After entering the palace, the first person I saw was the queen.

"We let you come back, it doesn't mean that you will return to the princess, as if nothing happened, and still let you be the courtier of the princess's house." She said straight to the point, "You stay in the palace, you can meet when the princess is banned in the province, let her know that you are safe and sound, but that's all, the same relationship as before can no longer be done." ”

I bowed my head and remained silent, accepting her gaze of scrutiny, and after a long time, I heard her sigh: "Neither of you can control your temperament, then, we can only change the way you get along." ”

I raised my hand to increase the amount and thanked Ruyi: "Thank you for the official family and the holy judge." ”

She said again: "You can't go back to the Miao Niangzi Pavilion, go back and ask Deng Duzhi to find another place to live for you, what to do in the future, wait for me to think about it, but in order not to attract the attention of Taiwan, high-grade positions can no longer be obtained." ”

That's not what I care about. "Well, ......princess," I hesitated, and only wanted to ask when I would see her.

The queen naturally understood, and replied: "The official family has promised the princess that he will summon you back and let her go back to the princess's mansion, and as for when you will be allowed to meet, we will discuss it again." ”

Again, I thank you. She then ordered Deng Duzhi to take me out. When I retreated to the door and was about to turn around, she called me again and ordered, "You can come back this time, and Qiu He has also made a lot of efforts." Tomorrow you go see her first. ”

When I met Qiuhe, I was secretly taken aback by her appearance. She hadn't seen her for a year, and she could already be described as withered, leaning on the sickbed with a black velvet trowel on her forehead, and even the lips on her unpowdered face were pale and thin like a papier-mâché person, and there was no plump of a woman who had just given birth. Moreover, there was a heavy dark color around her eyes, and a pair of eyes that were originally very clear and beautiful were dull, like some dry springs, probably caused by poor sleep and frequent weeping.

On this day, the Jingzhao County Jun Gao clan entered the palace to say hello and also came to visit Qiuhe. When I entered to worship Xie Qiuhe, the two were gossiping about each other. Seeing me, Qiu He seemed very surprised, reluctantly sat up, and even called the maids around him to invite me to sit, and ordered her pavilion official Zhao Jizhong to make tea for me, not treating me as a lowly minister at all, but like entertaining a distinguished guest from afar.

This made me a little uneasy, and I bowed back to thank her, but I did not dare to sit down in front of her, as she wanted. Qiu He urged me to sit again, and finally Jingzhao Junjun also persuaded with a smile: "We have known Mr. Liang for many years, and we are not in public, Mr. Liang doesn't need to be so polite, let's sit down and talk slowly." ”

I just sat down and greeted them, with Jingzhao Junjun present, and we were probably talking about life and travel in Xijing, as if I had just been ordered to go to Xijing to make up for a year, and they didn't mention the ins and outs of my debasement, nor did they mention the princess.

After a while, the sound of a toddler came from outside, and then a nurse hugged a little girl who was more than two years old inside, and said to Qiuhe: "Lady, the eleventh princess is awake again." ”

That girl is Qiuhe's second daughter, Princess Yongshou, the eleventh daughter of the emperor. I immediately got up and saluted Princess Yongshou. Qiu He smiled: "She is still an ignorant child, why bother so much." Yibi smiled, Yibi picked up Princess Yongshou from the nurse's arms, smiled and whispered to her: "Zhu Zhu, you woke up several times last night, and you fell asleep at dawn, why did you wake up again, do you know that there are distinguished guests?" ”

She smiled and pointed at me, and Princess Yongshou turned her head to look at me. Her skin has been inherited by Qiuhe, making her look crystal clear, like a villain carved by Hetian jade, a pair of beautiful eyes that resemble Qiuhe are still tear-stained, seeing that I am looking at her, she immediately buried her head in her mother's arms, that cowardly appearance is really pitying.

When I left Beijing, I hadn't given her a boudoir name, and everyone in the palace called her "Lord" according to the queen's name, and now Qiuhe called her "Zhu Zhu", presumably this is the name of Princess Yongshou.

"The name of the eleventh princess is very good." I smiled.

"Really?" Qiu He and Jingzhao Junjun looked at each other and smiled, and then explained to me, "Speaking of which, this name was taken by the fourth brother of Jingzhao Junjun's family." ”

This "fourth brother" refers to Zhong Ke, the fourth son of Jingzhao Junjun and the Thirteenth Regiment Training. Jingzhao Junjun immediately smiled at me and said: "That kid in my family is neither big nor small, he doesn't know how to be respectful or inferior, so he calls his aunt like this, but fortunately, the official family and Dong Niangzi are magnanimous and don't care about him." ”

Seeing that I was a little puzzled, Qiu He explained in detail: "In the early winter of last year, the eleventh princess was very sick, and Jingzhao Junjun brought a few brothers and sisters to see her. Strange to say, the eleventh princess had been asleep, but when she heard him call like this, she opened her eyes, and then her illness gradually improved. The official family was very happy, and said that ordinary people are used to giving their children a cheap name in order to make a good living, which seems to be reasonable, so it is better to call the eleventh princess 'Pig Pig'. The queen laughed and said, although the name Pig sounds very kind, but it is not good to use it as a girl's name after all, it is better to use this sound, but change the word, change it to Zhu of Vermilion, and call it like this, but it is an auspicious word when written, so it is the best of both worlds. The official family gladly accepted it, and from then on we called the eleventh princess 'Zhu Zhu', and the official family also authorized Zhong Ke to call Zhu Zhu's name......"

Before she could finish speaking, a boy of five or six years old rushed in from the outside as if he were on Hot Wheels, shaved off most of the hair on his head, leaving only a small handful on his forehead, wearing a silk shirt and trousers, knee-length underneaths, and a long-sleeved shirt with bulging sleeves, and the cuffs were pinched by his backhand, so that the sleeves looked like two large bags, and I don't know what was hidden in them.

When Jingzhao Junjun saw it, he reprimanded: "Fourth brother, you are reckless, what are you running blindly!" Don't be alarmed by Dong Niangzi and the eleventh princess. ”

Zhong Ke ran to Qiuhe and Princess Yongshou to stop, and said to his mother: "I went to play with Sister Wan before, and I saw that she had just steamed a box of spices, and said that she was used in the tent, and she could sleep well when she smelled it. Didn't you say that Zhu Zhu has been waking up at night recently? I asked Sister Wan to light a stove, let me smoke two full sleeves, and brought it to Zhu Zhu. I'm afraid that the incense will slip away after a long time, so I have to run faster! ”

The "Sister Yun" he said refers to Feng Yun'er, the adopted daughter adopted by the queen a few years ago and the granddaughter of Feng Zheng, the governor of the Zhenzong Dynasty. This girl is Lan Xinhui, and she usually likes to make fat powder spices like Qiu He.

After Zhong Ke finished explaining, he no longer listened to his mother's resentment, and spread his cuffs towards Princess Yongshou, and kept waving his arms loudly, trying to make the princess smell as much of the incense he brought him.

The fragrance has the elegance of agarwood, but it also has the sweet fragrance of another fruit, and the smell is indeed soothing and pleasant.

"Well, this is a good smell, it is steamed with goose pear juice and agarwood." Qiu He quickly distinguished, and said to Zhong Ke with a smile, "Fourth brother, thank you." ”

Zhong Ke shook his head: "No thanks, as long as Zhu Zhu likes it." Then he asked Princess Yongshou with great concern, "Does it smell good?" ”

Princess Yongshou pursed her lips and smiled, bowing her head slightly.

"Do you want to sleep, then?" Zhong Ke's eyes widened, eager to confirm the miracle effect of the spice.

The adults in the room laughed. Jingzhao Junjun patted the back of his bare head and said with a smile: "I just want to make people fall asleep when I smell it, you say this is ecstasy!" ”

Zhong Ke stroked the place his mother had photographed, and smiled embarrassedly. Then he reached out and took out the brocade bag tied on his belt, took out a pair of jade pigs carved from white jade, stuffed them into the arms of Princess Yongshou, and said, "This is what my father gave me, and I gave it to you." ”

This pair of jade pigs looks like the antiquities of the Western Han Dynasty, set round carving, Yin carving, bas-relief as a whole, round, very fat, the tail is rolled up and attached to the buttocks, the limbs are bent and stretched, making a running shape, the expression is vivid, and the naïve posture is cute.

Princess Yongshou smiled at the corner of her mouth, kept stroking the jade pig, and seemed to like it too.

Jingzhao Junjun looked at Zhong Ke and suddenly asked him, "Where is the tiger head lock piece on your tassel?" ”

We heard the sound and looked, and sure enough, we found that the tassels around Zhong Ke's neck were empty, and the thing that fell was gone.

"Oh, I took it off and put it at Sister Wan's." Zhong Ke said, and pointed to the jade pig in Princess Yongshou's hand and said, "Zhu Zhu is a pig, and pigs are afraid of tigers, so I can't bring a tiger head lock to see her." ”

Hearing this, Qiu He just laughed, and Jingzhao Junjun knocked Zhong Ke's hand down again, and reprimanded: "How many times have I told you, you can't call the eleventh aunt like this!" ”

Zhong Ke said unhappily: "Aunt Eleven was originally called Pig Pig, Weng Weng allowed me to call her like this." After that, he called to Princess Yongshou repeatedly: "Pig Pig Pig Pig Pig ......"

Princess Yongshou looked at him in confusion, and then at the pair of jade pigs, as if she suddenly realized something, pushed the jade pigs away, and pouted a little angrily.

Everyone couldn't help but laugh at this scene, and Zhong Ke also laughed, but there was a girl behind him who clearly called at him: "Mao Mao!" ”

Zhong Ke turned around and looked at the three-year-old girl, and gave a salute: "Aunt Nine." ”

It was Princess Fu'an, the ninth daughter of the emperor. The "Mao Mao" she called was Zhong Ke's nickname, and I know the allusion: Zhong Ke entered the palace to see the emperor when he was more than two years old, when he had a lot of hair and was divided into a number of squares, and the hair on each square was pulled up and tied into a small ball. Imagami smiled and said, "This hairstyle is not good, it looks like a full headbag." So he ordered someone to cut it off and change the hairstyle of the current handful. At that time, Zhong Ke was reluctant to cut his hair, and the Thirteenth Regiment Lian asked people to shave his hair while he was asleep. When Zhong Ke woke up, he touched it, and found that his head was bare, and he saw a broken hair in front of him, and he immediately became sad, picked up a handful of hair and began to cry: "My hairy ......" because he hadn't learned the word "hair" at that time. Since then, the people in the palace have given him the nickname "Mao Mao", and occasionally they will tease him when they see him, deliberately saying to him: "My Mao ......"

I don't know who told Princess Fu'an about this, at this moment she looked at Zhong Ke, and repeated with a smile: "Mao Mao!" ”

Zhong Ke was embarrassed, but he couldn't say anything about Aunt Jiu, so he had to stare at the beams of the house, uncomfortable. Princess Yongshou soon discovered the effect of this title on him, and tried to call him "Mao Mao". Zhong Ke looked at her in surprise, and then said angrily: "Piggy, you can't call me that!" ”

Princess Yongshou became more and more happy, and called one after another with great interest: "Mao Mao, Mao Mao, Mao Mao......"

Zhong Ke was not angry, and called "Pig Pig" at Princess Yongshou, Princess Yongshou continued to fight with "Mao Mao", and the two children quarreled in this simple way, and almost all the adults around them laughed and bent over.

Qiu He was also smiling, and the joy was clearly from the heart. The image of her daughter was like the dawn of the morning, and it lit the fire in her eyes that was silent in her eyes, and made her instantly radiant, just like the one she looked when I first saw her today.

"These two daughters are the most precious gifts that God has given me." After Jingzhao Junjun took Zhong Ke away, in the face of my question of "how are you doing?" I asked, Qiuhe hugged the two princesses to his side, and said to me, "For a while, I was also confused, as if everything backfired, and I didn't know what the meaning of my life in this world was, until I gave birth to my daughter. With them here, I'm happy. Perhaps, the reason why I came to this world and was arranged by God like this is to give them life. Thinking about it like this, I finally felt at ease, and I felt that I could see the previous frustration and sorrow. After all, God has treated me well, let me have these two lovely daughters, and I am very happy to be their mother. ”