A glance at the spring breeze

Two days later, the ritual of Fengchan began.Everyone in the entourage has to go to the altar at the foot of the mountain to participate in the ceremony, but Ruan Lan is not a member of the court, and he is not on the entourage list. Manager Zhang specially found a cool and remote corner outside the crowd of worshippers, and put a grand master's chair, so that Ruan Lan Sit over.

"My lord, most of the accompanying guards came to the altar from the camp. For your safety, you can sit here during the sacrifice."

Therefore, Ruan Lan quietly sat under a tree with dense branches and took a nap when everyone held the ceremony.There were trees blocking the front, and behind him stood a row of guards who escorted the ceremony of offering sacrifices to heaven.

The red sun was scorching hot and the sun was like fire. Although it was not the hottest season of the year, the officials were all dressed in solemn official uniforms, fully dressed from head to toe.Many officials only stood for half an hour, and their clothes were already drenched with sweat.There are very few people who are in poor health and fainted by the sun.

Before the sacrifice started, Ruan Lan soaked a watermelon in a deep well at the foot of the nearby mountain. When the sacrifice was almost completed, he pulled the watermelon up from the well and asked the guard behind him to borrow a knife to split it from the top and cut it into pieces. Into several petals.

When returning the knife, Ruan Lan took one of the watermelons and said to the young guard, "Brother, do you want some watermelon?"

The little brother stared at the melon and swallowed.

"No need," he said.The rules of the palace guards are quite strict, so this answer is understandable.

So Ruan Lan sat on the teacher's chair and ate the watermelon calmly.The watermelon placed in the well is the best way to relieve the heat, but this watermelon has been soaked for a short time, and the taste is not completely cold. Fortunately, it is better than nothing.

Compared with the people standing in the distance sweating profusely under the scorching sun, he felt that he was much more relaxed.

Yin Jian and the civil and military officials just stood in the sky under the scorching sun, completing a set of tedious and grand sacrificial rituals.After that, Yin Jian and a handful of ministers boarded Songshan Mountain, preparing for the second sacrificial ceremony.

Most of the ministers who could follow Yin Jian to the altar on the top of the mountain were high-ranking officials and powerful people, including General Wei Long, and He Wei, Yin Jian's playmate since childhood and now the Minister of Officials.

When Director Zhang came to find Ruan Lan, he found that the other party was lying on his side in a chair and fell asleep, and the sunlight streaming down through the lush branches and leaves was covering his body in spots.

A few pieces of fresh watermelon rind lay next to it.

As soon as Manager Zhang approached him, Ruan Lan was awakened.He opened his eyes, glanced vaguely at the visitor, and said in a hoarse voice, "Eunuch, why are you here? Yin...Your Majesty, they are over?"

Director Zhang leaned over and replied: "My lord, the ceremony has not been completed yet, Your Majesty asked the servant to take care of you, so the servant did not follow His Majesty up the mountain."

"Oh..." Ruan Lan wanted to reach out for the melon rind on the ground, but she saw Manager Zhang picked it up quickly with his sharp eyes: "Sir, please rest, slave come. "

Ruan Lan asked again, "When will Your Majesty come back?"

Manager Zhang said solemnly: "It may take three or four hours to return to your lord. If your lord misses your majesty very much and wants your majesty to come back soon, this servant can send someone up the mountain to tell your majesty that your majesty..."

Ruan Lan quickly waved her hand: "No, no...don't bother Eunuch anymore. How about this, since His Majesty won't be back for a while, I'll be bored too, why don't Eunuch accompany me around the foot of Songshan Mountain?"

"This……"

Seeing Manager Zhang's hesitation, Ruan Lan finally added: "Just take a walk nearby, it's not far away, and I'll be back soon."

Manager Zhang finally let go.

The two walked south along the mountain road. Although the weather was hot, but fortunately, the roadside was covered with trees, which brought them a lot of coolness.

The two walked for a while, Ruan Lan suddenly said: "Elder-in-law, what sound can you hear?"

Because of the trees at the foot of the mountain, the two of them were surrounded by rapid cicadas, but through these cicadas, Ruan Lan seemed to hear a different sound in it.

Mr. Zhang is a martial arts practitioner, and his hearing is more sensitive than ordinary people.He listened sideways for a while, then nodded and said, "It looks like someone is calling for help." Then he pointed to the southeast, "It's coming from this direction."

So Ruan Lan quickened her pace and walked in the direction indicated by Manager Zhang: "There are few people in the mountains. Those who call for help must be in some serious trouble."

Passing through a grove of trees, Ruan Lan immediately saw a woman in monk's attire kneeling and begging for mercy in the distance, and standing in front of her were two royal guards.

The woman kowtowed and shouted: "My lord! My lord! I beg you, please spare me!"

One of the guards raised the knife in his hand and was slashing at her.

"Stop!" Ruan Lan yelled, but to no avail, the two guards didn't care about him, as if they didn't hear him at all.

Manager Zhang waved his hand and quickly threw a stone at the guard's knife.

The stone hit the guard's knife handle with a "thump" like a shadow chasing the wind.It was obviously just a small piece of stone picked up on the road, but it exploded with great force under Mr. Zhang's hands—the big knife in the guard's hand was shot out in an instant, and fell beside the woman in monk's robe.

This is not the first time Ruan Lan has seen Mr. Zhang use martial arts, but he is still surprised in his heart: Why are the father-in-laws beside Yin Jian so superior in martial arts, and they look better than some ordinary martial arts practitioners? Even stronger.

"Who is it?" The guard became annoyed and looked over here.

Ruan Lan and Manager Zhang hurried forward.

These two guards are the guards in the palace. They were placed beside Yin Jian several times in the past, so they had the honor to meet the eunuch who was the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs next to the emperor. One of the guards was very clever and recognized them at a glance. One of them is Manager Zhang, a celebrity in front of the emperor.

"Meet the father-in-law."

Manager Zhang nodded, without any anger or anxiety on his face, so the two guards couldn't figure out what the manager Zhang in front of him was trying to do when he missed the sabers of the two of them.

"Eunuch... Eunuch, you must save the slave family..."

As she got closer, Ruan Lan realized that the woman kneeling on the ground hadn't actually been shaved, and the hair coiled up under the monk's hat had loosened a bit.Although the face could not be seen clearly, it could be seen that the other party was not very old, about seventeen or eighteen years old.

The guard whose knife had been knocked out clasped his fists and saluted, and said, "Eunuch, this mountain forest has been sealed off for many days because of this royal sacrifice to heaven, but this woman pretends to be a Shaolin disciple and wants to enter the mountain, but is blocked After the two of us found out, not only did we not listen to the advice, but we wanted to continue to force our way in, talking nonsense. In desperation, we had no choice but to abide by the prohibition and kill her."

Those who forcibly break into the imperial blockade and do not listen to the advice will be punished according to the law.

Thinking about it this way, this guard was only acting according to the order. If she really killed the woman with a single knife, she deserved what she deserved, and the guard was not at fault.

After the guard finished speaking, the shoulders of the woman in monk's robe on the ground trembled, and her head drooped even lower.

Manager Zhang turned to Ruan Lan and said, "My lord, look... this..."

Originally, Ruan Lan had no position to take care of this matter, but when he thought that no matter how bad it was, it would be a human life, he couldn't stay out of it.Ruan Lan hurriedly asked the woman, "Girl, why did you force your way in? But what's the secret?"

Although the woman lowered her head, one could see that her lips were pale with fright, and her whole body shrank together.She replied tremblingly: "The folk girl's name is Qiao Aifen, and she has been from the capital since she was a child. This time, the folk girl came to Songshan to find her fiancé-in-law who had been away for a long time... He has been away from home for more than half a month, and he has been away since then. Did not return."

Ruan Lan wondered: "Come to Songshan to find your fiancé-in-law? Could it be that he came to Shaolin to become a monk before he left home?"

Qiao Aifen shook her head and retorted: "Impossible! Ah Shan, how could he become a monk? He is already my fiancée!"

Ah Shan...

For a moment, Ruan Lan felt a little familiar.

Qiao Aifen continued: "More than half a month ago, Ah Shan said that he would come to hire him, but when the day came, my family waited for three days and three nights but did not see him. I went to the theater troupe where he was doing odd jobs, and learned that Because of His Majesty's birthday, there is a stage set up in the palace, Ah Shan has already entered the palace with them, and he can only leave the palace at night. But the women waited and waited all night, but he didn't come back..."

Ruan Lan suddenly felt a blow to the head.

It turns out...it turns out...it's this "Ashan"...

On the night of Yin Xian's birthday, Shen Chunrong pointed out that the two of them had changed their appearance and went out of the palace with the people in the troupe. Those people called him "Ashan". Pretending to be a dumb, Yi Rongcheng's facial features slightly resembled his appearance, and then he wore a pair of exaggerated thick eyebrows and two very happy mustaches, fabricating an identity of "Dumb Ashan" so that he could easily come out. palace.

Unexpectedly, the person "Ashan" actually existed.

Seeing that Ruan Lan remained silent for a long time, Qiao Aifen became anxious, so she raised her head and looked at the person in front of her.

As soon as she saw Ruan Lan's face, she suddenly opened her eyes wide with surprise, and then the expression in her eyes dimmed again.

She murmured: "My lord...you really look like Ah Shan, but when you take a closer look, you don't look like it anymore. Ah Shan's appearance is indeed more handsome than ordinary people, but compared to adults, you are much more mediocre..."

When the two standing guards heard Qiao Aifen's words, their eyes quickly swept towards Ruan Lan's face.

Ruan Lan coughed uncomfortably when she felt several eyes suddenly appearing on her body.

Qiao Aifen continued: "Someone in the troupe who went to the palace said that Ah Shan had separated from them as soon as he left the palace, and said that Ah Shan had offended the guards guarding the gate of the palace, so he might have been arrested. I found a way to find the guards who were on duty that night, but they all said that there was no such person, and then the women reported to the capital government, but no one cared. I really had no choice... I heard that the emperor and the guards in the palace were coming to Songshan, so I Wanting to take a gamble, I came to Songshan. My lord...Master Qingtian...you must go and help the girls!"

A guard next to him said: "How dare you bet that you forced your way in. This is a matter of losing your head."'

Another guard asked them: "My lord, father-in-law, what should I do?"

Manager Zhang was silent at the side, as if waiting for him to make a decision.

To the surprise of the other three, Ruan Lan sighed, helped up the kneeling woman and said, "Miss Ai Fen, I will definitely help you find out the whereabouts of Ah Shan. Follow me."

Qiao Aifen was overjoyed immediately, and thanked again and again: "Thank you, sir! Thank you, master!"

The two guards looked at Ruan Lan and Qiao Aifen's leaving figures, and said with hesitation: "Elder-in-law... I'm afraid it's not right. If Wei Wei knows that we let outsiders in..."

Mr. Zhang answered calmly: "As long as your lord is happy, I will go to Weiwei to explain, and I will never let the two of you be wronged." After speaking, he turned around and followed Ruan Lan's footsteps.

"Thank you, Eunuch!"

"Father-in-law, walk slowly!"