Following Empress Ma's order, Fan Gong was compiling the stories of the virtuous concubines and queens of the Song Dynasty, as well as their family traditions and laws. He went to the Tibetan shrine to collect materials. As soon as he stepped into the gate of the Tibetan shrine, he heard a voice above his head: "Who is it? Leave immediately, all outsiders."
Fan Gongzheng looked up and saw a head with bright eyes and white teeth poking out from a bookshelf about two people high. She climbed a ladder and stood on a high place, wiping the dust off the bookshelf.
"Hu Shanwei?" Fan Gongzheng was a little surprised. Unexpectedly, this girl's collection was not getting moldy. On the contrary, her collection had changed a lot. Books were neatly stacked on the bookshelf, classified into categories, without any mess.
Hu Shanwei quickly climbed down the ladder and bowed, taking off her dusty coarse cloth robe to reveal her official robe. She wore a black gauze hat for a female official, the gauze flowers on both sides of the hat were a little faded, but she herself was like a pearl, shining brightly.
"What does Mr. Fan want to see me about?"
Fan Gongzheng repeated Empress Ma's decree. Hu Shanwei did not dare to neglect it and led Fan Gongzheng to the desk. "Looking through the books one by one is like looking for a needle in a haystack. I have recorded the bibliography, entries, abstracts and locations of every book on the shelf."
Hu Shanwei moved bound books to the desk and said, "It will be faster to search in the catalog."
More than just faster, it can do more with less!
Fan Gongzheng was flipping through the booklet. The handwriting was in neat official script, the standard font for court documents. Although it had lost some of its individuality, it was clear and clean at a glance, as if it was printed from a woodblock.
Soon, the books in front of the desk piled up into a small mountain.
Hu Shanwei said: "Recently, donated books from various places have been moved to the Bingzi Library, so the library has not yet been cleaned up."
Fan Gongzheng nodded secretly. She was very busy every day and had long forgotten about Hu Shanwei. At the beginning, she arranged Hu Shanwei to manage the collection, intending to let him fend for himself. Who would have thought that Hu Shanwei not only did not get moldy, but was like a piece of beautiful jade in the stone, which showed a refreshing jade color after a little carving and polishing.
The devil Mu Chun has been well behaved for the past three months and has not caused any trouble. It seems that the peach blossom pollen incident is over.
Fan Gongzheng looked at Hu Shanwei with satisfaction, "Time is running out for compiling the records of the empresses and concubines of the Zhao Song Dynasty and their family rules and traditions. We will work all night starting today. I will contact the Shanggong Bureau, and the keys to the Zanghe Bingzi Library do not need to be handed over to Siwei. You will keep them."
In addition, Fan Gongzheng also took the Queen's decree and borrowed talented female officials from the six bureaus to compile the "Biographies of Virtuous Concubines of the Zhao and Song Dynasties and Their Family Traditions and Laws", such as the thirteen-year-old female top scholar Shen Qionglian from the Shangyi Bureau, Chen Ermei from Guangdong in the Shangshi Bureau, and Jiang Quan, who was "old" at the age of thirty-nine from the Shangfu Bureau, a total of twenty people.
Fan Gongzheng had the Empress's imperial decree as his backing, so as soon as the transfer order was issued, all departments obediently sent the female officials that Fan Gongzheng wanted to Tibet.
Fan Gongzheng divided the twenty female officials into two groups on the spot, with two shifts during the day and night. "Ten of you will come in at dawn and leave at dusk, and read and copy books during the day. The other ten will come in at dusk and leave at dawn, and work at night. You will take turns after five days, and the deadline is ten days. You must collect all the materials you can find and hand them over to me."
The female officials said: "We obey your orders."
Fan Gongzheng said, "Those who have to work the night shift should go back and rest immediately. Regain your energy and come back to take over at twilight hour. The other ten people, follow Ms. Hu. She will teach you how to find the books you want."
Shen Qionglian and Chen Ermei were both scheduled to meet during the day. The old friends met each other. The thirteen-year-old Shen Qionglian had a childish face, but nodded and smiled at her like a little adult.
Chen Ermei stuck out her tongue at her mischievously. Ever since she went to the Shangshi Bureau, she, who loved gourmet food, had become like a mouse that fell into an oil vat, with her little face becoming round.
Hu Shanwei responded with a smile and brought ten female officials to introduce the collection of books and the arrangement of the books. There were four floors in total. They climbed up and down in the hot summer and broke out in a thin layer of sweat.
Everyone found it hard to believe, "You took care of all this by yourself?"
Hu Shanwei said: "The eunuchs helped carry the bookcase in."
For three whole months, she was focused and never slacked off for a single day.
Everyone showed admiration on their faces. Previously, because of Mu Chun's peach blossom powder incident, those female officials who were not aware of the situation thought that Hu Shanwei was a frivolous person. Relying on her looks and the grace of Empress Ma giving her shoes, she dared to turn her back on the devil Mu Chun. Mu Chun used peach blossom powder to take revenge on her, but ended up implicating others.
This is how people are. When something bad happens, they tend to blame women for it.
Seeing Hu Shanwei today, he is clearly a very down-to-earth person. It seems that the previous rumors were purely false.
The female officials showed respect to Hu Shanwei. They thanked him and began to look for books that might record the deeds of the Zhao Song harem according to the bibliography.
Chen Ermei, Shen Qionglian and Hu Shanwei were reminiscing about the past in a hidden corner.
Shen Qionglian stood out wherever she went. She also wore a purple round-necked, narrow-sleeved flowered silk robe and a red skirt with pearls and gold belt, which were unique to female officials. However, the clothes were tailored according to her body shape, and the straight black gauze hat made her plump cheeks like tender tofu particularly adorable.
I really want to pinch her face! Hu Shanwei thought.
Shen Qionglian was unaware of her "improper thoughts". She stood on tiptoe and pulled out an ancient book that was about to be broken into pieces from the bookshelf. She carefully placed it on the desk, as if she was handling some rare treasure, and said:
"I heard that you went to Tibet. At that time, I told Choi Sang-yi that I wanted to exchange jobs with you. I don't like being a female teacher. Teaching palace maids, I have to start from the most basic "Thousand Character Classic". It's boring. I could recite the entire "Thousand Character Classic" at the age of three. What's the point of talking about these things? It's like chewing sugar cane. I chew it over and over again. There is no taste anymore."
"It's my dream to organize a collection of this size." Shen Qionglian looked around at the bookshelves that were like high walls. "But Cui Shangyi wouldn't let me swap jobs with you. Oh, I envy you. No, I'm jealous."
Shen Qionglian pouted her lips and said very seriously, "I have never been jealous of anyone before. You are the first one. It turns out that jealousy is this kind of inexplicable and angry emotion. It's so annoying."
Upon hearing this, Hu Shanwei and Chen Ermei looked at each other and reached a tacit consensus: Well, the genius's idea is different from ours. He actually wanted to move to the isolated Tibet!
Shen Qionglian said seriously: "It's a pity that Cui Shangyi didn't agree and insisted that I be a female teacher. Those palace maids were so stupid. When I talked a little more deeply and interspersed a few anecdotes, they all looked at me like this—"
Shen Qionglian gave the two of them an innocent expression with a blank look in her eyes, "Luckily Fan Gongzheng transferred me to Tibet, otherwise I would have been so angry with them that I would have vomited blood."
What should I do? Seeing Shen Qionglian like this, I wanted to pinch her face even more. Hu Shanwei thought about it but didn't dare to do it. Because Shen Qionglian hated being treated like a child.
Shen Qionglian sat down and waved to the two of them, "If you want to talk privately, please stay away and don't disturb me while I'm reading."
Hu Shanwei and Chen Ermei went to the Bingzi warehouse to sort out and move the remaining books. Chen Ermei kept talking about the palace cuisine, "The food in the palace is more about ceremony than taste. It's all about the dignified feeling, just like Concubine Hu. No one in the palace is more particular than Concubine Hu..."
When Concubine Hu had her meal, the food was put on a plate and placed in a food box. But that was not enough, as the food box needed to be covered with a piece of yellow silk. A young eunuch held the food box, while another eunuch held a small yellow umbrella with a curved handle, with a golden bell tied to each of the ten corners of the umbrella.
Once you start walking, ten small bells will ring to scare away birds in the sky and prevent them from flying over and dirtying the food box.
When the food was delivered to the Yanxi Palace, the young eunuch had to cover his mouth and nose with a scarf to prevent dirt from coming out of his breath before he could open the food box, take out the food and place it on Concubine Hu's dining table.
Hu Shanwei thought Chen Ermei's story was simply a fantasy. "The food box has a lid and is covered with a layer of yellow silk. It's not windy or rainy. Is it necessary to put a small umbrella with ten golden bells on it for the food box?"
"Who says it's not true?" Chen Ermei sighed, "This is the request made by Concubine Hu to the Imperial Food Bureau. We, the Imperial Food Bureau Xu, have no choice but to find a way to satisfy Concubine Hu. If Concubine Hu says that she feels uncomfortable after eating a certain meal and hurts the heir in her belly, our Imperial Food Bureau will be in trouble. Some will be beheaded, some will be demoted, or they will be punished to ring the bell at night. Oh, that would be worse than death."
Even a cheerful person like Chen Ermei looked worried, which shows how busy and stressful the work of the Shangshi Bureau was. Even so, Chen Ermei still remembered to instruct the little palace maids to deliver meals to Hu Shanwei in time every day. When the weather was hot, she even "abused her power for personal gain" and used her relationship with the Shanggong Bureau to get ice cubes from there and add them to the mung bean soup to cool Hu Shanwei down.
This kind of friendship moved Hu Shanwei deeply. It was not easy for everyone in the palace. Zang had her own hardships and loneliness, the Shangshi Bureau had its own tension and helplessness, and even the female champion Shen Qionglian could not do whatever she wanted.
Hu Shanwei and Chen Ermei were chatting happily when suddenly, two young men wearing four-clawed python robes rushed in from outside. Four claws was the rule for the prince's robes. Four claws meant a python, and five claws meant a dragon.
Although they didn't know the two young men, Hu Shanwei and Chen Ermei knew they were princes. They stood up and were about to greet them. The taller young man waved his hand and said, "No need to greet. We'll hide here for a while. If someone comes looking for us, just say we passed by the storehouse and went to the west."
Hu Shanwei was confused and asked, "Who is so bold as to threaten the two princes?"
Just as the young prince was about to answer, hurried footsteps were heard outside the storeroom. The two princes made a hushing gesture together, then quickly ran behind the pile of books and hid.
Someone came, a young man wearing the same four-clawed dragon robe.
He was an older prince. Did the elder brother want to teach his younger brothers a lesson? So the younger brothers ran to the storehouse to hide
The key to the warehouse was in Hu Shanwei's hand. She coughed lightly and stood at the door. "This is the C warehouse. What do you want, Your Highness?"
The man said, "I will hide here for a while. If anyone wants to find me, just tell them that I went west."
Hu Shanwei was even more confused.
At this time, the two young princes who were hiding behind the books stood out and waved to the young prince, "Fourth brother, come here."
The man hurried over and said, "Hide quickly, the brother-in-law will be here soon."
Just as he finished speaking, a young man wearing the imperial flying fish suit came running over, looked around, stopped at the door of the warehouse, and walked towards the warehouse. Hu Shanwei thought that if he could hide one more person in the pile of books, he would be able to make up a table of mahjong.
When the young man saw Hu Shanwei, a smile appeared on his face. "Miss, have you seen the three princes, the King of Yan, the King of Dai, and the King of An?"
In terms of age, Hu Shanwei is definitely younger. This man can really lose face for the sake of his goals.
Hu Shanwei showed a bewildered expression, "I am of low status and do not know the prince, but I vaguely saw three people heading west just now."
The young man was a little disappointed. "These three people hid themselves from me as if I were the plague god. Alas, these days, borrowing some money is like borrowing their lives. I must borrow money from them."
The young man walked towards the west, took a few steps, suddenly turned around and rushed into the warehouse. Hu Shanwei and Chen Ermei stopped him from entering - there would be no good consequences if he offended the three princes!
The young man stamped his feet anxiously, "I just saw my nemesis - my creditor, he is here to collect the debt, sisters, please make way, I have to hide."
Hu Shanwei suddenly had an idea and pointed at the empty book box. "You can see it from behind the pile of books. You can't hide anyone there. Why don't you hide in the box? I'll lock it and he won't be able to find you."
"Good idea!" The young man jumped into the box and curled up. "Then I'll leave it to you, young lady."
Hu Shanwei closed the lid and locked it. The creditor just happened to come to the door and asked, "Sister Shanwei, have you seen Xu Zengshou?"
It turned out to be Muchun.
Hu Shanwei pointed at the box and said, "I live in the deep palace and don't know Xu Shou. But just now, someone ran east in a panic."
Mu Chun understood and deliberately said loudly: "It should be him, I'll go find him!"