Dingjiangshan

The winter in Chang'an City is very long.

The whole winter seems to be divided by one snow after another. Every time the snow falls, the weather will always be colder.

In this season when dripping water turns into ice, people seem to get tired and lazy.The servants and maids who have been waiting in the house for a long time do not want to go out to suffer in the cold weather, and the sisters who have been friends on weekdays have also lost their demeanor. Refuse to move.

But most people in the palace didn't even have the luck to fight for it, and there were many people who could only rely on stacked layers of single clothes to keep out the cold.

The snow melted by the sun rolled down the eaves, but after a night of work, it hung down along the eaves, condensed into sharp ice edges, and hung on the top of the eaves one by one, like guillotines that would fall at any time.

The young man under the eaves raised his head to look at the ice edge on the eaves, and shrank back into the eaves with lingering fear, for fear that the thing would be melted by the sun and fall on his head.

"Ten miles!" Before he could rearrange the crooked wooden stool, someone from the other end of the corridor suddenly called him: "Is the hot water ready? If the Empress Dowager wakes up from a nap and there is no new tea, watch your bones!"

The young man hastily regained his senses, and quickly poked his head to look around the corner, and found that it was the maid next to the empress dowager who was calling.The girl was half huddled in the flower hall, with only her head sticking out from behind the curtain, which looked a little funny.

Shili stood up quickly, he sat outside for too long, the outermost coat was frozen into a thin hard shell, and it clicked when he stood up.

"Sister, don't worry, I'll be here soon." Shili heard the displeasure in her words, and didn't dare to neglect her, he hurriedly softened his voice and begged for mercy: "It's too cold outside, the carbon heats up slowly, girl, wait a little longer. "

The well-dressed young girl seemed to be hesitating between "go out and teach him a lesson" and "swear a few words to vent her anger", and finally succumbed to the bad weather outside, did not step out of the flower hall, but cursed angrily He gave up after a few sentences.

The curtain of the flower hall was lowered again, Shili breathed a sigh of relief, put his frozen hands back into his sleeves, and slowly sat back on the small wooden bench in front of the charcoal stove.

His years in this palace are not short, but not long, so he can only find a job without going up or down.It's not like the girl just now has a warm earth dragon to roast, but it doesn't have to be like those lowly little servants who don't have to sweep snow outside in winter.

The eaves cannot completely shelter from the wind, the more you sit, the colder it gets, and the hot air from your hands will turn into a cool breeze in the wind as soon as you leave it, which is useless at all.

Shili looked at the boxy sky outside, and then pulled the water heater towards him.

The most common black charcoal was used to boil the water. The Empress Dowager didn't like the smell, so Shili could only stay under the eaves with air leakage on all sides.

The charcoal stove is only the size of a palm, and when it blows in the cold wind, the little heat can only supply the earthen pot for boiling water, and the excess can't escape.

Shili baked it hard for a while, trying to get some hot air out, but after trying for a long time, he failed, so he gave up the tasteless stove, stood up and stomped his feet.

He had just stood under the eaves and turned around a few times, when another call came from the corner of the flower hall: "Ten miles!"

This time it was a young man, wearing a robe similar to Shili's, with his shoulders bowed and his neck shrunk, he ran over in small steps, squatted next to the stove, and put his hands directly on the pottery wall.

"Brother Jiu." Shili also squatted over, didn't bother to take his hands out of his sleeves, just used his elbow to crutch him, and asked in a low voice, "Are you on duty?"

The man called Brother Nine hummed, and sighed, "It's better for you, at least there is a stove, because the front is going to freeze people."

"Why should my brother envy me?" Shili thought the man was making fun of him, so he bumped his shoulder and said angrily, "No matter what, my brother is still on duty in the queen mother's house. The stove can't be touched, at least there is a floor Dragons can be roasted."

"Wow." The man was not angry, and simply sat on the floor carelessly, looking like he wanted to stick himself on the charcoal stove, "Today, someone close to me is going to answer the Queen Mother. Snow has been swept all morning at the gate of the main hall."

"Yo." Shili was a little embarrassed, and looked around quickly, seeing no one around, so he took out a small broken porcelain cup from his bosom, carefully and distressedly poured out half a cup of hot water, and handed it to Man: "Brother, drink up your saliva... What kind of incredible closeness to people is worth spending all of your winter money."

As if he had found a treasure, the man wrapped the small cup of tea in his palm, and said casually: "I heard that someone from our prince's fiefdom came to give the empress dowager a new year gift."

"That's no wonder." Shi Li said, "Our prince hasn't been back to Beijing for almost ten years, and it's normal for the Queen Mother to be concerned... Maybe I saw someone who could answer me, so I asked a few more questions."

"It should be." The man said: "After all, he is his own son, and he is always missed. When I came out, I heard that our prince will not be able to come back this year. The queen mother is very distressed, and she is saying We're going to send a few nice people over there to take care of us."

After the man finished speaking, he lowered his head and drank the hot water in his hand.

Shili smiled, and stopped asking any more questions. He lowered his head and picked the carbon in the carbon stove with iron pliers, and said casually: "Yes, our prince is still blessed."

As Shili spoke, he pinched the pottery plate under the charcoal stove and pulled the whole charcoal stove to the other side of the corridor, chasing the sun that moved westward.

The entrance of the side hall of Renshou Palace faces the same direction, and after noon, the sun bypasses it, and it can no longer shine.

The icy edges on the eaves of the side hall were melted by the morning sun. Before the cold water drops fell, they were re-frozen on the ice and became pitted, like a layer of shattered frost. .

In contrast, Zichen Hall, which is located opposite Renshou Palace, is in a much better situation.Due to the high terrain, it is almost unnecessary to open the windows and light up the Zichen Hall during the daytime, and the room can be brightly lit just by the sunlight outside.

Not only that, the earth dragon in Zichen Hall has been burned too much recently, so much so that the cotton curtain at the entrance of the outer hall had to be raised at a corner to let the cool wind from outside come in, so as to make the room less stuffy.

The room was burning with thick ambergris, and Ning Yan and Jing Zhan were sitting at opposite ends of the soft couch in the inner hall, with a chess game in full swing in front of them.

Jing Zhan didn't put on the airs of his national teacher today, he was dressed very casually, with a heater on his lap and two chess pieces in his hand, he was playing back and forth, waiting for Ning Yan to make a move.

"You can hold your breath." Today is not a festival, and there are no outsiders in the Zichen Palace, Jing Zhan even spoke a lot more casually: "Don't let Shu Qiuyu, who is such a good lady, be appointed as a female official. "

Ning Yan's eyes still fell on the chess game, and he was not annoyed when he heard the words. He just smiled and said, "You like it? How about giving you a marriage."

"No, I don't want it." Jing Zhan quickly threw the chess pieces back into the chess box, and said repeatedly: "I'm just asking casually."

Ning Yan raised his head and glanced at him, raised his eyebrows and said, "I'm just joking with you, why did you throw in the towel and admit defeat?"

Jing Zhan: "..."

He was in a hurry and forgot to play chess!

Ning Yan placed the chess piece in his hand on the position he was optimistic about just now, and threw the remaining chess pieces back into the chess basket.Both of them are in good condition today. They played a game of chess for half an hour.

Linglong, who was waiting on the side, saw that both of them had put down the chess pieces one after the other, and hurried forward with the little maid, handing over a tray and waiting to be served.

"Miss Shu also said that I fell in love with my little sister." Ning Yan took a hot towel from Linglong's hand and wiped her hands, then said with a smile, "I don't know how she guessed it, most likely she thinks that I am attracted to my little sister." The root of love is deep, but because of the rules, you can't marry her in."

Jing Zhan had a headache when he heard this, let alone Ning Yan, he doubted whether his younger sister would marry or not in this life.

Ning Yan seemed to be interested, and teased: "Actually, it's nothing more than her overthinking. The little girl is gentle and virtuous, and she has a deep relationship with me. She is indeed a good girl."

"Your Majesty." Jing Zhan took the teacup from the maid, and interrupted him indifferently and realistically: "Apart from the two words you said, which one has anything to do with her?"

Ning Yan laughed loudly when he heard the words, threw the towel to wipe his hands into the tray, pointed at Jing Zhan, and said with a smile: "Be careful, I will write this down, and I will find the post station in the afternoon and pass it to my younger sister, and see if she can find it when she comes back." You settle the score."

Jing Zhan: "..."

"But Ah Ling won't enter the palace in this life." Jing Zhan said, "Otherwise, you will have to say whether or not His Majesty's inner palace exists."

"Forget it, her temper, don't let anyone restrain her." Ning Yan took the teacup, skimmed off the foam on her head, lowered her head and took a sip, and then said: "Speaking of this, the teacher still has foresight, Back then, I taught my younger sister martial arts so early, it was really for my daughter's sake, foresight."

When Ning Yan said this, he gave Jing Zhan a meaningful look.His eyes first glanced at the chess basket in Jing Zhan's hand, then he looked into his eyes, and finally glanced to the right, and put down the teacup.

His eyes obviously had deep meaning, but the Jiang family and Ning Yan had already reached a consensus on Jiang Ling's refusal to enter the palace, so there's no need to say something like this now.

Jing Zhan's eyes followed the direction where Ning Yan's eyes were last glanced, and suddenly saw Linglong standing not far behind him.

With a thought in mind, Jing Zhan waved to Linglong with a smile on his back.

"Miss Linglong's pretzels are a must." Jing Zhan said with a normal expression, "I was busy the first few days and didn't come for a long time. Now I suddenly remembered, I don't know if there are any left in the small kitchen?"

"What are the leftovers?" Ning Yan beckoned and ordered, "Linglong, go to the small kitchen. If there is none, make a new one."

Jing Zhan often came to Zichen Palace to eat and drink, and Linglong didn't suspect anything, she walked over in a polite manner, answered yes, and left with a little maid.

Listening to her footsteps, Jing Zhan confirmed that Linglong had gone far, then turned around and said, "If you want to say something, just say it."

The smile on Ning Yan's face faded slightly, and he didn't make fun of anything, but took out a letter from his cuff and handed it to Jing Zhan.

"The teacher's letter." Ning Yan said.

Jing Zhan was not polite either, he opened it and looked at it. After reading only two lines, he gradually frowned, and said, "...I said, why did you accept the foster father's leave so easily."

Ning Yan took another sip of tea, reached out and picked up two chess pieces from the chess basket at Jing Zhan's end, and started playing chess on his own.

"It's not easy." Ning Yan pretended to be stupid and said, "The teacher just happened to pass by, and happened to write a letter to me."

Jing Zhan didn't give him face, and said angrily: "What kind of Anqing Mansion do you pass through when going from the capital to Kunlun, and it happens that there is a case of land invasion?"

When Ning Yan saw that he had pointed it out, he stopped holding the tone and just smiled.

Jing Zhan refolded the letter and stuffed it back into the envelope, and pushed it back to Ning Yan's hand.

"... Does Prince Gong know that you are investigating this matter?" Jing Zhan asked.

"Teacher just went to take a look around. I don't have any thoughts for the time being, so I don't need to let the emperor follow along." Ning Yan was playing chess on his own. Seeing that Jing Zhan didn't speak, he changed the subject naturally: " By the way, there is nothing important in Beijing recently, I am very bored, why not ask the courtiers to go to the hunting ground next month."

Jing Zhan understood that it was not for nothing that Ning Yan mentioned leaving Beijing when the year was approaching.

So Jing Zhan just sighed and asked, "Does Your Majesty want the minister to follow?"

"Of course I'm going." Ning Yan said, "You're going, and the emperor's uncle is going too, and you have to pick a few new and old ministers to go with you."

"It's just that it's freezing cold and the hunting grounds are tough. The Empress Dowager may not be able to bear the fatigue, so there is no need to go."