The main hall is located in the south of the Forbidden City, inside Zuoshun Gate.
It takes almost two miles to come all the way from Wan'an Palace.
Along the way, you have to pass through three palace gates, all of which are strictly guarded and carefully checked.
Every attendant must come in and out according to the security badge, and even steward badges like Eunuch Wang are no exception.
When they arrived at the main hall, Wang Defa and his entourage were directly turned away.
"Inside is where the princes study. In order to allow your highnesses to study in peace, no outsiders are allowed in." Eunuch Wang presented the schoolbag and said, "Your highnesses can only go in by themselves. The old slave is waiting here to study."
"No, I'm not here to study today." Zhu Zhen walked straight into the main hall without picking up his schoolbag.
Naturally, the captain of the Arch Guard who was guarding the door would not stop His Highness the King of Chu, but he did not look sideways and did not salute. I don't know if he was afraid of disturbing the class in the hall, or to remind the princes that after entering this door, he would be just an ordinary student.
As soon as he entered, he heard the sound of reading loudly. Zhu Zhen involuntarily slowed down his steps, but had no intention of entering the school. Instead, he walked around to the back of the double-eaves, two-story, five-room school.
There is a small garden, the ground is covered with golden ginkgo leaves. There is a rockery, a pond, and residual lotuses and daisies. It is a place for your highnesses to rest between classes.
The princes were in class at the moment, and there was no one in the small garden.
Zhu Zhen carefully observed the scene in front of him while trying to recall the situation that day.
Then he walked slowly through the rockery with stacked stones and winding paths, and came to the edge of the deep and secluded lotus pond, where he stood in front of a piece of bluestone.
He lowered his head and looked at the little fat man reflected in the pool, wearing a small green dragon robe, with thick eyebrows and an innocent look on his face.
After a long time, Zhu Zhen murmured: "Don't be afraid, I will find out the person who harmed you."
This is exactly where he stood before he fell into the water that day.
Zhu Zhen returned here not to pay homage to the past that can never be returned to, but to recreate the scene of that day.
He closed his eyes, slowed down his breathing, calmed himself down completely, and tried his best to recall how he felt at that time...
~~
I remember that the wind was very noisy that day, blowing chills all over his body, which made the little boy miss his mother and concubine even more, and he cried very hard.
He didn't even hear someone walking behind him.
Until someone pushed me from behind...
Thinking back to this point, the boy's memory became extremely clear. The muscles in his back seemed to be able to feel the power transmitted through those two hands!
Then he staggered forward, taking one step, two steps, and stopped when his right foot was about to land on the water!
Zhu Zhen raised his thick eyebrows and opened his mouth slightly, thoughtfully.
He first retracted his feet to avoid falling into the water again. Then he took three steps back, raised his hands, and imitated the perpetrator.
After repeating this for a long time, Zhu Zhen suddenly clapped his hands, as if he had caught something!
The first was the push from behind. To be precise, it was two hands pushing under his left and right shoulder blades!
This shows that the height of the perpetrator is likely to be similar to myself.
Because if the person is much taller than him, his hands should be on his shoulders.
If the opponent pushes his back, he has to bend down, do a horse stance, or exert force downwards with both hands, which are not normal postures for exerting force.
It would be better to just fly up and kick yourself into the water, which would be more convenient.
What's more, I stumbled forward two steps before falling into the water.
It shows that the opponent's strength is not too great.
Because when you push someone into the water, you will definitely use all your strength. If the person is strong enough, he will fly out directly without taking two steps forward.
Therefore, the perpetrator is either a child of similar age to myself, or a woman of similar body shape to myself.
The main hall is not open to idlers, and there are no palace maids coming to add fragrance to the red sleeves, so the suspect is most likely the former!
This time the range is much smaller.
Especially in this place with a very fixed number of people, it is not difficult to find this person.
However, in view of the young man's vague memory, in order to avoid missing anyone, he decided to confirm it.
At this time, Zhu Zhen felt a lot more relaxed. He looked up at the main hall and saw only a corner of the second floor blocked by the rockery.
The window is open there, someone should be there.
~~
Zhu Zhen left the back garden and returned to the front of the main hall.
This two-story building with double eaves is covered with black glazed tiles, and the doors, windows and railings are all green, making it unique in the Forbidden City with red walls and yellow tiles.
Because this is also the royal library, it is said that black is the color of water and can suppress fire, while green can avoid fire.
But what really protects the library is the pool in front of and behind the building, as well as strict fire prevention management.
Classes were still going on in the lecture hall on the first floor. Zhu Zhen walked lightly and went upstairs from the stairs on the left.
On the second floor is the library. The neatly arranged bookshelves in the pavilion lead directly to the roof, blocking the light outside the window. In order to prevent fire, the lights cannot be lit, so it is naturally very dark.
After his eyes adjusted, Zhu Zhen followed the numbered bookshelves to the east end of the pavilion.
There is the duty room of the Secretary of the Library, and the door is ajar.
Zhu Zhen knocked on the door lightly, but no one answered.
He opened the door and walked in.
I saw an old man with gray hair sitting in front of the desk by the window, wearing a cloth robe.
The old man was concentrating on reading. Because there was insufficient light in the room, the windows were still open even though it was late autumn.
Zhu Zhen was not in a hurry, walked in to find a chair to sit on, and picked up a book from the table to read.
After reading a few lines, his eyes lost focus... The combination of traditional Chinese characters and classical Chinese makes people's brains hurt.
Then after a while, he fell asleep on his stomach.
~~
"Wake up, wake up."
After an unknown amount of time, an old but still magnetic voice woke him up.
Zhu Zhen rubbed his sleepy eyes with his chubby little hands and saw the old man's face.
He is a very handsome old man with deep wrinkles, a slender face, and a long beard.
"Did His Highness come to my place to sleep?" The old man looked helplessly. The "Original Seal of Articles" placed under his chin was already wet with saliva.
Zhu Zhen was unaware. He wiped the saliva from the corner of his mouth and asked: "Sir, you have finished reading the book."
"If I wait until I finish reading the book, this "Original Seal of Articles" will become "Watermark of Articles." That's the only version of Song! The old man's heart was bleeding, so naturally he didn't feel good about it.
"It's okay, it won't affect your view after it's done." Zhu Zhen didn't feel any guilt about the saliva he left behind.
"You are not particular about it!" The old man almost twisted his nose in anger, and said in a low voice, "What do you have to do, Your Highness? Just go down to class if you have nothing to do."
"If something happens, of course there will be something." Zhu Zhen said with a smile: "I would like to ask, sir, how many children of my age are there in our main hall?"
"Your Highness, are you taking the exam for senior officials?" The old man's face became even more ugly.
In his opinion, although His Royal Highness the King of Chu is usually naive, he has been studying at Dabentang for several years. How could he not know such a simple thing?
Even if you are as stupid as His Highness the King of Qin, you still don’t know!
He was already very thoughtful, so he would inevitably think that the King of Chu was making fun of him by hiding in the library all day instead of teaching.
"Well, I don't want to take the exam. Let's discuss it." Ever since Zhu Zhen accepted the identity of the prince, he has stopped looking at other people's faces.
"Haha, it seems that Your Highness is sure that I am occupying the manger?" The old man felt sad for a while. Wow, the father bullied me all day long, and the son also came to ridicule me.
"Say it."
"The only one is your seventh brother, His Highness Prince Qi!" the old man said with anger, his beard straightened up:
"There are four kinds of people in the main hall, the gentleman who teaches, the scholar who manages books, the prince who studies, and the noble disciples who accompany him to study!"
"The first two are both adults, and none of the nobles who are accompanying them are younger than fifteen years old. As for His Highness's brothers, there is no need to take the exam as a veteran of the school!"
After the grandfather finished speaking, he coughed violently. He didn't expect that a child would be so angry.
It's really like a tiger being bullied by a dog...
"Uh, why are you so excited, sir?" Zhu Zhen is a good man, so he quickly stepped forward to rub the old gentleman's back and brought him a cup of tea.
The old man took the tea cup and felt better.
"Oh, by the way, I haven't asked the old gentleman for your last name yet." Zhu Zhen asked sincerely: "Are you a teacher, or a librarian?"
‘Pfft…’ The old man almost spit a sip of tea in his face.
"If I am on duty at Si Zhilang's house, does it mean he is Si Zhilang? Then why is there no wife in the wife cake?!"
"Oh, that's the teacher." Zhu Zhen suddenly realized.
"I am your teacher Liu Bowen, don't you know him?!" The old man put down the tea cup and said angrily:
"His Highness is still mocking me for hiding in the library all day, isn't he? Could it be that the emperor doesn't want me to enjoy my free time, so he wants to issue an eviction order?!"
