The weather is getting hotter, the sky is sunny and the clouds are light, the air has already brought a trace of heat, the newly picked lychees in Minzhou this year, all the way to Beijing with ice, the emperor ordered the internal affairs office to send a basket to Weiyang Palace, Yongshou Palace, Jingren Palace, and the remaining basket was distributed to the rest of the palaces.

"This lychee is juicy and delicious, but I only feel sweet and greasy after eating too much." An Lingrong was rarely small, and shook his fan lightly and smiled at Zhen Huan, "This thing is expensive, fortunately, it is not sent every year, otherwise it will cost the people and money, and the horses will run to death." ”

"Yes, it's hard to be at home and don't know how hard it is. This year, the weather was hot early, and I should have gone to the Old Summer Palace to cool off, but I calculated the silver on the account, but I was startled, and repeatedly persuaded the emperor to stop mentioning this matter. Zhen Huan smiled bitterly, and counted it one by one, "The Queen Mother is not happy, it is not suitable to travel far, if you and I bring these children with you, it is not easy, the nurse and nanny are a lot of people, and the Old Summer Palace has to be re-arranged, and it is all sea-like silver flowing water." ”

An Lingrong chuckled: "Two days ago, the emperor also told me that your sister Zhen is thrifty, and the silver in the palace this month has saved more than 7,000 taels compared with last month, but she is more diligent and thrifty than the queen." She learned the emperor's tone and laughed at Zhen Huan.

"Don't rap, wait for this year's draft to pass, and then bring in a few newcomers, this extra 10,000 taels of silver is not enough to spend." Zhen Huan said with a sneer, "Although this draft is for the third and fourth elder brothers, but now there are few people in the palace, and there are only two people who are favored, Shun Gui and Ning Guiren, and it is too cold." ”

"The emperor has been more and more busy with court politics in the past two years, and he has slowly become less concerned about the affairs of the palace, and now the emperor has seven elder brothers and four princesses under his knees, and the heirs can be regarded as having an explanation, and my sister has not seen the queen mother in the past two years, and has not urged the emperor much? It's no wonder that the queen is in a hurry. An Lingrong naturally heard the news that the queen was going to praise the third elder brother as the crown prince recently, and smiled coldly, "But she can't complain about others, who made her desperate back then, and just left the sixth elder brother behind?" Otherwise, there would not be only one lone seedling like the third elder brother today. ”

Zhen Huan smiled shallowly: "The third elder brother is the eldest son, and now he is half a son-in-law, since ancient times, the establishment of the prince is nothing more than the establishment of the eldest son, the queen values these two points the most, in her opinion, the emperor's canonization of the third elder brother as the prince can be regarded as a sure thing, naturally it doesn't matter about other children." Her eyes flashed slightly, "But listening to the emperor's tone, I am more inclined to say Lixian, and it seems that I am interested in your seventh elder brother." ”

"Honghao is young, not suitable." An Lingrong shook his head and vetoed without thinking about it, "Honghao is now less than three years old, but the emperor has passed the age of knowing his fate, even if it lasts for another ten years, it is not enough." The lord is suspicious, the minister is not attached, and the people do not believe it. What does it belong to me? It's all wrong. ”

Zhen Huan sighed lightly when she heard this, and stopped what she was doing: "In this case, only the fourth elder brother is the most suitable." ”

"The fourth elder brother is noble, reads and is willing to make progress, which is not much worse than the third elder brother." An Lingrong nodded slightly and said.

Since Zhen Huan returned to the palace, the fourth elder brother's jade disc has been changed to her name, and now he is the child of Aixinjue Luo and Niu Hulu, and he is no longer the child of the palace maid Li Jingui, in contrast, the third elder brother's biological mother is Han Junqi, and now she is only raised under the queen's knees.

Zhen Huan pondered for a moment and secretly made up her mind: "Then the fourth elder brother's Fujin has to choose a good one, and he has to choose someone with an outstanding family background." ”

"Has my sister seen the list of show girls submitted? Do you have a favorite? An Lingrong also had this idea.

"I took a look at it and thought that the Fucha clan and Dong E's clan were good." Zhen Huan has indeed seen the list, Xu is everyone knows that this draft is to choose Fujin for the two elder brothers, and the girls participating in the draft are all young, "It's just that Dong E's appearance is more gorgeous, Fucha's complexion is more beautiful, and the temperament is very different, one is straightforward and spicy, and the other is gentle and smooth." ”

"The fourth elder brother's temperament sister knows, but I'm afraid that she will take a fancy to the Fucha clan." An Lingrong chuckled and said, "Why don't you let him take a look for himself?" Let's not call the shots for him. ”

Zhen Huan pointed at her and scolded with a smile, then nodded and said, "It's okay, when the child is older, he always has his own ideas." She took a sip of tea slowly, and said with a sad brow, "Speaking of this, I'm worried about Yurao." Two days ago, the emperor mentioned that he wanted to change Yurao's name, I knew it was wrong as soon as I heard the tone, and immediately pushed back, Yurao also refused openly and secretly, but I saw that the emperor didn't seem to want to give up, and before leaving, he also gave her a close-fitting mandarin duck pendant. ”

"Yurao is more like Queen Chunyuan than her sister, right?" An Lingrong said very softly, but Zhen Huan heard it very clearly, the two looked at each other and smiled silently, "If that's the case, my sister can quickly plan about Yurao and Shen Beile," she lowered her voice a little more, "I'm afraid the Queen Mother won't last long, if you let Shen Beile keep filial piety for another three years, I'm afraid that there will be many long nights." ”

Zhen Huan nodded solemnly.

However, there was no clue about this family affair, but another family affair was suddenly smashed in front of Zhen Huan's eyes.

On this day, An Lingrong received news that the emperor asked his mother's family on the grounds of Guerjia Wenyuan's disrespect, Guerjia Emin had been dismissed and imprisoned, and he wanted to go to Yongshou Palace to talk to Zhen Huan about it, but Cui Jinxi said that Shen Beile and King Guojun were competing arrows in the Old Summer Palace, and the emperor invited her and Zhen Yurao to watch the game, An Lingrong could only give up and went to Xianfu Palace.

When night falls, the emperor set up a banquet peony pavilion, but the peony is not planted outside the pavilion, but the fiery red pomegranate flowers are in full bloom densely, in the shade of endless green leaves, the clusters of dazzling red flames are ignited, in the distance, the pear tree and apricot tree have fallen into full bloom, only the eyes are full of verdant green.

During the banquet, in addition to Zhen Huan and Zhen Yurao, and Ning Guiren, who the emperor specially asked Su Peisheng to invite, there were also Prince Heng Fujin and Meng Jingxian.

Zhen Huan shook the fan and swept over Meng Jingxian slowly, her eyes fell on King Guojun intentionally or unintentionally, and she only felt like a world away.

How long has it been since she saw him? Obviously, when she was in Lingyun Peak, she always pinched her fingers and counted the days to remember how many days he would see her in the future, but now, she couldn't remember how long it had been, a month? Trimester? Maybe longer.

King Guojun seems to be in a bad mood because he lost the cavalry today, drinking the imperial wine one after another, his face is already three points drunk, sitting opposite Meng Jingxian, his eyes and hands are all the gentleness and arrogance of a woman from a family, a pair of beautiful eyes look at King Guojun from time to time, and occasionally inadvertently look at Zhen Huan, and there is a deep hostility hidden in his smiling eyes.

Zhen Yurao sat opposite Shen Beile, she wore a goose pink dress today, the skirt was embroidered with magnolia flowers, the mist hair was like clouds, tied up with a row of sterling silver hair pins, and only a crystal clear jasper hairpin was placed on the simple bun, and the faint blue light swayed, like the elegance flowing between her eyebrows and eyes, which made Shen Beile stunned for a while.

After the singing and dancing, King Guojun stroked his palms with drunkenness and shouted.

The emperor walked to the banquet with a wine glass full of interest, and said with a smile: "Yunxi has grown more and more, and he is good at riding and shooting, and the old seventeen's riding and shooting were originally taught by Huang Amma, but now he has forgotten it, and he is not as good as when he was seven or eight years old." ”

Shen Baylor stood up and clasped his hands, smiling sheepishly.

"Brother Huang, I've been drinking for a long time, and I'm rusty." King Guojun raised his glass and smiled, his face was light and light, "Brother Huang, you have always been diligent and good at riding and shooting." ”

The emperor seemed to have heard some joke, and laughed loudly, and Prince Heng on the side also laughed eatingly: "The old seventeen has not yet married, if he is married, can't his hands and feet be more weak?" ”

Meng Lang said this, Prince Heng Fujin hurriedly gave him a look on the side, Zhen Huan covered it with a fan, a little unbearable, but Ning Guiren sneered indifferently, Zhen Yurao didn't understand at all, and looked dazed, only Meng Jingxian blushed slightly, and wiped the wine stain on her lips with a handkerchief to cover up.

King Guojun also laughed and threw the wine glass: "If I knew this, I wouldn't drink this wine." He stood up on the edge of the table, "Brother Huang forgives his sins, and the younger brother is a little drunk and wants to go out to dissipate the wine." ”

His body was a little unstable, and when he stood up, he shook for a moment, and the emperor subconsciously reached out to help him, but he didn't think about it, but a tasseled purse fell out of his shirt, and the emperor looked at him: "What is it?" ”

King Guojun subconsciously wanted to pick it up, but was shouted by the emperor, and Su Peisheng on the side hurriedly stepped forward to hand the purse to the emperor.

This is an old purse, the color on the top is a little faded, but there is no damage in the slightest, which shows the intention of the collector. The emperor looked at it carefully, and suddenly smiled: "Old Seventeen must have been merciful somewhere, otherwise how could there be such a thing from his daughter's family?" He looked at Meng Jingxian, "But you gave it to Old Seventeen?" ”

Meng Jingxian's face was extremely unnatural, and her good upbringing made her pull out a smile that was not too stiff: "Back to the emperor, it's not a courtier's thing." She looked at Zhen Huan with an inexplicable look in her eyes.

Zhen Huan's face turned pale inch by inch as early as the moment the purse fell out, if it weren't for the drunkenness, I am afraid that the clues would have been seen at this time. No one knows better than she what was in that purse!

That's a little image of her!

It was the Chinese New Year's Eve when she first entered the palace, braving the snow to lean on the plum garden to pray, and the small statue hanging on the plum branch with her own hands!

Zhen Huan stabilized her spirit, her expression returned to normal in an instant, and no one let anyone see the abnormality.

"Why do I feel a little familiar with this purse...... The emperor flipped through the purse, as if he remembered something, his expression became cold a little, he opened the purse, turned out the rice paper inside, and only saw a small red paper-cut statue was carefully sandwiched in the middle, intact.

It seemed that he couldn't see clearly, but when the emperor got the bright place, he looked carefully at the lamp boy and looked at it carefully, and the drunkenness faded suddenly, and his expression was completely cold.

Prince Heng stepped forward to take a closer look, revealing a meaningful smile: "This paper-cut statue seems to be Concubine Xi." ”

Zhen Huan's scalp was numb suddenly, a cool breeze blew on her back, with the damp dew of the night, penetrating into the texture along the pores, and even the internal organs were cold, she gritted her back molars to hold back trembling and trembling, and in the blink of an eye, she and Ning Guiren's eyes met unexpectedly. With a sneer on her lips, Zhen Huan said slowly: "There are no unnecessary things, the concubines have experienced too much in the past year. It's just a small statue, how can you identify it as a concubine? ”

Ning Guiren immediately said: "This small statue does look a little like Concubine Xi, but doesn't the emperor think it looks like the third lady?" Concubine Xi was calm and gentle, but the eyebrows of the woman on the small statue were both happy and disgusted, and the more the concubine looked at it, the more she felt like the third lady. She looked at the emperor's face and said slowly, "In another month, it will be Qixi Festival, should the emperor also complete a good story?" (End of chapter)