Pick all the cold branches

The first immediate reaction is to avoid.

Zhen Xian almost ran away.But he held back.

If he just left like this, he himself could escape a "catastrophe", but it would inevitably embarrass Mrs. Cui.He really should respect and be more polite to this woman who has suffered from injustice.

Zhen Xian hesitated for a moment, then stood up slowly, but did not leave.He turned slightly sideways, facing the direction where Mrs. Cui and Xiao Shizi were coming, bowed his head and put his hands together in a salute.

Mrs. Cui didn't seem to expect him to have such an attitude, and a moment of surprise flashed in her eyes.But she immediately recovered her composure, returned a salute to Zhen Xian, then lowered her head to coax Xiao Shizi and said softly, "Quickly salute to sir."

In terms of age and seniority, although Zhen Xian is the eldest and the youngest son is the youngest, he could have accepted this ceremony, but Prince Jing's son is the heir of the emperor after all, and Zhen Xian is only a courtier of the emperor and Prince Jing. It was time for Zhen Xian to "meet" Xiao Shizi.Regardless of right or wrong, rules are rules after all, if you break the rules easily, you may get into trouble.

What's more, Zhen Xian himself didn't really care about being respected and held up by others. Seeing Mrs. Cui being like this, she panicked for a while and stretched out her hand to stop her.

But Mrs. Cui was extremely persistent.

"Although the eldest son has a high status, this value is born, not because he has any talents that deserve the respect of adults. If he is pretentious because of this, and he doesn't know how to respect teachers and talents, it will be difficult to learn true wisdom in the future. It is even more difficult to grow into a person who can truly be admired by the subjects and take responsibility for the country, so I am afraid that I will live up to the prince's expectations of him."

The young prince actually has no concept of "rituals", and he doesn't quite understand what Madam Cui is talking about. He just looks up at his mother blankly, but still obeys his mother obediently, and walks towards Zhen Xianxing tenderly. I gave a gift.

The woman in front of him behaved calmly, with straight eyebrows, and she spoke with dignity, seeing her bowing her head to teach the son, it made Zhen Xian think of her own mother for a moment.

My heart was filled with emotion suddenly.Zhen Xian didn't know what to do for a while, so he asked Mrs. Cui to sit down and asked about her visit.

Mrs. Cui was not in a hurry to talk, and asked about Zhen Xian's injury before she said with a smile:

"Actually, it was the prince who recited two poems with the prince when he was playing in the prince's study these two days. I saw that he also recited it in a decent way, so I took it upon myself to bring him here to show Master Zhen, please. My lord, look at his qualifications."

She paused for a moment when she said this, carefully looked at Zhen Xian's face, and saw that he didn't show any obvious resistance, and then continued.

"My lord was born in a high school of poetry and calligraphy. He is also a Tanhualang handpicked by the sage, a great talent in the Hanlin Academy, and a young teacher of His Royal Highness Zhao Wang. Although the son is still young and has not yet started to read and practice calligraphy, if you can get your lord His advice and enlightenment are naturally the best things. As long as your lord does not dislike it, I will go to ask the prince—”

Having said this, Zhen Xian has completely understood.

It turned out that the lobbyist sent by Prince Jing had arrived.

But with their current relationship, what words can't be said to him personally, and Madam Cui needs to find such an excuse to say it in a roundabout way?By acting like this, where does Madam Cui's feelings lie?

He suddenly felt disgusted.

It's not about Jiafei.but to himself.

He felt like a complete failure.Not only did he fail to persuade His Highness to do good deeds, but he made His Highness fall all the way down the evil path... He was ashamed of his duty and His Highness.

But at this time, Zhen Xian, who was in the mountains, didn't realize how obsessed with the authorities he was, how stubborn he was because of love, and naturally he didn't realize that it was precisely such a delicate relationship. There were many things that His Highness Prince Jing couldn't do. Tell him personally, even if you tell him, at this moment, he is afraid that he will never believe it.

Mrs. Cui has been watching him carefully from the side, and seeing his face change from cloudy to cloudy, with a stiff expression at one moment, and annoyance at another, she immediately knew that he had turned himself into a dead end again, and hurriedly ordered the wet nurses and maidservants to lead the way. Shizi went to play.She hesitated for a moment, lowered her voice, and spoke slowly again:

"There are some things that Cui Ying has thought about, but she still wants to talk to Mr. Zhen. If the words are wrong, please don't think I'm offensive."

She suddenly changed her words and called him "Young Master" and called herself by her boudoir name, but she did not intend to talk to him as the concubine and courtier of His Highness Prince Jing.Zhen Xian couldn't help being taken aback, and finally retracted his thoughts, looking at her unavoidably in surprise.

Cui Ying saw that he was finally concentrating on looking at her, so she lowered her eyes and continued speaking quietly.

"My father's family is the magistrate of Qinghe, Shandong. Although there are no high-ranking officials in the court, after all, the ancestors were once aristocrats, and they can be regarded as a big family with a deep relationship. Four years ago, it happened to be blessed by the Holy Lord and adopted a daughter from the people. The family dedicated Cui Ying to the prefect of Jinan at that time, so she entered the palace and became the female history of the inner court."

She seemed very unaccustomed to talking about these private matters with others, her eyelashes were visibly trembling, and she was uncharacteristically cramped.

Zhen Xian couldn't help being slightly stunned.

The Cui family of Qinghe is a famous family, and Mrs. Cui has a good family background, which is not surprising.But most of such self-proclaimed high-ranking family members are unwilling to have their own daughters adopted into the royal family, even if they become queens and concubines, they may not be willing, let alone enter the palace as a humble low-rank female official through the hands of state officials. He will use various methods to make his daughter lose the election.

Unless there is some reason that makes this girl quite disgusted and bullied in the clan.The most likely possibility is that her parents died early. The elders of the Zongbo clan didn't want to treat this niece kindly, but they didn't want to marry her casually and lose the face of the family, so they took the opportunity of "emperor adopting a daughter" to offer her to the palace. middle.And this girl has no mother to rely on, and the eunuchs and officials selected by the layers will not give her any good treatment, and she will definitely not be able to escape hardship.

And..."Inner court women's history" should be just a euphemism. The emperor chooses women, and those selected to enter the palace are all "royal wives" regardless of their rank or status.In other words, Madam Cui was once a concubine of His Majesty the Emperor's harem before she entered Prince Jing's mansion. No matter whether she received His Majesty's favor or not, Her Highness Prince Jing should not touch her.

In a few words, Mrs. Cui spoke in a reserved and calm manner, not a single word of complaint was seen, but the love story described was so absurd and cruel.

This is something that Zhen Xian never expected, and will never think about it this way.

Four years ago, it was the year when His Royal Highness guarded the mausoleum and returned to Beijing to become the first prince.Just after returning to the capital, he reached out and asked for "father's woman". This is really not like His Highness's actions... unless there is some special reason.

Zhen Xian looked at Cui Ying dumbly, really didn't know how to deal with it, so he could only keep silent.

Fortunately, Cui Ying didn't seem to expect any response from him, she only sighed lightly, and then continued.

"I was naive and ignorant back then. I didn't know how to advance or retreat. I made a mistake and was sent to the Clothes Bureau to be flogged. I was afraid that I would not be able to leave alive. Thanks to the mercy of the emperor, I happened to meet His Royal Highness King Jing to pay homage to the palace. , have pity on me that my crime is not undeserved, and I beg the Holy Majesty to drive me out of the Forbidden City, so that I will be honored to stay in the palace to serve His Highness, and to repay the grace of saving my life."

The Huanyi Bureau is the hardest and most humble of the six bureaus and one division.

His Royal Highness Prince Jing, as a prince, how could it be so coincidental that he went to a place like the Huanyi Bureau at that time, and rescued such a woman... I am afraid that he made up a story to coax him to "dispel his anger" .

This idea popped out of my mind in an instant.

Zhen Xian pursed her lips unconsciously.

Of course he also knew that he shouldn't speculate about Mrs. Cui, let alone His Highness Prince Jing.But he didn't know what was wrong with him, suddenly he was so suspicious and stubborn...

He frowned tightly, and there was a look of worry and entanglement in his eyes. Cui Ying noticed it immediately, and said immediately:

"Young Master must think that Cui Ying is deliberately nonsense. The prince has a noble status, how can he go to the dirty place like the Huanyi Bureau. But this is absolutely true. If you don't believe it, you can ask the Fourth Highness if you have a chance in the future. .”

Zhen Xian couldn't help letting out a long breath of "ah".

Yes, it turned out to be like this.

Cui Ying didn't mention some details in order to avoid people and things that are inconvenient to mention.Just like she never said how her natal family couldn't tolerate her and drove her out of the house like a tradable treasure to give to others, and she didn't care about the situation she would fall into and the despair she would face.

Most of the people who sent Cui Ying to the Huanyi Bureau to be flogged were the adoptive mother of Prince Jing and the biological mother of the Fourth Prince Jiayu, Concubine Wan Gui.That's why she asked him to ask the fourth prince.After all, His Highness is so sharp-tongued and hates him so much, it would be great if he didn't deliberately say something to anger him, and he would definitely not lie for Madam Cui in order to reassure him.

She was just a helpless woman who lost the protection of her parents when she was young, was abandoned by her relatives, and was forced to enter the palace. Staying by my side to serve and give birth to a child, but I never think that she should be treated as a wife, and I am afraid I don't really care how she feels in her heart...

All this seems to be the daughter of a prominent family who was chosen by the royal family, and fortunately His Royal Highness favored and gave birth to a son. What a glamorous and glorious lintel, but in fact, every piece is silent blood and tears, just like the shadow behind a jade palace, its appearance is beautiful , dirty inside.

It's clearly eating people...

And she, the woman who was engulfed, was able to talk about it so calmly, and described the evil things that happened to her under the blue sky and bright sun in such a tactful and harmless manner, that she even sinned against herself again and again, so I should be grateful to Dade.

He actually forced Mrs. Cui to tell him this kind of thing word by word, sentence by sentence.Not only to say, but also to watch his face carefully, like walking on eggshells, and always take care of his little emotions that are not worth mentioning.

Zhen Xian almost collapsed, couldn't help it anymore, stood up "shua", even his hands couldn't help shaking non-stop.

But he couldn't just leave like this.Not even the slightest bit of sympathy should be shown.That would be too arrogant and self-righteous.

He must at least leave Mrs. Cui with the last bit of respect.

He remained silent for a while, then hid his trembling hands behind his back, bowed his head, and sighed hoarsely: "Madam is the real gentleman. Zhen Xian is too rude."

After a long silence, he finally spoke to her for the first time.

Cui Ying raised her eyes slowly, and looked at him without blinking, her eyes were full of brilliance, she couldn't see her thoughts, but she seemed to have infinite melancholy and helplessness.

"I said this to the young master, not to complain about my life experience and beg for mercy. It's about these things, the prince has no way to tell the young master himself."

She suddenly gave a wry smile and shook her head slightly.

"The lord won't say anything. He is a lord after all, he is a prince. To him, saving me is like saving a bird that accidentally fell out of the nest. What's the good old story? How can the young master want him to speak for himself? Justifying, it's like taking credit for such a small matter of kindness... Even if he has been with you for seven years, he won't say it!"

Zhen Xian was startled when he heard the words, as if he had been scraped by a blunt knife suddenly, his heart sank into an abyss, but the pain surged up completely and couldn't be ignored.