On the last day of May, Sheng passed away.
Sheng's death was very sudden. When he suddenly arrived at the Taifu's mansion, Wei Changying sent away the idlers. Even the second son Shen Shuxie, who was not very fluent in talking and walking, was left behind. He was chatting with the dusty Qin Ge and Yan Ge. They were talking and discussing how to send Yingge—a female dead warrior who was trained with Qinge and the others in the "Biwu" of the Wei family, but not as ordinary as Qinge and others, but with a charming appearance—sent to the palace.
At first he heard someone banging on the door against his order not to disturb him. Wei Changying thought that something had happened to his two sons, so he stood up and called people in, not expecting Huang to use the door before he crossed the threshold. A slightly changed voice said: "The Holy One has passed away!"
Wei Changying, Qin Ge, Yan Ge and Ying Ge, who was wearing a veil, were so stunned that they were dumbfounded!
Wei Yu was tortured and the Wei family was completely disgraced.
Although the nobles and nobles all sympathize with the Wei family's misfortune for such a foolish king as Tan Shang Sheng, they cannot just ignore the loss of face because of it - isn't it possible that the Wei family has not suffered enough in recent years? Of course, you won’t do anything publicly.
Since Wei Huan's ankle was not fully healed at this time, Mrs. Song and Wei Zhenghong's mother and son together sent Qin Ge and Yan Ge, who had served Wei Changying in the past, to accompany Qing Ge, who was selected from among the dead. , I am going to try to send Yingge into the palace through Wei Chang Ying to serve the Holy Emperor and get on his way as soon as possible.
They had just discussed before that which state or county would be used to let Yingge enter the palace...
But I didn't expect that this matter would just happen like this... After Wei Changying was shocked, his heart was in a mess, and he thought of Wei Xinyong first: "Are we, the Wei family, all destined to be unable to take revenge ourselves?"
After calming down, Wei Changying asked about the whole story of Sheng's death, but Huang didn't know much - it was said that Sheng died suddenly while summoning Zhong Xiaoyi, whom he hadn't seen for a long time. He was bleeding from all his orifices when he died, which was obviously poisoning. However, the imperial doctor checked Zhong Xiaoyi's whole body, even taking apart the beads and flowers in the jewelry, and beating the jade pendants and bracelets inch by inch, but could not find anything containing poison.
In this case, Zhong Xiaoyi of course cried out for injustice, and even suspected that someone else had used the chronic medicine to murder the Holy Lord, and deliberately brought herself here to take the blame. As for the fact that the Holy One summoned her because she asked for an audience first, Zhong Xiaoyi said contemptuously: "As a concubine, I should serve the Holy Master. What's so strange about asking for an audience with the Holy One? The Holy One has never told me not to ask for an audience without being summoned!"
All in all, she refused to admit anything!
Later, Prince Shenbo arrived, cried while caressing the body of the Holy Emperor, and ordered Zhong Xiaoyi to be severely punished. Zhong Xiaoyi simply imitated Huo Chenyuan and committed suicide by touching the pillar... But the palace servant in front of her didn't know anything about it - because it was said that most of the A few months ago, Zhong Xiaoyi asked them to move to a distant place and live alone on the pretext of being in a bad mood.
Since new people entered the palace one after another, Zhong Xiaoyi's favor was not as good as before, so the palace people were far less attentive than before, but they were happy and relaxed. In the past half month, no one knew what had happened to Zhong Xiaoyi and who he had interacted with in private. Except Zhong Xiaoyi himself, there was no way to investigate this matter at all.
What's more, everyone in the government and the public, including the prince, is almost going crazy with their sincere hope that the emperor will die...
Therefore, when Zhong Xiaoyi died, someone made a random excerpt and said that what happened was that "Xiaoyi Zhong entered the palace because of a new man and doted on Richi, so she became hateful because of love, and even committed regicide"... Zhong Xiaoyi was not from a noble family, and the nobles had no regard for her. Of course I strongly agree with taking the blame.
While crying, the prince recalled the Holy Emperor, oh, he is the late emperor now, and after recalling some of the merits of the late emperor who knew whether he had it or not, he accepted it lightly.
The former emperor dies and the new emperor ascends the throne. The former needs to express condolences - the Wei Dynasty is not dead yet. If the late emperor fails to live up to his expectations, his duties as a minister will be fulfilled; the latter needs to celebrate. Although the Wei Dynasty is almost over, he will be a Wei minister for a day. Be loyal all day long
So everyone first changed into mourning clothes and entered the palace to cry. According to the rules of the Wei Dynasty, after the ministers entered the palace, the prince took his place in front of the mourning body. The next day, the main hall of the imperial court, which had not been opened for several days, was opened to hold the enthronement ceremony - Although the harem has not yet been sealed, when the new monarch takes the throne, it is impossible for the civil and military officials to go to court in mourning clothes and have to change into court clothes to congratulate him.
After congratulating him, he continued to cry. According to the rules, you have to cry for seven days. It is the hot summer in June, the cicadas are chirping, the sun is burning, and it is unusually sad. Even though the palace is filled with ice dishes, and there are many refreshing soup drinks to relieve the heat in the side hall, who is qualified to enter the palace to cry in mourning, who is not delicate and expensive
After all this trouble, almost every household, from officials to women's families, put down people.
For example, in Taifu's Mansion, Mrs. Su and her sixth daughter-in-law Huo Qingling only cried until the next day and then fell ill together. The former was because he was a bit old, and unlike Shen Xuan, who had been practicing martial arts for many years, he could still hold up; the reason why the latter fell ill was expected by everyone. A few days after Huo Chenyuan was buried, Mrs. Gu This time the crying spirit couldn't even get up, so he asked his sister-in-law to report the crime to the palace. Huo Qingling has been feeling miserable, so it's good to be able to hold on for a day or two.
Because there were too many people suffering from illness, the new emperor passed down a decree, allowing the younger ones to stay and weep for seven days, while the older ones could return home to mourn.
Under this situation, Wei Changying and Pei Meiniang were very depressed as they became the candidates left by the Shen family to take care of Mao.
This is not because her husband's family is bullying them. The Liu family and the Duanmu family are not young at all, they are only in their early thirties. But Mrs. Su and Huo Qingling fell ill, and the fifth daughter-in-law Su Yuyin was far away in Xiliang. There couldn't be anyone in charge of such a large Taifu mansion, right? Of course Mrs. Liu can take care of it on her own, but considering that Mrs. Su has three young grandchildren at home, she has to add an elder to look after her - no one can trust Shen Zangning's aunt to take care of her nephew. At this point, she is not as reliable as Shen Shujing.
Therefore, Mrs. Su reported heat stroke to Duanmu Yanyu, so that she could stay at home and take care of the children... Of course, Pei Meiniang could also take care of the children. The question was, who called her the eldest daughter-in-law of the Xiangning House
So the two sisters-in-law could only secretly sigh at their bad luck, holding the medicine bag that Huang made overnight, kneeling before His Highness and crying silently along with the sparse crowd.
Crying like this for a long time is naturally boring - after all, except for Concubine Deng and several other concubines, no one in this palace is really sad for the late emperor's great conduct... When Wei Changying was tired of crying, he went to see Duanmu Xinmiao in the diagonal thorn. I thought about moving over quietly and asking her if she had any medicine or the like, so that I could hide away for a while... Speaking of which, Duanmu Xinmiao was wronged. Unmarried ministers rarely have royalties. Naturally, there is no need to go to the palace to mourn.
But that time when Concubine Deng Guifei put the needle through and asked Duanmu Xinmiao to go to Xiliang to treat Shen Zangfeng, the heavens heard. Later, when Duanmu Xinmiao returned to the imperial capital, the Holy Emperor made her a county prince. And now she can only come and kneel together... On the other hand, Duanmu Xinmiao's sister Duanmu Weimiao and the emperor's direct daughter-in-law, the Queen Mother Cai, decisively fainted on the way back to the palace after the mourning yesterday. The new king was sympathetic and said there was no need to come today. .
However, when Wei Changying looked around, he happened to see the back of Duanmu Xinmiao. She was getting up and walking out. It seemed that she was going to change clothes.
Wei Zhang Yingzheng felt tired after kneeling for a long time, and was overjoyed when he saw this. He secretly wondered why he didn't think of this good way to be lazy? She asked Pei Meiniang in a low voice: "Meiniang, do you want to change? I saw sister Xinmiao."
Pei Meiniang wrapped the medicine bag in a handkerchief and wiped her eyes, while whispering: "I can still hold on for now, but I won't go until I can't hold on anymore."
"I'm going to get some air." Wei Changying thought that catching up might be of some benefit, so he got up.
... She carefully avoided the many married women and turned around the corner into the side hall. She looked around, but there was no figure of Duanmu Xinmiao. She tried calling behind the screen several times but received no answer. She simply went over to take a look, only to find that I saw the clothes and belongings displayed, but they were empty and empty.
Seeing this situation, Wei Changying felt a little strange. Taking a closer look, I saw that there was a small door in the side hall leading to the harem.
Wei Changying hesitated for a moment, then went back to the door where he came in and looked at it. Seeing that no one was coming in yet, he tiptoed to the small door, quietly opened it, and looked out - it was a small courtyard. , planted many flowers and plants, which are in full bloom at this time.
There were scattered flowers in the dark green light blue, and the white mourning clothes were hard to find inside, but with Wei Changying's eyesight, he could still see a few traces of grass blades swept by the skirt.
She was suspicious: it seemed that Duanmu Xinmiao had really just passed here, but in this scene of crying souls, it was allowed to leave temporarily for a while, but it was disrespectful to leave for a long time. Now that the new king has just ascended the throne, he was promoted by the nobles. This face must always be given to Shen Bo, right
Duanmu Xinmiao is by no means an ignorant person, there must be a reason for her doing this - but was this reason prepared when she left the main hall of the crying spirit, or did she do it accidentally when she entered this side hall
After thinking for a moment, Wei Changying lifted up the hem of his skirt and quickly chased after him, following the traces of flowers and leaves.
Regardless of whether Duanmu Xinmiao walked here intentionally or by accident, she obviously walked in such a hurry that her filial piety clothes swept away many grass blades and flowers along the way. Following these traces, Wei Changying easily found her beside a rockery.
Originally, she wanted to go directly to ask what was going on, but when she was about to say hello, she was surprised to find that Duanmu Xinmiao was not alone by the rockery, but there was also a palace servant in plain clothes, who looked familiar from the side. .
Wei Changying recalled it for a moment, then remembered that the first time he entered the palace, it was the birthday of Princess Linchuan. At that time, she was having a banquet in Changle Palace, and the maid who was sent to serve her was having a private meeting with Duanmu Xinmiao at this moment. Meet the people. This happened several years ago. Wei Changying could no longer remember the name of this palace lady, but seeing that she and Duanmu Xinmiao were both sneaky, he stopped talking and took two steps back. , hiding behind a tree to watch.
In the hot summer, there were few people traveling in the palace, and since the late emperor left shortly, they were all busy with the funeral. The place was very quiet at the moment, and the chirping of cicadas made it seem even more empty.
After Wei Changying held her breath and concentrated, she could occasionally hear a few words: "...here." The palace lady took out a bulging thing from her sleeve. She didn't know what was inside, but she had a fearful look on her face. , holding it carefully, looking like he wanted to throw it away immediately but didn't dare.
"Give it to me quickly..." Duanmu Xinmiao obviously attached great importance to this thing. He hurriedly took it and hid it in his arms.
"... It's wrapped in a veil... Are you really okay?" After the things were given, the palace man was still not at ease and asked worriedly.
"Don't worry...no grudges..." Duanmu Xinmiao seemed much more relaxed after getting the things. She said a few words in an understatement, turned around and left.
The palace man seemed relieved and a little worried, but when he saw this scene, he suddenly woke up and had nothing to say. He hurriedly ran to her to stop her and said, "What about Mr. Deng?"
At this time, because he took a few steps toward Wei Changying, he could hear it more clearly.
But Wen Duanmu Xinmiao said casually: "Where can there be such mysterious things? I made them up to fool your mother-in-law."
"...!" The palace man was obviously choked by her shamelessness, and stood there not knowing what to say!
Duanmu Xinmiao, on the other hand, walked past her with peace of mind and walked away! (To be continued)