When King Huanxuan of Qi woke up, he felt a splitting headache, as if the hangover had caused the pain in his head.
After a moment, he remembered what happened last night - although he was a little drunk, he was not out of his mind. What happened and what didn't happen, he remembered clearly after a quick recollection.
His frown deepened.
Gao Mai saw his master pressing his temples and knew that he was having a hangover, so he quickly ordered someone to bring some sobering soup: "It's still early, Your Highness, drink a bowl of soup and rest for a while."
Huan Xuan shook his head and sat up: "I won't sleep anymore. I have to go to the palace to pay my respects today."
Gao Mai immediately helped him wash and change his clothes. When he made the bed, he found that it was clean and there were no unusual marks. He immediately had an idea.
No wonder the young lady came out in less than half an hour. It turned out that she failed to serve him in bed.
However, as a close attendant, he knew that this was a rare opportunity.
In recent years, many beauties have been sent to the King of Qi. Some of them are opportunistic and know that their prince is in love with the third daughter of the Ningyuan Marquis's Mansion, so they look for a woman who looks similar to her and send her to him.
There were many that looked even more like Lu Suisui than him, and one that was almost indistinguishable from the real thing, but their Highness was too lazy to take a second look and had it sent back as it was without hesitation.
It can be seen that not everyone can be a stand-in, it also requires the right time, place and people.
Gao Mai helped the King of Qi wash and change his clothes, and after breakfast, he carefully asked, "Your Highness, we are going back home today, but we haven't decided where to live for Lady Lu yet. Which courtyard should we arrange for her to stay in?"
He guessed that the King of Qi wanted to keep the woman, so he did not ask whether to let her into the palace, but directly asked in which courtyard she should be arranged.
The King of Qi gave him a sidelong look, frowning his long eyebrows and saying, "Find another house for them to live in."
That means no one is allowed to enter the palace. Gao Mai was secretly puzzled. Their prince has no wife or concubines. The inner courtyard of the palace is empty. There are many empty houses. It is more convenient to take out two rooms than to build houses outside. If he is worried that the future princess will mind, just don't give her a title.
That is to say, their highness's inner chambers are clean, while other princes and royal family members all have a large group of beautiful girls in their backyards.
Even though the prince, who is known for his "chastity", has not yet married a princess, he has had sex with several palace maids.
Gao Mai stole a glance at his master, only to see that he looked cold, even with a hint of disgust. He was a little unsure. Could it be that the young lady had done something wrong and made him annoyed
He considered it for a moment and asked tentatively, "Your Highness has more than a dozen houses in the capital. I wonder which one would be suitable for arranging Lady Lu to live in?"
"It's just a small matter, you can handle it yourself." Huan Xuan said lightly.
What Gao Mai fears most is being told "you do it yourself", and if he doesn't do it to his satisfaction, he will be scolded.
"The house in Shengyefang is close to the palace. It's quiet in a bustling place, so it's quite peaceful..." Gao Mai asked cautiously.
Huan Xuan said nothing, but just raised his eyelids.
Gao Mai felt the air suddenly freeze and a chill ran down his back.
After a while, Huan Xuanfang asked, "Is there a mountain and pond courtyard in Chang'anfang?"
Gao Mai was surprised. The Prince of Qi's Mansion was in the northeast corner of Chang'an City, and the Shanchiyuan was located in the southwest corner of Chang'an City, almost outside the city. There were few people living around it, and most of them were villas and manors of dignitaries. Most of them could not be visited more than twice a year.
Beyond that are vast tracts of farmland.
To put it bluntly, it is like throwing it on the farm and turning a blind eye to it, almost leaving it to fend for itself, and just giving it food to eat.
Gao Mai never expected that their prince would be so cruel - no matter whether she succeeded in sleeping with the king in the end or not, after what happened last night, she was still the King of Qi's woman.
He threw it away like a piece of trash in just one night. How heartless.
Gao Mai had eaten a lot of Lu Sui Sui's pickled meat, so he thought about helping her out, "Your Highness, Chang'anfang is located in a remote area. Madam Lu is a young girl living there with a useless little maid. They are also strangers and are unfamiliar with the place. I'm afraid it will be inconvenient..."
Seeing that the King of Qi had no expression on his face, Gao Mai plucked up his courage, moved closer and said, "Your Highness, it must have been difficult for Lady Lu to leave her hometown. I almost cried when I saw her come out last night..."
Huan Xuan raised his eyes, and his gaze swept across his face like a knife.
Gao Mai felt a chill in his heart, and he fell to his knees with a plop, kowtowed and apologized: "I have overstepped my bounds, please punish me, Your Highness."
Huan Xuan didn't say anything, just drank his tea. After a while, he said, "Mind your own business."
Gao Mai heard that his tone had softened a little, and secretly breathed a sigh of relief: "Your Highness is right."
"Back off."
Gao Mai Xie En stood up, his legs still a little weak.
He retreated to the door tremblingly, but heard Huan Xuan say, "Send two guards to Shanchi Courtyard."
Gao Mai said hurriedly: "I'll do it right away."
From now on, he dared not say anything more about what happened in the prince's room.
…
After a while, Sui Sui got the news.
When Chun Tiao found out the location of the mountain pond courtyard and how far it was from Prince Qi's palace, his face immediately fell.
Sui Sui didn't mind, and was even quite happy: "It's nice to live in a remote area, it's quiet and comfortable."
For her, it would be more convenient to live outside rather than go into the palace where her every word and action would be watched by countless eyes.
Chun Tiao's face became even worse, and she pouted and said, "I have asked around, and that place is almost in the suburbs, so far from the market, it takes a long time to walk to buy needles and thread."
"Just think of it as keeping fit," Sui Sui comforted her good-naturedly, "Sis Harujo doesn't like to go, so I'll just go run errands."
Chun Tiao stamped his feet and said, "It's so far from the palace. It's inconvenient for Your Highness to come down."
"Your Highness might not come." Sui Sui pointed out.
Chun Tiao choked and became angry: "My lady is very generous."
It's strange to say about this woman, every time she sees His Royal Highness the Prince of Qi, even if she just sees him from a distance, she will stretch her neck and stare at him for a long time. But even though the Prince of Qi has almost forgotten about her, she is not anxious at all and still lives her life happily.
When she mentioned His Royal Highness the Prince of Qi, her face showed no emotion, as if she was just talking about an irrelevant person.
Harujo couldn't understand what she was thinking.
However, they had no say in where to live, and no matter how unwilling he was, Chun Tiao could only pack his bags while grumbling.
The King of Qi went to the palace to pay his respects early in the morning with a few of his close attendants, and then stayed at the post station until noon, and then entered the city with the rest of his entourage.
When Chun Tiao came to Chang'an for the first time, he could not sit still as soon as the carriage drove into the city gate. He opened the curtain on the window and looked out curiously, finding everything new.
"My lady, look quickly. That's the Penglai Palace over there. Look at those double towers. They're so tall and majestic!" Chun Tiao pulled Sui Sui and asked her to look.
He took a quick glance and just said "hmm". In his eyes, the Penglai Palace, located on a high hill in the north, was like a dormant ferocious beast, and its towering twin towers were a huge mouth connected to the abyss.
Several important people in her life were swallowed up by this huge mouth.
"From now on, we are also citizens of the capital!" Chun Tiao rubbed her sleeves happily.
Sui Sui didn't say anything. She didn't like Chang'an since she was a child. To her, the border was her hometown.
When she was a child, every time the moon was full, her father would take her to the top of the city wall, stand at the highest point in the city, and point her in the direction of Chang'an. At that time, she didn't understand why her gentle and beautiful mother and her kind and amiable grandmother couldn't come to Wei Bo to reunite with them.
The father couldn't explain it clearly to her, a little girl. He just took out a jade flute from his arms and played the song "Chang Xiang Si" leisurely.
Longing for you, in Chang'an.
At that time, Chang'an was not a city in her heart, but a cage.
Her mother and grandmother died in cages one after another, without her even being able to see them for the last time.
Harujo was still chattering in her ear.
"Hey, this is the capital after all, these ladies are dressed so beautifully... This phoenix hairpin must weigh five or six taels, right?"
"What kind of gauze is that shawl made of? It's so light and thin, like clouds and mist..."
She wondered, "Isn't this your first time in Beijing? Why aren't you curious at all?"
Sui Sui said: "There will be plenty of opportunities in the future, no need to rush."
When Chun Tiao heard her say that, she couldn't help but feel overjoyed and started to laugh.
The further south we went, the fewer pedestrians and vehicles there were along the way, and the city dwellers and women in luxurious clothes gradually disappeared.
Chun Tiao's mouth finally stopped talking.
As the carriage continued to move south, even the population became sparse.
During the great turmoil more than 20 years ago, the Anxi Army invaded Yong'an City and burned, killed and looted, leaving nine out of ten houses empty. Today, it has not recovered its former prosperity.
The southern part of the city was particularly poor. The walls that collapsed during the chaos had not been repaired. Looking beyond the ruins, half of the area was farmland and the other half was weeds.
It was late autumn, and all the crops in the fields had been harvested, leaving only some dead stems and dry grass. Amid the scorched yellow field were a few low-rise houses. Some of the houses didn't even have tiles to cover the eaves, and had thatched roofs. They were as shabby as they could be.
The poverty and desolation in the south of the city is a world apart from the prosperity in the north.
Chun Tiao's face became more and more ugly. King Qi threw Lu Suisui to such a place, probably because he didn't intend to take care of it anymore.
While she was thinking, she glanced at Sui Sui, but saw that she was just leaning against the carriage, with a serious expression, looking out the window as if she was thinking about something.
Chunjo always felt that she was like a different person when she didn't smile. Whenever that happened, she became strange and distant.
The carriage continued forward, drove into Chang'anfang, and headed west along the cross street in the square.
After a while, the King of Qi's mountain and pool villa came into view.
Seeing the neat two-story walls and the towering Wutou Gate, Chun Tiao's expression lightened up a little.
As the two men got off the car, the black door slowly opened and an old man in a short brown shirt walked out.
The old man had a striking red nose, his eyes were narrowed into slits, and he looked like he couldn't wake up.
His eyes quickly swept across the two of them, then returned to Sui Sui's face. After a brief pause, he lowered his head.
Some beauties are so beautiful that you can't take your eyes off them, while some beauties make you afraid to look at them for too long, as if your eyes will be burned if you look at them for too long.
Sui Sui is the latter.
The old man is already very old, but no matter whether he is eighteen or eighty years old, he will inevitably be shocked when seeing such a beauty.
"This must be Lady Lu. Please follow me."
Sui Sui smiled and said, "What's your name, father-in-law?"
The old man bowed his back and said, "Madam, just call me old servant Ah Fu."
Sui Sui curved her eyebrows and said, "Uncle Fu."
"My lady, you have embarrassed me."
As he spoke, he pushed the door open a little to let the carriage in.
A few people walked around the screen door, Chun Tiao looked up and his face suddenly fell.