Huan Xuan felt as if someone had tugged at his heart, and he fell into a dream in a trance.
He brushed off the snow on his fur coat, walked towards her, lowered his head, raised his hand, and gently rubbed the flour on her forehead with his fingertips, and asked knowingly: "What are you doing? Your face is all messed up."
The woman lowered her eyes, because he didn't see that the light in her eyes dimmed instantly, and it was as dark as a starry and moonlit night.
Sui Sui replied truthfully: "Your Highness, I am making noodles."
Huan Xuan's eyes moved: "Birthday noodles?"
Sui Sui just said "hmm" but didn't look up at him.
Huan Xuan didn't say anything. He had suddenly decided to come to Shanchiyuan, so she naturally had no way of knowing about it in advance.
Even if he didn't come, she would still make this bowl of birthday noodles. He was a little confused for a moment. This kind of thought was too unfamiliar in his life. It was like someone gave him a warm heart, but he didn't know how to accept it.
He was silent for a long time before he said, "Let's go in. The palace banquet only has cold dishes. I don't like the greasy food, so I didn't eat much. I'm a little hungry now."
His behavior was a bit too obvious. Sui Sui was not an ordinary hunter girl, and she knew approximately what time the banquet in the palace would start. If he arrived at Shanchiyuan at this time, he might have left the table as soon as the banquet started. He must have encountered something unpleasant at the palace banquet.
On the night of the New Year's Eve reunion, even though he and the prince had a huge grudge against each other, they still had to put on an outward show of being friendly and respectful to each other.
After a brief thought, he realized that it was probably because of the emperor.
She had spies in every palace, and naturally she also had people planted in the nunnery where the emperor practiced Buddhism with his hair uncut. She knew that the emperor had a grudge against his third son, and had even refused to see him in the past few years.
It is a well-known fact that the emperor does not like his third son. Otherwise, with the love he has for his wife, he would not have sent his own flesh and blood to be raised by the queen.
Sui Sui just never expected that the emperor could be so decisive towards his own flesh and blood.
When she came to her senses, Huan Xuan walked into the kitchen and looked at the messy tools and ingredients in it with curiosity.
Sui Sui naturally couldn't let a prince of such high status as him sit on a small stool, so he brought a short couch from the room and boiled ginger soup on the small stove for him to warm his hands and body.
Huan Xuan held the bowl and sat on the couch, watching her cut noodles.
Chicken soup was simmering in the pot on the stove. Its delicious aroma spread with the steam, lingering in the warm yellow firelight and blurring the woman's eyes and eyebrows.
Sui Sui calmed down at this time. The loss and despair had all returned to her eyes, but her eye sockets were slightly red.
Huan Xuan's heart seemed to be hit by something, and he felt a dull pain.
She was very skillful in cutting, and even this rough work was pleasing to the eye. Huan Xuan never dreamed that one day he would be sitting in a small kitchen full of sundries, watching a woman cooking with interest, with two strips of bacon hanging above her head.
After a short while, the remaining dough was cut into strips, each of which was half a finger wide, neither too thick nor too thin, as if it had been measured with a ruler.
The noodles were cut and the water in the pot was boiling. I opened the lid of the pot, put the noodles into the water, and stir them with bamboo chopsticks.
While the noodles were cooking, she scooped the chicken soup into a large black pottery bowl, sprinkled it with chopped green onions, added fine salt, took out the chicken, tore off a chicken leg, peeled off the meat, cut it into minced meat and put it into the soup.
After doing all this, the noodles were boiled twice, so she scooped out the noodles and put them in a bowl, but left the bowl on the stove and didn't bring it over.
Huan Xuan said nothing, but stared at the bowl of noodles.
Sui Sui said, "Your Highness, please wait a moment. I will make another bowl for you."
Huan Xuan said, "No need, I will just eat this bowl of rice."
Then he went to get the jade chopsticks.
Sui Sui said, "I mixed some old flour when I was kneading the dough just now. I will use this year's new flour to roll out a bowl of dough. It won't take long."
If it were any other day, he might have been stern if she had contradicted him like this, but tonight he was particularly talkative, and perhaps the warmth in his voice softened him.
Sui Sui did not dare to delay and moved more efficiently than before. Soon, the second bowl of chicken noodle soup was ready.
The bowl filled with noodles was not a crude and simple pottery bowl, but a gilded crabapple-patterned bowl, placed on a rosewood food table with gold and silver flat crabapple-pattern patterns. It was out of place with everything else here, just like him.
Huan Xuan picked up the spoon and took a sip of the soup. This was just an ordinary chicken soup, and the method was very simple. However, to make it so fragrant and rich, it took a lot of time, and he had to watch the fire closely.
The King of Qi had a very picky tongue, and one could tell from the taste that she had been guarding the stove for at least two hours just to get this bowl of longevity noodles.
He only had a glass of cold wine in his stomach, and the warm chicken soup and noodles warmed him up all over.
He has never liked New Year's Eve. During the annual family dinner, he always feels like an outsider when he is with his parents, brothers and sisters.
But this New Year's Eve has a little more warmth because of this bowl of longevity noodles.
He suddenly remembered that it was already past midnight, the New Year had arrived, snow was still falling outside, but it was already a spring night.
He glanced at Sui Sui inadvertently, but saw that she was just staring at him blankly, with the clay bowl placed in front of her and the jade chopsticks aside, the soup and noodles were untouched.
Huan Xuan put down his jade chopsticks and raised his eyelids: "Why don't you eat?"
Sui Sui just glanced into the bowl. The noodles had become mushy and cold, and condensed fat was floating in the soup.
"I have already had dinner and am not hungry now." Sui Sui said.
Although he was obviously not hungry, he insisted on spending so much time and effort to make this bowl of birthday noodles. After it was done, he didn't eat a single bite himself, but was satisfied just by watching him eat. Huan Xuan felt that the hot soup and hot noodles he had just eaten were becoming more and more soothing, and warmth filled his whole body.
Even if Grandma Gao loved him, she would not waste time on these futile and useless things. After all, they were still servants, and as slaves, every effort they made had to be seen by others.
This was the first time someone had taken the trouble to do something meaningless for him.
Huan Xuan finished the whole bowl of noodles and soup, then put down his chopsticks and said, "Let's go to Qinghan Courtyard."
Sui Sui was a little surprised.
She usually spent the night in the main courtyard, but New Year's Eve was different from ordinary days. According to the rules, a woman of high status could not stay up in the main courtyard to celebrate the New Year.
Huan Xuan saw that she was in a daze, raised his eyebrows and asked: "Do you want to stay up all night alone?"
Sui Sui finally understood that he didn't want to stay up all alone and wanted to find someone to accompany him. There was really no other choice here except her.
The two returned to Qinghan Courtyard. The guards, eunuchs, and maids were secretly surprised to see the King of Qi bringing Lu Suisui back to the main courtyard.
Huan Xuan, however, acted as if no one else was around and took her straight to the bedroom.
There was a charcoal fire in the room, and when the curtains were opened, the hot air rushed in. The two of them took a bath first, and just as they came out of the bath, they suddenly heard the sound of a zither coming from the bedroom.
Her heart skipped a beat and she quickly dried herself, put on her pajamas, and went to the bedroom.
As she got closer, the sound of the piano became clearer and clearer. At first it was a little intermittent, and the person playing the piano was obviously unfamiliar with the piece of music, but gradually it became smoother.
As he listened, his footsteps slowed down unconsciously, and then stopped.
The piece of music was exactly "Ge Sheng" which Huan Ye often played.
The man was sitting on the couch, playing the zither, his long, slightly damp hair loose, wearing a loose silk robe with wide sleeves and the collar slightly open. At first glance, he looked like a bohemian and unrestrained scholar like the famous scholars of the Wei and Jin dynasties.
It was very different from his usual aloof, reserved and tense appearance, and instead gradually overlapped with another figure in his memory.
Her eyes fell on the gold and silver lacquered zither in front of him. The silver water patterns on the zither sparkled brightly in the firelight. She only took one look and could not look away.
Her heart was beating so hard that she could hardly breathe.
She was very familiar with this piano and had touched every string many times.
This is Huan Ye's zither, named Xixin. He used this zither to teach her the song "Ge Sheng".
"Summer days, winter nights. After a hundred years, return to your home..."
The sound of the piano stopped abruptly. Huan Xuan raised his eyes from the piano and found a woman standing not far away. There were two tear marks on her face, shining in the light of the lantern tree.
Huan Xuan was slightly startled: "What's wrong?"
Sui Sui suddenly came back to her senses, not caring about etiquette, and wiped her tears with her sleeve: "When I heard this song, I felt sad."
The song is sad and sorrowful, and even people who are not familiar with music can feel the emotion in it.
Huan Xuan nodded and said, "This is a mourning song."
He paused and said, "My eldest brother taught me this. The music is from an ancient score he collected from Shu."
He was also a little surprised. There were more than ten songs in the ancient music scores that he collected at the beginning. He didn't know why his elder brother had a special liking for this mourning song.
He was born a child of destiny, born in the years when the emperor and his father had the best relationship. At that time, the emperor had not yet ascended the throne, and the previous emperor was unwilling to share power with the crown prince, so he had plenty of free time to accompany his wife and children. The eldest brother was given high hopes. When he was just starting to learn, his father specially visited him three times to invite famous scholars to be his teachers, and often personally tested his homework.
The emperor's love for his eldest son was even greater. Huan Xuan had heard from the old people in the palace that his eldest brother's underwear when he was young was all sewn by his mother. The emperor's sewing skills were naturally not as good as those of the skilled needlewomen in the clothing bureau. She spent a lot of time and effort to do these so-called things, but it was only out of her deep love for her son.
The eldest brother grew up in abundant love and had never been wronged or neglected. He was the center of attention wherever he went. Perhaps only such a person could develop a carefree and unpretentious character, and only such a person could appreciate sad, bitter, and heart-wrenching music.
He had been secretly jealous of his elder brother since he was a child, jealous of everything about him. When he was willing to give up the position of crown prince for Xiao Ling, he was jealous to the point of madness. He was jealous that there was a woman who didn't know his elder brother, and he was even more jealous that he always knew clearly what he wanted - the coveted position of crown prince in the eyes of others, which he could discard without hesitation. He could throw away everything and just follow his own heart in everything.
And he didn't even know what he wanted.
But years ago, when his elder brother was lying in the coffin with his eyes closed, he looked at the face that looked like him but was lifeless, and suddenly felt a sense of dislocation.
It should be him who is lying inside. If it is him lying inside, everyone will feel very uncomfortable.
Huan Xuan's thoughts drifted away. He concentrated and gently stroked the inscription on the zither, saying, "This zither is also my eldest brother's favorite. He entrusted it to me."
Sui Sui naturally knew that this Xixinqin was Huan Ye's treasure, but he didn't know why he entrusted the qin to Huan Xuan. As the brothers did not grow up in the same palace and there was a big age difference between them, when Huan Xuan entered Chongwenguan to start his education, Huan Ye was taught individually by the attendant lecturer in the East Palace.
Huan Xuan's piano skills were by no means superb. Sui Sui, even though he was only a mediocre player, could tell that the moving reason for the tune was that the emotions in his heart flowed into the sound of the piano.
Sui Sui will never know why Huan Ye gave his most precious zither to his third brother, with whom he was not close.
Huan Xuan was also quite self-aware: "My qin skills are not very good, and this qin is wasted."
After a pause, he said, "If you want to learn, ask a teacher to teach you someday."
Follow the lead.
In fact, she had been learning the qin since she was young. Her father came from a family of scholars and although he was a military commander, he was a Jinshi (Jinshi) from the Hanlin Academy. He educated his daughter according to the rules he had observed when he was young. She learned all the six arts of a gentleman and the five classics. However, she had limited talent in music, so even with a famous teacher, her performance was just mediocre.
The only piece of music she was good at was "Ge Sheng" which was taught to her by Huan Ye, simply because that was the piece of music Huan Ye taught her.
Sui Sui said nothing. Huan Xuan was used to her silence and didn't think it was strange. Seeing that she was not interested, he stood up and put away the zither.
After putting the piano back to its place, he glanced at the window and was slightly startled.
The window paper is dimly lit, and the long night is over without knowing it.
In the past, New Year's Eve was always extra long because we had to stay up all night, and it seemed like the sun would never rise. Now that someone is by my side, time flies by so fast.
"There's still some time until dawn," Huan Xuan said, "Play a game of chess with me."
Sui Sui nodded: "Hey."
Although the two had very different chess skills, their layout ideas were very similar. Huan Xuan didn't think much of it, after all, he was the one who taught him. But Sui Sui was a little surprised, because only she knew that Huan Xuan's chess style and path were quite similar to hers, and she could always guess where his next move would be.
The game was over, and the two men put away their chess pieces. There was a crackling sound outside. It was the eunuchs setting off firecrackers in the courtyard.
Huan Xuan said, "Today is the New Year's Day. I have to go to the palace. You can sleep here."
He raised his hand to lift her long hair and stroked her face, which looked a little pale from a sleepless night. "There have been a lot of things going on in the palace these days. When we are done with this, it will be almost the Lantern Festival. I will take you to see the lanterns then."
…
After all, the queen did not go to the family banquet in Guanfeng Palace - since she claimed to be ill, she could not go back on her word.
The third son died, and the emperor did not send eunuchs to invite anyone again.
The palace banquet lasted all night long on New Year's Eve. The emperor was no longer young and had been suffering from rheumatism in recent years. His children drank a few glasses of wine, chatted for a while, and then left the table to return to the emperor's Huiyou Palace.
Although the emperor practiced Buddhism with his hair uncut, he did not become a monk after all. As the emperor of the current dynasty, he still had to return to his own palace on these days.
When the imperial chariot arrived outside the palace, the emperor could faintly hear the sound of a zither. However, he could not make out the tune clearly from a distance. For some reason, he had a bad premonition and frowned.
As he went up the stairs, the sound of the piano became clearer and the emperor's face changed.
He got off the sedan chair, dismissed all the eunuchs and palace servants, and walked quickly into the hall. Suddenly, he saw his wife sitting on the couch playing the zither, crying as she played, her face full of tears. She did not even look up when she heard the footsteps, as if she was completely unaware of everything around her.
The emperor sympathized with her loss of his beloved son and had let her do whatever she wanted over the years. But today, perhaps because he had drunk too much, he could no longer bear it. He quickly stepped forward and pulled his wife's hands away from the strings: "Why are you playing such an ominous song on New Year's Eve?"
The queen stubbornly pulled her hand back: "My dear, please allow me to finish this song."
The emperor snatched her zither and threw it to the ground.
The ground was covered with a thick Xuanzhou silk carpet. The zither did not fall hard, but it made a "dong" sound that echoed in the tall and spacious hall. Both of them were startled.
The emperor slowed down his tone, almost pleading, "Ye'er is gone, how long will you continue to torture yourself and others?"
The emperor sneered: "My relatives may mourn for me, but others will also sing. It's only been a few years, and even my relatives have forgotten him. If I don't remember him, who else in this world will remember him?"
The emperor's anger flared up again: "Yer is also my son, don't I feel grief? But you only care about the dead, do you still have eyes for the living? Not to mention that you are the queen who is the mother of the country, as a mother, don't you feel guilty for treating Sanlang like this?"
The emperor pursed his lips and said nothing. He turned his face away slightly and said after a while: "I didn't see him because of him. I guess his mother died when he was born."
Although she didn't raise the third child herself, she knew his personality. He was withdrawn and sensitive, and she was not someone who would hide herself. As long as he saw her, he would know how much she hated him.
She hated him. When she saw him kneeling in front of his deceased brother's coffin, the two faces looked very similar, one was alive and the other was dead. She hated him from that moment on.
She couldn't help but wonder why it was Ye'er who died and not him. If God had to take away one of her flesh and blood, she wished it was him.
Even though she knew that this idea was crazy and cruel, she couldn't suppress her hatred.
In order to avoid his notice, she had no choice but to avoid seeing him.
The emperor sneered: "Just because he didn't grow up under your lap, you don't treat him as your own flesh and blood?"
The emperor said with sarcasm: "How much better is your majesty than me? If he had not made many military achievements, led the Divine Wing Army, and could check and balance the prince, would your majesty be so concerned about this son?"
The emperor's expression suddenly changed: "You..."
The emperor just looked at him coldly, pursed his lips and said nothing.
The emperor loved her strong character, but it also tortured her and made her miserable.
After a long stalemate, he finally gave in and shook his head, saying, "Forget it, if you don't want to see me, then don't see me."
After all, some people and some things cannot be forced.
…
New Year's Day and the Spring Festival are always very busy. Even for Huan Xuan, who doesn't like socializing, there are some banquets that he has to attend.
There were many things to do in the palace and the palace. The battle for the tiger talisman had been settled, and he also had to worry about border affairs.
During the New Year's Day ceremony, he couldn't come to Shanchiyuan often, but naturally he couldn't stop Sui Sui from going out.
Sui Sui used the box of facial cream to write an article and exchanged messages twice without leaving the house. On the eleventh day of the first lunar month, she went to Chang's cosmetics shop in person.
After a new year, the shopkeeper's face became rounder and fatter. No one would have thought that this shopkeeper who made money by being friendly had another identity.
During the New Year's Day, she exchanged a few pleasantries with him and listened to his report on the palace and the affairs of the court. Then she asked, "How did the investigation of the Imperial Medical Bureau go last time?"
Last time, a warehouse in the Imperial Medical Bureau suddenly caught fire, burning a batch of pulse records of palace maids and eunuchs. Sui Sui felt that something was fishy.
Setting fire is the best way to destroy evidence. But how is the pulse case of the palace servants related to the prince? After thinking about it, Sui Sui came up with a guess: poison testing.
According to the information she got from the palace, the poison used was not the common □□, Aconitum, etc. Even the old doctors in the Shang Pharmacy and the Imperial Medical Bureau did not understand its pharmacology. The initial symptoms were very mild, as if she had just caught a cold, had a headache and a fever. On the third day, her condition suddenly took a turn for the worse, and no antidote could save her.
Poisoning the crown prince was a big deal, so it naturally required careful planning, and no mistakes could be made in any link. Especially when using these uncommon drugs, a cautious person would definitely test the poison on others first, test the dosage, observe the symptoms and the time of poisoning, and most importantly, see the reaction of the medical officer.
So she asked her subordinates to check the records of the palace ladies seeking doctors and medicine before the incident two years ago.
The innkeeper said, "I followed the general's instructions and selected several suspicious people. Most of them died, and one was left disabled. He was released from the palace and taken back to his hometown Jiannan by his family. I have sent people to investigate, but we don't have many people in Jiannan, so it may take some time."
Sui Sui nodded: "Hey."
The innkeeper said, "I have another matter to report to the general."
Sui Sui asked, "What's the matter?"
The innkeeper said, "When our people were investigating the fire at the Imperial Medical Office, they discovered that there were others who were also investigating the matter. However, those people were acting very cautiously, so we don't know who they are on yet."
Sui Sui was a little surprised, and then the expression on Huan Xuan's face when he played the piano on New Year's Eve flashed through his mind.
She had always thought that Huan Xuan had no feelings for his elder brother, but only last night did she realize that was not the case.
Could it be him