Hong Yan's emergency was solved, and Hong Yuan gave him a grateful look.
A pair of black eyes looked at Hong Yan gratefully, and at the same time, they glanced across Feng Hongluan's face as if inadvertently. His heart beat loudly, and at the same time, a deep sadness arose.
Come to think of it, it is impossible for him and Feng Hongluan to be together in this life.
After the New Year and the beginning of spring, in March, it was the time for him to take in his concubine. If he didn't keep it all for three or two years, the emperor would sacrifice him as a tool for marriage, and give him the princess of some country.
he.
His marriage, like his birth, was not his choice.
Everyone knows that the emperor's heirs are born noble and are born with a silver spoon in their mouths. Only he understands that every step he takes in life will be as shocking as his brothers.
He had to wait until he was sixteen to start getting in touch with matters in the court. In his early years, he heard his mother and concubine say that in that treacherous place, if you don't be extremely careful, you may be shattered to pieces.
He really wanted to be a child forever, but after today, he knew he had to become a man.
If he does something like a man, will it impress her?
Taking advantage of the opportunity to look around, his gaze once again swept across Feng Hongluan's face.
Beautiful and dignified, as quiet as a virgin, she is truly extremely beautiful.
Feng Hongluan seemed to feel two burning eyes falling on her cheeks. When she raised her head to look for them, those two eyes had disappeared.
She smiled, thinking that she was overthinking.
The emperor arrived late, and when he appeared, the banquet had already come to an end. However, the emperor had not yet arrived, and the banquet could not be dispersed. Each table was decorated with fruits and cakes, and the room was still singing and dancing. Everyone was not so much giving a meal.
Hong Yuan congratulates her on her birthday. It would be better to say that she is waiting for the emperor.
The emperor finally came and brought the queen in person.
Since the death of the prince, the queen has been mentally and physically exhausted. Although several months have passed, judging from the queen's thin face, she probably still hasn't been doing well recently.
The emperor was dressed in a yellow dragon robe, with a kind face, and was followed by a group of palace maids and eunuchs.
The queen was also wearing a yellow palace dress, which made her complexion even more sallow. She stood on the queen's left side and followed the emperor in.
All the ministers stood up to welcome him, shouting that the Emperor may be blessed with good fortune and may the Queen be blessed with good fortune.
"Get up!" The emperor smiled heartily and said, "Haha, I thought the building was already empty. My dear friends, I am late. Happy birthday, sixth brother."
After saying that, the emperor gave Eunuch Mo a wink. Eunuch Mo came up with a box and said, "King You, this is the gift the emperor has prepared for you."
Hongyuan hurriedly took it personally: "Thank you, Brother Huang."
After this lively polite ceremony, the banquet continued. Dancers and singers, with their flowing clothes and crisp singing voices, set off the atmosphere of the entire banquet and became lively again.
Feng Hongluan was really a little tired, so she whispered a few words into Hong Yan's ear and asked Xiao Fu to help her out to get some fresh air and take a rest in the garden.
Hong Yan was afraid that she would find Feng Han, so he ordered Xiao Fu to take good care of her.
In the courtyard, the moonlight is strong and the evening breeze is fragrant. Although it is chilly, I have been bored in the house for a long time, so the breeze is refreshing and relieves my tiredness.
She didn't really like that kind of social scene, not to mention that she had to sit there for a long time waiting for the emperor.
Once it comes out, the breath will be relaxed.
Xiaofu was afraid that she would be cold, so he put a big cloak on her: "Master, there is a pavilion in front, why don't we go there and sit there?"
"Um!"
"Master, are you cold?"
"It's not cold!" Feng Hongluan smiled gently. There seemed to be a sound of footsteps behind him. Feng Hongluan turned around and took a look. Her eyes instantly softened from gentleness, and there was a hint of coldness that was not easy to detect.
"Hong Luan, I have something to tell you."
That person was Han Huiqing, whom she had not seen for a long time. She and Han Huiqing had not seen each other since they were separated at her father's wedding.
Normally, Han Huiqing rarely took the initiative to talk to her, so those who were obviously chased to talk to her were probably very rare.
There was a smile on his face, but the smile did not reach his eyes at all: "Uncle, it's you!"
"It's me, Hong Luan, I have something I want to discuss with you." After saying that, he looked at Xiao Fu with a somewhat embarrassed look.
Feng Hongluan patted Xiaofu's hand holding hers: "Go back and help me find a stove to warm my hands. I'll be in the pavilion over here."
Xiao Fu responded, and Han Huiqing stepped forward to help Feng Hongluan instead of Xiao Fu. Feng Hongluan did not refuse, but she knew very well in her heart that Han Huiqing was just being hypocritical.
"Uncle, why are you looking for me?"
She gets straight to the point.
Han Huiqing looked quite uneasy: "I came to you because of your grandmother's matter. You also know that filial piety comes first, and the way to be an official is to promote filial piety and integrity first, then talent and virtue. Your grandma and I...
…”
Finally, let’s ask about the Han Jia family, right?
"Uncle and grandma, what's wrong?"
"Your grandma probably said that I kicked her out of the house three times, right? In fact, I also had a last resort. Hanxiang was pregnant and she was my child. As a result, your grandma was just like your parents back then, she disliked the poor and loved the rich.
, I was afraid that Hanxiang’s humble birth would humiliate my current status and force me to drive Hanxiang out of the mansion, so I was very angry..."
"Oh, that's how it is!"
He wrote it vividly, but Feng Hongluan seemed indifferent and cold.
"Then uncle, just don't worry, grandma is in my house now, I will convince her."
Han Huiqing hurriedly said: "Then I'm relieved. You can tell her that once she changes her mind and accepts Hanxiang, I will immediately take her back home in a sedan chair."
"okay!"
Still an indifferent and concise answer.
Her indifference made him not know how to answer the conversation. The air became quiet for a while, and he finally stood up: "Since I have you in everything, I feel relieved. I'll go back first."
"Good luck uncle!"
Han Huiqing turned around and looked at his tall back. Feng Hongluan felt a cold feeling in her heart: Han Huiqing, I will let you live peacefully for the last year. After the year, you just have to wait for me to use all kinds of methods.
, torture you until you have no way to survive or die.
*
This New Year is not much different from usual. One example is having New Year's Eve dinner, watching the New Year's Eve, and lighting firecrackers to welcome the New Year at midnight.
But there is a difference. This is Feng Hongluan’s first time celebrating New Year with Hong Yan.
Moreover, this is the first year after Feng Hongluan's rebirth that he does not spend time with Maple City.
Time flies by like quicksand between fingers. The scene of last year's New Year's Eve is still very clear when I think about it, as if it happened yesterday.
Last year's New Year's Eve was celebrated with Mrs. Dong and Mr. He Jixiang. At that time, Mr. Dong had already begun to show his greedy face, and at that time, Mr. He Jixiang was also trying hard to cover up his ugly face.
On New Year's Eve, the mother and daughter worked together to swindle money, but Feng Hongluan exposed it with a few words. The mother and daughter were disappointed, lectured by their father, and almost sent to the dungeon again.
Time flies, in just one year, those two people have already passed away.
On New Year's Eve this year, I suddenly thought of these two people, and there was still a hint of hatred in my heart. Hong Yan said that she had sent people to investigate her mother's death, but so far there was no result. Don't let her find out how Ji Xiang died.
As said, it was He Jixiang and Dong who teamed up to poison her. If so, she would not hesitate to crush He Jixiang's bones into ashes and dig out Dong's body and whip her corpse three thousand times.
"What are you thinking about? If you are sleepy, just go to sleep!"
When Hong Yan came over, Feng Hongluan was beside the bed, thinking.
Hearing this, she turned her head and smiled gently: "No, I just thought of some past events."
"Past events?" He asked with great interest, "What happened?"
He always wants to know everything about her.
Feng Hongluan just smiled and shook his head: "It's no longer an important matter. By the way, yesterday the third brother talked to the emperor about the fourth brother's affairs. Do you have any clues?"
Hong Yan smiled and said: "We can make it happen if we stay together. Although the emperor didn't agree immediately, but after hearing what the third brother said, the emperor thought about it for a long time before waving to him and letting him leave first."
"What did third brother say to the emperor?"
"Zuo is just acting with emotion."
When Feng Hongluan heard this, she sneered in her heart, could a person like the emperor still have love?
If he had feelings, how could he treat his brother like this?
If there was love, how could he treat Concubine Li like this?
It's the twelfth lunar month of winter, New Year's Eve, and I don't know how Concubine Li is doing now.
In the cold palace, it was desolate and lonely, with no firewood and very poor food.
Hong Yan opened up the channels and asked the palace maids and eunuchs who were walking around in the cold palace to do good things for Concubine Li. However, those slaves were nothing more than duplicitous things. They took the money and turned around in a blink of an eye. They just followed the rules.
How you treat Concubine Li is how you treat Concubine Li.
It's really pitiful for Concubine Li, who devoted her whole life to the emperor, but only got such an ending.
It's New Year's Eve, I don't know how she will spend it.
*
The Royal Palace, the cold palace in the northwest corner.
There is nothing else in the cold palace, but there are a lot of trees, and the people from the Department of Flowers and Trees don't come to prune them. They let the trees grow wildly into a forest, with branches climbing vertically and horizontally, higher than the palace wall. I don't know if the trees here have absorbed too much.
Yin Qi, the branches are still lush in winter.
The dense leaves grow like crazy, and the shade of the trees blocks out the sun. Even in the hot weather of summer, if you walk under the shade of the trees among the palaces and pavilions, the coldness can penetrate right to the top of your heart.
At night, the moonlight sparsely shines through, projecting branches and branches on the ground. A gust of wind passes by, and they open their teeth and claws like monsters and monsters. The leaves rustle in the wind, like the sound of ghosts chewing, and the leaves are oozing.
The hair on the human body stood up.
It has been more than a month since I arrived here. I was not used to it at first, but now I am gradually getting used to it.
If the maid who delivered the meal had not given her an extra dish today and told her that today was New Year's Eve, she would have forgotten what year she was celebrating.
The meal delivered in the morning was not touched. The weather was very good that day, and it got cooler in the evening. She was the only one in this huge ruined yard, facing three shadows. At the beginning, she was very lonely.
After all, I have grown up among people since I was a child, so I am not used to being in a place like this all of a sudden.
But loneliness and loneliness can't overcome the coldness of the heart.
Once people feel cold, they really have nothing to fear.
In the beginning, she deliberately brought up those things so that the emperor could banish her to the cold palace and hide away.
Because she had known for a long time that in the palace, she had become a yesterday's flower and would never bloom again. She had already been completely forgotten in that person's heart.
Ever since the child was gone and the new star entered the palace, she has become the same old person.
This is why I only see new people smiling, but how often do I see old people crying?
She made a fuss at first, but now she really understands that once a person doesn't love you anymore, doesn't pay attention to you at all, and doesn't even bother to look at you, no matter how much you try to flatter others, be enchanting, or pretentious,
It's all in vain to please.
When the prince passed away, how did he accompany the queen, how did he take good care of her, how did he feel pain but tried his best to comfort her.
In contrast, when she had a miscarriage, he just became more and more distant, and in the end, he stopped even visiting her.
She took the initiative to look for him, but Eunuch Mo always blocked the door because Emperor Zhenwu was busy.
If she was still naively holding on to her illusions at the beginning, after the draft, she really gave up completely.
There is nothing more sad than death. After the draft, he never came to her Tangli Palace again. Even when he went to Xia Fei's palace and passed by her Tangli Palace, he never stopped at the door.
Even when the queen treated her harshly, and when she was seriously ill and dying, he still believed the queen's lies, thinking that she was deliberately pretending to be ill to attract his attention.
Since ancient times, she has known about the love between emperors and emperors, but she has fallen into his gentle trap little by little.
The bed was once charming, and they were intimate with each other, but now it seems that they have become a mockery of her.
In her heart, those warm memories, along with her cold heart, had already been buried deepest in her heart.
That person was long dead in her heart.
Or maybe, her heart has already died.
There was a crescent moon outside, it was clear and quiet, and the lively sounds of firecrackers and fireworks in the palace could be heard.
However, this excitement has nothing to do with her.
She turned around and went into the house. The breakfast meal had not been served, the lunch meal had not been served, and the evening meal had not yet been delivered. I was afraid that the group of palace maids who were attending today would have gone to join in the fun and forgotten her.
So what if you are eating scraps and eating nothing like pigs and dogs? You used to be well-dressed and well-fed, but in the end you ended up like this. How could it be worse than this?
The cold food and vegetables were hard to swallow, and the coarse tea and light food tasted like chewing wax. She put them into her mouth one after another. All the things she did yesterday felt like she had died yesterday.
If she still had fantasies in her heart during the first few days after entering the cold palace, now, those fantasies were as fleeting as the fireworks outside.
*
The news of Concubine Li's death did not come until the seventh day of the first lunar month. It was said that she died on New Year's Eve. As for the cause of death, the imperial doctor examined her and found that there was no problem with her diet. She finally concluded that she died in depression.
When she heard the news, Feng Hongluan was really sad for a while, so she and Hong Yan went to Li Fei's parents' house in the afternoon.
Unexpectedly, there was no sad atmosphere at all in the house, but it was full of joy and lanterns. After asking about it, I found out that the emperor wanted to appoint Concubine Li's brother, Chen Qinghe, as the Minister of Rites.
Concubine Li's father, Mr. Chen, was originally the Minister of Rites. He resigned from his post after being paralyzed by a sneak attack and retired to stay at home to recuperate.
The Chen family had only one son, Chen Qinghe, who could not pass the imperial examination. The Minister of Rites resigned and had no way to send his son to an official career. This time, thanks to Concubine Li's great blessing, the stupid Chen Qinghe was actually able to become the minister.
Although he is not as powerful as his father, Shangshu Lang, he is still in charge of the Ministry of Ceremonies together with Shangshu.
And the Minister of Rites is none other than Han Huiqing.
Feng Hongluan, who was full of joy in this family, had eyes and ears hurt, and left after staying with Hong Yan for a while.
Since ancient times, the life of a daughter has been despised, but after all, she is her biological child. This Chen family really makes Feng Hongluan feel chilled, but she can't help but feel sorry for Concubine Li.
Concubine Li's body was presumably laid to rest, and the palace probably kept the news of Concubine Li's death a secret because they did not want to bring bad luck during the New Year.
Concubine Li died last year, and she passed away without even having time to see the sunrise this year.
Feng Hongluan's dislike for the emperor increased even more because of this incident.
Is the appointment of Chen Qinghe as Minister of Rites to commemorate Concubine Li? Or is it to compensate?
Ha, they are just pretentious means.
That superior man, since he couldn't give anything, he wouldn't treat him so harshly.
If not, give Concubine Li a remote palace. No matter whether she never sees her or cares about her, it is better than sending her to a cold palace and dying in vain.
Everyone knows that the cold palace is extremely dark, and any concubine who enters it will either be crazy or stupid, or will die within three to five months.
What's more, you will die suddenly on the night you enter. Perhaps the feng shui of the cold palace is not good for people, so so many people died inside.
This time it was Concubine Li, next time, who will it be?
During the entire Chinese New Year, this incident was the most painful for Feng Hongluan.
It took a few days to calm down, and the Lantern Festival was approaching.
The streets have begun to be filled with lanterns. Last year during the Lantern Festival, I went to the streets with Jiang Nanzi and Han Huiqing. At that time, I teamed up with Jiang Nanzi to play tricks on Han Huiqing.
I'm afraid I won't be able to go this year, because of the sequelae of "Burn Together". Although Hongzhi managed to save the fetus because of her snow lotus heart, the baby's fetal appearance was always unstable.
In particular, Feng Hongluan should not be too excited. She has been worrying about Concubine Li these past few days and has felt sick in her stomach. Hong Yan was worried about her and the planned stay at Bieyuan after the new year was cancelled.
The imperial doctors in the palace have been on duty at his house almost all the time recently, just in case something happens to Feng Hongluan.
Several imperial doctors from the Qian Jin Yi Department were working for the King of Jin every day and did not dare to neglect him in the slightest.
In the past few days, my stomach has always been aching, and Feng Hongluan felt very uneasy.
Occasionally at midnight, waves of overwhelming pain in her lower abdomen kept her awake at night, and her complexion became much worse.
This situation repeated for several days, and finally Dr. Wang, who was a doctor in the same department, said to Hong Yan: "I'm afraid your empress is about to give birth. Such pain is a woman's symptom before giving birth. The first child is more painful. There are The pregnant woman will still be in vague pain for many days. Wei Chen suggested that the prince prepare a few midwives in the palace in case of emergency."
This news, for Hong Yan, I don't know whether he should be happy or not.
The child had an accident early. Judging by the time, the child would not be born until the end of February or the beginning of March.
"Well, Doctor Wang, I'll take care of everything."
"If the child is really born in the past few days, then the prince does not need to bother to ask Wei Chen to explain to the outside world why the child was born late. According to the outside world's speculation about the mother's pregnancy, it happens to be born this month."
This was true, but He Hongyan was only afraid that the child would be born prematurely, which would be bad for mother and daughter.
"Mr. Wang, if you need any medicinal materials at that time, just tell me now, and I will send someone to take care of it immediately."
"Your Majesty, there is no need to be so nervous. Your Majesty is in good health and the fetus's heartbeat is also very strong. Furthermore, the position of the fetus is very correct. If she really gives birth in the past few days, nothing will happen. I dare to assure you that everything is fine with your Majesty and the baby."
Everything is fine too.”
Hearing this, Hong Yan felt relieved.
It doesn't matter if he was born prematurely. Among their brothers, Hongyuan was also born prematurely and is still living well.
He just wants his mother and daughter to be safe.
Until now, I haven't told Feng Hongluan that Jiang Nanzi had already seen a doctor, and there was a lovely princess in her belly.
Looking at Feng Hongluan's sleeping face, he was sincerely relieved. Finally, their child was coming soon, but he couldn't help but feel heartbroken when he thought of the pain Feng Hongluan would suffer.
"Mr. Wang, no matter what, don't let her suffer so much during delivery."
"This..." Doctor Wang was a little embarrassed, "I'm afraid this Wei Chen can't do it. I just want to see if His Highness doesn't feel sorry for the princess. Wei Chen has seen the mother who gave birth. After a little pain, the baby came out, and the front and back were less than half a cup.
The work of tea.”
"Haha!" Hong Yan said with a smile, imagining what his child would look like, "If she doesn't love her mother, I will not take care of her in the future."
A big smile appeared on the middle-aged and prosperous face of Imperial Physician Wang.
The prince is in a good mood, and the rest of them can breathe a sigh of relief.
——Digression——
I woke up in the morning and hurriedly rushed out this chapter. Humph, I got up, washed my face, brushed my teeth, and took the train...