first glance

Sure enough, after arriving at the side door of a small courtyard, the eunuch who led the way stopped moving forward. He bowed and stood in front of the door, gently pushed the small door open, turned around and said to Song Nian, "Please, my lord."

Song Nian nodded lightly, and said flatly: "I have to thank you, father-in-law."

There are only a few large tanks in the courtyard, which are supposed to be used to feed some fish, insects and tender lotus in summer, but now they are empty, and the long-empty courtyard is even more barren and desolate.

The heavy curtain was lifted, and the emperor was resting on the side room to read a book. Song Nian walked a few steps quickly, knelt down and saluted.His palms were covered with sticky sweat. The King of Yan Kingdom invited him to meet here, and thinking of Deng Qi's words before entering Yan Kingdom, Song Nian had to become nervous.

The emperor knew that he was coming, and his eyes didn't fall on him. Song Nian knelt on the ground and waited for a cup of tea before he heard the emperor's faint "hmm". Moved rashly, still bowed his head and knelt down.

After waiting for a while, the emperor raised his head, as if he didn't know that he was still kneeling, "Why are you still kneeling, get up quickly, I heard that you are sick, but you are well?"

Song Nian's legs felt a little numb after kneeling for a long time, and he was a little dizzy when he stood up for the first time.

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your concern, I'm fine now." Song Nian's voice was still a little hoarse, and the emperor frowned almost imperceptibly when he heard his reply.

The last time we were far away in the palace, Song Nian didn't see the emperor's face clearly, but now that he got closer, he could see clearly that the emperor had eagle eyes and nose that were worthy of the name. Light like.

"Sit down, your voice is still hoarse, it must be that you still have some underlying illness, come on, let's serve tea."

Song Nian bowed his thanks, sat on a round stool next to him, and sat quietly without speaking.The emperor didn't talk to him too much, but just looked down at the book in his hand.

After a while, a eunuch came in to serve tea, Song Nian was afraid that he would have to go to the toilet if he drank too much, so he didn't dare to serve the tea.

"What do you read on weekdays?"

"Back to the emperor, when I was at home, I used to read all the books in the school. Now that I don't have the restraint of my husband, I can read more widely, and I don't publish "Four Books" or anything."

"Xinguo was originally a state of etiquette, and heirs of poems and books. There is such a sentence in the "Annotations to the Book of Songs" that I am reading. Let me clear up the confusion." The emperor shook the book in his hand, and waved at Song Nian with the other hand.

Song Nian stood up hesitantly, not even daring to speak, and he never took a step forward.The heated kang under the emperor was four feet wide, and the emperor was leaning on the soft pillow inside the heated kang. If Song Nian wanted to see the book in his hand clearly, he had to take off his shoes on the kang and climb up to the emperor to see it.

The emperor saw that he was dawdling and did not dare to come forward, but he did not intend to throw the book to him. Instead, he lowered his hand and patted the quilt under him.

Song Nian's heart was in a ball of panic, and he was clutching a ball of sleeve corners in his hands, and now he was drenched in cold sweat.After all, he is only a teenager. Although he once freely expressed his selfless thoughts of dedicating himself to the motherland in front of his close ones, it was difficult to take that step when things came to an end.

The emperor didn't give him too much time to hesitate, he snorted softly from his nose, and urged: "Come on!"

Seeing that there was no way to hide, Song Nian had no choice but to take off his shoes and carefully rubbed on the kang.

Slowly crawling to the emperor's side, and looking along his fingers, he saw that he was pointing at the sentence "Life is hard to come by, let me bow without restraint", Song Nian lost the trace of luck in his heart.

This sentence comes from the Daya·Wen Wang chapter of the "Book of Songs". Regardless of the meaning of the context, if Song Nian were to say this sentence in today's vernacular, it would be "The fate of the country will always prosper without changing it, and don't ruin it in your hands."

"What do you mean?" The emperor saw that his complexion was sallow, and the mole on his face was so abrupt and scary, but for some unknown reason, since he heard Song Nian's good voice in the hall that day, he always felt strange. Hearing the thought of his voice screaming, I don't know how exciting it would be.

"This sentence is a tribute to King Wen in the "Book of Songs". The purpose is to help King Cheng of Zhou, and don't ruin the fate of the country in his hands." Song Nian lowered his head, whispered this sentence, and then said it again Nothing.The emperor's hand was already attached to his knee that was kneeling on the quilt, and that hand was terribly hot. Song Nian thought that he could bear anything because of his faith in the country, but when the situation came to an end, he still panicked.

I don't know whether it was because of being stunned or a sudden impulse, Song Nian stepped back suddenly, and hit the Kang table behind him with his back.

Song Nian was about to take the opportunity to retreat to the ground, kneel and kowtow to plead guilty, but unexpectedly the man turned over and sat up, raised his hand and pressed Song Nian on the messy kang table.He pressed Song Nian's back neck with one hand, and with the other hand, he pulled Song Nian's clothes from the back of his shoulders.Before entering the palace, Song Nian took off his cloak to Deng Qi, and now he is only wearing a dark green brocade robe with the buttons ripped off by him, exposing the porcelain white skin on his back which is different from his face.

The emperor's eyes seemed to be stung by the porcelain white, he squinted his eyes slightly, stretched out a hand greedily, and traced on Song Nian's back, occasionally a little bit of force with his hand would leave a purple red for a year.

Song Nian's eyes were wide open, hot tears had rolled in his eyes several times, and finally flowed down the corners of his face, mixed with the tea and snacks left on the kang table, they washed all the paint on his face Some of them fell off, and the messy face was extremely miserable.

The emperor seemed to have noticed the strangeness on his face, raised his hand and turned him over, pressed his struggling hands on top of his head, picked up the purple sand pot that was knocked over and fell on it just now from the quilt, and put it inside which was still a little hot. Tea poured over his face.

"Do you know that this disguise and make-up alone is a crime of deceiving the emperor!" Seeing Song Nian's true face, the emperor realized that this voice should match such a face, but he suddenly became angry for some reason. Slapping Song Nian to the ground, he shouted loudly, "Stand up and take off your clothes!"

Song Nian was hit by that slap, and the five-pointed gold star turned around. He was recovering from a serious illness, but now he was so frightened and tossed, he couldn't breathe, he was so straight that he passed out.

Ever since Song Nian entered the palace, Deng Qi has been in a state of anxiety. Male pampering is prevalent in the country of Yan. The high-ranking officials and nobles take pleasure in raising male prostitutes. What's more, there is a story that two men became "brothers" and determined each other for life. Come out, Deng Qi has to worry.

Today is not a formal meeting, he and Hu Mang don't have to kneel and wait for Song Nian to come out like last time, Hu Mang has already gone to the guard room at the root of the city wall to talk nonsense with the guards on duty.The more he waited in the car, the more he couldn't sit still, and finally he couldn't hold back, cast a spell to get out of his body, and entered the palace invisibly.

As early as when the emperor beckoned Song Nian to read a book, he had been watching from the sidelines, and now he saw that the emperor had moved his mind on Song Nian, and he was suddenly angry, and immediately wanted to use a spell Only by cutting off the root of the emperor's descendants can he relieve his anger.

Since ancient times, the emperors have always carried national destiny and dragon veins to protect their bodies, and ordinary spells can't hurt him, but this is not difficult for Li Ke, but in the end there is still a sliver of reason that pulls him, and he cannot change the entire Yan Dynasty because of his momentary anger. The fate of the country, he made up his mind and made a decision, turned around and left.

The emperor looked at Song Nian, who was lying on the ground and didn't know his personnel, and was a little dazed. This believer is really so weak, and he looks like he is dying before he starts to toss, which is really disappointing.Just as he was about to get off the heating bed and throw Song Nian up, he suddenly heard the eunuch who had been dismissed by him call him outside the door.

"Your Majesty, the Empress Dowager is not well, Your Majesty, the Empress Dowager is not well." The eunuch was so anxious that he was sweating and steaming all over during the past three or nine days, as if he was sitting on a fire and gurgling away. Fat teapot with pot.

This is naturally Li Ke's little trick, and he didn't really let the queen mother return to Lihentian, she is not young, and she has been lingering and ill for a long time, it just made her look worse, and she looks like she is about to let go The way to go.

Sure enough, the emperor hurriedly put on his shoes and left. Seeing that Song Nian was still quiet before leaving, he ordered the little eunuch to send him out, lest death in the palace would only add to the trouble.

In fact, Song Nian only lost his mind for a short while before regaining some consciousness. Hearing what the eunuch said outside, he simply lay on the ground and couldn't get up until a little eunuch came in to help him and then slowly opened his eyes.

Half of his face was already swollen, and the corners of his mouth were bloody, mixed with the tears, tea and oil paint on his face, no matter how miserable he was.

The little eunuch was kind-hearted, seeing that he was really weak, so he borrowed some strength from him, helped him up, and slowly sent him out of the palace.

Li Ke stayed hidden by his side all the time, seeing that he had left the palace safely, he returned to Deng Qi's body, got off the carriage in a panic, and greeted him back.

As soon as Song Nian saw Deng Qi and Hu Mang waiting at the gate of the palace, he felt that he couldn't hold on to the tone he had just brought up from his heart. When he touched Deng Qi's hand, his legs went limp and he almost fell to the ground. Deng Qi already knew that he was suffering, so he carried him under his ribs without making a fuss, and the two walked safely to the carriage.

Hu Mang also saw that Song Nian's condition was not right, his eyes were red with anger, and he tried his best to hold back the greetings with the little eunuch who sent him out, and took out some money before he drove back to the residence.

Song Nian leaned on the soft pillow in the carriage since he got in the car, facing the carriage, without saying a word.Deng Qi sat behind him and stroked his back gently.Seeing that he hadn't moved, she used the hot tea in the car to wet the handkerchief and dragged him over to wipe his face.

"But what wronged you? Was it the emperor who beat you?" Deng Qi asked him pretending to know nothing, even though he knew the whole story.

"Brother Qi, what should we do? Will he be angered by me and attack Xinguo? What should we do?" Song Nian was already crying as he spoke, his slightly swollen eyes were filled with tears, and he stared blankly. Looking at Deng Qi, Deng Qi suddenly felt guilty.

Deng Qi sighed lightly, and put his thin and trembling young body into his arms, "Don't cry, silly boy, how can there be such a licentious king, he will not attack Xinguo just because of your temporary offense , and will not stop him from fighting because of your fearless dedication, why can't you understand?"

After listening to his words, Song Nian found some sense in the mess and came back. In the end, he lost his energy due to shock, and fell asleep in Deng Qi's arms with the sound of the axle of the carriage.