In the early morning of the second day, someone from the palace was sent here, saying that according to the order of the Empress Dowager, Prince Yu and Princess Yu were invited to come into the palace to speak.
It was the first time Xiangyi was summoned by herself, so she couldn't help feeling a little uneasy, so she changed into Zhai's phoenix crown and entered the palace in a sedan chair. As soon as you entered the Hall of Ciyi, you realized that there were several concubines and imperial concubines, as well as several concubines of Emperor Mu Zong. They were all not very old noble ladies. Every word and every word, Yingying was chatting very lively.
She passed the great ceremony of meeting her, the empress dowager hurriedly asked someone to help her up, stepped down from the throne, took her hand and let her sit with her. Xiang Yi refused again and again but did not dare, the Empress Dowager smiled and said to everyone: "My seventh younger sister is just like this. Kneeling and worshiping, it made me look like a Bodhisattva, and I was just about to be confessed."
Everyone laughed and said: "It's been a long time, Princess Yu is naturally the same as us, no longer restrained in front of the Empress Dowager."
From then on, the empress dowager always summoned Xiangyi into the palace every few days, and regarded her as the most affectionate among all the concubines. Xi'er said: "It's partly because of the lord, and partly because of your good temper, miss, who wouldn't like it?"
Xiang Yi couldn't help sighing, she understood in her heart that the reason why the Empress Dowager wins over her so much is mostly because of Prince Yu.
This day the Empress Dowager sent her to the palace again, and first said some homely things, when the palace sent someone back, the Empress Dowager called in, asked about Prince Yu's daily diet, turned to Xiang Yi with a smile: "Fortunately, there is Qi Ye. This matter of inward and outward is supported by Qi Ye. Not to mention, the autumn hunting every year is not only a rule established by the ancestors, but also summons the foreign vassals to comfort the border ministers. It's not Qi Ye, how difficult it would be for us orphans and widowed mothers."
Xiang Yi hurriedly said a few words of humility, and the Empress Dowager awarded many things and ordered them to be sent to Shangyuan to Prince Yu. Every time Xiangyi enters the palace, she is rewarded, nothing more than food, playware, clothing and jewelry. Today the Empress Dowager laughed and said: "It's not fair to reward him but not you. The Ai family left something good for you."
It turned out to be a cosmetic powder from the new tribute from Nanpi. When it was opened, it was fragrant and fragrant, and the whole hall could smell it. Princess Chu smiled and said, "It's really fragrant. It's not inferior to the 'Hundred Flower Essence' that the Queen Mother usually uses. It can be seen that it is really a good thing."
The spices used in the daily lavender of the Empress Dowager are very unique, called "hundred flower marrow", the formula is very secret, and there is no outside world. The Empress Dowager laughed and said, "It's inconvenient for you to use my incense because it contains musk. You are all people who want to raise children and raise daughters. You can't bear this. It's not that I'm stingy and refuse to give you the prescription."
In this way, the topic naturally turned to a new incident in the Lu Palace. It turned out that Lu Wang took a new concubine and became pregnant shortly after entering the mansion. Lu Wang was over 40 years old but had no children. He almost lifted that concubine to the sky. Unexpectedly, within a few days, the concubine had a miscarriage for no reason. After tracing it down, it turned out that Princess Lu secretly ordered someone to use a trick to replace all the incense in the concubine's room with musk. King Lu was very angry. The memorial to divorce his wife became a joke for a while.
Concubine Chu said: "Princess Lu usually looks at her silently, but she never thought that she would be so cruel, it would be a life after all."
The empress dowager said with a smile: "When a woman becomes jealous, it's not certain, no matter how cruel she is, she can do it."
Because Xiang Yi often went to the palace, and the concubines had a lot of entertainment, the days passed by very quickly, and soon it was the time for Prince Yu to return to the capital. Everyone in the entire family was extremely happy, Xiangyi ordered people to prepare a family banquet early, but at noon, Prince Yu only sent Duo Shun back: "The prince has entered the palace, and the queen mother is going to give a banquet as usual. Lord Han, Lord Zhou They are waiting to wash the dust for the prince, so the princess should not wait."
When Prince Yu came back to the mansion, it was almost three o'clock, and he staggered into the upper room. Seeing that she was still awake, he felt somewhat apologetic: "I didn't tell you not to wait."
Xiang thought that he looked like he was drunk, so he wrung a hot towel and wiped his face. Prince Yu seemed to have really drunk too much, so he leaned on the couch and said a few words to her, feeling drunk, and fell asleep. Seeing this, the servant girl was about to come forward, but Xiang Yi waved her hand to stop her, and she gently took off his boots for him, and heard his breath stop, it turned out that he was already asleep. The maids all backed out, and she unbuttoned his robe lightly, and suddenly saw a wound on the side of his neck, upon closer inspection, it turned out to be two rows of neat little tooth marks, as fine as the moon, clearly belonged to a woman dent marks. I just felt as if a thunderbolt had exploded above my head, and I stared blankly, not knowing what to do.
The tooth marks were slightly purple, and there were a few spots of dark red blood clotted as thin as a needle tip, which was a new wound just today.
And after he returned to Beijing, he immediately entered the palace, received the banquet, and went to the capital's mansion after leaving the palace. He had no time to go anywhere else, and it was impossible to go anywhere else.
She was trembling all over, she didn't know what she was thinking, she didn't dare to think, and she couldn't think, her nails were deeply embedded in her palm, and she didn't know the pain.
After an unknown amount of time, the lights exploded, and she came back to her senses. She took off his robe and pulled the quilt to cover him. Prince Yu turned over, but fell back into a deep sleep. She also lay down slowly, looking at the top of the tent, the dense embroidery, a hundred sons and a hundred blessings, those dark patterns pressed down, kept pressing down, making her breathless, almost suffocating. But the sky is getting brighter one by one, the window paper is gradually turning white, the chirping voice of autumn insects is subdued, the sound of maids walking on tiptoes outside, someone coming in from the yard, and the inner officer talking in a low voice She could hear the sound clearly, and even the soft sound of autumn leaves falling to the ground under the eaves behind the window was as clear as shaking the heavens and the earth. Xi'er knocked lightly on the door outside: "Princess, it's time to get up."
She struggled to sit up, only to feel that the world was spinning, everything around her was spinning, and the world was upside down. She wanted to fall down and never get up again, but she closed her eyes and finally stood firm. Prince Yu also woke up, and at the moment when he suddenly woke up, he looked at her in a daze, and she thought to herself, who is he looking at
Who is he looking at
My heart seems to be bitten by ten thousand insects, and there will be no more peace.
She quickly withered away, and the empress dowager still called her into the palace from time to time, and every time she took her hand and sighed: "Why is the seventh sister thinner again? I should ask the imperial doctor to take a look and draw up a prescription."
She just smiled: "Thank you Queen Mother for your love, but I have a bad appetite, so there is no need to mobilize teachers."
The empress dowager patted her hand: "If you are not well, you need to take care of yourself. I will ask Taiyi Hu to visit you tomorrow and give you some health-preserving pills."
On the second day, he actually sent Dr. Hu to come, he checked the pulse carefully, and then went out to prescribe a prescription. She thought Zuo was nothing more than a warming and tonic medicine like wild ginseng and angelica, but after a while, Xi'er came in happily: "Princess! It's Ximai! The imperial doctor said it was Ximai!"
happy pulse
She was stunned for a long time before she understood the word. The maids and officials who had poured into the room kowtowed and congratulated her. She didn't feel a little joy in her heart, but only felt bewildered.
Prince Yu came back in the evening, so of course he already knew, he seemed very happy, and asked her to hand over the family affairs to Bi Zhu temporarily. Finally noticing that her body was trembling slightly, he reached out to hold her hand and asked, "What's wrong? Is it cold?"
Xiang Yi suddenly hugged his waist, and put her face on his robe: "My lord."
He was a bit dumbfounded, because he had never seen her like this before, so he only asked, "What's the matter?"
She couldn't speak, her heart felt cold, she raised her face and said: "My lord, I'm not in good spirits recently, I'm afraid that the Queen Mother will call me into the palace, if there is any disrespect, it will be bad. "Prince Yu thought for a while, and said: "Now that you are not in good health, the Empress Dowager will not summon you again. If someone comes from the palace, I will ask Duo Shun to come back for you."
She was half relieved, but still anxious, fortunately the Queen Mother knew that she was happy, and apart from rewarding a lot of things, she also specially asked not to thank her. The concubines of Chu and Xu, who came and went frequently every day, came to visit and brought many rewards from the Queen Mother.
Because at the end of the year, all the yamen are sealed in the twelfth lunar month, and everything has to be done in a hurry. As for offering sacrifices to the heavens and temples, Prince Yu had to do it on behalf of the emperor, so he was so busy that he entered the fasting palace and was never able to return to his residence.
Until the Laba Festival, all the officials had to enter the palace for a banquet to avoid the cold, and all the officials were ordered to enter the palace to receive porridge. Because the weather was cold, Prince Yu did not ride a horse, but entered the palace with Xiang Yi in a carriage. When Xiang Yi heard the wheels rolling, she felt as if she was rolling over her heart, her palms were slightly sweaty, and the furry sable collar brushed against her face, feeling more and more anxious. Prince Yu stretched out his hand to hold her hand, she forced a smile and said, "My lord should eat less wine today, and eat porridge when I get home."
Prince Yu agreed, but felt that her palms were cold and wet, and couldn't help asking: "What's wrong? Why are your hands so cold?"
She shook her head slightly.