The autumn of the twelfth year of Zhenning arrived quietly in a bloody mist in the imperial prison.
A few days before the Mid-Autumn Festival, a cold rain fell and the weather quickly turned cold. Yang Wan was fine for a while, but she caught a cold. As the Mid-Autumn Festival approached, the affairs of the Shangyi Bureau became increasingly busy. Yang Wan delayed for a day or two and actually started to have a fever.
If this happened in modern times, it could be solved with just a few cephalosporins, but in the Ming Dynasty it was actually quite fatal.
Yang Wan didn't want to let Concubine Ning know at first, but Jiang Shangyi didn't dare to hide it from Concubine Ning.
After Song Yunqing went to Chengqian Palace to report, Concubine Ning ordered He Yu to take Yang Wan to Chengqian Palace to raise her.
Yang Wan was afraid that someone around Concubine Ning would tell Deng Ying about this, so she would ask about it from time to time.
When Concubine Ning went to see her, she could not help but press her down on the couch, "You keep getting up, are you serious about not thinking it through?"
Yang Wan pinched the quilt, "I'm afraid they'll talk too much and go and tell Li Yu and the others nonsense."
Concubine Ning rolled up the bed curtains, sat down beside her, and smoothed her wet hair. "What's wrong with letting him know?"
Yang Wan coughed and said, "Nothing serious, I just saw that he was too busy."
She said and sighed.
Deng Ying spent the entire month of June on the construction of the Hall of Supreme Harmony. Although he was always focused on his work, it was the first time that Yang Wan saw him devote himself to one thing at his own expense.
"The Hall of Supreme Harmony is almost finished."
Yang Wan nodded.
"When I went to see it a few days ago, I saw that the sculpture of a beast holding back the tiles on the roof was already completed."
Concubine Ning smiled and said, "You, once you talk about him, you become more energetic no matter how sick you are."
Yang Wan did not comment.
Sometimes when you pay too much attention to one person, you tend to ignore the people around you.
Yang Wan looked at Concubine Ning's gentle gaze, and recalled that every time the emperor summoned her to sleep with him, she would sit quietly in the bedroom for a while by herself, and would not reveal anything after coming out.
She is better at hiding her emotions than Yang Wan and doesn't let people around her worry, but this also makes Yang Wan feel sorry for her even more.
"Mid-Autumn Festival is coming in two days. When I feel better, I will make some mooncakes with new flavors for Your Highness."
Concubine Ning patted her forehead and said, "Heyu and the others have told you many times that from now on, you are not allowed to touch the kitchen except for cooking noodles."
Yang Wan propped herself up and said, "If you don't go into the kitchen, you can teach them."
Concubine Ning smiled and nodded, "Okay, this is the first Mid-Autumn Festival that Sister and Wan'er have spent since entering the palace."
**
Perhaps it was because she had some real-life fun, Yang Wan felt much better after the next two days.
After the fever subsides, you can get up and walk around.
It was a fine day. Yang Wan lit a stick of incense, put on her clothes and sat at the desk to organize her previous notes. Yi Lang came back wearing a brand new brocade robe and ran straight to Yang Wan as soon as he entered the room.
"Aunt, are you feeling better?"
Yang Wan stood up and bowed to him, "My humble servant is disheveled and I am afraid I may offend Your Highness."
Yi Lang took Yang Wan's hand and said, "Auntie hasn't played with me for a long time."
Yang Wan squatted down and wiped the sweat off his face with her sleeve. She looked up and asked the eunuch who was following him, "Where's the queen?"
The eunuch bowed and replied, "Your Highness has gone to the Cining Palace to pay respects to the Empress Dowager, and she has not returned yet."
Yang Wan nodded and said, "Okay, you guys go wait outside and accompany His Highness."
After saying that, she pointed to a chair beside her and said, "Your Highness, please go sit down for a while. Let me go to the back to put on some clothes."
Yi Lang nodded in agreement and obediently walked to the chair and sat down.
Yang Wan didn't think much about it and turned around and walked into the inner room.
Unexpectedly, when she came out again, she saw Yi Lang flipping through the notes she had left on the desk.
In order to avoid unnecessary trouble, Yang Wan wrote all her arguments and comments in English, and only used Chinese characters for purely historical records. She was usually very careful and would not let anyone see this notebook easily, but today, she was indeed negligent towards this child who had just learned to read.
Yi Lang couldn't understand the previous part, but when he saw the page that Yang Wan opened, he saw the names of Zhou Congshan, Zhao Pingling and more than ten other people, as well as the words "Qiu Jue" marked behind these names. He couldn't help but look up and ask Yang Wan, "Aunt, why did you write these people's names?"
I don't know why, but when he asked this question, although his voice was childish, his face was very serious.
Yang Wan was speechless for a moment.
Yi Lang suddenly raised his voice.
"Aunt, you are discussing state affairs in private."
After he said this, he looked up at Yang Wan.
Yang Wan suddenly realized.
Perhaps because he was too young and too close to her, she almost forgot that this little child would be the emperor of the next dynasty.
"aunt."
He called her again, and Yang Wan quickly knelt down in front of the table, "I know I was wrong."
Yi Lang lowered his head and said, "The palace people are not allowed to discuss state affairs in private, and it is even more inappropriate for my aunt to write it down on paper."
Yang Wan bit her lip and was speechless for a moment.
The Emperor Jinghe recorded in historical records was different from his father.
He could be regarded as the most faultless emperor among the dozen or so eccentric monarchs of the Ming Dynasty. Of course, this was not only due to the discipline of his imperial teacher Zhang Cong and later the chief minister of the cabinet Yang Lun, but also to his natural sensitivity. However, the distance between words and specific characters was too far, and it was only today that Yang Wan suddenly had a personal experience of the word "sensitive" given to Yi Lang in "History of Ming Dynasty".
She bowed down and admitted her mistake again.
Just at this time, Concubine Ning came back from the Cining Palace, and the eunuch outside the palace hurriedly led her over.
Concubine Ning walked into the side hall and saw Yang Wan kneeling on the ground, with Yi Lang sitting behind the desk, looking down at her.
He hurriedly asked, "What's wrong? Why did you make your aunt kneel?"
Yi Lang heard the voice and stood up and bowed to Concubine Ning, "Auntie did something wrong."
Concubine Ning walked over to Yang Wan, took her arm and said, "Come on, get up first."
Yang Wan did not stand up. "My lady, it is my fault. I dare not stand up."
Seeing her like this, Concubine Ning frowned and looked at Yi Lang, "What did she do wrong?"
Yi Lang pointed to the notes in front of him and replied, "She discussed state affairs privately."
Concubine Ning stood up and walked behind the desk. She glanced at the notes Yang Wan had spread out on the desk. Yi Lang pointed at Zhou Congshan's name and said to Concubine Ning, "Mother, Mr. Zhang told me that this man is the one that the emperor wants to execute. He insulted the emperor, and the emperor was very angry and would not allow anyone to plead for him. Aunt is a palace servant and should not be involved in state affairs, but she wrote down these people's names privately. This is a big taboo."
Concubine Ning closed Yang Wan's notes, squatted down and hugged Yi Lang in her arms.
"Your aunt...is feeling better now."
Yi Lang nodded, "I understand, mother, I don't want to punish you either."
He let go of Concubine Ning's hand and walked to Yang Wan, "Aunt, please don't write these things anymore."
Yang Wan quickly responded, "Yes, I will obey your Highness's orders."
After hearing what she said, Yi Lang turned back to look at Concubine Ning and said, "Then Aunt, please get up."
"yes."
Yang Wan stood up in response and looked at Concubine Ning with some guilt.
Concubine Ning bent down and touched Yi Lang's head, "You go out first, mother has something to say to your aunt."
Yi Lang nodded and followed the eunuch out of the side hall.
Concubine Ning picked up the notes on the desk and put them in Yang Wan's hands, "Keep them."
Yang Wan pursed her lips as she took the notes and looked up and said, "Your Majesty, please don't blame me."
"Why do you blame me?"
As she spoke, she looked down at Yang Wan's knees, "Did he let you kneel for a long time?"
"No, I just knelt down and the queen came."
Concubine Ning sighed and raised her sleeve to tidy up her loose hair. "You still blame me. If you hadn't seen through the relationship between the Imperial Household Department and His Majesty, Zheng Bingbi would have died. As a woman, you are much better than me as a sister. It's just that... although my son is close to you, he is a student of the teachers after all. I can only take care of him in his daily life. His character and wisdom are all entrusted to Wenhua Palace. I didn't know he would treat you like this today."
Yang Wan shook her head, helped Concubine Ning sit down, and squatted down herself, looking up at her and said, "Your Majesty, this is right. Whether he inherits the throne in the future or guards a border, he is the master of the people of the world. He should know the etiquette and punish fairly. Only in this way can all parties be safe, right?"
Concubine Ning held Yang Wan's hand and said, "That's what you think."
Yang Wan smiled and said, "That's the only way to think about it."
Concubine Ning asked, "Then do you still ask him to make those novel mooncakes?"
"Um."
Yang Wan smiled and nodded, "Your Highness has done nothing wrong, why should I be angry? Your Highness... I want to ask you for a favor. But you must not let Your Highness know about this."
"What?"
"On the second day of Frost's Descent, I want to go out of the palace once."
"What are you doing?"
The second day after the Frost Descent is the day of "Autumn Decision".
Yang Wan had read some rough descriptions in the materials of her senior sister who was researching Ming Dynasty punishments, but those were textual materials after all, and she needed to rely on association to piece together the specific scenes.
This time, she wanted to see with her own eyes what the scenes of "vomiting blood and lumps, even rotting flesh" recorded in history were like. She wanted to see up close how these people who had once died on paper for her died, and how they lived to the last moment of their lives. She also wanted to experience for herself how cruel the punishments of the Northern Pacification Division of the Ming Dynasty were.
After experiencing this blank period in history, Yang Wan gradually realized that in order to truly understand the era in which Deng Ying lived, she must understand what the most real horror of this era was.
"If you don't want to talk about it, forget it."
Concubine Ning's voice interrupted Yang Wan's thoughts.
She was about to speak, but then she heard Concubine Ning say, "Sister... you have to find a reason. I heard that my brother's wife had a symptom at the beginning of last month, and now she is not getting better. I have been wanting to send someone to ask about her. After the frost falls, you should go home to visit her. Mother must miss you too."
She was too thoughtful and Yang Wan could hardly bear it.
"My Lady... Just trust me like this and don't ask me anything."
Concubine Ning helped her up and said, "I actually know what you are thinking. If I could go back 20 years, I would also want to be like you."
Yang Wan was stunned.
At first glance, this doesn't sound like anything special, but if you think about it carefully, it's very subtle.
Concubine Ning didn't seem to want her to think further, so she stood up and said, "I see you can get out of bed now, and today is just the right time for you to be free. Didn't you say you wanted to teach Heyu and the others to make some new mooncake fillings? Go and ask the inner kitchen to prepare it, change your clothes and come over."
After she finished speaking, she took two steps toward the palace door, then thought of something and turned around and said, "Oh, by the way, there will be a big banquet in the palace on the day after tomorrow for the Mid-Autumn Festival, and I'm going to go too. It would be boring for you to be alone during such a big festival. But you're not well yet, so you shouldn't walk around and catch a cold..."
"It's all right, ma'am."
Concubine Ning laughed, "I didn't say you can't leave Chengqian Palace, why are you panicking? Take good care of yourself in the next two days. Even if you want to go to appreciate the moon the day after tomorrow, don't go to a windy place. Um... remember to pack some of the mooncakes we made today and take them with you."