If you want to enter the palace, you must first leave the palace

Two days before the Queen Mother's birthday.

After flushing all the toilets, Bei Juese sat bored on the stone steps in the courtyard in a daze.In the past few days, Song Gongbao put all his energy into preparing the birthday banquet, and he couldn't spare time to come to tease his "Xiao Beibei", and the place where Xiangfang was sent was immediately much more peaceful.Song Gongbao didn't come to harass her, and Jing'er was too busy preparing for the birthday banquet, so she didn't have time to go to the Yangxin Garden. Bei Juese, who had nothing else to do except wash the toilet, could only stay bored in the incense room, listening to everyone The eunuchs who also had nothing to do told all kinds of gossip in the palace.

It is said that there were originally two empress dowagers in the current dynasty, one was the empress dowager Rensheng, the current emperor's aunt, that is, the empress Chen of the first emperor;

And this time it was the Empress Dowager Rensheng who celebrated her birthday. It is said that she was weak and sick and unable to give birth. She always regarded the emperor as her own child and loved him very much.Therefore, the emperor is not only respectful but also very filial to this aunt, and the birthday banquet of the empress benevolent empress dowager was also organized by the emperor himself.

However, all these royal gossips are meaningless to the lowly eunuch Bei Juese.He is most concerned about whether he will have to wash more toilets than usual on the Queen Mother's birthday, and whether he will be able to see Jing'er after the birthday party.Since she gave Shoutu to Jing'er that day, she hasn't appeared.After the queen mother's birthday banquet, you should be able to meet her and teach her to embroider flowers, right?

As dusk approached, Eunuch Bai, the supreme leader of the Agricultural Academy, came back humming an out-of-tune tune with a smile all over his face.As soon as he came back, Eunuch Bai summoned all the eunuchs under his command into the hall, threw out several big cloth bags, and ordered: "You must hang and arrange all the things here tonight, and there must be no omissions! "

Everyone gathered around to open the cloth bag and took out the contents, all of which were huge birthday couplets, birthday scrolls and the like; most of the papers on which the birthday wishes were written were red or gold, and the bottom of the paper was lined with Brightly colored cloth; longevity is written on red or silk or silk or velvet cloth with golden words of congratulations on birthdays.

On the day of the Empress Dowager's birthday, Huang En finally made his way to the Farming Academy.

The emperor has a decree that everyone in the world celebrates the queen mother's birthday, and specially bestows the emperor's grace to let the palace people from all rooms and courtyards in the palace rest for a day, and they all go to celebrate the queen mother's birthday.

Before dawn, the eunuchs in the agricultural courtyard got up to wash and get ready.For this group of eunuchs who have no status, it is a rare opportunity to meet high-level figures in the palace once a year. Being able to celebrate the Queen Mother's birthday today is a great opportunity to get in touch with high-level figures.With such thoughts in mind, they tried their best to dress themselves up beautifully.That's right, it's beautiful, for them, only by putting on makeup and powder can they show their natural charm, and they will have more chances to win the favor of high-level officials...

When the day began to light up, Eunuch Bai appeared.This supreme leader obviously came out to meet people after a lot of careful dressing, look at the thick powder on his face, the thick rouge on his lips, and the big red flower specially pinned on his chest Just know.

This group of talented people who are flamboyant and coquettish makes Bei Juese look embarrassing and energetic.Fortunately, he doesn't need to follow the brigade to dress up as a flower peacock, he just needs to follow the brigade to celebrate the Queen Mother's birthday.

Under the leadership of Eunuch Bai, everyone in the farm room—except Cong Tou and Bei Jue Se—all set out for their destination with hope and joy.

After walking out of the Agricultural Affairs Institute, I found that the palace is decorated with lanterns and festoons, and various bright birthday couplets and scrolls are hung to celebrate birthdays. In some places, there are also giant birthday screens.Every place in the palace is full of festive and auspicious atmosphere, and you can see palace people busy walking around carrying things everywhere. The luxurious momentum of the emperor's house is really unimaginable for ordinary people.

Bei Jue Se, who had never seen such a scene, looked around curiously.He has grown up so much, and he has never seen anyone celebrate his birthday in such a big way. In the past, on his birthday every year, the only way to celebrate was to eat a bowl of shredded pork and egg noodles cooked by his master; the only gift was A new set of clothes made by Master. Now that Master has passed away, I may not even be able to eat noodles for my birthday in the future, let alone a gift.Thinking of this, Bei Juese's expression darkened, and he was not interested in looking around anymore.

Congtou, who was walking in front, noticed that Bei Juese was only looking around, and was getting slower and slower behind the team. He turned around and just saw Bei Juese's dejected expression.He stood upright, and when Bei Juese came up, he knocked on it, and said, "What are you dreaming about just after getting up? The palace is huge, don't get lost!"

Bei Juese came back to his senses, touched his head and said dissatisfiedly: "How can I sleepwalk? Me, I just thought of my master."

"Oh?" Onion was surprised.This kid has never said anything about himself, but today he took the initiative to talk about something related to himself?Well, let's take this opportunity to trick him.

A sinister smile flashed across Cong Tou's face, and he glanced at the people walking in front, seeing that no one was looking back, so he walked up to Bei Juese and asked in a low voice, "Your master? Did he teach you how to embroider?" people?"

Bei Juese didn't notice Onion's ulterior motives, so he nodded and said, "Yes."

Onion then asked: "Since you have a master, why didn't you follow him and why did you go to the palace?"

After getting along for a period of time, Bei Juese no longer had any wariness towards Onion, so he said honestly: "Master passed away, and the old man handed me over to the brothers to take care of me before he died, but later..." Speaking of the brothers, he The elder brother's words "You just obey me" popped up in his head reflexively, trembled involuntarily, and stopped talking.He really didn't want other people to know about the part about the elder brother.

Onion saw the change in his face, but still asked deliberately: "But what happened after that?"

Bei Juese hesitated a few times, and said hesitantly: "Later, later, I entered the palace."

Seeing Bei Jue Se's expression, Cong Tou didn't force him to continue, but just looked at him seriously and said: "You can't tell the truth casually in the palace, so I have taught you before?"

Facing Onion who suddenly became serious, Bei Juese didn't know what happened, but he quickly replied: "Yes."

Congtou said: "As long as you have it. If someone in the palace asks about your origin, you can't tell the truth." After finishing speaking, he walked forward with an unfathomable expression on his face, and let the bewildered expression of Bei Juese hang out in the air. to the back.When Onion said this, he had his own plan.It is not really for his own benefit to prevent Bei Juese from revealing his background, the biggest purpose is to prevent his senior brother Dong Wudi from finding someone so easily.A little eunuch of unknown origin and few people knew could hide silently in the palace for a long time.

Thinking of Dong Wudi running around the world looking for people like a headless chicken, Cong Tou couldn't help laughing from his heart.Bei Juse, who didn't see through his thoughts at all, began to think seriously about what he said.

After wandering around the palace for a long time, he finally came to the place where he celebrated the Queen Mother's birthday.

However, looking at the majestic and neatly lined up crowd in front of him, Bei Jue Se couldn't help being stunned.The queue of people lined up straight into the several palace gates in front, with no end in sight, only a mass of black heads.

The eunuchs from the Farming Academy were at the end of the line.The place where they were standing and the place where the Empress Dowager held the birthday banquet were separated by at least seven or eight high and thick palace walls.

A certain eunuch asked with the last hope: "We are here, waiting to take turns to go in to celebrate the Queen Mother's birthday, right?"

Eunuch Bai snorted, and said, "Good idea! Does the Queen Mother let people see you casually? Do you think your status is as bad as mine? You stay here obediently. When you see the people in front of you doing whatever you want, follow along." Just do it, don't lose the face of the Farming Institute." After finishing speaking, Eunuch Bai swept the group of eunuchs under him with a proud posture, and walked forward along the crowd with his head held high.

However, as soon as he walked to the nearest heavy palace gate, he was blocked by a figure dressed as a guard of the forbidden palace.He seemed to be arguing or negotiating with the guard, but the guard still resolutely refused to let him go.

Seeing Eunuch Bai walking back dejectedly with his head down, Onion said, "Eunuch Bai, it seems that your status is the same as ours."

The other eunuchs in the Agricultural Academy couldn't help laughing.Eunuch Bai didn't dare to get angry with Cong, so he could only vent his depression on other people: "What are you laughing at! Stand up for me!"

At this time, there was a muffled sound of horns from the heavy palace gate.Hearing the sound of the horn, the people in front began to kneel one after another, and Eunuch Bai hurriedly said, "It's started, all of you kneel down!"

In the main hall with the birthday hall separated by several layers of palace walls, it was very lively, and all the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty who came to celebrate the birthday with rich gifts stood outside the hall from inside the hall.

The two sides of the main hall are decorated with lanterns and festoons like other places, and are full of graceful and luxurious birthday couplets and scrolls; piles of birthday bags, birthday noodles and other items are placed around the hall.On the front wall of the main hall is a large picture of "a stroke of longevity", and on both sides are vivid and huge pictures of the Eight Immortals celebrating their birthdays.

In front of the word "One stroke of longevity" is a generous table covered with colorful brocade. On the table are placed jade pots, gold cups, silver chopsticks, seasonal fresh fruits, delicate snacks, pink longevity bags with leaves in the shape of peaches, etc. Items, among which are dotted with blooming flowers.

A middle-aged lady with a benign face and a benevolent smile was sitting behind the square table, wearing an emerald, pearl, and golden phoenix crown, earrings with gold and jade earrings, and a red court dress with a collar and double-breasted sleeves.Sitting on her right is a middle-aged beautiful woman who is also wearing a red court dress, with golden phoenix hairpins on her head and golden bead earrings, with a serious expression and slightly raised eyebrows; A beautiful boy with a crown, a yellow robe and a cute smile.

Sitting in the middle is today's birthday star - Empress Dowager Rensheng.