After thinking wildly for a while, the eunuch sang loudly from the gate of the palace, "The emperor has arrived—"
Hearing the sound, everyone in the hall restrained their smiles and stood up from their seats, kneeling down in unison facing the door of the hall, "Long live my emperor—"
An emperor in a yellow dragon robe walked in slowly. He was over fifty years old with white hairs in his beard. His face was old but could not hide the handsomeness of his youth. He looked around the people in the palace with his calm and prestige eyes. , stepped on the black boots embroidered with gold silk and walked up to the high seat at the front of the main hall, with a voice as deep as a bell, "Everyone is flat."
The people below stood up, turned around and faced the emperor on the seat, all looked down at the ground, behaved well.
The emperor ordered everyone to sit down again. Along with the emperor were Minister of Rites Qiao Xiangcheng and Minister of Rites Liang Jun. They sat under the emperor respectively, on the left and right sides.
Qiao Xiangcheng is almost forgotten in Wen Chan's memory, but he has a daughter, Wen Chan, who remembers it clearly. If something happened to Qiao's family later, his daughter would become Wen Chan's first queen.
Just as I was thinking about it, pens, inks, papers and inkstones were suddenly placed on the table in front of me, and I heard the emperor say, "Although this test will not be recorded, you should go all out when you take up the pen. I will always sit and wait for you." The answer sheet handed in by the ministers."
After saying that, he glanced at Qiao Xiangcheng, and Qiao Xiangcheng got up and unfolded a scroll with only one word—loyalty written on it, and he said, "This is an exam question, with no restrictions on the genre, and the time limit is one hour. Start immediately."
It's nice to say, although this test will not be recorded and dossier, but anyway, all the legitimate sons and daughters in the capital have come, and the final result of the test can be spread throughout the capital in less than two days...
As soon as the words fell, a bell rang, and when Wen Chan was still thinking wildly, many people subconsciously touched their ink pens.
Wen Chan stared at the blank paper, and soon his mind was filled with the word loyalty. He thought, if this exam is about high or low, Zhong Wenjin will definitely win the first prize...
What is loyalty? In his previous life, Wen Chan climbed to the highest point of the Xiliang Empire, but in the end he didn’t know the meaning of loyalty. For loyalty, Zhong Wenjin betrayed his family and fought against his father and brother; Xie Zhaoxue wore armor and died in battle for loyalty; , blood flowed a hundred steps; Liang Yanbei gave up life and death for loyalty, and spent his whole life in gold;
For the sake of loyalty, these people disregarded the danger and endured the pain. With their hands full of blood and their dilapidated bodies riddled with holes, they lifted up the prosperity of Xiliang, in exchange for the praise of thousands of people.
It is easy to abandon loyalty, but it is difficult to keep loyalty.
In a trance, Wen Chan seemed to see the capital city shrouded in blood-colored sky again. The former magnificence turned into nothingness, and there were sharp and miserable wailing everywhere. Wen Xun, with a long knife stuck in her frail body, her bloody hands crawled to his feet step by step, leaving a long bloodstain, her fingers climbed onto his boots, and she cried weakly, "Brother Huang!" ...Brother Huang...it hurts..."
The capital is no longer as prosperous as it used to be, and has become a hell on earth.
Wen Chan broke out in a cold sweat, opened his eyes suddenly, and found that he was lying on the table, surrounded by teenagers who were bowing their heads and writing vigorously, and sitting above them were the emperor who was reading with his head bowed, and Qiao Xiangcheng who was writing with a pen.
It was Liang Jun who noticed him being lazy and gave him a slight look.
Wen Chan hastily wiped the sweat from the tip of his nose, picked up the brush and dipped in the ink, let out a long breath with lingering fear, unexpectedly fell asleep after thinking about it, if the emperor finds out, he will be punished again .
He slept for most of the time, but after sitting for a while, the bell rang again, and everyone stopped writing, waiting for the ink to dry.
Looking at the words he had written, Wen Chan felt a little guilty, he didn't dare to look around, but when he glanced around, the people around him had filled the paper with blackness.
After the papers were collected, the hall was still very quiet. Qiao Xiangcheng and Liang Jun were carefully reading the answer sheets, and from time to time they took out one or two and handed them to the eunuchs beside the emperor.
Wen Chan was inexplicably nervous, especially after seeing his answer sheet being handed to the emperor—his answer sheet was very recognizable, with a large blank.
The emperor looked up and said, "Old Jiu."
Wen Chan immediately stood up, "My son is here."
"There are only three words on your answer sheet?" He turned the paper over and over again, and there were only three words of medium size and nothing else on it. "Tell me, what does 'difficulty in both ends' mean?"
For a while, all the people in the hall looked at Wen Chan secretly. Many people were surprised because he only answered three words. After a moment of silence, Wen Chan said in a calm voice, "Return to the father, my son and minister are hard to get along. It refers to loyalty to the country and loyalty to the emperor.”
"The king's heart is for the people of the world, isn't loyalty to the king the same as loyalty to the country?" the emperor asked again.
Wen Chan didn't answer anymore.
Even though he was silent, many people present could understand what he meant. A wise ruler would only worry about the people, while a foolish ruler would only worry about himself. There is a difference between caring about the people and caring about the king. But no one dared to say these words, because speaking out would be treason.
The people in the hall secretly breathed lightly, for fear that Wen Chan would provoke Longyan's fury, but the emperor didn't ask after Wen Chan stopped answering, but said flatly, "I don't have a little ink in my stomach, but I have a lot of fallacies. Starting from today, you will be punished for three months, and you should think about your mistakes behind closed doors."
Wen Chan almost laughed out loud, and immediately kowtowed his head in thanks, "I would like to follow the teachings of my father."
It was a happy event for Wen Chan to exchange three words for three months of purity. At least he didn't have to get up early to study in Boxue Palace for these three months.
Later, the emperor began to evaluate other people's answers. Originally Wen Chan was most concerned about Zhong Wenjin's answer, but who knew that Zhong Wenjin's answer was not even sent to the emperor. Wen Chan felt that if Zhong Wenjin was the second in terms of loyalty, no one would dare to be the number one. , Could it be that he failed to express the ambition in his heart because of his poor literary talent
At a quarter of noon, the long review finally came to an end. To Wen Chan's surprise, the winner of the answer sheet was actually Liang Yanbei.
If he hadn't been reborn and returned to his youth, Wen Chan would have almost forgotten that General Liang, who was always called a rough man decades later, was once a scholar with a wealth of knowledge and talents.
The emperor was in a happy mood, and almost everyone gave rewards, except Wen Chan. After sending off the emperor and the two adults from the Ministry of Rites, the atmosphere in Mingrong Hall immediately relaxed.
Wen Chan didn't intend to stay longer, the emperor stepped out of the palace door as soon as he left. Ah Fu, who had been waiting in the side hall, had already stood outside the door, and immediately went up to meet him when he came out.
He walked in the wide corridor, smoothing his slightly wrinkled robe casually, humming a little song, relaxed and relaxed.
Wen Zhang quickly caught up, "Brother Nine Emperors!"
He gasped and called Wen Chan to stop, his immature face was full of distress, "Brother Jiuhuang, why didn't you answer the test carefully, and the father was punished for three months for no reason."
Wen Chan was relaxed and natural, "It's not because I wrote it well, what I wrote is the answer in my heart."
"But..." Wen Zhang hesitated to speak.
"Don't worry, being grounded in March is a rare and good thing for me to be free." He patted Wen Zhang's head habitually, "I listened to Father's comments today, and you wrote a very good answer sheet. You are only like this now Literary talent is already extraordinary at a young age, if you continue to work hard, you will definitely be better than Zhuangyuan Lang in time."
Wen Zhang, who was praised a lot, was a little ashamed. He blushed and said, "Thank you for the compliment, Brother Nine Emperors. I'll go find you when I'm free. Although I can't take you out, I can still relieve your boredom."
Wen Chan responded with a smile, "Okay, then I will prepare snacks and tea for you."
The two had only talked a few words, and Wen Yue saw them with sharp eyes, and brought a group of people up, and said with a smile, "Lao Jiu, the three words you wrote today are really amazing, I admire you!"
The corners of Wen Chan's originally hooked lips were flattened, he turned to look at him, and said, "I made Brother Huang laugh."
"You are more than just making me laugh. If you say who is the best in today's test, it will be you. It is simply ridiculous." Wen Yue said mercilessly, and the people behind him also laughed when they heard this. stand up.
The uproar caused a lot of commotion. Liang Yanbei, who had just come out with Xie Zhaoxue, immediately noticed the noisy sound. He looked for the sound and saw Wen Chan with a face as calm as water.
Subconsciously turning his toes, he wanted to step forward to say hello, but he remembered Wen Chan's indifferent look, so he stopped again.
Wen Chan said, "Brother Huang is absurdly praised. In terms of excellence, I am still not as good as Brother Huang's Chronicles of 1898. It is really unforgettable."
What he was referring to was that the prince wrote an article when he was fifteen years old. The content was about what happened to him in the year of 1898. After he finished writing it, he showed it to the emperor with great interest. The three characters of Wuxu Shu in the Qing Dynasty, the whole "Wuxu" was written as "Xu Shu", which made a big joke and was widely circulated.
Wen Yue has always regarded this as a blemish in her life, but when she heard him mention it now, her face turned red and pale with anger, her small eyes widened, and she looked extremely ridiculous.
Seeing his ferocious expression, Wen Zhang was afraid that he would beat Wen Chan, so he stretched out his hand to tug on Wen Chan's sleeve, and whispered, "Brother Nine Emperors, it's time, we should have dinner."
I didn't want to get entangled with Wen Yue at first, but when Wen Zhang said this, Wen Chan nodded immediately. It was the first time that he lost his etiquette, and he turned and left without saying anything. Wen Yue was furious. He called to stop him, but was stopped by Wen Xiang at the side.
Wen Chan walked quickly, and disappeared from everyone's sight in a short while. Wen Yue walked away in a huff and took away a group of people. Zhaoxue left.
After separating from Wen Zhang, Wen Chan lay on the carriage and returned to his bedroom comfortably.
Among all the heirs of the emperor, only the crown prince and Wen Chan occupy a single palace. The crown prince is the crown prince and the master of the East Palace. Wen Yuan can enjoy such treatment only because of the monk who changed his name more than ten years ago.
It is said that Wen Chan was weak and sickly when he was young. Once he was seriously ill and encountered a natural disaster such as "drought in the east and flood in the south". Everyone speculated that the Ninth Prince was the reincarnation of a god in the sky. If the Ninth Prince died of illness this time, Xiliang would die countless times. Because of the public opinion, the emperor who didn't like Wen Chan issued the imperial list and asked for medical treatment.
Just two days after the imperial list was released, an old monk came to the palace to pay a visit. The emperor always believed in Buddhism, so he immediately worshiped the old monk as his guest of honor. Wen Chan.
The old monk said, "This son is plagued by many illnesses, and his fate is tied to Xiliang because of a problem with his name. If he changes his name, it will ease his bond with Xiliang."
After finishing speaking, he waved his hand and wrote the word "Zen". This is the origin of Wen Chan's name. Repeat the same mistakes.
Since that day, Wen Chan's illness has gradually improved, and the natural disaster in Xiliang has disappeared. The emperor thanked the old monk and allocated funds to repair all the temples around the capital. In each temple, there is a "Zen" Character.
Because of this special status, the emperor has always been very loose in his discipline, and even allocated him a palace alone.
When Wen Chan returned to his bedroom, there was already a group of guards waiting outside the palace.
The emperor's movements were so fast, he just said that he would ground his feet, so he sent someone over, Wen Chan didn't care much, and took Ah Fu into the bedroom to pass on the meal.