Chapter 18: Ancestor Worship
In the blink of an eye, it was Chinese New Year's Eve, and the palace was full of joy, lights, and lively, and the faces of the palace eunuchs were full of smiles.
A few days ago, the queen sent someone to send a new palace dress, although I am a concubine, but I am the princess of Liangzhou, she naturally does not dare to treat me lightly. The palace costume is rose-red, second only to vermilion. The palace costume was equipped with some hair accessories such as silver silk wrapped around hibiscus flowers, jade tassel hairpins, light pink palace flowers, etc., and also let the eunuchs who came to carry the words, so that they would go to the Shuyi Hall on Chinese New Year's Eve.
When the queen spoke, she was naturally disobedient, and she responded with a good voice, and rewarded the eunuch with a piece of silver, and the happy person kowtowed for a long time, and shouted in his mouth, "Concubine Xie An's mother rewards." ”
After the winter, the emperor doesn't often come to the Yilan Palace, but recently he has come to Qin, and he laughed and was hooked by my small snacks. I always have to come to sit down every morning, and I can only get up early to make those snacks and wait for him, just like those concubines in the harem, doing what they do every day.
He was as gentle as ever, and when he asked me what I lacked, he sent someone to the steward to say something, and asked the servants to bring it to me, so that I felt more and more like I was facing my elders. And not husbands.
Let Sang Ma go to the Temple of the Gods early to spread the word, saying that there was something on the night of Chinese New Year's Eve, and he invited Lord Chu Mo to come over, and that side also responded. I just wanted to spend the New Year with Chu Mo, after all, he was the only one who knew that I didn't belong here.
Ziqing came a few days ago, and brought someone to bring me a lot of things, all of which are folk gadgets, I didn't ask him where he has been recently, and he didn't say, he sat for a while and left, telling me to have a good meal, add clothes when it's cold, don't go out and walk around if it's okay, if the dormitory is cold, let them add more warm carbon, pay attention to the usual ventilation or something, say a lot, or just like him before, for fear that I will be hungry and freezing, with him so concerned about it, I know that he didn't complain about the stupid things I did on my birthday, My heart was finally happy, and I felt a little less guilty.
It's just that I still don't see Qi Hao's kid, he used to love to pester me the most, he always likes to follow the front and back, and now I don't see him when I go to the queen to ask for peace, but every time they drink milk tea, the queen will give me honey grapefruit tea, which is probably the privilege that Qi Hao asked me for.
But Chu Lige, like a parasite, lies in the Yilan Hall every day, and his reputation is to take care of the saint for his master, so as not to suffer any harm, in fact, he is eating and drinking, and he always likes to tell a funny joke or something to tease those palace maids and eunuchs, and make them laugh forward and backward.
I am young, and there are many little palace maids around me, Chu Lige has a face that provokes peach blossoms, every time he comes, the entire Yilan Hall is lively, the palace maids love to pester him and ask questions, and some palace maids even hide the snacks I rewarded for him to eat, so every time he is in front of me for a long time, such as now.
"Hey, girl. Why do you say that the popularity of this son is so good? "Since the last time I lost my temper because he called me a stupid girl, he didn't call me that anymore, and he said many times that he asked him to call me Jiu'er, but he actually disdained it, and there were too many people who said his name to make him different.
"Hehehehe, yes, it's good, even the purple-clothed Xiaobai was attracted to you." As soon as I finished speaking, his face darkened, making me hold back a smile and almost choke back my internal injuries.
Ziyi is the palace maid in the front hall, and Xiaobai is a white long-haired pet dog raised by Ziyi, I see that the puppy is cute, I often have to come to tease and play, Xiaobai is not very affectionate to strangers, but the first time Chu Lige saw it, Xiaobai urinated on him, and then stuck to him like a gummy, and he couldn't shake it off, every time I saw him being chased by a dog in the yard, I couldn't be happy.
"Don't gloat! Last time it wasn't me, you...... Not...... You ...... "Cover his mouth, how could I let him tell me that I was so scared by a mouse that I almost fell into a."
It took him a lot of effort to break my hand away, gasping for breath and saying "I...... I won't say it...... Isn't it okay yet, it's all ...... You're about to be killed. ”
"You can't eat anything." Stuffing a coconut fruit into his mouth, he said with some indignation, "Come with your master on Chinese New Year's Eve, let's keep the New Year together." ”
He looked at me, a little surprised, he didn't expect that I would invite him, chewed the fruit in his mouth and smiled, "That's nature, that's nature." ”
On Chinese New Year's Eve, I was woken up before the morning arrived, earlier than the wedding day, bathed and changed clothes, put on palace clothes and hurried to the Shuyi Hall, thinking that I went early, but those concubines and beauties were waiting, so they sent me, because it was Chinese New Year's Eve, a festive day, and the queen did not blame me, so she said let me come earlier next time, don't let everyone wait for me.
When all the concubines arrived, the empress took everyone to the Hall of Merit, I heard that there are enshrined ancestors and people who have made great contributions to the southern country, every Chinese New Year's Eve, the emperor and empress have to take their children and grandchildren to the harem to worship, this has been a rule that has been passed down for many years, just like the folk tomb, but there are many heirs of the royal family, and the imperial tomb is not in the Yanjing Imperial City, so the ancestor spiritual seat has to be enshrined in this hall of merit.
Along the way, everyone was silent, sitting in their own luans, the whole team was quiet, and the sky was gray and bright, as if only the squeaky and squeaky footsteps of the wheels were left in the entire palace.
The Hall of Merit is solemn and solemn, as I imagined, different from the high level of the Temple of the Gods, with a sense of the heaviness of history, quietly guarding this deep palace and protecting their children and grandchildren. The Hall of Merit in the faintly lit sky makes people feel awe.
There are already a large number of servants waiting outside the palace, from the palace gate to the palace, the two rows are full of people, we get off the Luan car when we arrive at the palace gate, and leave the personal palace maid outside, following the queen's footsteps to go inside.
I am a concubine, and my status is second only to the queen, so I am naturally higher than those concubines and beauties, but I am small and my steps are small, and I feel that they are always following me tightly, for fear that one will accidentally be trampled on the palace clothes dragged on the ground and fall, and it is almost a trot to catch up with the team in front.
When we walked to the main hall, there was some fine and dense sweat on my forehead, and the queen asked us to stand quietly at the entrance of the hall, sorted by rank. Standing in his position, he didn't dare to raise his head, and listened to the queen say that he would wait for the emperor to bring the princes to pray together.
In this way, I can see Ziqing again, and Qi Hao, I really don't know how long he will hide from me.
I don't know how long I stood there, I felt that my feet began to go numb, and I was dizzy and dizzy, and I heard the inner court eunuch shouting, "The emperor has arrived." Busy with the crowd saluted, Xu is standing for too long and his legs are weak, and when he got up, he was half a beat slower, which was particularly dazzling in the crowd, thinking about how to explain, he heard Qi Hao and Ziqing say loudly, "Erchen please give the queen mother." ”
I thought it would be over, but as soon as the emperor approached me, I heard a weak woman's voice, "This princess is different, and the salute is different from ours." ”
Cold sweat began to break out in the palms of my hands again, I was trembling and cold sweating as soon as I was nervous, I looked down at the emperor's feet stopped in front of me, a pair of bright yellow boots embroidered with a golden dragon, symbolizing the respect of the Son of Heaven, when I thought of what Chu Mo said to me that day, I was scared, I was making a fool of myself in front of so many people, what should I do, will he blame me, after all, this is in front of the ancestors.
"Concubine An is not feeling well?" He finally asked, his voice calm and majestic, different from the gentleness of those days in my palace.
"The concubine is not unwell, she was rude in front of the ancestral hall just now, please punish the emperor." Keep your eyebrows down and try to maintain my deferential posture.
"Is Concubine An rude? I didn't see it. After that, he passed by me, took the queen's Qianqianyu hand, and led everyone towards the inner hall, I was stunned again, and was pushed by Qi Hao later before I reacted, and hurriedly chased after him.
Does the emperor mean that he won't blame me? Or is it another thriller?