When the eunuchs and guards retreated, there was only one concubine left by the emperor's side, who was still kneading his shoulders to relieve the pressure.

"Your Majesty, did you have a nightmare?"

The emperor's eyes were half-closed, and his body relaxed a little, and he nodded.

"It's really a nightmare, I dreamed that the deep palace was empty, and there were monsters to harm me"

"Your Majesty, didn't the national teacher say that the Son of Heaven has the Ziwei Emperor's qi to protect his body, and he inherits the world and the earth, and it is difficult for demons and monsters to infringe, Your Majesty can relax."

Hearing this, the emperor nodded slightly.

"But the national teacher is not here, my heart is always empty, my body has been worse day by day in the past two years, and I am still looking forward to the national teacher refining the elixir he said for me."

The concubine smiled.

"Your Majesty's body is very violent, tossing the concubines to death, Your Majesty just misses the national teacher, as for the elixir of longevity, with Your Majesty's body, it is far from being used!"

As soon as he said this, coupled with the intentional or unintentional movement of the people behind him, the emperor's body also reacted a little, and he turned to look at the half-covered concubine behind him.

A storm on the bed was comparable to a thunderstorm outside the palace, and the screams of the concubines, whether they were real or pretended, at least made the emperor feel a lot more comfortable.

In the deep palace, there is also a place where people do not sleep late at night, where the east palace sleeps, a person is nearly forty years old, wearing a curved head without a crown, holding a scroll and sitting in front of the table in the room, and this is a sword hanging behind his back.

This person was the crown prince of the East Palace of the current Dayan, of course he didn't hear the farce of escorting in the rain in the distance of the palace, but he heard the clear and high-pitched crane cry that woke up the emperor.

After hearing the sound of the crane, the prince also put down his hand and read the scroll that had not turned many pages in the middle of the night, his heart was as chaotic as the rain, but the sound of the crane cheered his spirits.

The prince stood up, walked to the window step by step, and gently pushed the window open, and the rain outside became louder.

In the wooden corridor in front of it, the rain sometimes came in with the wind, although it was not enough to reach the window where the prince was standing, but the wind carried enough moisture and was cool enough.

"Did you hear me?"

Unlike the emperor's bedroom, there are not too many guards on the surface, and there are also guards on the wooden corridor in the prince's east palace.

Hearing the prince's question, one of the guards hesitated to answer.

"Back to Your Highness, do you mean the sound of rain or thunder?"

As if in response to the guard's words, the sky flashed with lightning, and thunder followed.

"Boom"

The prince frowned, and although the people outside could not see his expression, he spoke again.

"It's not rain or thunder, I'm talking about cranes."

It's great that you don't have to play dumb riddles with the prince, it's still the guard just now, and this time the answer is very fast.

"Back to His Royal Highness, I didn't hear it, tonight there was wind and rain and thunder and lightning, there was no other sound in the palace, and the white cranes in the palace should be resting now, and they wouldn't chirp in the middle of the night."

"Didn't anyone else hear it?"

Another guard responded.

"Back to Your Highness, I didn't hear it."

The prince looked at the heavy rain outside and breathed softly.

"Maybe I misheard."

At this moment, the commander of the guards outside reminded him again.

"Your Highness, it's time for you to rest."

"Hmm."

——

In the early morning, the sun shines into the entire imperial city and also illuminates the entire imperial palace, because of the thunderstorm in the middle of the night, the new palace and the old hall are a sense of freshness.

The prince got up early and walked around the big pond garden in the palace with his entourage, which was not his whim, but he had always remembered the sound of the crane last night, so he came over to take a look after getting up and washing.

The cranes are generally not too close to people, most of them walk by the pool, the cranes are either on the other side or are farther away, and only the eunuchs who are responsible for caring for and feeding fresh food come over, and the white cranes will be closer to people.

At this moment, it is still early, there is no one in the big pond garden, and the cranes have naturally woken up a long time ago, and the white cranes are walking around the pool, pecking a few times in the water with their beaks from time to time, showing a leisurely posture.

The prince didn't speak, just watched quietly from a distance, and naturally no one in his entourage broke the peace at the moment.

Until two eunuchs came from a distance carrying two buckets, as soon as they came, many white cranes surrounded them step by step, and some eunuchs scooped up the things in the wooden bucket with a wooden bucket and sprinkled them around, and suddenly some white cranes went to chase them

It turned out that the barrel was full of loach, small fish and shrimp and things like that.

But at this moment, one of the white cranes was also very maverick, and when the other white cranes were competing around the two eunuchs to peck food and feed live food, this white crane was still standing on the edge of the big pool.

"Eat some, you eat too!"

A eunuch threw out a lot of loach fish with a wooden bucket, and threw them beside the white crane, when the white crane just looked at it and was unmoved, but there were two white cranes on the side who came to peck at it, and the original one walked away a few steps and combed its feathers a few times.

The prince in the distance watched and approached with his entourage.

The two eunuchs didn't see the person over there clearly when they were far away, but when they saw who was coming, they quickly put down the wooden bucket in their hands and stepped forward to salute the prince.

"Meet His Royal Highness the Crown Prince!"

"Excuse me!"

The prince said and looked at the white crane over there, and asked about something that he would not normally care about.

"You come here every day to feed the cranes?"

A eunuch got up and hurriedly answered.

"Back to Your Highness, come every day, usually in the early morning and evening."

"Oh, how many cranes are there?"

The eunuch hurriedly turned around to count, but the people around him had already spoken.

"Back to Your Highness, there were twelve yesterday evening, thirteen this morning, and that one is a new one, and I have never seen it before."

As he spoke, the eunuch pointed to the white crane with combed hair, and at this time, as if he had heard others talking about it, he turned his head to look at this side, his forehead was extremely red and bright, and it was particularly conspicuous among the cranes.

The prince was a little interested when he heard this.

"Oh? Listen to what you mean, the number of white cranes in the palace is not fixed? ”

The other eunuch wanted to speak again, but the prince waved his hand and motioned for him not to speak.

"I'm asking him."

The eunuch retreated in embarrassment, while his companion continued to answer.

"Back to Your Highness, there are a few white cranes in the palace who have not left for a long time, and some will only stay for a period of time and fly away, but many will come back after leaving, or after a while, or after a year."

"So that one has never been before, right? Why didn't he eat it? ”

The prince asked, pointing to the red-capped white crane in the distance, and the eunuch looked back and nodded in confirmation.

"Back to His Royal Highness, it is true that he has never been here, and the raw crane is generally more vigilant, and it may fly away quickly, or it may be familiar with it for a while and eat it, but this one."

"What's wrong with this one?"

"The villain thinks that one is not afraid of people"

The prince nodded slightly, a careful and capable person always makes people look at him higher, his heart moved, and he suddenly asked again.

"Did you hear a crane chirp last night?"

The eunuch, who had been bowing his head slightly, subconsciously glanced at the prince in surprise, but immediately realized that this move was slightly disrespectful, hurriedly lowered his head, and covered up his actions with an answer.

"Back to His Highness, the villain heard it, it should be this white crane that chirped when it flew over."

The answer was yes, but in fact, the colleague next to him didn't sleep last night, so he didn't hear it.

The prince's mood suddenly improved inexplicably, and sure enough, there was a crane chirping, and he heard it right!

While the prince was chatting with people by the garden of the large pond, one of the attendants trotted from a distance outside the garden, and when he came to the prince, the prince, who had noticed this, had already looked at the other.

"What's the matter?"

The attendant approached the prince and said.

"Your Highness, the villain heard that the national teacher is back, so he specially came to inform His Highness!"

Someone in the entourage next to him couldn't help muttering.

"It's so fast!"

The prince also frowned, and the good mood just now seemed to be covered with a haze, hmph, he came back so quickly, more than half a month faster than estimated, and he didn't know when the reply from Yunlu Mansion would arrive.

"Father will definitely summon the national teacher, let's go!"

After that, the prince turned around and left with others, but when he had walked out for more than ten steps, the prince seemed to think of something, stopped his steps, and turned back to the eunuch who had just satisfied him.

"What's your name?"

Although he was already more than a dozen steps away, the eunuch over there still took two steps forward and bowed down to answer.

"Back to Your Highness, the villain's name is Yuan Zhaoning"

The prince nodded.

"Twenty taels of silver!"

"Yes!"

One of the attendants was ordered to turn back, and the eunuch on the other side immediately saluted and thanked him.

"Thank you for the reward from His Royal Highness the Crown Prince!"

"Hmm!"

The prince then left in a hurry with the people, and while walking, he reported to the attendants who came to learn the details of the return of the national teacher.

"Did the national teacher come back with a big fanfare, or only a few people."

"Back to Your Highness, I heard that there are not many people, and even, even said that there is only the national teacher himself!"

The prince's pace did not stop, and the people around him were thoughtful.

When they gradually moved away, the bodies of the two eunuchs by the big pool relaxed, and one of them looked at his colleague who had been rewarded, and there was no meaning of congratulations.

The other person originally wanted to divide the reward into one point, but in this case, he didn't have a hot face and a cold butt, so he continued to pick up the wooden bucket and feed the crane.

It was only after a while, after the atmosphere between the two sides eased up a bit, that Yuan Zhaoning took out ten taels of silver.

"Yes, you are on duty with me today, and you should have a share of the reward."

"Huh? This, how does this make ah! ”

The eunuch had a look of surprise on his face, and said that he couldn't help it, but he had already taken the silver in his hand, and the haze just now was swept away.

"Alas, do you think this white crane is very special?" "It's a wild fowl, what's so special"

The white crane in the crane flock is still very conspicuous, and for this crane, the eunuch who is just to complete the task is not interested, but Yuan Zhaoning is very curious.

And at this moment, the white crane also raised its head and looked at Yuan Zhaoning, but it was only for a while, and then it combed its hair again.

(End of chapter)