This summer, Daye is hotter than previous years. Emperor Yanxi had already taken all his concubines to a garden on the outskirts of Beijing to escape the summer heat, and Jun Liyuan took Mo Qingge out to play, and it is estimated that he will not return to Beijing until the heat is over. Jun Lixuan and Ling Qiyang took their two children, Daddy Ling and Gu Yao together, and went to Gu Yao's medicine furnace in the mountains. The mountains are relatively cooler and can make the children more comfortable.
Junliche and Xiaoying haven't figured out where to escape the summer heat yet, and it's inconvenient to follow Emperor Yanxi, so they still stay in the mansion. The two have been married for several months. Although Xiaoying has become the princess of Chongqin, her life is still very peaceful. The only good friends are Ling Qiyang and Mo Qingge. He also didn't want to attend the banquets of other princes, sometimes he couldn't push it, and at most he just gave a gift, and he seldom even showed up.
Emperor Yanxi was very satisfied with his low profile. The royal family was more likely to attract the attention of the common people because of their high status. Xiaoying is so neither arrogant nor impetuous, even if she attends a palace banquet, she will dress decently and not be too extravagant. Being so introverted also made me, Emperor Yanxi, feel that it was a very correct decision to be chosen as the Erqing.
There is a large porcelain jar of ice in the study, and Xiaoying is sitting at the desk, reading a history book. Maybe it's because of his martial arts training since he was a child, and the rigorous training he has received. Xiaoying likes to sit upright when reading books and doing things, which seems to help him concentrate more. If you let him lie on a soft couch or a bed, reading will become a little difficult. He will have to find a chair, sit down again, and read again after reading two or three pages at most. Or just don't read it at all and talk about it tomorrow.
The ice in the porcelain jar has already melted by a third. With the doors and windows closed, the study room, which is isolated from the scorching sun and heat outside, is relatively cool, but it is far from cool. The thin clothes that Jun Liche had specially thrown out also came in handy, so that Xiaoying wouldn't have to endure too much in this summer.
Xiaoying was looking at her in a daze, Jun Liche held a folding fan, opened the door and walked in. Xiaoying raised her eyes to look at him, then put down the book, and said with a slight smile, "Is it hot? Wen Mo just sent me the iced plum soup, come and drink some too."
Although it is said that plum soup is mostly a favorite food of women, in such a hot day, it is considered good if it can cool down.
"En." Jun Liche closed the door to cut off the heat outside. Under the action of the ice, he would feel extra cool when he came in from outside the house.
Xiaoying walked to the small table, poured Jun Liche a cup of plum soup that was still cold, handed it to him, and asked, "Is the emperor not suffering from heat? Is it cool in the garden?"
Jun Liche took the cold plum soup, drank it in a few sips, and then sighed in relief. There is nothing more comfortable than drinking a bowl of iced things at this time.
Putting down the bowl, Jun Liche took Xiaoying to sit down, and then replied: "There is a prescription from the medical sage to relieve the heat, and the queen's side is good. It's just that it's not suitable for women to put too much ice, so it doesn't count." It's too cool. But it's definitely better than being in the palace. There are many trees in the garden, which can provide some shade." After the emperor and queen went to live in the garden, even though it was a little farther away than living in the palace, Jun Liche didn't come down to pay his respects. . Especially now that Jun Liyuan and Jun Lixuan are not in the capital, he can only take care of the filial piety.
"That's good." Xiaoying nodded. He also has the tea recipe that Gu Yao gave to relieve heat, but this tea has a few flavors of heat-clearing traditional Chinese medicine added to it. Although it tastes good, if it is iced, it will have a strong medicinal smell, so it is only suitable for drinking after cooling. So Xiaoying will also change some plum soup or lotus leaf tea, these two taste very good when chilled.
He poured another bowl of plum soup, this time Jun Liche was not in a hurry, and said while drinking, "Now they are all going out to escape the heat, do you have a good place, let's go too."
Xiaoying looked at him, and asked in confusion: "What about the morning court?" Although Emperor Yanxi went to escape the summer heat, the morning court was not avoided, but changed to once every three days.
"Do you want to go?" Jun Liche asked with a smile.
Xiaoying thought for a while, and finally nodded. He didn't want to lie to Jun Liche, even for such a trivial matter.
Jun Liche smiled and pinched his earlobe, and said: "Because it's been too hot recently, the emperor ordered that it's not a particularly urgent matter, so it can be postponed. In order to avoid rushing, heatstroke and loss of manpower. The morning court is also pushed to five Once a day, I don't think there is anything important, and my father won't look for me. If there is something important, the third brother and Li Xuan don't want to be free. I'm going to take a leave of absence. Let's play outside for ten days. Thinking about it, the heat will subside a little.”
"Father will be angry if you ask for leave." Xiaoying was a little worried.
Jun Liche shook his head, and said preparedly: "No. Now that the country is peaceful and the people are peaceful, the emperor will have a headache if he sees me always dangling in front of his eyes. Besides, the third brother wrote a letter this morning, saying that he found several jars of ice wine This wine is very interesting, as long as you put the glass on ice for half an hour, and then pour the wine into the glass, the wine will immediately turn into ice slag. Not affected by the hot summer at all."
Xiaoying is still a little puzzled, what does this wine have to do with his leave
"Third brother still wants to take Qingge to Erge's territory to have a look, so let me send someone to bring the wine back." Jun Liche said confidently: "I will tell you to get the wine when the time comes, and I won't be back until some time later. After all, it is something dedicated to the emperor. It is not too much for me to go in person. The third brother left a trusted secret guard there, and he will be escorted back when the time comes, so he is not afraid of problems. Let's take advantage of this time, To escape the heat."
Xiaoying thought about it, but was still a little worried.
Jun Liche reassured: "Third brother didn't let me go in person, it means he has made all arrangements and there will be no problem at all. In addition, the guards in the mansion are all personal guards, so naturally they can be trusted. There will be no problem, wait for them When I come back, I will quietly go to fight with them. The place is not exhausted, ten days is enough."
Thinking that it was Jun Liyuan's arrangement, Xiaoying felt relieved.
Seeing that Xiaoying agreed, Jun Liche immediately asked: "Do you have a favorite place to escape the summer? I have a house in the suburbs, so it's okay to go to play. If it's summer, I'm afraid it won't be so cool."
Xiaoying has been with Jun Liche since she was a child, and she knows very little about it. After thinking for a while, he suddenly had a flash of inspiration and said, "There is a place. I went there twice when I was helping you with errands. It's not far away, but it's a bit rough."
"Where?" Jun Liche asked. In fact, it doesn't matter where you go, the main thing is that Xiaoying is with him.
"It's outside the city, behind the barracks of King Lin's garrison. It's a mountainous place. It's a place where the garrison is safe. The garrison basically won't go up, but just stay there. I know a small road can go around, but it won't Heart-beating garrison." After all, they went quietly to escape the summer heat, so the fewer people who know about it, the better.
Jun Liche didn't hesitate much, and immediately agreed, "Let's go now?"
Seeing his impatient look, Xiaoying laughed and said: "There is nothing over there, I have to prepare to take it in the mansion. Let's go tomorrow."
"Okay, I'll listen to you." Jun Liche responded straightforwardly.
The next day, after the two woke up, they had breakfast and set off.
After riding the horses to the corner of the mountain, the path was narrow and there were tree branches on both sides, which was not suitable for horses to walk, so the two handed over the horses to the guards who followed, and asked them to take them back and pick them up ten days later. After that, the two took the prepared things and walked towards the mountain on foot.
This hill is not high, and it is covered by dense vegetation, so it is not easy to be seen by people down the mountain. The mountain road is relatively gentle, even if you are carrying things on the road, you don't have to strenuously. In addition to the shade covered by the trees, it is really much cooler than down the mountain.
Xiaoying walked in front, pushing aside tree branches blocking the way from time to time to make it easier for Jun Liche to walk. Although Xiaoying is now a princess and not a shadow guard, he is still used to protecting Junliche. Jun Liche didn't stop it either, it wasn't that he wasn't worried about Xiaoying, but that if Xiaoying wasn't allowed to do it, Xiaoying would question her own existence, which Jun Liche didn't want to see.
"How do you know this road?" Jun Liche asked while admiring the emerald green along the way.
Xiaoying looked back at him, pursed the corners of her mouth and said nothing, as if she didn't want to say anything, or didn't know where to start.
"Huh?" Jun Liche asked. He guessed that this answer might not make him so happy, but he still wanted to know about Xiaoying.
Xiaoying walked for a while with her head sullen, and then said in a low voice: "Once I went to Mao'an City to help you with errands. When I returned to Beijing, the sun was about to set. I suddenly didn't want to go back to the house so soon..." Xiaoying was silent for a while. , and continued: "At that time, you let me come to your room every night. Even if I didn't want to, I couldn't disobey your orders. So I couldn't sleep well and was afraid. Although I never thought of running away, but At that time, I couldn't help thinking that it would be great if I could stay outside Beijing for one more night."
Speaking of what happened at that time, Jun Liche felt a little guilty. He likes Xiaoying, but the way he uses it is not good. So Xiaoying was forced to refuse to go back to the house.
Xiaoying took a peek at him, and found that Jun Liche was not angry, so she continued with confidence: "At that time, I happened to pass by a small mountain, and the sun had not yet set, and I could still see the mountain road clearly. I was thinking about whether to stay at the foot of the mountain for a while. Later in the evening, Lord Lin’s shadow guard found me. Because we were trained in the same group and knew each other, he showed up directly. After knowing that he wanted to stay here for a night, he showed me the way , and told that there is a place to shelter from the wind. In this way, I went up the mountain and remembered this road."
This is Jun Lixuan's territory, and it's normal for his shadow guards to be here. But thinking that the other party helped Xiaoying hide from him for an extra night, Jun Liche was still a little upset, but he couldn't say anything, after all, it was his own fault.
The two walked for about a quarter of an hour, and suddenly they saw the light, and they finally arrived at the place Xiaoying said. Here is a flat land, a two-story bamboo house stands here, and there is a bamboo couch and a stone table in the open space in front of the house.
This mountain forest is not rich in bamboo, so it is not easy to build such a place. I don't know who built it, maybe some expert who wanted to live in seclusion, but he didn't live in it later.
Putting the things he brought on the stone table, Xiaoying went into the house with ease and found a wooden basin. Said to Jun Liche: "I'll fetch water first, you wait here for a while. No one has been here for a long time, and there is a layer of dust, so I need to clean it up."
Jun Liche took the wooden basin and said, "I'll go, you rest for a while." Then, he spread an unused white rag in the bundle on the bamboo couch, and let Xiaoying sit on it.
Xiaoying looked at Jun Liche who couldn't refuse, and didn't argue with him. She sat on the bamboo couch, pointed to a path to the south, and said, "Walk along here for about a hundred meters, and you will see a stream."
"Okay." Jun Liche took the wooden basin and walked deep into the forest. This is a small mountain, and there is a lot of game in the mountain, but there are no beasts or snakes. So Jun Liche doesn't have to worry about going to Xiaoying by himself.
After the water came back, the two of them cleaned up the table, bed and floor together, spread out the bedding they brought, and set up tea sets for food. The simple environment looked good.
At noon, the two boiled tea with stream water, ate some snacks they brought, and then lay down on the bed to rest. After a busy morning, both of them were tired. The coolness and tranquility in the woods made their afternoon nap extraordinarily sound.
In the evening, Xiaoying went to hunt two wild pheasants to eat, and picked some edible wild fruits. A fire was built in front of the bamboo hut. Xiaoying plucked and washed the pheasant, put a little salt on it, and roasted it on the fire. It was the most natural delicacy. Food is abundant in the mountains, so even if you live for a long time, you don’t have to worry about running out of food.
Looking at Xiaoying who was concentrating on roasting the chicken, Jun Liche looked at him quietly, the cool touch of the wild fruit in his hand was transmitted to the palm of his hand, which was very comfortable. It was getting late, and there were only the two of them here, a world, a bamboo hut, a cluster of fires, and a touch of coolness, which outlined the simple life of him and Xiaoying at this time. Jun Liche couldn't help thinking that it would be a good thing if he could live in seclusion here.
After roasting, the unique burnt aroma of wild game spread here, and the roasted golden chicken was taken off by Xiaoying, and then cut into several pieces with a knife. The two of them took the steamed buns they brought, and ate the fat, tender and salty chicken. Although compared with Fu Wang's refined food, these were much cruder and cruder, but they were still another kind of fresh delicacy.
While eating, Jun Liche asked, "Tell me about what you were thinking when you were on a mission and sleeping outside?" He seemed to have never cared about this question. ask.
"Actually, it's nothing." Xiaoying held the chicken leg that Jun Liyuan insisted on letting him eat in one hand, and the twig next to him in the other hand, and fiddled with the fire, "This is because of the summer heat, so the place can be quieter first. Sleeping in the open on missions You won’t always be so lucky to find such a place. Most of the time, you just take a nap in a ruined temple or under a tree.” The number of small shadow missions is very small, and some of them are also heard from other shadow guards.
Thinking of those places where Xiaoying might sleep, Jun Liche suddenly lost his appetite, and after being silent for a while, he asked, "Do you regret it?"
Xiaoying looked at him puzzled, "What?"
"Be a shadow guard, or be a shadow guard for me." Jun Liche looked at him seriously.
Xiaoying put down the food in her hand, picked up the teacup, thought for a while, and then sighed slowly, "If I hadn't been chosen by Lord Lin at that time and trained in private, I might have starved to death long ago. That's why I became a shadow guard. , I don’t regret it, for me at that time, nothing is more precious than being alive.”
Jun Liche listened intently to Xiaoying's words, and he hoped to learn more about Xiaoying through these.
"As for being a shadow guard for you, to be honest, I think this is my greatest blessing. I didn't suffer too much because of following you. Although it is my mission and responsibility to protect you, you never let me truly I'm in danger, so I'm very lucky compared to those shadow guards who were born and died." Xiaoying smiled, and continued: "I know it's because you like me, so you don't want me to do dangerous things. Although I also struggled with my identity and future for a long time, but I am still very grateful that you never gave up on me. Even though I was always avoiding at that time."
Thinking of all the things back then, Jun Liche also felt fortunate that he had always insisted on his belief that he wanted to be with Xiaoying, so that he could have today's satisfaction and happiness.
"If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be where I am now. I wouldn't have imagined that the days with you would be so happy and happy. So I don't regret being your shadow guard at all. I think it's God's gift to me. You are the one who let me meet you." Xiaoying's clear eyes were filled with an orange flame, which was very beautiful.
After listening to his words, Jun Liche pulled Xiaoying over, sat on his lap, and kissed the bright red lips.
Xiaoying's instinct was to hug Jun Liche and respond to his kiss. It wasn't until the breath of the two of them became hot that Jun Liche let him go, kissed his ear, and said softly: "I love you..." The three simple words contained everything.
What responded to him was Xiaoying's tight hug and kiss on the forehead.
Jun Liche knew that Xiaoying was shy, and he was clear about Xiaoying's love for him, and that was enough.
Ignoring the food, Jun Liche picked up Xiaoying and walked towards the stream. When he went to fetch water, he found a pool under the lower left branch of the stream. The water quality was clear, warm but not cool due to the sunlight, and it was a good place for bathing. There is also a good choice for warmth.
The backs of the two slowly walked into the woods, and the bright moonlight faintly illuminated the path leading to the stream. Gently, Xiaoying could be heard responding in a low voice: "I love you too..."
The forest is quiet, the love between the two is lingering, and the spring night is short, how can I live up to it...