on the west side is Wolong Peak. The two peaks face each other, just like the two gates of Yongding Mausoleum. We got off the car and looked at the Huabiao at the forefront of Shinto, the elephant and the elephant trainer, followed by the auspicious birds and beasts, the horses and the horse controllers, and the guest envoys holding treasures, a total of three pairs , is the appearance of a guest envoy from a neighboring country who attended the funeral of the first emperor. Behind the guest envoy are military officers and civilian officials, arranged in the order of worship.Further back is General Zhenling, wearing armor and holding an axe.

This long road took me almost to suffocation.Luckily she was always by my side, always holding my hand.I clutched her hand like a straw while drowning. The same hands as when I was thirteen. The mausoleum envoy guarding the mausoleum inspected my letter and let us in. Opening the usually locked door of the gods, a desolate piece of yellow land, standing four stone statues of servants, the underground palace is the mausoleum of the emperor.Surrounding the underground palace is the sacred wall of the mausoleum palace city. The sacred wall is square and has corners at the four corners. Emperor Father has been here for ten years, but I don't know what his resting place looks like until now. I knelt down and knelt three times and kowtowed nine times towards the mausoleum. She stood sideways and waited for me to finish, reaching out to help me up. In the side hall, a few white candles are coldly lit inside, and white banners are hung, and some fruits are perfunctory. Probably the imperial edict has not yet arrived, so there is no etiquette for concubines. I staggered and flung myself to the side of Zigong, trying to push the cover, but I couldn't push it away. The mausoleum guard next to me looked at me for a long time, and asked reluctantly: "What are you doing? Is there still an autopsy in the palace? Li Shunrong is really dead." She stuffed them with some money, and they went down. She pried the lid higher with the tip of the candlestick next to it, and I lifted the coffin lid vigorously. The mourning hall was dark, and she took a candle and held it in her hand. I just looked at my mother with those flickering candles, the person who wept silently like me many years ago, who didn’t look at me when she left, spent all her life here silently, Nothing came out. She is undoubtedly beautiful, but, I don't know if it is because she has passed away, her eyebrows are slightly drooping, and there is a small dimple on the left dimple of her chin, which is indescribable together with the eyebrows that are not stretched out. strangeness. I don't know if she is happy or sad. I don't have her in my childhood memory. The imperial father's concubines are surrounded by flowers, her status is low, I don't seem to have seen her.Maybe she has always been there, but she has always been silent and well-behaved, even a delicately made palace flower is afraid of overstepping, so I have never seen her in the crowd? If she is always a taciturn woman in the crowd, how will her children find her? Why is her life like this? She put her hand on mine and said, "That's all." Yes, what's the use of watching for a long time? I closed the lid of the coffin together with her, and as soon as the voice fell, my mother sank into the darkness. My heart also seemed to be covered in darkness. After leaving Songshan, the carriage was waiting for us.We went up, sat inside, and were relatively silent. I don't know what to say. Along the way, laying paper was flying among the weeds, and there were yellow paper on top of the graves everywhere. The paper trembled in the wind, making the tombs look more desolate than usual. Only a few peach and plum trees occasionally flicker in the dark mountain scenery. That bright color made me cry. "What's your home like?" She said softly: "My parents are ordinary people." You must be much happier than me.I squeezed my palms hard to keep myself from getting weak. "When I was in my mother's womb, my mother knew that I was a twin, so she named me Amin... Do you know what it means?" She took my hand and wrote her name on the palm of my hand. Ai Min, this name is vividly written in my heart. "Does it mean remembering the green Luoqun, pity the grass everywhere?" "No. My mother said that the bustling world is all about fame and wealth. We are ordinary people, so my elder sister is Ai Ming and my younger sister is Ai Li." She said lightly. I said dumbly, "So you have a twin sister." "No." She whispered, "My sister died before she was born, because I competed with her for nourishment in the mother's womb, and she lost." We were silent for a long time, listening to the sound of hooves rising and falling. She said slowly: "So, I think every moment now, no matter whether this life is sad or happy, only the darlings of heaven can have it. If you are not lucky, you can't get these." I don't know how to say it, so I can only be silent. She comforted me in a low voice and said: "Don't think about the future, just think about what you will say when you meet the Queen Mother." I think about the things near me, and those shaky restlessness, but they swooped down and overwhelmed me. "Tomorrow morning, I will personally announce that my mother will be concubine Chen. Facing those who know about this matter... what expression should I use to say it? If they pity me, what should I do?" I asked her weakly, tears It just fell off. She doesn't know either. We are at a loss in this shaking car, not knowing where the road should go. I don't want to go back, I don't want to see those ministers, queen mother, and everyone around me again.I don't want to go back to that cold place again. "I was... still thinking, I am the only biological child of the queen mother, what is she arguing with her son... But, it turns out that I am not... like everyone else, I am a person who has nothing to do with the queen mother... If I don't learn to fight against my mother in the future, maybe I... will be Prince Zhanghuai... I will be Zhongzong Li Xian and Ruizong Li Dan... I don't know anything, how can I learn to fight against my mother? "I didn't know how to integrate the sentence, so I told her like it was broken.In this world, there is no one to get along with, only you, you must be by my side. "Why don't you take me to your place where no one knows me, and I'll help you raise orchids, and we'll be together, okay?" My mind was burning hot and confused, and I didn't know why, so I pulled her sleeve and begged she. Tears welled up in her eyes, she put her arms around my shoulders, and said in a low voice, "Are you really a child?... Where can you escape? Where are you going to escape?" She whispered in my ear: "You are an orthodox emperor, and those who support you are naturally justified. What's more, your mother has been in power for many years, and it is inevitable that you will have many opponents. You have grown up, and she will not be your opponent." .do not worry." I hugged her tightly, sobbing for a long time.The noise outside came again and again, and I don't know how many towns it passed.All those tears seeped into her clothes and wet a large part of her shoulders. Then, I smelled the aroma of those white orchids, the lingering, snow-colored bamboo shadows in the dark night.The dripping rhythm of Concubine Xiang's short flute. In the end I was so sleepy that I fell asleep unconsciously.It turns out that no matter what, people always have to sleep. When I woke up, I found myself lying on her lap. I looked up at her, and there were dark shadows in her eyes. I said softly, "We've arrived in the capital." I lifted the curtain to see the bustling city, BMW cars, flowing water in the imperial ditches, and flowers blooming all over the street. For a long time, I wondered, why did I want to stay away from it just now? This is mine, and only here can I see the world. That's when I hated my cowardice just now. When getting out of the car, she fell on top of me.I remembered that I had slept on her lap for a long time, and hurried to help her. "It's okay, it will be fine soon." She said lightly, and withdrew her hand. I stayed for a while and then sent her back.When she closed the door, she looked at me with concern for a long time, and then said: "Just pretend that you don't know anything." I nodded blankly. Going back to the palace, greet the queen mother first as usual. When I went there, the Chonghui Palace was full of servants, and seeing me go in, all the palace people breathed a sigh of relief. The queen mother stood up and pulled me to her side, looked at my whole body carefully, and seeing that I was safe, she asked: "What does the emperor say?" I helped her sit down on the bed, and explained carefully: "It was cold food yesterday, and I saw that people on the street were preparing incense candles, and the child suddenly missed the father... I wanted to prepare for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but I was afraid that I would be in a hurry again. Yue couldn't make the trip, and had to argue about etiquette and molestation. The boy thought it would only take two days, so he left by himself. He really wanted to do what a man should do. But the mother was frightened. The boy knew this waywardness, and he would not dare to do it in the future. gone." The queen mother grabbed my hand, patted it lightly twice, and said: "The queen mother still blames your filial piety? It's just that this uncle must punish him severely!" "The child has grown up now, how can Bofang catch up?" I laughed. After a few more perfunctory words, he backed out. One of them went to the Dianqian Division in the outer palace city, and Li Zhuo, the commander of the Dianqian Division, knelt down to see him. I didn't have anything to say to him, so I woke him up and sat on a chair to drink tea.The tea was very strong, I frowned and looked at him, and found that he was also secretly looking at me, met my eyes, and immediately retracted. I asked seriously, "How old is Li Aiqing?" "Thirty-four." He said hastily. "The Spring and Autumn Period is in full bloom." I sighed, "The future is bright." "I wish to swear allegiance to the emperor to the death!" he said hastily. Another cliché. I looked at him, thick eyebrows and thick lips, square face, regular features.Sure enough, he can't speak. I pretended to drink tea casually: "I heard that your mentor back then was Zhou Huaizheng?" He nodded: "Yes." I sighed, "He died for me back then." He peeked at me.I didn't want to be stared at by this person, so I stood up and said, "My mother has been unwell recently, and I'm afraid it's because she misses the late emperor. In the past few days, if the minister of the palace and the Ministry of Internal Affairs come from the mountain to report to my mother urgently, you Remember to present it to the Hall of Imperial Instruments first." He hesitated and said, "Yes." After returning, he announced Wang Suilai, and asked him about the picture of Empress Wu's coming to court. "I've got some eyebrows... but my minister..." He deliberately hesitated, I waved Bo Fang back. "Fang Zhonggong was tortured, and he confessed that the person who instructed him is... Congde, the son of Gong Mei, the elder brother of the Empress Dowager." I finally smiled lightly, presumably Wang Sui was also very proud, the corners of his lips were also raised. Isn't this the best result? When he was about to retreat, I called him to stop and ordered: "Li Zhuo, commander of the capital in front of the palace, send a trustworthy person to watch his whereabouts." "Follow the order." The next day when he went to court, Bofang read out the imperial edict. Li Shunrong was granted the title of concubine Chen.Then inform the ministers of the death. I kept looking up at the dragon on the beam, counting its scales like I was thirteen years old. My heart was actually peaceful. Whether this life is sad or happy, it is God's favor for you, and you can have it. Back at the Palace of Imperial Instruments, Li Zhuo sent a secret letter from Shanling, and immediately retreated. He went to find Fang Xiaoen yesterday.Fang Xiaoen told me later: "The minister told him that since ancient times, those who have never seen assistants in the boudoir are called loyalty." It seems that this person does not know how to advance and retreat. I took it apart and looked at it, and it really happened to be reported during Qingming.I handed it over to the scholar of the Palace of Imperial Instruments, and asked him to rewrite a letter in imitation of handwriting. "Let's just say, Wei worshiped the mausoleum, weeping and leaving Yiyi." After that, I was always in the palace, busy with political affairs, until April, when I saw a pot of orchids in the Queen's Palace. Qingyi introduced to me: "It is said that it is called Lvzhusu. The flower posture is like a green pearl. When the skirt is rolled up when it falls from the building, it will spread out in the wind." Doesn't she know she's a queen?It is really ominous to have such flowers in the palace. I asked, "Is it from outside the palace?" "The most famous gardener in the capital is a woman. It's really getting worse in the world, and she talks about prices with others. But flowers are the best." So, that's her. Suddenly want to see her. In this April weather, like a thunderstorm, my thoughts surged for a moment.