The west wind is faint and smoky, and the rain is sparse at a few points.

The scorching summer has passed, and the south of the Yangtze River in the drizzle is misty and misty, and the breeze is cool. By the river, the wicker is gently swaying, which looks colorful. There are a few duckweeds on the surface of the river, drifting down the river. The water is green, reflecting the blue tiles and white walls of the houses on the shore, reflecting the green mountains in the distance, like a landscape map with lush brushwork, and every stroke and painting is touching.

In the tranquil Qinghe, a delicately shaped wooden sailboat moved forward at a uniform speed, and on the deck of the bow, King Ying Ning stood with his hands in his hands, and the little servant behind him quietly held an oil-paper umbrella above his head.

Leaving the capital and going south by boat for six days, it has entered the boundary of Nan'an City, the river is gradually widening, passing through several lakes, thinking about it, it should not be far from the destination. Looking at the misty scene on the water in front of him, King Ying Ning stood for a moment before turning around and returning to the boathouse.

With a wave of his hand, he asked the little servant to step back, and King Ying Ning leaned into his chair and took out a brocade bag from the drawer of the wooden table.

Gently holding the brocade bag, Ying Ning Wang's beautiful eyes were half drooping. The brocade bag was sewn from fine silk and embroidered beautifully, but it was not the brocade bag that caught his attention, but the thing in the bag.

Untie the strap and remove the ring inside.

It was a pure red jade, and the inside of the ring was engraved with the word "Yingning" in a small seal. After a few glances, he slipped the ring into the index finger of his left hand.

The smoke in the ancient tripod curls up, which makes people calm their minds. Slowly spinning the ring, King Ying Ning's face looked thoughtful.

"Lord Wang." Outside the ship's room, the steward called in a low voice.

"Come in."

The steward took the umbrella, handed it to the attendant on the side, and walked in. Walking to King Yingning's table, the chief steward took out a letter from his bosom and presented it to him, saying, "Lord Wang, this is an urgent matter from the capital. ”

"Hmm." King Ying Ning answered, took the letter and opened it for review.

This trip is a private visit to Weifu, but some special affairs in the court sometimes have to be sent to him to deal with. Although Huang Fuxian is nowhere to be found, and the court is temporarily calm, Huang Fuxian's mind is unpredictable, and no one knows whether he really gave up or was temporarily tired.

The only person the emperor can really trust is him, the younger brother of a fellow mother, and he has to do his best to assist his brother and Donghengguo. In the inner courtyard of the palace, he replaced a new batch of people. And after Huang Fuxian left, whether it was Huang Fuxian's internal response or not, he also dismissed a large number of concubines, leaving only a few people who were married back by political marriage.

The chief steward Ying Hetang has been following King Yingning's father for nearly thirty years, so King Yingning also trusts him. Now all the big and small things in the house are entrusted to him, and he is also responsible for sending some important letters.

After reading the letter, King Ying Ning took pen and ink and wrote instructions under the letter, and then stamped it with a gold seal. When the letter was sealed* to the chief steward, King Ying Ning asked casually, "Hetang, how many days will we be there?" ”

This question was just asked by King Ying Ning yesterday, and he also asked it once in the early morning. However, the steward was dutiful and did not show the slightest unusual expression, and he bowed his head and replied: "With the current wind, it will be there in about two days." ”

"Two days to go." King Ying Ning bowed slightly, his eyes looked at the open window of the boathouse, and the riverside scenery was clear and quiet, and his eyes were clear. The small town in the south of the Yangtze River does not have the hustle and bustle of the capital, but it has another pleasant scene.

King Ying Ning narrowed his eyes slightly, and said with a chuckle: "I really envy Fenghua to stay in such a beautiful fairyland." You don't have to be busy every day, and you don't have to go to great lengths to deal with people in the deceitful court. is also the son of the first exam, but life can be so different. ”

The chief steward glanced up at King Ying Ning, and saw that he had a smile on his lips, but it seemed to have another deep meaning. The chief steward was silent for a moment and said, "If the prince likes it, he can come often, and the waterway has come here, but it will only take seven or eight days." ”

"I like it, I like it, but now that the court is busy, it's rare to let this king take a break from such a busy time." King Ying Ning shook his head with some regret, "Besides, as soon as this king came, Ah Ruan also came with him, and so did Xian'er." They are about to enter the Taixue Academy, and this king doesn't want them to delay their studies. ”

As he was talking, a small head crept in, and it was Cao Cao who was being talked about. She smiled and asked, "Father, are you done talking?" ”

King Ying Ning glanced at the little girl, "Come in quickly, if you get sick in the rain, your father will send you back to the palace." ”

"Hehe, my father won't, I told my godmother to go to her, if she didn't see me, my godmother would be angry with my father." The little girl grinned and jumped in as she pulled in.

The ten-year-old girl is slim, but her personality is still very childish.

Ying Hongke ran around the desk to King Ying Ning and said, "Father, we ......"

Before she could finish speaking, King Ying Ning directly picked up her words, "When will it arrive?" ”

Ying Hongke clapped his hands and laughed: "Father is so powerful." ”

King Ying Ning shook his head, "It's not that my father is powerful, it's that you ask three times a day, and it's difficult for my father to guess." Having said that, King Ying Ning did not have the slightest hint of impatience.

"Probably two days away"

"That's a long time." Ying Hongke pouted, lowered his head and sighed very old-fashionedly: "Ah Ruan really wants to be a godmother, when she was in the palace before, we could see each other if we wanted to, but now we have to walk for so many days to see her." And I can only stay with my godmother for three days before I have to go back to the capital. There are also cute Ning Baobao and Xiao Hua'er, Ah Ruan likes them so much, I don't want to be separated from them so early. ”

King Ying Ning looked at Ying Hongke's nostalgic expression, his eyes flashed, and he chuckled and said, "Then you will let your godmother go to the capital to accompany you for a while." ”

Ying Hongke raised his head suddenly, his eyes lit up, "Really? ”

King Ying Ning raised his eyebrows: "As long as you can convince your godmother, my father has no opinion." Isn't the Silent Garden still empty? ”

Ying Hongke jumped up excitedly, she patted her chest like a Jianghu person, and said, "Just leave it to Ah Soft, my godmother will definitely promise Ah Soft." After saying that, she ran out again, and said, "I want to tell my brother the good news quickly." ”

The voice faded away, and King Ying Ning shook his head and smiled. The chief steward glanced up at his master, and sure enough, on his lips was a scheming smile that he would have when he was the thirteenth master.

His eyes were lowered, and the chief steward suddenly found the red jade ring on the index finger of King Yingning's left hand, and a trace of surprise flashed on his cold and shrewd face. King Ying Ning just raised his head to discuss things with the chief steward, and when he saw the rare surprise on his face, he followed his line of sight and saw the ring on his left hand, so he smiled and said, "Hetang, do you remember this ring?" ”

After a few moments, the chief steward's demeanor had returned to normal, and he hesitated for a moment, then replied, "Yes." When the prince went to Wanchun County three years ago, he gave it to a geisha. ”

"Indeed." King Ying Ning spun the ring lightly and chuckled meaningfully: "It's just that I didn't expect it to return to the hands of this king one day, and thanks to it, I know one thing." ”

Leaning back in his chair, King Ying Ning lowered his head to look at the flawless Chiyu, his handsome face seemed to be remembering something.

It is also a coincidence that I got the red jade ring back, and I think it is destined. A year ago, when the water level of the lake dropped due to a severe drought in Wanchun County, a woodcutter picked up a ring while passing by the lake and hid it at home. Until he married his wife this year, the woodcutter was suffering from no gift money and remembered this ring. Because he saw that the ring was expensive, he went to the silver building run by the Guan family to appraise it, and planned to exchange it for silver in the pawnshop.

The boss of the Guan family saw that the ring was valuable and could not be owned by a person like a woodcutter, and he recognized the word "Yingning" in the ring, and he felt strange and did not dare to be negligent, so he bought the red jade ring from the woodcutter at a high price, and asked the reason for the wrench. Then he invited Guan Pingdong and handed him the wrench.

The Guan family was friendly with King Yingning, and Master Guan also felt strange, so he wrote a letter and sent it to the capital to King Yingning together with the red jade ring.

When he got the ring, the memory in King Yingning's mind was like a closed space suddenly opening a crack, and it suddenly opened up.

The Ring of Red Jade was found in the upper reaches of the Qing River, and all his memories of it are on a painting boat, where he spent the night with a virgin geisha.

Now he has long forgotten what the geisha looked like, and only remembers her very jerky reaction under him. At that time, he never thought about why a twenty-two-year-old prostitute had not been broken, and he only thought that it was nothing for the palace to accept an extra concubine, but after that night, no one went to the Zhangtai Annex with the red jade ring, and he slowly forgot about this unexpected night of spring supper.

Regaining the ring, the first person that came to his mind turned out to be her.

The status of the ring engraved with his name was something that any woman could have wanted, and no prostitute who sought wealth and vanity would have discarded a red jade ring given by the prince, and it can be assumed that the ring was thrown away as soon as it was painted.

There was only one woman who would do this, and there was only one person in his memory......

Later, he sent someone to Wanchun County to find out the news, and the geisha was long gone. But the hard work paid off, and he found a man who had delivered food to the kitchen of Seiwabo, who said that he had seen a strange thing about the geisha Luo Yi one day three years ago.

He said that he was delivering food for Qinghefang that day, and accidentally got lost in the backyard, and accidentally walked to a secluded yard, where he saw a very handsome woman who was disguised as Luo Yi.

The villagers were stupid, they just thought that thing was very powerful, but they didn't think about why, and after that, he left Wanchun County for a while, and after coming back, Luo Yi was no longer there, and he also forgot about that incident.

King Yingning asked the man to draw a portrait of the woman, but unfortunately the man didn't understand Danqing at all. King Yingning sent someone to fetch a bunch of portraits, and then put Ruoxin's portraits in them, and sure enough, the man finally picked out the one, saying that it was because of the handsome appearance of this woman, so he was also impressed.

At this point, the doubts in his heart were solved.

No wonder he felt similar when he saw her for the first time in Qinghefang, no wonder he felt that her eyes were very familiar, no wonder he always felt weird when he saw her slightly light hair color, it turned out that it was not that he felt strange, but that the woman that night was also so pale to almost gray hair color.

I see.

King Ying Ning sighed lightly, "It turns out that she is by my side, but I haven't found out." ”

The steward did not reply, but lowered his eyes and remained silent.

King Ying Ning is also very human, and his ability to read people's minds is not a problem, and when he saw the slight emotional change in the chief steward, he thought of something, and he chuckled: "Hetang, when did you find out her identity." ”

The chief steward knelt on the ground, bowed his head and said, "Please surrender the prince." ”

King Ying Ning got up from his seat, he walked up to the chief steward, held his arm and said, "Get up, this king has no intention of blaming, but it is just a little strange." ”

"Thank you, Lord Wang."

After the chief steward got up, he spoke: "My subordinates just think that Mr. is a little familiar. On the day of King Xian's sacrifice, Mr. was unconscious on the altar, and his subordinates went down to help Mr. It was really confirmed. Each person's skeleton is special, and the subordinates found that the gentleman's is the same as the woman's in the painting boat three years ago. The chief steward paused slightly, and then continued: "At that time, the prince was busy assisting the Holy Lord to rectify the court, and his subordinates did not report this matter. ”

The chief steward is a person who has been practicing martial arts all year round, and he is naturally sensitive to people's body bones, King Ying Ning smiled and said: "The way you recognize people is really different from others. ”

The chief steward was silent for a moment, and then said, "Since the prince has recognized the identity of Mr., does he have any plans to recognize her?" ”

King Ying Ning smiled slightly, the meaning of the smile was deep, he paced to the window, looked at the slowly receding scenery on the shore, and said slowly after a moment of silence: "Since she doesn't want to say it, why should we break it," King Ying Ning glanced back at the chief steward and said with a low smile: "Just like the real reason why you don't say it, there are always some unspeakable secrets in life, and it's better not to say it than to say it." To speak out is to upset the existing balance. ”

The chief steward glanced at King Ying Ning deeply, and there was a kind of elder love and emotion in his experienced eyes.

"Godmother, godmother." Suddenly, Ying Hongke's excited voice came from the bow of the boat, "Father, come quickly, godmother is here to pick us up." ”

From the window, King Ying Ning saw Ying Hongke standing at the bow of the boat waving and jumping happily, and Ying Hongxian on the side couldn't hide his excited smile, "It's really Mr." ”

Following the direction of Ying Hongke's finger, King Ying Ning looked towards the shore.

A crimson figure stood on the embankment, faintly blending into the Qingqing River, but it unconsciously attracted people's attention.

As if hearing the call of the two children, the crimson figure also raised his hand and waved.

It's really her.

An imperceptible warmth swelled up in my heart. King Ying Ning smiled slightly, reached out and stroked the ring on his left hand, and after a pause, he slowly took the ring off. When he let go, he saw only a small red shadow falling into the clear water of the river and never seen again.

There are some things that exist better than not exist. And some things, even if they disappear, will remain in the heart forever.

As for that night, that person will become a secret that both of them know but will never tell.