The Taihe hall is resplendent and brilliant, the lights are bright, and the glazed palace lamps emit dazzling brilliance. The palace ladies held jade plates in their hands, the curvy skirts seemed to have a clear and mellow smell of wine, and the dancing girls in front of the palace were full of pearls and emeralds, wearing colorful light yarns, making a "Chengtian Le" that must be there every Chinese New Year's Eve.

The civil and military officials have long been seated in order according to the official rank, and it is Su Shi's father Su Shi who sits at the top of the civil officials, and the five brothers also sit in their respective seats according to their ranks. She has been in the palace for five years, and she can only look at her father and brother from a distance on the feast.

Tonight is no different. As on Chinese New Year's Eve in the past, first a hundred officials knelt down and shouted long live, and then the emperor said a few words that had not changed for decades, followed by eating and drinking, you respect me and I respect you, and everyone patted the emperor on the throne together.

The only difference is that the person in that seat has become Pei Zhao this year.

According to the old practice, during the Chinese New Year's Eve feast, the courtiers had to recite their own poems to the Son of Heaven as a sign of loyalty, and if there were really brilliant and talented words, it would be a good opportunity to win the favor of the king.

At this time in previous years, it was often Su Jin's eldest brother who shone brightly, Su Xian, who served as the son of the country's sacrificial wine, and this year he made a "Celebration of the Same Day", which still won full applause. Pei Zhao looked at Su Ying, who was sitting on the side, and saw that she was playing with a small and delicate jade spoon in her hand, and couldn't help but curl the corners of her lips slightly.

Although the people after Su Xian have also made excellent works, they are overshadowed by "Qing Tongtian". Su Ying finally gathered her mind at this time, and looked at Pei Zhao triumphantly: "How is it, is my eldest brother a rare talent?" ”

Pei Zhao said: "Then what reward do you think I should give to this great talent?" ”

Su Ying thought for a while and said, "My eldest brother has always been a ...... You might as well give me this reward, you who are very pure-hearted, and I am willing to accept it reluctantly. ”

Pei Zhao looked at her with a smile: "I don't know what reward you want so reluctantly?" ”

Su Ying was panicked by him, turned her head to eat a mouthful of food, and said vaguely: "You'll know later." ”

The people who stepped forward to chant poems changed one after another, but they were just ordinary songs and praises, and a few of them were more slick and included Su Ying in the scope of patting, of course she wouldn't teach people to get off the stage, and she gave a smile very cooperatively. Seeing this, the people behind praised her one after another, and her face stiffened with a smile, so that when she chanted poetry in front of Ye Jing, the corners of her mouth still curved with a very joyful arc.

What Ye Jingzhi did was "Qingping Tune", if you want Su Ying to read it, his poems are better than those of his eldest brother. This person is also talented, the paintings are good, the stories are well told, and even this kind of sycophant poems are fresh and refined. Su Ying couldn't help but cherish her talents, and said to Pei Zhao: "Look, this is what I said about Mr. Ye, I like this poem he made very much, what do you think?" ”

Pei Zhao looked at Ye Jingzhi expressionlessly, his gaze slid over his elegant and handsome face, and said lightly: "The Queen Mother likes your poems very much, let's go and receive the reward in a while." ”

Ye Jingzhi's father was a six-grade contractor, and when he saw that his son was rewarded, he hurriedly got up from the table in the corner of the temple gate, and the father and son thanked him together. Pei Zhao glanced at Su Ying and saw that the smile on her face was floating, and her face was slightly cold.

The last person to step forward to chant a poem was Su Wei, the youngest son of the Su family, who made a poem "Great Sacred Music". The careful tasting is no worse than Su Xian, and there is a tendency to divide the color equally. Pei Zhao smiled slightly, and raised the wine cup to Su Shiluo, Su Shi was flattered, and quickly stood up to salute a glass in return, and just after drinking the wine, he heard Pei Zhao speak:

"Su Xiang has a good way to teach his sons, and all of them are young talents with Wen Taowu strategy. It is really my luck, and the luck of Da Cao. ”

Hearing this, Su Shi hurriedly lifted the corners of his robe, and knelt down with his five sons to thank him, Pei Zhao gave them a large reward, and at the end, he said lightly:

"In the past, when I was out with troops, I passed through Youzhou, and the scenery here is very unique. Su Xiang and a few Aiqing Wenwen were quick to think, so they went back to make a few Youzhou poems for me to see. ”

Youzhou is Pei Yu's fiefdom, Su Shi's face turned pale when he heard this, he and his sons looked at each other carefully, and knelt down in fear: "Your Majesty's words are tormenting the old minister, although the old minister and the dog have never been to Youzhou, they can check the travel album after they go back, and present it to Your Majesty within two days." ”

Pei Zhao smiled slightly: "That's very good." ”

Su Shi is sleek and old-fashioned, and he is quite scheming, and there are no more than five people in the court who know about him and Pei Yu. Seeing Pei Zhao's grace and power like this, although he didn't know what he was doing, he still cheered up his spirits, and unconsciously broke out in a cold sweat.

The Chinese New Year's Eve feast was panicked, and Su Yu did not notice the undercurrent in it, and still played with a steamed crab in front of him, and reassembled the clean crab shell into the appearance of a crab.

As the saying goes, "360 lines are the champion", if there is a line of "eating crabs", she must be one of the leaders. She put her hand under the case, touched Pei Zhao lightly without a trace, and proudly pointed out her "masterpiece" to Pei Zhao like a little doll, Pei Zhao smiled very gently, and was about to say something, but the evil Khan under the stairs suddenly got up and gave Pei Zhao a great courtesy.

The youngest son of the Tyli Khan, who had been defeated by Pei Zhao six years earlier, had been in a state of collapse and illness since then, and had died a few months earlier after passing the throne to his favorite youngest son. The new khan came to pay homage to Pei Zhao from the Turks at the end of the year, and he also had his seat at today's Chinese New Year's Eve feast.

The hall was silent for a while, Su Ying saw the curly-haired Hu people for the first time, and felt interesting in his heart, and was about to take a few more looks, when he heard the evil Khan say loudly: "Your Majesty's minister is a Turkic man, who grew up on horseback since he was a child, and he doesn't know how to write poetry, but the minister has brought the most precious pearl on the Turkic steppe to His Majesty today, please smile at it!" ”

Obediently, fortunately, she has read a lot of scripts, and she knows the routines in and out of these words well, and when the evil Khan said this, he must have brought a beautiful woman here, and that beauty is probably a Turkic princess who can sing and dance, such a story, she has already read it in Pei Zheng's book "Persona of Hu Beauty".

I don't know why, Su Ying felt a strange sourness in her heart, she looked at Pei Zhao, who was expressionless, and said in a low voice: "The pearl he said must be a beauty, maybe a big beauty who came in dancing." ”

Pei Zhao smiled: "Do you want to see it?" ”

Today's Pei Zhao is wearing court clothes and sitting on the main seat very majestically, which is very different from usual. He had been the emperor for so long, and Su Ying only felt his majesty for the first time tonight. As the saying goes, the king's heart is unpredictable, and the emperor's words are said to be broken and crumpled and pondered repeatedly, just like Pei Zhao's words, it is obvious that he wants to see it, so he threw the introduction to himself.

Thinking of this, Su Ying made an expectant expression very cooperatively: "I want to see it." I accidentally saw Pei Zhao's smiling face, and the sourness in my heart was even worse.

Turkic beauty, is it that good-looking?

It turns out that her words are really not in vain. Soon the sound of music sounded in the hall, and a person dressed in a splendid Hu costume came from the front of the temple. This woman has a high nose and deep eyes, a slightly darker complexion but very delicate, and three pearl forehead ornaments wrapped around her brown curly hair, which is very beautiful.

Su Ying used to run to play in the streets, and when she was very young, there were already wine shops inviting orchids to dance for guests, and her third brother Su Chen was very infatuated with this "exotic style" for a while, and every time he took her to play, he always had to eat a few glasses of wine that was said to be transported from outside the country, and watch a few orchid dances. Although this beauty danced well at the moment, this dance seemed to be similar to what she had seen before.

But this song is very fresh. This music is very unique, completely different from the song of the pear garden, with a majestic and open atmosphere, which reminds her of the scene when Pei Zhao took her to ride a horse in Kunlun Garden.

Thinking of this, Su Ying tightened the handkerchief in her hand, tried her best not to turn her head, unwilling to look at Pei Zhao's face, so she had to stare at the silver pendant on the waist of the beauty, a little excited.

According to the general plot development, after the dance, the evil Khan will introduce the identity of the beauty and then say some words, and finally give the beauty to Pei Zhao as a concubine. Pei Zhao has led troops to fight for many years, and he has always liked such a bold and enthusiastic girl like fire.

Seeing that this dance was about to end, Su Ying twisted the handkerchief in his sleeve with some irritability, probably because the earth dragon in the hall was burning too strongly, and it was difficult for people to even take a breath. At that moment, he whispered to Pei Zhao: "I'll go out to take a breath." Yun Luo slipped out with him.

The table for the Chinese New Year's Eve feast was set up like a long dragon, the nearest was under the jade steps in the main hall, where the father and eldest brother were located, and the farthest was placed all the way to the far outside the Taihe Palace, which was the seat for the petty officials serving in Tianjing.

The weather was extremely cold on Chinese New Year's Eve, and these petty officials sat in the cold wind eating the feast that had long been cold, and from time to time they had to kneel down to thank them.

Su Ying came out of the Taihe Palace, passed through the crowd of people who knelt down and saluted, and when she walked to the tables at the end, she suddenly felt that someone looked very familiar, she took a closer look at it by the light of the palace lamp, and was a little surprised in her heart.

This person has gray hair, bright eyes, and is wearing a seven-grade civil official uniform, which is the old man who was telling stories in the tea house that day.

Yunluo grew up with Su Ying since she was a child, and often accompanied her to listen to stories, and she was also surprised to see this person, she knew Su Jin's mind very well, and immediately stepped forward and asked, "What official position are you?" ”

The old man kowtowed respectfully, and said slowly: "Back to the Queen Mother, the old minister is the newly appointed editor of the Hanlin Academy. ”

Well, this old gentleman is very good at storytelling, and it can be said that he can easily export chapters, so it is very suitable to be such an official. Pei Zhao is really smart.

Thinking of Pei Zhao, Su Ying only felt sweet and bitter in her heart, happy and sad for a while. Seeing the old man shivering in the cold wind, he instructed Xiao Huangmen to go to the catering bureau to make a warm pot for him, and he didn't have the heart to listen to his thanks, so he took Yun Luo's hand and walked around slowly.

The palace is full of lights, and the glazed palace lamps are hung every ten steps, and the whole Daming Palace is as bright as day. At this time, the climate is cold, there are no other flowers and leaves in the palace except honeysuckle and plum blossoms, but the branches are pasted with silk silk paper and silk cut out of flowers, this flower is very ingenious, there are incense cakes and a small candle flame in the hollow, Ambilight, fragrant. There are lamps made of snail feathers floating in the liquid pool, made into lotuses, herons, etc., and the water and sky are radiant and shining.

Su Ying was full of worries, and after walking a few steps, she found a place to sit down by the Taiye Pool, and saw a lotus lantern floating in her hand, and she was about to reach out to take it absentmindedly.

"The pool water is cold, the Queen Mother should not catch a cold."

A gentle voice sounded in her ears, and Su Ying looked back and saw that it was Ye Jingzhi. He was dressed in a stone blue coat and looked at her with a smile on his face.

"Why is Mr. Ye here?"

Ye Jingzhidao: "Xia Guan followed his father into the palace to receive the feast, and ate a few more glasses of wine, so he came here to disperse the wine." ”

The last time she saw Ye Jing, she was as sad as she is now, which can probably be regarded as a kind of fate. Su Ying listlessly took the lotus lantern that Ye Jingzhi picked up for her, and suddenly remembered the unfinished story last time: "Mr. Ye, your story is not finished yet, can you tell me now?" ”

Under the light of the silver light and snow waves of the ten thousand trees, every inch of her face is clearly visible, and there is a bit of sadness between the eyebrows and eyes of the smiling and chanting in the past, like the soft flowers and leaves in winter, which teaches people to pity very much. Ye Jingzhi tried his best to restrain his gaze, lowered his head and said softly: "The lower official obeys the order." ”