A traitor

In the imperial garden, two actors come on stage with flowers and drums. One side is chasing Zhang Sheng, the other side is in love with Qiu Niang. One is affectionate, one is intentional, one is beautiful, and the other is handsome.

However, Qiuniang's father is a bad-hearted person, greedy for glory, trying to get rich, and forcefully beat the mandarin ducks, sending Qiuniang into the palace.

The babbling lyrics made people dizzy and upset. Su Qinglang picked up the cup of tea on the table, took a sip, and sighed again.

A little servant sneaked around the path, ran up to Su Qinglang, and whispered something in his ear, which made Su Qinglang chuckle and almost spit out his mouth.

The noble concubine was languid, leaning sideways on the beauty couch, she looked down at Lord Shangshu's absent-minded look, and smiled slightly: "Why, Lord Shangshu feels that my imperial garden is no better than the Emperor's Golden Palace, so I don't want to be here in this palace Listening to the music, could it be that you want to share your worries with the emperor?"

The imperial concubine's surname is Wan and her name is Yuzhen. She is over forty years old. Because of her excellent maintenance, she still looks like a girl in her 20s.

Since entering the palace, she has been favored by the emperor, and after the empress passed away, she was raised as a noble concubine, and has since become the No.1 among the beauties in the harem.

Su Qinglang said with a smile: "Where is it? It's just that Weichen watched this opera and suddenly thought of something, and felt emotional."

Wan Yuzhen sat up straight when she heard the words, raised her phoenix eyes, and let out an oh with great interest.

I also heard Su Qinglang say: "When I traveled to the south of the Yangtze River in the past, I once saw a thrush bird by the river. It was small, exquisite, and cute. It's a pity that it would not eat the good fruit on the tree, but went to peck the bird that fell in the water. The shadow of my mother, do you think it is interesting or not?"

He paused, and then said: "Actually, this person is also like this. At this time and here, he should be living in the present and looking forward to the future, but he is confused by illusions and insists on chasing after the illusion. Since he knows it is wrong, why bother?" Persistence is of no benefit to oneself or to others, it can only create disasters and increase afflictions.”

Wan Yuzhen was silent for a moment, glanced at the actors on the stage, and finally sighed: "Master Su, have you ever had a time when you missed someone and there was no future to speak of in this life?"

Su Qinglang's hands trembled, he smiled, and replied: "I only know that if you have wine today, you will be drunk today, hugging beauties, counting money, living a carefree life, what cares about the past and the future?"

Wan Yuzhen hummed softly when she heard the words, raised her hand to pick up a lychee on the table, and threw it at him: "You child, you should be sent to the border to suffer more."

Seeing the lychee coming at him, Su Qinglang didn't dodge it, instead he raised his hand to catch it, peeled it off and put it in his mouth.

With a sly smile on his face, he got up and saluted Wan Yuzhen, "Thank you, my lord, for your reward."

Wan Yuzhen scowled coquettishly, and glared at him sullenly. When she raised her eyes, she saw a group of people approaching under the willow tree not far away.

The emperor came from the Golden Luan Hall, followed by Xue Qishan, a scholar in charge of the Imperial Academy, Xu Jin, a scholar in the cabinet, and Su Qinglang's father Su Zheshan.

Because Pei Yan was very angry with his nephew, he said that his head hurts and he wanted to go home to rest. After getting the emperor's permission, he took his nephew out of the palace.

As for Jia Siqi and Mei Liusheng, since the emperor said that he would come to Yuyu Garden, he didn't tell them to go back first, so they also put on a face and followed behind resentfully.

The emperor's driver came to him, looked at Wan Yuzhen who was kneeling and saluting, and said condescendingly: "What is Aifei doing?"

Wan Yuzhen bowed her head and replied: "Go back to the emperor, my concubine knows that the emperor is busy today and dare not go to disturb him, so I called Lord Shangshu to drink tea and listen to music!"

The emperor glanced sideways at Su Qinglang, stretched out his hand to help the noble concubine up and said, "Oh, but I don't know what kind of song it is, let them sing it to me some other day."

Wan Yuzhen was at a loss for words, froze for a moment, and then replied: "It's just a country song, I think the emperor doesn't like it..."

When he raised his head, he saw that the emperor's complexion was unkind, and his seal was black, like charcoal, so he tentatively asked, "Your Majesty, I don't know the result of today's palace examination...?"

The emperor looked very sad, and sighed: "Out of the 27 tribute students, three were selected, and the title of Tanhua has already been determined. No... there are only the number one scholar and the second place, and I don't know who to choose."

Wan Yuzhen followed his gestures and looked back, only to see behind the emperor, apart from the three adults, there were also two unfamiliar faces.

One is 26 and [-] years old, one is not as good as a weak crown, one is handsome, and the other is elegant. They are both talents, but they have different demeanor.

Taking a closer look, the scholar dressed in black, with sword eyebrows and star eyes, is tall and straight like a dragon, with an expression of neither humble nor overbearing, which makes people forget it after a glance.

The other Jinyi scholar, although he was also handsome, was like a wretched little thief, always shrinking his head, so in comparison, he looked a lot shabby.

She smiled and said, "Both of you are one-in-a-million talents, and they are equally good in appearance and talent. It's really hard to choose."

The emperor put his arm around the noble concubine, but when he lowered his eyes, he saw Su Qinglang kneeling on the ground, winking at the back of him, and when he turned around, it was that Gongsheng named Mei Liusheng.

He coughed lightly, and pretended to be strange and asked: "Su Qing, you are the one who talks the most on weekdays, how can you learn how to saw a gourd today?"

Only then did Su Qinglang restrain himself, arched his hands, lowered his body, and answered vaguely: "Forgive me, Your Majesty, I have a lychee core in my mouth, so it's inconvenient to speak..."

As soon as these words came out, the faces of the two elders behind the emperor, plus Su Qinglang's father, all turned black.

In terms of the current emperor's love for Su Qinglang, no one can match it, and no one dares to compare it, except for the two His Highnesses and the Imperial Concubine.

All the civil and military officials in the court, who wanted to meet the imperial concubine or empress, even if the father of the imperial concubine or empress came, had to submit a booklet to ask the emperor for instructions.

Only Su Qinglang, who came and left whenever he wanted, took the emperor's harem as his own back garden, and was even seen sleeping on the jade couch of the imperial concubine a few times.

Thinking back to how licentious this noble concubine has been in front of the emperor since she entered the palace, and then thinking of how vile and shameless Su Qinglang's behavior is on weekdays.

So various versions of rumors came out, saying that the imperial concubine and the empress had an affair with Su Qinglang, on the surface it was the etiquette of the monarch and his ministers, but in reality it was a nepotism that could not be seen.

There are also some people who think of how beautiful Su Qinglang's face is and how slender his figure is, especially those soul-stirring fox eyes, which are a bit more charming than some empresses in the palace.

So he was not afraid of death and spread the word that Master Shang Shu could not only serve the imperial concubine on the phoenix bed, but also make the emperor happy on the dragon bed.

However, no matter how glamorous the outside rumors were, considering the majesty of the royal family, how many ministers cried and wrote a letter of direct remonstrance, requesting that the memorial of Su Qinglang's indictment floated to the emperor's dragon case like snowflakes.However, they were all muddled into the sea, and they never saw the slightest thing about Su Qinglang's treatment.

Therefore, some ministers looked very ugly. Every time they saw Su Qinglang, it was as if they saw Su Daji, who brought disaster to the country and the people, and kidnapped their former fair and wise emperor into a fatuous and unscrupulous King Zhou of Shang.

Now seeing Su Qinglang speak so nonchalantly and despise their majestic emperor with a playful smile, all of them are naturally unhappy.

Especially Su Zheshan, Yushi Zhongcheng, almost knelt down and shouted, "The sky has no eyes, let their Su family's ancestral grave smoke into black smoke, and that's why he gave birth to a bastard like Su Qinglang."

However, the emperor was not very displeased, he just let out a groan, and deliberately threatened: "You know, Su Qing, just based on what you said just now, I can kill you for crimes?"

Su Qinglang kowtowed again, and replied: "I understand."

The emperor snorted, waved his sleeves and said, "Then let's talk about it, if you don't explain it to my heart, I will punish you and never forgive me!"

Su Qinglang was very aggrieved, looked at Wan Yuzhen and curled his lips, and said: "If you go back to the emperor, it's just because the lychee was a gift from the imperial concubine, and I dare not make mistakes. If you don't finish eating it, you will not let your mother down." Your kindness is always in your mouth, but I didn't expect you, the emperor, to ask this humble minister at this time..."

The emperor laughed loudly when he heard the words, pointed at Su Qinglang and said helplessly: "You, you, this mouth is the most annoying, so it's my fault, isn't it?"

Su Qinglang hurriedly said yes, knelt down in front of the emperor, and said many good things while licking his face.

The emperor was coaxed happily by him, and he kept smiling from ear to ear. It would be good if he didn't reward him, so naturally he wouldn't question him.

However, some people couldn't help it anymore. Xu Jin, a cabinet scholar, is over seventy years old, his hair is gray, and his great-grandson is almost running around, but his temper is still the same as before.

Like brother Lu Xun, he has always been an upright and upright master. The bamboo in the back mountain has a single intestine leading to the bottom, plus he has a hot temper and a loud voice.

Standing up, he said: "Your Majesty, this Su Qinglang is clearly deceiving the emperor and making unreasonable words, he must be punished!"

The emperor hadn't spoken yet, but Su Qinglang let out an exaggerated haha. He raised his head, stopped Mr. Xu's words, and said in a strange voice: "Mr. Xu means that we must obey the emperor's will. The reward from the imperial concubine, we can dispose of it at will without gratitude?"

Xu Jin became anxious now, and hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, that's not what I mean..."

The emperor restrained his smile slightly, sighed and said, "Okay, Xu Qing, if you can speak up to him, he shouldn't be sitting in the Ministry of Rites..."

A smile bloomed on Su Qinglang's face, shining brightly, like a sunflower, just about to kowtow to thank him, but the emperor changed the subject -

"It's just that the death penalty can be avoided, but the living penalty cannot be escaped. I am worried about the imperial examination. The number one scholar and the second place candidate... the punishment is up to you."