I lazily sat on the soft sedan, so I sent the eunuch who was carrying the sedan back first. I only held the hands of Huanbi and Jinxi and walked slowly, while Hua Yi and Xiao Yunzi followed behind to serve.WWW.tsxsw.COM
The scenery of Shanglin Garden is still the same, as if it was yesterday, but the exotic flowers and plants are more prosperous, and the green willows beside the Liquid Pond are also more green and long. Looking sideways, the thousand-leaf white lotus in Taiye Pond is just beginning to bloom, and most of them are in bud.
The stamens look like three or five petals, which are as clear as jade, white and delicate.
As far as I could see, my heart ached slightly, and I couldn't bear to look at the lotus flowers all over the lake.
Along the way, the new concubines kowtowed and saluted one by one. I started giving orders with a smile, without stopping too much. I just smiled and said softly to Jinxi: "The flowers in Shanglin Garden are blooming more and more, and the flower-like women in our palace are also blooming more and more."
More and more are coming.”
Jin Xi whispered: "I just paid my respects in the Queen's Palace. The servants noticed that the first draft after the Queen left the palace was for eighteen, and the second was for five. Along with Yian Changzai and Hu Zhaoyi who were not drafted into the palace, four years
A total of twenty-five people entered, but except for Yan Changzai who was not present, there are only fifteen people here today."
My heart moved, "No one reported illness, so those people..."
Jin Xi only stayed with me by the Thousand Carp Pond, playing with the koi and feeding them, and said calmly in my ear: "This slave has already asked Xiao Yunzi about whether the ten young masters, including Fu Jieyu in front of me, are dead or disabled.
No one was spared. And these people, either because they were too favored, or because they were good at fighting for favor and went too far, are all gone."
Your fingers feel slightly cold when you touch the cool white marble railing. Thousands of koi carps in the Thousand Carp Pond are competing for the fish food that has been scattered. Thousands of koi are swarming around like countless red stamens blooming. In the eyes of those who scatter the food, it is naturally terrifying.
It's good-looking.
I sighed softly, "There are not many of the fifteen concubines who entered the palace in the twelfth year of Qianyuan." I raised the silk and sneered slightly: "No wonder there is a draft every three years, otherwise the palace would not be empty.
There is no one left.”
The cool breeze blows, bringing with it the freshness of water vapor. The fragrance of the lotus flowers nearby floats over in waves, making it cool and comfortable. The apricot trees on the side of Zhichun Pavilion have already lost all their apricot flowers, and only the branches are covered with green apricots.
It is small and cute, and occasionally strings of crisp and cheerful bird songs fall from the treetops.
I held Huanbi's hand and sat in the pavilion to rest, and said casually: "I always feel that there are more birds in Shanglin Garden. It has never been so lively before."
Little Yunzi hesitated for a moment, but finally spoke: "Because Concubine An Gui likes to listen to the chirping of birds, so the emperor kept some of them in the Shanglin Garden."
I wasn't annoyed, I just said calmly: "She is really favored."
His eyes only stayed on the apricot tree, with one hand caressing his belted belly, thinking only of what a grand event it was in the past when the flowers bloomed like clouds, but now it is "the crimson color has fallen away in the strong wind, and the branches are full of green leaves"1
.
Huanbi stood behind her and said softly and coldly: "The queen was really polite to the lady today."
I closed my eyes and said, "Was she not polite to me yesterday? She has always been so kind and graceful, how could she lose her composure because of me?"
Huanbi said "hmm", stretched out her hand to tighten my slightly fluffy bun, and whispered: "Actually, why do you have to condescend to the queen like this? Just stick to the etiquette."
I opened my eyes slightly, looked at her carefully, and said, "Today, do you think I am qualified to fall out with the Queen?"
"The young lady is now Concubine Wan. She was ceremoniously welcomed into the palace by the Emperor, and she is pregnant..."
I interrupted her abruptly, "I know you are impatient, but don't make the wrong idea. The queen has never come forward to harm me in the past, so naturally she has nothing to do with it. Even if I tell the emperor, she will only be blamed for slandering the queen."
Guilty." I took her hand and said sincerely: "The hatred in my heart will only be deeper than yours... But when you enter the palace, you have to take care of yourself step by step, and you won't accomplish anything in haste. The queen is afraid that she will be angry behind my back when I return to the palace.
She is dying, but she is still graceful, generous and caring in front of me, which shows that she is very scheming. The more she is like this, the more I have to be respectful and keep the things in the past as unknown, so that I can slowly plan."
Jin Xi listened silently and said: "What the empress said is right. The emperor treated the empress with great dignity when she returned to the palace, which has advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that the emperor has the support of the empress, so she does not dare to ask others to act rashly; the disadvantage is that the tree is big and attracts wind, the empress
Naturally, she has also made countless enemies. At this moment, the queen has been running the palace for many years, and she is surrounded by favored concubines An Gui, Qi Gui and others, and even Hu Zhaoyi is her cousin. However, the empress has been away from the palace for four years, so any unfamiliarity must be dealt with according to the situation.
Lower your edge and go first to show your respect."
I sneered softly, "Even if I am obedient, the queen is still hostile to me; but if I am not obedient, it is like giving someone a hand. Huanbi, you must remember one sentence, a gentleman's revenge is never too late in ten years. Another sentence,
The road must be taken step by step to be sure. I really don't have the ability to bring down so many people at once, and the emperor will not allow the harem to be in chaos because of me."
"The road must be walked step by step..." Huanbi chewed on these words and smiled suddenly, "Yes. I understand, and I won't be impatient anymore."
I stretched my waist and said with a calm face, "Not just you, I have to ask the people below to be kind to the concubines and concubines in each palace. Especially you, you must keep calm in front of An Lingrong and the others.
." I held Huanbi's hand tightly, holding down my years of depression and anger, and said clearly every word: "If you can't hold it back, you will only mess up your own position."
Huan Bizhong helped me sit down and talked with Hua Yi beside me. Hua Yi was originally a woman who grew up in the mountains. Although she was silent for a long time after a huge change, most of the people in the palace were women, and Xiao Yunzi was first-rate.
She is not afraid either. In addition to her young age, everyone in the Weiyang Palace loves and cherishes her. I do not regard her as an ordinary maid. The liveliness of her nature is only revealed when she is with people close to her.
Hua Yi has a cheerful temperament, and it was my first time to enter the palace. I saw the petals of the hosta flowers outside the pavilion were white and flawless, blooming like piles of snow and frost. I couldn't help but pick a lot of them, and put them on my head here and there.
He smiled quietly and said: "These flowers are so beautiful. The hairpins on the queen's head look like jade hairpins."
I liked seeing her smile like this, and I wanted to make her happy, so I let her play with it and said with a smile: "It's actually a hosta flower, of course it looks like a hosta."
Hua Yi said: "The hosta is cold and sexy. I think this flower is better, fragrant and beautiful."
Jin Xi smiled quickly and said: "Even if I love you, how can you treat me well in the palace? My, if you want to call yourself a slave, you have to remember it."
Hua Yi nodded quickly and said, "I understand."
Huanbi looked at the pure and melancholy amber and lapis lazuli bracelet in my hand and said, "My lady wants to be filial to the queen, so I just gave her this fragrant wood bracelet inlaid with gold and lucky beads. The queen framed her like this."
"Why would the lady give her such a precious beauty product? Could it be..." She hesitated and muttered: "The lady has other plans?"
Hua Yi couldn't help but asked: "Could it be that some kind of poison was administered?"
I ignored it and just said lightly: "The things I sent are indeed extremely valuable and rare. And I didn't have any other plans to give them to the queen." I paused, "I wouldn't be so stupid as to poison you."
."
I looked at the distant sky. The sun was as bright as gold, like flying catkins, which made people almost unable to open their eyes. A slight smile appeared at the corner of my mouth. I gave these nourishing treasures to the queen, just because, I
I found that she was really old.
There are so many new beauties in the palace, and it must be very laborious for her to deal with them one by one without leaving any trace.
The Queen is getting older. If I remember correctly, she is already thirty-six years old. A thirty-six-year-old woman needs these nourishing things to retain her fading beauty. And these things she should have gotten, she
But it didn’t. Instead, it appeared in my hands, who were younger than her, and then passed through my hands to hers respectfully. How unwilling she would be!
Mother of the world? I sneered. Does this noble and graceful mother of the world dare to enjoy the beauty products that I offer to restore youth? I bet that she will not dare. Maybe, as soon as I leave,
She just threw her all out.
I smiled: "It's not flattery or sarcasm, I really want to give those things to her."
Jin Xi slowly stood up with her hands, squinted her eyes and looked at the flowers, and said: "The queen is so cautious, how dare she use the things given by the empress."
If she really dared to take it, I would really admire her. But with her temperament, how could she accept a gift from an enemy?
I leaned on the railing and looked into the distance, and said calmly: "I'm tired of sitting too, so why not walk back slowly?"
The scenery along the Taiye Lake is picturesque, and the sunshine gradually becomes warmer. A group of people divide the flowers and willows and walk under the shade of the trees, occasionally chatting and laughing. Occasionally, the cool breeze blows, and the feathery albizia flowers on the branches are blown off, and the light red color
Orange color, as thin as mist. The petals are soft and plump, just like the plump cherry lips painted on a beauty's mouth. The wind blows like a rain of flowers. I can't help but reach out and pick up three or five petals and hold them in my white palms.
Among them, there is a subtle and elegant fragrance that fills the texture of the palm of the hand.
Little Yunzi didn't know what was going on. Seeing that I liked it, he joked: "As for the albizia flowers, the one in the Open Moon Pavilion of King Qinghe's old pavilion is the best."
There was a sudden pain in my heart, and I turned around to see Huanbi looking at the petals in a daze. She couldn't help but feel sad. Jinxi whispered softly from the side: "If the empress likes it, why not collect the albizia petals and make a sachet."
I smiled silently, reached out and threw the petals into the rolling waves of Taiye Pond, and said softly: "It can be kept for a while, but it cannot be kept for a lifetime. Even if it is made into a sachet, it will wither in the end, so it is better to let it go.
"
As soon as she finished speaking, she saw a woman standing under the acacia tree. She was wearing a green leaf dress with a large pipa collar and large rolling silver branches. Her skin color was a bright and healthy wheat color, which was different from the women in the palace who only wanted to be white. Her long eyebrows were slightly raised.
On the temples, the cold and bright eyes are rectangular like gems, with slightly raised corners. They have the charm of red and phoenix eyes, with a wild and unruly aura. I was startled. I have always praised a woman's eyes as cold stars, but I didn't know.
There are really such eyes in the world, cold and cold, like cold light. Her lips are tightly pursed, her smile is cold and sparse, and there is a touch of frustration and unruliness between her eyebrows. At first glance, she seems to be standing out from the white snow.
A branch of bright red plum is like a sudden glimpse.
She was holding a large handful of albizia petals in her hands, which she and her maid were putting into a gauze bag. When she walked in front of me, she looked at me, slowly bent her knees and said, "Concubine Wan, Jin An."
I saw that her attire was strange. It was not the usual gold and jade hairpins favored by palace concubines, but a pair of silver hairpins inlaid with tiger's eye stone, a pair of flat gold cat's eye earrings on her ears, and the most eye-catching one was a string of lapis lazuli on her chest.
Chain, a thumb-sized amber in the center of the chain, dark red in color and clear, with a bee lying inside.
I accepted the greeting with a smile, holding back my surprise and said, "I have never seen this sister."
She caressed the amber on her chest and said indifferently: "I am Luni Juyan who is always here. I have been ill for the past two days and have not met with Concubine Wan."
I looked at her with a smile, "Then how do you know that I am Concubine Wan?"
She smiled slightly, with a hint of disdain, and said, "Who wouldn't know that the empress is returning to the palace in such a big battle?"
I didn't pay attention to her disrespect, but I was very interested, "I didn't see Yan Chang here when I paid my respects to the Queen today. I heard from Concubine Fu that she was ill." I saw glistening beads of sweat on her forehead and in her hands.
I collected a lot of albizia flower petals in the bag. I thought they were here early in the morning. I said warmly: "Since you are sick, why don't you take a good rest in the palace? When the sun is poisonous, it will become even more uncomfortable."
She said neither humble nor arrogantly: "Thank you for your concern."
I looked at the bag in her hand and said with a smile: "Why did Chang Zai collect so many petals?"
The muscles on Yan Chang's face twitched slightly, and then he said calmly: "The imperial doctor said that my concubine was ill and wanted to use albizia flowers as medicine, so I came to collect some. It is a pity that the flowers fell into the mud in vain."
I smiled and said, "Chang Zai's loving heart makes me ashamed. I just wonder if I can tell you Chang Zai's name so that we can call each other sisters in the future."
"Ye Lanyi," she said briefly, bowing slightly, "I'm not feeling well and can't talk to you anymore, so I'll take my leave first." After saying that, she didn't wait for my answer, she tightened her flower bag and left.
Huanbi was shocked and said: "Why is she so rude? It's just because of the emperor's favor. No wonder Fangruo said she is withdrawn and unruly."
I waved my hand to silence her. There was something shining on the ground, a delicate coral goshawk pendant. I bent down to pick it up, looked at Ye Lanyi walking slowly not far away, and said to Huanbi: "You
Go and invite her back and ask if it belongs to her." Huanbi responded and quickly invited her back. I raised the coral pendant and said kindly: "Is this my sister's?"
Ye Lanyi glanced at it and said, "It belongs to my concubine."
I returned it to her hand and said, "This is a personal item, sister, don't drop it casually."
Ye Lanyi glanced at the coral pendant in her hand, looked at me quietly and said, "Is this why you brought me back?" Seeing me nodding, she said indifferently: "I have plenty of these things, so what does it matter if I lose them?"
." After saying that, he raised his hand and threw it into the Taiye pool behind him with a "dong" sound. "My queen is fine, so I will leave." After that, she turned around and left.
Huanbi turned pale with anger and said, "There is such a person in the world. People return things to her with good intentions, but she doesn't know how to appreciate them. Sure enough, she comes from a humble background and doesn't know etiquette!" He muttered again, "I don't know that the emperor has it.
What I like about her is that she is not the most beautiful and has a bad temper."
I smiled calmly: "Why are you angry? It's her business to deal with her things, so we don't have to be angry."
Huanbi was still angry and said to me: "Miss, look at her dress. The amber on the chain is really scary. It actually contains a bee. And the tiger eye stone on the hairpin on her head looks like a tiger's eye."
Looks like she is indeed a beast tamer."
I was silent for a moment and said: "Even if she is rude, there is no need to be so bitter. Just look at the amber on her chain and you will know how favored she is. Isn't that hidden bee amber a little one that can always use it?
?”
Huanbi was slightly quiet, and after a long time, he said with a hint of hidden contempt, "No matter how favored I am, the ancestral system will not be born."
I didn't answer Huanbi's words, I just looked at Ye Lanyi's figure silently, and I was surprised in my heart. However, looking at her expression just now, it didn't seem like she was deliberately being rude to me, as if she really didn't care about these pearls.
I looked at things as if they were nothing. Her slender back had a strange aura, which was different from the frail and graceful appearance of ordinary women. I secretly noticed it.
Note:
1 From the "Poetry of Sorrow" by Du Mu, a poet of the Tang Dynasty: "Since I am late to go to school in search of spring, there is no need to be melancholy and complain about the fragrant weather. The strong wind has shed all the crimson leaves, and the green leaves have become dark and full of branches." Notes from the Tang and Song Dynasties mention Du Mu's early years.
When he was traveling in Huzhou, he saw a girl in her twenties who was extremely beautiful, so she made a promise with her mother: Wait for me for ten years before she gets married again. Fourteen years later, Du Mu became the governor of Huzhou, but the woman had already married and had children.