After being mistaken for a fellow by Long Aotian

Rongfen leaned against the wall and sat by the window alone.

There is snow falling outside the window.Now there are no servants in the palace, so the snow has accumulated thickly in the courtyard, which looks deserted, except for a yawning old woman who comes to sweep it every few days.

As the saying goes, the tree falls and the hozen scatter.Since he was imprisoned by the emperor, the servants who were able to find a way out tried their best to leave the palace one after another, and the remaining servants also separated from the master and became passive and sabotage.Rongfen is a majestic prince, the treatment he receives now is nothing more than three simple and even cold meals a day, not to be hungry, that's all.

Actually speaking, even if he is confined in a room now, Rongfen is not unable to restrain these servants and take care of these matters.

He just...

I have no interest in these things, and I don't even have the slightest thought to take care of them.

There are several trees planted in the yard, from the first to the last, they are all peach trees.For many years in the spring of the palace, Rong Fen let himself be intoxicated in this peach forest.His best time is buried in the peach forest, as well as his most carefully cherished memories.

Rong Fen kept looking out of the window. Since he could only stay in this room, he spent a lot of time looking at the peach trees in the yard.Now he has nothing else to do but sit here and watch them.And looking at them at least reminded him of even a little bit of something that made him feel happy.

But now it is deep winter, the peach trees are all withered, only dead branches all over the yard.

An old man came in from the door, coughing.He saw that Rong Fen was still just looking out of the window, looking at him with desolate eyes.After a long time, he came to the table to serve him tea.

"How do these servants take care of the prince? It's winter, and they don't even refill a pot of hot tea..." the old man rambled, "Where is the conscience? The prince is under confinement now, It's still the prince..."

"Guan Qiu, stop talking."

Rongfen's faint voice came from the window.The old man listened to his words with compassion in his eyes.

Rongfen closed his eyes and said, "Now in this mansion, you are the only one who treats me well all the time."

"The old slave has been with the prince since he was a child. The old slave still remembers the appearance of the prince when he was a child... Even if those careless people are gone, the old slave can't..."

After Guanshi Qiu said this, he didn't know what else to say.A master and a servant were silent in the room.Outside the room, more than a dozen withered peach trees were still standing unconsciously.

It was the third day of the Lunar New Year outside the palace, and the city was filled with the sound of fireworks and firecrackers.Only in the palace, which is separated from them by a wall, is the cold and silent ice and snow day.

Not at all prosperous.

Not at all...not lively.

"My lord, don't be sad." Guanshi Qiu coughed a few more times. He was old and coughed like a bellows in his lungs.In the past, he was indifferent and ruthless in front of Zhou Xun, but now he looks at his own prince with a distressed expression like looking at his own child: "Prince, don't pay attention to those rumors outside. The prince is..."

What a good boy!He thought, he really treats the prince as his nephew.But he also knew that in his capacity, he couldn't say those words.

"That's right, didn't you bring me up when I was a child?" Rong Fen looked up at the window frame, and suddenly said softly, "I was a seven-year-old child at that time, and you meant me Servant. At that time, I knew that you are the only one who cares about me most in this world."

Qiu Guanshi was startled, and he quickly said: "My lord..."

"In the eyes of others, the only thing they can see is my elder brother." Rong Fen shook his head, "My elder brother was born a few years earlier than me, and in the eyes of those people, my elder brother is better than me in everything. Praising my brother's poems, my father can only see the geese shot down by my brother, and in the eyes of all civil and military officials, only my brother can ascend the throne."

"No matter where I stand or what I do, as soon as he appears, the eyes that were only looking at me will look at him. I am actually very jealous of him, but I also have my own way. I know he is jealous of me too - Jealousy that my mother only dotes on me. Who told him to be raised by his father when he was born to his favorite concubine who had nothing to do with him? That favorite concubine died, although he was sent back to the queen mother. But the queen mother only sees me." Rong Fen said in a low voice, "This is the only place where I can beat him. But it's not because of myself, not because of how good I am, but because, I just happened to be a little luckier than him—lucky enough to be born after the mother had the power to keep a child of her own from being taken away by others."

"It's not that I didn't try my best to fight him. When I was nine years old, we went hunting. I took the best bow and walked for a long time in the woods. I thought, I want to hunt the best beast and give it to me. Give it to my father, in this way, he will look at me more. In this way, the accompanying civil and military officials will also look at me more. They will also have more of my place in their eyes, and I will not be in their eyes. Will it be just 'Yong Hyun's younger brother' again. I was thinking like this, but I walked into the depths of the jungle. Do you know what happened after that?"

"I saw a white tiger, a white tiger that shouldn't be here. It stands to reason that the royal hunting grounds will be cleared, and all the beasts will be expelled from the country, so as not to hurt the noble son and brother. But it happened that day. Coincidentally, a military officer in charge of guarding that side was drunk and fell asleep in the woods, and the white tiger got in like this. I screamed loudly and ran away, I was too young to kill the white tiger I prayed for someone to save me, and finally I heard the sound of horseshoes. I thought, it was the emperor, the civil and military officials. I can lose face in front of them, as long as I can live. Until, I saw a An arrow shot over, it was my brother's arrow, Rong Xuan's arrow. Then the white tiger, the white tiger that I couldn't kill no matter what, fell down."

"Do you know what I was thinking at the time? I thought, maybe this is fate. I practiced martial arts for one year, and after knowing that I would hunt in the second year, I started to shoot arrows every day. I thought I must win My elder brother. I will shoot a fox first, and use its best fur to please my father. If there is no fox, I will shoot a wild goose, a deer... In short, it will make all the civil and military people Officer, everyone saw me, Rong Fen! They saw me, not Rong Xuan's younger brother!"

His fingers were clenched tightly, and his knuckles were almost turning white due to excessive force. In a trance, it almost seemed like an action of tightening the bowstring: "But I have prepared for a year of hunting, and I have thought about the opportunity, but because of A drunken military officer became a stage for Rong Xuan to perform, and an opportunity for my father to pay attention to him. He is like a ray of light. Once the light shines, all shadows are invisible. Even fate will not let it go I am better than my brother."

"But... the queen mother... also cares about the prince very much!"

"Caring?" Rong Fen suddenly smiled, "The only thing she cares about is herself. If she really cared about me, why would she refuse to fight for me before Rong Xuan came to the throne?"

"Later, I resigned to my fate. I realized that I was no match for Rong Xuan. Rong Xuan was the supreme emperor, but I was just a dandy prince. The queen mother favored me, and the emperor favored me. I know, in the eyes of others, I am extremely beautiful .I traveled around mountains and rivers, made friends with Qingliu, and went to the south of the Yangtze River a few times. After accepting the fact that I am a dandy, everything seems to be better. I have countless money, and I spent money to hire many literati When I went to the palace, I asked them to compose poems and articles for me, and I asked them to chat with me. I spent money to buy the most beautiful oiran and the most beautiful young lady in Beijing. When I talked to them, they would just open their innocent eyes and say to me: "Your Majesty, you have everything. What is there to worry about? As the ninth-five-year-old emperor, you have to deal with political affairs, and You, you only need to visit the mountains and rivers, what is there to be difficult for you'?"

Rong Fen was talking slowly, he fell into a long memory, as if he saw himself as a boy again: "Yeah, what's wrong with me, I have everything, it's just my everything, I will always be better than Rong Xuanci Wait a minute. The more I have, the harder I am. Everything reminds me all the time that I am not as good as Rong Xuan, and I will never be as good as him in this life!"

"Later, I went to Jiangzhou. When I went to Jiangzhou, I was full of depression—the Hall of Mental Cultivation needed to be repaired. I was originally in charge of this matter, but Rong Xuan said, I chose the plum blossoms that I planted all the way, which is bad luck." , not as happy as Peach Blossom. Just a few words from him can ruin my hard work for several months. He is the emperor and the elder brother, so he can always judge me from above."

"When I arrived in Jiangzhou, the local magistrate only regarded me as a high-ranking prince, the emperor's favorite younger brother, and was careful with me. I hated their flattery. I looked at the peach blossoms in the yard and felt even more resentful. I ordered them to find talented people in Jiangzhou—especially those who are superior." When Rong Fen said this, a secret smile suddenly appeared on the corner of his mouth, as if he remembered his childish prank before, "I The topic of peach blossoms, let those self-proclaimed nobles write poems to boast about these peach blossoms. Finally, I will say that the article is gorgeous after all, but the peach blossoms are gaudy and cannot be put on the stage..."

Qiu Guanshi kept listening.He quietly listened to Rong Fen's whispers, now apart from him, no one is willing to listen to his prince's half-life journey.

But he waited for a long time, and Rongfen didn't speak again.He looked at the dead tree outside the window, as if he saw the rain of flowers in the past, so he stopped the story here.

After a long time, he heard Rongfen sigh.

The breath was very long and light, but it seemed to have passed a lifetime.Rong Fen stretched out his fingers to catch a snowflake, and he said softly: "I didn't know that there would be someone like me at that time... feeling depressed. I took off the flower paper, originally I wanted to read it again, and then satirized it ——The so-called talented man is just a person who sings praises. But the poem on that piece of paper... I never thought that person would be so similar to me. We are also unhappy and depressed, but he is different from me However, I always believe that one day I will be able to leave here.”

Rongfen was quiet, and said again: "I never thought at that time... I would fall in love with peach blossoms, which I hate the most, because of a poem."