On the day of the spring festival, it is also the birthday of the three princes.

According to the rules, Chu Shixia should prepare a gift and send it to the residence of the third prince. It's not that Chu Zhixia doesn't want to send it, it's just that the third prince looks at her and picks his nose and eyes, I'm afraid he just wants Chu Zhixia to stay away, and he doesn't want her congratulatory gift.

But Chu Zhixia happily chose a pot of peony and gave it to the third prince.

Yuzhu asked patiently: "Miss, the gift to the prince must not be extravagant and wasteful, otherwise there will be a suspicion of clinging; But don't be too perfunctory, or you'll be refuted and disrespectful. What do you say about choosing this potted flower? ”

"I'm not perfunctory," Chu Zhixia dusted off the leaves of the peony, "Don't you think this flower is blooming very festively?" Big red and green. ”

Yuzhu gritted her teeth and said, "But this is not a precious variety...... "It's okay to give it to others, but it's probably not appropriate to give it to a prince with a noble status."

"Who says it's not a precious breed?" Chu Shixia said, "This is cultivated with the peony medicine rewarded by His Majesty, isn't it valuable enough and not face-saving enough?" ”

Yuzhu choked suddenly, she didn't dare to say this.

Even if it is given to the third prince, when he talks about the ins and outs, he will take it by pinching his nose, and he has to provide it every day, water enough water and bask in the sun, so as not to raise the flowers to death and fall into his mouth. It's like Chu Zhixia was so tired of the finch that the emperor rewarded that he raised it with the cat as if he was angry, and the subordinates didn't dare to really let the cat pounce on the finch.

Chu Zhixia couldn't help but admire, there was no birthday gift that made the third prince even more disgusting than this.

Yuzhu couldn't stand her childishness, and sighed again and again.

"I heard that the Fourth Highness and the Third Highness are actually born on one day." Chu Zhixia said.

Yuzhu couldn't wait to sew her mouth shut, "The birthday of the princes, the eldest lady should not discuss it, right?" ”

Chu Zhixia patted her on the shoulder, adding fuel to the fire, "But the Third Highness is unwilling to live with the Fourth Highness, so the Fourth Highness was forced to be born a month late." But it's not bad, the palace has not celebrated the birthday of His Royal Highness once. ”

Perhaps the long-deceased painter quietly congratulated Bai Ziche, because Bai Ziche couldn't even see the light of day, let alone celebrate that he had survived another year in the treacherous and gloomy harem.

But the man is dead.

Yuzhu slapped Chu Zhixia's hand away, and poked her fingers on the door of her head.

——

Weiyang Palace.

"The candidate for spring shooting, the Ministry of Rites has decided on the eldest prince."

The emperor's voice fell, and Bai Ziche's rabbit pen hanging on the rice paper did not pause for a moment, and the pen was slender with willow leaves.

"The eldest brother has both ability and political integrity, and he is the eldest son, and he deserves to be the candidate for spring shooting." Bai Ziche raised his head slightly and looked at the emperor innocently, "Is the father the emperor another favorite candidate in his heart?" ”

The emperor was silent for a moment and said, "No, I also think that the eldest prince is the most suitable candidate. ”

Bai Ziche smiled frankly and continued to bow his head to paint.

"Ziche, don't paint anymore." Without warning, the Emperor spoke.

Bai Ziche stopped the pen in his hand and looked at the emperor blankly. Bai Ziche has a clear water-like temperament, as if it is easy to be broken, and it seems to be gentle and harmless, so that people can't afford to kill. The Emperor searched his eyebrows for a trace of a broken shadow, but could not find a single trace.

"Now is the time when you need people of insight to correct the dynasty, you are a prince, and you should not be discouraged." The emperor leaned on the couch and said idly, "Pei Zhang is the young master of the Pei family, and he can be of great use, you can study with him in the future, and you don't have to go to the pretending martial arts hall anymore." ”

Bai Ziche meekly replied, "Yes." ”

"Also, your birthday is a month after the Spring Festival, right?"

Bai Ziche didn't pause for a moment and replied, "Yes." ”

"After your seventeenth birthday, go out of the palace and build a mansion." The Emperor said.

The prince went out of the palace to build a mansion, which is a very delicate node. On the one hand, once the prince leaves the palace to build a mansion, he will be enthroned, and then semi-exiled to the place to be an idle prince; On the other hand, on the bright side, the three princes are better than Bai Ziche, but Bai Ziche preemptively went out of the palace to build a mansion, and he didn't have to go to the fiefdom, and the emperor's preference is self-evident - this is simply a tacit consent for Bai Ziche to join the competition for the position of the East Palace, and even the throne.

"When I was your age, I wasn't so carefree." The emperor said abruptly, "At that time, my uncle was in charge of the government, and everyone else said that there was a Taishi first, and then there was Your Majesty. I live in fear that I will be usurped at any moment. ”

A sneer sounded in Bai Ziche's heart, but his face did not leak a drop to appease the emperor.

——

On the eve of the Spring Festival.

"The Ye family of the Zhenguo General's Mansion gave a piece of the 'Shark Tears' to the high-grade pearl of the South China Sea; the Pei family of Guanzhong gave a pair of amber lion paperweights made by Master Lu Xi; and the Chen Taishi Mansion gave a pair of dragon blood jade nine rings." The eunuch reported the gift list crisply and fluently, but stumbled suddenly.

The third prince, who was playing with the Nine Links, looked up suspiciously, "Keep reading!" ”

The whole room is piled up with countless treasures, calligraphy and paintings, and the hazy and soft pearl light is like a clear light under the moon. The three princes have an innocent and immature baby face, which is even more like pearl and jade than these rare and exotic toys. He frowned impatiently, but he frightened the eunuch into a thrill.

"Yun, Chu in the clouds, the third girl of Chu, give a big red peony plant."

The third prince's eyes widened in disbelief, "What's it?" ”

"Big red peony ......," the eunuch replied weakly.

The third prince laughed out loud angrily, "Chu Zhixia is so bold, what kind of chicken and dog bits and pieces will be sent to me." Doesn't she want to live anymore? Throw all the rags she sent to me and throw them at the door of the Akiba Mountain Residence! ”

"Your Highness, Miss Chu San has specially instructed," the eunuch said stubbornly, "This peony was cultivated with the peony rewarded by His Majesty. ”

The third prince bit the tip of his tongue violently, and the sweet taste of scarlet appeared in his mouth.

"Stay." The third prince gritted his teeth and said, "Tomorrow's spring festival, I will definitely thank her." ”

——

"Your Highness doesn't need to thank you, it's all what a minister should do."

The spring festival is held in front of the Chengtian Gate, and the people of the entire imperial capital will come to watch, and the crowds are crowded. The open space in front of the Chengtian Gate has set up a high platform early, and the rattan balls wrapped with colorful silk threads are hung on the platform, shaking. A string of firecrackers hangs on the rattan ball, and the bronze tripod under the high platform is filled with a burning charcoal fire.

The emperor and the concubines and the ministers stood on the Chengtian Gate, and Chu Zhixia also stood in the crowd with his head bowed in a heavy dress. The third prince, who was so pale with anger by a pot of peony, and Chu Zhixia that there was a white Ziche between them, and the three princes spoke fiercely, and their voices were lowered and they insulted Chu Zhixia a few words.

Chu Zhixia smiled and asked him not to be polite.

The three princes were so angry that they fell on their backs. He was just about to push away Bai Ziche, who was standing between the two, when the emperor standing at the head of the city glanced back at him at the right time.

The three princes were angry, so they had to endure it.

Bai Ziche pretended to be calm on his face, but in fact, he couldn't stop laughing in his heart. Chu Zhixia looks calm and reliable, ruthless when he should be ruthless, and poisonous when he should be poisonous, but he still retains such childishness, which makes people laugh. She works step by step on weekdays, digging three pits for people one step at a time, but this move seems to be just trying to trick the three princes.

A pot of peonies is nothing to the third prince, but it is indispensable to have a solid diaphragm for a few days. The third prince is a man who can't rub sand in his eyes, so he naturally wants to have a dispute.

The Spring Festival is such a solemn occasion. The three princes either endured it or were reprimanded by the emperor. This dumb loses, he has to eat even if he doesn't eat.

Chu Zhixia was wearing a crimson dress, and the layers of brocade wrapped her, and the golden steps on her head shook little by little with her laughter. It was like a young beak of a chick pecking in his heart, and the secret joy of Bai Ziche's heart like a bud exploded.

Under the Chengtian Gate, Bai Huan wore a bright red hunting suit and came out on horseback. He rode around the crowd, the red ribbon on his forehead flying. After running a lap, Bai Huan stopped his horse, took off the white feather eagle bow on the saddle and pointed at the rattan ball that was shaking in the air.

What a spring breeze and what a youthful spirit.

Chu Zhixia thought mockingly, when he dreamed back at midnight, would he think of Huo Wenqing's bloody eyes?

With a "boom", the feather arrow broke through the air and hit the rattan ball steadily and fiercely. The rattan ball fell straight into the ding, and the flames that burned high licked the firecracker lead. The crackling sound of firecrackers was like thunder, and the crowd knelt down with their hands raised in the sound of firecrackers.

"Please spring time, bless me Da Zhou; The wind and rain are smooth, and the epidemic is driven away; The country is long, thousands of generations! ”

The ministers and concubines also knelt down, and the shouts swept in like a distant mountain wind and rain. Chu Zhixia knelt among the ministers and secretly raised his eyes to spy on the emperor's back. The Emperor raised his arms and looked down condescendingly at his subjects, as if intoxicated by the illusion of being above the ten thousand people under this man.

No one can help but be addicted to such feelings.

"The country is long, and it will last for thousands of generations." The Emperor raised his arms and shouted.

Countless fireworks rushed into the night sky at the same time, and the white, gold, and green fireworks rained down towards the majestic city like a colorful rain of light.

Chu Shixia had seen meteors outside the pass, and on the endless grassland, the sky was so low that it seemed to collapse at any time. Silver-white stars trail their long tails across the dark night sky, as if they are about to fall under the eyes of stargazers.

She had been lying in ambush with Shenzhou in a ravine on the grassland all night, looking up at the shooting stars streaked by.

The Beidi people, who live in pursuit of water and grass, say that every fallen star is the soul of the ancestors. At that time, Chu Zhixia scoffed at the theory of ghosts and gods, and did not believe that the appearance of the meteor was the ghost of the ancestors of the Beidi people staring at the lurking army of Yongxueguan.

"Do you look at these fireworks, do they look like colorful meteors?" Chu Zhixia muttered in a low voice.

Bai Ziche was stunned for a moment, and just wanted to say that he had never seen a meteor, but he was hit by Chu Zhixia's expression. Chu Zhixia was surrounded by crowds, but she didn't ask anyone present. The people she really wanted to ask were probably as far away as those fleeting fireworks.