The palace maid who called Qiaoling was called by her like this, and her face was suddenly frightened, and she shrank and said, "Slave maid...... The slave and the maid obeyed. ”

As soon as he stepped into the threshold with one front foot, he saw a woman wearing a white middle coat with her long hair scattered, standing in the black hole and staring at her in a ghostly manner. The most terrifying thing is that her cheeks are covered with red and swollen herpes, and some of them have been pus and ulcerated, like ** gorgeous flowers. The woman coughed lightly twice, and her voice was hoarse like an old woman over eighty: "Niangniang, who wants to see me?" ”

Qiao Ling screamed and fled out in a panic: "Go back to Niangniang, ...... inside." The one inside...... Be...... It's a pox rash...... Concubine Min was still hesitant, poked her head to look inside, and then she was also shocked, and hurriedly retreated a few steps.

Xiao Dezi took the opportunity to yell at the man inside: "Who told you to come out!" Our mother kindly didn't drive you away, and personally brought the imperial doctor to diagnose and treat you, but you are not long-sighted! In case you are sick and given to Concubine Min, you will die and live, but don't involve our mother! ”

Ruan Jiasha said in a loud voice: "The slave and maid know that they are wrong, and the slave and maid will go back." After speaking, he dragged his feet, just like a lonely wandering spirit, and slowly moved into the warm pavilion.

Concubine Lan forced a smile and said in a manly voice: "My sister has also seen what she wants to see, why don't you go with my sister to eat a bowl of tea before leaving?" ”

Concubine Min was annoyed and ashamed, and said angrily: "Don't be complacent, one day I will let the emperor's cousin see your true face!" Seeing that Qiaoling was still stunned, he kicked her and scolded: "You useless thing, are you still waiting here for tea?" My aunt is still waiting for me to go to Changning Palace for dinner! ”

Concubine Lan watched her leave with great disgust, said goodbye to Imperial Physician Xing, turned around and entered the warm pavilion of the apse. At that time, Ruan Jia was washing his face in front of a basin of water, half of his face was already showing white and tender skin, and half of his face was still covered with red scabs, which looked shocking.

Ruan Jia heard the footsteps and looked up at her with a smile: "Sister sent that shrew away?" ”

Concubine Lan shushed and said: "She is Concubine Min who was given the title by the emperor, and the granddaughter of the young age of Zai Fuzhang of the two dynasties. ”

Ruan Jia snorted coldly: "I only heard that 'there are three dangers in the world' - 'less virtue and more favors, one danger also; Only the lower position is high, and the second danger is also; If you don't have great merit and suffer from it, you will also be in danger'. This person has no virtue, no talent and no merit, why can he be a powerful man in front of his sister's door like this? ”

Concubine Lan said indifferently: "Since you know that she is in danger, why should you care about her?" ”

Ruan Jia was unconvinced: "I am unhappy for my sister, this woman has the support of the Queen Mother, an aunt on the left and an aunt on the right." The emperor is so kind to his sister that even the queen gives her sister three points, and she doesn't take people in her eyes like this. ”

Concubine Lan sighed faintly: "Actually, the three dangers you said, why not put it on me?" As a palace concubine, having no children is useless, and being a sole favor without merit, I don't know how many people regard me as a thorn in the flesh. But I don't care......"

Ruan Jia stopped wiping the handkerchief on her hand and asked casually, "So what does my sister care about?" ”

Concubine Lan was stunned suddenly, thinking for a moment, but she answered the question: "If you don't ask for anything, you have nothing to fear." She glanced at the rouge cream and jade powder on the desk, and said with a smile: "You are clever." ”

Ruan Jia winked playfully: "It's quite like that, I think they're all scared." ”

Concubine Lan said: "You wash it quickly, it looks weird." ”

Ruan Jia smiled, after Concubine Min and the others made such a fuss, they became a lot more energetic, and they didn't feel anxious and tired when they arrived. After Concubine Lan left, she pulled Cai Fu and talked for a while, until Cai Wei brought the medicine and took a dose before falling asleep.

Most of the fever subsided that night, but in order to cover up the truth, Cai Wei sent the decoction every day as usual. Ruan Jia stayed at home, and he was also quite bored.

By the time of the Duanyang Festival on the fifth day of the fifth month of May, even Cai Wei Tsefu disappeared early in the morning. On this day, the weather was clear, there was no one in the garden, and it was quiet everywhere.

Although it was not long after the decline and decay, the royal etiquette was inevitably complicated. From the beginning of dawn, the ministers first met the emperor in the outer court, and the queen went to Changning Palace to pay homage to the queen mother in the inner court. After that, the emperor and the high-ranking concubines still need to go to the Taimiao Temple to worship the ancestors and pay tribute to the gods, and they can return to the palace after noon to prepare a family banquet.

Ruan Jiabai was bored, thinking about where he would go in the future, and before he knew it, he was getting better and better. Suddenly she heard a cat meow outside the window, and she didn't want to pay attention to it at first, but who knew that the cat's meow was endless, with three points of eagerness and three points of sadness. Ruan Jia was impatient, put up a long window, and looked out, but where was the cat?

She felt strange in her heart, and was about to lower the window, when she heard a rustling sound from the bamboo forest in the back garden, as if a figure flashed. Several palace maids and eunuchs who can enter and exit the back garden on weekdays are not in Yuntai Palace at this time, Ruan Jia couldn't help but be suspicious, so he picked an ordinary palace skirt and put it on, and quietly went out of the palace gate.

At that time, it was early summer, and Yuntai Palace had never planted flowers, and the palace was full of green onions, which made people feel particularly elegant and quiet. In the bamboo forest, the phoenix tail is forested, the leaves are jagged and whirling, Ruan Jia walks through it and looks around, but there is no one in sight. Just as I was thinking about whether I was dazzled by the wrong talent, I felt as if I had stepped on something soft under my feet. She looked down and was so shocked that she hurriedly raised her right foot, which turned out to be a white cat tail!

On the dirt floor on the right side of the stone path, a dead cat with four feet in the sky lay impressively. The cat's whole body was snow-white, and its limbs were already stiff, Ruan Jia leaned down to take a closer look, only to see the white cat's eye sockets and nose were black and blue, and there was a long red silk in its mouth. One end of the silk is in the mouth of the white cat, and the other end is buried in the bamboo leaves, and I don't know where to go.

The anchovy bamboo plant is not tall, but it is lush and extremely dense. Ruan Jia carried a heart, tiptoed open the bamboo branch, and touched it along the colorful wisps. I didn't take a few steps into the bamboo forest, but I saw a few water chestnut dumplings scattered in the mud not far away. Those zongzi are of different sizes and are wrapped with Huzhou silk threads of different colors, aren't they the "nine sub zongzi" they made by themselves that day?

Ruan Jia examined the scattered multicolored rice dumplings, one of which was still wrapped in a small half circle of red silk threads, which were all raw, and some parts had been broken, as if they had been bitten by teeth. And the white glutinous filling exposed by the zongzi is missing an edge, presumably it must have been bitten by the white cat's mouth...... The cool breeze between the bamboos invaded like a cold mist, and the horror in her heart gradually spread, like a mottled shadow: If the white cat died of poison because she accidentally ate Jiuzi Zong, wouldn't my sister be worried about her life at this moment?

This poisonous dumpling will cost Concubine Lan's own life, and at worst, she will be charged with the crime of murdering the royal family! Ruan Jia felt a cold chill in his heart, bent down and picked up the poisonous dumplings, wrapped them in a handkerchief and hid them in his arms, and thought about going to the front hall to find someone to inform Concubine Lan.

She hadn't taken a few steps before she stopped and hesitated, forcing herself to calm down. From making zongzi to the final finished product, all the processes are completed in the Yuntai Palace, if there is a problem in this, the ten ** will be the hands and feet of the people in this palace. Except for Rushuang, Concubine Lan was willing to let Xiao Dezi, Cai Wei, and Cai Fu come to the back garden to take care of herself, thinking that these three people must be the people she trusted very much. Then the most suspicious people are probably the palace maids and chamberlains who serve in the front hall.

Ruan Jia originally thought that her identity was not suitable to show up, so she could only find a random palace person to report to Concubine Lan, but she also dispelled this idea at this moment. I had to go to the small kitchen of Yuntai Palace to see the situation first, and if those made nine rice dumplings had not been brought to the family banquet, she would still have a chance to stop them.

She had never been to the vestibule of Yuntai Palace, but when she saw smoke curling above an ear room, she knew that it was a small kitchen. Ruan Jia knocked on the door, but there was no one in the small kitchen, the firewood in the stove was crackling, and there seemed to be hot soup about to boil in the pot. She was about to lift the lid of the pot to see if it was Jiuzi Zong, but she was categorically stopped by a woman behind her: "Who are you!" ”

Ruan Jia turned around and saw a woman standing at the door of the ear room with her hands on her waist, glaring at her fiercely. The woman looked to be in her twenties, wearing a blue gown and a tear mole under the corner of her eye.

"I ...... I'm Ping'er next to the queen's mother. Ruan Jia was in a hurry, and hurriedly made up a set of words, "The queen mother presided over the family banquet, and she hadn't seen the nine son dumplings made by Yuntai Palace for a long time, so she sent me to ask." ”

The woman didn't seem to believe it, walked up to Ruan Jia and looked at her carefully, and said, "Our mother went to the Queen Mother's palace early in the morning to say goodbye, and then followed the emperor and queen to the heaven sacrifice ceremony. I'm afraid they haven't returned to the palace yet, how can they have time to care about the zongzi in our Yuntai Palace? ”

Ruan Jia said confidently: "The queen mother has not returned to the palace, but how can the royal banquet be arranged in a moment and a half?" Before leaving, Niangniang instructed us to first put the nine dumplings made by each palace for a banquet, but one of your Yuntai Palace was missing. Without waiting for the mother to blame, the father-in-law in charge asked me to urge it. It seems that we not only lost a benefit, but were suspected for no reason, and we really did a good job in vain! ”

The woman seemed to be frightened by her snatching white, and said suspiciously: "Zongzi has already been sent to Yiyuan Palace, and your eunuch in charge doesn't know?" ”

Ruan Jia chuckled in his heart, and pretended to be puzzled on his face: "Have you already sent it?" Why did the prince say that he didn't see it...... Okay, I'll go back and let them look for it again. She was just about to go out, but she remembered something, turned around and said, "By the way, will your mother come back today?" ”

The woman thought for a while and said, "It seems that she won't come back, I heard that the queen is pregnant, and it is not appropriate to work too hard, so the emperor asked our mother to help organize the family banquet." No, even Cai Wei and Cai Fu's two sisters are busy. ”

Ruan Jia let out an "oh", thinking in his heart that without further ado, since there was no other way, he could only go and inform Concubine Lan in person.