The candle flickered.
Yuanjue pulled out the post house, the figure was like electricity, and went in the direction of Shacheng.
The night was dark.
A goshawk landed silently at the window, its yellow beak pecking at the dry lumps of flakes from the earthen walls.
Tamara stretched out his hand, and the goshawk immediately raised its head and flapped its wings at him. He took out a copper ring and tied it to the goshawk's claws, and gently stroked the goshawk with his fingers.
The goshawk made a dull cooing sound and spread its wings to the night sky.
He stood in front of the window, staring at the dark sky, his eyes light as water.
Ashina Bisuo, Yuanjue, the deceased who came to deliver the letter just now, the guard who stayed in the Wangting Grottoes to hide their eyes, Princess Wenzhao... Only these few people knew that the Prince Regent was outside the sand city at the moment. These people are his guards, who have sworn allegiance to him since childhood, are loyal to him, and will not reveal his secrets.
Princess Wen Zhao is an exception.
The candle flame was extinguished by the night wind that blew into the house from the crevice, and a puff of blue smoke rose, and there were a few soft ravings from the next door.
Tanmaraka regained his senses, turned and returned to the inner room where the fire was lit.
The room was dark, the hot air was trapped in the gauze tent, and it was as warm as spring. Yaoying lay sideways between the felt blankets, sleeping soundly with her eyes closed, occasionally making a few vague murmurs in her dreams.
Tamaroka leaned over, sat down with his legs crossed, and continued to exercise and adjust his breath.
The murmur suddenly turned into a terrified cry.
Tamara opened his eyes.
In the dim light, Yao Ying, who was sleeping opposite him, closed her eyes and did not wake up, but her body was twisting uneasily. Exuded fine beads of sweat.
Tamara recalled the time when she fell ill in Gaochang. At first, she might have wanted to test his identity, and she often approached him with excuses along the way. Later, when she really fell ill, she no longer deliberately probed his identity. How many strange things, without asking a word, still trusting and being close to him, not even caring about the difference between men and women.
There are many people who love and admire him, but she is the only one who has an almost naive trust in him in another identity.
Yaoying's brows tightened, and her whole body trembled slightly.
When she met Zhu Luyun during the day, she lost her mind for a moment, then quickly pressed down on worry and regained her energy. After falling asleep, the whole person relaxes. The two years of running away and the fear of being unable to change Li Zhongqian's fate poured into her dream. She dreamed again of the scene where Li Xuanzhen killed Li Zhongqian, and ran helplessly on the battlefield where there were corpses everywhere. , shouting Axiong over and over again.
Run, run, run.
Yaoying's hand clutching the blanket was so hard that it was stiff and twisted.
Tamara frowned, got up, walked over to Yaoying, leaned over, gently pulled her hand away, took off her gloves, and the ointment on the wound was gone.
As soon as her fingers tightened, Yaoying clasped his hand tightly, like a drowning person suddenly seeing a piece of driftwood, clenched tightly, like a delicate rattan wrapped around, dense and flexible.
Tamara did not break away Yaoying's hand, opened the medicine box with her empty right hand, reapplied the medicine to her, wiped her hands, lowered her eyes, moved her plump lips, and recited the scriptures in a low voice.
As a child, whenever he was haunted by nightmares, he recited scriptures.
"Bodhisattva, because of Prajna Paramita, there is no hindrance in the heart, there is no hindrance, there is no fear, far away from upside-down dreams, and finally Nirvana..."
He didn't deliberately lower his voice, his voice was cold and sweet, with a peculiar rhythm.
The sound of chanting scriptures without sadness or joy was melodious, and merged into a majestic tide, breaking the illusion, and the scene in the dream disappeared. Yaoying felt something in her heart and gradually calmed down.
Half asleep, her eyelashes trembled slightly.
There were no lamps and candles in the house, the fire was weak, and a figure sat beside her, like a Buddha.
Yaoying's consciousness was hazy and she couldn't see anything clearly, but she felt very at ease, closed her eyes, and fell asleep.
After a long while, listening to her long breathing, Tamara stood up and sat back to her original position.
Outside the window, the snow fell silently.
Yaoying had a dark and sweet sleep, and when she woke up, it was already bright.
She lay under the blanket, warm and comfortable all over.
Yaoying was stunned for a while, she couldn't remember when she fell asleep, she quickly got up, and saw that Tan Mo Luojia was still sitting there with her eyes closed, and her movements immediately became cautious.
The bright sky light from the high windows shone into the house. Judging from the dazzling light floating in front of the tent, it was a sunny day today.
Yaoying didn't expect that she would fall asleep so deeply, so she felt annoyed secretly, rubbed her eyes, and moved to Tamaroka's side, and looked closely at his face, and found that he looked a little haggard and felt more and more guilty.
I don't know if he had a seizure last night.
Yaoying stared at Tan Moraga's face without a blink of an eye, her warm breath on his neck.
He opened his eyes and glanced at her.
Seeing him awake, Yaoying got closer: "I accidentally fell asleep last night, is the general okay?"
"nothing."
"Are you feeling better today, General?"
Tamara Ka nodded slightly.
Yaoying breathed a sigh of relief, got up and backed away, closed the gauze, and opened the window to dissipate the turbid air.
There were several knocks on the door, and the man brought clean water, a pot of naan cakes and mutton of different sizes and thicknesses.
Yaoying put on a veil, took the things, filtered the water first, sent a portion to Tan Moraga, broke a piece of naan to eat, told him, and went downstairs.
The stove in the hall was burning brightly, and the voices were full of people. Hu merchants from the north and south of the verdant mountain gathered together, sitting in twos and threes on the felt carpet, talking loudly in different languages.
"Princess Wen Zhao!"
Yaoying's heart tightened, her heart was beating wildly, her fingers were deeply pinched into her palm, but her face was not exposed, and she calmly followed the sound.
A group of Wang Ting merchants wearing pointed brocade hats and lapel brocade robes were sitting around the fire, holding plates, grabbing the roast lamb on the plate, and discussing something, all of them were flushed with meaning on their faces. Deep smile.
Yaoying immediately realized that the Wang Ting merchants in the hall were just talking about her, so she called out her title, relieved and stabilized her mind.
She asked a friend for a plate of barbecue, found an inconspicuous corner, sat cross-legged like the others, grabbed the mutton, and listened carefully to what the audience was saying.
The businessman in the royal court who had just laughed loudly asked the others, "Is there another princess recently?"
Another businessman replied, "No! This time it's Princess Beirong."
The crowd was surprised.
There was a lot of discussion: "Do Princess Beirong also believe in Buddhism? Don't they believe in some wolf god, claiming to be the descendant of the wolf god?"
One person snorted coldly, rolled his eyes for everyone's short-sightedness, and after successfully attracting everyone's attention, he said proudly: "I often deal with Beirong people, and many noble ladies in Beirong Yating have converted over the years. The Buddha has become a Buddha, and even the aunt of Wakhan Khan also learned to do charity. There is a legend in Beirong that the son of the Buddha is the reincarnation of Ananda. The Buddha Dharma is profound and the magic power is boundless. , no one can match! Whoever dares to attack the royal court guarded by the Buddha will be cursed. Many people in Beirong firmly believe in this legend. When Wakhan Khan went on an expedition, even their priests persuaded the Khan Don't be an enemy of Buddha. Princess Beirong believes in Buddhism, what's so strange?"
Everyone suddenly realized that Beirong had attacked the royal court several times in recent years. As long as the Buddha's son was in charge of his own expedition, Beirong would definitely be defeated, and Beirong people were frightened and changed to believe in Buddhism. It is not uncommon.
No wonder that every time after the Khan's defeat, Bei Rong's heart is turbulent, and the Khan is also frightened, because he is afraid of the prestige of the Buddha's son!
Everyone sighed for a while and asked, "Have you ever seen Princess Beirong? Is she more beautiful, or is the Princess Tianzhu who was escorted to the Holy City by Tianzhu warriors more beautiful?"
One person said excitedly: "I have seen Princess Manda of Tianzhu in Viramala. Princess Manda has amber eyes, as bright as the beauty flowers on the Tianshan Mountains, more beautiful than Princess Beirong!"
Others followed suit. Viramara was the capital of one of the countless small kingdoms in Tianzhu, where merchants used to trade spices with Tianzhu merchants. Princess Manda was a famous local beauty and often rode an elephant to go there. Playing by the river, many people have seen her.
When it comes to the beauty of Princess Manda and Princess Beirong, everyone expresses their own opinions.
During the quarrel, one of them clapped their hands and said with a smile, "What about the comparison with Princess Wenzhao?"
The hall fell silent for a moment, except for the sound of burning.
Yaoying's eyelids jumped and she almost choked.
In the silence, someone whispered to break the silence: "Princess Wenzhao looks like a goddess, I think Princess Wenzhao is more beautiful."
The businessman who spoke for Princess Manda earlier was not convinced and retorted: "Princess Wenzhao is a Han girl, no matter how beautiful she is, she is not as beautiful as Princess Tianzhu!"
Seeing that the two sides were arguing, some people laughed and came forward to make peace with the old man: "It doesn't matter what you said, whoever the Buddha sees as beautiful is the real goddess."
Everyone stopped arguing, looked at each other, shook their heads and laughed.
Yaoying in the corner was speechless for a while, wondering: Why do these businessmen compare the beauty of several princesses? Also, when countries come to the royal court to celebrate the Buddha's birthday, why do they have to send a princess here
Judging from the tone of the businessmen discussing this matter, those princesses were not just here to worship the Buddha at the royal court.
There was a buzzing sound in the hall, and the merchants changed the subject and discussed the birthday of Tamara.
"The Buddha is still in retreat. I don't know when I can go to the Wang Temple to preach again. My mother in my family has been looking forward to it for more than a month."
"I heard from the monks of the Buddhist temple that the Buddhist monks retreat for at least half a month and as long as three months at a time. It should be soon."
"Next month will be the Buddha's birthday, and the Buddha will definitely open an altar to teach the Fa."
…
After discussing and discussing, the topic was suddenly brought back to Yaoying: "The Buddha is in retreat, and Princess Wen Zhao may not have appeared for a long time."
"I heard that Princess Wenzhao was obsessed with the Buddha's son. After the Buddha's son retreated, she devoutly recited the scriptures every day, guarded the Buddha's son, didn't eat or drink, and didn't step out of the hall. She was almost skinny."
One person exclaimed: "Wouldn't that be detrimental to the beauty of the princess?"
"If the princess doesn't do this, how can she impress the Buddha?"
…
Yaoying looked down at the roasted mutton on the plate, and the corners of her mouth twitched lightly: If you don't eat or drink every day, it will not only damage your beauty, but will starve people to death.
The merchants finished breakfast one after another and got up to go to the market to trade goods.
Yaoying put down the plate and walked upstairs slowly, frowning slightly.
The merchants spoke in various dialects, and she could only understand part of it, but even with a few guesses and a few inquiries with the guy just now, she could probably piece together what happened to the royal court during the days she left.
Tanmaraka spoke to all countries, and her and his rumors were passed down by word of mouth through merchants from all over the country, and spread to the Shule area.
Coinciding with the birthday of Tanmaraka, the diplomatic missions sent from various countries soon sent their princesses away. The reason was that the princesses admired the style of the Buddha and came to the royal court to pay homage to the relics and pray for the blessings of their subjects.
The Tianzhu Princess Manda was on an envoy to Shule with her father. Her father learned that Yaoying was staying in a Buddhist temple, so he quickly sent a letter of credentials and sent someone to send Princess Manda to the royal court, asking the Buddha's children to take care of him on his behalf.
There are also Princess Qiuci, Princess Khotan, Princess Tribe...
When the merchants of the royal court mentioned all the princesses, their tone was ambiguous, and they compared them with Yaoying.
There are various indications that these princesses are all for Tamara.
Yaoying's footsteps were heavy and her scalp was numb.
The royal court is prosperous, and Tamara is the monarch of the royal court. He has defeated the Wakhan Khan several times and blocked the unstoppable Northern Rong from the northern road. The small countries in the north and south of the Congling Mountains can breathe. If he is not a monk, the countries will not wait for peace He got married, and because he was a monk, all countries did not mention the matter of marriage.
Now that he protects her exceptionally, these small countries are ready to move.
Yaoying can imagine how Prajna would jump and scold her after returning to the royal court: Look, it's all your fault! You have defiled our king!
Tamara would definitely not care about these things, but these things started because of her, she couldn't pretend not to know.
The cause was her, and she had to figure out a way to deal with it.
Yaoying's scheming is spinning.
She has to figure out a way to solve these troubles, preferably to cut off everyone's thoughts once and for all, without harming the reputation of Tamara.