In the fourth year of the Tang Dynasty, the fourteenth day of the first month, the night.

Capital, Chang'an.

Countless colorful lanterns converge into two long dragons, standing on both sides of Suzaku Street, starting from the Mingde Gate in the center of the south of Chang'an City, leading to the Vermilion Gate in the south of the Taiji Palace Imperial City, lighting up the night of the whole Chang'an.

Li Xian, the son of heaven, took the concubine's children to watch the lanterns in Chang'an Street, and even traveled with thousands of palace people, and even the Vermilion Bird Street, which was dozens of zhang wide, was a little crowded for a while.

"Looks like I'm thinking too much." As soon as the Jianfu door of Daming Palace was opened, the palace maids rushed out in a hurry, and three palace maids and Xiao Jiangyuan made an appointment to take this opportunity to escape from the deep palace, and the oldest Yu Niang looked down and saw Xiao Jiangyuan's skirt and smiled.

Xiao Jiangyuan smiled standardly, raised his eyebrows to express doubts, and then listened to Yu Niang's disgust: "I thought that Xiao Neishou was worthy of being the person who served Empress Zetian, and he couldn't see any clues on his face when he caught up with such a life-changing event as tonight, but it turned out to be even more nervous than my sisters - I forgot to bring my luggage and coils." ”

Xiao Jiangyuan looked down at her skirt when she heard this, and then looked at the three of Yu Niang, and immediately suddenly - the skirts of most palace maids today are wider and fluffier than in the past, when she first saw it, because of the large number of people, she thought that the current women's skirts are all wide and beautiful, and at this moment when she heard Yu Niang say this, she understood, it turned out that these ladies were to hide luggage and coils, and they were quite thoughtful. And Yu Niang was born in the Shangyi Bureau, so she naturally understands it more clearly than her.

Seeing that the three of Yu Niang were still waiting for their answer, Xiao Jiangyuan groaned, his eyes narrowed slightly, and he pursed his lips and smiled lightly: "It's not that I forgot, but I don't need to bring it." Without waiting for the three of Yu Niang to question, she continued, "Can Yu Niang know the way?" ”

Yu Niang couldn't help laughing again: "I forgot, Xiao Nei has not been out of the palace many times, but I am afraid that I don't know much about Chang'an." Don't worry, I've come out many times with the seniors of the Shangyi Bureau before, and I drew the map of Chang'an City from memory. But......" Yu Niang hesitated for a moment, and finally asked, "You just escaped like this?" ”

Xiao Jiangyuan turned his head sideways and asked, "Otherwise?" ”

“…… Although you are not as good as when Empress Zetian was alive now, you still have the support of Princess Anle, and as far as I know, there are also many eunuchs and palace maids who support you. You yourself are a eunuch from the fifth grade, the fifth grade, some people have studied hard and finally obtained the Jinshi, and they can't get this position after a lifetime of hard work, you are good, why do you have to leave the palace? You...... After all, it's different from us women, and even more ...... with men How do you live outside? ”

Xiao Jiangyuan's footsteps paused: "There are a lot of people tonight, and Chang'an City is not small, for the sake of safety, let's take out the map first." ”

Seeing that Xiao Jiangyuan had made up her mind, Yu Niang sighed and took out a piece of silk silk from her cuffs. Xiao Jiangyuan glanced at it and said, "Let's go to the alley in front to rest and take a slow look." ”

This alley is only symbolically hung with a few lanterns, and it is much darker than the main street, and people can only see very close in it, and they can't see it clearly from afar. The three of them lifted their skirts and sat on the ground, as if they had finally broken free from some kind of shackles, and their movements were not as delicate and pretentious as their little daughters, they were very heroic, and only Xiao Jiangyuan was still standing.

Xiao Jiangyuan looked around, nodded, and said, "Drink some water?" ”

"I brought the wine that the sage appreciated on the first day!" Yu Niang said and took off the sheepskin water bag tied under her skirt, and saw Xiao Jiangyuan hand over a small paper bag.

The milky white moonlight reflected Xiao Jiangyuan's face very delicate. She only squinted her eyes slightly and smiled lightly, which made the three of Yu Niang ignore her women's clothes for a while, and remembered her appearance in a light scarlet official uniform in the palace. It's a pity that although Xiao Jiangyuan was polite to everyone at that time, she also had an inexplicable alienation, so that they only dared to watch from a distance, and it wasn't until after contact that they found that she was so gentle and delicate......

Seeing that the three of Yu Niang looked at themselves in a daze, Xiao Jiangyuan's lips curled a little deeper, and he said softly: "Although I didn't take the luggage and wrap up, I brought out a little good thing, and I lived a long life, which was drunk by Queen Zetian." ”

It is rumored in the palace that when the Empress Zetian was in her seventies, she could still have black hair and new teeth, and her face was like a girl. The three of them couldn't help but be pleasantly surprised, and hurriedly mixed it into the wine and drank it one after another.

Sure enough, it was only a moment, and all three of them were unconscious.

At this time, the moonlight was just right, and Xiao Jiangyuan Shi Ran exhaled. Squatting down with a skirt. She gathered the entanglements of Yu Niang and the others into a purse, thought about it, and left a gold ingot for each of them. When she got up again, the heavy purse was already wrapped around her wrist, and the map in Yu Niang's hand was folded so that it was lying right in her cuffs.

"That's really a good thing for beauty and longevity," Xiao Jiangyuan glanced sideways at the purse on his wrist and sighed lightly, "It's just that she drank it when she had insomnia in her later years, so it has a little hypnotic effect." ”

Thinking that nothing was missing, Xiao Jiangyuan was about to walk out of the alley, and as soon as he turned around, he found that in the depths of the alley not far behind him, there was a tall young man who was trapped in the shadows of Rumo, and he didn't know how long he had been standing there.

Under the moonlight, the breeze rose suddenly, her bright crimson seemed to flow in a vast cloud, floating and independent, the vermilion tulle shawl was like a willow branch in spring, the figure was swaying, soft and extreme, covering half of her face and towering hair bun between the flows, only a pair of eyes were exposed, and the man was stunned for a moment.

At this moment, Xiao Jiangyuan rushed over, as Yang Siqiao had taught, and without waiting for the man's reaction, he stretched out his hand and slashed at the back of the man's neck. The man suddenly fell to the ground, only remembering the moment he saw her deep eyes like Qujiangchi in the middle of the night, wrinkled a few waves, and then rippled silently, deep and calm.

- It was really her.

It was the last consciousness he had before he fainted.

Chang'an on the night of the Yuan Dynasty is full of light, and Suzaku Street is very lively. Xiao Jiangyuan went to change into a man's outfit first, her long hair was tied up, wrapped in an ink-colored hat, and she was wearing a gray and white round-necked robe without decoration, simple and ordinary, she was originally worn to make herself stand out from the crowd, but she showed a bit of delicacy and handsomeness, although she was a little shorter and a little thin, but at a glance, it was still difficult to distinguish between male and female. After changing her clothes, she moved her body and was very satisfied with it: "It's still like this." ”

Feeling empty for a moment, she walked to a small stall, ordered a steamed cake, and sat down with her back straight on the table next to her. As soon as she breathed a sigh of relief, there was a burst of children's singing, which still reached her ears clearly in such a lively night.

The boys are jumping around the stalls, like the children of the shopkeepers, and the children's voices have a special sound, with the purest innocence in the world, although they may not understand what this song means.

"...... Sanjowe." After listening to this, Xiao Jiangyuan gave the boys some copper coins. When the boys ran back to the shop, she shook her head faintly.

When Emperor Gaozu had not yet raised his army, the people of the world sang "Song of Peach and Plum"; Before the change of Emperor Taizong's Xuanwu Gate, the people of Li sang "King Qin's Broken Array Song"; Before Empress Zetian entered the palace, I don't know if it was a coincidence or what, the song "Mei Niang" 3 was circulated among the mountains and rivers - the name Wu Mei came from this.

Because this name was given by Emperor Taizong, the palace people at that time were very envious of Empress Zetian, but Empress Zetian herself was not very happy, in her later words: "Name me with the name of a song, obviously Emperor Taizong treated me like this." To him, I was just a good-looking vase. How can the prince of Israel last long? Hui Niang also said such things to me back then, but unfortunately I didn't have time to change Emperor Taizong's opinion at that time, and Emperor Taizong died, but Jiulang ......"

It took her thirty years to prove that she was not a vase, but a very competent "queen of heaven" who was on a par with the emperor, and finally stepped step by step to the pinnacle of power. Although the current Empress Wei has been following the old path of Empress Zetian, she has only learned a superficial one, and she has made rapid progress in just five years, which is really self-defeating, which makes Li Xian suspicious.

"Xiao Langjun, your steamed cakes."

Xiao Jiangyuan came back to his senses and bowed his head at the shopkeeper: "Thank you." ”

Okay, this time she came out, and she had a good holiday, don't think about those troublesome things for the time being. She was about to put off her chopsticks, but suddenly she sneezed.

She didn't know that just now, the man lying on his stomach in the alley finally woke up, first moaned softly, stroked the back of his neck with one hand, and propped up the ground with the other hand to let himself stand up. He curled the corners of his lips and sneered angrily: "What a Xiao Jiangyuan, he didn't even recognize me!" ”