Chang'an, the winter of the first year of Tianyou, the first Shangyuan Festival after the new emperor of Daqi ascended the throne. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

At this moment, the lanterns have been on, and the Chang'an City is full of colorful streamers, only here the stone wall lamp shadow mansion is deep, and the dignified and second-grade household department Shangshu Mansion is slightly simpler than other official residences in the imperial city, and even at the time of this festival, the courtyard is still cold.

Behind the main hall of the house was the study, and at this time the lights were dim and the door was closed, no, not only at this time, but this situation had lasted for three days. The books in the study are neatly placed, although the books are thick, but there is no paper turning, the bookcase is more messy official documents, the folds are spread out from the corner of the bookcase to the ground, and the white paper is empty. There are scattered chess pieces on the dark ground, black and white are clear and clear like gems, each reflecting the candlelight, translucent and round, the texture is rare, it can be seen that it is a treasure, even if the brocade box that originally held the chess pieces was knocked over to the ground, it still looks luxurious and abrupt in this simple study.

He leaned back on the wooden chair, not moving, his peach-like eyes staring straight at the lamp above him, the little bit of dazed fire flickering and burning in his deep eyes. Before he was half a hundred years old, his gray hair had grown, and a few silver threads swayed with the cool breeze through the cracks in the window, and his pale complexion made him look like a stone carving.

“…… Twenty years of calculation, only this result?" He meditated, the past was vivid, no matter how he thought about it, he felt ironic, and a sad wry smile could not help but appear on his stiff and cold face.

Twenty-four years ago, he was only a poor scholar in Luoyang, and when he went to Chang'an to take the scientific examination, he was only the master of the seven-grade imperial history platform, and then he was the left secretary of Lu Yuanzhi - now Lu Xiangguo, who is in power and the opposition, appreciates and works for it, or it is more practical to collude with it.

In the past 20 years of wind and rain, how many dark things have been done, and what has been done? It is just to put the most unambitious third prince on the throne, but to become the second rank of the dynasty from the official of the seventh grade......

Now, the great cause has been decided, what result will he usher in?

Lu Yuanzhi, who was treated by Corporal Lixian back then, was already above 10,000 people under one person, but what about the position of the three ministers who promised him back then? Heh, it's just a bubble! In the past few months, all the previous allies have been abandoned, and those who cut off their heads have been beheaded and their homes have been stolen......

He was even charged with embezzling a huge amount of disaster relief money, and now he is only waiting for the "criminal evidence" to be confirmed......

Hmph! The birds are gone, the good bow is hidden, the new industry is fixed, and the old man is dead.

Lu Yuanzhi, Lu Yuanzhi, after all, is the second person in the court who can't be tolerated!

However, who is willing to do it, the second person?

The corridor behind the study leads to the backyard, there is a small hall in the southwest corner of the courtyard, the door is open, the candles are bright, there is a four-legged wooden frame connected to the door, there is a square wooden board on the slope, it seems that the embroidery frame is not as delicate as the ordinary embroidery frame, not to mention a stitch and a thread, there is half a person high, a large drawing is spread out on it, the content on the paper is complicated, the lines are regular. A young woman holds a slender hairy peak in one hand and a wooden ruler in the other, concentrating on her work, which looks like embroidery and painting, but the pen is not a mandarin duck or a flower or bird, but a building layout drawn by fine brush lines.

This is Gu Qingning, the daughter of the Gu family, who is over twenty-three years old, but has not yet come out of the cabinet, her posture is acceptable, her appearance is medium, she is obviously a woman with a slender waist in a lake-colored long skirt, but she does not see a trace of grace and charm, and she makes a ruler pen in her hand as flexible and smooth as a carving knife in the hands of a craftsman. Suddenly, she stopped and lowered her head to look at the drawings on the case, her hair was scattered from her slanted shoulders, her willow eyebrows frowned slightly, she immediately put down the pen ruler, crumpled the drawings she had drawn for a long time and threw them into the waste paper pile in the corner, and took a blank piece of paper on the shelf next to her and spread it out in front of her.

was about to put down the pen again, but he heard the door frame being knocked, and when he looked up, it turned out to be the second brother Gu Qinghuan, his expression was gloomy, and he called out depressedly: "Sister......"

She glanced at him, put away her tools, and stopped drawing, "How's it going?"

He walked in and replied, "Father still won't come out...... If you don't get water and rice for three days, it's not a way to go on like this. I really don't know what my father talked to Lu Xiangguo about that day...... As soon as I came back from the Xiangguo Mansion, it became like this......"

Gu Qinghuan pondered, and suddenly turned his gaze to Gu Qingning: "Eh, sister, didn't you go to Xiangguo's Mansion yesterday?

When she heard this, her eyes skimmed away, and her fingertips secretly clenched the corner of her sleeve: "No, he didn't see me yesterday, saying that he was entertaining guests, and Miss Lu Er didn't let me enter the inner mansion at all." ”

Gu Qinghuan suddenly looked nervous again: "Could it be that Lu Yuansi is deliberately angry with you?" Lu Yuanze has always treated you as a guest, not to mention that you are still his wife who has not passed through the door, what guests are more important than you?"

Gu Qingning raised his eyebrows, relaxed his fingertips, and slowly walked out of the door: "Qinghuan, you are wrong, the new emperor ascended the throne, the Lu family is the queen, and the Lu family has become the first door in Chang'an, I am afraid that for him Lu Yuanze, any doorman is more important than me." ”

"The Lu family is so cold...... Gu Qinghuan walked out of the workshop with her, and he was angry for a while, and couldn't help but scold loudly, but suddenly saw his mother Shen Lanxi walking towards this side, so he immediately suppressed his anger and went up with the eldest sister.

"Mother's ......"

Shen Lanxi glanced at the two of them, smiled peacefully, and looked back at the study again, but there was no uneasy look, and only asked, "Have you talked to him in the past few days?"

They both shook their heads worriedly, and Gu Qingning said, "Mother, you better go and persuade." ”

Shen Lanxi took her daughter's hand and said, "Forget it, don't use it." ”

The three of them walked to the corridor outside the door of the study as they spoke, and Gu Qinghuan still wanted to persuade him: "Mother......"

Shen Lanxi interrupted him, and while pulling the two of them away, he said with a smile: "Okay, Qinghuan, Qingning, don't worry about him, today is the Shangyuan Festival, your Uncle Jiang and Xian Ge came to the mansion to celebrate the festival with us, the banquet has been set up in the front hall, don't delay here, besides, Qingfeng just returned to Chang'an with his master, I don't want him to listen to your brothers and sisters' broken grievances all day long......

Before she finished speaking, her face suddenly changed, her breath was short, she covered her heart in pain, gasped a few times with difficulty, and collapsed straight to the ground, almost fainting.

"Mother!" Gu Qingning and Gu Qinghuan were shocked, and hurriedly went to help her, Gu Qingning shouted impatiently: "Go and ask the doctor to come! Mother has heart palpitations! Go quickly!"

The maid panicked, and said in a daze, "But ...... But today's holiday, the doctors of Tongyuantang don't go to the clinic...... I'm afraid I won't be able to come in time to call Dr. Zhang......"

"I'm going to call! I have to find a doctor!" Gu Qinghuan was really anxious, and hurriedly ran outside.

But when he heard the sound of the door opening behind him, he couldn't help but look back, only to see their father, Gu Qingxuan, the head of the Gu family, who had not shown up for three days, rushing out of the room, panicked and gaffe to Shen Lanxi, who fell into Gu Qingning's arms, his chapped lips trembled and opened and closed: "Madam! Madam...... A very anxious look appeared on his pale and haggard face, and he directly helped Shen Lanxi from the crook of the eldest daughter's arm.

Just when he was so flustered, Shen Lanxi, who was leaning on his shoulder, opened his eyes, stood up straight, smiled at him unharmed, and said casually: "Are you finally willing to step out of the study door?"

Only then did they realize that they had been fooled, and they were all relieved. Gu Qingxuan and Shen Lanxi looked at each other, smiled helplessly and shook their heads, sighed lightly, held Madame's arm, and said, "Eh, okay, just listen to Madame." ”

The two of them walked straight to the main house hand in hand, completely ignoring the eldest son and eldest daughter who had just been frightened, Gu Qingning and Gu Qinghuan had no choice but to look at each other helplessly, and at the same time shook their heads and sighed lightly, laughing.

Gu Qingning looked back at the study, thinking that it should be a little messy inside, so she wanted to clean it up in person, and Gu Qinghuan also went with her. When the two entered the house, they saw the black and white chess pieces scattered all over the place, and their faces changed, and they looked at each other heavily and wordlessly. Gu Qingning seemed to be thinking about it, picked up the brocade box, and bent down to pick up the chess pieces one by one.

Gu Qinghuan also helped, but he couldn't help but tremble when he touched the fingertips of the cold chess pieces, and said distractedly: "Back then, he gave his father this box of Bai Yao Xuanyu's chess pieces as a gift for the alliance...... My father always worshipped it as a treasure...... But now he ......" He closed his eyes, clenched his chess pieces, and said angrily: "It can be seen that the catastrophe is not far away!"

Gu Qingning looked at him, signaled him to calm down, continued to pick up chess, and sighed: "The world is bustling, but in the end, it is just because of profit, and because of profit, it is divided." If it is profitable, it is a treasure, and if it is not profitable, it is an abandoned child. ”

At this time, Gu Qinghuan was speechless, Gu Qingning looked at him, and saw that he was looking fixedly at a piece of white paper picked up from the ground, and on the white paper was his father Gu Qingxuan's autographed poem.

"Who can use black and white into the mystery, a thousand times of life and death. ”

After cleaning up, Gu Qingning and Gu Qinghuan walked out of the study and walked to the front yard together, and as soon as they stepped into the front yard, they saw Gu Qingfeng coming back from outside.

"Brother, sister!"

Eighteen-year-old boy, as soon as he sees his brother and sister, he is alive, although he was born in an official family, but he is not always in a positive shape, not yet the age of crowning, just full of heart, laughing and laughing at any time, without any scruples, but he is the most pleasing in the family. His master is Hong Luotian, the head of the Heluo Sword Sect, the first sword school in martial arts, and Hong Luotian also has an identity - the big boss of the Heluo Dart Bureau. The Hong family is the second most wealthy family in Luoyang, and it is no stranger to the first one, that is, the Shen family, who have been rich in business for generations - their mother Shen Lanxi is the eldest lady of the Shen family, but after she married Gu Qingxuan, she broke off relations with the Shen family and has not been in contact for many years.

Gu Qingfeng followed Hong Luotian to learn swordsmanship, and after the age of sixteen, he also walked with him to increase his experience in the rivers and lakes. He went to offer tea to the master today, and Hong Luotian gave him a high-quality short sword, and pulled him to practice his sword for a while, so he delayed until this time to come back.

Gu Qingfeng asked about his father's situation, he didn't know the inside story, and his brother and sister only told him that his father was unwell, and when he heard that his father had come out, he clamored to go to the main house to see his father and mother. Gu Qingning persuaded his father that it was not appropriate to visit him at this time when he was freshening up, so he gave up.

They watched his sword, the three sisters and brothers were laughing, Shen Lanxi came from the backyard to the front yard, at this time Gu Qingxuan had already confessed everything to her, she looked at Gu Qingning from a distance for a while, covered her emotions, and found a reason to call Gu Qingning back to the boudoir.

The mother and daughter talked about recent matters, and Shen Lanxi had to tell her: "Qingning...... On that day, your father went to see Lu Xiangguo, and Lu Xiangguo confessed...... To dissolve the marriage contract with our Gu family, the Lu family will marry the Jinxuan Palace, and Lu Yuanze will marry the lord of Chengshuo. ”

Hearing this, Gu Qingning was just speechless, and after a while, her expression became extremely sluggish again, not like surprise but like frightened, looking at the ground for a long time and unable to speak.

Shen Lanxi caressed her shoulder and tried to comfort her, but she suddenly raised her head, grabbed her mother's hand with both hands, with tears in her eyes, bit her lip and said, "But mother, I, I'm pregnant......"