Return to the rumor

Chunyou 12 years, spring.

The Hanlin Academy is located in a secluded corner on the east side of the inner city of the Imperial Palace, adhering to the etiquette rules of "Wen Dong Wu West".

There are two people sitting at the head of the two sides of the hall, and they all drink tea calmly and calmly.Until they heard the rustling outside the house, Fang stood up one by one, cupped his hands and bowed: "I have seen Lord Lian."

I saw that the visitor had a white face and a slight beard, and his short and thin figure couldn't hold up the wide blue official robe, so the two white pheasants embroidered on his chest collapsed into a ball like sick and wilted.However, in response to the saying that people should not be judged by their appearance, Lian Kuangda was originally just a calligraphy and painting vendor in the imperial capital. At that time, Emperor Kang Le ordered the compilation of historical books, classics and local chronicles.So one day the academician of the Hanlin Academy rode horses through the streets and stopped for a long time in front of Lian Kuangda's calligraphy and painting booth, which made him step from a commoner scholar to the imperial court, and then he was promoted to a doctor in the official department.

Lian Kuangda took a close look at the two of them, and asked, "Why are you the only two? What about Tanhualang, who was hand-picked by His Majesty to re-record at the Qionglin Banquet last night?"

Among them, the thin young man clasped his hands and replied: "My lord, Lord Tang asked me to ask you for leave. I'm afraid I won't be able to come to introduce the six new official schools today."

Even in this year's Chunwei Yijia, it is not like Shen Yi, the number one scholar who was born in an official, and the Zanying family, nor is it like Tangci, who was famous in the capital three years ago, with ups and downs in the early days of his official career, which is shocking.Lian Kuangda, who was in charge of the introduction of officials in charge of the opening section of the Qing Dynasty Officials Division, remembered his name, Lu He, in an instant.

"Why is that?" Lian Kuangda was greatly puzzled, and Shen Yi at the side cast the same puzzled look at Lu He.

Lu He smiled lightly and said, "After the banquet last night, Master Tang and I said goodbye at the Meridian Gate. Before leaving, I heard that he asked his servants to turn off the lights and go back in the dark. It happened to be the beginning of spring, and the supervisors in the city were digging ditches. Into the pit."

Lian Kuangda couldn't laugh or cry when he heard the words, his whole face was twisted together, and he slapped the back of his hand and said with emotion: "The master Yulou Chunyou said, 'When you return, don't put out candles and red flowers, and wait for the horseshoes to clear the moon', but he can't draw a tiger Anti-dog."

Lu He shook his head and said, "No, even adults only know one thing and don't know the other."

"Oh?" Lian Kuangda got a little interested, put his hands behind his back and looked at the young man with a slightly fair face in front of him, and said, "I would like to hear more about it."

Shen Yi had long heard from Lian Kuangda's few words that he was more interested in this Tang speech than in himself, the number one scholar.I can't help but feel unhappy, every time the arrogance of pride and self-satisfaction is only a little bit ignited, but I think of last night's banquet to flatter His Majesty and lose to Tang Ci with the title of Shuanglu, at this moment, I can only bear the impatience and listen to it.

"Lord Tang feels that the delicacies placed on the table at the dinner party are either grilled or steamed, and the ingredients are rare and expensive, but when cooking cakes, you must also pay attention to the temperature of the oven. It should not be too hot or too small. If you come all night Busy work, firewood and lamp oil are all spent. When I walked out of the Meridian Gate, I saw that it was only three o'clock in the morning, and the lights of thousands of houses in the outer city were almost extinguished, so I ordered my servants to blow out the candles. It was possible to return safely by taking advantage of the clear moonlight. On Suzaku Street, it was planted in an unguarded mud pot. This morning, the servants rushed to tell me about it, and Lord Wang Lian agreed to the fake thing today." Lu He unhurriedly explained the matter The reason is that his facial features are already upright, standing in front of the threshold, when the warm spring light shines outside, he casts a slanting shadow of the same ease on the ground.

Seemingly surprised by this answer, Lian Kuangda frowned and pondered for a while before slowly saying: "I think back then when I was living on the street and had a lot of money, I was always grateful when I traded oil cakes, steamed buns, steamed buns or a bowl of plain noodles for calligraphy and paintings. Even if you fall on the ground, you are reluctant to discard it. Now that you have enough food and clothing, you should calm down and think about the common people's society. Be prepared for danger in times of peace. It's hard for him to realize this at a young age. If he doesn't come today, I will find time to teach him another day It's not too late. The servants in Shuntian Mansion who are eating the imperial food should take good care of them!"

Lu He and Shen Yiju bowed their heads and said yes.

At the end, Lian Kuangda shook his wide robe sleeves, lifted the hem of his clothes and stepped over the threshold: "Let's go, you follow me first."

Two feet, one big and one small, wearing black soap boots, walked up half a minute at the same time, Lu He stopped, and smiled, "Brother Shen, please."

Shen Yi was not polite, he lifted the hem of his clothes with one hand and followed in strides, but when he approached the corridor and turned around, he glanced at the apricot blossoms planted in the yard, and calmly turned his eyes to Lu He who was a few steps away, He lingered for a moment in his porcelain jade-like smooth and flawless throat.

In the outer city of Jizhou Dijing, a small house in Tianshui Lane.

The servant Yutong 2 wiped his sweat and pushed the door in. He went to the round table, picked up the teapot and poured it straight up. Because he drank so fast, the tea overflowed and soaked his face and body.

Seeing this, Tang Ci, who was half lying on the bed holding a scroll and reading, shook his head and sighed: "It's not elegant, it's not elegant."

The fisherman didn't respond, and after quenching his thirst, he lifted the lid of the empty pot and shook it, only to temporarily suppress the remaining three or four points of hunger and thirst.He sat down on the wooden bench and pretended to retort: ​​"That's right, it's a small one. I don't know who fell into the big mud pit last night, making himself look like a clay pottery Bodhisattva that no one worships in the ruined temple." Yes, and I'm too tired to get my newly cut clothes dirty."

He paused, then babbled again: "That's all, I kindly boiled water for you to take a bath, and wanted to ask a doctor to see if you had any injuries. You're good, it's useless to throw the doctor out. That’s dozens of dollars for outpatient visits.”

"It's just a few tens of pennies. Look at you, you still care about this little money?" Tang Ci got up from the couch, and put his feet into the white boots resting on the pedal.While walking, he tidied up his clothes, walked slowly to the side of the fisherman, pushed the oiled paper bag on the table to his eyes, and said with a smile, "I spent a lot of time negotiating with that official just now? I'm not the one who treats people harshly. Eat it. nice one."

The fisherman glanced at the oil-paper bag, swallowed his saliva, turned his face away and said angrily, "Don't be another vegetarian bun bought on credit from Granny Liu's bun shop, I'm tired of eating it. You just rely on your good looks." Her appearance just pleases her old man, and she doesn't say a few good things. Every time, her wicked daughter-in-law watches and scolds her, watching ten meat buns turn into five meat buns, and then five vegetarian ones. steamed stuffed bun!"

Tangci got a headache from his reading, pulled the oiled paper bag, untied the red tie and said jokingly: "It's already high in the sun, and I still have the energy to talk so much, I don't think I'm hungry. Forget it, if you don't eat, I will. It's not the meat buns you've been thinking about. The exquisite pastries provided by Shangshan Supervisor to the nobles in the palace, ordinary people only have to taste a few sips at the banquet, maybe it's better than Qinghelou's pineapple cake?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the oil-paper package that was half untied was snatched by the fisherman. He didn't behave as elegantly as Tang Ci, so his subordinates unwrapped it.

"Tsk, it's delicious!" The fisherman took a piece, stuffed it into his mouth, and praised vaguely, "Does this pastry have a name?"

Tang Ci smiled slightly: "Tiger eye socket silk candy 3."

Picking up the second piece of pastry and looking at it for a while, the fisherman muttered: "There are so many famous people in the palace, and one piece of pastry has such a fancy name. It's also because people are born with different fates. In my small village, people's names are not good. I have to get up well, and when I was born on the first day of the junior high school, I called it the first day of junior high school. My mother only said that the little baby didn’t know how to raise a big baby, and whether she could survive or not, so why did she choose those nice names. Fortunately, my parents sold me to He is a servant in Lord Shangshu's house, so I troubled him to think of a good name."

Tangci saw that as he spoke, a few tears rolled out of his round eyes, picked up the teapot and walked out: "There are many famous halls in the palace, and you have a lot to say. I'll go to heat the pot of water, and you slowly Grab something to eat, no one will grab it from you."

"You don't want to eat?" The fish boy raised his head and said in surprise, his eyes were already a little red.

Tang Ci shook his head: "I'm tired of eating."

After he stepped out of the door, he looked in the direction of Miyagi.I thought to myself, maybe the chef of the Shangshan Supervisor has also changed a batch, the tiger eye socket silk candy is not as delicious as before.

The compartment is the kitchen, because the vegetarian porridge was heated in the morning, the stove is still on, and a few logs of firewood are added to fan the fire, and the fire will flourish.

Tangci moved Zhang Muzi and sat by the side waiting for the water to boil, the fiery red flame in the stove hole was whimpering and crackling.He propped his chin, looked at it and thought of the fire light and the ocher dragon robe worn by the old man who sat on the dragon chair at the banquet last night.Three years ago, when he failed in the imperial examination, I missed the opportunity to reunite with him in the palace examination. I never thought that he would not attend this year's palace examination, and I didn't meet him until last night.

Now that I think about it, there is nothing to see.Human, but with a little white hair and a lot of wrinkles on his face.But it's abominable... very tough.

The sound of boiling water brought Tang Ci back to his thoughts. He used a branch to reduce the fire, filled the teapot with hot water, threw a few pieces of bright red and bloody lean pork ribs into the pot, sprinkled ginger slices and Scallions.

When he returned to the room, his face was as calm as before.

Seeing the fish boy carefully folded the oiled paper bag and stuffed it into his arms, Tangci wondered, "Why did you take that thing?"

The fish boy's eyes were as red as a rabbit's eyes, but at this moment he grinned and said with a naive smile: "This is a treasure from the palace! I will go to Zhenbaozhai in the afternoon to see if I can get some taels of silver. , I can use it to show off to others!"

Knowing that he had already vented the sadness of being abandoned by his family or the gratitude of being taken in when he went out, Tang Ci shook his finger at him: "You also know that this is a gift from the palace. My baby? How much risk did I take when I brought it back, and you acted so high-profile that you want to drag me into the prison of the Ministry of Criminal Justice to be boarded?"

The dark face immediately wrinkled into a ball, touched his arms for a long time, hesitantly took out the oil paper bag folded into squares, frowned and said: "Why do you think there are so many famous halls in this palace? Isn't it just a oil paper bag?" Can it also be implicated in the great crime of being boarded?"

Covering his mouth and snickering, Tangci frowned, and said, "I'm lying to you, although this oiled paper bag is made of high-quality materials, it doesn't have any stamps from the palace. It's specially prepared for the dignitaries who went to the banquet to take home. , I can’t sell it for a few dollars, and I can’t deceive others.”

The fish boy raised his eyebrows, and wanted to scold him, but when he looked at him intently, he was dazzled by the pure and beautiful expression in his eyebrows, and his hands were also slender and slender, white and delicate.Somehow, I remembered that when I was a child, my family still had some spare money to provide for my private school, what my husband said about the so-called male and female appearance, so I advised instead of scolding: "My son, my mother said that a man should be a little bit manly, strong and powerful. Too thin and thin, not only can’t find a job, but it’s not easy to marry a wife. If someone sees it, it’s likely to end up with a verdict of tuberculosis..." At this point, he was surprised that he had misspoken and hesitated After a while, he continued, "My lord, I didn't mean that you have a short-lived appearance..."

Tang Ci just waited quietly for him to rack his brains to complete the words, and waited for a long time before he heard another word popped out, and then slowly said: "Your son and I have already served in the Imperial Academy with a monthly salary of 26 shi. I am a sixth-rank official, why can’t I find a job? Besides, your son and I had a nickname more than ten years ago, called ‘Chitose’, so why did we have a short life? In the end...” Tang Ci waited for him to listen attentively and leaned closer to his head. Come on, give him a hard slap on the head, "Who told you that I'm going to marry a wife?"