Dingjiangshan

At the beginning of Yinshi, a thin layer of halo just appeared in the sky, and the Yintai Gate on the east side of the palace city opened a gap from the inside, and the shallow light poured in through the gap, and the silver light on the knees of those who climbed up Shiny light armor.

The merchant who had been waiting outside an hour ago hastily stood up from the shaft of the car and pulled the folds on his clothes.

Before the door was fully opened, the man in the satin jacket hurriedly lifted the linoleum covering the wooden cart beside him and looked inside. He made sure that the fruits and vegetables inside were still fresh enough to drip water before loosening them. tone.

Although there are few masters in the palace, the number of scattered maids and servants is quite considerable. Although most of the palace expenses are provided by finding fresh and fashionable items from various places, things like melons, fruits and vegetables are expensive. For freshness, it is still necessary to purchase from Zhuangzi on the outskirts of the capital.

In addition to a few Huangzhuang, those who deliver food to the palace also buy some from big merchants.Shopkeeper Liu has delivered dishes to the palace for more than ten years, and he is already familiar with this set of rules.

He fumbled in his left sleeve pocket, took out an accounting booklet, opened it to compare the number of wooden carts, and went to the cart to lift the felt cloth to check the quality of the dishes inside. There is a case of collision and damage.

After looking at the dozen or so cars one by one, shopkeeper Liu returned to the front of the Yintai gate. The heavy wooden door had been half-opened, revealing a ten-foot-wide aisle.

The guard on duty came out of the door, looked around at him, and asked as usual, "Here you come to deliver the food?"

"Exactly." Shopkeeper Liu hurriedly took out the document and handed it over, saying, "Five carts of cabbage, four carts of white radish, one cart each of other fashionable vegetables, and finally a cart of pickled vegetables."

The imperial guards opened the document and looked at it, squinting their eyes and counting the number of vehicles and horses.Shopkeeper Liu is a regular customer, who has been delivering food for many years, and the entire imperial army is familiar with him.The young man on duty was no exception. He stuffed the documents back into Shopkeeper Liu's arms, meaning that he opened each car and looked at it. After confirming the types of dishes inside, he let it go.

Entering through the palace road of the Yintai Gate, you don’t have to enter the palace, you can go directly to the imperial dining room from the outermost palace road. Shopkeeper Liu stuffed two gold leaves for the imperial guards on duty as usual, and then waved his hand to signal the convoy You can go in.

A small gazebo was set up a hundred paces behind the Yintai Gate. Under the shadows, two young girls stood and sat one by one, and the standing one was holding a heavy account book in his hand.

When the convoy arrived in front of it, shopkeeper Liu called to stop, shook his clothes, walked to the gazebo and saluted.

"I've met Mr. Shu." Shopkeeper Liu said, "There are sixteen carts of all kinds of fruits and vegetables, which weigh [-] catties."

Shopkeeper Liu took out the account and presented it, saying: "Here is the account, Master Shu, please have a look."

Shu Qiuyu nodded, stood up holding Gingko's hand, looked at the account, and said: "The weather is getting hotter, and when I returned the account last time, I found that some fruits and vegetables were rotten and unusable. Next time you deliver vegetables, remember to leave some root system, even if it gets soiled, it doesn’t matter, don’t wash it with well water just to keep it clean and beautiful.”

Shopkeeper Liu quickly answered yes.

Shu Qiuyu walked to the wooden car, and the clerk in the car quickly lifted the felt cloth for her, so that she could check the situation inside the car.

The wooden cart is built with several large square wooden boards, and all kinds of vegetables are neatly piled up. In order to keep them fresh, the top layer is sprinkled with a lot of water.

Shu Qiuyu walked to the third car and turned the cabbage on it with his hands.

"Master Shu." Shopkeeper Liu walked up with a smile and asked, "What are you doing?"

Shu Qiuyu clenched her cuffs nervously, and said calmly, "If you don't look through it, how will you know if you're going to pass it off as a good one? I've been in charge of internal affairs for a short time, so I have to be more cautious."

Shopkeeper Liu looked at her in silence for a moment, then suddenly showed a knowing smile.He stretched out his hand and led Shu Qiuyu to go around to the other side of the wooden cart, pointing to a small gap that was manually pulled out beside the cart, and said: "Cabbage is delicate and delicate, if you look through it too much, the leaves will be damaged by bumps, Shu Qiuyu If adults want to see the dishes on the lower floor, they can reach in from here and find out immediately."

Shu Qiuyu glanced at him, and then gritted her teeth. She didn't want Gingko's help, but bent down by herself, and reached out her hand into the small dark hole.

She first touched a rough wooden board, and the cabbage was placed on top of the board. There was a large space under the wooden cart. Shu Qiuyu reached out and probed inside, and found a hard and dry wooden box. .

Shu Qiuyu's heart skipped a beat, and she quickly withdrew her hand.

"How is it?" Shopkeeper Liu asked with a smile, "Is Mr. Shu satisfied?"

"It's...not bad." Shu Qiuyu forced a smile and said, "This dish is fresh. Besides His Majesty's, I will also send a serving to the Empress Dowager's kitchen."

"That's natural." Shopkeeper Liu said.

Shu Qiuyu didn't say any more, and ordered Ginkgo to put these into the account, and then walked in the opposite direction.

It wasn't until two miles away that Gingko tightly tightened the account book in her hand, and asked anxiously, "Miss, can we do this...?"

According to the rules, these things that come in from the outside should be checked roughly by the imperial guards at the palace gate, and then put into the warehouse of the inner secretary, and the special internal servants will check carefully to ensure that no dirty things from outside are mixed into the palace city.

Compared to the time at the gate of the palace, Neisi was the boss this time, but now that Shu Qiuyu made an extra trip by himself, it was tantamount to letting go of this trap, allowing these dozens of cars to flow into the palace city without going into the inner warehouse.

"There's nothing wrong with it." Shu Qiuyu said, "If I don't let you go, the Empress Dowager will naturally have a way to let me go."

"But the Empress Dowager is dragging Miss into the water." Gingko looked at it in private anxiously, and whispered: "The things she wants to bring in privately are definitely not good things. If His Majesty finds out, eat the leftovers first." Isn't it Miss?"

There's nothing to do about it, Shu Qiuyu sighed in her heart, besides listening to Ruan Yin, she has no other way to go now.

In fact, until the day when Shu Qinghui gave Jiang Xuan to Ning Yan, Shu Qiuyu still felt that she had a way to bring the entire Shu family back to the right path. As long as she was useful to Ning Yan, Ning Yan would always look at her for her sake , Turning a blind eye to some trivial matters of the Shu family.

But the long conversation with Shu Qinghui that night made her completely give up this view. It was also on that day that Shu Qiuyu suddenly realized that she was indeed far behind Shu Qinghui in terms of "survival in the officialdom".

"Even if the father refuses to help the empress dowager, what happened ten years ago has already been done." Shu Qinghui said: "Whether it is to win over the courtiers or bribe the servants, the empress dowager has all the evidence."

"That was all ten years ago." At that time, Shu Qiuyu still couldn't recover from Shu Qinghui's words, and said falteringly: "As long as father starts to be cautious in his words and deeds from today, the Shu family will not touch His Majesty." How can His Majesty dig out what happened ten years ago to make a fuss about it?"

"Don't touch His Majesty's bad luck—?" Shu Qinghui laughed strangely, and said, "How is it possible, my good daughter, when Your Majesty refuses to marry you, our bad luck has already been touched."

Shu Qiuyu subconsciously wanted to ask why, but before she could say anything, she suddenly realized it by herself.

The problem was that she didn't care about it, but Shu Qinghui took it very seriously.

If Ning Yan is willing to marry her according to the marriage contract, it not only means that he is willing to write off the wrong things that the Shu family has done, but also means that the imperial decree in Ruan Yin's hand is useless.

But if you don't marry—

Shu Qiuyu suddenly understood the predicament Shu Qinghui was facing, and also understood why he just heard about the fact that Ning Yan had a sweetheart in his heart, so he uncharacteristically stood firmly by Ruan Yin's side.

Ning Yan is a person who doesn't rub the sand in his eyes, and hates being restricted by others the most in his life. When Ruan Yin asked her to go over to inquire about the edict of the marriage contract, her intention was not to match the marriage, but to threaten her, but she was young at the time. , Ruan Yin didn't understand what Ruan Yin was saying, that's why Ruan Yin went to Shu Qinghui directly.

If the Shu family didn't stand by Ruan Yin's side to do things for her, Ruan Yin would choose a day to reveal the imperial decree to the world, forcing Ning Yan to marry Shu Qiuyu with the word "filial piety".

"So, based on what you know about His Majesty, what will he do?" Shu Qinghui lightly threw the question back to Shu Qiuyu and asked, "Should I submit obediently, or what will happen?"

——He will find a way to bring down the Shu family, to prove that the Shu family is not worthy of producing a queen, Shu Qiuyu thought.Ning Yan dared to embarrass the important officials in the court for the "sweetheart" in his heart, so he would not compromise for the sake of the Shu family's face.

It was at that moment that Shu Qiuyu realized that there were actually only two roads in front of the Shu family, one dangerous but full of life, and the other smooth but leading to a dead end, and Shu Qinghui was undoubtedly just taking a step before tearing his face apart. A choice is made.

Shu Qinghui had already made a choice, and Shu Qiuyu, bearing the exact same surname, couldn't help being shaken by it.

"I can only hope that the empress dowager can keep her word." Shu Qiuyu said, "If not, I have no other choice. These things were not brought in from here today, and they will be carried in the lining of different maids in the future. They were brought in in batches. If we wait until that happens, we will not have any initiative after the incident, so we might as well just open this door for the Empress Dowager and let her act more neatly, we still have to fight."

Ginkgo hesitated to speak, sighed, and hugged the ledger tightly.

Going back to the palace from the Yintai Gate, one has to pass through a long palace road.The sky gradually brightened up completely, and the cool morning sun mixed with the moist mist covered Shu Qiuyu's skirt with a thin layer.

After half an hour, when the sun has fully risen, the morning dew will completely disappear.The blazing sun will cover the land of Miyagi everywhere, making all the haze shy away, and you can only hide in a small corner behind the wall, without seeing the sun.

"It's dawn." Shu Qiuyu said suddenly.

"It's almost time." Ginkgo didn't know why she suddenly mentioned this, but she nodded and said, "It will be time to go to court in a while. It's been unnaturally hot recently, so I'm afraid I need to use ice in advance." .”

"Yes." Shu Qiuyu said in a low voice, "I hope midsummer will pass quickly."