Everyone looked at the silver, it was two number one Zhili Jing ingots, with silver frost on the thin edges of the honeycomb, each full of twenty taels, green and shiny, and shining in the setting sun. Fu Heng made such a generous move, and everyone immediately turned their eyes to him again.

"Now that you have a lottery, you have to set up rules." Qian Du was bent on winning the championship, stared at the silver, and said solemnly, "Just ask Ah Gui to supervise the field." Those who order indiscriminately, those who make mistakes are counted in chips, who says the best, and everyone will comment on it, how? Zhuang Yougong smiled and said: "The old master is worthy of the surname Qian." The eyes are on fire. I don't come to fight for this money, but I will come to prison. Ah Gui, you guys will compete against each other. Fu Liuye and I watched the battle. The first person cites a sentence from the four books, and the next person takes on an ancient name, which means the four books. Then he began:

"Mencius saw King Hui of Liang."

Qian Du, who was next to him, immediately replied: "Wei Zheng! Then He Zhi said: "Carry it off!" Cao Xueqin took a bite of food, poured a glass of wine into the bottom, and said calmly: "Zai Ji is a 'Bi Zhan'." Lemin smiled and said, "Grains don't grow." Ji Yun took a sip of wine and said with a smile: "Good out-Tian Guang." Ah Gui said in a loud voice: "You can make it endowed." ”

"—Xu Yu." Qian Du replied loudly, drank a glass of wine with a "sigh", and said: "The widow is so brave—"

He Yi stepped forward and said, "Good! - Wang Meng. Cao Xueqin said: "It's still easy to come up with a sentence - Uncle Qin can be described as the most virtuous!" ”

"Yu Rang!" Lemin craned his neck in response. Ji Yun said with a smile: "Although tens of millions of people are gone. Ah Gui stared and thought for a while, and said, "**! Zhuang Yougong said: "This order is good, and the answer is good-the wood of Niushan tastes beautiful." Qian Du slapped the table and said, "That's naturally 'Shixiu'!" ”

Everyone immediately burst into laughter, and Zhuang Yougong said to Qian Du: "Old master, you are wrong. Desperate Saburo Shixiu is in "Water Margin", not the ancient name in the official history. Qian Du was stunned for a moment and said: "Ah Gui said '**' isn't he also a Water Margin character?" You prison must enforce the law fairly! ”

"Mr. Zhuang is right." Fu Heng said with a smile: "Ah Gui's ** is Wang Mang's new dynasty**." This ** is not the ** in "Water Margin". He didn't have a frost blade in his hands! ”

Everyone laughed when he said this, and Qian Du poured a big drink for himself, and said, "It's not in vain to eat this wine today." Now I will be the master of the order. Whoever strikes me will be the new ruler. Can we beat the drum and beat it? Fu Heng asked: "What is the subject of dare to ask, so solemnly?" Qian Du smiled: "Take poetry as a couplet." ”

As soon as the words came out, everyone laughed. Fu Heng smiled: "Which one of the people present is not a well-educated person?" When will it take poetry as a couplet to determine the winner? It doesn't work. Qian Du pointed to the silver and said: "The widow is sick, I really want to win this lottery!" The couplets of this poem should not only be neatly aligned—they should also be divided into one thing or one thing. ”

"It's hard, it's hard!" Ah Gui scratched his cheeks and said, "The couplet can be perfunctory, but the couplet is too laborious." Zhuang Yougong also shook his head again and again. Qian Du smiled proudly and said: "If one person can't do it, it's okay to fight in a group, but I'm just the master." Or for me to go up, I can also go down. Ah Gui thought for a while and said:

Chidi is proud of the five days - Dragon Boat Festival.

"King Su will go to me for two thousand years - Kong Lin." Qian Du calmly matched. Ah Gui said again:

Once the colored pen did the bull fight - Kui Xing.

Everyone listened to Fang Zi's deep groan, Le Min smiled, and responded:

The empty beam is not allowed to fall into the swallow mud - the canopy grid.

Le Min came out again: "Don't look at it from above!" Qian Du smiled and asked: "This song is 'looking in the mirror'?" The counterword should read:

Officials have always been confused - drunk and orderly.

He turned his face and asked, "Ah Gui, how's it going?" Ah Gui smiled, shook his head and said nothing, and Qian Du came out again: "Public and private are difficult to sore!" - Toad". At this point, it is getting harder and harder, and everyone is already feeling that it is difficult to cope. The candlelight flickered, there was silence for a moment, and Le Min said: "Wind and rain idle hold a bottle of wine - send autumn." "The interface is out again:

Free Lang to the drama of Cao - the story of Concubine Yang.

Qian Du was also stumped at this time, frowned and asked, "Where is this?" Don't make it up, right? Le Min smiled: "You also have a time when you are exhausted in talent!" Have you ever read "The Golden Horse"? "Chandu's cheeks and teeth are just searching for dry intestines. Cao Xueqin smiled: "This is just a trick, why take it seriously?" I'm here to represent the Lord and Ying Lian - the whole country forgets the worries of prostitutes, can you know? - Mochou Lake. ”

"Good!" Zhuang Yougong and Fu Heng applauded almost at the same time. Statistically, there are still more chips in the money. Fu Heng was bent on letting Cao Xueqin show his talents, and when he saw that he was just eating wine one after another, he smiled and said: "This makes it too difficult, what is the drinking picture, isn't it for a good time?" Mr. Qian took the lead. I think there are loose songs, everyone sings them as they like, and they are the real celebrities! As soon as the words fell, everyone applauded, and Fu Heng took the lead in singing with a chopstick:

Forget the loneliness and gloom reflecting the moss, forget the flowers falling like rain and dust. But seeing that this red-makeup Chinese girl's head is getting whiter, it is just like flowing a river of spring water will not come again! Yikes! Facing the golden platform of King Yan's Zhaoshi, where to find the Penglai realm, go to pick the elixir......

The chanting continued, and the audience roared wonderfully. Cao Xueqin was aroused, and was about to sing, when He Zhi, who was next to her, sang it:

But I'm afraid I won't be able to meet him, and it will be difficult to get rid of him. There are many worries in the dream soul, but I am afraid to go back to my parents' house. The deer in my heart hit, and I was only secretly surprised. complained about the old enemy on the Sansheng Stone, but timidly said, "I want to see the pillow flowers embroidered by my sister-in-law"......

Cao Xueqin listened to it stupidly and said: "These songs are good, I always feel that there are some things that can't see through and can't see through the world, if things in the world are too true, they won't be able to live." So he picked up the chips and sang while dancing:

See through the three springs, how to treat the peach and willow green? Destroy this Shaohua and look for the light heavenly harmony. Why are the peaches in the sky flourishing, and there are many apricots in the clouds? In the end, who has seen the autumn survive? Look at that, the people in the poplar village are whimpering, and the ghosts are groaning under the green maple forest. Even more, even the sky and the grass cover the grave. This is: the poor yesterday and the rich today worked hard, and the spring and autumn flowers were tormented. Like this, who can hide from life and death? Hearing this, the Western Treasure Tree is full of longevity.

The singing fell, and the four were silent. He Zhi looked at this unremarkable Cao Xueqin in surprise, and sighed for a long time: "The wind throws catkins, and the water sends duckweed, which is really not the weather in the world!" Fu Heng tasted the lyrics, and said: "At the end of the song, no one is gone, and there are several peaks and green ...... on the river" and he was still about to speak, and a person dressed up hurriedly downstairs whispered a few words to him. "Liu Tongxun?" Fu Heng said, "What's the matter with him?" The long man leaned in and muttered a few more words.

"I'm really sorry, I'm going to leave the table first." Fu Heng stood up with a smile, took Cao Xueqin's hand and said, "Xueqin, I have already said it on the road, if you don't want to take the test, forget it." Go to my house and recommend a school for you, or go to the sect of Guozijian to teach and study. I'm really busy, don't shirk, don't let me run again and again, okay? So he went straight to it.

Fu Heng went out of the Gaojin Restaurant, the sky was already dark, and he saw a black short middle-aged man, wearing a six-in-one green satin melon skin hat and a green bamboo cloth gown standing at the door. This person was Liu Tongxun, who had recently been transferred from the Zhan Mansion to the cabinet, so he went over and patted Liu Tongxun on the shoulder with a fan bone, and said with a smile: "What is the important matter for Li Wei to see me?" ”

"Shh-" Liu Tongxun whispered, "Sixth Master, you will naturally understand later." "Let's talk about it, the tofu brain burden on the other side of the door. When Fu Hengshun looked at him, he couldn't help but be taken aback, it turned out that Emperor Qianlong was sitting on the small wooden pestle under the sheep's horn lamp, stirring the tofu brain in the bowl with a spoon, and talking to the middle-aged woman in the bowl. The woman was very talkative. The bowl was washed in the bucket with a loud noise, and he said: "This is a small business, two liters of beans a day, and if it is prosperous, you can earn four or five cents of silver, and it usually ends up with one or twenty coppers." The one who killed a thousand knives in my family is a person who has no ability. asked him to borrow a dozen hangings from his uncle's house to open a tofu flour factory, but he refused to live or die, saying that he couldn't borrow money from Yinzi, and he couldn't afford to borrow one and pay back two, and he couldn't afford to fight the famine. Master, you Mingjian-" She picked out some sugar with a spoon and mixed it in the Qianlong bowl, and continued, "Now beans are getting more and more expensive, and you can't buy a bucket for four and a half yuan. Tofu brain costs two dollars a bowl, and if you get three dollars, half more, who wants to eat it? Whew—it's just a scrap of the bucket. Qianlong drank the tofu brain and asked with a smile: "Do you still use silver to enter the beans?" Is it not easy to make money in Qianlong? ”

The woman turned around with a smile and said, "It's good, why is it not good?" It's so good, there is a lot of copper in it, and the coppersmith shop collects it to make copperware, and it makes dozens of times more profit in one backhand. The official price is 2,000 wen for one tael, and you go to the money bank, at most you can redeem 1,200 wen. Small families have no silver, and the money is so expensive, and when they pay the endowment, they will die of loss! Qianlong listened with a smile first, but gradually lost his smile, stood up after pushing the bowl, and said to Liu Tongxun: "Reward her!" Liu Tongxun didn't say a word, and gently put the fifteen taels and one ingots on the urn lid, Qianlong looked at the stunned woman, smiled and left. A few guards dressed as idlers next to him also secretly followed.

"The master is so interested." Fu Heng said with a smile while following Qianlong, "It's early and late to come out and walk around." Galeries Lafayette knows about it, and it's time to say that the minions aren't. Qianlong said with a smile: "This time I have already given the queen mother, I will leave Beijing tomorrow morning, and I will stay at Li Wei's house tonight!" Fu Heng couldn't help but be stunned, and actually stood still, "Go to Henan?" Didn't you talk about the Dragon Boat Festival? ”

Qianlong smiled: "What's all the fuss about? Soldiers don't get tired of cheating. After a long time, the wind has gone, and when you go to Bianliang, you can only go to Xiangguo Temple to play tricks - they are down to the top, don't you know? Fu Heng hesitated for a moment and said, "Go to Li Wei's house and walk on the chessboard street." In front of this is the alley deep in the flowers. Qianlong whispered: "Go and see the fourteenth uncle......"

Fu Heng didn't say anything more, and followed Qianlong slowly. "Fourteenth Uncle", the fourteenth son of Kangxi, Yun, is the only half-brother of Emperor Yongzheng. In Kangxi's later years, the crown prince Yunren lost his throne in a coma, and the kings took the opportunity to compete for the throne. Yun and the Eighth Elder Brother Yunyu, the Ninth Elder Brother Yunyu, and the Tenth Elder Brother Yun got together and became the backbone of the "Eight Masters Party". It is even rumored among the people that Kangxi originally intended to be succeeded by Yun, but it was the former minister of the study that Long Keduo privately changed the "fourteen sons" in the edict to "the fourth son", so that Yongzheng ascended to the pole. After Qianlong ascended to the pole, on the day of the issuance of the edict of "political and leniency", he issued a decree to "remove the high wall of the residence of the fourteenth and ninth uncles, and allow them to walk around the house."

Liu Tongxun led the way in front and said with his finger: "Long live, the front is the Fourteen Baylor Mansion." ”

"Hmm," Qianlong glanced at it in a trance, only to see that the black courtyard wall was five feet high, although the original five wings fell to Xiamen, although it was still retained, but a high wall at the gate formed an arc, and even the big stone lion in front of the door was also enclosed, and only a small mouth four feet wide was left next to the instrument gate, which was guarded by the Internal Affairs Office and the Zongren Mansion. As soon as the gate was closed, it was as tight as an iron bucket.

As soon as a few people approached the watermelon lamp, the gatekeeper over there had already seen it and shouted, "Who is it?" Hold it! Saying that, two people dressed in pen-style came over, looked at it, and immediately smiled on their faces: "Yo-Fu Liuye!" The villain has a greeting for you! I didn't think it was dark, so I just walked with my steps! "What a rich sixth master and a poor seventh master!" Fu Heng said: "Hurry up and open the door." The emperor is here, I want to see Yun! The two pen posts were startled, looked at Qianlong behind Fu Heng, hurriedly lay on the ground and kowtowed countless heads, ran a few steps, and the key jingled, and with a "bang", the iron gate was opened. As soon as Qianlong entered the door, he asked, "The Fourteenth Master didn't sleep, did he?" The two bowed down again and again and replied: "Back to the emperor, the fourteenth master will fall asleep on the fourth watch when he sees the sky." My body and bones are not good these days, but I'm afraid that I will lie on the kang to recuperate! ”

"You lead the way." Qianlong said and walked inside, turned around and said, "Liu Tongxun stayed at the door." "Two pen-posters lead the way with lamps in front. Entering the second gate where the vermilion paint was peeling, the courtyard was even darker and difficult to walk. In the courtyard, Artemisia annua and wild wormwood grow half a person tall, shaking in the night breeze of late spring. In the distance, under the dim watermelon lamp, stood a few old eunuchs, and a green oil lamp in the room was faintly shining with a cold light. When Qianlong saw this scene, he suddenly remembered that he had been here when he was a child, and the fourteenth uncle squatted in front of the steps blindfolded, playing with himself "catching blindness". With a desolation in his heart, he walked a few steps into the house and called softly, "Uncle Fourteen." ”

Yun fell asleep face in, without answering.

Fu Heng said softly beside him: "Fourteenth Master, the emperor has come to see you." ”

"Your Majesty? …… Look at me? Yun grunted and rolled over and sat up. Fu Heng has never seen this prince yet, looking under the lamp, he is in his early fifties, his half-pale hair is unkempt, his face is pale and haggard, as if the deceased Prince Yi Yunxiang is only rigid, his blazing eyes are hidden under the brush-like eyebrows, and the light is faint in the shadow of the lamp. The reigning princes of the third generation, whenever they saw Qianlong, they were sincerely afraid, this sinner actually sat still, his face was numb and indifferent, Fu Heng couldn't help but be shocked in his heart. After a while, I heard Yun say: "Your Majesty, are you here to give the Dhara Sutra?" ”[1]

Qianlong took a step forward, bowed down and gave a half-salute, and said, "Uncle Fourteen, you have misunderstood deeply. Tomorrow, I want to go out of Beijing to inspect, and Uncle Fourteen will also get out of this cage, for fear that it will be late to invite An Lai, so I came to see Uncle Fourteen. Are you okay? ”

"It doesn't matter if it's good or not." Yun said coldly, "The emperor really cares too much. What a pity! Mourning is greater than heart death, I am now a dead wood and ashes, it doesn't matter if I let it go or not. It was your father who sealed this courtyard in the first place. He also told me in this room that I had committed the crime of treason, and I was imprisoned lightly. I said that it is not only a rebellion, but also a heinous sin that cannot be forgiven, and I would rather be late. But he said, 'I don't want to be known as killing my brother'!" These were the last words he left behind, and our brothers were separated from each other......" his tone became heavy...... Now that the new emperor is here again, Uncle Fourteen is still the same sentence, and he will deal with it according to the law of the country, I Yun frowned, not a real man! ”

Qianlong stared at the stubborn and arrogant imperial uncle, and sighed for a long time: "The responsibility for the affairs of my father and uncles is not mine. I didn't mean to woo my uncle, nor could I say that my father was wrong. You must have had the situation at that time. After the eleventh year of Yongzheng, my father mentioned the fourteenth uncle several times, as well as the eighth, ninth, and tenth uncles, but he was always depressed and felt that he had dealt with it too much. I just obeyed my father's will and released Uncle Fourteen. Uncle Ten also wants to put it. If the uncles still remember the old love with their nephews when they were children, and are willing to come out to do things for the country, they must borrow it. If you are so open-minded, you have to rely on your uncles. After saying that, I was sad and sad, and I cried bitterly! Yun actually cried loudly, and the original reserved and arrogant spirit was swept away, and while crying, he beat his chest and feet: "God...... How did you arrange this royal flesh and blood? The eldest brother died, the second brother died, the starling brother died, and the ninth brother also died...... When he died, he had a 'good name' called Aqina and Seth Black...... Woowoo...... Ho ho ......" The depression and resentment that have been accumulated for more than ten years poured out in a miserable and painful cry like a flood. Fu Heng had just come out of Gaojin Restaurant, and suddenly fell into such a huge emotional whirlpool, as if he was in a nightmare. Listening to Yun's hoarse and desperate cry, he wanted to pull out his feet and escape from here!

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty's ......" Yun Phong turned over and knelt down, and continued to cry: "Do you know what it's like to be in this Quartet Heavenly Living Coffin? You have seven uncles and uncles buried in it, buried in it......" Qianlong thought about it, his heart tightened for a while, he just shook his head and smiled bitterly, and said: "Uncle get up, I feel uneasy to kneel like this...... It's all providence! In the song of Master Huang, it is said that your brother 'the wagtail makes people sad on the plain'! The things of the old life are in the past, don't think about it anymore. Take care of yourself, your nephew will grow when he borrows you! ”

Yun cried bitterly for a while, seemed to be in better spirits, sobbed for a long time, and said: "The minister is rude to the emperor." It's really better to die than to be imprisoned here, and I'm not afraid to provoke you. Thinking about it carefully, it is indeed what the emperor said, this is all fate, and there is nothing to complain about. Since the edict came down, I can go out for two hours during the day. Very content...... The last time I met Yun, I went up and said a few words. He has become a half-wood man, full of magnificence and strictness......"

"Uncle Huang, don't worry." When Qianlong saw that Yun was a minister, he immediately changed his name, "Ming'er's high wall is all gone, you can go wherever you want." It's just to prevent the villain from making rumors - I naturally don't believe it, but when it happens, I can't help but investigate, so why bother causing all this trouble? According to me, the fourteenth uncle led the troops to win battles in the west, and he had nothing to do in his spare time, so he wrote down the pros and cons of using soldiers and put them on a note. Looking at this situation, there will be accidents in Western Xinjiang in the future. ”

Qianlong earnestly instructed a few more words, and then took Fu Heng out, walked to the big iron gate, called the consul and eunuch and said, "You go in and smell the smell in your fourteenth master's house!" I don't know how you guys got on errands! Even you, the people, left where they were to wait for Yun, and the same is true for Yun's side. ”

"Your Majesty," Liu Tongxun waited for him to finish speaking, and said, "There is a trip to Li Wei's mansion, the guards have sent horses, let's ride horses?" ”

Qianlong nodded.

[1]

After the death of the princes and ministers, the corpses were covered with quilts embroidered with the Dhara Sutras.