Empress Chen's birthday is on the eighth day of May.
Over the years, the emperor and empress have become increasingly discordant, and the relationship has become stalemate, which is well known to everyone. Even this time the banquet was not as grand as in the past. The birthday banquet is held on the Xinyan Tower and Linjiang Tower next to the Taiye Pool in the imperial palace. These two towers are surrounded by mountains and rivers, with carved beams and painted buildings. Looking from afar, it looks like a fairyland in a painting, which is out of reach. Once you get closer, you can see the dragon and phoenix painted in relief on the two buildings showing auspiciousness.
The two buildings received the ministers of the DPRK and China and the officials of the ministers. Wei Kun personally sent the children to Xinyan downstairs, and handed them to the fourth wife Qin with concern: "These children are troublesome to the fourth sister-in-law to take care of... If the fourth sister-in-law If you can’t bring it here, you can ask the nanny to take care of it.”
The Qin family had three sons, plus Wei Luo, Wei Zheng, and Wei Changhong, they were really stretched. Originally, Du Shi should be brought with him to this kind of occasion, but Du Shi just made a big mistake, Wei Kun would not bring her along without saying anything, so he left her at home alone. Wei Zheng didn't have a mother, and was young. When he came to the palace, he was timid and followed Wei Kun step by step, even talking less than usual.
Qin took the children over and joked with a smile: "What did Uncle Wu say? It's such a difficult task. You can rest assured and leave them to me."
The British government came early, and there was no one in front of the two buildings at this time, only the father-in-law and maidservants who came and went were busy buying melons, fruits and snacks for the building. Wei Kun saw that Mrs. Qin was bringing three mothers, and the three children were accompanied by their own mother Fu. He thought that nothing serious would happen, so he nodded and turned to walk towards Linjiang Tower.
Qin Shi watched Wei Kun walk away, and sighed softly.
Mrs. Du is not his good match, although he has been surrounded by children for so many years, but there is one person missing in his heart, and he is always lonely. It would be great if Jiang Miaolan was still there, but it's Du Shi's turn.
She thought about taking a few children into the pavilion while thinking about it. From this point of view, her place is really lively. There are six children in total, and each of them can drown out the voices of others with a single word. The eldest lady at the side looked at it, and asked with a smile: "Can you still take care of me? If you can't take care of me, leave Ah Luo and Chang Hong to me."
The eldest lady has only one son, the young master Wei Changyin, but no daughter, and she likes all the girls in the house very much.
Qin Shi pursed her lips and smiled, and declined politely: "I usually take Ah Luo and Chang Hong with me, so there must be no problem now."
As soon as the words fell, Wei Zheng broke away from Qin Shi's hand and ran to the third wife Liu Shi in front, "I want the third aunt!"
Mrs. Liu was suddenly grabbed by her, looked back in surprise, and quickly understood what was going on, smiled at Mrs. Qin, and took Wei Zheng upstairs. Mrs. Liu and Mrs. Du got close, even to Wei Zheng, so Wei Zheng would rather be close to the third aunt than the fourth aunt.
Qin Shi was startled for a moment, then smiled, feeling a little helpless. She took Chang Hong with her free hand, and said softly, "Let's go upstairs too."
Xinyan Tower has three floors in total. The first floor is a place for people to lean on the railing to enjoy. There are screen murals all around, and a floor-to-ceiling painted enamel vase with flower and bird patterns placed in each of the four corners. An eight-treasure glazed couch was placed in the east, on which there were scarlet makeup flower pillows. After a while, Empress Chen came over and sat on this place. In the middle of the second and third floors, there is a small red lacquer mother-of-pearl table, on which are placed melon seeds, peanuts, peaches and other melon and fruit snacks.
As soon as Wei Luo followed Qin into the room, she saw a little girl wearing purple silk half-arm and a goose-yellow embroidered skirt with colorful ribbons sitting there peeling peanuts. The peanut shells in front of her were peeled off, but she didn't eat any of them herself, and arranged the red-skinned peanuts neatly one by one in the shape of a row of wild geese. She is also about six or seven years old, with a round face, almond eyes, and two dimples on her cheeks when she smiles.
Wei Luo heard the maid next to her call her "Second Miss", and was about to figure out which family's Second Miss it was, when Liang Yurong called her over.
Liang Yurong was wearing a light green woven gold blouse, a Yuebai Lake skirt, and a round bun on her hair. She was born exquisitely, and her attire was as radiant as jade, bright and clean. She was half-sitting on the low couch, leaning on the mahogany relief armrest to look out, and pointed to the opposite side with great interest, "Look, Ah Luo, you can see the scene over there."
Wei Luo walked up in unison, sat down next to her, and really saw the situation facing Jianglou. Unlike their side, Linjiang Tower is surrounded by green curtains on three sides, but is open to the air on all sides. The two buildings are not far apart, and you can even see clearly the behavior of the people inside. Liang Yurong had nothing to do, so she started looking for people she knew, this one was her father, that one was her brother, and an uncle she knew...Suddenly certain, she pointed to a place and asked, "Ah Luo, is that one?" Not your big brother?"
Wei Luo followed where she pointed, and indeed saw his elder brother by the Taiye Lake. Wei Changyin was sitting in a wheelchair, too far away to see the expression on his face clearly. Opposite him stood a young man in a well-dressed shirt, with his back to them, standing with his hands behind his back, no one could tell who it was.
Wei Luo nodded, and was about to speak when she suddenly stopped.
At this time, Liang Yurong had just met her elder brother a few times, and she only had some sympathy for her elder brother. Wei Luo thought of their unhappy ending in their previous life, and dragged her cheeks, thinking, should I stop them now? In her previous life, Liang Yurong's hard work had no results. Instead of suffering for a lifetime, it is better to cut off the source of this relationship from the very beginning.
She dragged Liang Yurong back, grabbed the peanuts on the table with red plum and blue patterns, and handed them over, "It's so far away, I can't see clearly... Let's stop looking and eat peanuts."
Liang Yurong took the peanuts, and just peeled off one to eat, when she felt an unfriendly look from the other side. She looked up, and the girl behind the red lacquer table was staring at her, she blinked for no reason, and generously handed the peeled peanuts, "Do you want to eat too?"
Unexpectedly, the other party didn't want to eat, but the "Picture of Wild Geese Flying South" in front of her was not finished yet, Wei Luo grabbed a handful of peanuts on the plate, and it was suddenly not enough. Angrily, she pushed the peanut in front of her, and the pattern that had been placed for a long time disappeared in an instant. She pouted and said, "No more, no more!"
It turned out that this little girl was the second lady of the Zhen Guogong's mansion, her name was Gao Qingyang, she was about the same age as Wei Luo and Liang Yurong, and she was also six years old. Mrs. Zhen Guogong is the younger sister of Empress Chen. She has no sons under her knees, only two daughters. Even so, because of the relationship between her natal family and Empress Chen, Mrs. Zhen Guogong's status cannot be shaken. For so many years, Zhen Guogong has only taken one concubine. Mrs. Zhen Guogong dotes on her two daughters very much. Besides this youngest daughter, she also has an older daughter named Gao Danyang. Gao Danyang is fourteen this year, he is said to be unparalleled in beauty, a first-class beauty.
Now that Gao Qingyang was angry, Liang Yurong was not flattering like others, but asked her curiously, "Do you still want these peanuts?"
She snorted, "No more."
Seeing that Liang Yurong took a handful of the bags and stuffed them into a silk handkerchief, Gao Qingyang thought she wanted to eat them, and was about to sneer with disdain, but she said, "Ah Luo, let's go to the back and feed the kittens. I just When I came here, I saw a lot of cats, but they are beautiful, and they are just behind this building."
Anyway, there was nothing to do upstairs. Empress Chen didn't know when she would come over, so Wei Luo nodded and said yes, and asked Qin who was beside her, "Fourth aunt, can I go down and play for a while?"
Mrs. Qin was talking to the people in the Dingling Marquis's Mansion, she was hesitant when she heard the words, but seeing the hopeful look on the little girl's face, and there were many other children going down, she agreed. She was still worried, so she asked the two nuns to follow, and told Wei Luo, "Don't go far, you have to come back later."
Wei Luo smiled and hummed crisply.
Over there, Gao Qingyang didn't come out, and was choked back, staring angrily at the direction they were leaving, and was about to grab the peanuts on the table and throw them over, when suddenly a person stood in front of her. Chang Hong's small face was tense, a pair of dark eyes under long eyelashes looked at her, blocked her hand and said, "No."
Gao Qingyang had never seen him before, so she subconsciously asked, "No what?"
He didn't speak, it was extremely rare to talk, but he opened her hand seriously, picked out the peanuts in her hand one by one, and put them on the small table. Then without even looking at her, he turned around and followed Wei Luo's footsteps, and went down the stairs.
Gao Qingyang realized when he saw him walk away, okay, it turns out they belong to the same group!
Wei Luo followed Liang Yurong to the downstairs, along a path covered with cobblestones, and really saw two or three snow-white kittens under the bright red banana flowers not far away.
The kitten was not big, it looked like it was only a few months old, lying on the green grass, it was cute and cute. There were no maids around, so I don't know if anyone was taking care of the cat. Liang Yurong squatted in front of them, and couldn't help but reach out and pet it, "Ah Luo, this cat is so beautiful, it's so white that it doesn't have any hairs, come and see it." ah."
Wei Luo didn't like this kind of little furry thing very much, and coming out with her was simply because the attic was boring. Hearing what Liang Yurong said, she hesitated for a long time, and crouched a little closer to the little cat. The three kittens were really beautiful, with sapphire blue eyes and snow-white bodies, as if they knew she was looking at them, and they all looked back at her eagerly.
Those eyes are more innocent than the other, and it's easy to get intoxicated if you look at them for a long time.
Wei Luo was interested in kittens for the first time, and reached out to touch one of the ears, but who knew that it stretched out its front paws, hugged her arm, and rushed up. Wei Luo was startled, stood up abruptly, and subconsciously wanted to get rid of the cat, but when she thought about how rare this cat appeared in the palace, someone must have kept it. What if it belonged to some concubine or princess? , I'm afraid it will be very troublesome if it breaks. She had no choice but to freeze her body, trying to put the cat back to its original place, but the kitten seemed to be tired of her, clung to her tightly, and stuck out its tongue to lick the back of her hand.
... She is not tasty!
Wei Luo called Liang Yurong: "Help me take it down..."
She had goosebumps on her arms, she really couldn't love this kind of long-haired animal.
Seeing this, Liang Yurong couldn't help laughing. Instead of helping, she seemed to be watching the fun. She wanted to ask Chang Hong for help, but Chang Hong was called away by the people around Wei Kun after she went downstairs just now. She had no choice but to be licked by the little milk cat again. This feeling is really helpless!
Seeing that Wei Luo's eyes were slightly red, Liang Yurong put away her smile and prepared to help her. Just as she was about to make a move, she suddenly heard a clear female voice from ahead: "Who are you? Why are you here?"
Liang Yurong looked up, and saw not far away a girl in a skirt with cherry-colored gold makeup and flowers standing behind the red banana flowers, frowning, looking at the snow-white milk cat on Wei Luo's arm. She is about thirteen or fourteen years old, with black hair and snow skin, bright eyes and white teeth, she is charming and charming, beautiful and moving.
"We..." Liang Yurong thought she was the owner of the cat, and was taken aback, and was about to answer. The girl walked up to Wei Luo, stretched out her arm, and took the cat off Wei Luo's arm.
The girl said, "This cat is not for you to touch."
After finishing speaking, he turned around and looked behind him, and said dissatisfiedly: "Cousin Jing, why do you keep cats in such a place? I gave them to you, can't you give them some care?"
A dozen or so steps away, Zhao Jie was dressed in a sky-blue brocade robe woven with gold and four-fold wishful cloud patterns. He was tall and straight, unmoved by her words, but looked at Wei Luo beside her with a wrinkled face.