After dressing up and having dinner, the sky gradually turned white, and the orange sunlight shone on the green tiles and red walls of the Forbidden City, shining golden, as if coated with a layer of gold.
Zixuan followed a few maidservants and meandered to Fengming Palace.
A eunuch and two guards stood in front of the door. Zixuan bowed generously, and said in a soft voice: "Eunuch, please go and report it, and say that the foreign princess Zixuan has come to pay her respects to the queen!"
The eunuch smiled all over his face: "Princess Zixuan, wait a moment, the servant will report it right away!"
Holding the whisk in hand, he hurried into the palace. Rong Changan was already chanting scriptures in the Buddhist hall at this moment, while Chuntao was cooking medicinal soup in the courtyard outside.
Hearing Chang'an's vermilion lips wriggling non-stop, he must be reciting "The Curse of Rebirth".
She always felt that her infertility was related to her killing too much on the front line, so she wanted to repent in front of the Bodhisattva and recite the "Mantra of Rebirth" for those dead souls, so that they can go to the Land of Ultimate Bliss as soon as possible.
"Queen Qirong, Princess Zixuan has come to greet you." The eunuch stood outside the threshold and said softly.
Although it was soft, Rong Changan heard it. A smile flitted across his face. Zixuan came to greet her so early, which means that she slept well last night, and she didn't see anything unclean.
"Princess please come in!"
The eunuch said: "Yes!"
Rong Changan returned to the bedroom, tidied himself up in front of the bronze mirror, and then went outside: "Chuntao, the princess is here, go and prepare a pot of tea!"
After Chuntao listened to the order, she went to prepare tea. Rong Changan stood in the courtyard and waited.
Zixuan wore a long skirt that dragged the floor, passed the gate, walked through the veranda, and saw Rong Chang standing in the center of the courtyard, like a statue. Zixuan rushed over in a hurry, and bowed to say hello:
"Zixuan pays respects to Queen Rong! The queen is a thousand years old!"
Rong Changan stretched out his hand early to help her up: "We are sisters, why should we be so polite!"
Looking carefully at Zixuan's face, Rong Changan frowned.
Zixuan has dark circles under her eyes and bloodshot eyes, could it be that she couldn't sleep well after seeing Liu'er's wronged soul last night
"Princess, did you sleep well last night?"
Zixuan blinked her eyes: "It's okay."
It seems that she didn't sleep well, Rong Changan's brows tightened even more.
"What do you mean by okay?"
Zixuan smiled slightly: "Last night I was always dreaming, as if I was asleep, but I didn't seem to be asleep. When I got up, I was very tired. Xu just moved into Fengwu Palace, the environment is unfamiliar, and yesterday I was running all the way, so I didn’t sleep well. After I get used to it, maybe it will be fine.”
Rong Changan twitched the corners of his mouth, and smiled a little far-fetched: "I hope you can get used to it! - Chuntao, is the tea ready?"
"OK OK!"
Chuntao put a pot of tea on the table in the side hall, and there were several tea snacks on a gold-encrusted tray. There are cloud cakes, steamed buns, buns, peanuts and melon seeds, shredded goose, and dried venison.
"It's really rich." Zixuan rubbed her belly, "It's a pity that I already had breakfast."
Rong Changan poured tea for Zixuan himself, and the fresh tea fragrance inhaled into his body, and he felt that the whole morning was beautiful.
"If you are full, eat some melon seeds and peanuts."
Zixuan nodded. She has a lively temperament, but when she is with Rong Chang'an, she becomes restrained. Maybe it's because Rong Chang'an's aura is too big, anyone who stands in front of Rong Chang'an will look at Rong Chang'an with a gaze that looks up from a mountain.
While eating snacks and drinking tea, Zixuan suddenly smelled the smell of medicinal soup. She shrugged her nose, pointed outside, and asked curiously: "Queen, are you making medicinal soup?"
"Yes!" Rong Changan said.
Zixuan asked: "What's wrong with the queen, how can I drink the medicine?"
A trace of embarrassment crossed Rong Chang'an's face: "Oh, it's just a little ailment, not worth mentioning. —By the way, Zixuan, what are your future plans in the palace?"
This remark made Zixuan questionable. Come to the palace, who can have any plans? Isn't it just to come to greet Rong Chang'an every day, and do whatever the emperor tells him to do.
"I haven't thought about this question."
Rong Chang'an said earnestly: "I'm referring to Zixuan's identity. Outsiders can't call my sister a princess. It sounds like you are the emperor's daughter. That's not good."
Generally, foreign countries present princesses and emperors, and the emperors must be named imperial concubines. But if Yan Li didn't say it, she didn't dare to mention it.
"Being able to serve the emperor is already Zixuan's great fortune. I don't have too many requirements for the rest."
"How can this work! According to the usual practice, you are the emperor's concubine. After a while, when the time is right, I will ask the emperor to hold a canonization ceremony for you and give you a title. Otherwise, you will be silent in the palace. It's so loud, the common people don't even know that the emperor has a foreign concubine who is as good as a fish and a wild goose."
Zixuan was very happy to be Yan Li's imperial concubine. With Rong Changan's acknowledgment, Zixuan leaned back again.
"Zi Xuan thanked the queen here!"
Rong Changan supported Zixuan: "My sister is being polite to me again. In the future, you will not only be the emperor's concubine, but also give birth to a prince for the emperor, and you will be the emperor of Dajing Kingdom in the future."
Zixuan was so shocked that her head could shrink into her neck! Anyone who is a concubine wants to give birth to a son and a half daughter for the emperor. When the emperor dies in the future, she will have someone to rely on.
If luck is good and the prince becomes the emperor, she will be the queen mother. Sometimes the queen mother has more say than the emperor, who wouldn't want such a powerful position! It's just that generally speaking, the princes who can become emperors are all born to queens. Even if other concubines give birth to princes, they dare not covet the throne.
"Queen, Zixuan is compared with the queen, that is, the sky is compared with the earth, and the prince born by Yangchun Baixue and Xialiba people is not as good as the queen. How dare you covet the throne of the emperor! The queen said that, it really breaks me!"
Rong Changan shook his head and sighed. Rong Changan was able to say those words because of his difficulties.
"Zi Xuan, let's talk about this later!"
Zixuan was very anxious, she didn't understand why Rong Changan suddenly said this to her? Could it be to test her, is there any intention to replace her
Rong Chang'an saw that Zixuan's face was tense, her hands were twisted, and she was very cramped, so she regretted what she just said.
"Zixuan, the weather is nice today, why don't sister take you around the palace, how about familiarizing yourself with the environment?"
Zixuan also wanted to move around, and didn't want to stay in one place for too long, so she kept nodding her head.
"I really want to see how big the palace of Dajing Kingdom is! Before coming here, my father told me that the palace of Dajing Kingdom is almost one-third the size of Tianchi Kingdom! Such a large palace group, I am You can't finish walking for a year."
Rong Changan smiled: "Let's go for a walk while the emperor is still in the morning court. When the emperor is in the morning court, we will have lunch with him."
The two said a few more words, and then walked out of Fengming Palace together. Almost walking through the front and back palaces, Zixuan was as cheerful as a magpie.
"The palace is really huge, bigger than I can imagine!"
It is also because of its large size that almost everything in the world can be encountered here. The so-called forest is big, and there are all kinds of birds. There are honest servants and treacherous eunuchs; there are kind and skilled concubines, and there are people who will do anything to achieve their goals. One is favored, the other is lost; one is hilarious, and the other is lonely. Here, the chiaroscuro is always so strong.
"Pepper Palace?" Zixuan pointed to a gate inside the red wall, on which was written "Pepper Palace" in golden letters, "It looks so deserted inside, are there still people living there?"