Besides, the situation that day, the allergic concubines were treated by the imperial doctor in time, and the skin and the inside of the body were not incurably damaged, so even if some concubines complained that the queen mother did not hold the banquet well, they did not really resent Song Mier, after all, they were all safe, right?

And the dead concubine was a little-known, insignificant little person, Shen Zhan also checked, it was just the daughter of the county commander of a small border county, she had no enemies before entering the palace, and after entering the palace, she knew that her qualifications were dull, and she lived in a simple place, and she had no grudges with others, saying that she deliberately harmed her for favor or external grudges, and accidentally implicated other concubines, and it is unreasonable.

If it is said that it is aimed at Song Mier or Shen Zhan, Shen Zhan had no symptoms at all that day, and Meng Xun diagnosed his pulse afterwards, and there was no abnormality, Song Mier was a little uncomfortable afterwards, no appetite, nausea and wanted to vomit, and the whole person was groggy for two days, but she thought that maybe it was the sequelae of smelling too much spices, plus the discomfort caused by being punished and grounded by Shen Zhan, and after two days, these symptoms disappeared, so she didn't care, and she didn't call the imperial doctor, this little thing was omitted after a light pass in her heart.

Therefore, whether it was Shen Zhan or Song Mier, after thinking about it, they all felt that this was just a sudden accident, and they didn't take it to heart.

Today, Shen Zhan mentioned it, and relieved Shu Song Mier's feelings, and then mentioned the matter of the Laba Festival.

The Southern Dynasty's "Jing Chu Years Chronicle" once said: "December 8 is the day of Laba", and as early as the pre-Qin period, there was already a tradition of Laba Festival.

At that time, the Laba Festival was also called the Laba Day, and the original Laba Day was a festival of sacrifices and prayers to the gods. Because this day was regarded by the ancients as the beginning of the year, the day of "yang qi and the first year".

After a long period of historical evolution, the day has a new meaning in the simple sacrifice, because it is the first date of the year, and also symbolizes the first day of the growth of all things in the new year, therefore, many large-scale activities with a certain vigor have gradually become popular, such as hunting, gardening, pilgrimage to the mountains and so on. Hunting is to show the abundance of the earth, visiting the garden is to show that life is rich, carefree, and has thoughts and time to enjoy it, and the mountain is also very interesting, and it is also a spontaneous organization of the people, and the literati and scholars ascend to the high level to write poems. To say that this winter is getting stronger, the mountains must be bare without a little color, in fact, it is not at all, the southwest and southeast of Lingnan are at room temperature in all seasons, the mountains are verdant and verdant, and there are also thriving scenes of flowers and plants, at this time, the gentlemen enter the mountain, they will sing when they meet the flowers, and they will sing when they meet the trees, and the casual scholars will quickly take notes on the poems and songs of their masters, and then circulate them on the streets, if they are good poems, the girls of the workshop are waiting to sing it, this is also a good opportunity for celebrities to take the opportunity to temporarily emerge, therefore, The event of pilgrimage to the mountain will be very popular. However, most people still live in the cold winter zone, and these celebrities have also come up with a way, and they are still facing the mountain, but the bare mountain is full of the ink treasures of these literati and scholars, which is a unique scenery. Some people think that there is no beautiful scenery on the mountain and they can't write poems? So there are people in their own mountains all over the planting of all kinds of plum trees, the day of the day arrives, the distance is a piece of red and yellow glow, brilliant abnormal, and there is a fragrant wind to hit people, invade the heart, and then invite celebrities into the mountain to chant poems and paint, so not magnificent! When this custom spread to the Great Calendar Dynasty, and under the open folk customs of the Great Calendar, there were more small movements of young girls watching the ceremony, and the mountain was no longer the activity of dozens of literati and writers. Over time, the mountain has become a charming and romantic activity full of feelings. Because this activity reflected the national strength of the current dynasty from the side, the wise emperors of the past dynasties supported this activity very much as long as there were no wars, no natural disasters, and the treasury was not empty.

As for why Laba Day will become Laba Festival, it is because after the prevalence of Buddhism, the "Laba Festival" in Buddhism has gradually formed a festival among the people, and the Laba Festival is close to the time of Laba Day, and gradually, people have merged these two festivals to form Laba Festival. Nowadays, there are not only traditional activities such as sacrifices, praying to ancestors, beating drums to ward off epidemics, but also folk pleasures such as hunting, gardening, and pilgrimage to the mountains, as well as religious activities such as worshipping Buddha, worshipping, and fasting. The three types of activities are intertwined and interdependent, making Laba a day a grand and solemn day.

And eating laba porridge is the central content of these activities.

The origin of Laba porridge is also said to be because Sakyamuni fainted on the ground because of penance and hunger before becoming a Buddha, and was saved by a kind shepherdess, because she could only be vegetarian, the shepherdess girl boiled the miscellaneous grains and fresh fruits on her body into porridge, so that Shakyamuni recovered his body, and then had an epiphany under the Bodhi tree to become a Buddha, because it was an epiphany on the eighth day of Laba, this porridge also became Laba porridge. Therefore, on this day, the temple and the people who believe in Buddhism will cook Laba porridge to eat as a commemoration.

Another theory is related to the system of giving food to the sun that has existed in the imperial court since ancient times. In order to commemorate the day of Lari, the imperial court will give porridge to each household according to the population, to show that the country is strong and the country is stable.

Regardless of which way it is said, eating Laba porridge on Laba Festival has become a custom and tradition.

For the royal family, the children of the royal family who live outside the palace can also take advantage of the Laba Festival to play and enjoy the fun outside, and the people who live in the palace say that they feel uncomfortable when they can't go out. But if a grand festival is over like this, it is also very lonely. So, I don't know which dynasty and which generation started, after the emperor worshiped his ancestors during the day, he would invite the ministers and concubines at night, hold a royal banquet, and eat Laba porridge together. First, it is to show the royal courtesy of "eating with Qing", to show the emperor's cherishing and importance to these people, and second, like the Chinese New Year's Eve palace banquet, not everyone is eligible to be invited to this Laba banquet, which shows the emperor's affirmation of the official in the past year and expectations for the work in the coming year, the officials invited to the Laba Festival are much less than Chinese New Year's Eve, and the family of officials who are invited to eat Laba porridge with the emperor every year will be red by others for a while; Three, it's probably the bad taste of being an emperor: I can't go out of the palace to have a good time, and you don't want to take the opportunity to play! Not only can I not play, but I also have to be grateful to Dade for being called into the palace and detained in one place.

The method of the Laba Festival in the palace is generally that the officials enter the palace with their families, the officials go to meet the emperor, and the family members go to the harem to meet the concubines, and the middle greetings and gossip for a while. When it came to the Great Calendar Dynasty, the song and dance performances in the palace were added at lunchtime, which were carried out on both sides of the screen, after lunch, there was a poetry and literature meeting, when the officials composed poems, the emperor would also come to the other side of the screen, and the harem and the officials' families sat down here, and said some reluctant words. Sometimes this end will also take advantage of the official poetry meeting in front of the head, and the girls who have not left the cabinet also make poems, write and write, if they are favored by the emperor, queen or queen mother, they can also gain a good reputation, which is conducive to marriage, and even the emperor or queen mother directly left people as concubines, which is another matter.

Now, the heavy responsibility of this Laba Festival falls on Song Mier's head, she is very glad that Aunt Shujie has rich experience, once followed the Queen Mother, she assisted the Queen Mother to hold hundreds of banquets, large and small, from the palace banquet to the state banquet, such a banquet as the Laba Festival, it is simply easy for her to come, through this, Song Mier also learned a lot from Shujie. Shujie also felt that the last Mid-Autumn Festival palace banquet, because she was too relieved of Song Mier, she didn't expect her lack of experience, so she suffered, so Shujie also took the opportunity of this palace banquet to teach Song Mier a good lesson.

Therefore, when Shen Zhan asked about the preparations for Song Mier's Laba Festival, Song Mier was not stage frightened at all.

However, Laba Festival is not worried, there is one thing, Song Mier is very worried.

"You mean the queen mother's temper is getting worse and worse?"

Shen Zhan frowned and looked at Song Mi'er, who had a slightly stern expression.

After Shen Zhan ascended the throne, because of the busy state affairs, Empress Song Mier was more convenient, and the Queen Mother was a very good mother, so he devoted himself to the affairs of the previous dynasty. Where is the queen mother, every time he goes, he sits down, but every time he goes, the queen's temper looks good, not as Mi'er said, very bad?

"The queen mother misses you so much, every time you go to Shoukang Palace, you just sit for a while, the queen mother is too late to be happy, how can she lose her temper with you!" Song Mi'er rolled his eyes at Shen Zhan, "Even if you are angry, the queen mother will endure waiting for you to leave!"

"That's why I think it's very strict. Tantrum is a trivial matter even the best tempered people in this harem have probably reprimanded the palace people, smashed porcelain, the queen mother is the mother of His Majesty, it is a trivial matter to be angry, don't let the people and things that make her angry are. But the blame is that the queen mother is angry with herself! I've been observing for a long time, and I don't know when it started, the queen mother was a little impatient, and even Aunt Shujie went to visit her yesterday, but the queen mother didn't give her a good face! ”

Shen Zhan was taken aback, "How is this possible!" Even if the queen mother scolds me, she is reluctant to give Aunt Shujie a cold face! ”

"So I said it's strange here, the queen mother was obviously very happy yesterday, and suddenly she made a straight face, blame Aunt Shujie's tea tasted wrong, the queen mother never blamed Aunt Shujie for this kind of thing, the queen mother is a person who will forgive even the little maid around her for doing something wrong, how can she suddenly worry about this with Aunt Shujie? At that time, Aunt Shujie was stunned, and we didn't know what to do, but the queen mother suddenly seemed to wake up, and pulled Aunt Shujie to apologize to her, saying that she had not rested well recently and was irritable.

You don't know, the queen mother has been like this for a while, a while ago the queen mother often said that she couldn't sleep at night, the imperial doctor also prescribed a prescription, I also made a soothing incense for the queen mother, the queen mother seemed to be better for a while, and it didn't take long for the queen mother to seem to be more and more irritable. ”

"When the queen mother is in a good mood, it is the same as before, when she is irritable, Aunt Shujie said," Song Mier glanced at Shen Zhan solemnly, "It seems that she has changed into a different person." ”

Shen Zhan's eyes couldn't help but wipe a trace of solemnity, the queen mother has always been generous and lenient, now that she is the queen mother, the entire harem is her biggest, although she has been visiting the queen mother too little recently, but her heart is still close to the queen mother, Mi'er and the queen mother get along very well, where is there anything worthy of the queen mother's temper?

But could it be that the queen cares too much about the queen mother and exaggerates the situation?

Shen Zhan quickly got an answer to this question at the Laba Festival.

・・・

In the blink of an eye, the Laba Festival came.

This time is the first Laba Festival since Shen Zhan ascended the throne, and it is natural to have a new emperor and a new atmosphere. With the help of Shujie, Song Mier changed the solemn but slightly stereotyped color of the past Laba Festival, and changed to sandalwood as the base, supplemented by rouge, and decorated the entire Taihe Hall with a sprinkled manner, which was festive and unconventional, but very chic. Hung the octagonal glazed palace lamp on each corner of the Taihe Palace, the palace lamp hung a rounded fluorescent stone of the size of a dragon's eye under the head, a small copper bell was tied under the fluorite, the wind blew the copper bell ringing, the fluorite also emitted a faint fluorescence corresponding to the palace lamp, under the copper bell, a long dark gold tassel was also tied, the dense tassel was about to hang down to the ground, from a distance, and the curtain and silk curtain of the main hall formed a layered landscape, what is more rare is that the palace painting in the octagonal glazed lamp is actually the scene of the ministers or sparse play or deliberations and so on when they were officials in the court, that is, novel and interesting, but also more thoughtful. Some of the old ministers walked in and saw it, and they burst into tears on the spot, and they couldn't lose their manners, and their hearts were very ironing, if His Majesty didn't always care about the courtiers, how could he capture the small details of the courtiers in the court, and let people draw them to make palace lanterns?

The calendar is still fragrant, and important festivals cannot be without incense.

But because of the lesson of the last time, Song Mier was very cautious this time, and there was not a single incense burner and incense burner around the Taihe Palace, and the palace concubines did not use strong incense sachets and incense to wear incense. There is a need for incense again, so the original leaf Rong and ginkgo biloba around the Taihe Hall were replaced, all transplanted and planted with various colors of plum blossoms, the Laba season is blooming, and the bone red weeping branches, jumping snow weeping branches and Longyou plum are the main, reflecting the rouge sandalwood, dense and luxuriant, so not lively.

In the middle of the Taihe Palace, an incense cart was set up early, and sandalwood and agarwood were burned. This time, it was not only the guards and palace people who guarded the incense, but also a doctor from the Tai Hospital waiting next to each incense car, confirming at any time that there was no problem with the taste and material of the burning incense wood.

In addition, the drinking of ingredients in the palace is more stringent, because there are relatives, and all the things at the back of the main hall are emptied early, and they are used as tea breaks and sudden emergencies for women and others.