And it will be a few more days, and I will be summoned to this day. Only a year apart, he was like a round old. When I entered, he was resting his elbows on the desk and stroking his forehead, the shadow of his sparse gray beard sweeping the thick stack of slashes in front of him, and in the candlelight, his face was wrinkled, like the marks of a knife carving.

Hearing me say goodbye, he glanced at me slightly, and then said directly: "On the day of Chongyang, the princess will come to the palace, and you can meet in the queen's pavilion." ”

His face was expressionless, and his voice was not so much emotion-free, but rather a tiredness that bordered on exhaustion.

I bowed my head and bowed to him again and said to him: "Thank you for the grace of the official family, but, on the day of Chongyang, it is enough for the minister to look at the princess from afar, and there is no need to see each other in the queen's pavilion again." ”

This is the result of my deep reflection in the past few days, and I must not have thought of it today. This surprised him, and he asked me, "Are you afraid that meeting the princess will be too emotional, or are you afraid that you will be embarrassed by the queen's watchful eyes?" ”

I bowed my head and replied to him, "I am afraid to see the tears of the princess." ”

Imakami was speechless, and finally waved his hand: "You retreat." ”

I thanked you and slowly withdrew. As he stepped out of the door, he heard a sigh clearly behind him.

Deng Duzhi sent me out of the Funing Palace, and when I was about to leave the hospital, I remembered to ask him: "What will I do in the future, has the official family made it clear?" ”

"Nope." Deng Duzhi said, "How can he have the heart to think about this now......

Seeing that there was no one left and right, he lowered his voice and told me: "In the past two days, Sima Guang has continued to talk about three things, one is that the thirteenth princess stayed at the city gate and the palace gate until late at night on the day of the funeral, he said that the palace ban was not strict, the rules were broken, and he wrote hundreds of words, and repeated the guards and procedures that should be used to open the palace gate at night; He also said that since this year, there have been many disasters, and the people have many dishes, it is the time for the emperor to deny himself, and recently there are too many swallows in the palace, which will hurt the people and money, not to mention that wine is a thing that hurts morality, and the officials should know to stop the swallow drink, calm the nerves and nourish the qi, don't drink more alcohol and eat thick flavored wax poison, in addition, also persuade the officials to say, 'The harem concubines and concubines enter to see sometimes', it is not appropriate to count the royal to hurt the Taihe ......"

I thought of Qiu He, so I asked Deng Duzhi again: "Has the official family frequently summoned the ladies of the Ten Pavilion recently?" ”

Deng Duzhi sighed: "In the past two or three years, the only people who can be called frequently summoned are actually Dong Niangzi and Zhou Niangzi...... Everyone knows the heart disease of the official family, but in three years, five princesses were born in a row. The ministers are all persuading him to choose the clan as his heir, no, the third thing Sima Guang said is this. ”

Indeed, the placement of me is a trivial matter compared to the matter of the prince, and I have no time to think about it now, although the sorrow of the princess in the past year must have been an important factor in hastening his age.

After that, the emperor still didn't arrange a new position for me, and I think what they meant was that I didn't have to do anything, as long as I was hidden in the palace and not discovered by the officials. On the day of Chongyang, no one told me how to meet the princess, and it seemed that everyone had forgotten about it at all. I don't know if the princess is in the palace or where she will appear. With nothing to do, I saw that the Houyuan Gou official was directing Xiao Huangmen to row a flat boat into the Yaojin Pond and remove the excessive duckweed in the pond, so I asked for orders to help them complete this work.

I got a leaf of the boat, rowed it into the center of the pool, and lifted the net little by little to erase the slightly flooded green on the waves. Most of the time I was quite focused, until my boat drifted to a place where weeping poplars were sheltered, and I suddenly remembered that this was the place where I first saw the princess and Cao Ping boating.

If it was Cao Ping who made the marriage contract with the princess at that time, then everything would be different now. I thought to myself, Qin Se is in the palace, it is good to be quiet, maybe they will be like the thirteenth group practice and the high girl, they have already had children around their knees and shared their families......

As if confirming my thoughts, there was a burst of children's laughter behind me. I looked sideways, and saw a delicate painting boat drifting from the rippling smoke and waves, stopping not far in front of me, there were many women and children in the boat, one by one, I recognized the queen, Jingzhao Junjun, and several children of the thirteenth regiment, Feng Yun'er was also among them, and the woman sitting next to her was the princess of Yanguo who had been separated from me for a year.

The princess had a pink mahoganya on her sideburns, but against the backdrop of this rich color, she herself was as thin as an autumn leaf. At this moment, she was sitting with her eyebrows lowered, and together with Feng Yun'er, according to the customs of Chongyang in the capital, she cut the colorful silk into patterns of dogwood, chrysanthemum, and wood hibiscus, so as to give them to relatives and friends.

She did this slowly, not noticing my presence for the time being. But the queen, in the interval of chatting with Jingzhao Junjun, her eyes swept over me intentionally or unintentionally.

Perhaps, this is the way she arranged for us to meet according to my suggestion. I bowed to her, and then gently led my boat deeper into the willow shade.

After all, it wasn't too far away, and I could still observe the movement in the painted boat. At this time, Zhong Ke tied a transparent glass bottle with a slender red thread, hung it on a thin wooden stick, and then hung it into the water to make a fishing shape. When Zhong Ming saw it, he asked him, "The bottle you use, but the glass bottle that Sister Wan used to eat rose water?" ”

Zhong Ke looked back and grimaced, but did not answer. Seeing this, Feng Yun'er put down the scissors in her hand and got up to visit, Zhong Zhen immediately followed, walked to Zhong Ke's side in two steps, waved her hand, and lifted the bottle violently. Feng Yun'er looked at it fixedly and blurted out: "Oh, it's really my rose water bottle!" ”

Zhong Zhen lowered his face and shouted at his younger brother in fear: "Zhong Ke! ”

Zhong Ke grinned, not afraid, turned to Feng Yun'er and said, "Sister Yun, I took this bottle to play with when I saw that your rose water ran out." ”

Feng Yun'er smiled: "Nonsense, obviously there is still half of it." ”

When Zhong Ming heard this, he stepped forward and said to Feng Yun'er: "Fourth brother is still a child, he is not sensible, Sister Yun, don't be angry, I will go home and get a bottle and return it to you in a while." ”

Before Feng Yun'er could answer, Zhong Zhen had already shook his head at Zhong Ming: "Don't blindly indulge him, otherwise next time he will take other people's things indiscriminately to toss." Then he glared at Zhong Ke again, tore off the glass bottle, and raised the wooden stick in his hand to make a gesture to hit Zhong Ke.

Zhong Ke laughed and ran to the princess's side, hiding behind her hard, begging while hiding: "Auntie save me!" ”

The sight made the princess laugh at last. She got up, blocked the needle, and said, "It's just half a bottle of rose water, what a big deal, if you want it, I can compensate you now." ”

Zhong Zhen looked at the princess and said strangely: "Now? Auntie brought rose water? ”

The princess smiled and did not answer, but cut a piece of red silk and cut it a few times, and then showed it to everyone: "Does it look like a rose?" He immediately picked up the glass bottle that was thrown on the deck by the middle needle, put the cut red thread into the bottle, shook it twice, and said: "Rose into the water, isn't this water the rose water?" ”

The princess handed the glass bottle to Feng Yun'er, who took it and thanked her. Everyone laughed, and Zhong Ke clapped his hands and praised: "Auntie is so smart!" ”

The princess scratched his nose: "However, you should also be a little more restrained." If you poke such a Lou Zi next time, my aunt will not deal with the aftermath for you again. ”

Saying this, she couldn't help but laugh herself. She looked at Zhong Ke like a young mother.

She seems to have always liked children, and when she is with them, she is in a better mood. Back then, she hated Concubine Zhang so much, but she still cared for the eighth princess. And in recent years, she has also loved those half-sisters, maybe she, like Luoluo, has a nature of looking forward to being a mother.

I watched her smile in the shadow of the willow branches, but the thought made my heart ache.

At this time, Zhong Ke told the princess the reason for taking the glass bottle privately: "Zhu Zhu can't come out with us to play, I want to use this bottle to catch a few small fish and bring them back to her." ”

The princess nodded his forehead: "What a stupid child! This bottle has such a small mouth and no bait, how can you afford to catch a fish? ”

Zhong Ke was speechless for a while. Looking around, he suddenly spotted my boat, pointed to me and called in surprise: "Come here, give me the little net on your boat!" ”

The princess looked at her, and soon her smile froze, her gaze fixed on my half-exposed figure, and she couldn't help but take two steps toward the side of the ship.

As Zhong Ke continued to greet me, I slowly rowed the wooden boat and led the boat closer to the painting boat. Except for Zhong Ke, who didn't know the inside story, everyone on the painting boat was also silent, and for a while, there was only the sound of wind and water, and the sound of Zhong Ke's cheerful laughter.

It was a short distance, but I paddled for a long time. I approached her slowly and with difficulty, looking at the familiar faces that lingered in my dreams, but I didn't know whether to be happy or sad.

Her lips quivered, as if she wanted to laugh but couldn't. Later, she bent down next to the side of the boat and stretched out her hand forward, staring at me expectantly with watery eyes, as if ready to lead me aboard.

Finally, I was only one step away from her, and as soon as I reached out, I could touch her trembling fingertips, and the corners of her lips rose, and in this seemingly short wait, a pure smile bloomed like a snowdrop.

Reach out, reach out, it was as if someone was chanting such a mantra in my heart. However, in the end, what I did was to lift the lid to the side of the painted boat, widen the distance between us, and then push the oars away from the waves in the pool, and escape from the space where she exists under her watchful eyes.