Man Tang Huacai

Chapter 23
After running around for several days, Xue Bai took a good night's sleep, and the sky was bright when he woke up.

He rode the horse all day yesterday, and his body was sore, so he lay there, staring at the mortise and tenon joint beams and longitudinal beams in a daze.

The winter sun shines through the paper windows and is divided into grids.

When he first came here, he thought the time in this world was too lazy and boring, but today he enjoys this rare tranquility very much.

"Hey, are you awake?" Qing Lan walked in with a food box and muttered, "I can really sleep, I only wake up when the sun is high."

"Sleep a lot to grow taller." Xue Bai said: "In this Great Tang, if you want to be an official, you have to be tall."

"You really want to be an officer."

"Even Li Bai thinks about it, let alone Xue Bai?"

Qing Lan laughed, and when she finally put away her expression, she couldn't help laughing again.There was no resentment in the eyes before, and they looked bright.

"It's strange to say, what will happen if the lady and the others rarely mention the prince?"

Xue Bai said: "In their eyes, they may have 'betrayed' the prince in order to keep the family small, and they must feel ashamed."

"I have no regrets in my heart." Qing Lan said: "I also wish that the crown prince will be finished, but I think that if many people are involved like the abolition of the crown prince before, I will not know what I did right or wrong."

Xue Bai then thought of the Longxi veteran he saw yesterday in Bieye in the western suburbs.

I am not in a good mood to personally bring the treacherous party members to arrest a sergeant who is fighting for the country.

In his mouth, he said lightly: "Power struggles have always been like this. Except for a few people, most people are involuntary and helpless, whether you are a diligent official or a bloody soldier."

Qing Lan felt that he had a lot to say about this, so she gently put down the food box and stared at him, fearing that his desire to talk would be interrupted.

Xue Bai didn't say any more, and continued to be in a daze.

Qing Lan then asked: "So you have great ambitions, do you want to be one of the few people, such as prime minister?"

Xue Bai smiled and didn't answer her.

Qing Lan didn't like him being so mysterious. She felt that the two of them who were buried alive had the closest standpoint, so she pouted and asked, "Then can the prince really be abolished this time?"

"Not necessarily, anyway, we gave Li Linfu a job."

"Is there still a way for the prince to survive?" Although Qing Lan could say some words of pity for sentient beings, she was not completely careless and asked, "But if he is not abolished, he will kill us sooner or later, right?"

"Don't worry." Xue Bai said, "Calm down."

"Hmph, it sounds like I want to abolish the prince, what do I know as a maid?"

Qinglan no longer feels that she is the maidservant of the family anymore, so she scolded him, set the food slowly, chatted with others, and finally said: "You eat, I will collect the dishes later."

"Ah."

"You still don't get up, do you want me to help you change your clothes?"

"Don't dare."

Qing Lan laughed again, and her footsteps were a little brisk when she went out.

Xue Bai tapped his head lightly, thinking in his heart, don't provoke the little girl and affect his progress.

In fact, he also knows that this kind of thing doesn't affect progress very much nowadays, after all, it's a habit, and it's hard to change for a while.

While having lunch, they faintly heard someone arguing in the yard, and when Qing Lan came in to collect the dishes, Xue Bai asked about it.

"Er Niang doesn't allow anyone to send Liu Lang's son-in-law to the funeral." Qing Lan said in a low voice: "My aunt has to hire another person from the funeral home to help."

Xue Bai then went over to take a look.

Du Yi has never held a funeral, and her family members are unwilling to help. She is the only one in the courtyard who is busy in sackcloth and has missed the hour.

Seeing this situation, Xue Bai stepped forward and said, "I'll go with you. I can't help you much. I have someone to take care of you."

Others in the Du family were afraid that Du Jin would be angry, but he was the only one who was not.

"It doesn't have to be..."

Du Ti opened his mouth to refuse, but in the middle of the sentence, he couldn't help changing his mouth.

"Thank you."

She is indeed exhausted physically and mentally, and needs someone to support her.

~~
Finally, the funeral procession left Shengpingfang.

When Liu Ji was alive, he had a lot of friends, but when he died, he had no relatives or friends to see him off. There were only two people in the funeral procession, except for his wife, and only Xue Bai who accompanied her, who was not here to see him off.

He didn't even dare to raise the spirit card, for fear that the people in Chang'an city whom he had ruined his family would make trouble and smash the coffin.

After walking to Jing'an Square, Xue Bai saw Du Mi's feet go limp from the corner of his eyes, and hurriedly stretched out his hand to support her.

Looking at her again, seeing her pale lips and tired eyes, she asked, "You didn't sleep last night?"

"Well, I chatted with my second sister all night."

"Sit in the carriage?"

"No, let others see the joke." Du Yan walked a few steps with Xue Bai's support, and asked, "Will it delay your business if you walk with me?"

"It's good to take a look around, as long as you are familiar with Chang'an."

"We made some calculations for you last night. If you have a family background, it is the best, and it is the most direct way to become an official. If not, you will also be admitted as an official through the imperial examination. Li Linfu will be unreliable sooner or later, and you should not think about clinging to Concubine Yang all day long. You need to know Relying on mountains and mountains, relying on water and water flow. In the end, you must have your own strength to fight for the future." Du Yu said: "If you are at home at this time, it is the second sister who is talking to you."

Xue Bai said: "I just want to know about the matter of becoming an official in the Tang Dynasty, so I ask my aunt for advice."

"Auntie is really ugly. I hated people calling me 'Danny Belly' since I was a child." Du Yi rarely showed the attitude of a little girl, and then said: "There are many ways to become an official, even if the sage gives you an official position directly. On the contrary, even if you are awarded a Jinshi, you are only qualified to be an official. If you really want to be an official, you still have to plan. But, you can go further if you are awarded a Jinshi."

As she spoke, she took a look at Xue Bai and saw that he could fully understand the reason, so she continued: "There are some unwritten customs in the officialdom, and the road to promotion is the same. We have planned eight steps for you, you Do you want to hear it?"

"Appreciate further details."

"If you take the imperial examinations, there are also Jinshi and Mingjing subjects. The first step is to be a Jinshi high school, and the officials must be school books and orthographic, and then the Gyeonggi County Captain, Supervising Censor, Shiyi, Yuanwailang, Zhong Shusheren, Zhongshu Shilang. Such a step-by-step promotion, to the prime minister, no need to go through the rest of the official position, it is called Qingyun Zhengdao."

Xue Bai thought of someone when he heard the Jingji county lieutenant, and asked, "Is Yan Zhenqing, the lieutenant of Chang'an county, like this?"

"I've heard of this person." Du Yu said: "Born as a Jinshi, he served as the school secretary, Liquan county captain, and Chang'an county captain. Difficult to walk, no one knows what setbacks will be in it..."

The two chatted and walked, and the journey of more than an hour seemed not so far away.

They haven't even talked about how to take the Jinshi exam, they have already arrived at a mass grave, but it is actually a low plateau.

A hole has been dug on the plateau, which is much shallower than the hole where Xue Bai was buried alive. He couldn't help thinking that if Liu Ji didn't die, he would definitely be able to crawl out.

Seeing that no one came to deliver the funeral, the people in the mourning hall helped symbolically cover their faces and let out a few dry howls. As soon as they lowered their hands, they immediately became agile.

"Hidden!"

They buried Liu Ji three times, five times, five times, and they jumped into the carriage to finish the work and returned to Chang'an. On the huge plateau, there were only two people and two horses left in an instant, and the sky was full of snow.

Du Yi stood for a while, looked up at Xue Hua, and knew that she had finally fulfilled her responsibilities as a wife.

"Let's go."

~~
The two drove their horses and returned to the official road. Du Yu reined in the rope and said, "There is a post house six or seven miles away on the northwest road. The Wei family receives New Year's gifts there every year. I want to go Ask where they picked you up."

"I'm afraid it's too late to catch the curfew."

"I'm good at riding." Du Yan smiled, "I'm afraid you can't keep up."

Xue Bai said: "I have made great progress today."

"drive."

Du Yu had turned his horse's head and ran straight to the northwest.

Xue Bai looked a little clumsy, first he gripped the rein tightly, then lowered his body, and then began to urge the horse to speed up.

Feeling the bumps, he got used to it more and more, then ran faster and faster, and finally, gradually caught up with Du Yu.

"Don't be afraid, you are riding the most docile horse in the family!" Du Yu shouted, speeding up again.

Xue Bai also speeded up.

The cold wind was blowing in his face, and the snowflakes hit him so hard that he couldn't open his eyes... Gradually, he fell in love with the feeling of galloping like a horse.

In the end, he simply chose to fully trust the horse he stepped on, and let it run forward happily.

"Da da da da."

Finally, a post house appeared far ahead.

The two slowed down their horses, rushed to the posthouse and got off their horses, looked at each other and smiled, both seemed a little happy.

"I was the one who taught Wulang how to ride a horse. You learned it much faster than him," Du Yu said.

At this time, a middle-aged woman surrounded by left and right came out of the post house, looked carefully at this side, and walked over.

"Dare to ask my lady, but...it's really Mrs. Du, I haven't seen her for many years."

Du Yu had performed a blessing and said, "Miss Wei is in good health, and her complexion is better."

"You are this?"

"My lord is unfortunate...it's not worth mentioning."

"Hey, if my concubine guessed correctly, this is Du Wulang, right? No wonder my concubine looks familiar when I look at it from a distance. Wulang is really handsome and beautiful, with a jade and golden appearance. Neighbors have been neighbors for so many years, and there will be more in the future." It's about walking."

"Miss Wei guessed wrongly about what happened. He is not Wulang, but was rescued by two servants of the Wei family from Pingkangfang. We came this time to ask them about the specific situation at that time."

"Is there still such a stupid servant in my family? When I meet such a handsome boy, I don't know how to pick it up and send it to someone else's house." The Wei lady talked and smiled, and waved to a middle-aged man who was counting the goods in the posthouse yard. The man said coquettishly: "Erlang, ask which servant saved someone in Pingkangfang."

Wei Jiaerlang recruited the steward again to ask.

The steward remembered it as soon as he heard it, and said, "Isn't that what my two nephews, Yue Shuan and Yue Lao, carried back?"

"Where are they?"

"I went to the front to receive the New Year ceremony, and I will be back in a while."

Du Yan looked at the sky, stamped his feet anxiously, and sat down with Xue Bai in the post hall.

Said it was a while, but waited for almost half an hour before seeing a group of people driving over in a snowy day.

Wei Erlang rushed up to meet them, kindly approached his father's subordinates who had been sent back from Shuofang, and said that he had arranged board and lodging for them, but Xue Bai learned a lot.

After waiting for a while, I saw two servants in green clothes rushing to the hall to meet each other after finishing their work.

Xue Bai went up first to perform the ceremony, thanking them for saving their lives.

Du Yi had been prepared for a long time, and handed over two money bags.

She had planned to come and ask before the funeral.

"How did this happen?"

"The grace of saving my life, I made it."

Yue Shuan and Yue Lao looked at the money bag, they were startled, they really wanted to take it but they didn't dare to take it, they pushed it away several times and hurriedly put it away before talking about the day's events.

"It was said that Du Wulang lost it in Sanqu, so let's go to Sanqu, where we are still familiar."

Yue Lao added: "Xunqiang is familiar, but I have never been to Nanqu and Zhongqu."

"When we got there, everyone searched separately. Uncle asked acquaintances to inquire, and we searched west along the square wall."

"Uncle is going to listen to the music."

"In short, we walked along the square wall to the west of Pingkang. There was a big courtyard in front of it, which was connected with the square wall. There was no way, so we walked south along an alley, with a courtyard on one side and a horse farm on the other. .”

"Cuju field."

"Yes, the Cuju field." Yue Shuan said, "Before I reached the cross street, I saw a dead body lying in the snow in front of me."

"We thought it was a corpse, but it wasn't."

"Take a closer look, and there is no snorting, but the body is still hot. When you probe again, there is snorting again. We thought, isn't this Du Wulang?"

"Who would have thought otherwise?"

"..."

The two of you spoke to each other, but they explained the whole process very clearly.

After they left, Du Yi and Xue Bai looked at each other and said in a low voice, "That's Princess Changning's house."

(End of this chapter)