Tranquility

The man seemed to be much older. Although his appearance hadn't changed much, his eyes were deeper and there were wrinkles between his brows.

The banquet had reached its climax, and the wine was at its peak, and everyone gradually let go of it, or enjoyed a lot of poetry, or played chess for a drink, or hooked shoulders, and became less fearful of the master sitting on the main seat.

When everyone was drunk, he was the only one, dressed in a bright red official uniform, sitting upright, like still water running deep.

Suddenly his deep pool-like pupils fluctuated slightly, and turned to Gao Run's direction in an instant.

The two looked at each other for a moment, and Gao Run's heartbeat suddenly rose. He hid behind a tree in a panic, not daring to poke his head, hoping that the other party would not notice.

Tang Ning seldom drank alcohol, even after keeping his filial piety, he was given a lot of alcohol today, even if the purity of ancient alcohol was very low, he began to feel dizzy.

Tangning was rubbing the center of her brows, but when she lowered her head, she realized that Xiao Hei had jumped into the wine cup at some point, and he would have already pulled out the wine cup and punched drunk.

Tangning reached out to grab it, but failed to catch it twice. Xiao Hei seemed to have turned into two. He didn't feel good, so he jumped on Xiao Hei for the third time, poked its little head, and said, "We two It's too much, go, sober up with me, and wash away the smell of alcohol on your body by the way..."

Gao Run stayed behind the tree for a while, and only dared to poke his head out after his heartbeat calmed down, but he saw that the person on the main seat had disappeared, and his heart was empty. He was trying to search, when suddenly he was patted on the shoulder.

He turned his head and bumped into a pair of deep eyes.

Time stopped in an instant with his heartbeat——

Gao Run's eyes were full of reflections on the person in front of him, his true love, his teacher...

For a moment, and for eternity, Gao Run came back to his senses, turned around suddenly, and was about to run towards the side door...

The white sleeves brushed against the red official uniform, and there was only a momentary lingering moment. At the moment of separation, Xu Yuan suddenly moved. He grabbed Gao Run's hand and pulled it hard——

Caught off guard, Gao Run turned around and threw himself into his chest.

Pressed by a pair of strong hands on the back, Gao Run seemed to have lost the ability to breathe, but tears dripped from the corners of his eyes. This embrace was the one he thought about day and night, and it was as warm as he had imagined countless times. Intoxicated.

This moment was the happiest moment in his life. Gao Run felt that even if he was going to die the next moment, he would be willing.

Perhaps, he lived this life and endured so much suffering just for this hug.

If he was still Gao Run from before, maybe he would never get this hug in his whole life.Although the hug he gets now is not because of love, but because of sympathy, he is also willing to do so.

However, he couldn't hurt him.

Moreover, he is not worthy of him now.

Gao Run took a deep breath, as if he wanted to suck up the unique smell on his body, store it in his stomach, and seep into his bone marrow.

The next moment, he suddenly exerted strength, broke free from Xu Yuan's embrace, and was about to leave.

Xu Yuan grabbed his arm again, Gao Run was prepared this time and was not pulled back, the two fell into a stalemate.

"What? Are you pitying me?" Gao Run sneered.

Xu Yuan didn't open his mouth. He looked at Gao Run deeply, as if he wanted to engrave him into his eyes. He also gripped tighter, making Gao Run's arm painful and painful.

"You don't mean that to me at all. You ignored me when I was so good to you. Now we haven't seen each other for six years, but you suddenly come up to me. Do you see me serving an old man and feel sorry for me? Hmph, Don't forget, you are as old as him! Do you think that I only care about alms like yours? You..."

Gao Run's next words were blocked by a sudden kiss——

Gao Run was dizzy, his head went blank, and his whole body went limp, allowing the other party's tongue to wreak havoc in his mouth, with a fanatical aura that was completely opposite to the other party's, almost burning his heart.

Xu Yuan suddenly pressed Gao Run onto the peach tree, deepening the kiss that had been brewing for six years. He licked each of Gao Run's teeth, licked the palate, grabbed his tongue, and put it between his teeth to bite lightly.The tip of the tongue was slightly itchy after biting it, and the heart was also itchy.

At this moment, Gao Run suddenly understood——Xu Yuan also loved him, it turned out that he was not unrequited love, it turned out that they had always been in love.

The next moment, two drops of clear tears fell down the corners of his eyes—what if they fell in love, they can't go back, they can never be together.

Not far away, under a peach tree, Tangning was also leaning against the peach tree. He felt a little clearer, but felt even more dizzy.

He fell into a strange state at this moment, his thinking was extremely active under the stimulation of alcohol.

From the moment the two met, Tangning watched everything from the sidelines. He watched them tugging, hugging and kissing; he watched Xu Yuan push Gao Run onto the peach tree, shaking the peach blossoms on the branches one by one. They fell one after another, covering the two intertwined figures of red and white under the tree.

The beautiful scenery was alluring, but Tangning felt that the peach blossoms were so scorching, but it made him feel cold all over.

This sea of ​​flowers is so beautiful, like a fairyland, but the pair of lovers who are struggling in the sea of ​​love exudes a desperate cold, wave after wave, freezing all the twigs and pistils, like ice flowers.

Tangning was puzzled. Why did he paint so many beauties?

Tang Ning looked up at the peach blossoms blooming above her head. They were beautiful, and the peach blossoms he painted were also beautiful, just like the real ones. People who saw his paintings also thought the peach blossoms were beautiful. What else?

He just painted the most beautiful side of peach blossoms, and who can tell from his paintings that every peach blossom in full bloom has experienced the cold spring and worked hard to bloom in the dark night.

Just like those two people, if he drew them down, it would be a very beautiful painting, with beautiful flowers and beautiful people.But in fact, they are so desperate and painful, can others see what kind of stories they have experienced from his paintings?

Just like an old man, Tangning could draw every wrinkle on his face, but could he draw all the emotions behind those wrinkles?

Tangning entered a world. He was imagining the happy times of Gao Run and Xu Yuan in their teens, then the sudden bad luck, the six-year separation, and finally, everything returned to this scene.

Tangning finally knew what was missing in her paintings - the precipitation of time.

Maybe this is what he was looking for.

A "chirp!" woke up the three people present, Tangning touched the empty sleeves, it's not good...

Another "chirp" sounded next to Gao Run's ears, and the two of them came back to their senses suddenly. At the same time, they turned their heads and saw that it was a little monkey clutching the tree trunk. Its black eyes were full of water mist due to drunkenness.

Its eyeballs rolled back and forth, as if asking: What are you two doing?

Gao Run's face was flushed, and with some strength, he suddenly pushed Xu Yuan away and ran away.

Xu Yuan wiped his mouth with one hand, pinched the little monkey with the other, pulled him off the tree trunk, put him in front of him, and looked at it. Wronged.

"Is this your monkey?"

Tangning stopped timidly, "Yes." He didn't want to crush him and Xiao Hei to death, did he?

"Don't let it out to run around in the future."

As he said that, Xu Yuan let go of his hand, and Xiao Hei screamed "chirp -" with his tail firmly hooking Xu Yuan's finger.

Xu Yuan snorted, stretched out his other hand, flicked lightly at the thin tail——

By the time Tangning frantically caught the frightened Xiao Hei, Xu Yuan had already strode away.

Tangning looked at the somewhat lonely figure and murmured, "You trouble-making light bulb."

After Tangning returned to Lin's study, she immediately began to paint.

However, it is one thing to think in the heart, but another to draw it out.

Tang Ning drew it over and over again, but still didn't feel that way.

He stared at the peach blossoms all over the eyes, and was suddenly stained with transparent glue, one by one, and finally turned into two elegant figures, one red and one white, embracing under the ice flowers all over the world.

Tangning shook her head, then put the painting in the brazier and burned it.

After being busy with the Qionglin Banquet, Tangning suddenly became popular in the capital, and there were wave after wave of people coming to her to say kisses.

Tangning couldn't bear to be disturbed by this, and at the end she said that she would support her father-in-law and aunt until the end of her life, which scared off a group of people.

Of course, in addition to rejecting the matchmaker, Tangning also had to renovate the No. [-] Scholar's mansion bestowed by the emperor.

Long before the imperial examination, Tangning wrote to Cangping County, asking Mr. Cheng, Doctor Lu, and the others to move to the capital.

Who would have thought that all of them came, but they came to say goodbye.

After living there for a few days, Dr. Lu took Shu Hongyu to the north to collect herbs. After all these years, the stock in Lu's house was running low. Since Dr. Lu came back from his last trip, he had been sorting out all the herbs he encountered in his life, and It was compiled into a book, but there were still some medicines that he couldn't remember clearly and were out of stock, so he decided to go out to find medicines for the last time, and take Shu Hongyu to get acquainted with them by the way. These will be his tasks from now on.

However, Mr. Cheng was half-coaxed and half-pulled by Shui Mingxuan, and "jie" went to Weihai.

In this way, only three masters, Xu Lian, Tang Ning, and Tang Yu, remained in the entire Zhuangyuan Mansion, and of course there were two mascots, Xiao Jin and Xiao Hei.

Because Tang Ning was the number one scholar in the third grade, the emperor gave him a half-level promotion to save face. He was edited from the sixth-rank Imperial Academy, and he was the highest among the top three.

The Hanlin Academy has been a very noble place since ancient times, and the noble place is also very leisurely. After Tang Ning entered the Hanlin Academy, she only had to click every day to symbolically sort out some materials--these materials were sorted out in previous editions, but they had never been After tidying up, I followed my boss to learn how to write imperial edicts, report to the residence and so on.

These are not the key points. The three years of the Imperial Academy is to give newcomers a buffer period. These three years are extremely important. How much officialdom you can see in these three years will directly determine how much you can suffer less in the future.

Of course, the noble land is not without struggles. The Hanlin Academy has a lot of influence, and there are many cliques. The most obvious difference is the division. For example, Tang Ning came in this year. Teacher, let alone they are newcomers, it is inevitable that they will be bullied by the elderly, and they must be united. If one of them is in trouble, the others must help.

But there are also disputes within a faction. For example, the three members of Yijia are nodding acquaintances in the Imperial Academy, and they don't even say a word except nodding.

Tangning was fine, she was not far or close to her colleagues and boss, and there was Fu Jiayan, a good friend in the court, who took care of each other.No. [-] Qu Minbo was not too young, and he was born as the son of a nobleman. The nobleman and civil servants had been at odds for a long time, but he was squeezed out a lot in the middle, and gradually became a transparent person.Tanhua Lin Zizhang is about the same age as Tang Ning, and looks okay, but his personality is too soft and sticky, he follows Qiao Hanyun all day long, and only thinks of himself as Qiao Hanyun's party.

However, in general, Tangning did well in the Hanlin Academy, her work was easy, and she could teach her son homework and tease Xiao Hei when she returned home.If Xu Yuan didn't always look for him, his life would definitely be more carefree.

Tangning couldn't understand Xu Yuan all the time, especially after the Qionglin Banquet incident, Xu Yuan's attitude towards him didn't change at all, as if that incident never happened at all.

The more Xu Yuan behaved like this, the more uneasy Tangning became, and the more afraid she became of Xu Yuan.

Mr. Cheng was already stern, but Lin Qingyu intensified. Tangning was not afraid of them at all, but Xu Yuan was the only one who was afraid.

Xu Yuan only came to Tangning for one thing, and that was the establishment of the customs. Xu Yuan was a workaholic, and sometimes he would not go home for a month to stay in the cabinet.

Tang Ning suggested that instead of building the customs, build the navy first. Force is the foundation of all order.

Xu Yuan agreed with this very much, and wrote a thick memorial overnight and submitted it.

"...I believe that the strategy and theory of Tang's imperial examination for the new top scholar is very subtle. Although it cannot be effective immediately, it is a long-term solution to the emptiness of the national treasury. Based on my humble calculations, after more than ten years, customs duties will account for [-]% of the national treasury revenue. .

However, if you want to implement this method, you must first form a navy to frighten Xiaoxiao, so that the caravans of Dazhao and other countries can pay taxes with peace of mind.

There are three reasons. First, Duke Wei is the founding father of the country. He has been loyal and good for generations, and his descendants are all descendants.

Second, Xia Houchun is the grandson of Princess Aiping, who is of the blood of the Tian family, and his loyalty can be shown.

Third, Weihai Province is close to the sea and has developed maritime transportation. Compared with other generals, Xiahou Chunyu is more familiar with maritime affairs.

Xu Yuanmeng, a cabinet scholar, invited the holy judge. "

Gao Run stroked the familiar handwriting inch by inch with his fingers, a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, he took out the red pen, and wrote big bright red characters on the back: "Quite."