Wen Xiangyanyu

Ningshou Palace.

There are still two days before the New Year's Eve, but the New Year's atmosphere in the palace is not as good as in previous years. The emperor has not returned from the other palace, the empress has been abolished and imprisoned in the cold palace, and the Ningshou Palace is also deserted.

The news was sent from the other palace, and after listening to the report, the queen mother was very worried: "It's all right, why did the emperor catch the cold again? Why didn't he go back to the palace during the Chinese New Year, and didn't let anyone go there?"

Ling Qiyan comforted her: "It's been cold recently, your majesty may have caught a cold accidentally, the prince has already gone to another palace, your majesty didn't let grandma and others go, presumably because he was afraid of getting sick."

The queen mother was skeptical and asked him: "When will Qi Xiao come back?"

"He has been gone for two days, and he should be back today."

The queen mother sighed, feeling uneasy.

The grandfather and grandson talked for a while, and some palace people came in to pass the news, saying that the prince had returned to the palace and had already come to Ningshou Palace.

Wen Ying entered the door, Ling Qiyan saw his frosty face, rolled his eyes, and didn't say a word.

Wen Ying went up to pay his respects to the Empress Dowager. The Empress Dowager asked him anxiously, "How is your father? Can't you come back to the palace?"

"I'm sick. After drinking the medicine prescribed by the imperial doctor, I'm already feeling better. The concubine Shu and the empress Zhaoyuan are serving the emperor's illness in untidy clothes. They should be safe, but it's so cold, and I'm afraid that the condition will get worse after running back and forth. The other palace is over, he told grandma not to worry, it’s fine, and no one else needs to go over, he told them to stay in the palace to accompany grandma to celebrate the New Year with you.”

Wen Ying's voice was steady and full of soothing power, a few words calmed down the restless Queen Mother: "Is it really all right?"

"Grandma, don't worry."

The Queen Mother let out a long sigh: "It doesn't matter, let's talk about it after a while when he is better."

Coming out of Ningshou Palace, sitting in the warm sedan chair, Ling Qiyan stuck to Wen Ying's ear and asked in a low voice, "What's wrong with the emperor?"

"sick."

"that's it?"

"Ah."

Ling Qiyan curled his lips, the illness is probably serious.

Back in the East Palace, just as he sat down, another official from the Ministry of Punishment came to report the matter, but it was related to the Duke of Wei's mansion.

Shen Xingyao, the son of the Duke of Wei who disappeared two years ago, and several other sons of the noble family were found, and they sank under the canal, turning into a pile of bones.

Ling Qiyan was surprised, and found it?

According to the official report of the Ministry of Punishment, the cause was that a merchant ship traveling between the north and the south went north to return to Beijing before the Chinese New Year. On the part of the waterway that was about to reach Beijing, the ship sank in a storm. Later, people were hired to fish it out. , and also fished out a few bones that had sunk under the water and were bound with boulders.

The local government sent yamen servants and Wu Zuo to have a look, and found a jade pendant stuck in the throat of one of the corpses, with the words Weiguo Gongfu on it, and the matter became serious.

Later, when Duke Wei's mansion and several other families went to identify the corpse, it was naturally difficult to distinguish the pile of bones, but one of the dudes broke his leg when he was a child, and one leg bone was obviously different from others, and another was born with six fingers. They were all right, and five people were missing that year, and a total of five bones were recovered, so their identities were confirmed.

The son's death is not clear, those family members naturally want to investigate clearly, they reported to Shangjing Government Yamen and Criminal Department on the same day, forcing them to investigate thoroughly, since the matter is serious, and it involves the prince's ancestral family, the officials of the Criminal Department are in a hurry Report to the East Palace.

After hearing this, Wen Ying ordered with a nonchalant face: "Just check it out according to the regulations. You don't need to come and talk to Gu, just let Gu know the final result."

After the person left, Ling Qiyan asked him curiously: "Who is that, how could there be a jade pendant in his throat, and he swallowed it by himself?"

"maybe."

Perhaps it was Shen Xingyao who finally got smart before he died and swallowed the jade pendant so that people could identify him in the future, but even so, the day when the truth of those people's deaths will never be revealed.

Ling Qiyan snorted and said, "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince killed someone, but he was really not guilty at all when he was questioned by the officials of the Ministry of Punishment earlier."

"Why do you have to be modest?"

...It is true.

I'm afraid this person was born without knowing what the word guilty conscience means.

In the following days, Wen Ying was still busy, because the emperor was ill and was in another palace, and he, the crown prince, took care of all the sacrificial ceremonies during the New Year's festival. The emperor who is far away in the other palace in Dongshan.

On New Year's Eve, Wen Ying led all the emperor's brothers and King Jing to the other palace to greet the emperor, but no one was seen. Through a curtain, the emperor said a few words to them and sent them away out.

Coming out of the other palace, Prince Jing was worried: "Brother Huang is doing well, why did he suddenly get sick again..."

Wen Ying didn't answer, and walked along beside him silently.

In a blink of an eye, it is the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.

In the evening, Wen Ying came back from the family banquet in Ningshou Palace, and Ling Qiyan was waiting for him at the gate of the East Palace.

When the sedan chair landed, Wen Ying saw Ling Qiyan's shadow standing in the snow stretched by the palace lantern, Wen Ying stepped up, hugged him, and rolled his throat: "Why are you standing here? Did you have dinner?"

Ling Qiyan's finger touched his chest: "No, His Highness is not here, I am very lonely by myself."

Wen Ying's eyes darkened slightly: "The queen mother said earlier that she asked you to go to a family banquet together. Your majesty is not here. Why don't you go?"

Ling Qiyan shook her head: "I won't go if the emperor is not here and there are still a bunch of concubines and princes and princesses."

"Then why don't you have dinner?"

"I don't want to eat, poor scholar, let's go out of the palace to play, there is a lantern festival on West Street today, let's go and see it?"

His chariots and horses had already been ordered to be prepared, and he was obviously prepared, and he specially waited for Wen Ying to come back at the gate of the East Palace.

Meeting his smiling eyes, Wen Ying couldn't refuse, and led him into the car.

When we arrived at the place, it was the time when the lights were first turned on and the lights were shining brightly.

After getting out of the car, Ling Qiyan pulled Wen Ying, and excitedly went to the crowded place: "Let's go, brother will take you to see and see, you must have never been to this lantern festival."

Wen Ying let him go and walked along with the crowd.

In addition to guessing lantern riddles, there are also various performances at the Lantern Festival, such as singing and dancing, acrobatics, juggling, and thaumaturgy. The endless dragon lantern team crosses the street, and there are colorful boats decorated with lights in the city of Hanoi on one side. Parade, the slowly rotating light wheel beside the city gate in the distance is dazzling...

With loud gongs and drums and loud singing, this is the night of Shangjing.

Ling Qiyan picked up a peacock mask with gorgeous feathers from a stall on the street, and turned around to wink at Wen Ying with a smile: "Your Highness, do you think I look good?"

The pair of smiling peach blossom eyes were hidden behind the mask, which was made brighter and full of vitality by the surrounding lights. Wen Ying raised his hand and took off the mask from his face: "Stop messing around."

"You have no interest at all."

Ling Qiyan snatched the mask back from his hand, put it on again, and swaggered forward with hands behind his back.

Wen Ying put his fisted hands to his lips and coughed lowly.

Anyway, it was better for him to wear a mask than to be stared at by too many people.

After walking for half a street, Ling Qiyan finally felt hungry and his stomach was growling. Wen Ying took his hand and said, "Let's go, go eat."

They walked into the largest restaurant on West Street, went up to the third floor, and asked for a wing room.

Pushing open the window, facing the direction of the city gate, the huge lamp wheel that had stood here since the beginning of the year was more clearly visible.

Ling Qiyan crouched by the window and looked at it for a while. The lantern wheel was twenty feet high, with tens of thousands of lanterns hanging from it, turning slowly and non-stop, illuminating almost the entire Shangjing City, eclipsing the stars all over the sky.

Every year from the first day to the eighteenth day of the first lunar month, this lamp wheel is here, day and night, and it is extremely extravagant.

"I've seen this light wheel grow since I was a child, and it seems to be getting taller every year."

Ling Qiyan stretched out his hand and made a gesture to make sure he read it right: "Poor scholar, this year's lantern wheel must be twenty feet long, right?"

"It is 22 feet long and has [-] lamps. It took the Ministry of Industry two months to erect it."

Ling Qiyan was stunned, and laughed again: "Since I left the palace to open the mansion, every year on this day, I come here to watch the lanterns and drink wine, very happy."

Wen Ying looked at him: "Alone?"

"Of course not, what's the point of being alone, with Zhang Yuan and his group, but we don't drink here."

As he spoke, he stretched out his hand and pointed to the brightly lit and busiest place on the diagonally opposite street, and said with a smile: "There, we all go there to drink."

Wen Ying glanced coldly, it was Xiulan Garden, the most famous fireworks place in Beijing.

"Did His Royal Highness Yu Wang go to brothel at the age of 12?"

Hearing the coldness in Wen Ying's voice, Ling Qiyan laughed: "Why can't you go at the age of 12? As long as you have money, you can go in the place from 92 to [-]."

Wen Ying looked at him with a dangerous look in his eyes: "Is it fun?"

Ling Qiyan didn't realize it, nodded and said: "It's fun, it's fun."

After he finished speaking, he turned around, only to see that Wen Ying had ignored him, sat down at the table, poured out the wine, and was drinking by himself.

Ling Qiyan slandered secretly, and said no more.

The food and wine were all served, so he also went to sit down, picked up his chopsticks, and ate heartily.

After filling his stomach, Ling Qiyan began to drink slowly again later, poured himself a glass, and touched the glass in Wen Ying's hand lightly: "Don't be so stingy, the old vinegar is so sour, I'm here to show Lan Yuan, I didn't do anything else, just listen to music and drink."

Wen Ying turned his eyes indifferently, expressing his disbelief.

"Okay, okay, I said, I even touched those girls' little hands and kissed their little faces, nothing else."

He leaned to Wen Ying's side and hooked his sleeve: "Why are you so narrow-minded?"

Wen Ying raised his hand and touched his face: "Eat something."

It can be regarded as coaxing people...

At the end of the Xu Dynasty, fireworks began to be set off on the city tower.

Ling Qiyan was drunk and his eyes were foggy. It was rare that Wen Ying didn't stop him from drinking today. He was drunk again, leaning against the window and looking up.

The fiery trees and silver flowers fell like meteors, blooming in the most beautiful colors in the night sky, and also shining in Ling Qiyan's eyes.

Wen Ying poured the wine into his mouth, and accompanied him to watch the bright night fire outside the window.

Two quarters of an hour later, at the climax of the fireworks feast, an extremely brilliant golden flame exploded violently in the sky, turning into countless golden stars and raining down. Ling Qiyan slightly opened his eyes wide, showing surprise.

The spark fell on the light wheel beside the city gate, and the people in the city exclaimed. They saw the lanterns on the light wheel ignited one after another, and were quickly engulfed by the flames.

Ling Qiyan suddenly sat up straight, and his drunkenness disappeared.

There was chaos under the city tower. The city guards stepped forward and drove the panicked people back, trying to put out the fire, but the lamp wheel was too high and too big, and when water was poured on it, the fire was not small at all, and it burned back in the cold wind. It is more rapid and has a tendency to spread to the city tower.

Ling Qiyan turned around in astonishment: "The lamp wheel is burning..."

Wen Ying was calm and composed, without any disturbance in his expression, and was still drinking.

"Don't worry about it, close the window, don't choke."

Ling Qiyan was taken aback for a moment: "...you couldn't have set the fire on purpose, could you?"

No wonder he thought this way, Wen Ying was so calm, as if what happened outside was all in his expectation, and there was no surprise on his face.

Without waiting for Wen Ying's answer, his thoughts moved, and he suddenly understood: "In order to replace a few people, did you deliberately set off such a fire?"

"Ah."

Ling Qiyan: "..."

Once the fire is burned, someone will be held accountable. Who would have thought that the fire was actually set on purpose by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince?

Wen Ying called his guards to come in and asked him to call the city gate guard to question him.

A quarter of an hour later, the city gate guard, who was sweating profusely, crawled over and knelt down on the ground to apologize after entering the gate.

It was a good Shangyuan Festival Lantern Festival. The lantern wheel, which had never gone wrong, was suddenly burned by fireworks. It was clear that the heavens were not good, but he couldn't say it. He could only admit that it was his own dereliction of duty. Such things.

Wen Ying interrupted his chatter, and asked coldly, "What's going on outside? Are there any casualties?"

"No one was injured or injured!" the city guard hurriedly said, "Those people were indeed frightened, but they were far away from the lamp wheel and were quickly dispersed. , it will take some time."

Cheng Shou finished speaking, wiped off his sweat, and sighed inwardly that it was unlucky, who would have thought that it was such an unlucky coincidence that the crown prince came here to watch the lanterns for a private visit.

Fortunately, the vice-commander of the Jingwei Army came to inspect it before, and said that the light wheel was too big and there were too many lights. If something happened, the consequences would be disastrous. He asked him to set up roadblocks and no one was allowed to approach within ten feet. Er also said that this Shangfeng was too troublesome, and now he just feels lucky.

Ling Qiyan glanced out of the window again, and the flames had already shot up into the sky, brighter than the previous fireworks.

Sure enough, the city tower was on fire, and the soldiers went up one after another with buckets to put out the fire, but it was afraid that it would be difficult to extinguish it in a short time.

Wen Ying didn't ask any more questions, but gave some instructions and let people go down.

The corner of Ling Qiyan's mouth was smiling again: "I really didn't expect that Your Highness really has enough eyes."

Wen Ying has stood up: "Let's go, go back."

"Don't wait for the fire to be put out?"

"Maybe it won't be extinguished before dawn, let's go back."

Ling Qiyan took a look at the fire and felt that what he said was right, so let's go.

Because of the sudden fire, the Lantern Festival ended early, the West Street was under martial law, and the crowd gradually dispersed.

The city gate guard came over again, sending His Highness the crown prince off with respect, but Wen Ying ignored him, and Ling Qiyan threw out a very disgusting sentence, "Hurry up and put out the fire, it's too late to flatter you now", and went up Car with doors on.

The car drove slowly out of West Street, Ling Qiyan became drunk again, lay on Wen Ying's lap, squinted his eyes and muttered in a low voice: "Scholar, I wanted to buy a lantern before I left, but I blame you. When you come out like this, you don’t even say hello to me.”

"Want to buy lanterns?"

"Ah."

In a daze, he heard what Wen Ying said to others, but he couldn't hear clearly, and soon fell into a deep sleep.

When he woke up again, he was already on the couch in the Eastern Palace. Wen Ying was sitting beside him, wiping his face with a hot handkerchief.

Ling Qiyan was stunned, looked up, and saw the giant golden dragon lantern by the window, he was immediately happy.

He grabbed Wen Ying's hand: "Poor scholar, why are you so sincere? I said I wanted a lantern, but you just got me such a big dragon lantern. Isn't it vulgar?"

Wen Ying bullied his lower body and kissed the center of his brow: "Gold, you like it."

Ling Qiyan raised his hand to hook Wen Ying's neck, and smiled muffledly against him.