After that, Zhou Mubai really relented, and devoted himself to studying with Shen Taifu, who is well-versed in the past and present, and often got up early at the beginning of Maoshi, and waited in the study at three quarters.Shen Youtang followed his grandfather's chariot into the palace, practiced literature and martial arts with Xiaobai, and gradually became like brothers.The two have each other's strengths and weaknesses, and often the one who is slightly better in the quiz will lose in the riding and archery competition.

After the summer solstice, it coincided with Shen Youtang's 12th birthday. Taifu Shen loved his eldest grandson and held a small banquet at home to unlock Youtang, but Youtang was young after all, so he didn't invite other guests, only his relatives, friends and nephews gathered together.

Mubai accepted Youtang's post early, returned to Zhou Lin, prepared several congratulatory gifts under the queen's guidance, and took his fourth brother Zhou Muyi to congratulate him

Shen Youtang and his father Shen Qixuan had been waiting outside the gate for a long time, when they saw the palace's four-roofed horse-drawn carriage approaching from a distance, they hurried forward to welcome the two brothers in, and their servants led the accompanying attendants to the side room for use. Tea, Xiaotuanzi and Xiaoguozi still have to follow, Mubai waved his hands: "You two have worked hard to follow me every day, and it's rare to come out today, so you are free to go and play. You can't make any mistakes in the Taifu's house."

Shen Qixuan is the number one scholar in the past, and now he is an official of Dongge University, assisting the prince to study.At this moment, Mubai and Muyi were led into the middle hall to serve tea, Shen Youtang sat down to accompany him, Mubai told him not to make it public, just talk about friendship with ordinary friends.

When it was time to light the lamps, the little maids came in one after another with various dishes, and the table was filled with delicacies from mountains and seas.It was the first time for Xiaobai to go out to a banquet after entering the palace, and he saw everything new, but at this time, his status and upbringing had changed greatly, and his gestures unknowingly brought out a bit of royal nobility.

There are six people in Xiaobai's table, except for Mu Yi and Youtang, the other three are also Shen Youtang's cousins, most of them are about the same age, they are familiar with each other, and they are all officials' children. When the banquet was halfway through, a few people ordered a double-voiced rhyme to drink, they felt it was boring, and urged Youtang to invite the daughter of the Shen family to come out.

Shen Youtang couldn't resist, turned around the screen with a smile and went to the inner hall.Shen Yan blinked at his twin brother Shen Lan, who grinned.Zhou Muyi looked at them with curiosity when he saw it. Shen Lan patted his palm lightly with the jade bone fan in his hand, and said with a smile: "Your Highness laughed. Our two brothers haven't heard sister Xianxun playing the piano for a long time. Excuse me, play a song with her. Oh, Xianxun is our cousin's boudoir name, don't say we told you. She is Youtang's sister, she is young but already famous. Think Three years ago, she was only seven years old. She played a piece of Gullun Wangji here, and birds from far and near came to hear the sound, and flew around her one after another. One of the birds was completely white and shaped like a crescent moon. , landed next to her qin, and never left after the end of the song. Sister Xianxun also liked it very much, and fed it some grains. Sister Xianxun played another piece of Sunset Cloud Forest, and the bird spread its wings and danced to the sound of the piano beside her. The whole family watched it, and they were all amazed. At that time, our two brothers were also in this house, so we saw each other."

Mubai and Muyi were amazed, and Muyi asked: "What happened later? Did the moonlight bird live here?"

"Moonlight Bird?" Shen Lan was stunned: "His Royal Highness gave this bird a really appropriate name. The bird didn't stay, and after the song ended, it flew around Sister Xianxun a few times, chirping and cooing. A few times, and went south. My sister will always be the first bosom friend when I talk about it later.”

Not long after, Shen Youtang still turned out from the inner hall, returned to the table and smiled at Shen Lan: "We went in and said we wanted to invite my younger sister out, but my mother scolded me, saying that my younger sister has always been raised in a deep boudoir, and there is no one in the house." The five-foot boy who answers the door, how can I let my sister come out with so many guests in the outer court today. My sister said that there is no one else in this matter, it must be your brother who made trouble."

Shen Lan smiled and did not argue, Shen Yan looked disappointed, raised his hand to drink from the door cup and said: "Since that is the case, how about we make another drinking order?".

After all, Zhou Muyi was a child at heart, and he pursed his lips with a look of disappointment, but didn't say anything.

Only Zhou Mubai and Shen Youtang have been together for a long time, knowing that he has not finished his words, and just waiting for the next sentence.Sure enough, Shen Youtang had seen enough excitement before saying again: "But mother said that several distinguished guests are here today, since they have such an elegant mood, they should not be neglected..."

Before the words were finished, Shen Lan and Shen Yan had already cheered, and all the elders at the banquet looked sideways. Shen Youtang tapped the gold-painted fan in his hand on Shen Lan's arm: "You don't need to listen to Grandpa. It's not too soon. Come with me." Then he winked at Mubai and walked away.

Shen Yan and Shen Lan asked Mu Bai and Mu Yi to go first, and a group of people followed You Tang around the corridor to the back garden. Even if the elders saw it, they only thought they were young and playing around.

The Shen family has been a scholarly family for generations, and Taifu Shen has dabbled in astronomy, geography and even gossip and Zhouyi. This back house and pavilion are also very interesting.The pavilions in the garden are all built around the lake, and the flowers and trees are randomly decorated, which is very elegant.Zhou Mubai was walking and admiring, and he didn't feel a gust of wind blowing over his face, and the fragrance was blown on his face. It turned out that the lotus flowers all over the lake were already in full bloom.There is a small attic with octagonal cornices in the middle of the lake, but it is transparent and open on all sides. There are words stretched on the eyebrows of the building. Mu Bai looked at it intently.

There are people in the building, who are far away and can't see carefully.After a while, a sound of zither sounded, at first it was just like drizzle on an empty mountain, and it fell continuously, across the lake, over the sun, over the fragrance of flowers in a pool, and fell directly on Zhou Mubai's eyebrows.Qin Yu gradually became wider and farther away, but it became more and more surging, pouring down like cracking gold and breaking jade, stirring people's hearts to surge, Mu Bai couldn't help taking a step forward, staring closely at the blurred shadow in the building, just hearing it shaking his mind, suddenly Qin Yu stopped the battle, and the sound was clear, everything was quiet at first, and the blue sky was like washing.

Zhou Mubai's mind was open, and some originally vague thoughts gradually became brighter with the sound of the piano.

The sound of the zither had already fallen, and the people in the building had long since disappeared. Mu Bai was still standing stupidly. Shen Youtang thought that he was only fascinated by the sound of the zither, which was a little funny. He looked at the few people who were still in a daze with his hands behind his back, coughed, and said: "Is sister She's lyre still in my ears?" Then everyone cheered.

Shen Youtang held Zhou Mubai's hand and asked, "What do you think, Your Highness?"

"It's like a battle between countries, and a person's life, after all, the prosperity will be exhausted, and the common people in the world must be allowed to recuperate, so that everyone can get the pure land with one heart."

Shen Youtang immediately showed surprise, let go of Mubai's hand and looked at him carefully, then bowed to the ground, and said sincerely: "Your Highness has the world in mind, and Youtang admires it. My sister once told me that this song Yuji is It was done by a senior expert, and her master accidentally got it. When he passed it on to her, he asked her if she could hear it. My sister replied, the sound of a hundred thousand troops was startling, and the rainbow was flying after the rain. Now it sounds that His Highness must He is the confidant of this song."

Zhou Mubai was very happy, chatting and laughing with everyone, the front sent a little girl to invite them, everyone went back to the banquet and played around again, it was getting late before returning home having fun.

In August, sweet-scented osmanthus is fragrant, and the autumn of Ruiguo is over. Three days after the announcement of the list, it is time for the princes and princesses of the palaces to take the exams. The six arts, military affairs, and even the art of employing people are all involved.

Zhou Mubai has been studying for more than a year, and the emperor regards him as much as other princes. Although Taifu Shen is quite satisfied with this student, he fears that he will be stage fright, so he and Youtang's homework supervision has become more stringent this time around.But Su knew that the Ministry of Rites had always divided the test questions according to age, so I was a little relieved.

On the eve of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Ministry of Rites completed the examination questions as usual, sealed them with wax paint, and submitted them to the Grand Master of the Eastern Palace. On the day of the examination, except for the fifth prince Zhou Muyu who had not yet entered school, the other princes were all present in the Shangshufang in turn. Princesses Empress Zheng Xuan personally took the test.

Fortunately, the inspectors in the palace were very strict, and the princes and princesses lived up to their expectations. Zhou Lin had heard the report of the princes' homework by the grand master of the East Palace.It's just that it's not the prince who wins the crown this autumn, but the second prince Zhou Muye.

Zhou Muchen is the eldest son of Zhou Lin, born of Empress Zheng, he became the crown prince immediately after birth, he works hard every day, and has a lot of experience in the way of emperors, but he lost in riding and archery in this exam.

In the literary examination, the several princes were evenly divided, and each had their own strengths in military affairs and martial arts. Riding and archery was the last item in the examination, and several of them tried their best to compete for the honor of being the first.

The Ruiguo riding and archery competition was held in the royal paddock. The servants of the pastoral garden first released the small animals raised in the paddock. The princes rode with bows on their horses and scattered into the forest. The first to catch the prey was the winner.

There is a high platform on the east side of the paddock, and a dragon chair is placed on the white tiger blanket. Zhou Lin sits in the center, and Empress Zheng leads the concubines to watch the battle for fun.The eldest princess Zhou Muge is the only daughter of the favorite concubine Shangguan Wei. She has been a beauty since she was a child. The little princess Zhou Mudi and the prince's mother are also born of Empress Zheng. She is clever and mischievous.The two princesses have been favored by their father since they were young, and they have always grown up holding them in the palm of their hands, so they naturally developed a somewhat spoiled temperament.

On this day, the two princesses followed their mothers to the paddock, and the wet nurses and little maids stayed under the high platform.Zhou Mudi looked at the rabbits and foxes in the arena, and several elder brothers ran around on horseback chasing them, so he begged Zhou Lin to go to play, but Zhou Lin refused, so Empress Zheng hugged her and said, "Let's not talk about birds. The beast hurts people, the smoke and dust billowing in this scene, is it for you, a girl, to go? You and Sister Huang are here to cheer for the brothers."

Zhou Mudi pouts to find her sister Huang.Muge is five years older than her, with a cold temperament, only treats the only sister very well, seeing her aggrieved face, twists a few plum fragrant pine nuts on a white jade plate, carefully blows off the soft skin, and coaxes her to eat play.

Empress Zheng watched her daughter calm down, and then focused on looking into the paddock.

In the paddock, Zhou Muchen hunted a gray rabbit first, and he was riding his horse towards the high platform. Zhou Muye had just collected his bow and arrow, and when he saw it from a distance, he also hurriedly bent over and picked up the deer on the sand and galloped over from the other side.Concubine Meng Guifei, Zhou Muye's mother and concubine on stage, was not as impatient as her son, she only frowned slightly, looked at Zhou Lin, and then glanced lightly at the queen.

When everyone's attention was on the field, they suddenly heard Zhou Muge exclaimed: "Mudi!"

The author has something to say: The heroine you want, take it!

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like