Chapter 157: Mourning

In the cold season, the fierce north wind blows more and more urgently, and the red branches twitch with the wind, making a sound of "pop-pop-" at once, accompanied by the heavy snow, together in the air chaos, sweeping the entire depression and silence of the winter.

On this day, the thick cumulus clouds cover the sky low, the wind roars, the twilight snow is one after another, and a different kind of depression breaks through, as if there is calm before the mountain rain is coming. Huizhu reclined on the kang covered with a thick leather mattress, with one hand on the scarlet gold embroidered Fushou double cotton pillow, propping up her left cheek, and gently lifting the window curtain with the other, looking at the snow and wind outside the glass window, I don't know what I was thinking.

In the warm spring-like room, Hongli quietly wrote his homework, Su Xin sat on the foot of the kang to thread the needle, looked up from time to time to look at Baolian sleeping in Huizhu's arms, and lowered his head to work.

For a while, the room was quiet, only the almond tea that was boiling on the gold lacquer table was "gurgling", wafting out a strong tea fragrance, lingering all over the room......

Suddenly, only listening to the noise of gongs and drums outside the courtyard, and the noisy voices, Huizhu was startled, and hurriedly turned her head and asked, "What's the matter?" Then a quick knock on the door suddenly sounded. I'm afraid that something big happened in the house, Huizhu sat up with a spirit, and hurriedly put on his shoes and went to the kang, when he saw the curtain lifted, Xiao Ranzi and a girl from the courtyard of the Wulanala clan came in.

Huizhu waved her hand to stop the girl's salute and asked, "But what happened in the house?" The girl replied, "The Queen Mother is gone!" Fu Jin asked Niu Hulu Fu Jin to take Brother Hongli and Bao Lian Gege to the main courtyard as soon as possible. Huizhu was stunned, opened her mouth, and didn't know what to say for a moment.

For a while, Baolian was woken up and cried loudly, Huizhu hurriedly hugged Baolian and coaxed, and said: "I know, you go and tell Fujin first, I'll be there in a while." The girl left in response, and as soon as she left the house, another girl came in with three sets of white cloth mourning clothes.

Huizhu looked at the mourning clothes that were sent, and they were actually made according to the figure of her, Hongli and Baolian, it seems that the Wulanala clan already knew that the queen mother was about to die, so even this mourning dress was prepared in advance. Huizhu knew in her heart, so she didn't say anything, she hurriedly changed into mourning clothes, removed the hair ornament on her head, took off her earrings, inserted only a silver hairpin, and wore a white velvet flower, and hurried to the main courtyard with the Hongli brothers and sisters.

There was heavy snow on the road, and I took my two children with me, and when I arrived at the main courtyard, it was not too early.

I saw that the main courtyard had been completely decorated, the white paper lanterns were hung high, and the white silk curtains were all around, blending with the snow all over the sky.

In the main hall room, everyone changed into mourning clothes, talking in small voices, and when they saw Huizhu's mother and son coming in mourning clothes, they couldn't help but stop their voices, and looked over together, as if Huizhu shouldn't have appeared here at all.

Seeing this, Huizhu paused slightly, and there was an abrupt feeling in her heart, just like she suddenly broke into a place that did not belong to her, which made the originally harmonious atmosphere suddenly become sluggish.

The Ulanala clan didn't seem to notice the strangeness in the house, and greeted him cordially: "Sister Niu Hulu, you came just in time, I was just thinking about sending someone to call you over, we don't have much time to delay now, and we have to rush into the palace to mourn before the lamp." Hearing this, Huizhu hurriedly stepped forward to salute the Ulanala clan, and then greeted each other with the Li clan; When he arrived at Nian's, Huizhu's body was slightly stiff, the corners of his eyes swept down the people present, and he sighed in his heart, but he still bent his knees and bowed half-way, and Nian's was also generous in return. When the rest of the people saw it, they knew it in their hearts, and they all saluted to Huizhu.

After a while, I only heard the eunuch speak in his voice, and after a while, I saw Yinzhen come into the house with a cold air, and the Wulanala clan hurriedly led everyone to meet him, Yinzhen's footsteps stopped, and his sharp eyes stopped on Huizhu's body, and then he waived everyone's salute in a deep voice, and walked to the top of the house.

Yinzhen also changed into a white cloth filial piety dress, and the red tassel was also removed from the crown and hat, and sat on the chair with a solemn face, hugged his fist with both hands, and said coldly: "The queen mother is gone, stop all entertainment and marriage." Later, Fujin and I will go to the palace to mourn, and you will kneel in the house and knock on the spirit. Everyone responded, Yinzhen gave a few more orders, and Fang took four people, four people, and four children, and left the house and entered the palace.

When I arrived at the palace, the sky had already darkened, the raging wind and snow continued, and the long palace corridor was also covered with white curtains on both sides.

The overwhelming snow brushed down, Huizhu squinted and mixed with the crowd to move forward, I don't know how long, came to a small side hall to rest for half a cup of tea, and the palace maid came in with a tea tray with scissors and hair combs. Then, they cut off the braids of Yinzhen, Hongshi, Hongli, Hongday, father and son, and cut a small tuft of hair for the five people of Wulanara, Li, Nian, Huizhu, and Baolian, and said politely: "Please ask the fourth master and the little brothers to go to the front hall to kneel, and the Fujin and Xiao Gege go to kneel outside the main palace." Yinzhen responded, and Huizhu hurriedly pulled Hongli for a while, and then under the urging of the grandmother on the side, he picked up Baolian and left with the Wulanala clan and others.

Outside the white dazzling main palace, the black pressure was full of people, and before he could look more, a eunuch who was still dressed a little bit decently ran over and said: "Sifujin, you are finally here, come with the minions, the other masters' Fujin are already over there." Ulanara nodded hastily, and hurriedly followed the eunuch to the front of the crowd.

Huizhu hugged Baolian tightly and followed, kneeling down on the edge of the second row of stone steps, through the translucent snow, it can be seen that everyone kneeling is sad, and their bodies shiver from time to time, I don't know whether they are cold or cold. Suddenly, another gust of north wind hit, Huizhu shivered all over her cold body, and hurriedly stopped Baolian, who was kneeling on the ground, to block the wind and snow for her.

Not long after, there was a "woo" cry in her ears, Huizhu turned her head to look at the wife and daughter of Li and the fifth elder brother Yinqi who were crying, and hurriedly took out a Jinpa wrapped with chopped onions from the cuffs, and wiped it on Baolian's nose.

I don't know how long she knelt on the cold and hard marble steps, but Huizhu only felt that her knees that were bound to the back cotton sliver were numb and not her own, and her whole body seemed to be cold and unconscious. In a daze, I only heard the sound of "Qiang-" piercing the sky, and everyone's spirit was shocked, and the people who were originally crying gradually became crying, and the sound shook the sky.

Huizhu hurriedly woke up Baolian who was napping in her arms, and saw two or three high-grade eunuchs coming over, Huizhu looked down at the sleepy-eyed Baolian, and was ruthless, and pinched Baolian, and Baolian immediately cried.

But after a while, a eunuch stopped on the stone steps of Huizhu, shook off the dust, glanced at the people in the second row of stone steps, and raised his head and preached: "Please Fujin and Xiao Gege go to the coffin to pay tribute to the last face of the Queen Mother." With that, turning around to lead the way, Huizhu hurriedly picked up Baolian and followed behind Li, while coaxing Baolian, who was crying.

Huizhu followed to the hall step by step, to the door, and was taking a look with the Ulanala clan who had just mourned, and saw the Ulanala clan looking at her with deep meaning, Huizhu wondered in her heart, but she didn't think about it, nodded her head, and then followed into the house.

The lanterns in the hall are hung high, and the bright light in the hall is two days of daylight, Huizhu looks through everyone, and can only see a corner of the golden lacquer coffin, thinking that this is the so-called golden burial after the death of the emperor and concubine.

I didn't have to think about it, I heard the sound of the gong, a eunuch shouted and kowtowed, and Huizhu was busy holding Baolian and bowing three times and nine bows to mourn the queen mother. When another gong sounded, after the ceremony, Huizhu got up, and when he left, he quietly looked to the side, wanting to find Hongli's figure, but he saw Yinzhen and some of his brothers kneeling aside, with a gilded brazier in front of them, Yinzhen brothers and others were burning paper money, and Hongshi and Hongday brothers knelt behind Yinzhen, but they didn't see Hongli?

Huizhu was in a hurry, and hurriedly turned her head to look around, this look, she couldn't help but be stunned, Emperor Kangxi, who had always been Kangtai, was thin and swollen, and was kneeling on the futon next to the golden coffin at this time, staring blankly at the brazier burning in front of him. However, what stunned Huizhu the most was not Emperor Kangxi's true feelings, but the child kneeling beside Emperor Kangxi turned out to be Hongli.

Huizhu stabilized her mind and wanted to take a closer look, but she happened to bump into Yinzhen's warning glance, and saw that someone in the hall seemed to have noticed her abnormality, so she couldn't, so she had to walk a few steps quickly, catch up with Li and the others, and go out of the hall.

Later, there were successive princes of the clan who entered the hall to mourn, and when they came out, they all intentionally or unintentionally cast a glance at the Wulanala clan and others, this glance, the eyes were extremely complicated, and the two monks of Huizhu Zhang, who were upside down, were puzzled, and they were very puzzled, and they knelt beside Emperor Kangxi Hongli, who would actually make them pay so much attention to it, but the Li family, who should be the most dissatisfied with this, did not have any jealousy, and the whole person was even a little excited.

Excited? Huizhu felt that she must have been kneeling in the snow for a long time, and even hallucinations appeared, so she shook her head slightly, shook off her thoughts, and continued to kneel on the stone steps with Baolian in her arms.

In fact, what Huizhu didn't know was that during her grounding, because the empress dowager was seriously ill, Emperor Kangxi was ill, and she summoned the prince and the Manchu and Han ministers to the Dongnuan Pavilion of the Qianqing Palace to announce the edict. And said: "This edict has been prepared for ten years, and if there is an edict, that is, these words, it will not be talked about in the future." In this way, everyone is not allowed to mention the matter of the prince, but there are many suspicions about the content of the edict, this time I saw that Emperor Kangxi was among the many descendants, only the intimate Hongli, and the heart had its own calculations, but all I thought was that the Kangxi Emperor's intimate Hongli was the reason for the edict.