female concubine

——Kunning Hall——

Ah Ciduan stood beside Cao Shuyao, "The congratulatory gifts were delivered early in the morning."

Cao Shuyao stared at the bronze mirror, "I don't know if this is right or not."

"Miss," Ah Ci knelt down slowly, holding Xiao Youqing's hand, "Second Miss is not sad, you don't have to worry about it."

"No one in the world can choose their lives, and neither can the weak." A voice came from outside the hall.

"Princess."

"Princess."

Cao Shuyao sat around, "Isn't it appropriate for the governor to come here wearing a public uniform?"

"The people in the Kunning Palace will not stop the minister when they see it. If it is not for the order of His Royal Highness, who would dare?"

Cao Shuyao pushed back all the palace people in the palace, "Sit down."

"It turns out that you will also hurt your youth." Wei Ruhua did not sit down, but stared at her and said, "Why do you want to be unintentional?"

"I just feel that I am too cruel, tying the ups and downs of a family to a little girl who has just reached her age."

"Little girl?" Wei Ruhua took a step closer, "Isn't Your Highness a little girl when I greeted you personally on behalf of the official family?" Then he turned his back and said, "People can't choose their origin, whether it is good or bad, they have to bear it. If your children enjoy the splendor, then the price is freedom, which may not be fair, but there has never been real fairness in this world, since the moment His Highness agreed to enter the East Palace, it was also for the sake of the family?"

"The future is unpredictable," Cao Shuyao got up, "I just try my best to do what I should."

Wei Ruhua turned his head and looked at her, "This world is like a chess game, there is only one person in charge, and everyone is just a chess piece."

"The Empress Dowager said that there is no permanent master of chess, the most difficult ones have already passed, now we just need to see if we can stick to it." She added: "I believe in Daddy's vision."

Looking at each other, Cao Shuyao looked away and lowered his head with a smile, "Sister believes, is it just the late emperor's vision?"

Wei Ruhua stared at her for a while, "So you know how to laugh too?"

"Everyone has joy, anger, sorrow and joy, and I am no different from ordinary people."

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The Mid-Autumn Festival on August [-]th in the first year of Jinghe was just an ordinary Mid-Autumn Festival for Jinghe. The Shengshou Festival was withdrawn after Xianzong’s great victory, and the city of Tokyo gradually came out of grief. Small cakes were sold in every city. The people went home and reunited, set up a table in the courtyard and put small cakes to worship the moon god.

——Ancestral Temple——

Apart from accompanying the late emperor to offer sacrifices, Xiao Youqing almost never came to the Taimiao alone. Behind the coffin was a row of royal servants of previous emperors, and the servants and a few guards stood outside the gate of the main hall.

"His Royal Highness, the Empress Dowager, has never smiled since the first emperor became seriously ill until now." The servant looked up at the full moon in the sky, shining silver light on the earth. In reincarnation, we will never see each other again."

A few coquettish red manjusawa flowers grow and bloom from the rock crevices in the backlit corner of the Taimiao court. Their leaves have already fallen off, leaving only the petals in full swing.

Qi Liu walked down the hall steps, Xue Jin asked in puzzlement, "Why are you going?" The servant bent over and broke off the bright red Wuyi grass, "Wuyi grass?"

Memories frequently surfaced with the Bianhua flowers in his hands, and tears flowed down his chin onto the purple clothes, "In the blink of an eye, more than thirty years have passed."

"This grass..."

"Why do you think the first emperor was so cruel?" Qi Liu looked up at the main hall of the Taimiao where the candlelight was flickering.

Xue Jin gradually lowered his head and said sadly: "Birth, old age, sickness and death, it's just a cycle."

The green smoke of the incense candle rose slowly, and on the divine table were enshrined the small cakes that Xiao Youqing brought out from the forbidden place and made by himself, as well as the precious wine that the late emperor liked but she forbade to drink.

Xianzong's Yuzhen was painted by Xu Chongju, the servant of the Imperial Academy of Painting. It is somewhat similar to Wuzong's eyebrows and eyes, but a little more delicate. It is also the youngest among the many Yuzhen.

"You already knew that he was not in good health, and you knew that he had no one to entrust to you, so you cruelly threw all of this to me. The situation, the king of future generations, how should I choose?"

----------------------------

On the way back to the palace in a carriage, lanterns were hung on both sides of the cross street, and pictures of family reunion were painted on the lights.

"Empress Dowager." The servant on duty in the Imperial Academy stopped the carriage, stepped forward and said, "The imperial edict of the Imperial Academy of Painting has something to do."

Xiao Youqing bowed and walked out of the car, "Xu Shizhao?"

Xu Chongju stepped forward and knelt down, "Please Your Royal Highness the Empress Dowager to move to the Imperial Academy of Painting."

Xiao Youqing was stunned for a moment, then hesitated and said: "You are the most important painter of the late emperor..."

"As the late emperor said," Xu Chongju raised his kneeling head, "no one needs to tell you anything, Her Royal Highness the Empress Dowager can know what the late emperor thinks."

Zhao Ping helped Xiao Youqing off the carriage, and the empress dowager's guard of honor carried the Jianyu forward, and Xiao Youqing changed to the Jianyu and followed Xu Chongju to the Hanlin Academy of Painting.

"Hurry up, don't be dumbfounded."

A gust of wind swept into the Hanlin Academy of Painting, and on the wall was a picture of flowers and birds handwritten by the emperor himself. The activity officer hurried into the hall and picked up a ruler to wake up several art masters and waiters, "Still sleeping, the emperor Her Royal Highness is coming."

"Today's Mid-Autumn Festival, some of us unlucky people are not allowed to go home on duty, and now we are not allowed to take a nap when we are sleepy?"

The officer pointed out a few waiters and Yixue plus more than a dozen internal servants, "You guys go to the inner courtyard and lift out the cabinet that Xu Shizhao told you, and lift it lightly, so as not to damage the things inside."

Several green-robed technical officers and internal servants carried out several exquisitely carved and locked cabinets from the painting pavilion, "What's in here, why is it so heavy?"

"What else can a painting academy have besides paintings."

--Meow! ——The servant gently kicked the cats away, "Go and go."

"You said that the late emperor liked to paint, and Xu Shizhao never let anyone touch this cabinet. Could it be that all the paintings of the late emperor are hidden?"

"Today is the Mid-Autumn Festival. In previous years, it was also the birthday of the late emperor. It is possible to choose this day."

"The innermost boxes are covered with a thick layer of dust, and they seem to be quite old." Several Yixue in green robes carried the boxes to the courtyard, stretched their sleeves and reached out to touch them. , "It must have been more than 20 years?"

Qingpao picked up a fat orange cat, "This box hasn't been rotted, and Xu Shizhao specially raised a few cats to catch mice. I think it's probably true."

"I heard that no jewels were placed in the late emperor's funeral, but three paintings made by Xu Shizhao for the empress dowager were placed in Zi Palace."

"Wipe all the boxes clean and wipe them with a dry cloth, remember not to get wet."

The cleaned boxes are engraved with auspicious clouds and flying cranes. The wooden boxes are also made of anti-corrosion treatment, the only difference is that they are different from old to new.

The activity officer immediately took out a bunch of keys, and opened the boxes one by one according to the number on it, and several green robes rubbed their tired eyes together, "It's really a picture."

One of the green robes reached out to open a hand, but before the hand knocked down the shaft, the officer slapped it away with a ruler, "Can you touch the things of the late emperor?"

"Are all these paintings real?" The green robes looked down, "There must be thousands of paintings, right?"

"His Royal Highness the Empress Dowager is here!"

The servants carried the shoulders to the courtyard and put them down carefully.

"I have seen Her Royal Highness the Empress Dowager." The Qingpao who asked the question immediately lined up and stopped talking.

Xu Chongju then told everyone in the courtyard: "You all go down first."

"Yes."

The servant helped Xiao Youqing to step forward, "Xu Shizhao?"

Xu Chongju opened the locked cabinet, "This is what the late emperor left for the empress dowager. In 30 years, there are a total of [-] paintings. This box is the late emperor's imperial brush, and the rest are the ministers and another imperial edict. Made it when you were traveling, Queen Mother."

"It was supposed to be presented to His Highness after the late Emperor's visit, but I was afraid that His Highness would not be able to bear it for a while, so I postponed it until today, the late Emperor's birthday," Xu Chongju immediately knelt down.

Xiao Youqing froze in place, the cool wind in the courtyard kept blowing, making the copper bells hanging at the end of the corridor jingle, "She..." Xiao Youqing took a deep breath while clutching his sleeves, "What else did I say to you?" ?”

"The first emperor said that if the queen mother thought about it, she could look at these paintings. The first emperor knew that he was cruel, but the first emperor said that he had no choice. People, even so, the first emperor would rather trust people everywhere to ask for it. It was the empress dowager who supported the first emperor to breathe for more than ten years, but in the end he did not escape the destiny. Whether these paintings are kept or burned depends on the empress dowager. The first emperor said not to beg I can get the empress dowager's forgiveness for breaking my promise to leave, and I only hope that the empress dowager can cherish and cherish herself for the rest of her life." Then Xu Chongju kowtowed and slowly got up from the ground, supported his old waist, took a breath, walked to the most old wood box and put An old painting scroll was found, and there were two geese engraved on the head of the scroll, and he immediately walked forward and knelt down with both hands, "This painting is the first one that the late emperor kept here with the old minister. The minister was young at that time, and the box was destroyed by rats. Ants gnawed it, but luckily the painting was fine, it has been 37 years."

When Qi Liu saw the painting scroll, a flash of memory suddenly flashed in his mind. The reason why he remembered it clearly was because he went to a craftsman's shop to order this sandalwood wood scroll head. ...the king and concubine of Chu suddenly said that they wanted to paint when they were sleeping in the study after their wedding, but villains were not allowed to enter while painting..."

Xiao Youqing lowered his hands in front of his belly, looked at the painting scroll in Xu Chongju's hand, frowned and said with a trembling smile: "What's the use of her giving me these things now, to make up for it or to redeem it?"

"The first emperor said that if the Empress Dowager doesn't want it... burn it."

Xiao Youqing stared at the double geese carved on the scroll, "Open it!"

Xue Jin and Qi Liu exchanged glances, then stepped forward and picked up the painting scroll in Fei Pao's hand. The painting, which was almost human height, was unfolded and erected by the servant.

There are two sentences inscribed in the blank space of the painting, "There is gold in the car, and the car is specially designed for the mother, and the heart-yue mulberry girl gets off the car, so everyone can know."

Like a bronze mirror made by time, people walk out of the painting, taking away all their youthful years, leaving only a thin lonely shadow in the world.

"Women marry once in their lives. The first emperor said that this was the most correct choice he made in his life."

The author has something to say:

Wei Huan: "That's right, I am the face control!!!"

那句画里的题词出自宋·徐集孙《秋胡行》感谢在2020-07-2806:34:37~2020-07-2817:11:00期间为我投出霸王票或灌溉营养液的小天使哦~

Thanks to the little angel who threw mines: SAMSUNG1;

感谢灌溉营养液的小天使：三分金币10瓶；27968822、电影馆里的耗子5瓶；wtt晋江-TD3瓶；浅斟1瓶；

Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!