Today's coronation of the crown prince is actually a little special. The special thing is that in addition to the civil and military officials who attended the ceremony, there were also a thousand elderly people from the public in the square in front of the Imperial Ancestral Temple. These elderly people held crane sticks and wore new clothes. Not only were they allowed to enter the Imperial Ancestral Temple to watch the ceremony, but they also received the emperor's permission and were given seats.
Such a grand scene is unprecedented in all previous dynasties.
The auspicious time calculated by the official in charge of the astronomical calendar of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau is today's 3:45 pm. Now, there is less than a quarter of an hour left, the crown prince, all the officials and the thousand elderly people are in their seats, but the emperor has not yet appeared.
In front of the solemn and majestic Taimiao with its double-eaved halls and lush ancient cypress trees, Liu Guan, the Minister of Rites and one of the Nine Ministers, who is serving as the master of ceremonies today, stood in the sacred way. He looked up from time to time to see the sun gradually rising above his head, with a slightly anxious look on his face.
The crowning of the crown prince is second only to the enthronement of the emperor. It concerns the state system and is granted by heaven. Every step has been rehearsed in advance and no mistakes can be allowed. Moreover, there are thousands of elderly people waiting outside the imperial temple with excitement. If it is delayed, it will not only be a bad omen, but it will also cause various doubts in the court and even among the people.
Liu An speculated that the emperor's special purpose in summoning the elderly and octogenarians to watch the ceremony was to allow the prince to quickly establish his image as the successor to the throne among the people.
First, he summoned important officials to give lectures, ordered them to pledge loyalty to the crown prince, and established the crown prince's status in the court. Then, he arranged it this way. To be honest, although he had followed the emperor for many years and knew that the emperor always loved the crown prince, he did not really understand the emperor's somewhat abnormal behavior. If the emperor was not in his prime and had great plans to realize, he would even feel that the emperor had retired after his success and now wanted to fully support the crown prince to replace him.
Of course, this is too absurd. The only explanation is that the emperor attaches great importance to the successor he appointed long ago, which is why he made such an arrangement today.
But the auspicious time was approaching, and he had not yet shown up. If he was delayed, it would be no small matter for a new prince who was the focus of everyone's attention.
He heard the counselors standing behind him start to whisper in confusion, and he became more and more anxious. Just as he was about to send someone to ask again, he heard a rumbling drum sound from the front. He looked up and saw the emperor wearing a crown and dragon robe, sitting side by side with the empress, escorted by the guards of honor, and coming.
The Taimiao, which housed thousands of people, suddenly became solemn and silent.
According to the old system, the empress had no rank, but since it was a new dynasty, there were some rules that the emperor had the final say. He could summon a thousand old men to the Imperial Ancestral Temple to watch the ceremony, so he could naturally bring the empress along.
Liu An breathed a sigh of relief and immediately led the ceremonial officers behind him to greet them.
The emperor and empress sat on their thrones and after receiving the homage, an official walked out of the Imperial Ancestral Temple and announced loudly: "At 3:45 pm, the ceremony begins!"
As soon as he finished speaking, solemn and peaceful music and dance were played all around. The guests and the ministers took their seats, and the ceremonial officer led the prince out to begin the coronation ceremony.
Compared with the previous emperor's enthronement ceremony, this ceremony merely downgraded the three kneelings and five kowtows to three kneelings and three kowtows, with various etiquette interspersed in between. The sun gradually approached overhead, and after an hour, almost noon, the long and cumbersome etiquette was finally coming to an end.
A row of palace servants came in a line, carrying trays covered with yellow silk in their hands.
The trays in their hands contained the crown of the prince, the seal and the certificate.
Xie Changgeng stood in front of the emperor's throne facing the thousands of people in the square of the Imperial Ancestral Temple. Opposite him, at the steps, were the crown prince and his accompanying officials, who were waiting for him to be crowned.
Mu Fulan had been sitting behind him. Under the sun, she saw a small dark red wet mark gradually appearing on his back.
The mark was like a drop of water stain at first, and then gradually expanded to the size of a copper coin, getting bigger and bigger, seeping into the warp and weft of the finely textured fabric of the dragon robe, like a piece of bloody sweat seeping through the clothes.
No one noticed, and he himself seemed not to notice at all. He still stood there, with his shoulders straight and motionless.
The palace servant finally stopped at the designated location and raised the tray.
He walked down the steps with steady steps, took the crown with both hands, walked to the young boy kneeling in the middle, and placed the golden crown firmly on his head.
After being crowned, the young boy took the seal and certificate given to him, held them high above his head, and then bowed three times to express his gratitude.
The sun was shining brightly above her head. Mu Fulan felt sweat pouring out of her skin under the pressure of heavy clothes, and her underwear was soon soaked. The clothes were tightly attached to her back, making her feel extremely tortured.
She couldn't take her eyes off the man in front of her. She had never felt time pass so slowly before. It seemed like a long time, and finally, she heard the ceremonial officer's voice "The ceremony is over!", and the music and dance sounded again, and the prince was led away.
Led by the ceremonial officers, nearly a thousand officials and the thousand elderly people present today all knelt down and kowtowed to the ground in the square. Amid the overwhelming and orderly farewell, Mu Fulan watched him turn around and walk back towards her.
Ten steps, eight steps, five steps...
She clearly saw a layer of fine beads of sweat on his forehead, and she could no longer wait for him to finish the journey by himself.
Ignoring the sidelong glances from several officials of ceremonies in the distance, she stood up and walked quickly towards him. Under the protection of Cao Jin and several palace maids who were catching up with her, she reached out and grasped his arm.
My fingertips accidentally touched his palm, which felt cold and wet.
He paused, gently broke away from her hand that was holding his arm, and continued walking forward.
Mu Fulan followed him silently to the front of the carriage, and as she did when she came here, she climbed onto the carriage, left the Taimiao, and then got on the palace carriage waiting outside.
The car door closed and there was no one else's sight around.
This time, he did not refuse her support.
He was supported by her and sat down slowly. He breathed a sigh of relief, turned around and saw her looking at him. He smiled at her and said softly, "I'm fine". Then he closed his eyes, leaned his head to the other side, and rested his head on the wall of the car, motionless, as if he had fallen asleep.
The imperial carriage sped forward, and suddenly the wheels ran over a small stone on the ground, causing the carriage to jolt.
His body swayed.
Mu Fulan subconsciously reached out to help him again.
The moment her hand touched him, without any warning, the man's body went limp, as if a newborn baby had escaped from a warrior's hard armor shell. He slid silently from his seat and fell to the ground, his forehead pressing on the uppers of her palace shoes embroidered with golden phoenixes.
Mu Fulan lowered her head.
The man at her feet had his eyes closed, his face was pale as gold paper, and there was no trace of blood on his face.
She knelt in the carriage, hugged him, untied his belt, removed the layers of outer clothing, and saw a large patch of blood on the back of his snow-white inner garment.
Scarlet blood was still oozing out from the wet gauze at the wound site, splashing onto the floor of the carriage drop by drop.
Her teeth trembled uncontrollably. She pressed the bleeding wound, raised her head, and shouted out of the carriage: "Faster! Faster!"
…
A sedan chair was carried directly into the bedroom of Ziwei Palace. The imperial doctors were busy around the bed, looking solemn.
Mu Fulan stood in front of a window in the outer hall.
She was still dressed in her best clothes, and her hands were stained with dried blood, which she had not asked anyone to wash. Several palace servants stood far away, watching her quietly. But she was looking out the window at the spring flowers that were about to bloom, as if she was fascinated by them.
From the inner hall, there was a crisp "ding" sound as iron fell on a plate.
After a long time, she turned around and looked at the imperial physician who was walking towards her.
"Your Majesty, the entire sleeve arrow has been removed from your Majesty's body. We have carefully examined it with a probe and no trace of it remains. The wound has been cleaned and the bleeding has temporarily stopped. However, your Majesty also knows that your Majesty has lost too much blood, which has seriously damaged his spiritual essence and lungs. We need to see how he will fare in the future."
Mu Fulan was silent for a moment, then said, "You have all worked hard. Go and rest first. Two of you can stay here, and the rest can go to guard the Queen Mother. I will take care of the follow-up of Your Majesty's injury."
The imperial physician agreed and left.
Xie Changgeng lay in the inner hall, his eyes half open and half closed, half unconscious and half awake. He wanted to open his eyes completely, but all his strength had left him, and even breathing became extremely painful. He wanted to fall asleep, but the remaining consciousness seemed to be tightly hooked by something, stubbornly refusing to leave him. Until he heard the woman's voice faintly, this familiar and pleasant voice was like a spring water gently brushing through his pores. He suddenly felt himself relax, and the pain seemed to leave him. He closed his eyes and lost consciousness.
He slept long and deeply, and when he finally woke up, he knew it was late at night.
It was so quiet in my ears, I couldn't hear a single sound.
He was no stranger to the long nights in the palace and the dead silence of the underworld. In his previous life, he had spent countless such long nights.
But at this moment, in this bedroom deep in the palace, beside him, there was a dim, warm light.
He opened his eyes and slowly turned his head.
He saw her leaning on a makeshift couch in front of the bed, her body slightly curled up, her eyes closed, as if she had been guarding here all the time. She was so tired that she fell into a deep sleep.
He looked at her.
At this moment, for some reason, a scene from many years ago suddenly popped up in Xie Changgeng's mind.
It was at the foot of the distant Jincheng Tianshan Mountains. That night, a warm, dim light was on in the small tent. She had gone down the mountain in search of medicine and was extremely tired. Just like that moment tonight, she fell into a deep sleep and was completely unaware of his arrival.
This scene, which seemed like an old dream, caused a sudden surge of bitterness in his chest.
At that time, he had secretly hoped to keep her.
He stared at the woman in the dim red light, not daring to breathe loudly for fear of waking her up.
He sat up slowly, got down from the ground, and with his still soft steps, he came lightly to the couch where she was lying, and gently placed the quilt that was covering himself on her shoulders.
When I got closer, I could see clearly that there was a faint bluish halo under her eyes.
He stared at the face beneath his eyelids, and couldn't help but raise his hand and slowly reach out. However, at the moment when his fingertips were about to touch her, he seemed to be burned by the candle flame. He suddenly withdrew his hand and turned around abruptly, accidentally touching the injured area. He felt a pain in his lungs and his chest felt stuffy, as if he was about to cough up blood. His eyes went dark and he couldn't stand steadily for a while.
Mu Fulan was awakened. She opened her eyes and saw that she was covered with a quilt. The man had woken up at some point. He had his back to her, one hand on the edge of the bed, and his body hunched over in pain.
She was startled and hurriedly got off the couch, held him, asked him to support herself, and slowly lay down. Then she sat on the edge of the bed and massaged the acupoints on his back.
Xie Changgeng gradually recovered and said with his eyes closed: "I'm fine. It was just a carelessness. You go and rest. I will call the palace maids if there is anything."
Mu Fulan slowly withdrew her hand, but did not get up and leave.
She looked at the man's pale, bearded, and haggard face and said softly, "I told you that day that the ceremony could be postponed. Why did you take such a risk?"
Xie Changgeng seemed to be asleep and did not respond at first. After a long time, he slowly opened his eyes, met her gaze, and said, "Xi'er is destined by fate. As long as I am still alive, the coronation ceremony cannot be changed."
Mu Fulan was silent. He also stopped talking.
The lights flickered. One of them was lying down, the other was sitting, so close yet so far away from each other. It was as if there were countless words on their lips, but they didn't know how to start or what to say.
"you… "
"you… "
The two of them suddenly spoke at the same time, then stopped and looked at each other.
His eyes were extremely dark, yet there seemed to be a faint glow in them.
Mu Fulan's heartbeat suddenly quickened.
Just then, she heard footsteps behind her. She turned around and saw Xier coming in.
The young boy stopped near the two and said, "Mother, you are tired, go and rest. I can't sleep, I will serve father."
"I will take good care of my father." He stared at Xie Changgeng and said.