A crab feast ended in a strange atmosphere, and everyone had their own thoughts when they left.
Xu Shi has always been an honest and responsible person. After returning to the house with her daughter, thinking about the day's affairs, she always felt uneasy and guilty.
On the one hand, he was worried that his meeting with the Crown Princess would cause trouble, and on the other hand, he felt a little uneasy about his attitude towards the Crown Princess.
She has been a peasant woman for nearly forty years. Although she has little knowledge, she can tell the difference between good and bad.
Although Empress Dowager Qi was the one who ordered people to bring their family back to Chang'an and hosted a banquet, she looked down on them from the bottom of her heart. Among the dazzling ladies in the crowd today, except for the Crown Princess, none of them were waiting to see their mother and daughter jokes.
She was a little ashamed of such a person, but she avoided it after hearing about her identity.
The Duke of Lu, Wei Shou, saw her frowning, and couldn't help but ask, "What happened? Was it a joke at the banquet?"
Not to mention the Xu family, Wei Shou has also made a lot of jokes when he sees those royal relatives in the past few days. Fortunately, His Majesty didn't care, and even comforted him privately, which made him relax.
However, Mrs Xu shook her head: "Where is the joke? It's just that it wasn't, that's why I'm so worried." Then, she recounted what happened during the day in detail.
After Wei Shou listened, he frowned and said, "I will listen to you repeat the words of the sage."
Xu hurriedly repeated Xiao Kezhi's words word for word.
Wei Shou was silent for a long time, then clapped his hands and said, "Whatever the sage says, we are the sage's maiden family, no matter what others say, just listen to the sage!"
He came from a peasant household, and although he was not a low-ranking member, he was too shabby compared to the dignitaries in Chang'an. They don't understand the twists and turns between the nobles. Why bother with this, and then it will be thankless
All he knew was that he was the uncle of the current sage. No matter what, he stood on the side of the sage. Whatever the sage said, he listened to it, and he didn't care about anything else.
Xu shi blinked for a moment and asked tentatively, "The sage said that Guo'er will befriend whomever he likes... I will go to the Crown Princess in a few days to make amends?"
"Go, don't let people think we're such snobs."
After the two discussed it, they felt a lot more at ease, so they fell asleep.
…
A few days later, the East Palace received a post from Mrs. Lu Guo, inviting the crown princess to go to the Dacien Temple in Jinchangfang to worship the Buddha.
When Xiao Yu saw it, he was surprised at first, and then sneered again: "Qi Mu eagerly brought people here, but not only did the sage not appreciate it, but the Wei family didn't seem to appreciate it, but they got close to Donggong, and they didn't know where he was now. Do you regret it?"
Chu Ning didn't answer, he just subordinated the post and said, "It's fine if your Highness doesn't object to me going."
"They're just two illiterate fools, they're not worth my attention." He adjusted his clothes in front of the bronze mirror, and said what he said indifferently.
Chu Ning felt a surge of discomfort in her heart.
In this regard, Xiao Yu is exactly the same as Empress Dowager Qi, and in his heart he despises ordinary, even humble people. Therefore, the battles between the two parties over the years have mostly been between officials at the upper level and more at the lower level. Officials were left out.
On the contrary, Xiao Kezhi, because he has always been far away from the center of power, secretly made friends with ordinary officials from humble backgrounds. It is precisely because of this that he not only could escape the eyes of the Queen Mother Qi and others, but also grew his strength quietly. Catch clues that are beneficial to you.
However, neither the Queen Mother Qi nor Xiao Yu, whose eyes are higher than the top, seem to have not realized this problem.
She smiled, and after sending him out of the Guangtian Palace in a proper manner, she went back to the house to pack her clothes and drove out of the palace.
Outside the gate of Chongren Fang, the mother and daughter of the Wei family had been waiting for a while. When she saw someone coming, Mrs. Xu changed her previous vigilance and panic, and smiled and pulled Guo'er forward to greet her.
On the carriage, she presented the prepared food box with a bit of embarrassment on her simple face: "I heard that His Highness was ill a few days ago, we are ordinary villagers, and we have nothing to hand, so we I personally made some dim sum from Yanzhou for His Highness to taste, it is definitely not as good as the food in the palace, I just ask Your Highness not to take offense.”
Chu Ning took it without any ambiguity, and immediately opened it. When he saw the delicate and rough pastries compared to the court desserts, he smiled and took a piece and put it in his mouth.
There is no doubt that the taste is naturally inferior to that made by the imperial chef, but because of the Yanzhou characteristics, it has a different taste, and more importantly, there seems to be a faint aroma of medicinal herbs in it.
Her eyes moved, and under Madam Xu's nervous gaze, she asked, "Did Madam add herbs to it?"
Madam Xu was overjoyed when she saw that she had eaten it, and nodded again and again: "Yes, yes, I don't think I can get these snacks alone, and I remember hearing that His Highness was ill, and it happened that there were nourishing medicinal herbs that His Majesty gave at home, so she asked I went to the doctor in the city, picked out a few and grinded them into powder, and mixed some into the dough when kneading it, also to make up for His Highness…”
Speaking of this, she was a little worried: "But it doesn't taste good?"
Chu Ning shook his head, carefully packed the food box, and told Cui He to take good care of it. Then he said, "It tastes very good, and it has a special flavor. Madam has a heart. Today's dinner should be settled."
Madam Xu breathed a sigh of relief.
Chu Ning also asked Cui He to take out a few rouge gouache and picture albums that had been prepared, and hand them over to Guo'er: "Although Madam is here for the first time, but with His Majesty taking care of me, I don't lack anything, and I have nothing else here. , there are only some rouge gouache used by the pretty ladies, this album also depicts the fashionable dress styles of the girls in Chang'an City this year, so I will give them to Guoer to take a look."
Guo'er shyly thanked her, and then flipped through the album in her hand, and she soon fell in love with it.
Mrs. Xu glanced at it and saw that the portraits were not only lifelike, but also knew exactly what clothes, makeup and jewelry each one wore, and she understood her intentions at once.
This is to prevent them from being looked down upon for being out of fashion in the future.
"Thank you so much, Your Highness!" Madam Xu's face became more and more flushed. "That day in the palace, I didn't know what was wrong, and I failed His Highness's kindness. Today, I want to make amends with His Highness..."
"Speaking of which, Madam is my elder, where is the reason for the elder to apologize to the younger?" Chu Ning patted her hand without concealing her purpose, "Besides, I treat Madam well, of course, from the sincerity, but at the same time But there is another reason."
Seeing that she didn't look like a joke, Madam Xu couldn't help but stunned for a while, and then she laughed again after a long while: "No matter what, I owe Your Highness."
She felt more at ease when the other party could say so frankly.
After a while, the carriage went to Daci'en Temple, and the three of them went to the temple together.
After getting along this way, Mrs. Xu was not as nervous as before, and even the shy Guo'er slowly let go, and was willing to touch the corner of Chu Ning's clothes and talk to her with her head raised.
The temple had already informed in advance, and set aside a meditation room for three people. After worshiping the Buddha, they would stay in the meditation room, use vegetarian food, listen to Zen lectures, and did not leave until Shen Shi.
On the way back, Chu Ning accompanied the two of them to the outside of Chongren Square, and then took the car alone to continue to the Taiji Palace in the north.
However, when they reached between Yongxingfang and Anxingfang, the carriage suddenly stopped.
"His Royal Highness, there seems to be a team going through the road ahead, so you have to wait for a while." The servant looked at the road ahead from Tonghua Gate to Yanxi Gate, and hurried back to report.
"Understood." Chu Ning sat in the car, lifted the curtain and looked out. Sure enough, he saw dozens of noble slaves and servants walking slowly along an extraordinarily spacious and gorgeous carriage.
The breeze blew, just lifted the corner of the car curtain, revealing one of the well-dressed rich and charming faces.
Chu Ning's eyes froze, and he slowly remembered that that person was Zhao Yu'e, the second mother of the Zhao family, who had been away from Chang'an for several years.
Zhao Yu'e was born in a family of military commanders. Her father was Zhao Kui, the second-rank general of the Fuguo. General, continue to town in the Bozhou area.
The Bozhou Army is controlled by the Zhao family all the year round. It is not small in scale. Looking at the entire Great Liang, it is the only local army that can compete with the Ganzhou Army.
With such a strong family background, even if Great Liang emphasizes literature over martial arts, it is not a problem for the Zhao family to go out in such a battle.
However, Zhao Yu'e is older than Chu Ning. It has been four or five years since she left Chang'an after she got married. Why did she suddenly come back at this time
Seeing Chu Ning frowning in thought, Cui He reminded softly, "My lady forgot, Mrs. Zhao was a new widow last year and only returned to Chang'an last month."
Only then did Chu Ning remember this.
After Zhao Yu'e got married, she took up the post of Xiangzhou outside her husband. Last year, it was vaguely heard that her husband died in office due to illness.
But why did she return to Chang'an alone before the three-year mourning period
Chu Ning's doubts became heavier and he couldn't help asking the driver to drive the car closer to the intersection, so that he could see the situation on the road from the car window.
Seeing this, I was a little shocked.
I saw that the large number of Zhao's team had stopped together with the gorgeous carriage, blocking the entire road to pass.
And another team of more than ten people coming from the direction of Tonghuamen just met it head-on.
At the front of the team were two young men riding high-headed horses. The one on the left was dressed in silver armor, tall and straight, with a long sword on his waist. He was very imposing. It was the new General of Qianniuwei, Jin Jiang. As for the one on the right, his face was as stern as a knife, and his whole body was full of a chilling suffocating aura. Although he was only sitting on a horse, he still taught people not to ignore it, but it was the new emperor Xiao Kezhi.
The road was blocked, Xiao Kezhi lightly took the reins and signaled to stop. He was dressed in ordinary black clothes, obviously not posing as the emperor's ceremonial frame, and was about to lead someone to avoid him, but the soft curtain of the gorgeous carriage not far from him was suddenly lifted by the servants.
Zhao Yu'e stepped out of the car, walked to his horse, and saluted him softly.