The nineteenth day of the first month of the second year of Qisheng, the capital.

In the palace of Drunken Butterfly Mountain, all the widows of the first emperor lived, except for Cui Jie's biological mother Empress Yiming Rong, all the concubines who had given birth to children for Emperor Jianyuan moved here after the new emperor ascended the throne, eating fasting and chanting Buddha every day, and raising the heavens.

"Ahem, cough, cough ......" intermittent coughing sound has been coming from the back room, and the palace maids and eunuchs who came from the palace either folded their hands and prayed to the sky, or knelt in front of the Buddha statue and kept kowtowing, occasionally sobbing, but they only dared to press it very low, for fear of disturbing the people sleeping lightly inside.

Concubine Heqing since the beginning of spring last year, large and small sick four or five times, none of them are as dangerous as now, the palace is not as dangerous as the forbidden palace, a group of surviving people and the Emperor Qisheng are not related to the cause, the monthly charcoal fire is medium to low gray charcoal, not only choking, the amount is not enough, but this year's winter is particularly cold, on the fifteenth night of the first month, Ye felt that the spirit was good, so he watched a burst of fireworks in the courtyard, who expected that in the middle of the night he was so sick that he stepped directly into the ghost gate, fortunately, the imperial doctor on duty arrived early, the high fever subsided, and it was finally not fatal.

Cui Xiang, the king of Jing, hurried over overnight, and heard the palace maid at the door say that the concubine was not in danger, and fainted in the next second, and was still carried in to rest.

Although under the treatment of the imperial doctor, Ye's life was not worried for the time being, but since that day she has never been able to get out of bed, she is weak during the day, and she has a low-grade fever at night.

From the second day of the Lantern Festival, Cui Xiang stayed in the palace of Drunken Butterfly Mountain, Emperor Qisheng abolished the feudal domain and took power, he happened to have nothing to do, so he did his filial piety in front of the sickbed, with him by his side, Ye's mood was much better, but he still couldn't eat much for three meals, and people were getting haggard day by day.

On the third day of Ye's illness, Cui Xiang waited for his mother to have breakfast, and the maids wanted to bathe the concubine, so he avoided going to the ear room, and only sat down to eat a few mouthfuls of pastries, and a palace maid came to report that someone from the palace wanted to see him.

Cui Xiang is the seventh, there are Cui Jie, Cui Yi, Cui Huan three brothers with different styles but are very powerful, he has long known that he can't be the emperor, he is docile and well-behaved when he is young, the year before last, he opened the palace and went out of the palace, Emperor Jianyuan didn't have time to tell him a princess and went, Cui Xiang didn't mind, he lived alone in the palace, occasionally came to greet the mother concubine, and greeted other concubines by the way, never causing trouble.

But being obedient does not mean that things will not come to the door by themselves, after the death of Emperor Jianyuan, Cui Jie has successively found him many troubles, Cui Xiang strictly obeyed the instructions of his mother, what the imperial brother said is what he wants, let him marry Rong's niece He will marry, and the couple will be careful when they are in the cave room, for fear of hurting the bride, and they will go to the aunt tomorrow to complain and move their heads the day after tomorrow.

Cui Jie withdrew from the domain, the fourth Cui Jing angrily took poison and committed suicide, the fifth and sixth also protested more or less, only Cui Xiang handed over the Wang Yin without saying a word, so he was able to continue to stay in the capital, still retain the title of a prince, eat thousands of households, in the past, he still needed to go to the ministry every day to report, but now it is also saved, and he has become a genuine rice worm.

Cui Jie hadn't looked for him for several months, and Cui Xiang was thinking about what was going on this time, so he took the hot handkerchief and wiped his hands, and went out to meet people.

There was a middle-aged man with a rich appearance standing in the courtyard, with a pair of small eyes that were naturally curved, and he looked like a good old man who was laughing all the time, but Cui Xiang's impression of him was not good.

"Say hello to Prince Jing, how is Prince Jing?" The middle-aged man bowed to him, both in his movements and demeanor.

The corners of Cui Xiang's mouth tightened, and he walked down the steps, and asked with a little unhappiness: "Brother Huang is looking for me?" ”

The middle-aged man put one hand on his fat belly, and made a gesture of inviting in with the other: "It's cold outside, let's talk inside?" ”

Cui Xiang frowned: "The concubine has been unwell recently, I don't want her to hear anything troublesome about, just talk about it here." ”

The middle-aged man squinted his eyes and smiled: "Prince Jing's filial piety will definitely move the heavens, and Concubine Heqing's illness will definitely get better." Let's talk about it right here. ”

Before he spoke, Cui Xiang had already made all kinds of psychological preparations, whether he wanted to leave the capital by himself, or he didn't even let him do it, as long as it didn't endanger the lives of himself and his mother, it was bearable.

Yes, only if you can endure can you achieve great things, no matter what he asks, I will agree to him.

"Concubine Heqing and the late Empress Xiaolian are cousins, and after the death of Empress Xiaolian, Prince Wu was raised by the concubine, and this family affection must be very deep." The middle-aged man said unhurriedly, Cui Xiang's heart trembled, and he always felt that something big was going to be bad this time.

Sure enough, the middle-aged man immediately said: "Now that the martial prince is far away in Yanzhou, the concubine has been ill for a long time, I don't know if he knows?" ”

Cui Xiang warned himself in his heart that he must swallow his anger, lowered his head and replied: "My mother asked me not to tell the second brother, he shouldn't know." ”

The middle-aged man smacked his tongue and said, "This person is old, and his illness is like a mountain, and if he is not careful, he will be gone." ”

Cui Xiang instantly lit up: "What do you mean!" ”

The middle-aged man waved his hand: "The prince doesn't have to be angry, he just relayed the emperor's original words, the emperor remembered the death of the first emperor, sighed a few words, and heard that the concubine was not lightly ill this time, and he was afraid that the concubine would not see King Wu again in her lifetime, so she regretted it and intended to send an edict to let King Wu return to Beijing." ”

Recall Cui Yi? Cui Xiang was taken aback in his heart, and called him back to do something, so that it was convenient to start, and by the way, he and his mother were also served in a pot? Thinking about it, a layer of sweat broke out in the palms of my hands.

"Lord Wang?"

"Ahh Cui Xiang came back to his senses in shock, "What's the matter?" ”

The middle-aged man smiled with a discussable smile on his face and said: "Although the emperor and King Wu are also brothers, the relationship is not as close as that between the prince and the king of Wu, the emperor is worried that he will not move King Wu, and he is afraid of hurting his brother's harmony when he makes a holy decree, so he wants the prince to write a letter to Yanzhou, saying that the concubine misses him when he is sick, and hopes that he can come back to visit." ”

Cui Xiang didn't expect them to borrow their own hands to get rid of Cui Yi, and stood in place for a while, not knowing how to reply. Could it be that Cui Jie still found something? The mother concubine asked him to forbear, in order to wait for Cui Yi to recuperate and return to the capital, before that all they could do was to save their lives, but now Cui Jie wants to use the family relationship between them and Cui Yi to trick Cui Yi back to the capital!

The middle-aged man smiled again: "And the first emperor has been dead for more than a year, and King Wu has never come back to kowtow to incense, and it is not very reasonable, the prince said yes, right?" ”

Cui Xiang broke out in a cold sweat on his back, and it took him a long time to break out a sentence: "Letter...... What to write? ”

Hearing that he agreed, the middle-aged man was relieved, and said politely: "The content of the letter has been drafted below, why don't you dictate it below, how about the prince's handwriting?" ”

"......" Cui Xiang clenched his hands into fists in his sleeves, and finally nodded patiently, "Since this is the case, write as you say." ”

The middle-aged man smiled kindly: "Lord Wang, please!" Cui Xiang had no choice but to go to the ear room with him, call the palace maid to study the ink with a pen, and spread out the letterhead.

The middle-aged man did not have the slightest sense of dignity and inferiority, so he stood next to the bookcase, Cui Xiang was very repulsive to this kind of surveillance, but he still didn't say anything, he licked the ink, the man said a sentence, he wrote a sentence.

“…… And on the Chinese New Year's Eve of the previous year, the mother concubine washed her face with tears all day long, and missed her brother Wang, she couldn't eat every day, couldn't sleep on the pillow, and described her as gradually emaciated. Repeatedly infected with wind and cold, one illness in two and three months, and three meals are not good. ”

Cui Xiang walked like a corpse and wrote it word by word.

The middle-aged man put his hands behind his back and stared at his every word: "Just after the Lantern Festival, and the high fever does not go away, for several days, the water does not enter, I can't get up during the day, I can't sleep at night, and I frequently call the name of Brother Wang when I am unconscious......"

Cui Xiang shook the pen in his hand, and he couldn't write anymore.

"What's the matter, lord?" The middle-aged man took the ink-stained paper and put it aside, and laid another one for him, "The prince should hurry up and write, it's been delayed for a long time, in case the concubine sends someone to pass it, it's not easy to do." ”

Cui Xiang stared at the blank piece of paper for a long time, and the middle-aged man pressed his hand on his shoulder, and said in his ear: "In the past few days that the prince has been away from the capital, the princess often goes to the palace to visit the queen mother. ”

It's okay if he doesn't say this, but as soon as he said it, Cui Xiang suddenly broke out in a cold sweat - after the wedding night, he never touched his wife Rong again, and most of the half a year has passed, where does the happy pulse come from? "Really? That...... That's great. He tried his best to control the expression on his face, and pretended to be very happy.

The middle-aged man squinted his eyes and said with a smile: "That's natural, it won't be long before the concubine will be able to hug her grandson, this good news will definitely make her smile, plus the best medicinal materials sent by the emperor, the concubine's body will definitely get better." ”

The subtext in the words is that if you don't obey, the concubine will have no medicine to eat.

There was no way back, Cui Xiang took it out, settled down, and began to transcribe what he had written before, and the middle-aged man nodded with satisfaction.

After the letter was written, the middle-aged man checked it and put it in the envelope, and asked him to burn the fire paint before leaving.

After doing this, Cui Xiang's whole body was like being fished out of the water, and his underwear was completely soaked. After the middle-aged man left, he sat behind the bookcase in a daze, until the Ye family sent someone to summon him over for lunch.

Ye was still unable to get up, the palace maid put a quilt at the head of the bed for her to lean on, Cui Xiang held a celadon bowl and carefully fed her with a porcelain spoon, and the palace maid on the side was holding three or four dishes of meat and vegetables.

"Xiang'er." After eating a few bites, Ye suddenly spoke.

Cui Xiang hurriedly responded and asked, "But the dish is not to taste?" ”

Although the Ye family was haggard, her eyes were not weak, and she asked with some difficulty: "Someone just came to you, what is the matter?" ”

Cui Xiang's hand stiffened, and he was about to divert the conversation: "It's nothing, an old friend, I heard that my son came to visit my mother, so I sent some medicinal materials." ”

Ye snorted coldly: "You think I'm deaf?" ”

Cui Xiang lowered his head, and Ye asked again: "Although I am sick, my heart is very clear, Yuchan and Zichang have not been able to come back, I know, he will come sooner or later, looking for trouble with you, you honestly explain to me, what does the emperor want you to do this time?" ”

Seeing that he couldn't hide it, Cui Xiang had to reply in a whisper: "Brother Huang asked me to write...... Write a letter to Brother Erwang. ”

Ye's hand clenched the quilt: "What did he ask you to write?" ”

"Write...... Just write ...... The mother concubine is seriously ill and wants to see him, so let him ...... Back to the capital—"

Before he finished speaking, Ye Shi had already thrown a loud slap in the face, and the force was so great that he didn't look like a person who had been sick for a long time, Cui Xiang was beaten like a chicken, and half of his face was suddenly swollen.