phoenix knot

On the way back to Beijing, Su Mingyue and Liang Guanjing still took the same car. This car was not the golden-roofed nine-day cloud phoenix chariot specially used by the empress. Its body was plain and unremarkable, but it was much more spacious than the one allocated to the maids when they came. .

As soon as he got into the car, Liang Guanjing took off his burqa and palace gauze as usual, and only had a crimson purple bellyband embroidered with black gold and ink chrysanthemums, and a folding fan rattled.

Su Mingyue saw that she had been tanned for the past few days, but a beauty is a beauty, and such a complexion is more heroic and vigorous.

"Is there any whereabouts of your brother?" Su Mingyue asked.

"Thank you, sister Mingyue, for your concern!" The horseman outside who was wielding a whip responded, but it wasn't Liang Qingyu who was captured by King Liao a few days ago.

When Su Mingyue heard this, she quickly lifted the curtain in front of her, "How did you escape, tell me quickly!"

"Master, I'm so smart. Isn't it easy to escape? It's just that the king of Liao is in charge of food, eating, drinking and dressing, and he serves better than the queen. His counselors play the piano with me every day, discussing the past and the present. , so I couldn't help but stay for a few more days, so I could have a good time!"

Liang Guanjing said: "The service is better than my side? Then why don't you go south with your Uncle Liao Wang? He still regards you as the emperor, isn't it good to be the emperor?"

Liang Qingyu said: "First of all, let me correct you. You are the queen, he is the prince, and you are peers. He still calls you younger brother and sister, but I am your younger brother, so he is not my uncle of Liao king, but my Liao king." elder brother."

Liang Guanjing rolled his eyes.

Liang Qingyu hadn't finished speaking yet, "Secondly, although brother Liao Wang is good, I miss sister Mingyue very much, so I came back without hesitation."

"You kid still wants to touch your sister Mingyue, you are so beautiful!"

Su Mingyue blushed, thinking that Liang Guanjing just said that she would be betrothed to that little soldier, now would she agree to her younger brother and let her be a younger brother and sister?But no matter what, she entered the palace to serve the emperor, although so far she has not even looked seriously at the face of Emperor Hongxi, all in all, the important matter of marriage is the words of the matchmaker ordered by her parents, and now she should consider this issue, It's a bit embarrassing.

"Hey, do you want to marry this little kid?" Liang Guanjing asked jokingly.

Su Mingyue's face darkened, "Good boy, when you grow up, your sister will be old! Then I will find you a peerless beauty to match."

The convoy traveled for several days, carefully avoiding the marching route of King Liao, seeing fleeing people along the way, and heard that King Liao started to arrest strong men to fight.

Su Mingyue said: "Prince Liao's energy is exhausted."

Liang Guanjing sighed quietly, "I have arrested strong men from all dynasties and generations."

Su Mingyue half opened her mouth, but couldn't say a word.

"I have done what I have to do, and leave the rest to the emperor to worry about. Now I just want to be my empress." Liang Guanjing's tone was sincere, but who knew that Liang Qingyu, who was driving a carriage outside, burst into laughter .

"What are you laughing at?" Liang Guanjing said angrily.

"Do you think you are a good empress? Don't end up like a mud bodhisattva crossing the river. Last year, a delicate concubine Yuan Gui almost lost her life. The plots in the harem are similar to yours. Marching and fighting are different, you are not good at it."

"I underestimated the enemy in the past, and I won't in the future."

"My good sister, you can take care of yourself."

"Follow the instruction!"

"I advise you to stay in Qixia Temple and be quiet."

"I thought so too, but the emperor urged me repeatedly, and I stayed at Qixia Temple, as if I was afraid. I thought about it, there are still similarities between leading troops to fight and being in charge of the harem. Besides, Those beautiful concubines in the harem are much better than the stinky master Qiu Ba. If I promote a few more lovely people like Mingyue, the harem will be a pleasure for me to look at, let alone the emperor."

Liang Qingyu said, "There is a fork ahead, are you going to Qixia Temple or the palace?"

"Go to Qixia Temple!"

Liang Qingyu and Su Mingyue laughed together.

Arriving at the side gate of Qixia Temple, Liang Guanjing didn't disturb the abbot of the temple, only two maids, Lianxiang Xiyu, came out to greet him.

Lianxiang saluted briefly, and then said: "The business of the emperor's nephew has been settled, and no one else knows his whereabouts except me."

"If you say that, don't you want me to kill someone to silence you?"

Lianxiang felt aggrieved, "Why does your mother always say these four words, it hurts my family's heart too much."

"Don't the third son of Liang know? Doesn't the young man next to the third son of Liang know?"

"This……"

"I know that too."

"This……"

Liang Qingyu became interested, "You know what? The emperor's nephew, isn't he talking about Emperor Huiwen? Where did you get him?"

Liang Guanjing turned to stare at him, and pointed at the door lintel, "Apart from pilgrims, there are only nuns and lay female disciples in Qixia Temple. Young Master Liang, please stay."

"How can someone cross a river and tear down a bridge like this?"

"I left the carriage for you to go home." Liang Guanjing said, and had already crossed the threshold without looking back, and Xiyu raised her hand behind her to block Liang Qingyu.

"There is no impenetrable wall in this world, so be careful when sailing for thousands of years." Liang Guanjing continued to reprimand the maid.

"Lianxiang knew she was wrong."

Liang Guanjing turned her head and asked Xiyu again: "What about the things I asked you to do?"

"Go back to your mother, the person has already been brought, and he entered the temple the day before yesterday, and I will take care of it myself."

"Does she know?"

"You told me not to let her know for the time being."

"Very good, wait a while and take her to the open space in the front yard of Lanhuaju. I'll let her take a look at it from a distance in the high attic."

"Yes."

Su Mingyue was at a loss, but she knew that she shouldn't ask too much about the empress's affairs. If she wanted her to know, she would naturally know. If she didn't want her to know, it was best not to talk too much.

The queen went up the stairs and entered a small building with a single door and a courtyard. The open space in front of the building was very open, the bluestone slabs were neatly paved, and there were plum blossom piles and wooden figures in the corner of the yard, which looked like a place for morning exercises.Sandalwood is lit in front of the altars in the halls of the building, and the smell floats in the air faintly. The Buddhist gates look very simple, which is naturally incomparable with the palace, but the tables, chairs and benches are all available, and the wood used is very thick and simple.A little nun at the door saw that the empress was coming, bowed her head very respectfully, put her hands together and raised her chest, and saluted like a Buddhist family.The queen nodded to the little nun, "Is Huirong in the meditation room?"

"Senior Sister is waiting for Empress in the meditation room."

"You call her over."

After hearing this, the little nun saluted again, then turned and ran to call the nun named "Hui Rong".

Liang Guanjing sat down at the carved wooden Eight Immortals table on the side of the hall, and a clever little nun came to serve tea and water.Su Mingyue looked around, "Do you usually live here?"

"Clean."

"Is Yongxuan Palace not good?"

"I used to take good care of Concubine Yuan Gui, but you have heard about what happened last year, right?"

Su Mingyue nodded.

"I almost lost my life that time, and I was a bit... how should I put it to Yongxuan Palace. I always feel that although the harem is magnificent and extraordinary, I feel uncomfortable when I stayed there. How many times have my lives hung by a thread when I went to battle before? , I didn’t have the bleeding profusely in Yongxuan Palace, and I was so cold that I was so scared. That was the first time I knew the insidiousness of women. At the beginning, I didn’t believe that Concubine Yuan Gui could do such a thing. She was instigated by others, but she actually admitted it herself. Among the women in the palace, she was the only one who gave birth to the second prince Han Yunche. If my child was born, he would be a legitimate son. The emperor placed high hopes on her. Before that, she had been reluctant to appoint her child as the prince. She just hoped that the son-in-law would inherit the throne in the future, so she had such thoughts." Liang Guanjing said, holding up the tea bowl here.

The tea bowl is a jade porcelain bowl filled with white glaze, which is very expensive. It seems that life in Qixia Temple looks simple at first, but she is still a queen after all.

Blowing away the floating leaves on her face, she said lightly: "Of course, at that time, I didn't get along with Empress Han Chengjue, maybe he didn't want me to give birth to this child, I don't know."

"Your Majesty!" Lianxiang yelled in horror.

"Can't you say that? The first person I suspect is him. With Yuan Wenxuan's own strength, she dare not."

"The poison of a tiger does not eat its offspring, so the emperor will not." Su Mingyue persuaded, although she only saw the current saint from a distance in the crowd once, but the gentle and elegant appearance in the dragon robe still remained in her heart, and she felt that he was not like that people.It is disrespectful for Liang Guanjing to call Jinshang by his first name, even if he is a husband and wife.

"Why not? There are so many women in the harem scrambling to give birth to him. One more prince is not too many, and one less is not less. There is only one who inherits the throne. If he doesn't kill the rest, he will leave it to the prince to kill?"

Lianxiang said: "The emperor loves the empress in his heart, you should know it, he won't."

"Chuiai?" Liang Guanjing already smiled miserably, "Yes, I know his love for me, so he could have killed his mother and raised his son."

Su Mingyue felt even more frightened.

"Murdering mothers and raising sons has been done in ancient times. Will it become common practice in my dynasty? He couldn't bear to part with me, so he could only kill my children. Probably he himself felt that he would not live as long as me in the future."

This is getting worse and worse.

"Empress!" Suddenly a trembling person shouted at the door, Su Mingyue saw a beautiful nun rushing into the room suddenly, and fell to her knees, "Please don't say that about the emperor, he will be sad when he finds out. The whole thing was done by the concubine alone, and he didn't know about it. Because of this, you have a quarrel between husband and wife, and mutual suspicion, that concubine really has to die to apologize."

Normally, Liang Guanjing would lift up the kneeling person, but now he raised his legs, picked up the tea bowl, and sipped the tea in his leisure time.She looked at the nun who was crying pear blossoms and rain at her knees, and swept her cold eyes, "You also used your strings of tears to seduce the emperor, and also paralyzed me."

The nun was so crying that she couldn't speak, she hugged Liang Guanjing's leg.

"Forget it, I blame myself for being blind." She put down the teacup with a "bow" sound, "Follow me."

Su Mingyue and Lianxiang stayed where they were, and saw Liang Guanjing leading the nun upstairs.

Su Mingyue said: "That's Concubine Yuan Gui?"

Lianxiang nodded.

"She's not dead? Didn't you mean Princess Zheng..."

"I didn't die, the queen asked the imperial physician to revive her again, and brought her to Qixia Temple. But don't tell it, Princess Zheng doesn't know yet, and the master who caused the trouble knows, she still doesn't know How to deal with Concubine Yuan Gui? Even the emperor doesn't know that she has become a monk in Qixia Temple, and her dharma name is Huirong. She, a weak woman, can't survive on her own, so she stayed in the temple."

Just as they were talking, there was movement in the courtyard outside, Lianxiang and Su Mingyue went out to look, and saw Xiyu bringing a five or six-year-old Zongjiao child into the courtyard gate, the child was soft and cute like a dough ball, and was dripping Turn your eyeballs left and right to look at the courtyard.

"You wait here, your mother will come down in a while." Xiyu took out a handful of kraft paper-wrapped dried fruit from her bosom, opened it, picked one and handed it to the child.