"What, is it someone Mr. Su knows?" Xia Dong asked, looking at Mei Changsu's expression.
"I don't think I know him, I just met him. They belong to Prince Jing's mansion. Although I have only visited Prince Jing once, I have some impressions of this dear man."
Xia Dong was a little surprised, "A centurion can leave an impression on Mr. Su. I think there must be something special about it, right?"
Mei Changsu nodded, "I don't know what he is good at, but now he has not changed a bit..."
This sounded strange, Xia Dong raised his eyebrows and was about to ask again, the centurion had already walked over with great strides, ignoring Mei Changsu, and just clasped his fists and saluted Xia Dong, saying, "In Xiajing Qi Meng, the centurion of the county king, may I ask if Lord Xia came down from the mountain?"
Xia Dong looked at him and nodded slightly: "Not bad."
"When the two of you were on the mountain, did you see any monsters?"
"Monsters?" Xia Dong frowned, "This is the Kyoto area, how can there be monsters?"
"Yes, it is a monster with brown fur, which disturbed the mountain people, so we were ordered to round up."
Mei Changsu interjected and asked, "I remember you guys have been on the move for a while now, why haven't you been caught yet?"
Qi Meng was originally a fourth-rank sergeant, but the rank he won in a bloody battle was reduced to a centurion because of a few cold words from Mei Changsu. He was quite a man of discernment and insight. After he was beaten with a military stick that day, at least three people came to persuade him, and explained the truth so clearly that he felt ashamed of the reason. Seeing Mei Changsu again at this time, although he was still a little uncomfortable, he was unwilling to take the initiative to talk to him, but since he opened his mouth to ask, there was no reason for him to shy away from answering.
"There are dense forests in the eastern suburbs, and the monsters are extremely cunning. We can't stay here every day, but the mountain people come only when they report, but every time they come, they can't even see the shadows, and I don't know those mountain people. Is it wrong to see…”
Mei Changsu looked at the four fields, thinking that the mountains in the eastern suburbs are continuous and the area is very wide. If you want to catch a beast in a targeted manner, I am afraid that it is like finding a needle in a haystack. No wonder it is always in vain.
"Isn't the Jingzhao Yin Yamen responsible for the report of the mountain people here?" Xia Dong asked again.
"That monster is so powerful. The hunters from Jingzhao Yamen surrounded once, and fifty people were half injured, but they were not caught in the end. Governor Gao had no choice but to ask our lord. It's okay to do this kind of thing. Only our lord is willing to take care of the gossip of great merit."
Xia Dong knew in her heart that what the centurion said was true, but she and King Jing were always in a relationship and did not want to comment further. With a snort, she turned to Mei Changsu: "I'm going back to the city now. See you another day."
"Lord Xia, walk slowly." Mei Changsu bowed as a courtesy, and kept watching Xia Dong go to the tea house to pick up the mounted mount. After urging the horse to go with the whip, Fang slowly turned around and glanced at Qi Meng.
"What are you doing?" Qi Meng felt a little guilty at the sight of him, and his mind turned quickly, recalling whether he had said anything wrong just now.
Seeing his nervous look, Mei Changsu couldn't help but burst into a smile, "Not bad, I haven't seen you for a few days, I have learned to reflect on myself. It seems that His Royal Highness King Jing does have a subordinate to train him. What you said just now was in front of Xia Dong. There's nothing wrong with it, just don't say it if you don't say it in the future. His Royal Highness King Jing needs to do more things and talk less now, he understands this principle, and you should understand it even more as your subordinates."
Mei Changsu was just a commoner, not a counselor by King Jing's side, and he was somewhat of a strategist with Qi Meng. Logically speaking, he was not qualified to teach others a lesson, but for some reason, he stood there calmly and weakly, but didn't. There was a convincing aura that made Qi Meng nodded unconsciously and said "I know".
At this time, Li Gang had ordered someone to drive the carriage over, put down the footstool, and helped Mei Changsu to board the carriage. Just as the carriage was about to start, Mei Changsu suddenly lifted the curtain of the carriage, leaned out halfway as if remembering something, and said to Qi Meng, "You can ask the mountain people what the monster likes to eat, set a trap to lure him away. already."
Qi Meng was stunned and didn't respond, the curtain was lowered again, and the coachman's whip rattled a little, and swayed away.
That night, Mei Changsu returned to the mansion and learned that King Yu had indeed come to the house to invite him in person. Because he didn't believe that he was really there, he insisted on going into the backyard to look around. Later, probably because the house was full of guests, he couldn't wait any longer. Just walked away unhappily.
After the tenth day of the first lunar month, lanterns began to be hung all over the capital in preparation for the Lantern Festival. The palace is no exception, from the queen to the concubines, all the palaces and courtyards have their own unique ideas, rushing to make new and ingenious lanterns, so that the emperor can enjoy them on the fifteenth day and win favor and praise.
For some, though, the festive and peaceful atmosphere is only superficial. While stepping up the investigation into the murder of an internal prisoner, Meng Zhi, the commander of the Imperial Guard, made great efforts to improve the palace defense settings, and intensively arranged shifts to increase the inspection sight. The results were quickly achieved, and two eunuchs deliberately set fire to the palace in a row. It is a pity that the arrested suspects committed suicide on the spot and did not ask for a confession. However, according to the identities of the corpses, these suspects were indeed registered eunuchs, not from outside. Empress Yan was reprimanded in public by Emperor Liang for this, and was forced to take off her hairpin to plead guilty. She understands that for any troubles in the palace, she is the lord of the East Palace, not the other concubines, and the concubine Yue is not responsible for any guilt, so she can only be more careful and strictly control the movements of the people in the palaces. . The queen is the daughter of the first emperor of the imperial court. At the age of sixteen, she married Emperor Liang, who was still the king of the county at the time, as the concubine. After Emperor Liang ascended the throne, she was conferred the empress and has been in charge of the six palaces to this day. Although she has long been affectionate and has no children, but after all these years, the princess in the main palace is not in vain. She has her own uniqueness in controlling the harem. With the favor of the emperor and concubine of the Yue clan, she has not been able to turn out any big waves. , Now that he has made a ruthless rectification, he can still control the situation.
Compared with the haze in the palace, Mei Changsu's actions outside the palace seemed to be much more leisurely. After finding out several Jianghu masters who are currently in contact with Zhuo Dingfeng in Beijing, the Jiang Zuo suzerain hurriedly dispatched an unknown swordsman to Beijing, and challenged them one by one according to the rules of the rivers and lakes. I couldn't get out of bed for a month, and it was solved neatly. And after this nameless swordsman quickly caused a stir, he quietly disappeared without a trace, causing rumors to spread all over the place.
Without his helper, Zhuo Dingfeng was sensitively aware that there were always eyeliners following around him, and the method of peeking was extremely old-fashioned. Although it felt wrong, he couldn't grasp it. In this case, he had no choice but to stand still and spend time with his opponent. Xie Yu is a cautious person, and he does not leave any evidence for doing business. Because he is worried that the Xuanjing Envoy has already taken action, he does not dare to urge Zhuo Dingfeng to act rashly. After so many days of stalemate, the capital is naturally calm.
The tradition of New Year's Eve is to keep the year old, and the tradition of Lantern Festival is to call friends and wives to go out to watch the lanterns. Although the palace has strengthened its vigilance in the dark, for Mei Changsu, who is hidden behind the scenes, the entertainment that should be there is the same and cannot be less, especially when it is not dark in Feiliutian, he changes into beautiful clothes and ties them up. A good new hairband is ready to follow when you go out to see the lights.
Since there was no curfew this night, the street market was crowded with people. Li Gang did a lot of work. Not only did he arrange for guards to surround him, but he also specifically told Fei Liu to hold Brother Su's hand tightly and not to get lost.
"I won't lose it!" Fei Liu felt humiliated by Uncle Li's order.
"You will know when you go out. The market during the Lantern Festival is crowded to death. If you are not careful, you will get lost. Fei Liu, you can't be careless."
"I won't lose it!" Fei Liu still insisted angrily.
Mei Changsu suppressed a smile and patted the boy's head, and said softly, "You are mistaken, Uncle Li meant that Brother Su would get lost, not that we Feiliu would get lost."
Fei Liu was stunned for a while, and after thinking seriously for a long time, he suddenly grabbed Mei Changsu's hand tightly and said loudly, "Don't lose it!"
Li Gang breathed a sigh of relief and wiped the sweat from his forehead.
After the beginning of the watch, the group walked out of the mansion gate, and as soon as they entered the bustling main street of Dengjie, they immediately felt the atmosphere of rubbing shoulders. Between the fish and dragons and the brilliance, the crowds are like weaving, and the laughter is loud. This is the day when the status of the middle class in the capital of Daliang is the least clear. No matter whether it is aristocratic high officials or commoners, there is no obvious difference among the crowd watching the lanterns. Many famous people even wear white clothes and masks to crowd out the Lantern Festival. Playing in a pile of lanterns has become a fashion. Only noble ladies and ladies with high status will pull up cloth curtains to block them a little, but there are still many people who deliberately dress up as civilian women and cover half of their faces with top pockets. move around at will. The New Year's Day will be the best day for couples to make secret appointments.
Like all children, Fei Liu likes this kind of bright and dazzling things the most, those rabbit lights, goldfish lights, revolving lanterns, fairy lights, jack-o-lanterns, butterfly lights... all of them make him unable to take his eyes off, every time Mei Changsu asks When he asked "Do you want to buy it?", he would definitely answer: "Yes!" So much so that everyone had two or three bottles in their hands before they had walked half the street.
"Sect Master, petting children is not like this..." Li Gang couldn't help complaining, "Fei Liu must be eager to move the whole street home..."
"Okay!" Juvenile Dale immediately agreed.
"It doesn't matter, after you meet them later, you can hire two people to send all these lights back. Anyway, our yard is big, so we can hang them all along the eaves, and let Feiliu have a good time for a few days." Mei Changsu smiled. After comforting Li Gang, he turned back to coax Fei Liu, "Fei Liu, according to the rules, these lights can only be hung in the first month, and they must be put away after the first month, do you know?"
"Know!"
Li Gang smiled bitterly, and had no choice but to stop talking, stretched his neck and looked forward: "There are so many people, how can I find them?"
"Look for the peach lanterns, they're under the peach lanterns..."
As soon as Mei Changsu finished speaking, a guard shouted, "Look there!"
Everyone looked in the direction he pointed, and about fifty paces ahead, they slowly picked up a gigantic peach lantern with pink yarn and yellow stamens. Still very eye-catching.
"It's so big that it's hard not to see it." Mei Changsu smiled and set off towards the lamp with his entourage. In just fifty paces, he walked forward and backward for about a quarter of an hour, and finally gathered together. come together.
"Xiao Feiliu, do you like this peach blossom lantern?" Yan Yujin smiled and shook the long pole.
"Um!"
"Thank you, Brother Yan," Mei Changsu reminded.
"thanks!"
"There are so many people who want to go to the Miaoyinfang you mentioned, I'm afraid it will be crowded until dawn..." Mei Changsu sighed as he watched the tidal stream of people, "I regret that I promised you to come out..."
"It doesn't matter," Xiao Jingrui said, "it's just that there are more people on the main street. We can go directly to the back door of Miaoyin Square by walking through the alley. That road is the most familiar to Yujin, and he walks every few days..."
Yan Yujin rolled his eyes at him, "If you are familiar with it, it is not ashamed. Only a great hero can be true to his true colors, and it is the beginning of romance with a real celebrity..."
"Okay, don't be flirty for now, everyone should go quickly, I'm afraid your reservation will be cancelled later... It's rare that Miss Gong Yu left the hall today and said she wants to play a new song." Xie Bicha came in and made a round of it. , a group of people squeezed and squeezed, squeezed to the entrance of the alley, and then heaved a sigh of relief.