"Your Highness the Fifth Prince." The old eunuch outside the Changming Palace folded his sleeves and held a fly whisk in his arms, and bowed deeply to Qi Dan. "Rong, old minister, talk too much... Why did Your Highness pay a night visit to the Changming Palace?"
The old eunuch's name was Ji Sinian. He entered the palace to serve the emperor after urinating. Now he has served two generations of kings for more than fifty years. Ji Sinian was honest, honest and capable, so he was given the title of eunuch by the emperor.
The general manager of Fengtian Prison also served as the eunuch Si Li Bingbi, and he was highly regarded.
Qi Dan smiled softly and said: "As a son, do you need a reason to come to visit your father?"
Ji Sinian nodded. He was indeed just asking a routine question to report to the emperor, and had no intention of deliberately obstructing him. After Ji Sinian entered the Changming Hall, Qi Dan suddenly thought of some questions - logically speaking,
As the eunuch closest to his father, Ji Sinian should have been waiting inside, so why did he come out to stand guard?
Not long after, Ji Sinian came out of Changming Palace and bowed respectfully to Qi Dan, "Fifth Prince, please."
Changming Hall means holding a candle and keeping the light bright day and night. The first emperor of the Sheng Kingdom gave it the name "Changming" in order to admonish himself, encourage his descendants to be diligent in government affairs, and work hard to govern. It was the royal study room of the Sheng Emperor, ranking among the last three.
The other two palaces of the three rear palaces, the head of the palace, are "Changqing Palace" and "Changning Palace" respectively. The word "Qingning" is taken from the "Heaven gets one to clear" in the classic book "Tao De Jing" written by ancient saints.
", "The earth is at peace"; the emperor is the sky and the queen is the earth. The Changqing Palace and Changning Palace are naturally the bedrooms of the emperor and the queen.
In addition to the three back palaces, there are two front halls in the palace, namely the "Zending Hall" and the "Eternal Life Hall". The Zenith Hall is a place for sacrifices and ceremonies, such as worshiping saints, heaven and earth, and the enthronement of the emperor.
Major ceremonies such as weddings, canonization of queens, and military expeditions are actually used less frequently. The Palace of Eternal Life is the main place where the emperor goes to court to meet his ministers. The first two palaces and the last three palaces are collectively called the "Five Senses City".
It is also the official title of the Shengguo Palace and has many meanings - one means a person's facial features, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, face and facial features, two means the official positions of five important ministers, three means metal, wood, water, fire, earth and the five elements, and four means east, west, south, north and center.
The meaning of Wufang is to commemorate the five emperors, the ancestors of ancient times.
At this moment, the Changming Hall was brightly lit, dozens of palace lanterns illuminated the Imperial Study Room as if it were daytime, and the sandalwood incense coming from the incense burner curled around the entire hall, making it seem like you were in a fairyland in heaven.
Qi Dan followed Ji Sinian in and found that in the Changming Hall, in addition to his father handling memorials in front of the desk, there was another person standing aside, holding a gold tray and a silver soup bowl, serving meals. The young eunuch who was serving the emperor
He was similar in age to Qi Dan, but his behavior was very reserved and shy: "Little Xiao Bailu has met His Highness the Fifth Prince." After saying this, he lowered his head and did not dare to look at Qi Dan.
"Shan'er." Qi Changgeng, the current emperor of the Dasheng Empire, put down the memorial in his hand and looked at his son: "Why did you think of going back to the palace today?"
As the fifth prince and the "King of Zhao", Qi Dan is usually very free--it can even be said that he is more leisurely than more than 99% of the people in the Sheng Kingdom--because he is neither the prince nor the important position, of course he is innocent.
Qi Dan's character was that of a person who couldn't stay in the palace, so he spent the whole day hanging out with Jiang Wenbing outside the palace and "living" in the palace of General Hussar.
It is also quite interesting to talk about the residences of these princes and princesses. The eldest prince, the prince, has his own residence in the palace. The other princes and princesses also have their own residences. The male one is in the east and the female one is in the west. It is also called the east residence and the west residence.
.The east and west houses were built on both sides of the palace - Qi Dan once jokingly called them "side houses", and side is the same as toilet, which was inevitably a bit indecent. He was even punished by his father for this. Once the prince of the Sheng Kingdom came of age
Then he could leave the palace and live in his own palace. Qi Dan had long been unwilling to live in the "side residence". He fled the "side residence" as soon as he came of age. Except for some important rituals and other necessary etiquette ceremonies,
I rarely go back to the palace, let alone visit my father's Changming Hall.
"Father...I have something important to discuss with you..." Qi Dan hesitated for a long time, but finally made his purpose known. He glanced at the two eunuchs, one old and one young.
Qi Changgeng understood his son's intention. He waved his hand and asked the young eunuch Xiao Bailu to put down the soup bowl, "You two go down first."
The two eunuchs nodded obediently, "I take my leave," and then slowly exited the Changming Hall.
"You seem to have been very close to the son of General Hussar recently, and it seems that you have made a fuss all over the city because of something?" It was Qi Dan who hesitated to speak, but it was Qi Changgeng who asked first.
"Back to my father... Shan'er and Jiang Wenbing have known each other since childhood. Recently, one of his clan brothers, who is also the nephew of General Hussar, has violated the law. He wants me to help plead..." Qi Shan'er asked Jiang Chen a few days ago
He reported the whole case to his father. Of course, he did not tell the whole story. For example, the overt and covert fight between him and Li Mastiffchun was naturally impossible for his father to know.
"That's it..." Qi Changgeng originally wanted to say how could a small Shanhe government official dare to punish Jiang Chen, a member of the household department, but when he heard that this young man was Li Mastiff's disciple, he didn't find it surprising. After all,
Li Zhanchun also looked upright. He picked up the lotus seed soup, blew on it, and tasted it with a spoon, "Tell me, what do you want to report to me when you return to the palace this time?"
Qi Dan walked to his father and knelt down on the other side of the desk. He swallowed and his Adam's apple squirmed, "Father... I would like to ask you... to grant me a hand in marriage."
Qi Changgeng raised his eyebrows, "Oh? I remember your mother-in-law said many times before that you were of marriageable age and wanted to marry you earlier, but you refused... Why did you think of it today and asked me for a marriage?
?”
"Of course I have someone I admire in my heart now." Qi Dan said with a smile, "In those days, I still felt that I was living a carefree life alone, but now several of the royal brothers have been married - counting the days.
It's my turn, otherwise it will inevitably be a bit awkward when the sixth brother has a family and I, the fifth brother, am still alone."
These words are quite reasonable, Qi Changgeng thought to himself. "Shan'er... you have to know that you are a prince, and when you marry, you must marry a girl with a matching status. You don't just find a prostitute from a brothel.
Just getting married in a daze, that would be disrespectful..."
"Your name is really famous in the capital, Mr. Bai." Qi Changgeng's words were serious, but the topic suddenly changed, and it was quite teasing.
"How could that be possible..." As he spoke, the fifth prince broke into cold sweat. How could these stories of his have reached his father's ears? Or... his father had always been paying attention to him?
"The person I want to marry is of course not just a concubine, but my real wife, the prosperous Princess Zhao. And this girl's family background, appearance, and talents are all very suitable for me." Qi Dan respectfully said.
said.
"Oh...? Which girl is worthy of my son missing so much?" Qi Changgeng asked, but his expression didn't seem to be very curious.
Qi Dan took a deep breath and said, "The girl I like is the granddaughter of Zhu Gong, the Minister of Household Affairs, and my best friend since childhood - Zhu Zhao'er."
Zhu Zhaoer? The granddaughter of a household minister? Qi Changgeng searched in his mind and found that he didn’t have many impressions of this woman. However, since she was born in a household minister, she was considered a son. “According to the royal family,
According to the law, it is a good thing to have a wife and have children. If you really want to, my father will do whatever you want."
That's fine - although Zhu Gong is one of the six ministers and holds an important position, after all, he is old and his heirs are not very outstanding - the Zhu family is not part of his future plans and will fade out of the court sooner or later.
Since my son is interested, there is no harm in following his wishes.
Qi Changgeng's understatement of the promise brought Qi Dan not joy but anger - was he really the one who had been perfunctory and abandoned by his father?
Twenty years ago, before the winter arrived before Qi Dan was born, the sky began to snow abnormally. The heavy snow continued until the day when Qi Dan’s mother-in-law, Concubine Liu Guifei, gave birth to her son—that day, the three-month journey ended.
It has been snowing heavily for more than a month, and the sky is blue and clear.
Qi Changgeng specially ordered the famous metaphysics masters Taoist Guanyuan and Mr. Bu Suan to come to the palace to tell Qi Dan's fortune. However, after seeing the infant Qi Dan, the Bu Suan's eyes went dark and he fainted on the spot. Guan Yuan
The Taoist didn't know what he saw, and his face was in a daze. In the end, he just mumbled something: "Gold body, jade roof. This boy's talent is extraordinary, he must not be a thing in the pool."
There is a saying that when things go wrong, there must be monsters. So many visions and strange things naturally made Qi Changgeng have some prejudices against Qi Dan - even though Qi Dan is the smartest among his princes, and the one whose personality is most similar to his own.
, but Qi Changgeng couldn't like him at all, and even felt a little disgusted and alienated from him.
Because of the prophecies spoken by Taoist Guanyuan, he wanted to strangle Qi Dan more than once while he was still in his infancy, but after all, the poison of a tiger cannot eat its own child - how could he have the heart to harm his own son? So Qi Dan
Chang Geng took a different approach. His education method for Qi Shan was always to "raise the weak". He was obedient to him but never deliberately trained him.
At this moment, Qi Dan once again felt his father's attitude towards him - the attitude that seemed doting but actually perfunctory. His expression became a little distorted in an instant - only for a moment.
And when Qi Dan raised his head and looked at his father again, his face was full of joy, "So, father, you agree to my marriage?"
Qi Changgeng nodded, "Since you are the granddaughter of the Minister of the Ministry of Finance, it is of course the best. You can decide the marriage yourself - but you still have to inform your mother and concubine first, and discuss it with your mother and concubine.
It'll be fine for a while." He reminded Qi Dan symbolically. In fact, in his mind, even if Qi Dan married the daughter of a commoner, or even a brothel singer, it didn't matter. It was just that the royal nobles behaved like this.
It just doesn't sound good - Qi Dan only needs to abide by the ancestral etiquette, not overstep his bounds, and do whatever he likes.
Qi Changgeng has always been very perfunctory about Qi Dan, and he doesn't even seem to care about marriage. Since it is not a political marriage, there is nothing to care about.
"Okay, thank you father for your love." Qi Dan lowered his head and knelt down to his father, "I understand."
Qi Dan's back was trembling as he left. Was he crying? Or maybe he was angry? Qi Changgeng looked at his son's back and felt infinite sadness in his heart - Qi Dan was clearly his biological son, but he was not loved as much as his son.
Not as good as anything.
As a father, why wouldn't he want to favor smart children? But Qi Dan's birth violated Qi Changgeng's biggest taboo - he didn't want any of his sons to make the same mistakes as him.
This chapter has been completed!