Just a few miles outside the North City Gate of Kyoto, you will find the Southern Imperial Garden covering an area of more than 3,000 acres.
The royal garden was, to put it bluntly, an enclosure for hunting and planting by the emperor. If this were placed in later generations, it would be a proper wetland park.
Lu Fang arrived here in Su Yu's carriage.
I already knew in my heart what this so-called Chunbi was all about.
It is a small competition that the Dayu royal family uses to warn future generations of princes and grandsons not to forget that Emperor Taizu overcame all obstacles and arduous efforts to found the country. The symbolic significance is far greater than the actual significance.
At the beginning, the princes and grandsons over the age of sixteen personally brought their guards to the scene to "fight".
But by now, the taste has already changed.
The princes and grandsons became spectators sitting on the deer viewing platform, and the noble disciples led the army to take the stage for them.
I don’t know if any emperor wanted to use this to emphasize the status gap between the royal family and the nobility.
There are only eight princes in Dayu who are over the age of sixteen, so even the princesses have come out to join in the fun. It becomes more and more childish.
When Su Yu took Lu Fang to Guanlu Terrace, there were already many noble and powerful children present. It can be said that they are the group closest to the royal family members.
Even Su Yu's arrival did not cause any disturbance.
Everyone just greeted him, and then their eyes fell on Lu Fang, who was following him.
Especially those noble disciples, their eyes are particularly meaningful.
Facing these looks, Lu Fang nodded and smiled softly.
No matter how much he fights behind the scenes, he doesn't care about showing a harmonious attitude on the surface. In the final analysis, it's just a dispute between young people.
He is not one of these noble children. Strictly speaking, he is not even a member of the powerful family. Therefore, he has never regarded himself as a member of this circle.
Naturally, I won't take this kind of conflict of spirits too seriously.
Anyway, after the imperial examination is over, he will leave Kyoto, a place like a dragon and a tiger's den. Maybe when we meet again, the two sides will already be enemies.
I'm too lazy to put too much thought into my interactions with these people.
Neither will I cling to you with all my heart, nor will I really hate anyone to the core of my being and work hard to make the other person suffer.
And his attitude naturally made these noble disciples slightly stunned. They didn't know whether to say that Lu Fang didn't know good from evil, or whether he should be said to be generous.
Su Yu also nodded to those he knew well, and then walked to a certain group of people.
There were already dozens of people present, all of them were dressed luxuriously, but they were also clearly divided into several "square formations."
These "square formations" can generally express the position of the elders behind them in the DPRK.
Su Yu is undoubtedly the backbone in his own circle.
"Master Su."
"Brother Su."
"..."
When you walk into this circle, the people next to you who greet you are much more friendly.
Su Yu also looked more casual, smiling and saying hello to these people, and then introduced Lu Fang, "This is Mr. Lu Fang, Jie Yuan Lu of Jingnan County. I won't introduce him much. Haha, you must have heard of him recently." name."
Then he introduced Lu Fang to this small circle of about ten people, with him as the main backbone for the time being.
As Lu Fang expected, most of the elders of these people were officials from the Shangshu Province. Their backgrounds were quite astonishing.
The most unpopular one was also the son of a certain minister who held real power in the dynasty.
It wasn't until Su Yu introduced the last person that his face showed some strange color.
"This is Mr. Ran, the minister of the Ministry of Industry, and also the legitimate son of your senior brother, Ran Licheng."
Su Yu brought Lu Fang to the young man who was standing at the outermost edge of the crowd, with a bookish look on his face and seemed a little depressed.
Ran Hongbo’s legitimate son?
Lu Fang really didn't expect that Ran Licheng would appear here and stand among this group of people.
But then he realized that in the past, Ran Hongbo was just a member of Zhongshushe, and Ran Licheng was not even qualified to participate in such a situation. It seems that he did not have many close friends among this group of powerful children.
Now that Ran Hongbo has become the minister of the Ministry of Industry, it may be his first time to participate in the spring hunt. If he doesn't stand in the crowd like Su Yu, where can he stand?
He instantly understood why there was a gloomy look on Ran Licheng's face.
"Master Lu!"
At the moment when he was in a daze, the bookish Ran Licheng greeted him in surprise.
There was even a hint of excitement in his eyes about meeting a close friend in a foreign country.
As Lu Fang expected, before Lu Fang came over, he was quite embarrassed among this group of people.
His father Ran Hongbo's delicate position destined him to be unable to integrate into this group of people.
Everyone knows that Yu Yuanwei and Ran Hongbo are the emperor's thorns in Shangshu Province. They have a tendency to establish their own families and even replace Su Shi.
The elders of these people present were all unswervingly following Su Zaima's lead.
Before Lu Fang came, he had already been ridiculed.
What's even worse is that his father used to be a member of Zhongshushe, and the Qing sect disciples he had befriended were not qualified to participate in this spring hunt. Even if he wanted to go away, he didn't know which circle to join, so he could only
He endured it forcefully.
Otherwise, he would not have stood at the outside of the crowd, looking extremely alone.
Fortunately, I was mentally prepared before coming. If my mental endurance was a little worse, I might have hidden my face and left by this time.
Now that Lu Fang has arrived, he feels like he has seen a life-saving straw.
Lu Fang was Yu Yuanwei's student and his father's fellow disciple, so he was one of his own.
"Master Ran."
Naturally, Lu Fang also seemed very warm. After bowing to Ran Licheng, he continued: "Senior brother, it's true that you have a son about the same age as me, but you don't even take you to the teacher's house to get close to me."
"When we finish here later, why don't I go to your house, or you and I go to the teacher's house for a few drinks? I don't have many friends in Kyoto, so I'm so free that I almost fade away."
These were some vulgar words, which made some of the people around him feel faintly contemptuous.
However, Ran Licheng's eyes couldn't help but become a little warmer, and he instantly had the urge to introduce this "Uncle Master" who was similar to him in age as a close friend, and said: "This fact is that Li Cheng is rude. Li Cheng should have visited him long ago."
The young master is the one."
"It's easy to talk about."
Lu Fanglian said: "When the spring hunting is over, you and I will go to the teacher's house. It just so happens that I came here in Mr. Su's carriage, and I will ride back on your carriage later."
Ran Licheng nodded vigorously.
Su Yu saw the two of them being so warm and just smiled.
The eyes of the people next to him instantly became a little colder.
They probably don't have the same magnanimity as Su Yu. They have long labeled Lu Fang as a "student of Yu Yuanwei" in their hearts.