Chapter 53 The Danger of Participating in Business
"People may say to Buyi: 'Buyi's appearance is very beautiful, but why is he so good at robbing his wife?'" [Hanshu·Zhibuyi Zhuan]
The sound of cicadas that had been noisy all summer in the courtyard finally began to weaken. Although the sound was small, it was still emitting the last lingering sound of life.
The sun shone obliquely in the pool, and the cool breeze crossed the water, blowing up layers of fine waves like fish scales. The water patterns shone under the sunlight, like gold floating on the water.
The lotus flowers in the pond have long stopped blooming. There are only a few lotus stems left on the water, with full lotus pods at the ends. Their heads are lowered and swaying in the wind, but no one is picking them. The leaves of the osmanthus branches planted along the bank are covered with yellow flowers smaller than sesame seeds.
, at this time, it is exuding a rich fragrance, refreshing the heart and mind.
Bursts of fragrant wind blew the curtains hanging on the railings of the waterside pavilion by the pool, as well as the skirts of the people coming and going from the palace.
On the bed in the middle of the waterside pavilion, a graceful woman is lying on her side. A gauze dress as thin as cicada wings is draped over her body, which highlights her graceful curves, like a beautiful green mountain.
A layer of mist.
Tang Ji, who is in her early twenties and equally beautiful, is wearing a well-fitting palace attire. She is sitting on the couch on one side in a formal manner. She looks calm. She looks at the residual lotus in the pool for a while, and then looks at the couch sleeping soundly.
of beauty.
She couldn't help but think that only when she was asleep, you were a gentle and docile girl of seventeen or eighteen, instead of the usual ten thousand-year-old princess Liu Jiang who deliberately maintained her aloofness.
Whether it was before or now, days like this make you feel tired, right? That’s why I act like this just to protect myself in the palace. But days like this will eventually come to an end, and my future days,
But it never ends.
Tang Ji was in a daze, thinking about the life that she could see all the way from now on, and couldn't help but feel deep sadness. At this time, a palace maid opened the curtain, leaned out half of her body, glanced at the couch first, and then looked at
She said softly: "Noble sir, the queen is here."
The palace maid was worried about how to wake up Liu Jiang on the couch. Fortunately, Liu Jiang was a very light sleeper and was soon woken up by the movement.
Liu Jiang stood up and sat on the side of the couch, looking at the pool in confusion. After thinking for a while, he said, "Let her wait first."
She simply arranged her clothes, washed her face, and immediately returned to her usual cool appearance.
"The Queen's concubine is the Dong family, and she pays homage to Princess Wan, the noble lady of Huaiyuan." Queen Dong bowed respectfully.
Tang Ji looked back at Liu Jiang, who said, "Yes."
Empress Dong stood up as she was told and consciously sat on the table opposite Princess Tang, her manners were calm and elegant.
Liu Jiang added: "What have you been busy with recently?"
Empress Dong replied: "After ordering the servants in the palace to clean Yeting, after autumn comes, the palace roads are full of leaves. They look good at first, but when the rain comes in a few days, they will rot and deteriorate. After all, they are not beautiful."
"The Jiaofang, Pixiang and other palaces have been in disrepair for a long time. It has been difficult for you to take care of them in the past year." Liu Jiang's tone was calm and questioning: "Your Majesty likes to see the yellow leaves falling on the palace road, so he said
'The yellow leaves in autumn are as good as the red flowers in spring'. The queen only needs to keep the ones on the main road and clean the rest."
"Jinnuo." Empress Dong smiled lightly and said: "Speaking of yellow leaves, I remember that there were several ginkgo trees planted in the Song Dynasty Guiren Palace. They were transplanted from the former site of Fuli Palace by the national decree. Now I think about it.
, the palace of the nobles of the Song Dynasty must be filled with gold."
"That is a beautiful tree from the south. It is one of the exotic plants and trees from the south that Emperor Xiaowu collected when he built the Fuli Palace. The trees in the Song Capital Palace are only small trees that are less than a few years old, and the real trees that are hundreds of years old are
The tree is still in Fuli Palace. His Majesty ordered people to take good care of it and not allow anyone to transplant it. He said that in a few days, he would take me out to have a look." Liu Jiang chatted with Empress Dong as if nothing had happened.
It seems like they are competing to see who is more patient.
"It is said that when His Majesty first saw this tree, he blurted out the name 'Ginkgo'. The busybodies below thought that His Majesty found the word 'Ginkgo' unpleasant, so they also changed their words." Empress Dong smiled and shook her head: "But I don't think so.
I think ginkgo sounds better, but ginkgo is a bit tacky."
"Left or right is just a name. If there is 'silver' in the name, it may not be as valuable as gold and silver." Liu Jiang said very implicitly: "In the end, it is just a tree."
The smile on Empress Dong's face froze, and her expression suddenly became colder.
Tang Ji saw that the atmosphere between the aunt and daughter-in-law was a bit delicate, so she couldn't help but come out to smooth things over: "Even if it is a tree, it is divided into high and low. The ginkgo tree can be used as medicine, edible, and can be planted in the courtyard for viewing.
, it should be regarded as a famous species among trees."
Liu Jiang lowered his head and stared carefully at the piece of uncarved jade in his palm, while Empress Dong looked at Liu Jiang with an indifferent smile.
Tang Ji was a little embarrassed, but she still thought to herself and said: "I don't expect to live in a good place, I just hope that the place will have beautiful flowers and plants for me to pass the time."
"The noble lady wants to move out of the palace?" Empress Dong looked surprised and said, "The noble lady is the widow of Emperor Xiaohuai and his majesty's sister-in-law. She is such a good person, why do you say such a thing?"
Liu Jiang raised his head at this time and sneered: "Did she say she wanted to leave the palace?"
Empress Dong was stunned for a moment, and said with a sly smile: "Ah, maybe I heard something wrong."
Tang Ji didn't take it seriously and smiled and said: "It should be so. Although I am the widow of Emperor Xiaohuai, I no longer belong to the palace. It is really not suitable to live in the palace for a long time. Your Majesty was still young in the past, so he didn't have the power to do so.
Hiccup; now Your Majesty... well, even among the people, uncles and sisters cannot live in the same room, let alone the royal family? Those foreign officials are right, I should leave the palace to avoid suspicion. "
"The scenery of Shanglin Garden is good, and there are not so many rules to follow. I will tell Your Majesty that a good palace will be allocated to you at that time." Liu Jiang said in a calm and confident tone.
Tang Ji readily agreed: "Then I would like to thank Your Majesty and the eldest princess first."
The longer she stayed in the deep palace, the lonelier she became. She longed to leave this place at the cusp of the storm. Even though she was still alone after leaving the palace, she was at least more comfortable than in Weiyang Palace.
"Now that your majesty is ready to live in London, you should prepare your throne and shoulder the responsibility of the queen. The first thing," Liu Jiang suddenly paused, paused for a moment and then said, "is to uphold justice and give birth to the emperor's heir as soon as possible.
"
Empress Dong understood that the eldest princess knew that she would soon follow in the footsteps of Tang Ji, so she warned her in advance.
"Wei!" When she thought that her sister-in-law, who had been weighing on her for a long time, was about to move out of the palace, and no one in Yeting except the emperor could tell her what to do, she would become a real 'empress'! Thinking of this, Empress Dong was thinking
He was relieved and responded simply and neatly: "Since I am your majesty's first wife and I am located in the middle palace, I am in a good position. The relationship between the two nobles of the Song Dynasty has led to the birth of an imperial heir for your majesty earlier."
The eldest princess followed Tang Ji to leave the palace. This was the general trend and a sure thing. Empress Dong believed that even the emperor could not force her to stay. But she did not expect that Liu Jiang not only chose to leave generously, but even gave her to others from other places.
She made a stumbling block.
"More than Fu, these two Song."
Empress Dong suddenly became alert and looked at Liu Jiang in surprise, with a bad thought in her mind.
Liu Jiang completely ignored Empress Dong's reluctance and said solemnly: "In the past two years, there have been only you and two other nobles in Yeting. It is not only deserted, but also unremarkable. Now your Majesty has grown up.
, it’s time to choose girls from good families to enrich Ye Ting.”
"This... Your Majesty is still young after all." Empress Dong declined.
"Not too young." Liu Jiang gave Empress Dong a deep look: "Nowadays, the country is in a difficult situation. If you give birth to an emperor as soon as possible, you can stabilize people's hearts earlier. This is more important than anything else."
Empress Dong had no choice. She would be known as a 'jealous wife' if she continued to refuse, so she had to settle for the next best thing: "I have to ask Your Majesty for your opinion on this matter. If Your Majesty agrees, it will be handed over to Ye Ting. According to past precedents,
, we have to wait until spring."
After all, Liu Jiang would not make the decision on such a big matter without authorization. He nodded and stopped talking.