The south of the Yangtze River is a place of picturesque scenery and a leisurely life, a leisurely atmosphere that Rong Tang had never experienced in his several lifetimes in the capital.
A group of four set out from Suzhou and leisurely rode around in a horse-drawn carriage. Rong Tang finally realized his ultimate dream of playing poker with four people. Su Huaijing couldn't help laughing when he saw how happy he was.
Ke Hongxue grew up in the south of the Yangtze River and knew better than anyone where there were fun places and delicious food. Along the way, he took Dali Temple Shaoqing to visit all places under the guise of tourism. He even described clearly where he sat on the stone pier when he was a child and watched other healthy children play games.
Anyway, with Su Huaijing here, Mu Jingxu would definitely not turn back halfway; and because Rong Tang was here, Su Huaijing was of course hoping that his little husband could have a good time.
It is enough for Ke Hongxue to grasp Rong Tang's mind.
Young Master Rong was too easy to grasp. He just wanted something to play with, something to drink and something to eat, but Ke Hongxue knew all of these things.
On the fifteenth day of August, the four of them returned to the small courtyard of Linyuan. The kitchen was making mooncakes. Rong Tang had been playing for half a month and felt a little wild. When he saw the cook making mooncakes, he couldn't help but try it himself. He made several mooncakes. He also imitated the patterns he saw in modern times and made a little rabbit for Su Huaijing and a little snowman for Ke Hongxue. Then he looked at Mu Jingxu for a long time, thought again and again, and made him a kitten that was sleeping with its tail held up.
Ke Hongxue was delighted and asked immediately, "My Lord, are these mooncakes you made?"
Rong Tang had a good reason: "Flour and stuffing, the cakes eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival, my family calls them mooncakes."
Ke Hongxue squinted her eyes and looked at Su Huaijing: "Is that so?"
Su Huaijing was kneading dough, his tone was indulgent and gentle: "Tangtang is the boss of everything in my house, he can call me whatever he wants."
Rong Tang immediately raised his chin and tilted his head back, looking at Ke Hongxue with a rather proud expression, and snorted softly in his nose: "Hmph!"
So proud.
Su Huaijing's eyes and eyebrows were full of smiles as he looked at the three moon cakes of different shapes. After thinking for a while, he pinched a little fox and placed it face to face with the snow-white rabbit.
After finishing, he thought for a while, then pinched out the arc of a smile.
Ke Hongxue was so jealous of their show that he subconsciously turned around to act coquettishly with his senior, but he saw Mu Jingxu looking at Su Huaijing tenderly, with a liveliness and gentleness on his face that he had not seen in all these years of reunion.
Just at that moment, the autumn wind began to rise outside the kitchen. Ke Hongxue looked at the three people in the kitchen who were making different movements but all smiling happily, and instantly lost the idea of acting coquettishly with Mu Jingxu.
He stared quietly for a while. Perhaps the most noisy person would be silent for a long time, which aroused suspicion. Mu Jingxu raised his head in confusion and met Ke Hongxue's eyes.
Master Ke was stunned for a moment, then he smiled from the bottom of his heart.
very nice.
His winter snows began to melt.
The odd-shaped mooncakes are a joy to pinch. After being steamed in a pot, they are taken out plump, with eyes and mouths enlarged many times, and cracks all over the body, revealing the filling.
Ke Hongxue bent over with laughter, mocking Rong Tang venomously. Young Master Rong blushed slightly and looked at Su Huaijing embarrassedly.
The latter picked up the little rabbit naturally, put it into his mouth, chewed it slowly and swallowed it: "It's delicious."
Rong Tang was coaxed instantly!
Ke Hongxue is talking nonsense!
Su Huaijing’s evaluation is true!
He happily picked up the little fox, but didn't want to eat it in one gulp. Instead, he broke it into pieces bit by bit and put it into his mouth.
The moon is full in the sky and autumn is coming. A pot of osmanthus wine is placed on the stone table in the yard. The whole yard is filled with the fragrance of osmanthus and yellow persimmons are hanging on the treetops, swaying.
Su Huaijing was helping Rong Tang unpack crabs. He looked up, slightly closed his eyes, felt the evening breeze brushing his cheeks, and murmured softly, "I don't want to go back."
Su Huaijing paused as he was cutting the crab meat, and remained silent for a while.
Rong Tang did not see his expression. He quietly enjoyed the breeze for a while and heard Ke Hongxue say with a smile, "If you find the capital boring, why not go to Lingnan after the New Year or next spring? By then, the flowers will be in full bloom and it will be beautiful beyond words."
Rong Tang opened his eyes, somewhat moved.
Su Huaijing said, "Lingnan is full of miasma, Tangtang's body is not suitable to go there."
He separated the crab meat from the crab roe, put them on a small plate and placed it in front of Rong Tang, then raised his eyes and glanced at Mu Jingxu lightly: "Master Mu's health doesn't look very good, I don't think it's suitable for you."
The smile on Ke Hongxue's face froze instantly, and Mu Jingxu tightened his grip on the chopsticks.
Su Huaijing turned his head and said softly, "The medicine prescribed by the doctor is almost finished. Tangtang has to go back to Beijing to get a new prescription."
When Rong Tang heard Yao's expression, he pursed his lips and whispered, "I'm just saying, my mother sent me a letter the day before yesterday urging me to go back."
"Yeah." Su Huaijing responded, "Slow down on the way back, and you can go shopping along the way."
Rong Tang was immediately happy, smiling with his eyes curved: "Great!"
With a snap—
A bird was looking for food on the treetops, biting off half a persimmon, smashing it all over the ground. Rong Tang looked at the persimmon flesh and said with a bit of regret, "I haven't had it yet."
Su Huaijing said, "I asked Shuangfu and the others to pick a basket of them two days ago and put them under the eaves to dry. They are ripe now. I'll give them to you tomorrow."
Rong Tang immediately became happy. He swung his feet on the stool, secretly drank half a cup of osmanthus wine, and started yawning before Su Huaijing sent him back to his room to sleep.
Ke Hongxue was very perceptive. When he saw that Mu Jingxu didn't move, he understood that the two had something to say. He pretended to be drunk and staggered back to the room.
When Su Huaijing came back from sending Rong Tang, he saw Mu Jingxu still sitting in the same seat with a fat cat mooncake in front of him.
He smiled and asked, "Don't you like it?"
Mu Jingxu wondered: "Why did he make a cat for me?"
Or a cat that is sleeping with its tail in its arms and curled up.
Su Huaijing: "Tangtang may feel that you, brother, are insecure."
Mu Jingxu raised his eyes, still puzzled.
Su Huaijing: "His logic is actually very easy to understand. He thinks you are like a cat, cold and gentle, hard to approach but soft and cute, so he thinks this is the most suitable animal for a brother."
Mu Jingxu stared at the mooncake with a frown for a long time, but still couldn't understand Rong Tang's train of thought, so he stopped trying to interpret it and asked Su Huaijing: "You hesitated just now, what were you thinking about?"
Rong Tang casually mentioned that he didn't want to return to Beijing. Su Huaijing stood there in a daze, with a flash of thought and struggle in his eyes. Mu Jingxu, who was sitting opposite him, saw it clearly.
Su Huaijing smiled softly, pushed the wine pot away, and poured two cups of tea: "I don't want to go back to Beijing for a moment."
Mu Jingxu's face tensed slightly, and he said softly: "You can—"
"I can't." Su Huaijing interrupted him, placed the teacup in front of Mu Jingxu, raised his head and looked into his eyes quietly: "How many chronic diseases do you have in your body?"
Mu Jingxu remained silent. The usually calm Mu Shaoqing now acted like a child who had done something wrong and did not know how to repent in front of Su Huaijing.
Su Huaijing: "You mean, I don't have to go back to the capital. With you there, you will help me achieve the ending I want, right?"
Mu Jingxu nodded: "It should be me who does it."
"I poisoned him." Mu Jingxu said softly.
Su Huaijing looked at his brother with a little surprise.
Mu Jingxu said, "Before I went south, my mother gave me some medicine. It can be used to fake death, disguise, kill people, save lives... She gave me almost everything I could think of."
The autumn wind surrounded the Lin Garden. There was silence all around, without a sound of human voice, except for the last season of cicadas screaming hard.
Su Huaijing was stunned, because of the queen mother that Mu Jingxu mentioned, and also because after so many years, he finally got a glimpse of the truth of that year.
"I originally thought she only prepared these for me, but later I found out that she also gave the secret guard a human-skin mask."
The former queen was not the conventional queen who took care of her husband and children and was the mother of the country. On the contrary, she was smart, alert, playful, knowledgeable, and intelligent. She had many admirable qualities in the world.
When they were very young, several princes in the palace were even jealous of their elder brother, the Crown Prince.
It was not because of his position as the crown prince, nor because of his status as the legitimate son, but simply because he had a mother who was one in heaven and on earth.
She can treat illnesses, make medicine, do handicrafts, and take her son out of the palace to play. It seems that there is nothing she can't do except cooking.
Then soon, she got rid of even this shortcoming.
Because His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has learned how to cook.
A gentleman should stay away from the kitchen, let alone becoming the heir to a country.
But the Empress wanted to cook every time, and she always came out in a mess and frustration. The Crown Prince loved his mother and learned how to make scrambled eggs with tomatoes from the Imperial Kitchen when he was three years old. He would bring a dish with a dark face that was so raw that you couldn't even tell it was made from it to Fengqi Palace for the Empress to eat, and he was so happy.
This leads to the children in the harem envying the Crown Prince for having a particularly cool mother, and the concubines in the harem envying the Queen for having a particularly caring son.
But later everyone discovered that although the queen was lively and casual, she was equally good to every child. She would prepare a portion of everything her own son had for the other princes and princesses as well.
Even if a young master did not study hard and was punished by his mother by not being allowed to eat, and ran to Fengqi Palace crying and aggrieved, the Empress would immediately prepare a table of delicious food for him, making sure his belly was full, and then let the eunuchs and maids in the palace take them out for a round of play to help them digest the food.
If a concubine couldn't wait to look for her children, the queen would find the lecture notes from the Imperial Academy and hand them to her, saying, "Memorize this. When you have memorized it, you can laugh at your son/daughter for being so young and not as smart as you. See if they won't be ashamed if they don't study hard."
Concubine: “?”
Prince and Princess: “???”
It's very cruel. She stabs people in the back everywhere.
But no one hated her.
Before Mu Jingxu went south, he went to Fengqi Palace. The usually playful and lively queen was sitting under the lamp reading an ancient book. When she saw him coming, she smiled faintly, and was as gentle as a goddess in heaven.
She handed the medicines to Mu Jingxu one by one, repeatedly explaining how to use each medicine, and told them not to use them incorrectly and not to use them blindly unless it was absolutely necessary. She gave these instructions for a long time.
The young Third Prince looked closely and saw countless blisters appearing on the Queen's white and delicate hands.
The people of the world want the royal family to quell rebellions and invasions, and the officials want the prince to set an example, but the empress only wants all her children to live in peace.
Mu Jingxu didn't dare to ask her how many of these medicines she had prepared, and how she had spent several days working non-stop to make them. He just kowtowed and said respectfully, "Mother, please take care of yourself."
He didn't even dare to say that he would come back to fulfill his filial duties.
He dared to trick his younger brother into coming back and taking him to catch rabbits, but he knew that this trip would be dangerous.
Mu Jingxu had no intention of using those drugs. He was a prince who had enjoyed honor for many years and deserved to die for the country. But on the night when Lu Junxian was about to take action, the Embroidered Uniform Guards took the initiative to knock out their master for the first time, secretly sent him out, and replaced him with a disguised secret guard who waited for the traitor to come in the tent.
Lu Junxian is not the only one who can't escape.
At that time, there were disasters everywhere in Dayu, and the troops that went south to quell the rebellion were all formed temporarily.
Your Majesty does not even have the energy to protect the capital, so where would so many well-trained soldiers come from for the Third Prince to take away
It was not until everything was settled that Mu Jingxu saw the heads on the rebel flag from afar and realized what had happened.
Then he couldn't die anymore.
He had to go back to the capital, he still had a lot of things to do.
The autumn wind blew the leaves in the yard, making a rustling sound.
Mu Jingxu said slowly: "Sheng Chengli found me himself and said he wanted to seize the throne and asked me if I could help him. I asked him what he could give me, and he said his life."
He was a very ambitious young man, and Mu Jingxu knew this fact the first time he saw him.
Ke Hongxue thought he didn't know, but Mu Jingxu had faced the deepest and most severe betrayal before, so how could he not see it? He just had to pretend not to see it.
"So I poisoned him, and we agreed to give him an antidote once a month." Mu Jingxu said lightly, not at all like the man in white clothes without blood in Rong Tang's memory.
Su Huaijing was stunned for a moment, his hands hanging at his sides, clenched unconsciously.
His brother shouldn't be like this. He is clearly as distant as the breeze and the bright moon.
Su Huaijing paused and asked, "Then what did you tell Ke Hongxue?"
Mu Jingxu frowned slightly and said, "I told him that I want to choose a wise leader for the world. Among the princes in the palace, only Sheng Chengli can be used by me. He has a good character and may be able to be trained."
Su Huaijing: "Did he believe it?"
"I don't know." Mu Jingxu shook his head, his expression showing a little confusion: "I don't understand him."
Ke Hongxue has his own set of principles in dealing with people, which cannot be said to be contrary to Mu Jingxu, but he just can't understand Ke Hanying.
Just like he still didn't know how Ke Hongxue recognized him at Linyuan Academy back then, and why he was so sure that he must be an old acquaintance.
"Brother." Su Huaijing called him. Mu Jingxu looked over and heard him ask, "So what do you think? Do you really want to train a wise ruler for the world?"
The fragrance of golden osmanthus and persimmon wafted through the courtyard, very rich.
Mu Jingxu was speechless for a moment, and instead of answering, he asked, "Who do you think in that palace can become a wise ruler now?"
The two looked at each other for a long time. Su Huaijing was silent for a while, then lowered his head and smiled: "No wonder you don't want to admit it."
They are all people who crawled out of hell, and they are walking on the edge of a knife. If they are not careful, they will be smashed to pieces and have no place to be buried. How could the brother possibly drag another person to be buried with him
"As long as Master Ke is alive and Uncle Ke still controls the economy of Jiangnan, no matter which emperor sits on the throne, Ke Hongxue has a natural golden ticket to immunity from death. How could you let him take risks with you?" Su Huaijing smiled softly, shook his head, and sighed: "Brother, you are just like Tangtang, you can't see your own heart clearly."
Or, in other words, they actually see it clearly, but no one is willing to admit it.
(End of this chapter)