"Get up," Zhong Zhiheng nodded, while lifting his foot across the threshold. He said casually, "Has the Queen Mother eaten?"
"Reporting to Lord Long Live, dinner has just been prepared in the small kitchen. The Queen Mother heard that Lord Long Live is coming, so please invite Lord Long Live to eat together." Bi Qiao said with a smile.
"It just so happens that I also want to come to the queen mother for a meal." Zhong Zhiheng curled his lips. Slowly walked into the main hall, "Mother, my son has come to eat with you."
"Today is rare." The queen mother smiled and got up from the soft couch, put down the Buddhist beads in her hand, and walked in front of Zhong Zhiheng. He stretched out his hand to straighten out the knotted sachet jade pendant on Zhong Zhiheng's waist. Then he took Zhong Zhiheng's hand and walked towards the side hall, saying, "The Ai family hasn't had a meal with you for a long time. Today you should spend more time talking with the Ai family."
"Yes. The son also wants to spend more time with the queen mother." Zhong Zhiheng said, sitting down with the queen mother. While personally making a bowl of whitebait and water shield soup for the queen mother and putting it in front of her, she said. "It's time to eat whitebait and water shield, mother, please try it."
The Queen Mother loves two dishes in her life, one is whitebait soup with water shield. One is grilled yellow sheep, whitebait and water shield in spring, and grilled yellow sheep in autumn. Zhong Zhiheng and Heping Xiwang have never been left behind for so many years, and the two brothers have always maintained this tacit understanding.
"It's really delicious." The Queen Mother stirred the whitebait and water shield soup in the bowl, took a sip, and couldn't help feeling, "Just because of this whitebait and water shield soup, I don't know how many horses and people I will run to death. It's really extravagant." .”
Water shield only grows in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and whitebait is not a product of the capital. These two are the most inconvenient to store and can only be eaten fresh. Therefore, it takes a lot of manpower and material resources every year to make this whitebait soup. The so-called delicacies of mountains and seas , but that's all.
"As long as the queen mother loves to eat, what does it matter if it's a few horses or a few people?" Zhong Zhiheng said while filling a bowl, drinking slowly one mouthful at a time.
It's just that the queen mother couldn't drink any more, she put down the bowl in her hand, looked at Zhong Zhiheng, and asked after a long while: "Is the emperor worried?"
"No," Zhong Zhiheng also put down the bowl in his hand, took the handkerchief from Bi Qiao and wiped his mouth lightly, while looking at the Queen Mother, he said calmly, "Prince Pingxi is coming back, and my son came here specially The queen mother said."
"What, what? Ling'er is going back to Beijing?" The queen mother was stunned immediately, and then there was a slight twitch at the corner of her mouth. She has always been the most dignified and noble woman, but at this time she couldn't hide her excitement, "Is he really Are you coming back?"
King Pingxi's name is Zhong Zhiling.
Zhong Zhiheng looked at the Queen Mother's hands tightly holding the chopsticks, and when he spoke again, his voice became even weaker: "Yes, the Queen Mother's 70th birthday is coming soon, King Pingxi wants to come back this year to pay respects to the Queen Mother."
"This child, finally..." The queen mother couldn't hide her excitement. After all, she hadn't seen her youngest son for decades. Her eyes were red for a moment. She took a breath and looked at Zhong Zhiheng again, "It can be said that it is When will you arrive?"
"At the beginning of July," Zhong Zhiheng said slowly, while looking at the sticky whitebait and water shield soup, he said coldly, "Should be able to arrive before Siyao's memorial day."
The Empress Dowager's face froze suddenly, and the smile on the corner of her mouth disappeared instantly. She looked at Zhong Zhiheng's indifferent face, her lips trembled a few times, as if she wanted to say something, but she still didn't say it.
"The queen mother must miss the seventh brother very much, right?" Zhong Zhiheng raised his eyebrows and looked at the queen mother in silence, with the corners of his mouth slightly raised, and smiled faintly, "It must have been so many years since we saw each other."
"Yes, I haven't seen you for so many years." The queen mother nodded, pursing her lips, and added, "The Ai family is the same as the emperor, and they all miss King Pingxi."
"Really?" Zhong Zhiheng laughed even bigger, and while throwing the handkerchief on the table, he got up and walked out.
"Slave and servant send the emperor off!" Bi Qiao was too busy to salute.
"Bi Qiao," the queen mother sat in a daze, and finally opened her mouth after a while. She looked at Bi Qiao in panic, "Do you think the emperor will attack Lao Qi?"
"No, Queen Mother, you don't worry too much!" Bi Qiao came over in a hurry, and while supporting the Queen Mother's back, she comforted, "Pingxi King is the leading pillar of the Zhou Dynasty, and he has been guarding it for decades. In northern Xinjiang, with his presence, Turkic people dare not violate the border. No matter how much Long Live God has a grudge against King Pingxi, he dare not attack easily. The Northwest Army must only obey the orders of King Pingxi. If King Pingxi returns to the capital What went wrong, isn’t the Great Zhou’s northern border messed up? Long live Lord is not a fool, Queen Mother, just keep your heart in your stomach!”