Surrounded by strong ministers

Following behind a group of imperial nephews, Xiao Zong turned onto the snack street.

The hustle and bustle of the snack street is quite different from the hustle and bustle of street stalls selling all kinds of groceries, gadgets, precious gadgets along the way.Various boilers and ovens are tightly packed on both sides of the not-so-spacious street, and the slightest chill in the late autumn night is warmed by the fire and steaming heat, and the air is filled with the aroma of various rice noodles and nuts.

Tired of eating all kinds of exquisite delicacies in the imperial dining room, His Royal Highnesses of the Zhou Dynasty, when they first smelled the unique fragrance of rough grains, they swallowed instinctively, and rushed to the food stall. .

Although this street is not big, there are quite a lot of people, and it is different from the previous streets. The crowds of people in the past are more people who join in the fun than pay money, but almost no one enters this street. Those who don't pay money.Men, women, young and old, big girls, handsome guys, gathered around the stalls to taste delicious food for money.Several of Xiao Zong's nephews wandered around the crowd, and Xiao Jun, who was always more flexible and darting, moved from the crowded stall of this family to the small stall of the third floor of the family, which was still crowded with people. I walked around several houses, but I couldn't get to the front, so I had to turn my head and look at his uncle sadly.

Xiao Zong looked at the crowd surrounded by layer after layer, feeling very helpless, subconsciously turned his head to look at Taifu.

Seeing the expectant look in the emperor's eyes, Han Su reached out his hand to dig into his sleeve, took out a money bag from inside, grabbed a handful of copper coins and scattered silver on the ground without saying a word, Xiao Zong heard a A calm voice called out faintly: "Who lost the money."

The crowd around to buy snacks suddenly turned around and squatted down in a large area, there was a commotion, when everyone straightened up again, Han Su had already bought some pastries and returned to Xiao Zong's side.

Xiao Zong was a little stunned, took the cakes and snacks handed over by the Tai Tuo, looked at the plain and refined face in front of him, and always felt that the scene just now was not real.

"Teacher Han is a good move." Sima Xian put his hand behind Xiao Zong's side, and with a slight smile, he said leisurely: "I have heard the name of the capital 'Mr. In front of my elder brother and me, my father often praised Taifu, who is unparalleled in knowledge, knowledge and resourcefulness, and often used Taifu Han as an example to supervise and admonish my brother and me." He raised his eyebrows and raised his lips. If you are famous, you will share the worries of the world in the court, but you will be resourceful when you are in the court."

The trick Han Su used just now is really a quick-witted one, and it can't afford Sima Xian's hat to buckle down, and Taifu Han's wisdom is a bit biased, and it is not elegant and romantic. These words are somewhat contradictory.Xiao Zong frowned slightly when he heard this, a little uncomfortable.

Han Su didn't seem to care, and smiled frankly at Prince Chu: "It's a small trick, it's not worth it." Then he turned to Xiao Zong, "Does the Fourteenth continue to go to the inner street?"

Xiao Zong turned his eyes and looked at the crowds of people moving along the street in front of him. The more they went in, the more crowded they were. If they really wanted to move forward, they would either be scattered or get stuck in the middle of the road, "I can't go." Calling a few nephews to his side, he divided up the cakes obtained by Han Su's fraud, and exited the snack street with a few small bodies.

Walking out of the small street, I don’t know if the temple fair has reached a certain climax, the bustling crowds are getting more and more crowded, Xiao Zong sees that the street is full of people’s heads, no matter how interesting the temple fair is, he can’t afford it once every five years If you keep squeezing like this, you don't intend to continue to join in the fun.

Sima Xian frowned when he heard that the emperor was going back to the palace. After a long while, he seemed to sigh lightly, and said lightly, it's rare for the Fourteenth Master to go out, so it's a pity to go back so soon.When the Fourteenth Master was parading around the street with Mr. Han, he seemed to be having a good time, but since he broke in halfway, it seemed that the Fourteenth Master's interest was not high.He seemed to sigh again, and seemed to be talking to himself, asking if it was because his appearance swept away Xiao Zong's elegance.

When the second son of the King of Chu was mocking himself like this, as if he was asking himself and waiting for others to answer his questions, Xiao Zong just turned around, and was about to ask the Tai Tuo which way is the shortest and most convenient way to go back to the palace. Hearing this suddenly, he subconsciously frowned and stroked his forehead, he didn't quite understand what the Second Young Master Chu was trying to say.

Just as he was thinking whether he should act as if he didn't hear it or turn around and deal with it, a certain kid chewed a mouthful of cakes and had already responded one step ahead of him.

Xiao Jun's voice was not loud, and his articulate words were still a bit slurred, but he was very straightforward, and said to Sima Xian, "You are so self-aware."

Xiao Zong thought it was better for him to pretend he hadn't heard anything, so he continued to ask Han Su that his car was parked at the entrance of Sheng'an Street, which street to walk to avoid crowds.

Han Su glanced around, but there was nothing he could do, and said, they are in the middle of the temple fair right now, and there are probably people everywhere around them.

Xiao Zong sighed slightly when he heard this, and was resigned to his fate, planning to relive the horror of the crowds when they crowded all the way.At this time, Sima Xian, who was frowning for a long time after being blocked by Xiao Jun's words, interjected lightly, saying that at the second fork ahead, you can turn into Qifeng Street, and the stalls there are all rustic and vulgar. People, things are rough and can't be put on the table. He has been on that street before, and there are relatively few people.

Han Su thought for a while, and told Xiao Zong that Qifeng Street could lead to Sheng'an Street.

Xiao Zong and his entourage squeezed together and walked forward for a while, onto the Qifeng Street.

The small street is indeed as Sima Xian said, it is not crowded. On the ten-foot street just entering the street, there are groups of common people bargaining with the stall owners to buy and sell some gadgets. Let's go. After a while, Xiao Zong glanced around. Except for the stalls on both sides, there were few pedestrians on the street. Contained in the throat, both sides of bargaining and insuring the price are not very active, which is very different from the bustle and bustle of the place where the lights are bright like daytime and the voices of people have been seen along the way.

Xiao Zong narrowed his eyes slightly, and looked forward, he was out of the palace tonight, he was full of people, suddenly the surroundings became quiet, he was not used to it.

"This street is really quiet." Han Su frowned slightly beside Xiao Zong, looking around.

Xiao Zong glanced at a stall that was passing by. There were some odds and ends of bamboo wares on the stall, which looked like ordinary household items. The bamboo wares were shiny with oil, so they should be some second-hand goods. He saw something missing at another stall just now. The wine jug with the bowls and dishes missing from the mouth, as Sima Xian said, the things are not very good.

"Taifu Han knows the reason just by looking at what is sold here." Sima Xian followed Xiao Zong's other side with his hands behind his back, and said with a smile, "The temple fair only comes once every three years, and everyone is looking for rare things. The goods are here, even if you don’t have any money to buy them, it’s a pleasure to watch them do it, and naturally few people care about this place.” He replied to Han Su, but when he spoke, he glanced at him with his slender eyes. It was Xiao Zong.

Han Su glanced at Sima Xian indifferently, and then said: "Mr. Sima is right, the streets and alleys are full of old and unsightly things, and it really doesn't attract anyone. I don't know why you were interested in it before." Walking around here, can't it be that you are not familiar with the streets and lost your way?"

Sima Xian shifted his eyes to Han Su, twitched the corner of his mouth, and said with a thin smile, "Teacher Han is really good at predicting things, and I was really confused when I turned into this small alley before, but fortunately, I was confused by this one." Now, knowing that there is such a quiet place in the busy city, the Fourteenth Lord doesn't have to suffer in the crowd outside." The corners of his eyes raised slightly, and he glanced at Xiao Zong again.

Since Xiao Zong entered this lonely small street, he was a little absent-minded. Apart from taking care of the few nephews running ahead from time to time, most of the time he just looked at the small stalls on both sides of the street. Although he was careless, he hadn't arrived yet. Unaware of the people and affairs around him, he knows what the Taifu said to Sima Xian, and he also knows when there are always glances at him from the side.

Xiao Zong turned his head slightly, and Sima Xian beside him was looking at him with a pair of slender eyes.

Slender eyebrows and phoenix eyes are usually slightly raised up, and the jade face is thin and smiling, it seems that it is not very different from the past, but I don't know if it is related to the dim lights in the streets, Xiao Zong looked at the stunning face approaching him, and felt that he was more beautiful than ever. Eye-catching.The two pupils in Sima Xian's elongated eyes were unusually bright and sharp at the moment, which made the faint gloomy aura between his brows even darker in the darkness, and the slightly raised corners of his lips reflected the raised eyebrows, In the dim light, within a short distance of Xiao Zong, there is a bit of indescribable obscurity and beauty.

His clear eyes are sharp and faint like a knife, but his expression is inexplicable and unpredictable.

Xiao Zong frowned unconsciously.

"My minister is being abrupt." Sima Xian smiled, rolled his eyes, and said in a low voice.

As for the fact that the second son of the King of Chu refused to calm down at night, and rushed out of the hall to come to him, Xiao Zong was almost [-]% sure that it was a coincidence made by humans.Why did the second son of Chu have such a coincidence? Xiao Zong thought about it a few times. He reckoned that it was because of the old matter of uniting Chu against Qin. His rhetoric is inevitable, and it is reasonable to encourage him to say a few words about why the King of Qin should not stay.

Xiao Zong originally expected this, and he waited for Sima Xian to speak to him along the way. If Sima Xian did speak, then he would have two sentences for him to convey to the King of Chu. The first sentence was that he felt the loyalty of the King of Chu. In other words, King Qin's presence in the capital is not just his bargaining chip for the Northwest.

He believed these two sentences, and my uncle could understand them.

However, he waited for a long time for Sima Xian to show his purpose. Now that Qifeng Street has passed halfway, the bright lights of Sheng'an Street can be seen in front of him, but the prince of Chu is still there, and he doesn't seem to mention King Qin. Xiao Zong couldn't help but be a little puzzled, his pseudonymous cousin took a lot of trouble to get his whereabouts, so it's not possible that he really came here by strolling with him and crowding the streets?

Just as he was thinking to himself, there was a shout from somewhere: "Everyone who passes by, please come and see, our bone carving decorations and bone carvings are authentic Northwest products, with excellent workmanship, and we are the only one in the imperial city."

Xiao Zong subconsciously stopped in his tracks, followed the sound and saw a small flag hanging on a bamboo pole in front of a stall a few feet ahead - the first bone in the Northwest.

Pausing slightly, Xiao Zong thought, some things might really be indelible, even if you don't want to remember them.

The memories sunk deep in the depths have been going on for a long time, even if it seems to be the past now, it is not easy to forget.

In that fateful meeting 14 years ago, I met a young man who should have been unable to hit the same number of poles. At the very beginning, he would go against his father's will and speak out boldly and plead for the young man in the Daming Palace. Pity for a desperate creature who is about to die innocently in the game between his father and the pre-Qin king.Later, when he grew up, he glimpsed the jagged alien characters carved on the plum tree in the corner of Xinyang Palace, and sometimes he would ask himself whether his past compassion was really the benevolence of a woman as Prince Rui said.

Most of the time, he doesn't want to think too much about this issue, or it is actually a kind of woman's kindness.

For half a year in the deep palace, the bitter cold in winter and the scorching heat in summer, the cold corner of the imperial palace is different from the fatigue and worries when facing blood relatives. He can talk and smile with confidence. Those things that he couldn't ask for from his brothers and sisters, or what he wanted but didn't dare to have, in eight months, he experienced some and kept some in his heart.

He didn't know if it was because of that, when he was clearly young at the beginning, those memories seemed to have imprinted on his heart, and they could be sealed for a while, but they wouldn't disappear.

Or, it is because the ten years of Xinyang Palace he chose was too plain, peaceful and lonely, so that after many years, he still remembers the little bit of true meaning he tasted when he was young, and he still broods on it today. , can't let go and can't let go.

He reminded himself more than once that he should let go and not be attached anymore, but he never seemed to let go and not be attached.

At this moment, he had already sealed the seal of the prince with the animal bone, but just because of a yell in the market, many memories came flooding back.

The resoluteness of the boy when he insisted on giving him the seal.

The solemnity on the tense face when carving the name on the tree.

The serious and persistent tone when asking him to remember his name.

When he took off the jade pendant that he carried with him and handed it out, there was a hint of joy in those slender pupils.

The people and things settled in the memory seemed to have taken root, making him unable to let go, Xiao Zong thought, he was really indecisive.

"what happened?"

Han Su saw that the emperor was absent-minded looking at the stall that dared to say that he bought and sold the best bone carvings in the Northwest, but the shop was dilapidated and a little out of shape, so he leaned closer and asked in a low voice.

"It's nothing." Xiao Zong collected his attention, turned his eyes away, and continued walking, his pace couldn't help but become faster.

Sima Xian glanced at the stall, then looked at Xiao Zong, seemingly thoughtful, and followed the emperor without saying anything.When passing by the bone carving stall, he suddenly grabbed Xiao Zong's elbow with one hand, and led him to the stall, "Since Fourteenth Master has something you like, you might as well take a look."

Han Su frowned slightly when he saw Meifeng.

Approaching the stall, Sima Xian glanced at all kinds of weird ornaments on the stall, and frowned: "It's the best bone in the Northwest." There was no lack of meanness to the stall owner, "The bone carvings in the Northwest are also somewhat famous. They are all like yours, they are so rough, and where there are people who buy them, they have to get their own bones and go home and make two cuts."

Xiao Zong stood in front of the booth, he was still a little distracted, when Sima Xian dragged him over, he just looked around, but he really didn't see anything good.Even if there was something exquisitely carved in front of him, he would not buy it.

The stall owner described him as fierce and tough, with a bit of arrogance. He was probably a foreign race in the northwest. He glanced at Sima Xian, his expression a little tense, "The good things are in the cabinets. I want to see them. Let's see them." Just take it out." He bent down and fumbled.

Just as Xiao Zong wanted to say that there is no need to bother, he just raised his eyes, and there was a cold and sharp look on his face, and a cold light with murderous intent threatening people.

"Escort!"

Han Su yelled loudly, the chaotic breath blowing in his ears made him unsteady on his feet and fell backwards.