Linque

It did rain that night.

In the prime minister's mansion, Yan Cang knelt and sat on a low table making tea.The water has boiled like fish eyes, and the fine water mist and smoke are curling up. The tea leaves are thrown into the pot, and the light tea fragrance from the rolling springs fills the room.

Yan Cang poured out a cup and brought it to Yan Xiang's hand.

Yan Mao was wrapped in warm fur leaning against the window, flipping through a book.

Yan Cangsi and the gaze that Yan Xiang had fixed on Chu Heng for a long time in front of the Hall of Respect and Sincerity today, thought for a moment and asked: "Master Xiang, that imperial servant Mo, do you want someone to investigate further?"

Yan Mao was still staring at the scroll in his hand, without raising his head when he heard the words, he just said briefly: "No need."

Yan Cang looked at his expression, hesitated for a moment and said: "Your Majesty has always been quiet when dealing with political affairs, and the position of serving ink before the imperial court has long been neglected, but now he has chosen someone from the Hall of Martial Heroes for no reason..."

"Because he is very special." Yan Mao interrupted him, put down the book and took a sip of tea sideways, and read slowly: "Chu Heng—"

"Chu—Heng," he said the name word by word, with a slight arc at the corner of his mouth, "this is really interesting."

Yan Cang was puzzled: "Master Xiang?"

Yan Mao stared at the white porcelain teacup in his hand, the extremely shallow smile on his lips restrained, and after a while of silence, he said softly: "Is there anything else that Chu Heng can investigate? Isn't it all obvious? He Surnamed Chu, he is a descendant of an aristocratic family, but he left home when he was young, and there is no trace of the family behind him, he studied under Lishan, and Yiye Gucheng has been hiding from the world for a long time, so he doesn't get involved in political affairs."

"Chu Heng has a very special background and circumstances. He is the son of Zhong Pinghou, which means that he will always be branded with the brand of the Zhongli Chu family, and it is impossible for him to devote himself to another family. However, Zhong The Pinghou Mansion has always treated him as the second son, Chu Heng Lishan has studied art for sixteen years, and the Zhongli Chu family has never sent anyone to ask him even a word."

Yan Mao half-closed his eyes, stared at the scrolls spread out on the table, and said slowly: "The blood of the Zhongli Chu family is not rich, and it is enough for the sons of Zhong Pinghou and Chu Hong's knees to be enshrined in office, but the Chu family But it is one of the sixteen families of Dayin who hold the iron certificate of the alchemy book. Someone must go to the Wuying Hall. Zhong Pinghou clearly knew that Chu Heng's martial arts was flawed, but he still sent him to the Wuying Hall. Don't know? With Chu Heng's situation, let alone one out of ten to go to the imperial court, it would be good if he could not be bullied in the emperor's guard camp. Zhong Pinghou didn't think about his son at all from the beginning to the end. Chu Heng is the abandoned son of the Zhongli Chu family to deal with the national law."

Yan Mao sneered, sarcasm flashed across his deep eyes, he paused and continued: "The second young master of the Chu family can neither betray the Chu family, nor will he have a heart for the Chu family. From this point of view, Chu Er If the young master wants to go up, it seems that he can only rely on and be loyal to His Majesty. An abandoned son of the Zhongli Chu family, a teacher who doesn't care about world affairs, such a person is a blank sheet of paper, and it is not too strange to be in front of the emperor. "

Yan Cang nodded, and asked again: "Then what Xiangye means is, just sit back and watch the changes?"

Yan Mao lowered his eyes and played with the white porcelain teacup in his hand. Under the candlelight, the wrinkles between his brows gradually formed a "Chuan" character, reflecting a particularly deep face with sharp outlines and tight jawline, as if he was thinking Something extremely difficult.

At noon, the porcelain cup landed on the table and made a "boom", which was particularly abrupt in the quiet room.He said indifferently: "Imperial servant Mo, who doesn't know that we need to investigate more carefully? There are too many people in Dayin Jiuzhou who want to investigate his background. As long as they have the ability, they can survive the time of Ye Jianwei, the leader of the Eastern Capital." close."

The cold light in his eyes flickered, and Yan Mao's gaze fell back to the scroll.He was leaning against the window, with an indifferent expression on his face, and he knelt on his fingers in harmony with the sound of rain falling in the pond, not knowing what he was thinking.

After a long time, Yan Cang stepped forward to refill him with tea. He accidentally glanced at the ink on the scroll, and then noticed that the scroll in Yan Xiang's hand was the same page from the beginning to the end, and the book was "Da Yin Lv". .

……

Until the next morning, the rain still did not stop.

Rainwater splashed down from the tile eaves in clusters, causing the ground to feel cool, and the entire imperial city turned cold in the rain.

Chu Heng held an umbrella and walked along the palace road towards the Hall of Jingcheng.The rain was neither fast nor slow, and fell like flying catkins, tearing a layer of mist between the sky and the earth.In the cold rain, the nine-fold palace became more and more sparse, and the roof of the palace was connected with ups and downs, and the end could not be seen at a glance.

Walking in the rain all the way to the Jingcheng Hall, the guards on duty under the corridor of the outer hall saw him coming, raised their eyes, and quietly made a gesture, meaning that His Majesty's Sacred Heart is not happy today, let him ask for blessings and serve him carefully.

Every fifth and tenth of every month, there is a grand court meeting in the Xuanzheng Hall.

Not long after Ling Ye came back from the imperial court, he was still wearing the complicated and grand emperor's court clothes. He stood alone in front of the study window. There was no one in the palace to serve him, and his brows were stained with irritability.

When Chu Heng came in, Ling Ye's frowning eyebrows were concealed for a moment, and when he saw that it was him, he quickly revealed his original emotions without covering up.

Without waiting for Chu Heng to lean over, Ling Ye waved his sleeves and said "Excuse me".Chu Heng stepped forward, and said bluntly, "Your Majesty is in a bad mood today?"

He got straight to the point, and Ling Ye also spoke bluntly, nodded and said "Yes", but obviously didn't want to worry about it, so he asked instead: "It was still early when you returned from the Hall of Respect and Sincerity yesterday, what did you do?"

Ling Ye didn't explain what happened yesterday, and Chu Heng didn't ask.He knew that when Yan Xiang came over, His Majesty's sudden outburst must have his reasons, just like those rumors deliberately spread from the imperial court.

Chu Heng said, "Sleep."

Ling Ye chuckled lightly: "Lazy?"

"That's right." Chu Heng bent his lips and said calmly, "Relaxation will make you feel better." He raised his eyes, with a smile in his eyes: "Why don't you be lazy today, Your Majesty?"

It was always the only one who advised the emperor to be diligent, and this was the first time I saw Ling Ye who suggested that the emperor was lazy like him.

Ling Ye was noncommittal, but his frowning eyebrows unknowingly relaxed.He looked at Chu Heng with a half-smile, but Chu Heng still didn't have the slightest awareness of wanton talk, and his face was calm and composed.

Maybe it's because the naturalness of his expression and words has some unique appeal. Ling Ye unconsciously thought about it, but found that the two most common words "relax" and "lazy" were so strange to him. As if strangers.

As the eldest son of the first emperor and the empress Yuan, he was established as the crown prince of the empire since he was a child. Since then, he has been diligent every day and never dared to slack off.Not to mention after he came to the throne, under the secret supervision of his mother's family, the lights in the middle of the night have long been the norm.

Everyone wanted him to be diligent and patriotic, and he did.

But the Son of Heaven is also a human being. He also eats whole grains and has emotions.The nine palaces as far as the eye can see is Ling Ye's home, but it is also a burden on his shoulders.Thousands of subjects in Kyushu, civil and military officials, everyone prayed for the emperor's sage, but no one ever asked him if he was tired or if he wanted to rest for a while.

After a long time, working day and night has become a habit unconsciously.Over the years, he has accumulated a lot of money and struggled to regain the power of the emperor from the hands of the queen mother. In the past two years, Kyushu has gradually stabilized, and he only had a few moments to breathe.But still no one mentioned it to him, and he himself forgot what it was like to "relax".

Ling Ye looked sideways at Chu Heng and remained silent for a while.Chu Heng listened to the sound of the rain falling outside the window, thought for a while and said, "Isn't Your Majesty in a bad mood? Why don't you go for a walk?"

"come over."

Ling Ye dropped two words and walked towards the Nuan Pavilion connected to the study. Chu Heng followed him and entered the inner room all the way.This is the temporary resting place for the emperor to deal with government affairs. Chu Heng has been in front of the imperial court for some time, but it is rare to see his majesty here.

It was the first time he came in with the emperor, and he saw a brand-new brocade robe with golden clouds hanging on the hanger beside the soft couch, with a crow-green lining, and dragon patterns embroidered with golden thread on the cuffs and chest, it was His Majesty's usual uniform.

Chu Heng's eyes were fixed on the clothes, and he heard His Majesty calling his name in his ears. He turned his head and saw that His Majesty had taken off the crown and replaced it with a simpler jade crown. He pointed to the clothes on the hem , with a casual and natural expression, said casually: "Come here, undress me."

His "unclothes" was exactly the same as Chu Heng's tone when he said "lazy" just now, it was taken for granted, as if it should be like this.

Chu Heng was startled, hesitated for a moment, lowered his head slightly, walked forward to avoid His Majesty's gaze, and stopped a step in front of His Majesty.

The distance between the two is so close that they can almost feel each other's breath.For some reason, Chu Heng's heartbeat became a little faster at this moment, and it was especially clear in the quiet room. The sound was like a drum beating on his chest and beside his ears.

Seeing that he hadn't moved for a long time, Xu Shi glanced at him with downcast eyes and said, "Belt."

Chu Heng seemed to have just recovered, and immediately reached out his hand in response.The belts of the emperor's court clothes are extraordinarily complicated, with brocade belts surrounding the clothes, and jade belts around them.He lowered his head and finished picking off the beautiful jade beads on both sides of the jade belt one by one, took a deep breath calmly, and finally landed his fingers on the jade clasp in the middle.

The Tuanlong clasp was crystal clear and couldn't be more moist, but Chu Heng felt that the fingertips that touched the jade clasp were very hot. The temperature on the knuckles traveled with the blood all the way, spread to the bottom of his heart, and finally burned His cheeks and even his earlobe seemed to be burning, very hot.

His way of undressing people was really not very good, his fingers seemed to be disobedient, and he stumbled a few times before undoing the tuanlong button.

Chu Heng heard His Majesty chuckle in his ear, and immediately lowered his head even deeper, his eyes were drooping deeply, and half of his face was about to turn crimson.The brocade belt of the court uniform was quite complicated. He was in a hurry and tried a few times but couldn't find the right way. His mind went blank. Finally, he took a half step forward instinctively, stretched out his hand to wrap his arms around His Majesty's waist, and wanted to wrap his arms around His Majesty's waist. The whole belt is taken off.

After this half-step was taken, the movement of the hand followed to the real point, and the two of them were stunned for a moment.

Time seems to stand still here, the Changming palace lanterns are flickering, and the wind chimes under the corridor outside the window are ringing.

After a few breaths, the two gazes coincidentally fell on the hands at the waist.

Ling Ye was the first to react, coughed and smiled slightly.Chu Heng regained consciousness belatedly, with a bang in his mind, hastily took off the entire belt, took two steps back and refused to move, lowered his head and blushed and said: "Your Majesty..."

Ling Ye said "hmm" and said with a smile: "Continue."

……

The emperor's court clothes were complicated and grand, and it took a particularly long time to change one piece of clothing.

It took only a cup of tea for Chu Heng to take off the court clothes on His Majesty, and put on the crow green brocade clothes hanging on the hanger.

The belt is still the "most difficult" when dressing. He held up the belt and dawdled for a long time, unable to think of any other way.

In the end, he had no choice but to smash the pot, and facing His Majesty's gaze, put his hands around His Majesty's waist again, and bravely tightened the belt.

After fastening the last jade pendant on the emperor's uniform, Chu Heng hurriedly took two steps back and stood beside him blushing, eyes only on the brocade carpet under his feet.

Ling Ye glanced at the clothes on his body, smiled slightly, and said slowly: "The technique is good, after the next Xuanzheng Palace court meeting, you can come over and change my clothes."

Chu Heng's cheeks were hot, and he lowered his eyes deeply when he heard the words, before he could think carefully, he replied: "There is a guard on duty outside, who is much more skilled than the minister..."

Ling Ye didn't respond, his eyes still fell on him.

There was sudden silence in the Nuan Pavilion, and Chu Heng suddenly realized that he had said the wrong thing again.He glanced up quickly, seeing that His Majesty's face hadn't shown any displeasure, he calmed down a bit, and quickly nodded, "Yes."

Ling Ye slightly raised the corners of his lips: "Let's go, go out and be lazy."

Chu Heng raised his lips when he heard the words, and responded.

The two of them had just left the Nuan Pavilion, and before they walked out of the study, they saw Ling Qi, the leader of the Son of Heaven's Shadow Guard, standing at the gate of the palace, with a serious expression on his bland face, obviously he had something to report.

Ling Ye suppressed the smile on his face, and immediately waved his hand.

The shadow head is holy, and no one is left in front of the imperial court.Out of the corner of Chu Heng's eyes, he glanced at the martial arts expert who had attained perfection beside him, saluted His Majesty with lowered eyes, and stepped back quickly.

Two eyes in the hall fell on Chu Heng at the same time.Ling Qi stared at his back as he walked out, his eyebrows moved slightly, and a trace of suspicion suddenly flashed across his face.

It wasn't until Chu Heng stepped out of the palace gate that the emperor looked away. He brushed the jade pendant hanging around his waist with his fingertips, and there was a faint smile flowing silently in his eyes.

The cold rain outside the hall had stopped, although he could not be lazy, but his mood became better.

Finally someone will remember that besides being Dayin's emperor, Ling Ye is also himself.

Just like all ordinary people in Kyushu, there are joys, sorrows, sorrows, upsets and tiredness, and there is someone who can smile in his ear and say "be lazy today".

That's enough.

--------------------

Yan Mao (mào)