The night wind, carrying the chill of spring, blew across the Linguang Palace.
The eunuchs and palace maids stood outside the lights with their heads bowed. The curtains were dim between the burning candles. The emperor placed a heavy chess piece, the sound of which was quite heavy, and he did not seem to be in a good mood.
"I feel that transferring Min Changwen back to the court is a mistake."
Opposite, also sitting in the curtain, was a woman with dark hair, beautiful face, and considerate temperament. She followed the emperor with a black dot in her jade fingers, pursed her lips, and said softly:
"Your Majesty never does anything wrong, so shouldn't the ministers be the ones who are wrong?"
"Lihua... you don't understand."
The emperor was no more than thirty years old, with a handsome appearance, and his every move showed more elegance than imperial power. At this moment, he sighed, stared at the chessboard, and smiled.
"I became the crown prince at the age of seventeen and have been in office until I was thirty. It was not easy. When I built a few buildings, the ministers said: Your Majesty should not be arrogant and extravagant; when I wrote a few articles, they also said: Your Majesty should take care of state affairs; when I asked a Dharma master to be by my side to ask about the well-being of the world, they also said: Your Majesty should not entrust the fate of a country to the vague ghosts and gods;
… I feel that, except for you guys, everyone else around me is going against me.”
Amid the gnashing of teeth, the woman opposite reached out and stroked the back of the emperor's hand, speaking gently.
"Your Majesty is still in charge of government affairs, they just can't see it."
snort!
The emperor seemed to feel a little aggrieved. When he slapped the table with his other hand holding the chess piece, he felt the warmth coming from the soft palm and his tone softened.
"My beloved concubine is right. I am concerned about the situation in Heliangzhou. Have they seen it? Master Fa said that the natural disaster in Heliangzhou was only a short period of time. Didn't we get the news a few days ago? It has been raining heavily there, and it has snowed for several days in a row."
Across from her, the graceful lady pursed her lips and chuckled before continuing.
"Auspicious snow indicates a good harvest. Congratulations to Liangzhou. There should be hope for next year."
"So, those ministers' advice and remonstrances are not as good as Master Fa's divine foresight."
As an emperor who had finally ascended the throne, Chen Shubao felt unspeakable pain in his heart, and his hands clapped loudly.
"They think I don't know who's behind the scenes. I gave them such high positions, so they can cause trouble for me? Especially that Min Changwen, I don't know what's wrong with him, so I transferred him back..."
He was probably extremely angry and said something like "something is wrong with me". The palace maids and eunuchs serving around him turned pale and quietly retreated outside the hall. They were not allowed to listen to such words casually.
Inside the palace, the woman stood up and sat next to the emperor, stretching her hand to his back: "Your Majesty is the ruler of a country, so you should stop saying such angry words. Look how scared you are of the people below."
"If they dare to say go outside, they will be beaten to death." The emperor said angrily again.
The imperial concubine who was playing chess with him was tactful and did not continue the topic. She brushed her fingertips across the emperor's back and changed the subject.
"Jing'er has become more and more sensible recently."
"He is the prince."
Talking about his son, Chen Shubao finally had a smile on his face. This child looked very much like him when he was a child, with a sincere and gentle personality. More importantly, like himself, he also liked poetry and vocal music.
After returning to her hometown with the imperial concubine last year to visit her relatives, she became much more sensible and was no longer as absent-minded in her studies as before. The Prince's Grand Tutor of the Eastern Palace who taught Jing'er said that this was a sign of a wise ruler, which made Chen Shubao happy for a long time.
However, there was one thing, which was the assassination attempt on his mother on their way back to Beijing. When asked about the cause, they said it was done by people sent by Fa Zhang, but Chen Shubao did not believe it.
He said:
"Pudu Cihang is a great monk who is well versed in Buddhism and saves people from disasters with compassion. He is also the Dharma Master who protects the country. How could he harm Jing'er? He must be someone else pretending to be him and trying to sow discord."
During this period, the emperor also discovered one thing. Since the imperial concubine came back, she suddenly became interested in ghosts and gods. She placed a shrine in her Jieqi Pavilion and occasionally worshipped them, mostly to folk gods.
Perhaps it is because he sees that I respect my master, so he is trying to please me...
Perhaps this idea would help the emperor to dispel his suspicions and he would be happy to see it happen.
Boom!
Boom boom!
At this time, an eunuch pushed open the palace door and came in: "Your Majesty, Concubine, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is here."
"Isn't Jing'er asleep?"
As the woman spoke softly, the eunuch stepped aside and a small figure in luxurious clothes trotted in. A jade pendant with two fish pearls on its waist swayed as it ran.
"Father, mother."
The curtain was opened, and the woman inside walked out quickly. Her hair was tied up with golden hairpins and precious stones swaying together, and her face was delicate with a little makeup on.
If Lu Liangsheng and Sun Yingxian were here, they would definitely recognize her. She is He Jingqiu who arrived in Beijing with them.
Over there, Zhang Lihua, dragging her crimson gown, went over to greet them, took the little person who was running over with her, and went back into the tent together.
"It's so late, why aren't you sleeping yet?"
Chen Jing snuggled up beside his mother, his face still a little groggy from having just woken up. He rubbed his eyes and yawned.
"Jing'er couldn't sleep and wanted to come see mother and father."
"Okay, then you can enjoy some family time with your father first, and mother will go change her clothes."
Facing her son, Zhang Lihua restrained her usual coquettish attitude, spoke gently, and sent Chen Jing to the emperor before bowing.
"Your Majesty, I will go down first and bring you some warming soup later."
"Go ahead."
The emperor waved his dragon sleeves with a smile, stretched out his hand to pull the prince to sit beside him, and after examining his academic performance in recent days, he noticed the jade pendant on his waist.
"Jing'er, who gave this to you?"
"A gentleman."
"From the East Palace?"
"No, Jing'er and her mother met him on the road when they were coming back. He was a very nice man. No, does this jade pendant look good?"
Having said this, Chen Jing lost all sleepiness and held the Pisces Pearl Pendant to his chest like offering a treasure. He had almost forgotten what Lu Liangsheng had told him before.
“…Also, that gentleman can cast spells, so amazing, and he’s also a very nice person.”
The emperor frowned: "Do you know magic?"
"Yes! His name is Lu Liangsheng." The little man's face flushed and he nodded excitedly: "My mother said he is very capable."
Thinking of the imperial concubine's action of setting up a shrine after returning to the palace, Chen Shubao's face darkened.
However, after a moment, she smiled again and hugged the prince.
"You are the crown prince, you cannot wear the fish, so leave it with father for now."
"Are these rules again?"
"Yes, the palace has its own rules."
Not long after, Chen Shubao looked back to normal and enjoyed some family happiness with his wife and children, then returned to Linchun Pavilion alone.
Looking at the Pisces pearl pendant in her hand, she could not sleep all night until the day dawned, when she gradually fell asleep.
The morning light shone through the gaps in the clouds in the east, pushing away the blue sky, passing through the imperial palace, and enveloping the entire city. In less than a moment, the sky and the earth were immersed in this golden color.
The winter snow had long melted away, new buds sprouted from the wet treetops, and drops of water that had accumulated overnight fell silently to the ground.
"Oh... Oh oh..."
The roosters raised in the kitchen of the Min mansion stretched their necks and crowed loudly at the top of their lungs. The whole mansion became lively with the sounds of people's voices and footsteps.
“… The cold winter is gone before my eyes, the old tree welcomes the spring with new branches, and there are immortals on the stone under the phoenix tree.”
Lu Liangsheng pushed open the bedroom door, stretched lazily in the morning light, walked to the water tank in the corner of the side yard, drank a mouthful of water, held it in his mouth, gulped a few times, and spit it out onto the roots of the sycamore tree.
It has been two days since I returned to the capital, and there are less than seven or eight days left to the Spring Examination on the second day of February. The Taoist left the day before, saying that he was not used to living here and it would be better for him to go out and wander around and come back after the Spring Examination.
"That's fine. It's not good to stay here."
After Lu Liangsheng finished washing up, he shook off the water stains on his hands, and the water droplets automatically fell to the ground. He returned to the house refreshed. The Toad Taoist was still dozing off under a small quilt. Most of the quilt had been kicked off at some point. He felt the coolness, smacked his lips, raised his webbed hands and scratched his white belly a few times, then turned over and continued to sleep.
The scholar reached out and pulled the quilt to cover him, found a book, walked leisurely to the courtyard, sat on the stone bench under the parasol tree, basked in the morning light, and quietly recited chapters one by one.
God rewards hard work, and knowledge is accumulated step by step.
"Mr. Lu!" Outside the crescent door of the side yard, a maid came in with breakfast and porridge. She bowed slightly, placed the plates and porridge bowls on the stone table, and glanced at the scholar's profile illuminated by the morning light.
Lu Liangsheng took the book, smiled and responded politely.
The maid blushed and lowered her eyes, saying softly, "Mr. Lu, please enjoy your meal." She walked away quickly with lotus steps, kicking the edge of her skirt.
At the same time, the door of the dormitory opened gently. The Toad Taoist whistled at the scroll on the wall, carefully stepped out with his short legs, looked at his apprentice who was reading on the stone bench, and moved slowly against the wall with his bulging belly.
In an instant, the Toad Taoist ran into Wang Shuhua's study, holding a brush and a piece of paper, his long tongue dragging excitedly at the corner of his mouth, and he spread his webbed feet and ran back.
Lu Liangsheng put down the porridge, tilted his head to look at the room, smiled and shook his head, picked up the book and continued to read quietly.
The parasol trees in the courtyard swayed gently, making a rustling sound.
A spring scene is bright and clear.