Tolerance is one thing, but whether or not one feels resentment in one's heart is another. Xie Wangzhi couldn't tell how he felt when he heard the news. He was silent for a moment and uttered "hmm" vaguely.
"I've also seen Xue Geshu. She was very popular back then. She always mentioned the Xue family and her father. But she's not so happy now. I saw her at the banquet earlier. She was with her daughter. She looked much thinner and worried. The man she married was drinking and eating by himself, and it seemed that he didn't treat her well. She was also obviously pregnant. I estimate that this baby must be five or six months old." When mentioning this, Lou Hanyue didn't feel happy. Instead, she felt a kind of sadness. "After all, it's hard for women to survive..."
Of course it is difficult. The laws of this dynasty stipulate that women can set up their own households, but looking at the world, how many women really live alone? If they are lucky, they can marry a good man who suits their heart and live a happy life; if they are unlucky, it will be miserable. They will be held by their fathers and brothers, or they will be blind and trust the wrong people. They will spend the rest of their lives soaked in bitter water, unable to swallow or spit out, and all the tears will be shed when they cry secretly at night.
Xie Wangzhi thought about it and didn't think anything of Li Qishen, but she couldn't help feeling a little sad. Suddenly, an idea came to her mind, but she didn't say it. She just picked a harmless question: "What about you? What will you do after you get out?"
"Let's go home first. After all, my mother carried me for ten months and gave birth to me. I still have some money saved up, so I won't be sold as soon as I get home. I can always survive for a few more years." Lou Hanyue thought positively, "The war hasn't stopped yet. I guess it will take at least another two or three years."
War is a political matter. Xie Wangzhi never asked Li Qishen directly. She didn't know how long it would take to quell the war, but it would be good if it could be quelled within two or three years. She was willing to believe this speculation: "That's it. You have always been very opinionated and open-minded. You will definitely live better at home than in the palace."
"Not necessarily, but at least there is no need to worry, you can do whatever you want." Lou Hanyue smiled easily, "Okay, it's already this late, and the food bureau is short of staff, I'll eat a steamed bun and go help."
Xie Wangzhi certainly wouldn't insist on staying, so he nodded and smiled at her: "Then I'll leave."
"Go ahead." Lou Hanyue said nothing more and started to lift the steamer.
Xie Wangzhi turned around and walked out, but when he passed the door, he suddenly looked back. The steamer was opened, and steam filled the area around the stove. A slender figure was in the steam, and her profile was blurred. For a moment, it overlapped with the image from many years ago.
This was the last memory of her childhood, and she had said goodbye to it.
Xie Wangzhi took one last look, turned around and left, this time walking steadily and quickly, without looking back.
**
Penglai Palace.
Night watch is a hard job. It is cold in winter and hot in summer. Mosquitoes fly around at night, and there is a buzzing sound in my ears. Soon, lumps appear on my exposed wrists and neck. I dare not scratch them hard, for fear of breaking the skin and causing suppuration. But I have to watch this night. There are not many palace servants in Penglai Palace. They take turns to watch. Tonight is Chunlan's turn.
You can go to bed after midnight. Chunlan encouraged herself and planned to hold on for another half hour. However, she could not help dozing off while sitting on the stone steps in front of the door. Her head nodded. If she were using a pestle to pound rice, she would have pounded more than ten kilograms of rice.
After enduring for a while, the stars and the moon were setting in the west. She was so sleepy that she yawned and rubbed her eyes.
He lowered his head, and when he looked up again, there was a person standing beside him. He was tall and slender, and his waist was so thin that it made people want to use their arms to measure the thickness of his waist. Looking up, there was skin that was particularly smooth under the moonlight, and a cold and beautiful face, expressionless, but beautiful as if it was a jade sculpture from a famous artist, transformed into a human body, taking advantage of the good moonlight to go out for a night tour.
Chun Lan shuddered, and her sleepiness was swept away. She quickly knelt down and saluted: "Your Majesty, I respectfully wish you the best of health."
Li Qishen was actually quite sleepy too, and was too lazy to answer. He raised his hand to signal her to get up, and went to push the door.
"… Your Majesty!" Chun Lan was anxious and blurted out without thinking. Facing Li Qishen's puzzled look, she became embarrassed again, "The Queen is asleep…"
Li Qishen paused as he pushed the door open, then pushed it open with force: "It's okay."
In Chunlan's awkward look of wanting to persuade but not daring to, he calmly entered the bedroom and closed the door. Of course he didn't care in front of Chunlan, he didn't need to win her favor anyway, but Xie Wangzhi was sleeping in the bedroom, and Li Qishen's footsteps were much lighter when he walked to the couch, and the sound was almost inaudible.
He didn't turn on the lamp, but used the little moonlight that leaked in to grope his way to the edge of the couch. After thinking for a while, he half-knelt down half a foot away from the couch.
The bed curtain was not put up, but hung on the jade hook as it was. Li Qishen moved his knees and knew that Xie Wangzhi wanted to wait for him to come back, but she had been busy for the past few days and she was not a very strong person, so she was too sleepy and fell asleep.
Xie Wangzhi lay on the couch, the quilt covering her shoulders. Her long hair without the silver hairpin spread out on the couch like flowing clouds, falling in strands in front of and behind her shoulders, outlining her slender figure together with the thin quilt. It is said that beauty is best seen under the moon. Now the beauty is sleeping alone under the moon, and there is indeed a sense of beauty beyond the mountains and rivers. However, her brows are slightly furrowed, and her eyelashes occasionally tremble. It is obvious that she did not sleep well at night, and there is a faint blue color under her eyes.
She was originally a noble lady, but she fell to this state after coming to him. Li Qishen felt distressed and reached out to touch that pretty face, but when his fingertips were about to touch her cheek, he suddenly withdrew his hand and put it back on his knees, only grasping the cloth on his knees and curling it into a ball.
When he was young, he hung out with Cui Shi, who was famous for being sentimental and indecisive. He liked to read sour things since he was a child, and sometimes his words were so sour that they made people's teeth ache. Li Qishen was always open and close, and didn't like this kind of emotional thoughts that kept turning around in his heart. Now squatting in front of Xie Wangzhi's couch, he suddenly remembered the sour words Cui Shi had said.
Cui Shi was still a teenager at that time, but he frowned, as if he had suffered too much emotional pain. He said dejectedly that people are always like this. They would like to hold the things they like in their hands and play with them every day, and never leave them wherever they go. But if it breaks, they will feel sad for a few days, then pick out a new one and still carry it with them. But it is different if you truly love something. You will wrap it in silk, put it in a cotton-padded box and lock it three times, but you will still worry about it. You will want to take it out to admire and play with it, but you are afraid that it will break by mistake. In the end, you will lock it in the box and put it away.
Li Qishen felt a chill when he heard this, thinking that this person was really sick. He always held the things he liked firmly, and no one else would even dare to take a look at them even if they were crushed in his hands. But he didn't expect that now, facing Xie Wangzhi, who was clearly his wife married in a formal way, he would be hesitant. He wanted to touch her, but was afraid of waking her up accidentally.
Li Qishen stared at his hands for a while, smiled bitterly, slowly stood up, took off his shoes and socks, and stepped onto the bed quietly.
He managed to control the movement of lying down so as not to make any noise, but if he covered himself with the quilt he would definitely wake up Xie Wangzhi, so he simply didn't even take off his coat and lay down next to the girl with his clothes on, which happened to be the half space reserved for him.
It was fine when standing, and I was able to hold on when taking a shower before, but once I lay down, I felt sleepy, my eyelids started to become sticky, and my consciousness kept sinking into the darkness. It was really at its limit, Li Qishen held on, gently turned his head to look at the girl beside him, and said silently: "Good sleep."
The next moment, my conscious self stepped into the void and lost all memory. I was so tired that I couldn't even dream.
Xie Wangzhi, who was sleeping on the same bed with him, suddenly felt relieved. The uneasiness that had been lingering for a long time finally faded away, the slight wrinkles between his brows also relaxed, and he finally fell into a peaceful sleep.
**
When Xie Wangzhi woke up, it was probably around mid-morning. Everything around her was tidy, the bedding was clean and flat, and there was no sign of pressure on the pillow. If it weren't for the faint scent of Li Qishen's incense, she would have thought that he was so sleepy last night that he fell asleep directly in the Changsheng Palace.
While washing up, she asked Chun Lan, "When did His Majesty come last night?"
Chun Lan was stunned. The first thing that came to her mind was "How do you know?" Then she thought that if they were sleeping on the same bed, how could she not wake up Xie Wangzhi? She answered honestly, "Your Majesty, it was probably after midnight."
"Hmm. So what time did you leave this morning? Was it still Yin time?"
"You have to go to court at the hour of Mao. I heard from the chief judge that your majesty always gets up at the hour of Yin, so we have to make some preparations first."
"Got it. You worked hard on the night watch last night. Go back to sleep for a while." Xie Wangzhi nodded, "I'll go see him."
This was the first time someone had said this to her since she entered the palace. Chun Lan was stunned, and before she could reply immediately, Xie Wangzhi had already left.
The court was held at the hour of Mao, and now it was already the hour of Chen. Li Qishen had no habit of catching up on sleep, and if she hadn't come to Penglai Palace yet, she would have been in Zichen Palace, probably because she was being held up by memorials or some close minister. She didn't need to go to Changsheng Palace for another round, and went straight to Zichen Palace.
Xie Wangzhi was right. Li Qishen was indeed in the Purple Palace, facing a table full of memorials, with a pen and a plate of cinnabar next to him. Next to him were a few thin pancakes with a dish of meat sauce, which made it look less shabby.
There was not enough time before the court session, so Li Qishen usually ate a bite or two to fill his stomach. He really wanted to fill his stomach properly when he read the memorials after the court session. Unfortunately, there were too many memorials today, and he should have put the food on his left hand side for easy access, but now it was all on his right hand side, making it inconvenient to take.
He casually wrote down his reply on the memorial, swallowed the last bite, and took the second dipping sauce. Just as he moved the pancake to the plate of meat sauce, his wrist was held up, and the girl's voice rang out: "Wrong, that's cinnabar."
Li Qishen was slightly startled, his mind full of the words on the memorial, not quite clear, he looked along his wrist. The two plates were too close, he was busy reviewing, and he didn't know how to look carefully, if he dipped it in, it was guaranteed that the cake would be covered with cinnabar.
"… Really stupid." He didn't feel ashamed, but inexplicably amused. He looked up and asked Xie Wangzhi, "Why are you here?"
The author has something to say: Here it comes!