Qi Huang

The drizzle is fading away.But the sky is still gloomy, and the dark clouds are overwhelming, giving people the illusion that the mountains are turned upside down.

The inner room was a little damp after the rain, and without Tan Xia, Xie Xuan opened the window by himself, letting the silky rain pour in to drive away the dampness.

Behind him, there was someone standing in the shadows, with his head bowed and his chest in his chest, the eight-foot man was as cowardly as a quail that just came out of its shell.

"Your Highness..." Gu Shiqing whispered, "I was wrong."

Xie Xuan didn't speak.

Silence is always the moment when people are most prone to cranky thoughts.Especially in the face of a coercive superior like Xie Xuan, Gu Shiqing felt uneasy, and when he didn't get a response from Xie Xuan, he lowered his head even more.

Although he didn't know why he, a dignified sixth-rank Beijing official, would be trembling in front of someone who was several years younger than himself.

The window lattice cuts the light into strands of silk thread, Xie Xuan is holding on to the window frame, looking at the scenery outside the house.

After the rain, all the filth in the courtyard was washed away, but the things hiding under the corridor, hidden in the eaves, and mixed with the muddy mud could not be truly wiped away.

"I was really wrong." Gu Shiqing said again, confessing his guilt sincerely.

Xie Xuan finally stopped being indifferent.He lowered his eyebrows slightly, didn't turn his head, but looked diagonally downward beside him: "What's wrong?"

Gu Shiqing hurriedly said: "I shouldn't have peeked at His Highness talking to you adults, I shouldn't have fought with Eleven, and I shouldn't have yelled so loudly when His Highness was undressing..."

Shame to say.

Gu Shiqing was indeed smart, and instantly understood what happened just now, but he seemed like a no-brainer when dealing with people.

After Gu Shiqing finished yelling that sentence, Ye Yi caught him back quickly with his eyesight and quickly covered his yelling mouth, but it was too late.

None of the fairy-like figures outside the house are fuel-efficient lamps.It can even be said that Gu Shiqing and the others were able to hide behind and listen because those few acquiesced.

Unexpectedly, Gu Shiqing's mouth lacked a clue. He could have listened to it from beginning to end, but now he directly disrupted everything.

As soon as he finished shouting, Xie Xuan took advantage of the opportunity to enter the room and said that he would be punished.

Xie Xuan didn't take off his clothes, he just pretended to pull his lapel half an inch down, without even showing his chest, and was stopped by Gu Shiqing's yell.

Xie Xuan narrowed his eyes and looked at him dangerously: "Take off your clothes?"

"No, no, no." Gu Shiqing waved his hands again and again, "It's not about undressing, it's about dissipating heat, dissipating heat."

In desperation, Gu Shiqing didn't know what words he spit out.

He always speaks faster than his brain, and his mind thinks a lot, but what he says doesn't mean that.For a moment, she wished to find an embroiderer to sew her lips together.

Now he has almost come to his senses.

Xie Xuan is not often angry...or in other words, when Xie Xuan is angry, he is never emotional.When he was angry, he would not throw the cup and kick the table, let alone yell loudly. The broken porcelain cup just now at the dinner table clearly had something to do with acting.

Gu Shiqing felt that Xie Xuan on the table was not really angry - although he himself was not sure.

However, Xie Xuan is definitely angry now!

In the deathly silence, Gu Shiqing thought with tears streaming down his face.

If His Highness is not angry, he will take it. If he is angry, who would dare to let out a sigh of relief if he bowed his head.

Gu Shiqing, who vaguely felt that he had ruined a certain plan of Xie Xuan, could only keep his head down and be a quail.

After a long time, Xie Xuan finally said: "The opening of the South Canal can be postponed until the rain stops."

"what?"

He was still thinking about how to deal with Xie Xuan when he was angry, when he heard a sentence suddenly, he knew what the words meant, but when they were put together, it didn't hit him too much.

Xie Xuan: "The imperial court has allocated funds, and there is still a surplus of money handed over by the Qin family and some small gentry families. You remember to distribute more to the workers according to the regulations. It is considered a reward."

"...Yes." Gu Shiqing finally came to his senses, "Master Yu Qian and I both have this intention. We have already drawn up a booklet and are preparing to show it to you."

"In the future, you don't need to show me these things. You two discuss it yourself. If you feel that this matter is feasible, you can go straight to it."

"Do it directly?"

Now Gu Shiqing was really stunned.

It stands to reason that the most senior person in the supervisory department should be Xie Xuan, who was sent by the Queen Mother to take charge.Yu Qian and Gu Shiqing are at most second-level officials, forget about Yu Qian, people in the Ministry of Industry should have their own positions and ways of doing things, but Gu Shiqing stepped in halfway, and Xie Xuan's delegation of power in this way is totally against them. trust, or...?

Without noticing it for a while, Gu Shiqing's mouth moved, and the guesses in his mind popped out again: "Your Highness is leaving here?"

Xie Xuan looked down at him.

For some reason, Gu Shiqing always felt that Xie Xuan was different from before.When he first came to Yongzhou, he was still a man whose height had just reached the adult standard. Now that the years have passed, and his height has become taller, at the same time, some indescribable temperament has quietly appeared on him with the growth of age. .

For example now.

Even though the two looked at each other, there was no distinction between standing and kneeling, and even Gu Shiqing was a few inches taller than Xie Xuan - Gu Shiqing still had the illusion that he was looking up.

"When you speak in the future, remember to review it in your head before you speak." Xie Xuan said slowly, "I don't care about your unrestrained speech, but an official needs to know that disaster comes from your mouth. If you don't want to stay in Yongzhou forever , you must always be alert to this.”

Gu Shiqing hesitated: "...Yes."

He thought in his heart that Xie Xuan was really going to leave here.

After Xie Xuan made a fuss on the table that day, the four ancestors seemed to have evaporated and disappeared without a trace.

When Tan Xia heard about this, he hurried back from the place where the Ministry of Industry lived, and he was relieved only when he saw Xie Xuan himself.

She knew that Xie Xuan was not so easy to show emotions.

When she came, she happened to bump into Qingzhu, and because of the night, she only glanced at it, but didn't see the whole picture.I only saw a silhouette, Qingzhu seemed to be holding a package in his arms, he was quite big, the two met face to face, Qingzhu didn't seem to see it, and hurried out with his head down.

It was raining outside, and Tan Xia was thinking whether to ask him to get an umbrella, when Xie Xuan came out.

"Let him go."

Xie Xuan wore a curtain, and pushed the gauze aside with both hands, revealing a pair of blue eyes, "He won't make up his mind to follow me if he can't fulfill his wish."

"?" Tan Xia thought for a while, then frowned and said, "He wants to return that bow to Mister? I heard Mister seems to be able to stand up now, Your Highness, you..."

Xie Xuan interrupted her: "How about this veil? Is it pretty?"

"..." Tan Xia was speechless for a moment, half helpless and half pampered, "What does your highness not look good in?"

Xie Xuan laughed: "Why are you so sweet?"

He seemed to be in a good mood, and he took off the curtain after laughing enough, and let out a long breath: "How is your stay at the Ministry of Industry?"

"It's okay." Tan Xia said, "The Nanqu has been opened for a few days, and they are so busy that they don't touch the ground. I will take this opportunity to come back and see His Highness."

The gauze on the curtain fence in Xie Xuan's hand was so long that it could almost cover the whole body, only a pair of feet were exposed.Xie Xuan carefully put the gauze on his arm, and said casually: "Since you are busy, how come you come back when you have time?"

Tan Xia: "..."

Xie Xuan put the curtain fence on the table.It was only then that Tan Xia discovered that today's Xie Xuan did not wear a bright and beautiful color like in the past, but suppressed the color on her body, moving closer to deep and dim black.

Therefore, when he looked at people, it was as if he was looking into a person's soul through his eyes.

"If they think you are a woman and a servant, you can only do some work of serving tea and water, and don't let you touch the canal affairs, you can just get angry. Whether to beat, scold, or punish according to the law, it's up to you. "

Tan Xia: "But..."

"No but." Xie Xuan put away the whole curtain, turned around and walked into the house, "Remember what you want to do, just do it."

The rain after the drought seemed to have accumulated tens of thousands of hectares, and it seemed to be poured down in one day and night. It fell endlessly in three days and three days.

But the opening ceremony of the Nanqu Canal cannot wait any longer.

Not only are the workers eagerly looking forward to seeing their achievements for several months with their own eyes, but there are also countless pairs of eyes watching secretly.

Most of them were waiting to see Xie Xuan's joke.

After all, the present prince is already Xie Duan.

Some people are still guessing, does Xie Xuan not know about this yet?If you substitute yourself, go to Yongzhou with hard work, and want to show courteousness in front of the queen mother, who would have thought that if you didn't show courteousness, you would be slapped in the face, and what should belong to you would be lost.

If they themselves were not angry, they should quit.

Why does this person live in the construction supervision department every day like nothing else?

In short, no matter what other people guessed, when the South Canal was opened, an official ship would be launched and head south along the South Canal under the watchful eyes of many people.

It's just that the sky is not a coincidence. The rain has been falling intermittently for nearly half a month, but it doesn't stop.There was no other way, so Gu Shiqing had no choice but to pick a half-clear weather and order the boat to be released.

At the beginning, the rain was not too strong. Xie Xuan wore a curtain to protect the rain, and stood high on the high platform of the supervisory department to look down.The workers gathered around the ship, chatting happily with those around them. The rain could not dampen their enthusiasm, nor could it quench the fire in their eyes.

The narrow river bank was filled with people in no time.

The shirtless workers waiting for the boat to launch saw a young man with thin skin and tender flesh from the corner of their eyes, but they didn't pay much attention to it, thinking it was the young master who had escaped from some country gentry.Some people were worried that he was getting too close, so they gave him a hand: "Be careful, the ground is slippery in rainy days, it will be bad if you fall into the river."

Qin Ting smiled and said, "Thank you, brother."

Amidst the noise, on the highest hillside, a master and a servant were holding umbrellas, and not a single drop of rain fell into the bottom of the umbrellas.

Surrounded by steaming mist, it was the result of the collision between internal force and rain.Feng Jiuyuan looked up at the umbrella in Xuan Qi's hand, and said, "Take it away."

Xuan Qi: "Yes."

The umbrella was removed from the top of the head, but the rain still flew obliquely, not contaminating them.

The moment the bottom of the boat dipped into the water, the workers cheered loudly and clapped their hands.This means that their hard work these days has not been in vain. As long as they continue to follow the steps, more ditches will be formed in their hands.In a few days, the water transportation between Yongzhou and Hangzhou will be fully opened. Most importantly, the wages they receive will be more than the harvest of farming in a year.

Li Zheng didn't hold an umbrella, he stood alone on the mountain opposite the supervisor, like a drop of ink dripping into a landscape painting.

There seemed to be a transparent barrier between the distant noise and him, blocking him out.His figure looks lonely, but his eyes are deep and deep, and they fall on a person after crossing the figures and mountains and rivers.

The paddles move, stirring up countless ripples, like annual rings, and also like wrinkles between human eyebrows.

Xiao Ling was still standing, but obviously he was unable to maintain it for a long time. A long sword was sticking out in front of him as a crutch for support.There was also a figure standing behind him, but in the heavy rain and fog, his face couldn't be seen clearly.

It's just that the sound is old, like a damaged guqin.

"What are you going to do?"

Xiao Ling didn't turn his head back: "It has nothing to do with you."

It rained even more.

The boat launched smoothly and headed south. Gradually, the naked eye could no longer see the shadow.

Gu Shiqing was watching from beginning to end, afraid that something would go wrong halfway, but fortunately, everything was as usual.Yu Qian was also very relieved. The aged minister of the Ministry of Industry patted Gu Shiqing's arm and kept repeating: "Okay, okay."

Suddenly, there was an exclamation, like a thunderstorm on a rainy day, splitting layers of rain and fog.

"Your Highness! Your Highness has fallen into the water!"

Everyone present was shocked.

They looked in a hurry, only seeing the turbulent appearance of the rivers and mountains that were gradually becoming cloudy in the rain.And the floating curtain fence on the water.