Baixi originated very early and has always been very popular.
Tomorrow night, during the Lantern Festival, the emperor will bring his family and relatives to the city gate to have fun with the people. The high platform in the east of the city is specially set up for performances of various operas... Is this an opportunity to show his face in front of the emperor's concubines
You can tell at a glance whether the potter is able to swallow a knife, walk on fire, find a building, find a cauldron, spit fire, plant a tree, fly pills, rest in five cases, stand on top of a stack of cases, be surrounded by fish and dragons, and perform singing and dancing actors. They are definitely not ordinary people.
After all, in such an occasion, how can you get a chance to be on stage if you don’t have any real skills
It's no wonder that the crowd crowded towards the stage, fearing that they would not be able to see it if they were too far away... It was indeed a lively scene that could be witnessed on a regular basis.
At that time, Sheng Weiqiao and others came to their senses, but they all greeted each other to go back to the private room. After all, the location of their private room was good, the floor was high, and the view was much better than being crowded at the edge of the stage.
Although due to the distance, it was impossible to see as clearly as from the side of the stage, considering the safety issue, Sheng Weiqiao refused Sheng Weiwu's eager proposal: "Please, let's go over and have a look. If we really can't squeeze in, then go back." Private room?"
He said comfortingly: "The platform is so high. If we squeeze through, not to mention that we will have to bump into others, how rude will it be! Even if we are lucky enough to squeeze to the front, we will definitely have to look up. I'm afraid it won't be long. , my neck is sore, isn’t it uncomfortable? It’s better to go upstairs and watch them rearrange the table, and eat and watch, so you can enjoy it!”
After returning to the private room, Sheng Xiang, who had been left behind, went out to call for another table of dishes. Hearing a loud sound of gongs and drums from the direction of the high platform, it continued for a moment, attracting the attention of people close to Yuanji. It stopped, and then a burst of silk and bamboo music mixed with chimes and other musical instruments sounded melodiously.
Then there were loud and clear announcements from the imperial city: "The Emperor has arrived...!"
It turns out that Emperor Xuan Jing and his party came to the city in person.
Hearing this, a burst of overwhelming cheers erupted in the east of the city. Then, in groups of twos and threes taking the lead and spontaneously, the crowd prostrated like an ebbing tide. Countless voices with mixed but grand voices expressed their wishes: "Long live my emperor, long live, long live!"
Sheng Weiqiao, Sheng Weiwu, and Gongsun Yingjiang, who were lying in front of the window and looking at the stage, were infected by the atmosphere. Dong took a step back consciously and looked at Sheng Suihe. He didn't know that they were not in the long street. Do you want to kneel down
"Anyway, no one will see it. The ground is cold, so don't kneel down." Sheng Suihe noticed, chuckled, and said nonchalantly, "At that time, there was no one of my own." "
Sheng Weiqiao made the mistake of not having much favorable impressions of Emperor Xuan Jing of the Ming Dynasty. After all, normal subjects would not like their monarch to linger in the harem all day long and indulge in beauty.
So when Sheng Suihe said there was no need to kneel down, he didn't bother to kneel down. Sheng Weiwu and Gongsun Yingjiang were naturally upset when they saw this.
Gongsun Yingjiang said with some curiosity and confusion: "I didn't expect that the emperor had been slacking off in government affairs for more than 20 years. He only drank and had fun with beauties all day long, or played and hunted with beauties, but he still won the hearts of the people so much!"
Hearing this, Sheng Suihe and Sheng Weiqiao looked at each other wrongly, smiled, and said nothing: Emperor Xuanjing was obsessed with the Shu sisters and ignored the country. How popular is it
After Emperor Xuanjing indulged himself in the harem and ignored the government affairs, the King of Gaomi and the Meng family fought, forming a balance for many years.
This allowed the two sides to check and balance each other while scheming, and neither dared to go too far, lest they be caught and criticized... As a result, the situation in the country appeared in Zhuodongqing.
Although the undercurrents on the upper level are fighting all day long, the east level can still govern the Qingming Dynasty unaffected.
Since the people live and work in peace and contentment, they certainly don't feel sorry for Emperor Xuan Jing's neglect of duties, and naturally they don't have any resentment... In fact, ordinary people have no time to make a living all day long, so where do they have the time to manage so much, which really makes them worried. It's nothing more than denying one-third of an acre of land!
The weather was good in those years, and the whole country lived a stable life in Dongdu.
The so-called "Land of Abundance" has a golden city thousands of miles away, the land in Guanzhong is fertile, and the lives of the common people near Chang'an are particularly worry-free. With such a big deal, Minghuang Baogai was far away from the city. Baogai and Baogai couldn't see the emperor's face clearly. Rather than wishing him long live Emperor Xuanjing, who had not been in court for more than 20 years, they wished him long live. Long live, it is better to say that they pray that the current peaceful and prosperous age can continue to the east forever.
Sheng Wei, Qiao Dou, Minghong, and Gongsun Yingjiang, who came from a family of pirates in Buluohai, and although they rushed to Huan Guanlan to teach him personally, never paid attention to it, didn't quite understand it.
It was hard to give her such an explanation at this moment, so Sheng Weiqiao smiled and said, "After all, he is not the emperor."
Just as he was shutting up, another word came from the city wall that the emperor was telling Donglai to let everyone escape. Xu was afraid of disturbing the concubine Li, and it was rare for the emperor to come out of the harem. If he asked, he would not allow this night's program, so he ordered everyone to be free. After the ceremony, he said nothing else. Soon, drums sounded, and ropes were raised along with the pillars around the platform.
Looking at the situation, Sheng Weiqiao guessed: "Is it a hundred feet high?"
A hundred feet high is actually a walking rope, also known as rope play.
It is said that in the previous dynasty, the emperor was congratulated on his first day. In the east of the palace, two pillars were tied with ropes, several feet away from each other. The two girls danced in the opposite direction, walking on the ropes, and met each other on the wrong side. They were shoulder-to-shoulder without leaning. [Note] .
This is one of the long-standing projects in the drama, but it is enduring and makes people watch it endlessly.
Tomorrow night's 100-foot high platform is not just a "rope tying two pillars". Even if you look at it from a high-rise building, the night and flying snow blur a lot, you can still see that the pillars around the entire platform are almost the same. They are all used, scattered at different heights, as if a rope formation has been raised.
After a while, a gong sounded, and four barefoot girls in colorful clothes, wearing tall buns, holding crimson embroidered silk on their arms, brocade on their waists, necklaces on their chests, and bells hanging on their ankles, were beating the drums and chirping from the four corners of the high platform. With a sound, he stepped onto the rope lightly.
After the rope, the four people spread their arms and stretched their waists at the same time, dancing gracefully.
As she dances gracefully, her wrists jingle with the bells. Looking through the flying snow, she looks like a goddess scattering her beauty, and the fairy is about to go back.
Sheng Weiqiao and others were detained by their elders in the past and were not allowed to go out after dark. They had never seen the lantern market, let alone such a wonderful performance. They couldn't bear to blink when they saw it now, and tomorrow night's show will have the emperor. , concubines, clansmen, and common people in the east, all the people on the stage have high legs to choose from, and they have exposed all their unique skills under the box.
Behind the ecstatic and dangerous 100-foot high pile, there are five cases of swallowing knives, walking on fire, looking for buildings, looking for cauldrons, spitting fire, planting trees, flying pills, resting in peace, stacking tables upside down, singing and dancing haiku and so on. The performances come one after another, all of which are eye-opening and amazing.
Although Sheng Weiqiao and the others were high up in the building, every time they heard the overwhelming applause coming from Didong, they couldn't help but clap hard, even without hesitation until their legs turned red.
The eastern servants who served in the private room, such as Lu Jin, Jin Li and other maids, remembered their duties very well at first, but soon they were all immersed in watching the drama, sometimes applauding and sometimes exclaiming; the guard and steward Sheng Xiang , although he persisted for a while, but after listening to several rounds of overwhelming cheers, he also showed his heartbeat. Seeing Sheng Suihe's acquiescence, he also found a corner to watch.
Sheng Suihe was the only one in the entire private room who didn't go to the window. He didn't even look out the window. Instead, he leaned on the seat and drank slowly with a pot of warm wine, his face expressionless and his eyes cold.
In the middle of the night, although Sheng Weiwu and Gongsun Yingjiang watched the ongoing procession of fish and dragons with great interest, Sheng Weiqiao had not recovered yet and felt weak.
She was afraid of disturbing everyone's interest, so she remained silent and quietly stepped away from the window, thinking that walking alone for a while would be enough to regain her strength.
Without turning around, he saw Sheng Sleeping Crane pouring himself a drink.
He tilted his head, as if staring at a handful of red plum blossom branches in a vase not far away, but if he looked carefully, he was actually not looking at the flower branches, and his distracted eyes were not looking at anything at all.
The outline of the 20-year-old Sheng Sleeping Crane has gradually lost the unique youthfulness of youth. Although his face is still beautiful, with increasingly sharp edges and corners, it reveals the calmness and majesty of an adult man.
At this moment, there was an aura of desolation permeating his body. Although his expression and eyes were calm and calm, it made people feel unspeakably sad and uncomfortable for no reason.
"Brother?" Sheng Weiqiao was surprised. She had never seen Sheng Sleeping Crane like that before. Moreover, when he comes out tomorrow, wouldn't he be very good? Suddenly he thought of what happened to him when he met Princess Qingfang, and then he realized that no matter whether he was watching the lanterns in Tianjie a while ago or whether he came back to watch the performances in the private room, Sheng Suihe had been accompanying them all the time and never left. , but never took the initiative to speak.
Is this man's first visit to Chang'an? When he was in Nanfeng County, he worked as a pirate on Tortoiseshell Island. Sheng Weiqiao didn't know whether he had participated in the Lantern Festival. But after entering the Sheng Mansion, Sheng Weiqiao knew that he would be hardworking. While studying, I have never been to a lantern festival in the county.
That means tomorrow night will be his first time attending the lantern festival.
But he was so silent, so uninterested. Sheng Weiqiao couldn't believe that he didn't like the scene in front of him. It was 80% that he was affected by something.
And about that matter, do you think that you will meet Princess Qingfang
She sighed inwardly, quietly walked to him, stretched out her legs to hold the wine cup he was trying to pick up, frowned and said, "Brother, it's late at night, let's go back?"
"Good girl?" Sheng Suihe noticed her then, and turned his head. Due to the alcohol, his originally red and jade face was stained a little crimson, and he looked a little tipsy, but his eyes were still bright, and he kept his mouth shut and spoke. Clearly, he smiled and said, "It's a rare trip out. There's no curfew tomorrow morning. It's time to have fun. There's no need to go back in such a hurry."
As soon as he opened his mouth and smiled, the original feeling of independence disappeared.
Sheng Weiqiao spent some effort to grab the wine cup from his lap, and pouted: "I don't like it, it's just us playing, I just drink alone there... We have been playing for so long, Let's go back!"
In fact, she originally wanted to ask Sheng Suihe if he asked for a drink to drown his sorrows because he had just met Princess Qingfang. The words came to her lips. She didn't know why, but looking at his appearance at the moment, she really couldn't say it. In the past, I had directly made a request to go home.
"Why are you drunk?" Sheng Suihe smiled and refused to admit it. Taking advantage of the drunkenness, he suddenly stretched out his legs and pinched her cheek, saying, "Can he have a few drinks at will... Forget it, I want to go back, let's Just go back! I’m not in good shape and it’s not good to stay up late.”
Both of them decided to go back. Although the show was not over yet and both Sheng Weiwu and Gongsun Yingjiang were a little reluctant to leave, their weak protests were rejected.
Fortunately, Sheng Xiang was on hand to smooth things over and told them: "I just asked the people at the restaurant that the lantern festival in Chang'an is different from our Nanfeng County. It is very large. Can it be held in October and beyond?" They are all so lively. The young one just took the bold step to book the elegant room for ten months. During the nine nights from the east, the young ladies can come and see the lights anytime they want!"
Sheng Weiwu and Gongsun Yingjiang turned their anger into joy and agreed to go back.
In the few months since he arrived in Bu Nao, Sheng Suihe talked and laughed as usual, but his brows often showed a sinister and cruel look. Although it was not to the point where he could not control his emotions and angered his attendants, because of the small space of Sheng's house, Even if Sheng Weiqiao didn't mean to do it, he would still raise his head and not look down, and he would be somewhat aware of it.
She specially picked Sheng Weiwu and Gongsun Yingjiang to ask him the reason when they were not around, but Sheng Suihe denied them all. The reasons he found were watertight and did not give her a chance to get to the bottom of it.
On the morning of the twentieth day of the first lunar month, Sheng Weiqiao accompanied Sheng Weiwu out to watch the lanterns again. When he entered the private room, he met Princess Qingfang again.
[Note] Encyclopedia, Song Dynasty Gao Cheng's "Shijiyuan·Game Play·Gao Yi".