After the autumn examination was over, it rained for several days in the capital. However, the Shuntianfu Book Market did not become deserted with the end of the autumn examination. The candidates who were waiting for the results to be announced took advantage of the clear weather and came to the book market in groups of three or four to stroll around.
East Street was bustling with traffic and horses.
The door of Qingbo Pavilion was closed, and the seal on the door attracted many people to stop and talk.
"Why was Qingbo Pavilion the only one closed?"
A candidate asked in surprise, looking at the seal on the door.
The person next to him responded, "They said it was the Pacification Office who brought people to seal the store. Not only did they seal the store, they also took away the people inside."
"I'm afraid there will be another disturbance in the literary prison."
As they talked, they walked hand in hand into the noodle stall at the entrance of Donggong Street, put down their bags and poured two cups of tea. The warm tea smoke moistened their noses. They held the tea and looked at the dry frost on the ground. One of them suddenly said, "It will be several days before the results are announced. Did you bring enough cotton clothes?"
"I just can't worry enough. It's cold even during the day."
"Yes, it's still very hard. I don't know what will happen this winter."
"Why… "
The two of them sighed together.
One of them put down his teacup and said, "Even the annual harvest is not good, all the academies in our south can't hold on. Now even the academies in the capital are closed down. I don't know who has the money allocated to the local education officials..."
"Shh!"
The person sitting opposite him quickly stopped him and said, "That's enough. It's not easy to pass the imperial examination. Be careful with your mouth."
The two stopped talking and asked the stall owner for a bowl of clear soup noodles each.
Qin Wende sat at the seat closest to the stove and finished his noodles in a flash. He turned to the stall owner and said, "Give me another bowl, don't pour the soup on it."
The clear soup noodles had just been put into the pot, and the people at the noodle stall were waiting for the stall owner to scoop out the soup.
The stall owner took the opportunity to glance at Qin Wende while picking food in front of him, "Captain Qin, this is your fourth bowl today."
As soon as this "title" was mentioned, the two people who had just said it grabbed their bags and ran away.
"Hey hey hey! I don't want to eat noodles anymore!"
The stall owner chased after the man in vain, and threw the rag over and said, "It's bad luck."
Tan Wende slapped the money on the table and said straightforwardly, "Give me their two bowls."
The stall owner smiled helplessly, "I'm happy that you take care of my life, but don't sit here and eat all the time. Go to the front and walk around. It looks like you're doing your job."
Tan Wende said: "You are old, but I still need to do my own work in my current position."
The stall owner smiled and ordered, then brought two bowls of clear soup noodles without any soup to the table, "Eat, eat."
Qin Wende was about to pick up his chopsticks when he suddenly saw a figure falling in front of him. He raised his eyes to take a look, then hurriedly stood up, and the chopsticks on the bowl fell to the ground.
"Oh, Lord Governor."
Deng Ying bent down to pick up the chopsticks on the ground and put them next to him: "Sit down."
Qin Wende saw Deng Ying holding a pile of books in his arms, so he wiped the grease off the table with his hand and said, "Master, please put it here."
"good."
Deng Ying put down the book, rolled up her sleeves and poured a bowl of tea.
Tan Wende said: "The governor bought so many books."
"Yeah, I bought it by the way."
As he spoke, he lowered his head and took a sip of tea. Qin Wende looked at the two bowls of noodles in front of him and quickly pushed one bowl to Deng Ying, "Have a bowl of noodles."
Deng Ying smiled and said, "Since it's served, just eat it."
Qin Wende said: "I have been guarding here and have already eaten four bowls."
After saying that, he burped.
Deng Ying smiled when she saw this, moved the bowl in front of her, and went to the table next to her to get a pair of chopsticks.
The stall owner over there scooped a large bucket of soup and said, "Supervisor, please eat. If it's not enough, I'll pick more for you."
Qin Wende chuckled secretly while sucking his face, and said in a low voice: "Master, you have a good temper. You are not even afraid of these people."
Deng Ying opened her face and asked, "How is the surveillance?"
"oh."
Qin Wende quickly put down his chopsticks and said seriously, "Pang Ling went to the palace yesterday and didn't go anywhere else. He came to Qingbo Pavilion. Seeing the Northern Pacification Office arresting people to close the shop, he was so scared that he felt like he had drunk dog urine. He almost fell off his horse. He came to check again this afternoon and didn't dare to go to the front of the pavilion. Governor, this Qingbo Pavilion is surrounded by people from the Northern Pacification Office like an iron barrel. What is going on inside?"
Deng Ying said lightly: "Just keep an eye on Pang Ling, and don't get in touch with the Northern Pacification Office because of Qingbo Pavilion's incident."
Qin Wen said: "According to the law, we in the East Factory should monitor them. Now that Qingbo Pavilion has been closed down, you asked us to avoid it. The people in the Pacification Office really think that we are afraid of them, and they are acting like a big shot."
Deng Ying smiled and said, "Let's eat noodles. After eating, we will feel refreshed."
Qin Wende picked at his bowl of noodles and said, "Why are you in such a hurry to go? Our subordinates have already moved the furniture into the house for you. Why don't you go and take a look early?"
Deng Ying glanced at the sky.
"It's getting late today."
Qin Wende could never have guessed that Deng Ying was in a hurry to leave the palace in order to repair the roof for Yang Wan.
It was just past noon in Chengqian Palace. Although the weather was cold, the sun was very bright.
He Yu stood under the tree canopy, using his hands to make a shelter and looked towards the top of the hard mountain.
Deng Ying, wearing a grey short coat with his sleeves tied up, was chatting with a craftsman who was laying tiles.
The eunuch of Chengqian Palace led the charcoal in and saw Heyu standing in the courtyard with his eyes raised, so he also raised his eyes to take a look.
"Tsk... Sister Yu, this is... Director Deng?"
He Yu's neck was already a little stiff, and he was too lazy to say anything, so he just nodded blankly.
The eunuch put down the charcoal basket and leaned close to He Yu's ear and said, "I heard that the eunuchs in the Imperial Household Department are afraid to act rashly in front of the factory supervisor now. Our aunt Wan is asking the factory supervisor to come to our house to repair the roof."
He Yu continued to study.
She was a little surprised when she first saw that it was Deng Ying who brought the people from the Palace Department, but Yang Wan went to pick up Yi Lang from school, so she couldn't say anything and could only watch in the courtyard. Unexpectedly, they didn't come down after reaching the top of the hard mountain, and she stood there for half an hour.
"Oh, we are really blessed by the golden Buddha here."
After he finished speaking, he actually chanted "Amitabha."
"Sister Yu, you don't know, when I went to Xixinsi today, the officials there were very polite to us."
He Yu then said, "Don't talk nonsense. Aunt Wan doesn't like these things. Besides, Master Chen has always been a good man. He never flatters the powerful and bullies the weak."
“Who flatters the powerful and bullies the weak?”
The people in the court were startled and turned around to salute.
Yi Lang took Yang Wan's hand and walked into the courtyard. He raised his head and glanced at the top of the hard mountain in the side hall. He turned around and said to Yang Wan, "Aunt, I'm going to change my clothes."
"good."
Yang Wan asked everyone to follow him, and she walked to the pillar, looked up at Deng Ying and said, "You don't dare to salute standing on it."
"It's also a rule not to be polite when moving bricks and wood."
It was windy at high altitudes, so Deng Ying did not wear a scarf the next day. She only tied her hair with a lime-colored cloth belt and stood between the high-rise buildings, looking light and graceful.
Yang Wan liked this scene very much and couldn't help but say sincerely: "It would be nice if it could always be like this, looking down at us from above."
After Deng Ying finished speaking, he bent down and steadied the □□ on the bracket.
"Would you like to come up and take a look?"
"I won't fall."
As she asked this, she climbed up impatiently.
"Slow down and step steady."
The craftsmen also came over to help.
Yang Wan stepped onto the last step. With no place to lean on, she was inevitably a little surprised. "It's still a little... high. Can I climb up?"
Deng Ying half-bent one knee and stretched out her hand to Yang Wan, "Raise your arm. I'll hold your arm. Try to use the force yourself. Go slowly."
Like his slow temper, Deng Ying would often tell Yang Wan to "slow down."
Little did she know that she was the one who wanted to "slow down" the most.
"Come on. Step on it."
Yang Wan grabbed Deng Ying's arm with one hand, and pushed hard against the tile roof, and finally climbed to the top of the hard mountain.
Deng Ying bent down and brushed the dust off her knees. "It might be harder to get down later."
Yang Wan tried to squat down, "Did you climb up by yourself?"
Deng Ying smiled and said, "What else?"
"It's amazing how high you climb."
Deng Ying smiled at this and looked slightly at the craftsmen around him.
"Help me sit down."
"Um."
Yang Wan sat down beside the eaves and said to Deng Ying, "When the house was leaking yesterday, I thought I was dreaming. How could the house in the palace still leak?"
Deng Ying replied, "By the time I left, there were more than a thousand rooms in the imperial city, and not every place could be as complete as the one we built in the Taiyang Palace. For example, the glazed tiles on the roofs of the three main halls were mostly produced in the Liulichang in the suburbs of Beijing, but the tiles on the side hall of the Chengqian Palace..."
As he spoke, he bent down, picked up a piece of broken tiles and handed it to Yang Wan.
Yang Wan lowered her head to take a look and saw that it was clearly written on it: "Tribute from Wuchang, Yuanwu, Pingzhou, in the first year of Zhenning."
"The owner of this tile factory is named Wu."
"Yes, I just found out today. This is the royal residence, and it is also a very long and complex project. I have only been involved in it for ten years. Even as a teacher, it was only while repairing various palaces that I gradually learned where the bricks and tiles came from and what the craftsmen were thinking."
Yang Wan hugged her knees and closed her eyes facing the wind from high above.
"Bricks, stones and civil engineering can also teach people, is that the idea?"
"Well, the teacher also told me something similar."
Yang Wan nodded and said, "Mr. Zhang is so kind. If he were still alive, I would definitely serve him well. I beg him to trust his good student to me."
After she finished speaking, she patted her sore knees, and the hibiscus jade pendant on her waist tapped against each other, making two lonely sounds.
She said that she would ask Zhang Zhanchun to hand Deng Ying over to her.
Following this sentence, Deng Ying suddenly thought of the jade pendant with emerald green and lotus carving that Bai Huan had given him in Guangji Temple.
After Zhang Zhanchun died, he never dared to look at the jade pendant. That was Zhang Zhanchun's hope for him, but he didn't dare to accept it.
"Deng Ying."
"Um?"
"Do you think Mr. Zhang is your father?"
"yes."
"Yeah, okay."
Yang Wan said this, pursing her lips and smiling at him with her eyes curved.
Deng Ying couldn't help but ask, "Anything is fine."
Yang Wan said: "No matter what, you have to take me to visit him in the future."
As the two were talking, He Yu suddenly called out from below, "Aunt Wan, why are you up here too?"
"oh… "
Yang Wan leaned down and said, "I'll come up and get some fresh air."
He Yu waved at her helplessly, "Come down, dinner is ready."
Yang Wan stood up tremblingly, "Please serve His Highness and let him eat first."
"Your Highness refuses, so I'll take you with me."
"Oh, I'll be right down."
Deng Ying hurriedly supported Yang Wan and asked in a gentle voice, "Your Highness, are you willing to have dinner with him?"
Yang Wan stood by the eaves and thought for a while, "It wasn't accurate before, but now... I don't know how it became accurate."
Deng Ying nodded and smiled, but said nothing more.
Yang Wan patted the dust off Deng Ying's nose and said, "Deng Ying, don't let your imagination run wild on my roof."
"I don't think of anything."
"Impossible, he doesn't look happy at all."
Deng Ying lowered her head to avoid Yang Wan's gaze, "Wan Wan, she will be a very noble woman in the future."
"Then I respect you too."
After she finished speaking, she didn't give him any time to think about it, and raised her voice and said, "Have dinner at my place tonight, and don't bother with the Silijian."
"Excuse me... Wanwan, I had noodles for lunch..."
After saying that, he felt that this sentence might cause Yang Wan to misunderstand, so he hurriedly said, "But I still want to eat noodles."
Yang Wan looked at him, covered her mouth with her hands and turned her back, unable to stop laughing.
Deng Ying, however, was at a loss.
"Wan Wan..."
Yang Wan turned around and waved her hand, saying, "Don't worry, if you don't want to eat noodles, go sit in my room and wait for me for a while. I'll ask the kitchen to cook some porridge."