In the view, Chu Ning had just showered, while wiping his half-wet hair, he fanned lightly with a round fan.
The hot water vapor shone through the white and powdery skin, adding a hazy soft luster to her. Shortly after wearing the thin summer gauze skirt, it was already wet, and it was half clinging to the body.
Seeing this, Cui He took the towel from her hand, dried her long and dense black hair repeatedly, smeared osmanthus oil, and then tied it with a tassel cord.
The slender neck and slender back were finally relieved, and the heat radiated in the air, slowly cooling down.
The fragrance of the bursts of flowers blown into the house quietly penetrated into the tip of the nose, making people feel happy.
Chu Ning couldn't help but hummed a melodious tune, got up and changed into dry clothes.
Seeing that it was getting late, Cui He got up and went out, opened the courtyard door, but inadvertently heard discussions outside.
"It seems to be coming this way. It's so late, and I don't know what to do."
"It's all about women's crowns, what else can you do? Eighty percent of it is related to which lady."
"The female crown here... Could it be Mrs. Chu?"
…
Cui He was stunned for a moment, and couldn't help but took a few more steps outside, stuck his head out, and sure enough, he saw the silhouettes of people not far away.
She hurriedly turned her head back and said to Chu Ning, "Ma'am, the Holy One is here—everyone saw it."
Chu Ning was a little surprised and couldn't help but follow her out of the yard and wait outside the door.
On the ramp, the emperor was coming here on the imperial carriage, and the attendants who followed on both sides were holding lamps, and they didn't seem to cover up at all.
She was shocked, and her heart seemed to be throbbing slightly. She took two steps closer to the lamp, stood by the door, and showed a gentle smile to Xiao Kezhi who was getting closer and closer on the chariot.
"Your Majesty is down."
The chariot landed steadily on the side of the road, and the two servants were separated on both sides. Xiao Kezhi got off the chariot, stepped forward, and stopped in front of her.
The breeze came slowly, mixed with the slight drunkenness he brought from the wedding banquet.
"Yes, Anning, I'm here."
There were many palace servants who passed by and couldn't help but stop and watch, and some of the younger maids in Guizhen Temple also quietly stuck their heads out of curiosity.
Chu Ning bowed his knees and saluted, retreated to the door, and said calmly, "Your Majesty, please come in."
A narrow door opened wide with a squeak, and then closed quickly, hiding the unsightly sight inside.
It was quiet for a while outside, and soon it was like a pot exploded in the dark night, causing countless surprised discussions.
It is indeed Mrs. Chu!
Tonight is the new marriage of the prince, and the emperor, as the prince's uncle, entered the courtyard of the former prince concubine grandly!
…
In the Lizheng Hall of the East Palace, the sound of ritual music and laughter continued, intertwined.
Holding the wine glass and the jug, Xiao Yu kept going around in the crowd, drinking a glass of sake, causing his pale cheeks to appear abnormally flushed.
After finally drinking with the guests, he was already a little dizzy and unsteady.
But today, no one around brought him warm food and soup, and no one wiped the sweat on his face with a handkerchief, and ordered someone to help him go back to his bedroom to rest.
His face sank, and he beckoned to call two chamberlains, leading him to the direction of the dormitory.
The dormitory was decorated as a new room tonight, and there were several maids waiting on both sides. When he saw him approaching, he hurriedly greeted him with a smile, opened the door, and said earnestly, "His Royal Highness is here!"
Zhao Yu'e, who was in the room, heard the movement, and came out as well, saluting him, and when her eyes swept across his flushed cheeks and weak body, her carefully traced eyebrows wrinkled indistinctly.
"His Royal Highness is drunk, help him to rest." She instructed the maids by her side, but she didn't mean to do it herself, she just stood by and watched, not knowing whether he remembered his intentional neglect when he just greeted him in person. , or that's the way it is.
The maids of the East Palace were standing on the periphery, and the few beside her were from the Zhao family's dowry today. Two of them heard the words and stepped forward, one supported Xiao Yu, and the other reached out to untie the jade belt hook on his waist. .
Xiao Yu couldn't stand still after being drunk, and the maid he was supporting was weak, so when the maid next to him let go, he stumbled to the side, took two steps in a mess, and barely managed to stabilize.
And the maid who was kneeling to loosen his belt didn't hold back her strength, causing him to be twisted by the side of his waist.
"Go away!" He lowered his head with a gloomy face, shouted angrily at the maid, his thin lips pursed tightly, and his narrowed eyes were full of gloom.
The maid didn't understand his temperament, and was stunned for a moment. After she leaned over to admit her mistake, she stretched out her hand to continue.
The anger in Xiao Yu's heart was suddenly ignited, and he immediately raised his foot and kicked it.
Although he is a little weak and still drunk, he is still an adult man, and his strength is not small when he is angry. My heart was curled up on the ground, unable to breathe.
"Get out!" He panted and supported the shelf beside him. His tone was full of impatience.
The servants of the East Palace all retreated, and the remaining few came from the Zhao family. I don't know why he was suddenly so angry and trembling.
Zhao Yu'e frowned and glanced at him, then waved at the maids: "Forget it, you all go down." After speaking, she walked to Xiao Yu's side, helped him into the bed in the inner room and sat down, and said coldly, "Since Your Highness is like this Despising Yu Niang's maid, Yu Niang had no choice but to serve Your Highness herself."
Xiao Yu rubbed his forehead and wanted to tell her to get out too, but he took a deep breath and held back for the time being, letting her reach out and take off the crown on top of her head.
Someone brought in sobering soup and warm water. Zhao Yu'e first held a cup to make him rinse his mouth, and then personally wiped his body with a wringed towel.
It was clearly the same thing as in the past, but with a different person, he felt extra uncomfortable.
The woman in front of her is naturally beautiful, mature, plump, charming, and gorgeous. Although her movements are not gentle and watery, they are still light.
But apart from the irritability and displeasure, there was no other fluctuation in his heart.
Everything today is not in his mind.
"Okay, you go down too."
He leaned on the head of the bed and endured it for a while, and finally couldn't help but took the towel over and wiped it by himself.
Zhao Yu'e looked at his movements coldly, and the smile on her face also sank.
"Newly married tonight, did Your Highness forget why you want to marry Yu Niang?"
Xiao Yu didn't speak, the hand that fell beside him slowly clenched the flat fabric beside him.
Zhao Yu'e looked away, got up and walked to the dressing gown, carefully removed the hairpins from her hair, removed the makeup on her face, then turned her back, took off her complicated clothes, and put on loose bedclothes, she said softly: "But for the past few days, Your Highness, please bear with me."
With that, she turned off the lamppost in the room, walked slowly to the bed, and lay down quietly beside him.
Outside the Lizheng Hall, there are still drunk guests who have not returned, sitting crookedly at the table, smiling recklessly and enjoying the last song and dance.
In the distant bedroom, the newlyweds slept on the same bed, but each had their own thoughts and was unusually unfamiliar and indifferent.
…
In Guizhen View, Chu Ning was leaning against Xiao Kezhi's arms, and his arms were rarely actively wrapped around his neck.
After a few hours, she was not sleepy at all, as if she felt that something was about to happen.
Xiao Kezhi was also a little uneasy. He reached out and stroked her silky long hair for a moment, took a deep breath, and said slowly, "A-Ning, I haven't told you about my mother, have you?"
Chu Ning nodded lightly, knowing that he had something to say, so he raised his head, lay in his arms, and looked at him seriously.
Naturally, she had heard about his mother at the time, but it was all from other people's mouths, and what he wanted to say must be what he saw himself.
"My mother was originally the most common handyman maid in Ye Ting Palace. She came from an ordinary background. Among most maids who came from a family of small officials, she should be regarded as the one with the lowest status, but she never complained."
Weiss always considers herself very lucky. Most of the poor girls who came to the palace with her had lost both parents and were sold into the palace by other elders, or had brothers to support at home and were sold by their parents. They were always the one who was abandoned by their relatives. .
But she was different. Her parents were afraid that she, a 12- or 13-year-old girl who was growing up, would not be able to eat a full meal under the famine in Yanzhou. They heard that the court in Chang'an was full of cakes every day, so they sent her here. mind.
She thought that she was the one who was loved.
Until later, when she was on duty at night, she met a drunken emperor and became pregnant by accident. Although she was named a talented person, she was neither seen by other concubines nor loved by the emperor, and she still did not feel sorry for herself.
She said to Xiao Kezhi: "Liu Lang, you see, when my mother was in Yanzhou, she couldn't even eat wheat and rice, but now she thinks that this bowl of mutton houto is too much, she is very content with such days. Mother has no other expectations, only hope that Rokuro can live in peace."
She was born with beautiful eyebrows, graceful and graceful, and she was not considered to be extremely beautiful, but in a court overwhelmed by beauties, she was not inferior. Although she was often snubbed and ridiculed, she never took it to heart and still lived in peace.
But such a gentle, beautiful, kind and sincere woman has never received any love from her husband.
"I once asked my mother if my father was so cold, if she resented. I thought that after those few years of hardship, no matter how open-minded and generous my mother was, there would always be some resentment. But she could only see it in her eyes. Bewildered and unfamiliar. For so many years, the closeness between my father and her was only about the day before I was born. Later, he was still the son of the emperor, and his mother's expectation of him was the same as when he was a slave in Yeting Palace. There is no difference."
He carried her to the couch by the window, pushed open the half-closed window, and looked up at the stars dotted in the black night.
She knelt down beside him and couldn't help reaching out to touch his eyebrows. The slender fingertips slid over the thick eyebrows, and he grabbed it and played with it.
"Later, I also saw many other people who were trapped in the harem and lived on the breath of their father. Sometimes they were happy because of their father, but the joy was always short-lived. More often, they all I felt sad and bewildered. At first, I didn’t understand why it was like this, but then I gradually realized that it was all because of my father, who trapped them. But it's already numb."
They forgot who they were, and gradually they could only hold the emperor in their hearts.
But the emperor never stayed with anyone for too long.
If his mother hadn't been gentle and peaceful by nature, and devoted all her thoughts to his son, she would have been like other concubines, sometimes fighting openly and secretly, sometimes complaining about herself, and finally passing away in depression.
Chu Ning was fascinated, and couldn't help thinking of her past self. She who was in the East Palace at the beginning was probably no different from those concubines who were trapped in the palace.
"That night in the Feishhuang Palace, His Majesty asked Aning if he thought about it for himself and didn't want Aning to become like them?"
Looking back at this moment, many of his words and actions seem to be intentionally awakening and pulling her back from the brink of numbness.
"Yes. At that time, I knew that my father was not a person worthy of any woman's support, and I also told myself that I would never become such a person." He and her knees pressed each other, kneeling face to face, his hands solemnly Putting it on her shoulder, "After meeting you, I thought again, I will never let you become a mother in the future, or like the women I have met in the past."
Chu Ning's breathing stopped, she stared at his burning eyes, and heard his low and convincing voice ringing in her ears.
"A Ning, today, he has already married another. You don't have to worry about etiquette and morality. Are you willing to believe me and follow me out of here to go to Ganlu Palace?"
She opened her mouth, her eyes were slightly sour, and a layer of mist gradually leaked out, obscuring her vision. The mist quickly condensed into a ball, hanging around the eye socket, and it was about to fall.
She had always wondered why he was so different and why he was so good to her. Even if she was moved later and understood how good he was, the deepest doubts and doubts in her heart were not completely eliminated.
Today, Fang understands that his diligence is not entirely without reason. His past was so rough, his father treated him so harshly, but there was never the slightest resentment and gloom in him.
Compared with him, she has gained too much in her life, but she has only experienced a few setbacks later, so why should she look ahead and hide herself so carefully
The moment the tears fell from her eyes, she smiled and said softly, "Thank you for your love, Your Majesty, Ah would rather leave here with His Majesty - it's my sincerity, just for my own sincerity."
"it is good."
His tense expression was stunned the moment he heard her answer, and then he suddenly relaxed, and then, his usual dignified expression showed an irresistible joy.
"Liu Kang!"
He picked her up and walked straight out of the courtyard, no longer needing to cover her face, and even his tone was filled with joy.
"What are your orders?" Liu Kang has been waiting patiently, seeing him in such a high mood, he is also happy - in the future, you don't have to be busy trying to hide secrets for the emperor!
"Prepare, go back to Ganlu Hall, and send someone to clean up the things here tomorrow."
Bu Nian was quickly carried over, and the maids, the servants, and even the female crowns who served the nobles in Guizhen Temple, who were supposed to rest in various places, poked their heads and observed the situation here, as if to confirm the previous guesses. Incessantly.
Seven or eight servants carried lamps, illuminating the square inch of the place as if it were daylight, so that everyone could see it clearly.
Under the watchful eyes of everyone, Xiao Kezhi strode forward, and took Chu Ning, who was also wearing a Taoist robe and a yellow crown, aboard the imperial carriage, and set off to leave.