Hypocrites

Liang Heng was drowsy from drinking, and was supported by someone.In the middle of the night, there was silence in the palace, only the lanterns in the Yangshi Palace were always on. When Emperor Shaodi came to the throne, there were no concubines in the Gui Palace, so they lived in the Yangshi Palace of Zhangyi Palace.

The palace servant who supported Liang Heng was a young boy named Siji, who looked no taller than the little emperor, but the rest of the palace staff seemed to respect him very much, and allowed him to approach Liang Heng, not daring to steal credit.Everyone knows that serving in front of the emperor is the easiest way to get favored.

"Your Majesty drank too much, you need to rest earlier and go and put out the candles." Siji ordered.

Two lamps were left in front of the bed net, and the firelight in the lampshade was like a kind of stiff paint that had lost its temperature.

Liang Heng was dizzy, uncomfortable, and kept humming.

Siji couldn't serve him well, so he wanted to take off his shoes, but was slapped by the little emperor.Liang Heng's temper was not as good as before.

Siji groaned in his heart, not daring to complain, and stretched out a hand beside him, beckoning him to put it down.

It was a crippled palm, Qi Gen cut off the thumb and index finger, which was terribly deformed.Siji hurriedly said, "Lord Xinzhou."

Two years later, Xinzhou became more and more quiet, without saying a word, nodded towards Siji, and took over from him to serve the drunken majesty.

Just as others dare not compete with Siji for credit, Siji also dare not compete with Xinzhou for credit.Xinzhou is an old man next to the little emperor. I heard that he has been by his side since the emperor was still in his infancy.The emperor treated him like his own brother.

Siji withdrew, leaving only Liang Heng and Xinzhou in the hall.If Liang Heng woke up in the middle of the night and found someone else was beside the couch, he would get angry and punish him.

Xinzhou knelt on the ground, holding Liang Heng's ankle, working slowly with his mutilated palm, he took off his shoes and socks, and changed Liang Heng's pajamas.Liang Heng didn't like people touching him, he kept pushing and shoving him in a daze, Xinzhou let him push and beat him, his eyebrows were docile.

"..." Liang Heng whispered in his dream, calling someone's name.

Shinshu opened his mouth, as if to answer, the candlelight illuminated the only half of his tongue remaining in his mouth.

"Brother Yu..."

Xinzhou shut his mouth, lowered his head, and covered Liang Heng with a quilt.

He exited the dormitory, and there was a person standing in the shadows outside.

"Your Majesty rested?" Qiu Zhiyuan's pale face was under the draped high hat.

Shinshu couldn't speak and made a gesture.

Qiu Zhiyuan squinted his eyes to look at him, and said for a long time: "Your Majesty doesn't like strangers to serve you, but you are a cripple and can't do anything. You need to recommend Siji a lot, and let him take over as soon as possible."

Shinshu stood with its head bowed.

In the dream, Liang Heng often couldn't see other people's faces.Sometimes it was his emperor's father, lying behind heavy bed curtains, leaving him a dying silhouette.Sometimes it was Shen Yu who would turn around and leave without hesitation, at first he would chase for a few steps, but later when he realized that he couldn't catch up, he was so angry that he cursed.

He didn't scold people before, but people change.

If Shen Yu knew that he had become like this, what would he say?Back then, Liang Heng was only interested in playing and didn't listen to learning, so he had to be taught by Shen Yu.

Fortunately, Shen Yu had no chance to find out.

On the day Shen Yu left Wangdu City, Liang Heng went to see him off, standing on the tower, the wind was too strong, dust was flying all over the sky, Shen Yu didn't see him, Liang Heng became even more depressed.

The teacher left, and the Chu Palace returned to the old life of sleeping until the sun and doing nothing, and Duan Yanling came to ask Liang Heng to have fun again.However, Liang Heng was no longer interested.

"Xie Ling Pavilion, don't you want to go? Brother personally picked someone for you."

"Don't play this."

"Aren't you playing?" Duan Yanling was shocked.

Liang Heng said angrily, "When did I ever play?"

"So I'll teach you, Your Highness, when you become crowned concubine in two years, you don't know anything, so don't tell people to make jokes."

"Get lost." Liang Heng was very annoyed.

In fact, he didn't like to play before, Duan Yanling protected him very well, went out to drink, and never let others touch him.Although I sometimes act dishonestly, but after all, he is the prince's cousin, and the prince doesn't care about him.

The emperor and empress didn't pay much attention to Liang Heng, so Liang Heng hung out with rich men.

Liang Heng gradually felt an inescapable loneliness.When he was alone in a daze, Duan Yanling looked at him and sighed.

At the very beginning, he would think of Shen Yu, but later Duan Yanling told him that Shen Yu was studying in a large academy in Ruyang, and he had more like-minded friends than in Wangducheng.Liang Heng didn't want Shen Yu anymore.

He is the only one who is lonely.

There was very little news from Ruyang. Liang Heng sometimes asked Xinzhou if there were any letters from Ruyang, and Xinzhou said no.

Liang Heng was in a daze throughout the winter, and in the spring of the following year, he was still in a daze.Duan Yanling couldn't bear to watch him, so he put him in a sack and dragged him to the Hualou for a drink. Liang Heng was absent-minded, drank a few more glasses, and hugged Duan Yanling sobbing.According to Duan Yanling later, all the people in the house were shocked. Everyone said, has His Highness been dumped by some girl?

"It's shameful," Duan Yanling said, "Brother has raised you so much, it's not your turn to dump others, but you were dumped."

With the arrival of midsummer, the cicadas sing continuously in the garden, and gradually become alive.Liang Heng was in a better mood when he heard Ru Yang being mentioned in the chatting of the servants.

"What happened to Ruyang?" Liang Heng asked.

Everyone looked at each other in blank dismay, no one answered first.

Liang Heng said, "Call Xinzhou."

When Xinzhou came, he faltered and spoke vaguely.

Liang Heng was puzzled: "Is there anything I can't say directly?"

Xinzhou had no choice but to say: "Mr. Shen resisted the edict and did not obey it. He has been sent to prison awaiting trial."

For a while, Liang Heng couldn't understand the meaning: "What do you mean?"

Xinzhou looked at him with a strange look, as if looking at a stalk grass that had been ruined by the rain, and sometimes the empress looked at Liang Heng in the same way, which made Liang Heng feel that he was being pitied by others.

Strange.As the crown prince of Nan Qi, he learned about his teacher's misfortune through chatting with his servants.The civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty only used him as a decoration.

"Your Highness! You must not act rashly at this time! A few days ago, even the Taiwei Fangsheng begged for mercy, and was punished thirty times with a rod, not disabled or injured! You must not follow in the same footsteps!"

Liang Heng couldn't understand: "Mr. Shen is my teacher. If something happens, my disciple will do his best. I won't be punished for him. How can I just sit on the sidelines?"

During that time, the emperor's physical condition was actually good, and he left the sick bed and sat in the Golden Luan Hall.

Liang Heng almost forgot his father's majesty.

His father is not an ordinary father, but a gentleman father, and Liang Heng is both a son and a subject.The king was sitting upright at the Kowloon banquet, his face was covered by a crown.

The emperor read the inscription played by his son.

"Heng'er, do you want to abandon your father's majesty for the sake of your teacher's dignity?"

Shen Jin was imprisoned for disobeying the imperial decree, and Liang Heng also knew it, with cold sweat running down his back: "Master Shen has always been loyal, father, there must be something hidden in it. What, let alone, Fang Xia's killing is against the law..."

The emperor laughed, but turned to Qiu Zhiyuan who was standing beside him: "My son said that the execution cannot be executed in spring and summer, so when can it be?"

Qiu Zhiyuan replied: "Autumn and winter are cloudy, and the main punishment is killing."

"Okay," said the emperor, "then ask to be executed after autumn."

Liang Heng was imprisoned in the palace for self-reflection.The southern army guarded the gate of the palace, and even the back wall was patrolled by guards. When Qiu Zhiyuan brought the order, he also reprimanded Xinzhou.

"Your Highness is still young, acting impulsively, and ordered you to assist in the management, why can't you do this well?"

When Liang Heng heard this, he felt sadness coming from it. A gentleman says what he says, but his words are just child's play.In the scorching summer, the city of Wangdu looks like an ice cave, and the wind is blowing.

Shen Yu will hate me, Liang Heng thought.Thinking of this, tears fell coldly.

The quilt pillow was wet in the dream.When he woke up, he had a splitting headache, Liang Heng stretched out his hand and touched someone, but it was Siji.

"Get out." Liang Heng quickly withdrew his hand.

Siji had no choice but to change to Xinzhou again.

Xinzhou quietly changed Liang Heng's clothes, and suddenly heard Liang Heng say: "Last night, I seem to have met Shen Yu..."

Xinzhou didn't raise his head, as if he was used to Liang Heng's crazy words.Liang Heng also knew that he couldn't answer, so he said to himself: "I can always see him, sometimes at Fengque Terrace, sometimes on the palace road. I shouldn't even call him. But last night, he was vaguely the same as me. I said something. Xinzhou, tell me, is he really back?"

Xinzhou respectfully, just listen but don't speak.

Liang Heng smiled and said: "If you really come back, you must be asking for my life."

"Is there anything going on today?"

Shinshu shook his head.

Liang Heng was silent for a while, and said: "It's not that I'm fine, but Qiu Changshi is taking care of it on my behalf, so that I, the emperor, can have a leisurely life."

It was quiet in the breeding room, and outside the Linghua window, the branches of Baimei were bleak.

Liang Heng stretched his waist: "Okay, I'll go for a walk in the city when I'm free. Maybe I can meet Shen Yu, then I'd like to ask him, a lonely ghost, what does he do to stay in the world."

Fortunately, what Xinzhou wore for him was not an imperial robe, but an ordinary silk robe. Liang Heng turned around the corridor with his hands behind his back, and disappeared in a blink of an eye.Xinzhou chased after him a few steps, and was so anxious that Siji hurriedly led someone to run from under the steps.

"What happened?"

Xinzhou made gestures, which meant that Liang Heng ran away again.

"Quick! Go escort!"

The eunuchs ran after him.

Bypassing the corridor, not far away is the Golden Luan Temple.It was originally the place where the emperor and his ministers discussed affairs in the same dynasty. When Emperor Xianling was alive, and now Liang Heng is in power, the Golden Luan Hall was not used much, and it has long been abandoned.

In front of the hall, under Longwei Road, there are two towers, one on the left and one on the right.A group of guards were practicing, and they were wearing armor different from that of the southern army. The whole body was silver and shiny, and the sun shone down, and the brilliance reflected by the armor was more imposing than the martial arts exercises.

The eunuchs ran past on their feet, and the guards stopped to watch the excitement, doing nothing.

When Xinzhou passed by, he was stopped by the captain.

"Your Majesty slipped away again?" The captain took off his mask, but it was Duan Yanling.

"Let him go, he's the emperor now, who can hold him back." While speaking, there was a reek of alcohol from the previous night, as if he was the one who got drunk with Liang Heng last night.

"Okay, don't worry about it, your eunuchs are useless. Lian Zhen and I will go get him back."

Duan Yanling found Lian Zhen, and patted him on the shoulder with an iron hand. Lian Zhen was not wearing armor, and was sitting with his head bowed, with a dazed expression on his face, as if he was in a fugue, and was disturbed by Duan Yanling.

"Let's go, find someone."

"Who are you looking for?" Lian Zhen asked in a daze, "Are you looking for my father?"

Duan Yanling sighed: "You two, one is looking for your father and the other is looking for your teacher all day long, and you have gone crazy together. That's right, you are looking for your father, maybe you are drinking with Master Shen. If you find your father, you will find Master Shen. And I found my cousin."