Brocade tears

The story of the queen mother could not be finished, because that day, the emperor came unexpectedly.He ordered the palace people not to announce, and went straight to the garden of the Compassionate Palace, so he appeared so suddenly that Sui'er had no time to avoid it.I can only prostrate on the ground and wait for the Holy Majesty to come.

At that time, the emperor was in the prime of his youth and prime of life.Along the way, he was full of smiles, and his face was about seven or eight percent like that of Empress Dowager Li, with a short mustache on his lips, fair and handsome complexion.Sui'er knelt on the ground, and could only catch a glimpse of him stepping into the Linxi Pavilion out of the corner of his eye.He was wearing a round-neck gown with red satin embroidered with golden dragons and a crown of black gauze wings, as if he had just come from court.

He entered the pavilion, bowed to his mother who was seated, and said: "Mother, my child greets you. How is mother today?"

"Shang Ke. What is the emperor's happy event? He looks like a child who hasn't grown up all the way." The queen mother joked.

"I made my mother laugh. This year's summer harvest is abundant, and I can't help being very happy after playing the performance today." The emperor replied.

"You're fooling your mother again. I'm afraid your younger brother gave you some fun stuff." The queen mother saw clearly and directly exposed the emperor's cover-up.

Embarrassed by embarrassment, the emperor could only bow down and say, "Mother has learned from you."

"You are the emperor, and your younger brother loves to play, so you have to play wild, so don't miss it."

"Mother, don't worry, the child has a sense of proportion."

The emperor sat beside the empress dowager, and the mother and son chatted a little. At this moment, the emperor's attention shifted to Sui'er who had been kneeling on the ground.I saw the court lady kneeling beside the embroidery frame, on the white satin frame there was a beautiful embroidered lotus pattern.He became interested for a while, so he couldn't help getting up and walking to Sui'er, first took a closer look at the embroidery pattern, and then praised with a smile:

"Mother, this embroidery is really exquisite. But it's all embroidered by people?"

"Yeah, I have nothing to do recently, and I found an embroiderer from the Shangfu Bureau to embroider. I don't know if I am old, but I always miss the old things. When I was at the age of this small city, I also served in the palace. , Day and night, there was a period of time when there was a shortage of embroiderers in the palace, and I also acted as an embroiderer." The Queen Mother said.

The emperor seemed a little helpless, and said: "Mother, how can you bring up the past again? It's all in the past."

"It is a matter of the past, but it is also a matter of the present. If there is no past, how can there be present? Emperor, it is not easy to be a mother, and one cannot forget one's roots." The queen mother sighed pointedly.

"Mother taught me that." The emperor replied absent-mindedly, and then fell silent.After a while, he seemed to want to change the subject, so he said to Sui Er:

"Get up now, don't kneel down."

"Here." Sui'er responded and stood up slowly.She kept trying to keep her head down, not wanting the emperor to see her face clearly.But things backfired, the emperor's attention was firmly attracted to her at this time.Because he has now discovered that the appearance of these people is very peculiar, and they seem to have alien blood.As Sui'er got up, the emperor bent down and looked her face carefully.Although Sui'er tried her best to bow her head, the emperor exaggeratedly bowed her body and looked up at her from below. She was so frightened that she didn't dare to move any more, and could only try to maintain a blank expressionless state.

"Are you from the Western Regions?" the emperor asked.

"Back... back to Your Majesty, this servant's biological parents may be from the Western Regions, but this servant doesn't know, this servant is an orphan." Sui'er replied nervously.

"Oh, orphan." The emperor was noncommittal, repeating the word meaninglessly.

"You raise your head and let me take a good look, I'm a little tired from bending over." He said.

"Here." Sui'er really had no choice but to bite the bullet and raised her head, lowered her eyes to look at her nose and heart, praying that the emperor's curiosity towards her would be diverted as soon as possible.

The emperor looked at her blankly for a moment, then turned to the queen mother and said, "This is really strange. Aren't all the embroidered ladies in the palace selected from the south of the Yangtze River? How could there be a woman from the Western Regions?"

"It's not surprising. These people are orphans since they were young. They are probably the children of merchants from the Western Regions who wandered in the south of the Yangtze River and were brought up by embroidered mothers in the south of the Yangtze River." The queen mother said, she had been staring at the emperor when she said this.But the emperor's gaze unconsciously drifted to Sui'er after a while, but quickly retracted.

"In this case, it's not surprising, but it's rare." The emperor's answer became more and more perfunctory.

"Go down, you have nothing to do here." The Empress Dowager immediately ordered Sui Er, and Sui Er hurriedly packed up her things and kowtowed to leave as if she had received an amnesty.When she left, she could still feel the emperor's gaze following her.

Sui'er has a hunch that her good days may be coming to an end.

……

Sui'er's bad premonition turned out to be a reality, that is, the emperor took a strong interest in her.In the past few days, the emperor's visits to the Palace of Compassion and Ning have become more and more frequent. Although he basically comes to pay his respects every day, in the past he only stayed for a while before leaving, but now he lingers in the Palace of Compassion and Ning without leaving for a long time. Walking around, I don't know what I'm looking for.The Empress Dowager did not call Sui'er to embroider these few days, and Sui'er had been hiding in the human room of the Compassionate Palace where she was arranged to live alone.She has a small room alone, which is the grace given by the Queen Mother.

This situation lasted for more than half a month, until the middle of June in the 12th year of Wanli, the emperor seemed to have finally given up on looking for Sui'er, and his attention was shifted to other things, and he did not come to the Cining Palace for two consecutive days.

Just when Sui Er rejoiced that she had escaped, the worst situation came.

In the scorching summer, the Temple of Compassion and Ning came to the annual season to fumigate mosquitoes.The palace people were all mobilized to clean and incense every corner of the palace to get rid of pests.Sui'er naturally couldn't be idle, Mother Jiang assigned her work, and she finally had to come out of the small room where she had been hiding for many days and start working.

What was allocated to her was the area in the northeast of the Compassionate Ning Palace, which was a side hall next to the Great Buddha Hall, mainly a storage warehouse, where all the expenses of the Compassionate Ning Palace were stored.She entered the side hall with incense and a bamboo bat used to kill insects.At the beginning, there were several companions beside me. Although they worked separately, they could all see each other.But as Sui Er concentrated on cleaning, when she raised her head to recover, the palace people around her were all gone, and when she turned her head to look, there was a figure behind her that terrified her—the emperor.He was wearing a white satin gown with a golden dragon collar embroidered with thin silk and dragon patterns, his hair was tied up with a gold silk net scarf, and he was holding a jade bone fan with a ring pendant and a red pendant in his hand.It looks really handsome and extraordinary, proud of the common people.

Sui'er's soul was about to be frightened, so she immediately knelt down on the ground, kowtowed and worshiped: "Servant... this servant pays homage to His Majesty, but she didn't know His Majesty was coming, and if she failed to kneel down to greet His Majesty, this servant deserves death!"

The emperor stood in front of her with a smile, and seemed to be in a very happy mood:

"Xiaodu people, you can make it easy for me to find. But I don't dislike hide-and-seek. I also like to play the game of yellow harrier and chicken. Today you were caught by me."

Sui'er was trembling all over, fell on the ground and couldn't speak.

"Get up, follow me, and I will talk to you." The emperor bent down, put his hand on her arm, and helped her up.Sui'er didn't dare to resist, so she could only follow his strength and get up.Ever since the emperor's hand touched her body, he never let go, holding her arm all the time, but he didn't use much force, and his attitude was not very tough.But he is the emperor, his words are the golden rule, can Sui Er still resist?Her whole body was stiff, her mind went blank, and she couldn't think of any way to deal with it for a while, so she could only follow his wishes and take one step at a time.

The emperor took her straight to the outside of the Compassionate Ning Palace, exited from the north gate of the Compassionate Ning Palace, and walked along the palace road.As soon as he left the door, Zhang Cheng, the eunuch who had been following the emperor, finally appeared. Zhang Cheng was followed by a large group of palace servants and Jin Yiwei's personal guards, and an emperor's imperial chariot was placed beside him.

The emperor wanted to pull Sui'er onto the imperial chariot and ask her to sit side by side with him.Sui'er didn't dare, and knelt down on the ground, almost falling into despair.She knew that if she sat on the imperial chariot, it meant that she would be the emperor's man from now on.She didn't want to be a prisoner bird in this deep palace, and she didn't want to be the emperor's doll. She almost had a physical disgust for this.

For some reason, the appearance of Sister Qing suddenly appeared in her mind at this moment.Half a year later, sister Qing's appearance is still clearly identifiable in her mind.During the three months in Meng's house, she had fantasized about how great it would be if she could just live with Sister Qing like this.Simple and free, there is no dispute or persecution, only the infinite warmth she brings to herself.They work at sunrise and rest at sunset, hardworking and cheerful, enjoying lanterns in the Yuan Dynasty, outing in the Qingming Festival, weaving ropes in the Dragon Boat Festival, climbing high in the Double Ninth Festival, sitting around the stove in winter, cuddling each other, and sleeping warmly.What a yearning day, but now she is about to lose this yearning completely.Her heart suddenly became cold, like falling into an ice cave, like falling into an abyss.

The emperor's smiling voice sounded in her ears, and she heard the judge's life-threatening hook in her ears:

"Hey, get up, I want you to sit up, no one dares to punish you for your crime."

"Slaves absolutely dare not, slaves never dare." Sui Er kept repeating this sentence.

"Small capital, don't be ungrateful." The emperor's voice finally turned cold, and Sui'er's body trembled. She had been wandering all year round in order to survive, and saving her life had become an instinct in her bone marrow, even though she knew what was going to happen next. The days of her life will be more difficult than death, but she still doesn't want to die.She unconsciously obeyed the emperor's words and followed him onto the imperial chariot.The emperor smiled again, and pulled her to sit beside him.With a stretch of his arms, he half-wrapped her in his arms, and then looked at her very closely, without hiding his admiration and desire for her.

"Let's drive to the Qing Palace." Zhang Cheng ordered the servants who carried the chariot beside him, his voice was very low, he knew what the emperor was going to do, so he didn't intend to disturb the people in the Palace of Compassion.Three years ago, the emperor had a spring breeze in the Palace of Compassion and Ning. Since then, there has been an extra concubine Gong in the palace, and he himself has been put in a shackle, and he has to fall into the problem of establishing a reserve. torment.Now the emperor made another old mistake, and he took a fancy to a court lady in the Compassionate Ning Palace. This time, he learned how to be smart. He secretly brought her out and locked her in his own territory, so he could control it.

"Xiaoduren, how old are you this year?" the emperor asked.

"Back...Your Majesty, slave...this year is fourteen."

"Not yet." The emperor smiled, "But it's okay, at your age, the empress has already entered the palace."

Sui Er shrinks her body and does not dare to answer, at this moment she really wants to cry but has no tears, she is helpless.If you want to ask for help, you don't know who to ask for help.The only one who can save her is the queen mother, but the queen mother can't meddle in the emperor's private affairs at will. If the emperor wants a court lady to enter the palace, the queen mother can't say no.On the contrary, the Empress Dowager once supported the court lady to become a concubine, which is equivalent to encouraging the emperor to choose someone in the palace, so how could she contradict herself.

What's more, why did the Queen Mother have to rescue her?

However, Sui'er underestimated how much the Empress Dowager attached to her.The emperor's desire came and went quickly, because the team was stopped by a bold and bright woman before they reached the Qianqing Palace.Sui'er recognized her, the pretty concubine in front of her in a peach red satin skirt embroidered with clouds and peacock patterns is the new concubine Zheng De, who entered the palace in the ninth year of Wanli, and received the emperor's blessing last year.In November last year, the emperor's second daughter, Yunhe Princess, was born. The emperor is now deeply infatuated with her, and every flop is basically her.

However, this does not prevent the emperor from hunting newcomers. For example, Sui Er is the prey that the emperor has been eyeing recently.

As soon as she appeared, the emperor was stuck in the throat like a child who had done something wrong.He inadvertently adjusted his posture, no longer holding the ear halfway, and sat upright.Concubine Zheng De didn't even look at Sui'er, she just looked at the emperor with resentful eyes.Then she led the palace servants behind her, turned sideways, and gave way to the imperial chariot to salute:

"My concubine sees Your Majesty, Your Majesty Jin'an." There was a lot of grievance and jealousy in his tone.

"Luo chariot." The emperor's voice sounded very distressed.

The imperial chariot fell, the emperor got up, pulled up the ear, and said:

"Xiaodu people, you go back first."

Sui'er couldn't believe that she escaped from the tiger's mouth, so she kowtowed and retreated.When she was leaving, she saw the emperor go over to pull Concubine Zheng De, comforting her softly, saying: "Don't cry, don't cry, I was wrong, I was wrong." Sui'er's jaw dropped in shock.Only later did she know that the emperor secretly came to the Palace of Compassion and Peace today. In fact, the Empress Dowager had already known about it and sent someone to notify Concubine Zheng De in time, so that Concubine De could guard the only way from Palace of Compassion and Peace to Qianqing Palace and stop the imperial chariot.Her honor and favor were true, the emperor not only did not blame her for disturbing his own good deeds, but as if he had done something wrong, he personally descended from the chariot to appease and apologize, and dragged Concubine De into the chariot and left.

To the emperor, this incident was just a missed blessing, and he might be able to get it back secretly.But for Sui'er, the Compassionate Ning Palace is no longer a safe place.