After wearing the book, the regent quit.

The rain faded away, and the quiet rainy night seemed to be covered with a thick layer of frost, and there was a faint layer of desolation in the cool air.

There was still a hundred steps away from the city gate, and Shen Mu saw Ah Qing anxiously waiting outside the palace gate from a distance, with a familiar carriage behind him.

The weather was getting colder, seeing Shen Mu coming out, Ah Qing immediately trotted up, put on the warm linen mourning clothes in his arms, and asked anxiously, "Your Majesty, Ah Qing heard that you had a big quarrel with His Majesty in Mingcheng Palace One, are you okay?"

Shen Mu paused, he didn't expect the news to spread so fast, before he could speak, he heard the young man shout again, "Ah! Why did you change your clothes, my lord!"

"There are still hands! Did His Majesty tie you up?!"

"There's no one who only binds one hand." Shen Mu laughed angrily at Ah Qing's concern. After getting into the carriage, he opened the curtain to let people in. "It's cold at night, so you can come up with me too. Otherwise you will get sick."

"Thank you, my lord!"

All the way back to the mansion unimpeded, when entering the door and passing through the front hall, Shen Mu saw that Uncle Wang of the mansion was moving things into the hall, looking a bit struggling.

This person was followed by Yuan Bo when he came to Beijing to rush for the exam, and he has been guarding him unswervingly all these years. Seeing this, Shen Mu stopped and tried to persuade him, "Uncle Wang, let's move tomorrow, there is no rush."

People came to the Prince Regent's Mansion with gifts almost every day, at first Shen Mu would stop them, but later he found that he couldn't persuade them, so he let them go and asked them to pile up in the yard behind the corridor.

"Ah, these are the tea leaves that the Ninth Prince sent two days ago." Uncle Wang wiped off his sweat and smiled honestly, "I need to find a dry place to put them away. They are all good teas."

Xiao Huan brought him tea?

Shen Mu stepped forward to open one of the wooden boxes, took out a piece of delicately packaged tea cake, put it on the tip of his nose and sniffed it, and laughed lightly after a while.

He didn't expect that Xiao Huan, who was 17 years old, was not very young, and he was very good at observing words and expressions. The two of them just had a meal together. He not only saw that he liked tea, but also matched his preferences.

It was just a few tea cakes, Shen Mu only thought that Xiao Huan was thanking him for not obstructing him from handling the case, and ordered someone to put the tea into his room before calling Ah Qing.

"Ah Qing, I asked you to check Gao Ying's whereabouts two days ago, did you get any results?"

Ever since Gao Ying handed over the memorial through the hand of the speaker, Shen Mu ordered people to secretly track down his actions, seeing this person again in Mingcheng Palace during the day, he felt even more suspicious.

Aqing Yiling handed over a booklet, in which Gao Ying's travel records in the past few days were recorded in detail in densely packed small characters, even when he accompanied his wife to the street.

Frowning and browsing carefully, his eyes finally stopped on the words "You Shi enters the palace" on the paper, and Shen Mu tapped lightly with his hand on the table.

If he remembered correctly, on the second day after Gao Ying entered the palace, there was no more news from the harem.

After a tiring day, Shen Mu leaned on the bench and sighed, and told Ah Qing to come over, "Tomorrow you send someone to Gao Ying's mansion..."

Ah Qing, who hated Gao Ying, hummed and walked away with a smirk on her face. Shen Mu closed her eyes and smiled casually.

Since you, Gao Ying, have a long life, then let me play with you.

When Nalan Wan passed away, the whole country mourned for seven days. Everyone in the country wore linen mourning clothes. *1

The funeral ceremony was held at Mao shi the next day, and all the officials wore mourning to see them off; except for the monarch, the queen mother, prince, and imperial ministers were lined up inside the gate of the funeral palace, and the rest of the officials waited quietly outside the platform.

The sky was twilight, and the cold morning breeze brought a biting feeling. Outside the funeral palace gate, two long rows of candles were burning for lighting. Inside the gate, a secretary made the sound of "噫兴" several times in succession to comfort the souls of the deceased. *2

There was endless crying in the hall.

Shen Mu knelt on the cold and smooth floor, looking coldly at the weeping young prince with a different surname in front of the mourning hall; if he remembered correctly, this person had never visited the palace once during the ten days when Nalan Wan was seriously ill.

At this time, tears were pouring down like rain, and his expression was so sad that he wished he could go with others.

"Grandmother, I still remember the sachet you gave me when I was young," the young man took out a sachet from his arms, knocked his head three times on the ground, and handed it over with both hands, "Why are you willing to throw it away?" The minister is gone—”

All the princes and ministers behind him also responded to the situation, and they all howled mournfully.

In the end, the prince with a different surname couldn't control himself. He passed out after crying and was carefully carried down by several guards.

Immediately after was the Empress Dowager Qi from the harem. The pretty woman knelt down in front of the coffin with a plop, twisting the silk handkerchief with her fingertips, wiping away her tears, and began to howl in an almost weeping posture.

Seeing her haggard and distressed, the children of the royal family next to her showed unbearable expressions and began to persuade, "You should also pay attention to your body, the empress dowager. The empress dowager is in the spirit of heaven. Seeing you so sad will also hurt my god."

In the intriguing palace, there was a rare mutual love at this moment; if it wasn't for the wrong timing, Shen Mu would have laughed out loud.

It's ridiculous to say that during the time when Nalan Wan's life was dying, all the princes and nobles in the palace might not spend as much time as Xiao Fan alone to visit her.

At the moment, the young monarch is kneeling on the futon next to him, his back is straight, his broad shoulders are not shaking at all, and there is no trace of grief from his back.

Xiao Fan knelt at the closest position to the coffin, and he could see the person in the coffin with just a slight tilt of his head, but he not only did not look sideways, he was not in a hurry to kneel down to pay respects, and knelt with his back straight as if staying out of the way.

After everyone, even Shen Mu mourned in front of the coffin, Xiao Fan remained where he was.

It wasn't until Yousi kindly reminded Xiao Fan that he slowly got up as if he had just woken up, bent down in front of the coffin in full view, and kowtowed three times expressionlessly.

Facing the abnormal calmness of the monarch, all the people who were covering their faces and weeping also stopped sobbing and looked sideways. The young man's eyes were calm and calm, and his black eyes were slightly lowered, looking down at the deceased in the coffin.

After a long time, Xiao Fan picked up the sachet dropped by the prince with a different surname when he fainted, looked down, and put it beside the coffin in silence.

Not to mention tears, he never even uttered a word of condolence.

In the deathly silence, the monarch in sackcloth and filial piety stood up, did not hesitate to stay, walked through the crowd and pushed the door away, leaving behind a group of bewildered royal family and imperial ministers.

When the sound of footsteps disappeared completely, whispers finally came from the silent mourning hall. Most people who were grieving just a moment ago suddenly forgot their grief and whispered in groups of two or three.

"Your Majesty left like this?"

"What's the matter? He even dared to break the Empress Dowager's hand. What else would he not dare to do?"

"But I heard that it was the Empress Dowager who hurt people first, and Your Majesty—"

"The Empress Dowager has been unconscious for a day or two. I think His Majesty has long disliked people, but she is just looking for an excuse—"

"Are you finished?"

The ice-like voice of ten thousand years was very clear in the whispered words. Shen Mu turned around, and Sen Han's eyes swept over the two people behind him who were broken-mouthed; he looked around lightly, and saw that everyone shut up Shengcai slowly turned his gaze back, looked straight ahead, and opened his thin lips lightly:

"Just now, all those who spoke falsely about His Majesty will be sent to the Ministry of Punishment to be punished with a staff of one hundred."

Xiao Fan went straight back to Mingcheng Palace.

Even if he didn't look or listen, the mourning hall filled with endless sorrow and crying was still unbearably suffocating; so many people who had nothing to do with Nalanwan kowtowed hard in front of her coffin, over and over again. Grateful for the favor she gave, and poured out her grief uncontrollably.

And all he saw was a woman without hands.

He knew that the blood on his body was cold, that what he did today would forever nail him on the pillar of shame as "cold-blooded and ruthless", and he knew that as long as he shed two tears, he could shut everyone up.

But he is not sad, why must cry.

Xiao Fan never liked to be in the same room with too many people, only the quiet and deserted Mingcheng Palace could give him a moment of respite; after resting his mind for a while, he came to the mahogany bookshelf, intending to pick up a book and read it casually. But accidentally opened a hidden compartment in the lower left corner.

Inside lay a rough sachet with two drops of dark red blood on it.

...

"Grandmother specially asked for sachets for each of you, come and choose what you like."

The weather is just right, the gazebo in the back garden is noisy, a gorgeously dressed woman is sitting on a stone bench, surrounded by a group of children of different ages; these children are [-] or [-] years old, the youngest are only five or six years old At this moment, they are all staring at the sachet placed on the stone table.

These children were chattering, saying that the empress dowager ordered someone to go to Jingshan to ask for this sachet, which is both beautiful and good luck.

Five children competed for their favorite style, only a tall and thin boy in the corner stood in some embarrassment at the corner of the gazebo, stretched his neck to look at the table, twisted his sweaty palms behind his back.

He was counting how many sachets there were on the table.

"Hey, where did this bastard come from?" Perhaps the young man's longing eyes were too hot, the woman sitting on the stone chair turned her head, gave her a sarcastic look, and said sarcastically, "I don't even look at my identity. , dare to beg for things in front of Aijia?"

The young man immediately turned pale, lowered his head and said in a low voice, "To the emperor's grandmother, Xiao Fan is not, not..."

The word "wild species" was like a sharp needle piercing his heart, the young man gritted his teeth, but couldn't say it after all.

"Okay, who is your 'grandmother'?" The woman waved her hand impatiently, as if she was troubled by even looking at him, "Leave quickly, don't spoil Aijia's good mood here."

...

Jianyuan's thoughts slowly drifted back, Xiao Fan looked at the cheap sachet lying quietly in his hand, and laughed at himself.

Perhaps it was because of his youthful comparision, at that time he had an almost obsessive desire for this sachet; he didn't dare to go to Nalan Wan to ask for it, so he secretly wrote down the shape and style of the sachet, and stole it from his mother. Come to the front, in countless dark nights with no company, under the desolate moonlight, I secretly sewed one myself.

As if with this sachet, he would be like the rest of the princes, and he had even received even a moment of love from Nalan Wan.

It's just self-deception.

A bell rang outside the hall, indicating that those who worshiped in the mourning hall could rest for a while and come back to mourn tomorrow morning.

But after wandering for a while, it turned out to be night.

Xiao Fan put the sachet into his sleeve, opened the door and saw Jing Fan who was guarding the door; told him not to follow, and came to the mourning hall alone.

Except for the Taoist priest who prayed for the dead all night outside the platform, there is no one else in the mourning hall, only the faint candlelight flickering in the cool breeze that penetrated into the house.

The night was as cool as water, and the moon and stars were scarce. Xiao Fan knelt down on the futon in front of the mourning hall again, took out the sachet in his sleeve, looked at it carefully for a while, then bent down and put it among the sacrifices.

He looked at Nalan Wan in the coffin for a long time, and said softly and lowly,

"You never let an orphan call you 'grandma'."

"Why does Guyou cry for you?"

Even when a woman dies, someone takes good care of her. Her appearance is dignified, she wears a well-fitting shroud, and every strand of her hair is properly combed.

Not to mention those who cried frequently in front of her coffin.

Xiao Fan suddenly felt envious. He seemed to have expected that the mourning hall after his death would be empty.

He finally felt the chill of the night.

The senses became sluggish in the night, only to hear a familiar footstep suddenly sounded behind him, and then his body warmed up, and a cold male voice sounded next to his ears: "I left the cloak here, and I deliberately folded it back to get it."

"It's cold at night, Your Majesty, be careful of catching a cold."

The faint scent of tea surrounded Xiao Fan tightly. He looked down at the fox fur cloak on his body, and said in a low voice, "Father Ya always forgets to take his clothes away."

"I think it's a good thing," the thin man knelt on the futon beside Xiao Fan; he turned his head, his long and narrow phoenix eyes were extremely dazzling in the dark night,

"Then His Majesty is no longer alone."

The author has something to say: The editor said that it is best not to have words related to "father and son" in the name of the article, so Tuanzi changed the cover of the article name, everyone, don't think that I ran away and abandoned me (if I abandon me, I will cry and show you QAQ )

PS: *1, 2: Related funeral knowledge comes from the Internet