As Xiao Beiping walked all the way to the harem, he chatted about some gossip on the way. This is what the two of them liked to discuss most when they were in Dali before. However, Duan Chong was obviously in a good mood today, and casually told a few jokes, which made Xiao Beiping lean forward and backwards.

Originally, the prince should have been divided into kings after the weak crown, but in view of the form of separation between the north and the south, and Emperor Wen of Liang was reluctant to establish the crown prince, Xiao Beiping and Xiao Beiding have been living in the palace. Xiao Beiping and Xiao Beiding's courtyards were extremely close, but Duan Zhong naturally wouldn't run into the courtyard of the second prince next door.

Xiao Beiping's dormitory is called Pingbei Palace, and the name is read upside down. It is also the name given by Emperor Liang Wendi, which sounds very domineering. The two entered the dormitory and dismissed all the servants, leaving only Duan Zhong and Xiao Beiping in the inner room.

Duan Chong's face immediately turned cold: "You have something to hide from me." ”

Xiao Beiping laughed helplessly: "You can also see it?" ”

Duan nodded his head: "Your Lao Tzu is obviously not weak, but has been poisoned." Don't you know it yourself? ”

Xiao Beiping smiled bitterly: "My father is naturally very shrewd, how can he not know if he has been poisoned." When my father fell ill, I left Daliang and went to Dali for two years, and this is a chronic poison, accumulated little by little, and when the disease occurs, it can only maintain the status quo, but cannot be cured at all. ”

Duan Zhong sighed: "It seems that someone wants you to die early, I hope this person is not you." ”

Xiao Beiping smiled bitterly: "How is it possible." In those two years, I left Daliang, and my father fell ill. At that time, Beiding was still a prison country, and if my father really died, then the superior would naturally be my second brother. Do you think that even if I go back at that time, my second brother will still give up the throne with a smile on his face? ”

Duan Chong laughed dryly: "This is naturally not, and I will find a way to ...... you" Duan Chong made a gesture of touching his neck, and the meaning he wanted to express was extremely obvious.

Xiao Beiping continued: "And the person in the world who wants to take advantage of my absence to put my father to death is ......" Xiao Beiping did not continue, but Duan Zhong gently spit out three words in his mouth: "Second prince!" ”

Xiao Beiping sighed again: "Of course, this is just my guess. There is also a possibility that the brother to the north of my father made it. After all, now that the Southern Liang army is weak and the Northern Liang is gaining momentum, it is natural to hope that my father and emperor will return as soon as possible, so that he can take advantage of the chaos to attack the south in one fell swoop. ”

Duan Zhong smiled and said, "However, the wonderful thing is that your Lao Tzu is not only not dead, but also alive and well." In my opinion, as long as you don't get any strong stimulus, it will not be a problem to live for another ten or eight years. After all, the toxins in your body are well controlled. And as long as you Lao Tzu is still alive, who will be the prince, or a question of his words. It has nothing to do with the power of you and your brother. Duan Zhong sighed, in the end, this is still a society where the king centralizes power, as long as the power is in hand and the throne is in hand, other people are fighting openly and secretly in private, but it is just for the emperor's orders.

"yes. After my father learned that he had been poisoned, he also ordered a strict investigation for a period of time, but nothing happened after all. And what we are analyzing today, with my father's brain, it is impossible to think of it. ”

Duan Zhong smiled: "So in the past few years, your Lao Tzu has been very tight on power, otherwise it would be impossible for you two brothers to only listen to politics and not discuss affairs." ”

Xiao Beiping shook his head helplessly: "In the eyes of my father, I am naturally the object of suspicion." After all, as the eldest son, if my father dies, it stands to reason that the position of the emperor will fall on my head. ”

Duan Zhong sighed: "You Lao Tzu is a smart person!" So you don't have to do anything now, just make your old man happy. After all, the position of the crown prince is just a matter of his words. And those secret things, leave it to me to do. ”

Xiao Beiping took a sip of wine, finally breathed a sigh of relief, and said with a smile: "The content of our conversation is going to lose my head." ”

Duan Zhong raised his glass: "Don't discuss state affairs!" Drink, drink! ”

Xiao Beiping said suddenly: "My queen mother is still thinking about your perfume, and did you bring the three bottles of perfume I ordered from you?" ”

"Naturally, it was brought. You can rest assured of what I promised. ”

"But you're going to give me an extra bottle this time. Otherwise, I will tell my father that the dragon wheelchair is what you have used. ”

Duan Zhong was really depressed, but he didn't expect to be put on the table by Xiao Beiping at this moment. Finally, he shook his head helplessly and smiled: "You are becoming more and more like me." However, if the Governor Liao is on the field today, he should feel extremely honored to see this dragon wheelchair. ”

Xiao Beiping laughed dryly twice, and drank all the wine in the cup in one gulp: "After drinking, I will also go to my mother's place to have a look." My mother has been talking about you a lot these days. "Although Duan Zhong has the permission of Emperor Wen of Liang and can enter the palace at will, the place where the emperor's wife lives is not something that can be entered casually. That is, Xiao Beiping, his own junior brother, has no harm in visiting.

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Xiao Beiping's mother's surname is Lu, and she is the head of the four ladies in the harem. Because there is no queen in the palace, this Mrs. Lu is naturally the leader of the harem. As long as Xiao Beiping ascends to the position of the crown prince, there is no doubt that the title of the queen belongs to Mrs. Lu. However, Xiao Beiping has not yet become the crown prince.

The dormitory where Empress Lu lived was in the center of the harem, a very chic and exquisite courtyard. Although it is surrounded by a high red wall, it still can't hide the beautiful scenery in this garden. Duan Zhong could see through the hollow brick wall from a distance. Although it was autumn at the moment, Duan Zhong still couldn't help but think of a poem: "The garden is full of spring, and a branch of red apricot comes out of the wall." "Although there are no red apricots in this yard...... But Duan Zhong obviously thought of something else at the moment. Kindness...... What will Mrs. Lu's red apricot look like when she comes out of the wall? Sin Sin Sin ......

When I entered the garden, I saw that the garden was full of all kinds of flowers, this Mrs. Lu loves flowers, and Duan Zhong also heard what Xiao Beiping said. In the small pavilion in the middle of the garden sat a richly dressed lady, next to two maids with large pampas fanning the cool breeze.

Duan Chong followed Xiao Beiping and walked a few steps forward, came to this noble lady, bowed and saluted, "Duan Chong has seen Madame." "Mrs. Lu's age is about thirty-seven or eighteen, but she acts as if she is only thirty years old, and she is indeed very well maintained. There was a noble aura exuding from all over his body, if Mrs. Lu was the queen at the moment, Duan Zhong would naturally say words of praise such as the mother of the world.

Duan Zhong sniffed his nose hard and found that there was still a faint fragrance on Mrs. Lu's body...... It's the smell of the jasmine perfume I sent a few days ago.

Mrs. Lu watched Duan Chong move her nose, and naturally knew what Duan Chong smelled, and said with a smile: "The perfume sent by Wen Yuanbo is very much liked by this palace. I would like to thank Wen Yuanbo for his kindness. "Several hours have passed since this re-knighthood, and this Mrs. Lu, as Xiao Beiping's mother, naturally knows it for a long time.

Duan Zhong straightened up and smiled, "Madame likes it." Then he took out a delicate small box from his bosom and said, "A few days ago, I sent a jasmine-scented perfume." Today, Duan Zhong specially brought a bottle of osmanthus fragrance, I don't know if Mrs. likes it or not. Duan Zhong naturally wouldn't give all the perfumes on his body at once, and besides, there were four bottles that had already been given to Xiao Beiping. I had a few bottles on my body, just in case. And the reason why Duan Zhong took out a bottle of osmanthus fragrance was because he happened to see the fragrance of a few osmanthus trees in Mrs. Lu's yard, presumably Mrs. Lu loved the fragrance of osmanthus very much, and she happened to bring a bottle with her, so she took it out.

When Mrs. Lu saw that Duan Zhong actually sent another bottle, her eyes immediately showed joy. After ordering someone to take it, he gave Duan Zhong and Xiao Beiping a look in the hall, and the three of them ate food, drank wine, and chatted like this. Sycophants and flattery are naturally indispensable in the words, and this Duan Zhong is extremely good at it, so he suddenly coaxed Mrs. Lu to tremble, and the laughter continued. And Duan Zhongzhong is also stealing joy, and this reward is naturally indispensable.

After a few rounds of drinking, seeing that he was almost done eating and drinking, Duan Chong suddenly said: "This time, Duan Chong has prepared a gift for his wife." ”

"Oh?" Mrs. Lu's face was overjoyed, she didn't expect Duan Zhong to have something to give to her, "Then the palace will thank Uncle Wen Yuan first." ”

Duan Zhong smiled slightly, and explained a few words to the subordinates next to him. After a while, a little eunuch walked over with something in his arms. And the thing in his arms turned out to be a ...... Book?

Mrs. Lu turned out to be an extremely thick ...... book, open it, and then I found something unusual. In this book, it is not the words that are written, but the ...... Butterfly.

Mrs. Lu likes butterflies, which Duan Chong learned from Xiao Beiping. And what he likes is naturally what Duan Chong is best at, he has long sent people to go to the suburbs to catch butterflies, and then make specimens, of course, the technical work of making specimens has to be done by Duan Chong himself.

A book full of butterfly specimens, but a task that took months to complete. Duan Zhong started to make it when he set out from Dali, and there are many butterfly species that only Dali have, as for what it is called, Duan Zhong is not clear, after all, he is not interested in these things. Although he may not be able to see Mrs. Lu when he enters the palace today, Duan Zhong still ordered someone to take it with him, just in case of emergency, and it really came in handy at this moment.

"Madam, this book contains the corpses of butterflies, which are pressed into the book after drying, and the butterfly style can be preserved forever, I call this kind of thing a specimen."

Mrs. Lu smiled and nodded: "Okay, okay...... There are a lot of beautiful butterflies we've seen. As he spoke, he turned to a page and pointed to the butterfly specimen and asked, "What is the name of this father, I haven't seen it." ”

Duan thought for a moment, and finally spoke: "This is a butterfly native to Dali, called ...... Ami Butterfly! ”