Hibiscus Tent: The Prime Minister’s palm is reborn

"Once the concubines and palace maids who were guarding the mausoleum left today, the entire harem suddenly felt empty, and my heart felt empty as well," Lu Wanying held the cup in both hands, lowered her eyes and sighed, her expression seeming a little depressed.

Liang Qian said, "The food is served," then sat down and looked at her with a faint smile: "If you want to leave, tell me anytime."

Lu Wanying was stunned, raised her head, with a slight hesitation on her face, but finally shook her head.

"I'd better stay with you, otherwise, won't you be left alone?"

Then he sighed again, "My aunt fell ill and couldn't get up. I went to see her and she slept all day and all night. Even when I spoke to her when she was awake, she barely recognized me and didn't know anything when I asked her. Do you think that evil-hearted Gao Yi must have poisoned her and made her stupid?"

Liang Qian didn't even raise her eyelids, and said while washing her hands: "Didn't you ask the Imperial Medical Bureau?"

Lu Wanying said: "I asked, and the imperial physician said that it was lucky that my aunt could survive. Well, that's true, you see, cousin——

By the way, at the beginning of the year, it was said that my cousin would not live long. What disease did he have? I knew that he had been in poor health since he was a child, but how come he suddenly became incurable after being ill for so many years? "

Liang Qian wiped the water off her hands with a piece of hemp cloth: "Didn't the Empress Dowager say anything?"

Lu Wanying slowly shook her head: "Just say it's related to headaches."

Liang Qian did not comment, put down the hemp cloth and picked up the teacup in front of her.

Lu Wanying stared at the person opposite her and asked tentatively, "Cousin, you have changed a lot since my cousin passed away... You still have him in your heart, right? I dare say that compared to my uncle, you care more about my cousin."

She paused for a moment and said, "But I still want to hear it from your own mouth."

Liang Qian endured it, lowered her eyes and swallowed a mouthful of tea: "Besides asking me these questions, do you have anything else?"

Lu Wanying was stunned for a moment, holding the cup and shaking her head: "I——"

Without waiting for her to speak, Liang Qian raised her eyebrows: "Does Shang Shu Ling know that these are the things you ask me the most?"

Lu Wanying seemed to freeze for a moment, put down the cup, and smiled awkwardly.

"I'm just curious. Besides, we're the only two people in the palace who can talk to each other. I don't care about political affairs. What else can I tell you besides these?"

Liang Qian couldn't help but laugh: "Didn't you say that I look like the Empress Dowager?"

The person who was originally smiling, his bright eyes suddenly dimmed, and he slowly lowered his eyes, his mood was visibly depressed.

“…Why not?”

Liang Qian looked at her thoughtfully, then quickly looked away.

Lu Wanying raised her head again, smiling again: "But, there is one difference."

She deliberately kept the question in suspense and paused.

Liang Qian took a sip of tea and asked perfunctorily, "What's the difference?"

Lu Wanying held her chin with one hand and moved the cup with the other, smiling: "Emperor Shenwu's favorite is Consort Xue, followed by Little Consort Xue, and as for my aunt——"

She shook her head: "That's because of my grandfather, so she was made queen, but you are different. My cousin only loves you. I knew it when he knelt down to beg my aunt."

Liang Qian froze, forced a smile, picked up the teacup and drank the tea.

The air was inexplicably quiet for a while.

After a while, Lu Wanying sighed softly: "Meeting you is really a disaster for both of them."

Liang Qian lowered her eyes and her gaze darkened.

Lu Wanying stared at the man drinking tea and smiled, then added, "I didn't say that."

Liang Qian understood the situation in her heart, but had no intention of pursuing it.

At this time, a palace servant brought the meal and presented it to the table slowly.

Lu Wanying no longer dwelled on the awkward topic just now, and only looked at the dishes. However, she read them carefully from beginning to end, with a look of disappointment on her face.

I couldn't help but sigh: "Your diet as the Empress Dowager is too simple... Slaughtering and killing are prohibited during the national mourning period. Even if it is a vegetarian dish, it can't be this simple."

Her words dispelled the previous suffocating atmosphere.

Jinlan took over the conversation at the right time and laughed softly: "It was because the Queen Mother knew that the Concubine Dowager wanted to have dinner together that she ordered me to ask the Food Department to add some more. Otherwise, there wouldn't be so much normally."

Lu Wanying was surprised: "The national treasury is so empty?"

Liang Qian was helpless: "What nonsense are you talking about."

As Jinlan was laying out the dishes, she said, "I specially selected these two dishes that the concubine likes to use every day. Please try them."

Liang Qian was in no hurry to use it, so she turned around and asked the palace servant on the other side: "Is the emperor ready to use it?"

The palace maid only replied that dinner and medicine had already been taken.

Lu Wanying picked up a few things at random and started eating. She had been eating these vegetarian foods for several months and had no appetite at all.

On second thought, everything will return to normal tomorrow, and I feel a little better.

Liang Qian's mind was not on the meal. She frowned and thought for a moment, then ordered everyone to leave.

Lu Wanying held the chopsticks and looked up at Liang Qian in surprise: "Cousin, do you have anything to say to me?"

Liang Qian nodded, her expression extremely serious: "You really won't leave the palace?"

Lu Wanying put down her chopsticks, sat up straight, and shook her head, completely unlike her previous joke: "I want to stay."

Liang Qian was not surprised and looked at her directly: "Why did you stay? Are you here to find the Peony Seal or to help Shang Shu Ling monitor me?"

Lu Wanying hesitated for a moment and admitted, "Yes, both."

Liang Qian hesitated to speak, and sighed softly: "Aying, you are still young, there is no need to waste your time here. In fact, when I told you that day to let you choose to stay or leave, it was not just me who said it unilaterally. It was Gao - the late emperor. When he was still alive, we did talk about you. He said that if you want, you can marry someone else, someone you like."

Lu Wanying's eyes reddened and she lowered her head and remained silent for a long time.

Liang Qian waited quietly.

Lu Wanying slowly raised her eyes: "Liang Qian, what do you want? At first, I thought you were very similar to my aunt, and all you wanted was a high position. However, after spending some time together, you have taken such good care of and protected Yang'er. If you only want a high position, you don't have to do everything yourself.

If you say that you were nice to Axin before, it was because he was like my uncle, but what about Yang'er? Even if you did it for your cousin, don't forget Cao--"

Liang Qian shook her head and smiled, interrupting her: "Aying, you have stayed in Jinye City for too long, and have been blinded by the false image of a peaceful and prosperous society; you have been trapped in the South City Palace for too long, and have been blocked by the lewd sounds of singing and chirping."

She looked at the flickering lights nearby and said in a low voice, "Do you know how cruel the battle between the two armies is? Have you seen the so-called rivers of blood and mountains of corpses? Have you seen how the captured Qi people were hunted like livestock for fun? Have you ever tried to ask for a sip of water, and walked through one village and town after another, but they were already in ruins, with only ruins left?"

Liang Qian pursed her lips and looked back at Lu Wanying's face. "When I was a kid, I read a book and the ancients said: When lice grow on armor, thousands of people die. Bones are exposed in the wild, and no roosters crow for a thousand miles. If one out of a hundred people dies, the thought of it breaks one's heart. At that time, I didn't understand what it felt like to see these few short lines of words appear before my eyes...

When all this has happened before your eyes, look at the people in the court, they are still fighting against each other just for their own selfish desires..."