Mikago

When he arrived outside Chongrenfang, Tang Ruilang reined in a little, took off his silver fox cloak and put it on for Lu You, and pressed the hood tightly.

Lu You knew what he was thinking, and shook his head slightly: "No one recognizes me here. It's been many years, and I haven't lived here for long."

But Tang Ruilang insisted on going his own way: "That won't work. There are too many evils in this workshop. You are good-looking, and you will definitely cause trouble."

Lu You knew that he was talking nonsense, but he couldn't help it, so he put it on honestly.Only then did the two pass through the square gate and came to the cross street in the square.

After walking to the east for a while, the first thing I saw was the towering cypress tree jutting out from the wall.

However, after all, three years have passed, and the Ye Mansion in front of him is no longer what Lu You remembered.

I saw that the gate was crooked and almost collapsed; the tiled roof was uneven and overgrown with decayed grass; the lower part of the parapet wall was stained with brown-yellow mud, and the root of the wall was eroded by weeds, and several cracks were clearly visible...

Looking at it, Lu You felt his heart getting more and more sour.He hastily consoled himself, and the disrepair was to be expected.

However, at this moment, a loud and clear cry came from the courtyard wall.

"Chicken?" Tang Ruilang was a well-informed son of an official after all, "It's a fighting cock!"

The two tied their horses to the side of the road and walked into the small alley beside the courtyard wall.Seeing that the big water tank that Ye Zuolan used to step on back then was still in place, she stepped on it and looked into the wall.

"This, this is..."

The sight in front of him made Lu You's pupils shrink violently.

Everything in the originally quiet and elegant garden withered.A thick layer of dead leaves floated on the black water of the pond.The house a little further away seemed to have been broken into, with a big black mouth open.

But none of this should be surprising.

Surprisingly, straw and chicken coops piled up all over the floor.There are mottled chicken manures all over the place, and there are bunkers of unknown purpose.

It was Tang Ruilang who put it bluntly: "This...is it a chicken coop?"

As if confirming this guess, several loud cries came from the distant house again.

Lu You, who had been stunned all this time, seemed to be awakened by the crowing of the rooster. He saw that his hands holding onto the tiles were slowly clenched, and then he pushed hard, trying to climb over the wall.

"do not!"

Tang Ruilang hurriedly held him down: "I'm afraid there is a chicken farmer in the house. If you break in so rashly, it will be difficult to explain if you encounter it. Let's find someone to ask first."

As he spoke, he hooked Lu You's waist, forcibly carried him off the water tank, and dragged him halfway to a nearby teahouse.

They asked for a secluded seat, ordered refreshments, and took advantage of the time when Xiao Er came to pour water, they stopped the person and asked.

"Oh, you are talking about the Ye Mansion over there. It has been a chicken coop since the year before last! It is said that a servant surnamed Ding in the imperial court likes cockfighting. Heavy, the fighting cocks raised are also very fierce, isn’t it? Let’s take over the house! Coincidentally, it’s so cold that you can’t smell chicken feces, but those fighting cocks are so noisy that even Pingkang Square next door can hear it! "

The servant surnamed Ding... the Ding Yucheng who participated in the impeachment of the Ye family back then? !

Lu You felt a "thump" in his heart, and felt a rush of heat go straight to his head.The hand holding the teacup also began to tremble.

Tang Ruilang secretly put his hands on his lap, beckoning him to be calm, and then asked the guy: "Isn't this yard sealed off? How could it be taken by someone else?"

"Punishment? I heard that it was put into the national treasury, but what's the point of your saying that the emperor wanted such a dilapidated house? Didn't he just give it to his favorite minister? It's that Mr. Tang from Shengyefang, who was changed hands by that man surnamed Ding." Borrow it."

It's Tang Quan again!

Lu You's eyes could shoot fire, he glared at Tang Ruilang fiercely, and Tang Ruilang was naturally embarrassed, and hurriedly sent Xiao Er away.

"I really don't know about this!"

With a bitter face, he drank the water in the glass in one gulp, and knocked the glass on the table: "I'll make that Fu spit out the house, right now!"

"No need."

Although Lu You's face was still ugly, he shook his head: "I know this matter has nothing to do with you, so I don't need to worry about it. I don't need this mansion for the time being. If your father becomes suspicious, it will be troublesome."

"……it is good."

Tang Ruilang seemed to have something to say, he gently held Lu You's hand: "Zuo Lan, Fu Zhenghuai and Yang Rongru, I will clean up for you. You just need to stay in the palace with peace of mind and don't dirty yourself. hand."

"...Don't worry, I have my own measure."

Lu You stared at the back of Tang Ruilang's hand for a while, then gently took his hand away.

"You just understand."

Tang Ruilang nodded and didn't say any more. He reached out to settle the bill, and asked him tentatively, "Since you're all out, why don't you go with me somewhere else?"

"where?"

"Anxing Square, Wenchang Temple."

Tang Ruilang gently shook Lu You's arm: "I heard that all the candidates who went to Beijing to catch the exam go there to burn incense, which is very effective."

Lu You thought about how hard it was for them to see each other once, and felt a little bit unwilling to part at this point, so he nodded in agreement.

The two of them got on the horse as before and walked northeastward.After a while, we arrived at the Cross Street in Anxingfang.

The snow in the sky showed no signs of abating, but the further east we went, the busier the streets became.

In front of the Wenchang Temple, I saw a crowd of thousands of heads, all of whom were candidates for the exam who had come to offer incense.Several temple priests stood outside the gates, distributing paper money for offering sacrifices to the gods; cigarette smoke rising from inside the gates was higher than the gable, wafting back and forth in the gray mid-air.

The two left the horses in the inn beside them, and followed the flow of people to the temple.Soon, I could only see people in all directions, desperately rushing towards a narrow mountain gate in the middle.

One of them is a pampered son of an aristocratic family, and the other lives in the palace. Have they ever seen such a noisy and chaotic scene?Tang Ruilang was in a bad mood, and hurriedly wanted to grab Lu You's arm, but the two had been rushed away by the crowd, and soon lost sight of each other.

Fortunately, Wenchang Temple is not that big, so we squeezed a little bit, and we met again in the garden behind the main hall.

While everyone was busy offering incense, Lu You hurriedly found a big rock by the tree and sat down. Regardless of what was indecent, he took off his shoes and rubbed his feet.

"What good place did you choose? My shoes are all trampled to pieces, and the inside is covered with snow."

Tang Ruilang rushed over, took out a handkerchief from his sleeve to wrap around Lu You's bare feet, and wrapped it in his palm to warm it up.

"Thousands of calculations, but I forgot that today is an auspicious day, no wonder there are so many people... I heard that there are nearly 6000 candidates for the provincial examination this year, which is the largest one since the founding of the dynasty. Looking at it today, only I'm afraid that even the Gong Yuan won't be able to sit down."

Lu You was also shocked by this number: "The year my father entered the official position, there were 450 candidates for the provincial examination. Where did so many people come from?"

"It's not difficult to understand. At present, there are more than 1 officials in the imperial court alone, and there are more than [-] new officials entering the stream every year, and the number of officials outside the stream is even more numerous. During the period All kinds of people, there are many people who are corrupt and pervert the law, and extravagant. Those common people see it, and naturally think that everything is inferior, but education is high. It’s no wonder there aren’t many people who come to read books.”

Listening to Rui Lang's words, Lu You frowned: "It's no wonder they are. If the actor can get the same respect as the prime minister, if the farmers who farm the fields can be as rich as the Shaofu Shaojian, then who will suffer? Do you want to squeeze this single-plank bridge?"

Tang Ruilang laughed in a low voice: "What you said is naturally the best thing. If there is no such utility, the mind of the scholar will be more pure, and the Emperor Wenchang will be able to relax a lot... It's a pity that such a In the prosperous Qingming Dynasty, don't talk about you and me, I'm afraid our descendants may not be able to wait."

"..."

Lu You didn't reply, but just glanced at him lightly, Rui Lang knew he had made a slip of the tongue, and hurriedly changed the topic away.

"It seems that there are fewer people now, let's go in and offer incense."