Flowers bloom, rhododendrons, white orchids, peach blossoms...... When all the flowers have withered, the lotus flowers are gradually supporting their buds, exuding a faint fragrance.

After the warm spring, it is the hot summer. The swallows flew away, the rain became less, and the weather became hotter.

Several days have passed since the day of Zhao Yuanzhen's poisoning, and the time has reached early April.

These days, Song Ting has never been idle, and studying to test his fame has become his first priority. In this era, without fame, there is no qualification to be an official; If you can't be an official, you can't hold power; If you don't hold power, it means that you can't do anything for the rest of your life, and you will eat and wait for death.

Song Ting didn't want to wait for death, although his princess wife said that she could support him for a lifetime. However, he wanted to do something for the princess's wife: restore her status.

If you want to restore the status of "princess", you need to grasp the power, you can refer to Cai Jing, Tong Guan and others, not to mention the title of "princess", that is, the abolition of the "prince", they can all speak. Although he may not be able to go that far, but other than that, Song Ting can't think of any other way.

Song Ting wants to test his fame, and there is another reason, he can't always spend the princess's wife's money, he has to earn money to support his family. With fame, you can get a good assignment.

Since Emperor Taizu, Daliang has always emphasized literature over military force, and the civil official's Yulu can be said to be quite generous, which is simply drooling: a small nine-grade sesame official, such as the county master's book, the county lieutenant, and even Xuezheng, has six stones of rice a month, nine thousand wen in money, plus twelve taels per year; In addition to these salaries, there are many kinds of benefits and subsidies, such as wine money, kitchen material money, charcoal money, horse feed money and so on.

Since being an official is the only way out, what else does he want to hesitate about. Although Zhao Yuanzhen is indeed rich, it may be that he brought a lot of money with him when he left the palace. But after all, "money comes like a needle picking up soil, and money goes like water pushing sand", if you really become an official in the future, I'm afraid it will cost a lot of money to do something, and no matter how rich Yuan Zhen is, I'm afraid it will be impossible to have ten thousand taels of gold. Money and wealth still have to flow for a long time.

If the princess's wife pays for it, then he can study with peace of mind and test his fame. Wait for the next imperial examination, strive to be promoted in one fell swoop, and become a jinshi, and with fame, everything will be easy to say.

In the imperial examination of Daliang, every autumn, the state conducts the examination, and in the spring of the following year, the examination is conducted by the Ministry of Rites. The provincial examination is held in the same year. This year's provincial examination of the Ministry of Rites, he is considered to have missed, unless there is Enko, otherwise, he can only wait until the year after tomorrow. This means that he has a lot of time to read.

Since Zhao Yuanzhen and Song Ting have been in the same room, the two have been together day and night, she accompanies her to read during the day and "rest" at night. She dabbled in a wide range of things, and when she communicated with Song Ting, she always quoted scriptures and classics, which was full of fun, and sometimes even Song Ting had to consult her.

However, Zhao Yuanzhen also admired Song Ting from the bottom of his heart, and he wrote things like graffiti, such as "Blue and White Porcelain", "Fireworks Are Easy to Cold", "Listening to the Rain at Night in a Small Building Outside the Mountain", "Silk Play", ...... Wait, although the rhythm and grammar are not comprehensible, listening to him hum casually is quite interesting. Only then did she decide that these were all tunes made up by her father-in-law.

As for the poem "Fixing the Storm", there are also discussions on the street now, and she gradually heard the news, saying that it was written by "Song Chaozhong", so she wrote it on a piece of paper, took the paper and asked her father-in-law if he wrote it. Song Ting only said that Su Dongpo wrote it, so she laughed: "I'm afraid this Uncle Dongpo is a fictional character in Xianggong's mind." After getting along for a long time, Song Ting's way of speaking has long affected her, and she has even learned the word "fictional character".

At noon on this day, the sky was sunny, and Xiao Man sat in the gazebo and yawned sleepily, dozing off with his little head in his hands, drooling; Qingzhu covered a satin white veil again, asked Li Bo for a sickle, and went straight out, Youjian was not worried about her, and followed her, but he didn't know what the two of them were doing; Snow Goose is sitting on the edge of the pond, cutting open the belly of the fish with scissors, cleaning the internal organs, cleaning the belly of the fish, it seems that there are fish to eat today...... In the attic, Zhao Yuanzhen looked down for a while, then turned to Song Ting next to him with beautiful eyes, and sighed faintly: "My four maids, three of them have reached the age of marriage......"

Song Ting laughed jokingly: "Do you want to marry all three for your husband?"

Zhao Yuanzhen didn't speak, but he also knew that his father-in-law was joking, so he didn't stay silent for long, so he replied to him: "After all, Xianggong is the concubine's father-in-law, and the concubine thinks she is stingy and shares her husband with others...... I'm afraid I can't do it as a concubine. ”

Immediately, she smiled again: "But Xiaoman, I really like it, and I look good, if Xianggong also likes it, you might as well wait for next year to be a concubine, what does Xianggong think?"

Song Ting put his arm around her and said softly, "Zhen'er, don't you know what kind of person your husband is?" For my husband...... I only love Zhen'er. ”

Listening to Song Ting's words, Zhao Yuanzhen turned around, a pair of soft wattles wrapped around his waist, hugged him tightly, her pretty face raised slightly, bit her lip, and two blushes flew on her cheeks, and said, "Xianggong, Zhen'er also loves you." The first time she said the word "love", she only felt her heart pounding.

Suddenly, at this moment, Li Bo trotted from the corridor into the front of the west wing, and shouted from a distance: "Second son! Second son! ”

Suddenly awakened by this shout, Xiao Man's hand holding the little head shook, and the little head fell off, she struggled and patted her chest, frightened, obviously she scared herself silly.

Song Ting looked down from a high place and hurriedly asked, "What's the matter, Uncle Li?"

Zhao Yuanzhen's hands around his waist didn't have time to take them away, and the two of them hugged each other, but they were bumped into by Li Bo.

"The little marquis of Mu Mansion is visiting again! Already outside the door! Li Bo reported loudly, completely pretending not to see the two hugging.

"Chaozhong! Chaozhong! As soon as Li Bo finished speaking, a shout was approaching, obviously Mu Yunchuan had already entered the door by himself.

Hearing the shouting, Zhao Yuanzhen immediately withdrew his hand and said to Song Ting: "I'll go back to the room first." She never wanted to see too many people, she was worried that her identity would bring trouble, she had already found her wishful husband, she didn't want to get entangled in the court, and she didn't want to bring trouble to her own husband. Although Mu Yunchuan, the little marquis, has a low status and can't recognize her, his father, the old marquis, may have seen her.

When Zhao Yuanzhen went back to the room, Song Ting went down to the attic, and Mu Yunchuan had already rushed in, he was wearing a golden flower and jade crown, with pearls hanging on his head, shining, wearing a brocade dress and slim body, and his posture was quite dignified, as soon as he saw Song Ting, he came over and hugged his shoulders with a smile: "Chaozhong, you are famous!" You're famous! ”

Song Ting was slightly stunned, but he didn't know what he meant, so he asked, "Little Marquis, what's wrong?"

Mu Yunchuan sighed and said, "Don't call me any little marquis!" Chaozhong, you are now a celebrity in Yangzhou! ”

He snorted, tsk, and tsk three times, and patted Song Ting's shoulder: "I'm really happy for you!" You deserve to be my friend Mu Yunchuan, I really didn't misunderstand you! ”

Song Ting didn't know what was going on, so he asked, "What's wrong?"

Mu Yunchuan said heartily: "Go!" Go to my house! ”

Song Ting was stunned, and then hugged his fist at Mu Yunchuan: "Brother Yunchuan, if you don't make it clear what happened, but don't blame me for not knowing the etiquette, I have something to do, and it's really inconvenient to come to the door."

Mu Yunchuan "belched", and then said: "Have you ever written a poem, this poem is called "Fixing the Storm"?"

Song Ting didn't know what he meant, so he didn't answer.

Mu Yunchuan said again: "That poem is known to Mr. Yang Kuiyang, the great Confucian of Benzhou, he wants you to go over, and now you are at my house, go, go, go, go, go......" pulled up Song Ting's sleeves.

Song Ting thought in his heart: "What is the origin of this Yang Kui?" It's just the first poetry in Yangzhou, how can it have anything to do with the Jiangling Marquis Mansion? ”

"Let's go, what are you stunned!"

After an urging, Song Ting followed him out of the gate of the Song Mansion, and saw that there were more than 30 Hou Mansion family members at the door, a brocade sedan chair with a purple cloud head and a red curtain was parked in front of him, and there was a four-wheeled carriage with auspicious clouds and purple mantle behind, which was very luxurious and magnificent.

Mu Yunchuan led Song Ting to sit in the carriage, the brocade sedan chair was carried empty, the convoy swept through the street, the pedestrians avoided it, and after half an hour, they finally came to the gate of the Jiangling Marquis' Mansion.

Entering the main gate, Jimu is a magnificent hall, much more magnificent than the welcome building of the Song Mansion, Mu Yunchuan directly pulled him into the lobby hall, this time there was no singing and dancing in the hall, but there were many people sitting inside, seeing Mu Yunchuan and the little marquis come in, he stopped talking, and looked at Song Ting with his eyes one by one.

In the center of the hall, on the first two carved sandalwood seats of the Taishi dragon, on the left sat a man about forty years old, with a floating beard, sword eyebrows and a straight nose, and deep eyes. He is somewhat similar to Mu Yunchuan, needless to say, Song Ting has guessed that it is Jiangling Marquis Mu Ruhan, and said deeply: "Xiaosheng to meet Hou Ye." Mu Ruhan nodded.

Sitting on the Taishi chair on the right is an old man about fifty-seven or eighteen, with half-white hair, a thin face, and gentle eyes, but he is wearing a scarlet robe and a five-grade official uniform, with a silverfish bag around his waist, and a long-winged five-rank official hat. Song Ting guessed that he was Wu Kui, the governor of Yangzhou, and said, "Xiaosheng meets the prefect!" Wu Kui squinted and nodded, a little appreciative.

There are two rows of carved sandalwood chairs on the left and right, and the man on the left is about fifty years old, wearing a blue round-necked and large-sleeved official uniform, with a cyan leather belt around his waist, his eyebrows are serious, and his lips are bearded, which is quite stern. Seeing Song Ting, he snorted coldly and ignored it. Mu Yunchuan said on the side: "This is Mr. Yang Kui, Mr. Yang is a famous Confucian in Yangzhou." Song Ting clenched his fists slightly: "Meet Mr. Yang." The old man snorted again, dismissive. Song Ting didn't know what he had offended him.

On the sandalwood chair on the right, the person sitting at the head, Song Ting glanced at it, and skipped it directly, not wanting to pay attention to it. That person is not Lu Bonian, who will it be. Song Tingxin said: "What is he doing here?"

The next man, about 20 years old, with a dark complexion, inverted triangular eyes, a collapsed nose, and a very ugly appearance, dressed as a teacher, Song Ting just wanted to hold his fists, but he didn't recognize it, so he asked, "Who is this?" Mu Yunchuan didn't seem to recognize it, and laughed: "Who is this brother?"

The man stood up and saluted Mu Yunchuan and Song Ting: "Little Marquis, Song Gongzi." The surname of the late born is Qin, the word will be zhi, the single name is a juniper, and he is a person from Jiangning. ”

Mu Yunchuan clenched his fists and said haha: "Hello Gongzi Qin!" Hello Qin Gongzi! ”

"Qin ...... "The ......Song Dynasty seemed to have been struck by lightning and was stunned for a long time, like a stone carving, standing in place.