Hypocrites

The literati in the Southern Dynasties were fond of chatting, judging their personal talents by sophistication, and literati made friends with those who were easy to talk.In the past in Ruyang, Shen Cui and Ma Xie's four schools, the seven sons of Shen's family were the best among them, and students were often proud of being able to join the party of seven and have several rounds of verbal battles with one of them.

Song Jun is the eldest of the Shen family's seven sons, not the most knowledgeable, but the oldest, and Shen Yu is the youngest.Cui Ji has passed the stage of being a student, and occasionally teaches in his own school, but he also knows a few well-known students in this class. Shen Yu and others know Cui Ji privately, and they all call him Mr. Cui.

Apart from Song Jun and Cui Ji, there was also a strange young man who was brought by Cui Ji.

"His name is Deng Yang," Cui Ji introduced, "he has lived in Wangdu City for generations, and he knows the way, and you can usually ask him to take you to play."

Deng Yang looked not much older than Shen Yu, with a straightforward personality, and soon became friends with Song Jun and Shen Yu.

"Ruyang's Four Schools are famous all over the world. I don't know how many young men want to climb the Dragon Gate every year." Deng Yang said happily, with bright eyes, "Unexpectedly, today I have the honor to meet disciples from Cui and Shen's Second Schools, and I will sit with you at the same table. Talking together is better than three years in the cold window."

Song Jun said humbly: "Where, it's just a false name that Duo received praise."

"It's not nonsense. Even the officials in Wangcheng want to send their children to the Four Schools. They say that three points of the Dao of the World are in the court and seven points are in the opposition. Everyone in the opposition knows that it is Ruyang."

Deng Yang also said: "I once heard that Lian Taiwei wanted to entrust his only son Lian Zhen to Master Xie Lan, and gave him a hundred pieces of silk, ten boxes of gold and jade, as well as rare calligraphy and paintings, and antique ceramics, but Lian Zhen couldn't recite it. The theory of equalizing things was politely rejected by Master Xie."

To put it bluntly, the meaning of contempt still made Taiwei Lian lose face.

"Furthermore," Deng Yang suddenly smiled at Cui Ji and Shen Yu, "Even the royal family is impressed by the Four Schools, didn't they even call the Four Schools to the Chu Palace to give lectures to Prince Heng?"

When he said this, Cui Ji couldn't help but know that Cui Xian entered the storage palace vertically and was carried out horizontally, half his life was almost tossed by the crown prince.Back then, Cui Ji reminded Shen Jin and his son not to follow Cui Xian's mistakes.

However, according to Shen Yu's current view, it was not the prince who played tricks, but rather the few yingyingyanyans who surrounded the prince all day long.Liang Heng's brain is not very bright, but his mind is not much.

Song Jun laughed and said: "Brother Deng also doesn't know something. My husband is a headache. His Highness is one of the best in the world and a hard-to-learn person. Mr. Shen is also a clever woman who can't cook without rice."

Deng Yang grew up in the imperial city. Although his family did not have any high-ranking officials, the youths in Wangcheng studied in only a few jingshe and study houses. He was able to get acquainted with many officials' children and heard many rumors.At that moment, Deng Yang recalled an anecdote and shared it with the three of them: "His Royal Highness used to skip classes when he was studying Confucian scriptures in the Jingshe. Nobles. Think about it, you can't beat them, you can't scold them, just let them go, if the Prime Minister and His Majesty take homework together, and the students don't know what to ask, the teacher will not be able to explain it."

What this said was that the three of them nodded in agreement, and they were all students taught under the stick.

"The scripture teacher complained to the parents," Deng Yang said, "Unexpectedly, the Prime Minister said, 'I'm busy, I don't have time to take care of it', and His Majesty said, 'If you don't want to study, forget it'."

He spread his hands.

Shen Yu, Song Jun and Cui Ji were all speechless.

It's no wonder that those two had no taboos in spending time and drinking, it turned out that no one controlled them at all.

For the sake of the venerable, after all, it is better not to spread the embarrassing stories of the royal family. Deng Yang brought the topic back to the scenery of Wangdu, and talked about the scenic spots for viewing flowers in spring and summer. Apart from the source of Heron in the north of the city, it is Qiuqianli Mansion in Nanluli, which occupies an area of ​​​​There are several hectares of vast fertile soil, planted with roses, and every time the moon of Oriole and Oriole blooms, it is called "the hedge of thorns".

Seeing that Huadu was so imposing in Wangdu, the three of them sighed for a while.Shen Yu then told Deng Yang about the scenery of Ruyang. There is no rose, but only four academies. Every fourth watch, just after the bright moon hangs high, there is a burst of sound of books, known as "rooster crowing".

Deng Yang laughed so much that the tea spilled all over the floor.

The four of them made an appointment to go to Nanlu to see flowers together in the next flowering period, and the first tea party broke up.

Cui Ji didn't think of anything until he was out of the book shop, and asked Shen Yu about the maid in the empress's womb.

When he asked, Shen Yucai realized that Liang Heng never seemed to use a maid, and was surrounded by a group of eunuchs.

"Not a single maid?" Cui Ji reconfirmed.

"Mr. Cui has also been there?"

Cui Ji: "After staying for only two days, I packed up the bedding with my father and left. I don't know how many rooms there are in the palace. How can I know the palace people?"

Shen Yu said helplessly: "Why does it seem that I am very familiar with erotic palaces. Why are you asking this?"

After hesitating for a while, Cui Ji showed Shen Yu a silk embroidered handkerchief. It seemed to be an old item. The original plain color was yellowed, and it was stained with many stains. It seemed that it had not been properly preserved.

"You know that I originally had an older brother who went to seek a job in the royal capital. I haven't contacted my family for many years. This time I went to Wangdu City with my father to find out about his current situation. I heard that he was waiting for an edict to enter the palace. Jiaoqi met a court lady, and the two had a very close relationship. My elder brother had plans to start a family. But after that, he disappeared again, and his colleagues back then did not know where he is now, so they just left him behind. A handkerchief was given to us, probably from that maid. I want to use this handkerchief to inquire about the whereabouts of the maid, and maybe I can find my elder brother."

Shen Yu has also heard about the situation of the Cui family. Cui Yi, the eldest brother of the Cui family, was also stubborn and unruly in the past. .

Unexpectedly, there has been no reconciliation for many years.

Cui Ji sighed, obviously very disappointed: "If you can't find any result after asking the palace and the prince's palace, that woman must have left the palace, maybe married my brother and started a new life."

Cui Yi was said to be an elder of the same age as Shen Jin, and Shen Yu couldn't comment on it, so he could only promise Cui Ji to help find out if he had the opportunity.

However, Shen's father and son were treated coldly, and Shen Yu himself was somewhat reluctant to step into the Chu Palace again.Talking about helping Cui Ji inquire, I don't know what year and month it will be.

The summer was scorching hot, and Shen Yu was reading through the security policies under the woody and rattan trellises in the east courtyard. The summer melons had been frozen in the well water, and the servants cut them and opened them by his hand.

The sun was hot on the bamboo slips, and he pulled away from the immobile state of stone sculptures after reading, and tied the braided rope that was about to be worn out. When he looked up, he saw two people standing under the corridor——

Liang Heng was smiling at him.

Shen Yu was taken aback.

"Your Highness doesn't want to disturb you when I see you reading." Song Jun invited Liang Heng to sit under the flower stand. The bamboo mat under the shade of the trees was still cool. "I'm really sorry to have to wait so long."

Shen Yu was at a loss for words for a while, he couldn't imagine how Liang Heng would come and look at Song Jun, Song Jun winked at him without knowing what to say.

Liang Heng said: "You were bitten by a mosquito."

Shen Yu: "Huh?"

Liang Heng leaned over to pull his sleeve, Shen Yu reflexively wanted to grab it, but Liang Heng just rolled up his sleeve to check his arm, and sure enough there were several red and swollen bumps.

Probably because I was accidentally bitten by summer insects while studying, and I didn't realize it yet.

Liang Heng couldn't understand: "Don't you feel pain?"

His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has thin skin and tender flesh, and the many threads in his robes feel like a nuisance.He took out a medicine jade bottle from his arms, and when he opened it, there was a strong smell of plaster.Liang Heng dipped a little bit with his finger, and wanted to smear Shen Yu's swollen skin, but Shen Yu immediately pulled his hand: "No way!"

"Then you paint it yourself." Liang Heng was kind and handed him the bottle.

Shen Yu: "..."

"I see that you seemed to be out of your mind just now. You were so intent on reading the scroll. What is it that you read so interesting that you didn't even know you were bitten?" Liang Heng curiously went to pick up the scroll of bamboo slips that Shen Yu put down. , Seeing a line of seal script at the beginning of the scroll, I recognized it as a security policy.

He has also read this article-the ancient king, the prince was born, he insisted on propriety, and the envoys carried it.

At the beginning, he didn't understand why the crown prince had to appear in the sky when he was born. He asked his master, and the master said, the prince is too great to inherit the destiny of heaven to replace the herdsmen of heaven. He is an important person in a country, and only Nanjiao Jitian recognizes his status.

Hearing Duan Yanling sneer and say shit, when the prince of this dynasty was born, there had never been any spectacular ceremony of offering sacrifices to the heavens in the southern suburbs, nor had there been any natural phenomena or wonders from the earth. Separately, no one took him seriously.Forget it, he said that the master is pedantic and rigid, not worth listening to, and dragged Liang Heng to go shopping. Liang Heng still doesn't know the meaning of this sentence.

After Shen Yu applied the medicine, he couldn't understand what Liang Heng was thinking. He offended him more than once or twice, and every time he thought that the crown prince would punish him, Liang Heng always acted stupidly, as if he didn't notice his offense.

"Your Highness just give up, why?" Shen Yu asked.

Liang Heng pointed to the security policy and asked him: "Can you understand this article? Do you know its meaning?"

Shen Yu and Song Jun looked at each other, Public Security Policy was one of Shen Jin's collections, both of them had read it in their spare time.Looking at the orderly ink characters on the blue slips, Shen Yu suddenly felt blessed: "I know, what do you want to ask?"

"The king of ancient times, the crown prince was born... He was seen in the southern suburbs, and he was seen in the sky." Liang Heng was able to recite the whole sentence, but he had a pretty good memory. "Why do you want to see the crown prince in the sky? What a good thing, he is the only youngest son in the world." Can you get it?"

Unexpectedly, Liang Heng would ask such a question. Song Jun was very surprised and wanted to hear his junior's answer. Shen Yu was young, but his mind was the most flexible among all the students in the school.

"Not only to see it to the sky, but also to make people bear it," Shen Yu spread out the green bamboo slips, so that the text of that sentence appeared in front of Liang Heng for the first time, "to make Sangong and Sanshao understand filial piety, benevolence and righteousness, To drive away evil people, not to see evil deeds. Your Highness, you were born to see right things, hear right words, and do right things. In order to make you the most upright person in the world, and become a gentleman who understands filial piety, benevolence, and righteousness. Big Ren."

He stared at Liang Heng's eyes again, just to make sure that he was not distracted, but Liang Heng's palms were sweating suddenly, and he became nervous.

"Because you are the avenue of the world, the country's record, and the people's expectation."

"Husband, Master said," Liang Heng's speech was a little awkward, he could be reprimanded by Shen Yu, but it was difficult for him to place his expectations on him, "Appoint people on their merits, if a person like me can become the expectation of all people, then what are you?"

Shen Yu smiled with a gentle expression: "Liang Heng is the crown prince, but the crown prince is not Liang Heng. The crown prince is the symbol of the dynasty, and I am one of the tens of thousands of subjects who assist the dynasty. I can be your Highness's support."

A butterfly looking for fragrance passed through the three of them and landed on the woody vine.Song Jun got up to leave and went to prepare herbal tea.Under the pergola, only Shen Yu and Liang Heng faced each other.

Today's Liang Heng made Shen Yu feel that it was unusual, but a few days ago, when he was persuaded to learn by such a long speech, not to mention turning his face and leaving, he would pretend, or really didn't understand, and get away with it.Today, however, I sat down and listened to it carefully, and even seemed quite serious about it.

"You're pretty good at talking." Liang Heng raised his head to look at the person opposite, then lowered his head again, fingering the gaps in the bamboo mat.

Shen Yu: "..."

"I came today to ask Mr. Shen to continue his lecture," Liang Heng said, "but Mr. asked me to come to you and get your permission first."

Shen Yu suspected that he heard it wrong: "What did you say?"

Liang Heng grabbed Shen Yu's hands across the tea table, and said earnestly, "Shen Yu, come back and accompany me to study!"

His palms were sweaty and greasy, and his cheeks were blushing with embarrassment. Shen Yu was stared at by his burning eyes, and suddenly became a little nervous, as if he was being entrusted with an important task in the world.