It was past noon, and the sunlight didn't seem to be as dazzling as before, but it still cast countless golden dappled lights and shadows on the smooth bluestone ground. After walking down a few laps, the Queen Mother felt a little tired, she just wanted to beckon Zhong Ziyuan to go back to the dormitory to rest, but saw a group of people coming in the distance.

Led by Mrs. Xiao, who was dressed in a red background and gold thread dress, with a calm and gorgeous bearing, she came with a slender waist, followed by several maids. The guards who were originally guarding the main hall saw that they not only did not block them, but respectfully stroked their chests and immediately made a way. Mrs. Xiao didn't even raise her eyelids, so she took the maid and went straight into the hall unceremoniously.

Zhong Ziyuan carefully held the elbow of the Queen Mother and walked slowly, staring curiously at Mrs. Xiao and her party with a pair of eyes. The Queen Mother pursed her lips and smiled, patted the back of her hand, and said, "Little girl, what are you looking at?" ”

Zhong Ziyuan quietly stuck out her tongue, and did not forget to compliment in her mouth: "Mrs. Xiao is really graceful and luxurious, and her momentum is extraordinary. After a pause, she bit her lower lip lightly and whispered: "It's just that she obviously saw the Queen Mother here, why didn't she come to salute?" ”

The Queen Mother also raised her eyes and looked over, just in time to see Mrs. Xiao raised her legs and crossed the high threshold with the support of the maid. The corners of her mouth raised slightly, and she sneered: "Xiao Yan is from an extraordinary background, with the entire Northern Courtyard behind her, and she is extremely favored in front of the Khan, how can she look at me, a bad old woman." ”

Zhong Ziyuan blinked her eyes and said angrily: "Even if Mrs. Xiao is favored, she is always your daughter-in-law, and she should always keep this minimum rule." ”

The Queen Mother listened silently and did not make a sound, after a long time. She took out a lotus-blue brocade handkerchief, wiped the beads of sweat from the corner of her forehead, and said lightly: "I'm a little tired." Let's go back! ”

The dormitory was silent, and benzoin was burning in the gilded furnace on the desk, and the thin wisps of smoke seemed to be quiet. The Queen Mother removed her hair bun and lay down on the couch peacefully, and Zhong Ziyuan sat in front of the couch and gently massaged the acupuncture points on her head. The maids in the hall have all retreated, and the maids led by them have also thoughtfully closed the door of the dormitory.

The Queen Mother closed her eyes and smiled with satisfaction on the corner of her mouth. Said gently: "Thanks to your skillful hands and massage, and with this benzoin, the old body can sleep soundly." Think about the past. After a hard day's work, as long as your head is next to the pillow, you can fall asleep, and even if the sky falls, you don't know it. I didn't expect to live well these years. Instead, I fell into a problem with insomnia. ”

Zhong Ziyuan said with a smile: "It's also that the Queen Mother Su Ri worries too much about the Khan. That's going to happen. ”

The Queen Mother sighed slightly and said, "How can you not worry about it?" His position as Khan is not stable, and all forces have to be balanced. Far away in Shengjing, Chang'an will not be said. Let's just say that this Yelu Tuo'er in the south courtyard, Xiao Mingdao in the north courtyard, which is the fuel-efficient lamp" The Queen Mother's voice slowly deepened, and soon made a slight snoring sound.

"Queen Mother, Queen Mother," Zhong Ziyuan called in a low voice. The Queen Mother didn't react at all, as if she was already asleep.

Zhong Ziyuan only felt that the hall was extremely quiet. As if you could hear even your own heartbeat, the delicate smell of benzoin filled the entire dormitory. She crept to the door, and looked out through the crack in the door, and the sunlight outside the hall passed through the plain white silk veil pasted on the carved door, faintly projecting into her eyes, stabbing her eyeballs painfully. She half-squinted, quickly taking in the situation outside the hall.

In addition to the still bright sunshine and the grass that flew from time to time, only the guards who patrolled back and forth with guns and sabers, and the maids who served the Queen Mother ran away one by one. Zhong Ziyuan knew that according to the habits he had developed these days, as long as he didn't take the initiative to open the door, those maids would definitely be happy to hide and never take the initiative to come in and check. She withdrew her gaze and laughed silently.

Zhong Ziyuan returned to the dormitory and took off his outer shirt as quickly as possible, revealing the emerald green maid's dress underneath. She tucked her clothes into an inconspicuous corner, and then tightened her belt and dodged into the back of the dormitory.

The carved window in the vermilion lacquer diamond in the ear room was facing the inner courtyard, and she climbed up and pushed the window open with difficulty, and her eyes were full of dense bushes, green and lush, which were also dotted with pink roses, and the tall figure of the bright red canna Tashi, standing straight behind a bush of lush bushes like a javelin, his eyes vigilantly peeking at the movement around him. Seeing Zhong Ziyuan poking his head out, he quickly ran over and stretched out his big fan-like hand to help Zhong Ziyuan turn over and climb out of it.

After touching the ground with his feet, Zhong Ziyuan patted the dust on his hands and asked in a low voice, "Where is the study?" ”

Tashi lowered his voice and said in stiff Chinese, "Follow me!" ”

Although it was broad daylight, the sun at this time was very scorching, except for the patrolling guards, most of them hid in the cool indoor nap, and the whole backyard seemed very quiet.

Tashi took Zhong Ziyuan and walked quickly in the bushes in the backyard, and did not forget to explain: "Remember, at most half an hour, another team of guards will come to replace me, so whether you find it or not, you must come out." If it's delayed, I won't be able to control your life or death. ”

"Got it."

The back window of the study was diagonally opposite the Queen Mother's bedroom, and Zhong Ziyuan visually measured that the window was at least two meters high from the ground, and it was extremely narrow. Fortunately, there was a large banyan tree next to it, with a thick canopy, and the thick branches almost covered half of the window. Tashi climbed up as dexterously as an ape, and he sat on the branch and looked down triumphantly at Zhong Ziyuan below, without the slightest intention of helping.

Zhong Ziyuan didn't care, she lifted the hem of her clothes and tied it around her waist, revealing two long legs in light green silk pants. In Tashi's bright gaze, he saw her jump hard, and her hands and feet firmly climbed the thick tree trunk. After stabilizing her body, she was like a huge green worm, squirming and crawling up one arch after another.

Although Zhong Ziyuan's posture of climbing the tree was ugly, her speed was not slow at all, and when she climbed the branch where Tashi was perched, Tashi finally reached out to help pull her up. Tashi stared at her with shiny eyes, opened his big mouth and laughed, "I thought you Han girls were all delicate." I didn't expect you to be a good climber of trees. ”

Zhong Ziyuan sat steadily on the thick branches, she secretly rolled her eyes while panting, and said angrily: "Nonsense." Why don't you help me in. If I could have found what I was looking for earlier, you would have been able to fly away with Gemei sooner. ”

This time, Tashi didn't play tricks anymore, he pulled out the dagger on his waist and pried open the closed window, and then said to Zhong Ziyuan: "This window is too narrow, I can't get in, I can only rely on yourself." ”

Zhong Ziyuan nodded, and clinged to a branch above the window with both hands. The slender body swayed back and forth like a tanuki, and soon disappeared behind the deep and quiet window.

Hearing a muffled "pop" sound from inside, accompanied by a small exclamation, Tashi shrank his neck. The corners of his mouth rose to reveal a gloating thief smile. He slipped down with a thud, patted the dust off his body, straightened up his crumpled guard uniform, and swaggered down the bluestone path hidden by the bushes.

After doing everything possible, he finally entered the study. Zhong Ziyuan rubbed his fart, which was about to be broken into four petals, and was a little dazed. In front of me, it is more like a study than a huge library. Countless two-meter-high old shelves stand densely packed in the huge room, which is very spectacular.

The tall bookshelves obscured most of the light, and even during the day the room was unusually dark and gloomy. Because the doors are closed all year round, the air here also carries a rotten, musty smell.

The shelves were not only cluttered with all kinds of books, but also bundles of old bamboo slips. The bamboo slips are full of insect marks, and the silk threads used to hold them in place are rotten. Zhong Ziyuan suspected that as long as he touched it lightly, these bamboo slips would fall apart completely.

Zhong Ziyuan took a deep breath. Because she found that even if she looked at it so roughly, these books, including bamboo slips, were not 100,000 but 80,000 volumes. To dig out that inconspicuous account book from here in half an hour. I'm afraid it's harder than climbing to the sky.

Zhong Ziyuan casually pulled out a book with cobwebs on the cover from the shelf, and immediately fell out with the dust on the shelf. She shook her head helplessly, pouted and blew away the gray spider silk and began to read it seriously.

The book must have been some years old, and the pages were starting to turn yellow and appear unusually thin and brittle, as if they would crumble at the slightest touch. The scrolls are written in Chinese characters and contain descriptions of ritual aspects of sacrifices.

Zhong Ziyuan shook his head, closed the page, and stuffed it back in. She took a cursory glance and found that the vast majority of the books here were written in Chinese characters, and they covered a wide range of topics. Most of them are books on Buddhist scriptures, Taoist culture, farming, divination, prescriptions for curing diseases, medical treatises, manufacturing industry, etc. Judging by the extent of the damage to these books, the ages they span are also very close.

She suddenly remembered that it was recorded in the miscellaneous books she had read before that when the Khitan people were strong, they were like hungry wolves who couldn't get enough to eat, and they often plundered and captured the cities at the border gates unscrupulously, causing a lot of trouble to the rulers of the past dynasties. In order to appease them, many princesses in all dynasties have married with countless treasures.

These beautiful princesses are like flowers in a greenhouse, most of them can't stand the cruel wind and snow outside, and they wither and drift away prematurely. And these books that they brought with them as dowries have accumulated from generation to generation.

Obviously, because of the huge difference in text, these books were not taken seriously by the Khitan authorities, but were piled up in this dim and gloomy library, and they were allowed to decay and decay day after day.

Looking at these books full of traces of time, she seemed to see countless strange and beautiful faces crying, wailing, and reaching out to her for help.

Zhong Ziyuan shuddered suddenly, she shook her head vigorously, put aside these ridiculous thoughts that popped up in her mind, and plunged into the sea of books, looking for it seriously.

There was a deathly silence all around, except for the rustle of the pages as they turned, and all she could hear was her own heartbeat rattling from nervousness.

"Where! Come out quickly! Zhong Ziyuan silently recited frantically in her heart, her eyes not daring to miss every suspicious book. At this moment, I heard a soft "crunch", and it was obvious that the door of the library had been opened. Zhong Ziyuan was shocked in her heart, and the hairs on her body were about to stand up.

She carefully put the book back in her hand, the tall shelves obscuring her vision. She didn't know who was coming in, so naturally she didn't dare to act rashly. So he subconsciously squatted down and hid himself in the dark, and then listened carefully. Soon she heard very light footsteps, and the rustle of flipping books.

Could it be that there are people like themselves, who are they looking for things in secret? What are they looking for?

The footsteps were getting closer and closer, getting closer and closer, Zhong Ziyuan held her breath and tried to curl up, hiding herself in a dark corner. She was so nervous that she almost suffocated, and her little heart began to beat disobediently.

Finally the footsteps stopped, and she didn't continue to get closer, and she quietly let out a long breath.

There was the sound of a man talking in a whisper, but unfortunately the volume of their speech was too small, Zhong Ziyuan could hear it in a fog, and he didn't know what they were talking about.

Zhong Ziyuan thought about it, simply crawled on the ground, put her cheek on the dirty black felt cloth, and looked through the gap under the bookshelf. Soon she saw two pairs of men's big feet lingering in front of a bookshelf not far from her hiding place, one wearing simple black cloth shoes, the other wearing luxurious gold silk soft shoes.

A few pairs of feet didn't seem to be able to see a reason, Zhong Ziyuan retracted his head helplessly, and hid himself firmly. Suddenly, someone raised his voice slightly, and said in surprise: "This is it, I finally found it!" ”

Zhong Ziyuan immediately heard this slightly old voice, which she was very familiar with, it was Zhao Yiming's voice. Zhong Ziyuan was extremely surprised that he would suddenly appear here, because she didn't know that Zhao Yiming was the traitor who betrayed her to Yelu Tilie.

I heard another man say in awkward Chinese, quite respectfully: "Since the account book that Mr. Mu wants has been found, I will arrange for the guards outside to send the old man out of the palace safely." Please remember to explain to Mr. Mu after the old gentleman goes out, in addition to Yelu Tilie, our North Courtyard is also very willing to cooperate with Mr. Mu. ”

Hearing the words "North Courtyard", Zhong Ziyuan immediately guessed the identity of another man, he should be Xiao Yixing, who has a relationship with him.

Sure enough, I heard Zhao Yiming say haha: "General Xiao just rest assured, Mr. Mu is very dissatisfied with Yelu Tilie's private marriage with Sheng Jing, and he is planning to change his personal cooperation." Today, General Xiao has done us a great favor again, and Mr. Mu will definitely prepare a big gift for you, General Xiao. ”

"Forget the gift." I heard Xiao Yixing say greedily: "This general just wants to ask Mr. Mu to privately supply more iron tools and private salt to our North Courtyard." Our North Courtyard in the province wants to create some horseshoe, saddle and the like, and it depends on people's faces. ”

Zhao Yiming lowered his voice and said quite mysteriously: "General Xiao, it's not me talking about you, your vision is too small." Are you just interested in the iron and the salt? As far as I know, Mr. Mu has prepared a great gift for you, but this is a huge Shangjing City" (to be continued.) )