On the first day, she followed Song Bokang to the Jixian Hall to familiarize herself with the route. That was where the Zhiyuan was located, and then the Shenshu Palace. This palace was located on the site of the Wanshou Palace that was burned down that year. All the ruins of the palace that had been burned down in the past were demolished and rebuilt, except for one place that was not moved.
That is the remains of the Yong'an Palace.
The reason why it is not demolished is that on the first day of his accession to the throne, the current emperor came to the Taimiao and declared that the old site of Yong'an would never be demolished and would be preserved in the original place to warn future generations to be vigilant and never forget so as to avoid repeating the same mistakes.
The noise that day was so deafening that the ruins of the temple were preserved. However, many years have passed and now the surrounding forests are lush and overgrown with weeds, almost completely covering the ruins. If you don't get close, you can't see it.
The new palace was built under the supervision of the eunuch Yuan Zhi. Yuan Zhi had made his fortune by supervising construction, so it goes without saying that he had put a lot of thought and effort into building this palace to celebrate the sage's 500,000th birthday.
The main palace here is located according to the position of the Big Dipper in the Heavenly Palace, so it is also called the Shenshu Palace. The entire palace is located on a huge square platform. Just walking up the platform from the ground to the main hall on the bottom floor, there are 81 steps of Ruyi stepping. The main hall in the middle is magnificent and majestic, towering as if it can reach the sky. The east and west side halls are connected horizontally, and there are flying towers and high platforms, which are magnificent. The main hall is 11 rooms wide, three floors, and 100 meters high. It is called Chongtian Hall.
Here is the main hall where the ancient Tianren Jingluo scroll will be restored.
For several days in a row, Xuyu followed Song Bokang and others to climb the stairs and towers in the Shenshu Palace, going up and down, measuring the size, and being so busy that she had no time to think about anything else. Early this morning, she entered the palace from the right Yintai Gate of the imperial palace as she had done in the past few days, and came to the duty room located in the northwest side hall of Jixian Hall.
All the people in the Zhiyuan have arrived, waiting for the Huazhi, the deputy Zhi and others. Everyone has a look of nervousness or anticipation on their face.
The young painter who had been scolded by Song Bokang for being lazy while painting in Da'en Temple saw her and approached her and whispered, "How did you sleep last night? I couldn't sleep all night, and I got up as soon as I heard the morning drum this morning!"
His name is Lin Mingyuan, and he is a relative of Song Bokang, so he was able to enter the palace as a painter. Song Bokang valued Xuyu and directly promoted her from a painter to a painter. In the past few days, including Lin Mingyuan, all the painters were either assigned to work in other halls or busy doing rough work such as wall plastering and primer. She just entered the palace and was able to follow Song Bokang as a painter. Obviously, she was going to do big things next. Lin Mingyuan was envious and naturally thought highly of her. In addition, the two were about the same age, so he introduced her as a close friend and deliberately got close to her.
The reason why he was so excited at this moment was because of something that was about to happen: the Shenshu Palace had been completed, and according to custom, there should be a ceremony to thank the gods. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince would lead all the officials to the Shenshu Palace today to hold a ceremony to express gratitude to the gods of heaven and earth for protecting this palace. The people in the direct courtyard would also accompany the Crown Prince to worship, praying that the gods would continue to protect and allow the next painting to be completed smoothly.
Of course, except for the official officials, the others in the Zhiyuan were not qualified to participate in the sacrifice. They could only stand at the end of the team, prostrating themselves on the ground, and praying for the protection of the gods of heaven and earth with this respectful posture. But even so, it was enough to make people look forward to it.