The phoenix lottery will choose the concubine after the Qingming Festival.
Due to a sudden death in the family, Prince Sihuai set up his memorial in Xuandu Temple and prayed for blessings day and night.
On that day, the emperor brought his concubines and princes to the temple to worship.
The emperor waved to Yang Shu and said, "Offer incense to your father and ancestors."
Yang Shu responded with a low voice, took the incense, and bowed respectfully.
The emperor said: "Brother, this is your eldest grandson Ayan. In the past twenty years, he has grown up. It is time to marry a wife, have children, and flourish. I will choose a concubine for him today. I hope you will be alive in heaven."
, choose a good match for him.”
After praying here, Xuanfei came over and said: "It's ready. Please move here."
So the group of people moved from the back hall to the front hall.
This main hall is dedicated to Bixia Yuanjun, and the two sides have been separated. The nobles can clearly see the situation in the hall when they sit here.
Concubine Pei waved, asked Yang Shu to sit next to her, and asked with a smile: "Are you nervous?"
Yang Shu nodded: "A little bit."
The concubines, who rarely left the palace, all laughed.
Concubine Hui said: "When Cheng'er got married, she ran out without even wearing her crown."
After chatting and joking for a while, there was a sound from outside, but it was the Taoist priest guarding the temple indicating that someone had come in.
Everyone stopped talking and looked towards the main hall.
…
Mingwei went out early in the morning.
Mrs. Ji and Mrs. Dong accompanied her out, and Ji Ling also took leave of absence to accompany her.
Unexpectedly, they arrived not too early, and the teahouses and restaurants on the roadside of Xuanduguan were already crowded with people.
The gate is not open yet, so I can't go in now, and there is no place in the teahouse, so I can only wait on the roadside.
Mingwei heard someone talking to Ji Ling outside. After a while, her eldest cousin came over and said, "Cousin, one of my classmates has reserved a seat here, and his female family members also know you. Let's go over and sit down."
Ming Wei was surprised. She had never been in the circle of ladies in the capital and didn't know a few people. Who was this person?
After entering the teahouse, she realized it was Fang Jinping, a classmate from Mingcheng Academy.
Among the girls she met in the academy, Wei Xiaoan had already married elsewhere, and Fang Jinping also got married the year after she left. Unexpectedly, Ji Ling met from that family.
The two families met and exchanged some polite words, and Fang Jinping couldn't wait to drag her to a corner to talk.
"Well, Ming Xiaowei, when you left Beijing, you asked someone to come over and send you a message, but now you don't tell me when you return to Beijing. If this matter hadn't caused such a big fuss, I wouldn't have known you were back!"
Ming smiled and said, "I just came back not long ago. I haven't had a day to spare. I also heard from my aunt that you were married. I don't know what's going on with your husband's family, so I didn't dare to disturb you."
"Just make excuses, you're obviously lazy!" The two chatted and asked each other how they were doing.
Fang Jinping got straight to the point: "When I heard about this, I remembered that when you were leaving Beijing, it was the time when that person was demoted from Beijing. And when you returned to Beijing, he also came back. To put it bluntly, in the past few years,
Did you go to the northwest?"
Mingwei nodded: "Yes."
Fang Jinping didn't expect her to admit it so straightforwardly. He was surprised at first, and then he was filled with envy: "You are so silent! Following thousands of miles is quite romantic. But you are also too courageous. If others know about it, you will elope."
What should I do if my reputation spreads?"
Mingwei said: "My uncle's family are all good people."
"There are others. If someone deliberately... forget it, it's all over. Today is a good day, so I won't mention it anymore."
Fang Jinping was well-informed and talked about the treasures of the people who would come today.
Mingwei learned a lot of gossip from her.
For example, after the autumn hunting that year, the prince wanted to make a girl from the Lu Xiang family his step-concubine, but the emperor liked the girl from the Pei family. As a result, neither family wanted to marry him, so he finally chose another lady from a famous family.
The new crown princess has a harsh temper and cannot get along with the prince, and they often quarrel.
But when Wen Ru entered the East Palace, Wen Ying became a joke. She never left the Hou Mansion and stopped going to school.
It took more than half a year before King An decided on the princess.
Everyone said that King An was ridiculous, but he was afraid of his wife. One time when he went out to drink wine, Princess An actually led people into the building and took him back. From then on, when King An wanted to have sex with women, he did it secretly.
Mingwei was stunned when he heard this.
King An was the later Ling Emperor. Except for the first two years, his subsequent career as an emperor could be summed up in four words: dissolute and immoral. Unexpectedly, he would have such a style in his early years?
By the way, the history books say that King An escaped from the capital without his wife and children, and they all died at the hands of King Xin. If Princess An could really control him, maybe it wouldn't be so ridiculous, right?
But don't even think about being an emperor. Sitting in that position and possessing supreme power, no matter how powerful your wife is, you can't control her. Even if you control her temporarily, sooner or later she will rebound.
Just as he was talking, Fang Jinping's sharp eyes saw a carriage passing by the building, and asked curiously: "Isn't this the carriage of the Marquis Chengen's family? Their family..."
Before he finished speaking, the gate of Xuandu Temple opened, the carriage stopped next to it, and several ladies dressed in rich clothes got out.
"That's Wen Ying??" Fang Jinping was stunned, "Could it be that she also..."
Ming Wei had already received the news, and was not surprised at all: "It should be so."
Fang Jinping sneered: "She is so shameless! When she got lost, she blamed Wen Ru. Who would have thought that later on, the prince took Wen Ru into his arms. Just like that, she still insisted on not being humble.
Marry and stay until you are nineteen this year, right? Now you actually have a crush on His Royal Highness the King of Yue?"
Mingwei said nonchalantly: "This is indeed a good way for her. It's just a lot. It doesn't take much effort. If you don't win, there's no shame. If you win, she will become a princess and there will be no one else."
Will laugh at her."
"Why are you so calm? She wants to take your place!" Fang Jinping felt aggrieved on her behalf.
Mingwei said: "There are so many people today, but she is not the only one left."
Fang Jinping thought about it, and started to worry about her again: "There are so many lots in the lot, and the chance of winning is too small. If you don't win, then you..."
"Don't worry, it's mine, no one else can take it away."
After everyone had almost entered, they also went downstairs and entered Xuandu Temple one by one.
Although the people who came to Xuandu today were all here for the Phoenix Lotus, they still pretended to pay homage to each hall before going to Bixia Yuanjun.
Seeing people coming, the Taoist priest guarding the temple brought the lotus tube.
Xuanduguan's lotus tube usually contained ninety-nine lots. In front of everyone, he put a lotus with a phoenix feather on its tail into the tube, making a total of one hundred lots.
There is only one in a hundred chance of winning the Phoenix lottery.
This lotus tube was placed on the altar table in full view of everyone.
The first ones to enter the hall were a pair of sisters. They kowtowed respectfully to Bixia Yuanjun, and then picked up the lottery tube in front of everyone's attention.
The two asked the Taoist priest guarding the temple, and the other party replied: "You can either draw lots or draw lots, whichever you like."
One of them chose to draw lots, the other chose to draw lots, and soon got their own lot. (To be continued)