Qingchuan History

Chapter 163 Walking Barefoot ([-])

For three full days after the interrogation in the cold palace, the Temple of Cooking Rain was completely silent.

On the fourth day, the secret decree of the Wanlan Palace was passed to the Leng Palace, and the content was very simple: Ah Ji was expelled from the palace.

The person involved was extremely surprised, and was almost stunned when he heard the order, and finally made a request: she wanted to see Gu Chunfeng.

As we all know, His Highness Chunfeng loves to play, and has been exploring every corner of Qi Palace since he can remember.

Except for forbidden places like Jizhao Pavilion, and the Leng Palace.

When she was young, she wanted to go, but her mother and concubine refused to let her go; when she was a teenager, she lost interest again——

Compared to the fun of sneaking out of the palace, what's the point of being in the cold palace?

So in the seventh year of Jinghong, on the last day of October, it rained heavily all night until early in the morning. Gu Chunfeng stepped on the withered yellow leaves on the wet road and entered the cold palace alone.

This is the first and only time.In the long years since then, she has never been here again, just like some people and time, who have been gone for years and will never see each other again.

She pushed open the dilapidated palace door that was so high, and a slightly cold, damp and rotten breath hit her face.Ah Ji was in the main hall, she didn't sit or kneel, she just stood there quietly, as if she had been standing for a long time.Seeing her come in, some smiles appeared on her frozen face:
"I got up when I was less than Mao, and I have been waiting for you."

"You can sleep well."

Gu Chunfeng showed no expression, approached, looked at the strange yet extremely familiar face of the other party, and said coldly:
"I didn't know that the person who has been with me for nine years looks like this."

Only then did Ah Xi see that her eyes were black and blue, and her appearance was haggard, as if she hadn't slept all night.

"You know it all."

"On the last day in Xiling, Brother Nine asked me to recognize the faces of some dead people. I didn't recognize them. But such an inexplicable matter, is there any reason not to ask? He didn't say it at the time, but in the past two days, it was Had to tell me."

Ah Xie's face seemed to have been numb for a long time, so that at this moment the movement between the eyebrows and eyes seemed stiff.

"Come and sit down."

She turned around and walked to the seat where Gu Xinglang sat four days ago, motioned for Chunfeng to come and sit, then suddenly frowned, leaned over and wiped the chair with her sleeve:
"It's just that no one has been sitting there for four days, and yet so much dust has fallen. After all, this cold palace is more likely to be dirty than other places."

Seeing her deftly wiping the seat with her sleeves, Gu Chunfeng became inexplicably angry, and his voice became colder: "You are the eldest lady of the Xiangfu. Although your status is not as noble as mine, you don't have to do this kind of thing for me. And Madam Jin is now My sister-in-law, you are her elder sister, and I should respect you three points."

"got used to."

Ah Ji was neither in a hurry nor annoyed, and waved lightly, "Come and sit down. I have a lot to say to you, it's not okay to stand all the time."

Before stepping into the cold palace, Gu Chunfeng's mood and thoughts were very clear.

It's hard to say at this moment.

She hesitated for a moment, and finally went over as she said; seeing that she was sitting still, Auntie sat down opposite her, looked at the empty tea table, and said regretfully:
"It's a pity, the only time you and I talked to each other, but there was no good tea."

Seeing that she finally spoke in a reciprocal manner, Chunfeng was a little uncomfortable, and felt a little relieved for no reason.But the anger still evaporated in an instant, so that her voice became colder:

"Yeah, if I had known that your status is so noble, I should have provided you with delicious food and drink all these years, and it would also save you from sending some news back to Cangwu."

Ah Xie was still calm, looking at her angry face, said slowly: "Do you remember the first time we met?"

Chunfeng froze for a moment, racked his brains to think back, and said uncertainly: "It seems that I was shooting arrows in the vestibule, and Yu Niang beside the concubine brought you in."

Ah Xie couldn't help laughing: "You are not archery, it's obviously a child's play. A soft arrow is placed on such a small and exquisite ivory bow, and the bow can't be lifted. It's just a model. Follow the example. It’s just playing around with your older brothers.”

Chunfeng's face darkened, and he said sarcastically: "You really observe carefully, you even remember the ivory bow. Presumably, from the moment you came in, all the personnel and affairs were all in your mind. It's a pity that you didn't come close to me in the first year. If you serve me, you can't follow me into Father's Palace of Turning the Waves, and the news you send back must be of little value?"

Auntie ignored her provocation, and seemed to be lost in memory: "I remember it was early April, the weather was fine, and there seemed to be more birds in the Zhuyu Temple than in other places in the palace. The big show is on stage, you are wearing a goose yellow soft satin dress, standing in the middle of the court with half-closed eyes and pretending to shoot arrows."

According to the tradition of the Qi State, the four wives must live in the four fixed palaces, but there are no rules about which wives live in which one, it all depends on the decision of the current emperor.Therefore, although Mrs. Ming was Taizu's Mrs. Yu, she lived in Zhexue Palace back then.Gu Chunfeng's mother and concubine, Mrs. Zhen of His Majesty Dingzong, lived in the Zhuyu Palace at that time.

One of the reasons for Chunfeng's good friendship with Shangguan's concubine is also because of the origin of the Temple of Cooking Rain.

Gu Chunfeng still has some impressions of this scene when Ah Xie said it.At that time, she was not yet 11 years old, so she was naturally raised by her concubine mother; but to her, Auntie at that time was just a random little maid in the palace, who was sent to cook rain palace as an errand.She couldn't even remember what she looked like back then.

"Did you just wear a mask back then?"

Ah Xi was taken aback for a moment, and seemed to be a little confused, she thought for a while and said, "I brought it."

Chunfeng sneered: "You were only 13 years old, right? Living like this every day, aren't you tired?"

"It seems that I can't choose." She replied in a calm voice, her whole body still stuck in the past, "I saw the way you held your bow, and I always felt that something was wrong, but I couldn't explain why. Later Think about it, before I was four years old in Cangwu, I should have seen many people shoot arrows. You know, everyone in Wei is good at riding and shooting."

She looked at the sycamore tree outside the open temple door, who didn't know how old it was. After a night of wind and rain, most of the yellow leaves fell, and the bare branches were even more scattered under the blue sky, as if they had been so scattered for thousands of years.

"But the memory before the age of four is really too shallow. I guess it's just some impression left in the subconscious, which makes me feel that your bow posture is awkward. Speaking of it, I'm still more like Qi Ren, I like to watch I don’t like playing with knives and guns. In 18 years, from diet to various customs, I have long been like you.”

"That's the case, but you didn't treat yourself as even half of the Qi people. I ask myself that I treat you well. Over the years, you have been asking me for various news, and even using me to get close to the Lantern Palace. There is never a moment when you feel Are you guilty?"

Thinking of all the things in the past nine years, Gu Chunfeng finally couldn't bear it anymore, and his voice raised several times:
"When I was 12 years old, you came to serve me by my side, and you began to tell me all kinds of interesting things outside the palace, so that one day, you could take advantage of my desire to sneak out of the palace and leave the palace month after month to complete your mission. Sending letters and dispatching those people, right? Later Brother Jiu came to the throne, and you urged me to bother him every three days, because you could enter the Palace of Turning the Lanterns more and get even a little bit of news, right? I met by chance, and then made friends with me, presumably, it was also the way you arranged and deliberately led?"

　Thank you Weiwei Dad for the reward~~
　　
　
(End of this chapter)