twin moon

Chapter 192, Scene 26

The warm spring sun, through the thin paper in the bedroom of the Si Nian Hall, reflected the silhouette of the window lattice on the table, which is really beautiful.Hundreds of flowers are in full bloom, butterflies are flying, and occasionally a few bees gathering honey are lost in the sunlight, knocking against the window with a soft sound, and then fly away quickly.

Right now, Ning Yue is sitting in front of the desk, playing with an exquisite nine-tailed phoenix hairpin in her hand.This hairpin was made by skilled craftsmen in the city of Yu, and it took several months to complete the carving.Its body is three inches and seven minutes long, and the three sycamore leaves on the head of the hairpin are made of gold, and then embedded with several pieces of emeralds.On the leaf stands a golden phoenix with fluttering wings, with tortoise shell claws, agate beak, red jade crown, and linlin eyes.The tail of the phoenix is ​​divided into nine branches, and the main body is made of nine strands wound with gold wire. Each strand is interlaced and covered with pinnae made of gold foil. Layer upon layer, it looks like a half-open folding fan or a blooming golden flower. .

The red-gold phoenix hairpin reflected the sunlight, casting a halo in the girl's blue eyes.With a slight tremor of her hand, the nine phoenix tails trembled, as if they were about to fly away in an instant.

However, Ning Yue didn't insert the hairpin towards her head that was in a bun, but pinched it tightly with three fingers, and carved a white light mark on the yellow rosewood case.

There is still a short stroke, and these dark marks can form a complete orthographic character.Since entering the palace, the girl has almost filled the table with engravings.Now, there are only three short months left before Gao Li's wedding day.As that day got closer, the girl only felt that her mood became more and more restless with the sunrise and sunset every day.

A month ago, the long-awaited Brother Mu finally returned to the Hall of Si Nian, but he did not bring her any reply from Jiang Yan.Ning Yue was worried if the letterhead was lost on the road, so she hurriedly wrote a second letter and sealed it with wax.However, it was more than a month later, but Brother Mu never appeared again.

The anxious red-haired girl couldn't help but start to worry about whether the matter of her sending the letter had been exposed, or if Brother Mou had encountered an accident on the way to deliver the letter, so she didn't dare to have any extravagant hopes for the delivery of the letter, and decided not to wait for her companion Come to rescue, but rely on your own strength to escape from the Palace of Si Nian, escape from Yongyang Palace, and escape from Yujing City.

The day of fleeing is fixed today.

This year, the flowering period of azaleas in the city was half a month later than in previous years, so until today, the custom of "fighting flowers" that has lasted for hundreds of years has just officially started.

People in the Dasheng Dynasty loved flowers, from the high-ranking officials and dignitaries to the heads of the common people, all took pleasure in admiring flowers and plants.Among them, the Rhododendron in Changzhou is the most popular.Whenever the rhododendrons bloom, florists from all over the country will send their carefully planted flower plants to the capital for evaluation by the visiting flower lovers.There are thousands of these flowers, so that there is no suitable place in the city to put them, so there is an annual flower fair held by Longshoudu in the upper reaches of Yushui outside the city.

During this period, the emperor would take his harem family and go out to enjoy the flowers together with the princes and ministers. He would linger among the tens of thousands of flower plants for several days, and judged from the three aspects of color, posture and rhyme, and selected the leader of the year.

Rhododendrons are known for their beautiful colors, upright postures, and elegant rhymes, but they have little fragrance.Even so, it is enough to make all living beings flock to it.After Baijiang Linran quelled the Shuodi Rebellion, he specially wrote a poem for the re-convened "Douhua" Grand Prize, saying that it can be ordered: "Peaches and plums have no color, but hibiscus is hard to be a flower."

It is also because of this that even Gao Li, who is a foreign race, can hardly stay out of the matter. It has become an annual habit to accompany the emperor out of the palace to enjoy flowers during the flower fight.Over time, he also fell in love with this kind of plants that only people on land can play with, and even ordered people to plant a lot in front of his house.

Although the current Baijiang clan has declined so much, before the stupid emperor Bai Jiangxing officially announced the Zen throne, he was still just Gao Aiqing in the other party's mouth.And during the few days when he accompanied Bai Jiangxing out of the palace to enjoy the flowers, he needed to worry about the ceremonies, guards, meals and daily life.

Gao Li knew in his heart that there were quite a few people in Yujing City who were eyeing the power he had so hard to hold in his hands.For some reason, protecting this stupid emperor right now is also protecting himself.After all, no one wants to create another side when their plan is about to be completed, causing unwarranted right and wrong and accusations.

For this reason, he even dispatched nearly half of the guards in the palace.Even where Ning Yue lives, now only Qi Dianwei, who is on patrol at night, is left for several teams outside the gate of the hall.

After finally looking forward to the nightfall, Ning Yue, who had kept herself in the room all day, finally opened the door and walked out.The cold moonlight sprinkled on the ground, covering everything with a faint layer of blue.

The girl took a deep breath, as if she hadn't breathed so freely for a long time.At this moment, she felt both bursts of tension and a sense of relief.This stubborn red-haired girl has already made plans. If the escape fails, she will bite her tongue and commit suicide on the wedding day.

From Ning Yue's residence to the front of the hall, one has to pass through a long corridor.Apart from the garden, dining room and workshop on both sides of the corridor, there is a row of wing rooms and ear rooms for the servants to rest.

In order to prevent the girl from escaping, Gao Li specially inlaid two pieces of wrought iron on the soles of her shoes.Even several copper bells were sewn to death on all her clothes.However, Ning Yue couldn't help it.She secretly removed her shoes and socks inside the house, wrapped the copper bell tightly with a small handkerchief, and held it tightly in her palm.

In order to save lamp oil, the servants went to bed early soon after nightfall.Through the door of the wing room, the girl could hear the even snoring and the night chat of three or two people.

Ning Yue's bare feet stepped on the wooden floor of the corridor, making a slight creaking sound.But she walked very fast, because she had already tried it the night before, and such a level of noise was absolutely impossible to attract the attention of the people in the house.

However, just as she was about to pass through the last wing room, she suddenly heard a loud laugh in the room, which made her tremble violently, and the copper bell she was holding in her hand fell out, swinging in the air and ringing softly.

The girl hurriedly grabbed the copper bell back in her hand, not even daring to breathe out.When he turned his head to look, he didn't see the servant rushing out of the door to stop him, but heard a crisp slap.

"Ouch, what did you hit me for?"

A person in the room was obviously awakened from sleep, muttering indistinctly.The girl could tell that it was a eunuch who was specially transferred from the imperial dining court by Gao Li, who was dedicated to trying to figure out her own taste, and she was not very polite on weekdays.

The other person obviously woke up early, and he was still angry and cursed: "You pig, you are greedy every day even in your sleep! What good food did you eat just now with that loud laugh? It scared me Gotta wake up."

"I'm dreaming about stealing the half roast goose left over from the day in the back kitchen. The goose legs are really delicious—"

"Damn it, I'm so hungry after what you said. Is that roast goose still there? Why don't we go get some for the teeth-beating festival."

"I want it, I want it, that's exactly what I want!"

The two chattered and chatted, then opened the door and walked out, looked around the deep corridor, and went straight to the dining room.

Ning Yue, who was hiding behind the beams and pillars of the corridor, poked her head out again.Her palms and back were already covered in cold sweat when she was almost spotted. She wanted to move forward, but her legs were trembling uncontrollably and she couldn't take a step.

"Calm down, stay calm. If you can't escape from here tonight, you will marry that Gao Li, and you will never be free!"

The red-haired girl comforted herself silently in her heart, then turned around and ran towards the gate of the palace.Although the Hall of Missing Years is not very big, the road is long and seemingly endless.Finally, in the dim light, a smell of new lacquer gradually entered Ning Yue's nose. It was the palace door that was newly painted with vermilion lacquer not long ago.

The keys to the main gates of all the halls in the palace were not released until midnight.Before that, there was no heavy wooden bar on the unlocked temple door, nor any obstacle between the girl and the world outside the door.The moment she pushed open the palace door, Ning Yue couldn't believe that she had reached this step so smoothly.

Before that, she was brought into the palace blindfolded, so she didn't know how big Yongyang Palace was.Now, when I saw with my own eyes the great hall standing outside the gate under the night, the scattered pavilions, the towering pavilions, and the square named Panlongyuan that could accommodate thousands of people, I was deeply moved. Apart from being shocked, he also felt a deep sense of powerlessness.

As far as the eyes can see, it is several times larger than the Palace of King Ye that the girl has seen.She never imagined that without the help of any spells, people on land could still build these majestic buildings before her eyes, which were comparable to Cangliu City.And she finally realized that she had thought about running away too simply, and now it seemed that she would never be able to escape from this maze-like forbidden city with her own strength.

Gradually, a string of orange-red flames appeared in front of the Changhua Palace in the distance, and then moved towards Ning Yue at a speed discernible to the naked eye.It was a team holding lanterns.The girl hastily closed the door of the palace, peeking out from the crack of the door secretly, planning to wait for the other party to pass by before making any plans.

However, that was not Qi Dianwei who was on watch at night.

As the team got closer, Ning Yue saw it more and more clearly.Among them, in addition to the Xiaoqiwei in gold and silver armor, there is also Zhijinwu in gold armor.Behind them, followed a large cart pulled by two tall horses. The cart was full of rhododendron trees, and it seemed to be full of agate clams, almost pouring down.

This team of soldiers obviously came from outside the palace.Ning Yue secretly had a bad feeling in her heart, and began to worry about whether that stupid emperor Bai Jiangxing didn't want to continue enjoying the flowers and returned to the palace early.

It wasn't until she saw the face of the proud man walking in the line that she realized that he was heading towards the Hall of Si Nian.Perhaps Gao Li felt that the blooming rhododendrons would help him get closer to the priest's daughter, so he picked more than ten of the most blooming rhododendrons from the flower collection outside the palace overnight, and brought them back to the palace in person.

For a moment, the girl didn't know whether she should close the door of the palace and give up the idea of ​​running away, or use the moonlight to cover her and escape directly from the Hall of Missing Years, waiting for Gao Li and others to enter and continue looking for opportunities to leave the palace.But time waits for no one, just as she hesitated for a moment, that team has come closer, and it is impossible to leave the palace gate again.

Ning Yue clenched her lower lip, feeling annoyed, she could only close the heavy palace door in front of her with her own hands.But just when she turned around and was about to go back first to find another way, the contented laughter of the eunuch serving food came from far behind her.

The girl regretted that she hadn't been more determined and took that crucial step just now.If he had gritted his teeth and left the palace gate before, even if he was still in Yongyang Palace, even if he didn't know whether he could escape in the end, there was still a glimmer of hope.But right now, she is caught in a dilemma, and it seems that she has no other choice but to run away and be completely exposed.

At this moment, a swift shadow suddenly flashed in Ning Yue's eyes.At first she thought it was her own illusion, and rubbed her eyes vigorously in disbelief.However, when the little white pompom-like creature stood in front of her and stared at her with those little black bean-like eyes, the girl realized that all this was not an illusion——

Xue Ling, who disappeared in Moon Marsh half a year ago, has returned to her side now!I don't know what method the white fox used to find the owner hiding in the palace walls.The red-haired girl suddenly felt a heat in her heart, and most of the powerless loneliness disappeared in an instant.

Xue Ling obviously wanted to take her somewhere, and kept tugging at the corner of her master's skirt with her teeth.Ning Yue nodded, signaling the little white fox to lead the way.

Unexpectedly, on the palace wall not far from the gate of the Hall of Si Nian, there is a gap that is broken and pierced, but covered by grass.To this day, it has not been discovered, let alone filled.Although the gap wasn't too big, Ning Yue's petite figure could barely slip through it, and one person and one fox ran quietly in the night like this.

Xue Ling seemed to have a good grasp of the routes in the palace, and could always know in advance where sentry guards would pass by and where there would be gaps for changing guards.However, going around in the huge Yongyang Palace, the girl suddenly realized that the white fox was not going to take her out of the palace.As she got farther and farther away from the palace gate, she actually came to a gloomy prison that was half buried in the ground, but no one was guarding it at all, and it was hard to find at all.

In the prison, only the moonlight coming in from the transom window allows people to barely see the path under their feet.The deep black space divided by the iron grille on the side seems to be lurking a man-eating ghost, which makes people feel chills on the back and creepy.

"Xue Ling, where did you bring me here?"

Ning Yue finally couldn't bear it any longer, she bent down and wanted to hug the ball of pompom in front of her, not wanting it to lead her to continue running around.Unexpectedly, the white fox stopped suddenly, turned its head and called out "tweeting" towards her.

The girl was taken aback suddenly, her outstretched hands were hanging in the air, not knowing what Xue Ling wanted to tell her.It was too late to say it, but a pair of skinny arms suddenly stretched out from the iron bars behind her, pulled them into the darkness, and at the same time tightly covered her mouth and nose!

　The starting point is not the starting point, and the whole book is free.

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(End of this chapter)