school days in ancient times

This is the first time for Ye Mian to enter the palace. Fortunately, he has already learned a lot about the etiquette of entering the palace in Guozixue. He followed the two leading eunuchs all the way without any mistakes.

The two eunuchs, one old and one young, were respectful to him. They brought him into the waiting room, and after standing there for less than a cup of tea, they ran out of a small yellow gate and told him a few words. All the etiquette of your lord's presence and prostration brought him in.

Ye Mian lowered his eyes and followed the people in, calmly bowing down one by one according to the palace etiquette.

When he came, he only wanted to see the emperor and Rongnan County King, but he didn't expect that the Queen Mother and the seventh prince were there. Ye Mian was kneeling there, in front of him was an exquisite gold-woven carpet, only to hear Emperor Kangwen speak heartily on it. After laughing twice, the queen mother hurriedly told him to get up first.

"Get up, let the Ai family see what our younger brother Duanhua looks like?"

"Quickly flatten your body." The voice of the saint also came down, with a hint of a smile, but without losing the majesty of the Tian family.

Ye Mian stood up calmly, and raised his head generously for people to look at.

"Good boy, come to me." The queen mother, who was sitting beside the saint, was smiling kindly and beckoning to him. "Come here and let Aijia take a good look."

Ye Mian walked over in a few steps, and saw the Queen Mother grabbed Ye Mian's hand and looked at it all over her eyes, then shook her head and sighed "Ouch", turned her head to look at the emperor with joy, and sighed with a smile: " In two more years, won't this be Ye Shaoqing, who was just nominated for second place that year?"

After hearing this, Emperor Kang Wen stroked his beard and laughed, looked at Ye Mian with satisfaction and nodded, looked at Concubine Jia who was on the side, and teased: "You are picky, no wonder Xia Miaozhi, you are so tight with my important person, It turned out to be good for a long time."

Concubine Jia quickly agreed with a smile, but inadvertently looked at Ye Mian with complicated eyes, and then stared at the King Rongnan who was sitting next to the Queen Mother.

Zhuang Jue was turning his head to the side to give orders to the little eunuch behind him, and after a while the little eunuch took a pen and paper and came in.

Emperor Kangwen laughed loudly and said: "It's rare that Zhenglan will ask me for credit and reward. Today I want to see how you, little master, are doing. If you are not good, I will punish you."

Zhuang Jue smiled, got up and took Ye Mian's hand out of the queen mother's hand, and led him to a low red sandalwood carved table, where two young eunuchs were busy spreading paper and pens on the table.

Ye Mian was still quite nervous, so he secretly gave Zhuang Jue a look, and said in a low voice, "If I'm dragged out and beheaded later, I'll be a ghost standing in front of your bed day and night."

Zhuang Jue ignored him, just poured some water into the inkstone with his own hands, rubbed it a few times to test the thickness, then turned around and sat back to talk to the saint and the queen mother.

Ye Mian on one side resignedly picked up the pen, and carefully wrote his most familiar Mencius on the paper stroke by stroke, but before the paper was filled, the Seventh Prince walked over and stood behind him at some point .

Ye Mian, who was concentrating on writing and unprepared, was startled by the breathing on his neck, and a ball of ink rubbed on the paper.

Ye Mian: "..."

The Seventh Prince said "Yeah", and quickly reached out to help him change the paper. The two of them looked up together, and they were slightly relieved when they saw that the people above were talking and didn't pay attention to this side.

Ye Mian quickly picked up his pen and wrote again, the Seventh Prince blushed slightly, and whispered, "I'm sorry."

Ye Mian glanced at him, and whispered back: "No problem, I'll just rewrite it."

Ye Mian concentrated on writing for a while, and the Seventh Prince didn't leave, but suddenly said in a low voice: "If you become my accompanying reader in the future, I can also teach you how to write."

Ye Mian tilted his head to look at him.

"It's just that I can't write better than my cousin." The Seventh Prince bit his lips slightly, and said distressedly: "Okay, I will practice with the master a little more."

Ye Mian was stunned that Concubine Jia's domineering temperament actually raised such an honest young son.

The Seventh Prince watched him write for a while and then asked him in a very low voice: "You practice calligraphy with my cousin, does he always bully you?"

"what?"

"He always bullies me too," the Seventh Prince sighed, "Even my fifth elder brother can't do anything about him, and my father and grandmother are partial to him."

Ye Mian also sighed in his heart, my brother can't do anything about him.

Ye Mian wrote a piece of paper here, and handed it over to the little eunuch waiting on the side.

I saw the saint was talking and laughing with the noble concubine with his head tilted, "The two of them hit it off, and I don't see Xiao Qi looking for someone to talk to on weekdays."

Concubine Jia was rubbing the veil in her hand, looking at Ye Mian with a hesitant expression on her face.

The queen mother raised her hand and summoned the seventh prince to sit beside her, stroking the hair on the temples of the seventh prince lovingly, "I like brother Mian? Grandmother will call him into the palace more often, okay?"

The Seventh Prince blushed and nodded with joy in his eyes.

Concubine Jia turned sideways and showed Ye Mian's writing to the saint, pointed at two places, and said with a smile: "I think it's better than before."

The sage looked at it and said with a smile: "I have benefited a lot, so I won't be punished." After speaking, he glanced at the little eunuch who was standing on the side waiting for his life, and the little eunuch walked quickly to Ye Mian with his head down. In front of him, he handed over the black lacquer carved brocade box that he had held in his hand for a long time.

Ye Mian hurriedly knelt down to thank Yushang, wondering in his heart, is this a pass?I thought I would make a few comments, but this seems like a formality.

Concubine Jia also spoke a few words to the maid behind her with a smile, and after a while the maid came back, holding a beautiful purse in her hand, and leaned over to hand it to Ye Mian.

Ye Mian thanks again.

Concubine Jia lowered her head and thought for a while, and when she was about to open her mouth to say something to the saint, Zhuang Jue over there spoke first.

"Uncle Huang, my mother sent a letter from Princess Jinling's Mansion. The evidence that the Huaixi Jiedu envoy colluded with Dongyi to set up a salt pond to sell private salt has been found. Several witnesses heard that they have also arrived at Dali Temple."

Emperor Kangwen's expression turned serious, "Oh? Where is the letter, please show it to me quickly."

Xia Neijian beside Zhuang Jue quickly presented the letter respectfully. Emperor Kang Wen carefully read the letter for a while, then frowned and said: "Go to Dali Temple and call Ye Shaoqing into the palace to discuss matters."

Concubine Jia on one side smiled and said: "There is evidence, there are people, why is the saint in such a hurry, and don't think about what day it is today?"

Emperor Kangwen was taken aback.

Concubine Jia pursed her lips and said cheerfully: "Today is the seventh day of July, Ye Shaoqing has only been married for a few years, and he is busy with black and white on weekdays, so he can't take a break this day and go out for a walk with Madam?"

However, Emperor Kangwen waved his hand and said disapprovingly: "This statement is inappropriate. When a man becomes an official, he should put state affairs first."

Concubine Jia smiled and said yes.

Ye Mian's heart trembled, his sister-in-law had been talking about it for several days, saying that his brother would ask Shangfeng for leave today, come back an hour early, and go for a walk with her in the street.

Zhuang Jue turned his head and said to the Queen Mother: "Grandmother, I haven't seen the Qixi Festival in the capital yet, but I want to go out for a walk."

The queen mother smiled and said: "Then go out and have a look, our capital Lanye must be more lively than your Jinling, but today there are more people outside, bring more guards to follow, don't be bumped by those people."

The seventh prince on the side also widened his eyes, and whispered: "I want to go too."

Zhuang Jue said: "That's it, I won't stay any longer, so I'll take Ye Mian out of the palace, and let my seventh brother accompany you for dinner tonight."

The Queen Mother laughed, "Okay, let's go."

Zhuang Jue got up and gave Ye Mian a wink, and the two of them knelt down to thank the saint, and then turned around and left the side hall.

After the two got into the carriage of King Rongnan County, Ye Mian said helplessly: "What are you doing to trick my brother, my sister-in-law will definitely let people block the gate of Bihua Pavilion to prevent him from entering."

Zhuang Jue snorted coldly: "You didn't see how he tricked me, I just drove him out of Bihua Pavilion, but he wanted to drive me out of the capital."

Ye Mian choked.

Zhuang Jue lowered his eyes and took the brocade box from Ye Mian's arms and opened it. Ye Mian was slightly taken aback, but inside was the coral bead string from that day.

Zhuang Jue pulled Ye Mian's hand over, wrapped the bead string around it, and said calmly: "Remember to tell your brother that this bead string is a gift from the emperor, and it will be a death penalty if you break it."

Ye Mian rolled his eyes, and wanted to withdraw his hand, but Zhuang Jue was holding onto his hand, Ye Mian stared: "What are you doing, playing hooligan?"

Zhuang Jue frowned and asked in doubt, "What is being a hooligan?" After thinking about it, he could understand the meaning, shaking his head and saying, "I don't want to do this, what can I do in the future?"

Ye Mian was slightly angry, "Don't think I dare not beat you!"

Seeing that he was really angry, Zhuang Jue let go of his hand resentfully, but got up from opposite him, and sat next to him.

Ye Mian was helpless, why did this person suddenly look like a big rice cake.

Zhuang Jue leaned on him idly, and suddenly said: "My mother and my father met on the Qixi Festival in Jinling."

Ye Mian turned to look at him, smelling gossip.

"My mother was a princess who was pampered and raised in Beijing back then. She had a delicate body and used a sedan chair to walk more than a hundred steps in the palace. That night, she followed my father for a few streets, and her feet were covered with blood," Zhuang Sui paused. Xia continued: "Later, the two got married, and my father would accompany my mother for a walk on the street every year during the Chinese Valentine's Day."

Ye Mian raised her eyebrows, looking very romantic.

Zhuang Jue lowered his eyes and said calmly: "Today, the emperor's grandmother said that Lanye in the capital is more lively than Jinling, but my mother doesn't think so. Then I will take you to Jinling next year. Tell me where you can see it."