Tanhualang

The carriage rumbled towards the gate of the palace, and the setting sun had gradually melted in the western sky.

From Suzhou to the capital, it was a long and boring journey of ten days; Shen Jing thought that after this journey, she would be so tired and limp as mud. There was a hint of joy of returning.

Even he himself was a little confused by this unexpected joy: for him, after his father passed away, he hadn't experienced this feeling of going home for many years.

Entered the mansion with mixed feelings.I wanted to meet Zhao Heng first, and told him that I was back, but the concierge told him that Zhao Heng had gone to the yamen for two days to do business and was not in the mansion.

"However, the housekeeper has already told you," the concierge said with a smile, "Mr. Shen will be arriving in a few days, so let us pay attention. Mr. Shen's luggage is in the car? Should it be moved to the west courtyard, or placed in the car?" somewhere else?"

Hearing this, Shen Jing felt even more warm in her heart, so she asked the concierge to help carry the luggage back to the west yard one by one.

The concierge put down his things and left, but Shen Jing stood under the window and looked carefully.

The yard was quiet and there was no one there.It's November, and the moss in the brick cracks in the courtyard has long since withered and turned yellow, and there are only a few dead leaves left on the apricot tree under the window.

I still remember that when I first entered the palace at the beginning of the year, I was brought to this courtyard by Wei Zheng, and I was also standing under this apricot tree.

Standing in this strange courtyard at that time, seeing the trees full of flowers, he could only force himself to be calm, but his heart was panicked and at a loss; now that the flowers have all fallen, the time that has passed for more than half a year is still in his hands. A rare peace was left in my heart.

Shen Jing sighed, and then simply put the luggage back.I took a rest after work and didn't feel very hungry, so I rolled up my sleeves and went into the kitchen in the small backyard, soaked the dried lake prawns specially brought from Suzhou, and cooked a pot of fresh noodle soup.

Before the noodles came out of the pot, I heard a loud "pop" clapping behind me. Xiao You walked in with a smile, pulled Shen Jing's sleeves, and looked up and down carefully. His face was full of joy of reunion: "Two I haven't seen you for a month, and our Jing'er looks even more beautiful."

"..." Shen Jing wanted to stare at him, but couldn't hold back her smile, "I haven't seen you for two months, but Steward Qian's mouth is still so unforgiving. I'm not afraid of talking too much."

"Not to mention, my tongue is really blessed." Xiaoyou leaned over to the pot and lifted the lid to smell it. "It smells delicious! Give me a bowl too!"

"It's not for you." Shen Jing pushed him aside, "If you don't accumulate some virtue, how can you get good luck?"

Even so, two bowls of hot noodle soup came out and they were served on a tray: "Let's go out and eat."

The two sat at the table in Shen Jing's room, and Xiao You handed the chopsticks to Shen Jing, took a bite and praised first: "It's really delicious-you can't help talking, Your Highness asked you when you will come back yesterday, I Let’s just say it’s only these two days. Don’t tell me I’ve already eaten the meal you cooked today——oh, where do you think I’m so lucky!”

"It's hard for you to save some blessings, and you have reported them to Shanhezui. Your Highness is busy these days?"

"Don't mention it." Xiaoyou pulled his face down as he said, "Winter is coming, and the Tartars are restless again. While bluffing to recruit horses from various ministries, they sent people to ask for money, food, cotton and cloth."

Shen Jing heard the words, stopped the chopsticks: "They saw that the court had just quelled the war, and they had enough energy to spare."

Xiao You sighed: "That's right, you've hit the point. If there is another war this year, it's not unbearable, but it will hurt your vitality. Now the Ministry of Rites has sent people to the north to appease and follow The Tartars haggled over prices. The imperial court was full of quarrels every day. The military department and the household department argued over whether to pay for the war, the military department argued whether to fight, and the household department argued about how much money to take."

As he spoke, he sighed again: "The news of the peace talks from the Ministry of Rites in the north is urgently reported back from eight hundred miles away every day. Since returning to the capital, His Highness hasn't had a good night's sleep. I'm so busy these two days that I simply won't go back to the mansion."

"Then why did you come back by yourself?"

"Come back and pack some clothes. After all, you don't live in the palace all the time. Your Highness is not used to many things." Xiao You hurriedly drank a few mouthfuls of soup before putting down his chopsticks. I've chatted with you a lot. Take a good rest first, and when you're done with your work, I'll clean up the dust for you."

Shen Jing put down the bowls and chopsticks and sent him out: "You and Your Highness take care of yourself. I also brought a few things from Suzhou, which I haven't packed yet. I'll give them to you when you come back."

"Well, keep it for me!" Xiaoyou turned her head and smiled, and hurriedly walked to the main courtyard.

After seeing Xiaoyou off, Shen Jing went to the back kitchen to boil water and took a shower, only then did she dissipate the weariness of the journey.

He packed up some luggage in the kitchen and room, but his hair was still wet, so he lit a candle, put on a robe, leaned on the chair, and while drying his hair, flipped through the books he brought back from Suzhou.

In the luggage that Shen Jing brought, apart from some local food and play in Suzhou, odds and ends such as snacks, pens, inks, paper and inkstones, paper-cuts, fans, embroidery, and cloth, most of the rest were books: he had read them before. Most of them were left by his father, and even many of them were copied and compiled by his father himself, such as recipes, opera lyrics, music scores, chess records, etc., all kinds of things.

What he is looking at now is a cookbook written by his father in the past.In addition to the ingredients and methods of common local specialties in Suzhou and Hangzhou, it also records many foreign dishes that his father had seen and eaten when he was a businessman.When I was a teenager, I didn't take it seriously when I heard my father talk about it, but now I think it's very interesting.

Just as he was watching with great interest, he heard a knock on the door outside.

Shen Jing put down the book, tied up her hair in a bun, tied up her robe belt, and walked out with a candlestick in her hand, asking, "Who is that?"

Someone outside responded vaguely. Shen Jing thought it was the concierge or the kitchen, but when he opened the door, he was stunned: "...Your Highness?"

When I was astonished, I hurriedly saluted and said hello.

Zhao Heng stood at the door, although there was a tired look between his brows and eyes, but he still had the calm and steady expression of the past. He looked Shen Jing up and down carefully: "You're back?"

"Yes." Shen Jing held the candlestick, "I haven't seen you for a long time, is your Highness well?"

"En." Zhao Heng responded, "Is your journey going smoothly?"

"Thanks to Your Highness, the journey went smoothly." Shen Jing replied, looked at Zhao Heng, and stepped aside, thinking that it was getting late, hesitated again, "Your Highness... Come in and sit for a while?"

Zhao Heng hesitated for a moment: "It's getting late, so Gu won't go in."

As he spoke, he still stood at the door, showing no intention of leaving: "Is everything in Suzhou settled properly?"

"It's all done." Shen Jing said, and suddenly remembered something, "Oh, by the way, General Xi Wei asked me to deliver a letter to His Highness before I came. I forgot to ask Xiao You to deliver it to His Highness. Your Highness, please come in and wait a moment."

As he spoke, he entered the room with a candlestick in his hand and rummaged through the desk.

Only then did Zhao Heng follow behind Shen Jing, slowly walked into the room, and sat down at the table, following Shen Jing's movements with his fixed gaze.Shen Jing searched for a while before taking out a thick letter from a stack of letters, together with a wooden box on the desk, turned around and put it in front of Zhao Heng: "Your Highness, take a look."

Zhao Heng picked up the letter, saw that the signature was indeed Xi Wei's name, opened it and glanced at it hastily, then put it away again, and looked at the wooden box on the table in front of him: "This is it?"

"Bringing some meager gifts from home is not a tribute, so please accept it with a smile." Shen Jing smiled, and got up to make tea, and brought a cup of fragrant tea to Zhao Heng in a moment, "It's getting late. Tea is not suitable for sleeping. Your Highness, please try this Hangbai chrysanthemum."

Zhao Heng responded, took the tea to his nose and sniffed it, tasted it briefly: "It's so strong."

He put down the tea bowl, opened the wooden box on the table, took out a stack of thread-bound books, carefully flipped through them one by one, and looked at Shen Jing in surprise: "There is still "Yiqilu". Where did you find such a rare copy?" Come?"

Shen Jing said: "My father collected these in the past. They have been stored in the old house."

After a pause, he said with emotion: "Speaking of which, I would like to thank that distant relative. In the past few years that the old house has been in his hands, most of the less valuable things have been collected and sold by him. On the contrary, the most valuable books are They all stayed."

Zhao Heng picked up the volume of "Playing Chess Records" and flipped through it again, feeling like he couldn't put it down: "I've been looking for this for a long time, but unfortunately I haven't found it. Thank you for letting go, I'm sorry."

Shen Jing laughed after hearing this: "As long as Your Highness likes it, you are welcome."

After finishing speaking, I remembered: "Didn't it mean that His Highness is staying in the palace these few days, what's the rush when he comes back?"

Zhao Heng was flipping through the book, when he heard this, he paused: "Come back alone—get something."

"Did Xiao come back with His Highness?"

"No." Zhao Heng put down the book, picked up the tea and took another sip, lowered his eyes and said, "I can't sleep alone. I came back on horseback on a whim."

"I heard from Xiaoyou that His Highness has been extremely busy with official duties recently?"

Zhao Heng rubbed his forehead and said casually: "It's okay. It's all commonplace things. It's just that those old people are arguing endlessly, which is really annoying."

Shen Jing heard the words, got up and said: "Your Highness, wait a moment."

But he rummaged through the box in the room for a long time, took out two things, and put them together with the box containing the books, "This is incense for calming the gods. It was brought back from the Western Regions by my former father. Although it is old, this is The older it gets the better. This is this year's new Chrysanthemum chrysanthemum, which has the effect of calming the nerves and helping sleep. Your Highness will give this to Xiaoyou. If you can't sleep at night, you can try it, it should be helpful."

"Okay, I've made a note of it." Zhao Heng looked at Shen Jing, looked into his room again, and said with a smile, "What other good things did you bring from Suzhou for Gu? Just take them out at once. Save time and time to find."

Shen Jing: "...that should be all there is."

After thinking for a while, he got up again: "...there really is something else. It's a pair of chess pieces with magnets. I'll go look for it again. Your Highness, wait a moment."

Zhao Heng: "..."

The luggage was in a mess, Shen Jing rummaged through the room for a long time this time, and finally found two chess pieces wrapped in leather from a pile of Suzhou embroidery.

When he lifted the curtain from the room excitedly holding the chess box, he saw that Zhao Heng was holding the volume of chess records in one hand and resting on the armrest of the chair with the other hand, with his head tilted to one side, and he had fallen asleep on the back of the chair. up.