Phoenix Fight: The First Concubine

Chapter 109 Fire
Li Mian shook his head when he heard the words: "This matter was facilitated by the prince, and I, Li Shaojin, didn't know about it."

Xiao Mingrui remained silent, knowing that what he meant was that they should not communicate with each other too much, as it would arouse the emperor's suspicion.

"Pity."

"If the prince accomplishes this, it will be a blessing for the people of the world. Those refugees who were affected by the disaster will have a way out. As for me, I don't care about these credits. The prince should know that I am a general and it is not appropriate to interfere in civil affairs."

Hearing his sincere words, Xiao Mingrui's displeasure towards him was much less.

Some things are not reasons for him to get on the table and not cooperate with others.

What's more, everything was just his conjecture, and he didn't see what Li Mian did.

"I understand, it's rare to meet you. This time you are back in Beijing to be stationed, and it's the first time I've seen you. I just happened to be here. It's better to meet you by chance. Let's have a glass of water!"

Li Mian smiled slightly, it was a rare smile, which shows that he really doesn't know how to smile: "It's better to be obedient than to be respectful."

Seeing him smile, Xiao Mingrui was taken aback, and said amusedly: "I've seen you be so virtuous since I was a child, I thought you couldn't laugh!"

Li Mian picked up the tea and took a sip: "There is nothing ridiculous."

Xiao Mingrui recalled his words, and couldn't help nodding: "You're right, there's really nothing ridiculous about it. But that's for you. The last time Concubine Huimu saw me, she mentioned that you weren't married yet. See Come on, you need to get married, and you have a loving wife, so there will be many happy things."

Li Mian paused, and the atmosphere was a little weird for a moment.

He said lightly: "My lord is worrying too much. How can the Xiongnu be home if they are not destroyed?"

Xiao Mingrui raised his eyebrows, but stopped mentioning it.

It's just that, after all, I feel a little uncomfortable in my heart.

This kid can't really fall in love with his wife, can he?
Looking at his iceberg face, he thought it was impossible.

After all, he has always behaved like this, maybe he is really like Huo Qubing, he is too busy to think about other things because he is only interested in fighting.

Xiao Mingrui came back drunk.

Murong Wei asked someone to prepare honey water and hurriedly brought it for him to drink.

"Let's go in the afternoon? It will take some time to get to Tongzhou. Alas, it's too hard to go back and forth like this." Murong Wei said distressedly.

Xiao Mingrui hugged her a little drunkly and refused to let go: "The lady is still treating me better? You can't treat me badly anymore."

Murong Wei punched him angrily: "You're so drunk, don't pretend, I know you're not drunk."

It would be strange if he was drunk with this little wine.

Xiao Mingrui pretended to be crazy by drinking: "Wei'er, can you shorten the recuperation time? I'm really fine."

Murong Wei put her hips on her hips like a shrew, her willow eyebrows stood on end, "No way!"

"I'll be leaving in the afternoon, baby, I'm going to rest later, what if you're lonely in your boudoir?"

There was a sneer in his eyes, a little teasing.

Murong Wei scolded him angrily and amusedly: "Who is lonely in the boudoir, talking nonsense!"

"Really? Who said that he missed me so much that he couldn't sleep? Could it be that I'm deaf?"

Seeing him mentioning this matter, Murong Wei remembered that when he just left, didn't she always miss him?

It's just that she wouldn't admit it even if she was killed.

"You must have heard wrong..."

Xiao Mingrui directly carried her into the inner room, regardless of whether it was broad daylight or not.

"Why did I think you were a gentleman?" Murong Wei said in disbelief.

"Haha, Confucius said that food and sex are sexual, this is human nature."

This afternoon, Xiao Mingrui went to Tongzhou by car first, Murong Wei didn't see him off, and rested in Xiaojiazhuang for a long time.

The next morning I left for the capital.

As soon as they came back, Zhang Yuqian and the others came to pay their respects.

"My lord is coming back today." Murong Wei said slowly, "You have worked hard during this time, tell me, what are your demands?"

Zhang Yuqian stepped forward and said: "The princess is good enough to me, so I don't want anything else."

Murong Wei looked at her with a smile, and was quite satisfied with her sense of humor: "Well, my sister is really easy to satisfy. How about it, I'll have someone make a few more sets of clothes and jewelry for each sister during this time. "

Zhang Yuqian said it first, even if the others really had something to ask, they didn't dare to mention it again, so they could only echo it.

"You all go back first. After the prince comes back, he must first enter the palace to thank him and give him a banquet. He will come back very late."

Su Mei said in a muffled voice: "The concubine won't bother the princess anymore, so I'm leaving now."

Recently, Murong Wei has not been so strict with them, and she doesn't want them to set rules.

Of course, this may be because they behaved more peacefully, which made Murong Wei more satisfied.

If anyone makes some small moves, it must be done by Murong Wei's methods.

For this princess, they also have their own understanding, and they dare not underestimate her because of her young age.

After all, so much has happened before.

Since the princess came in, the entire palace has been completely changed by her, and it has become more orderly, and it is run like an iron bucket, and they are not allowed to make trouble at all.

They have also gained insight into her methods, and they dare not underestimate her anymore.

It's good for this princess not to provoke her on weekdays, but once she is provoked, I'm afraid it will not be so easy to solve.

Mother Zheng sent the concubines away, and came back and said, "Princess, everything that needs to be prepared in the house is ready, and the prince's yard has been cleaned again. Eunuch Su came and said that the prince will not be able to return to the house until evening. Don't wait for him."

Murong Wei replied, "Okay, I haven't made anything for a long time, I'll let the small kitchen cook something fresh later."

Qingqiu was rubbing her shoulders at the back, and said jokingly: "I have always heard that the princess can always think of something fresh to eat, I wonder if I can learn from the small kitchen?"

Murong Wei smiled and said: "You can go if you want." After saying that, she pretended to smile and scolded Lu'er: "Look at you lazy people, why don't you know how to learn from Qingqiu?"

Hearing this, Xiangtao called out to Zhuang Tianqu, "This is wronging my servant, isn't this servant thinking about how to match the princess's food all day long? But I can't do it as a servant, I just learned how to match the ingredients with the princess."

In fact, Xiangtao learned a lot of dietary taboos from Murong Wei, and also learned a lot of private affairs from Madam Zheng, but her cooking skills are not very good.

As for Lu'er, she was busy managing Murong Wei's dowry, matching clothes and jewelry, so she specialized in art.

Qingqiu hurriedly said: "This servant is also about to learn from Sister Xiangtao, she knows a lot more than me. I used to like cooking, but I don't know much."

She said it with humility.

Madam Zheng raised her eyes and said, "Qingqiu's craftsmanship is pretty good."

Murong Wei nodded: "In that case, you can go to the small kitchen to learn."

As far as food is concerned, Murong Wei has always only entrusted it to people she trusts, and will not let others meddle casually.

She manages the kitchen very strictly, and she just doesn't want anyone to get involved in it.

Although the rules in the palace are not as strict as those in the palace, they are also strict. Before eating every day, they are sent out from the kitchen to be inspected.

It would be terrible if someone came out of the servants at this time.

Qingqiu was overjoyed when he heard this, thinking that Murong Wei was planning to reuse her.

But Murong Wei did this to appease people's hearts. Since Zhixia left, she could feel that the original maids in the palace were a little bit trembling.

Qingqiu really went to learn how to cook.

In the evening, Xiao Mingrui hadn't come back yet.

Murong Wei thought that he might have to stay in the palace, so she didn't plan to have any big meals, so she asked someone to prepare a portion of colored noodles made of vegetable juice and noodles, boiled and cooled, and ate with cold noodles.

It is also comfortable with a vegetable soup.

While eating, Xiao Mingrui came back.

Murong Wei stood up to meet him in surprise, Xiao Mingrui was still wearing court clothes and a winged crown on his head, looking very happy and radiant.

"Husband is back, I thought you would be late." Murong Wei said with a smile, stepped forward to help him untie the court clothes on his body, and hung them in the closet.

Xiao Mingrui changed into a plain Taoist robe for home use, took a gold-painted folding fan and fanned it. Seeing the colorful noodles on the dining table, he even shouted: "Miss, give me one too, I'll drink all the tea in the palace, but I'm starving."

Murong Wei said jokingly: "Can you still be hungry in the palace?"

Xiangyu, who was serving beside him, hurriedly set the dishes for him, Xiao Mingrui shook his head and said: "I saw today that I was either discussing something or playing chess with my father, and I didn't eat anything when my father gave me a banquet. ?”

Murong Wei smiled and said: "There is no shortage of refreshments in the palace, and you are probably too busy with other things. You can't do this anymore."

Xiao Mingrui picked up the cold noodles with his chopsticks, tasted the unique taste, and praised: "That's not because I want to come back to eat the food prepared by the lady. Now my mouth is so tricky, when I was in the south of the Yangtze River, I always thought about the dishes prepared by the lady." , now it’s a taste.”

"You praised me, my craftsmanship is not good."

Xiao Mingrui smiled slightly, he actually just likes the feeling of being at home, like being with her, watching her busy for him, it feels like home.

Only his wife treats him wholeheartedly, and is the one who will go with him for the rest of his life.

There is a feeling of home when eating her dishes.

At this moment, there was a faint commotion outside, as if something had happened.

Murong Wei looked out in surprise, and saw Lu'er rushing in.

"What happened?"

"My servant greets the prince and concubine." Lu'er said hurriedly, "It's the Prince Jing's mansion on the east side that caught fire."

Murong Wei was taken aback. Prince Jing's Mansion was actually only three streets away from Prince Luo's Mansion, and you could see the buildings there from the heights of Prince Luo's Mansion.

How did this catch fire?

Xiao Mingrui was also very surprised, "It's very hot?"

Lu'er nodded, Su De also came in at this time, wiped the sweat off his face and said: "Oh, my lord, there is a lot of fire in Prince Jing's mansion, the old slave just asked people to inquire, and now half the sky is lit up. "

Xiao Mingrui stopped eating, put down his chopsticks and went out to have a look, as expected, looking east from the yard, he could see half of the sky was red and red, obviously the fire was not small.

Murong Wei also looked over there: "Oh, wouldn't the whole mansion be burnt down like this? Would you like to go and have a look?"

When she saw that it was on fire, she was also anxious, thinking of that kid Xiao Jinglan, she couldn't help feeling suspicious.

I don't know if this was an accident or something to do with Xiao Jinglan?
Although there have never been many incidents of fires in the capital every year, fires in places like the Wangfu are unusual.

Xiao Mingrui nodded and said: "Wait and see what happens, I'm going to take a look too. Prince Jing has already returned to the mansion, it's impossible not to arrange people to put out the fire."

It's just that the fire is so big that it may not be possible to save it at all.

At this moment, Xiao Luzi came back, out of breath, saw Xiao Mingrui and hurriedly said: "My lord, this servant just got the news that the main palace of Prince Jing's mansion is on fire, and now everyone has evacuated to a safe place. The people from Ma Si and Shuntian Mansion also rushed to put out the fire. I heard that Princess Jing almost burned to death inside, but the Second Young Master went in and rescued her. It seems that Princess Jing set the fire."

Murong Wei's heart skipped a beat, thinking that this matter might have something to do with Xiao Jinglan, right?

Could it be that he was so kind in rescuing Princess Jing?
Xiao Mingrui also had a pair of black eyes under his thick eyebrows. He thought for a while and said, "I'm going to check the situation, Wei'er, you are waiting at home. With such a big fire, the surrounding people must be evacuated, so as not to bring disaster to Chi Yu."

Murong Wei responded indiscriminately, then raised her head and Xiao Mingrui had already taken Xiao Luzi away.

Su De persuaded: "Princess, don't worry, I see the fire burning in Prince Jing's mansion at most. Tsk tsk, what a pity, such a good palace will burn down."

Murong Wei sighed: "I don't know what happened to Princess Jing, how did she start a fire?"

Su De shook his head and said, "This is strange. I heard that Princess Jing is in a bad mood recently, maybe it's..."

Murong Wei understood what he meant. She remembered that when she went to visit Princess Jing with her younger sibling, Princess Chu, she saw that she was not in the right mood and seemed a little dull.

At that time, they only met once before being taken away by Princess Qingli.

Now it seems that things are really not right.

It is not known exactly what caused the fire.

Instead, it reminded Murong Wei to do a good job in fire prevention.

In such a large mansion, many of the buildings are made of wood, so it would be very scary if it caught fire.

Murong Wei felt that it was necessary to strengthen the fire prevention facilities, and add some fire prevention equipment and manpower to the Luo Palace to avoid chaos.

On the other side, Xiao Mingrui rode his horse to the front of Prince Jing's mansion, and he saw the flames soaring into the sky from a distance away.

When he got closer, he saw that the soldiers and horses of Wucheng Bingmasi, led by Xuncheng Yushi, had already arrived, and Shuntian Fu Yin also rushed here.

When Xiao Mingrui got off the horse, he saw the eunuch from the palace coming to ask about the situation.

The fire was too obvious, and the fire was also found in the palace, so people were sent to check the situation.

Prince Jing was not at the door, and the eldest son Xiao Jinghua was talking to Xu Shixing, the censor of the city patrolling the city, his eyebrows frowned: "The current situation is that the fire cannot be put out. We can only demolish the buildings around to isolate the fire."

Xu Shixing, the patrolling censor, nodded and said: "Yes, this is an old-fashioned opinion. According to the official's opinion, the fire is hot and there is so much wood, so this is the only way to do it."

As soon as Xiao Mingrui arrived, Xiao Jinghua came over to salute.

"Jinghua, the fire has been in the main hall now? Is there a tendency to expand?"

It's not that he's worried, many people on this street are either royal or honorable. If they burn out all at once, won't the court have to take money?
If someone is burned to death again, it will be troublesome.

Xiao Jinghua frowned: "It's still burning in the main hall."

The style of each royal mansion is similar, with hundreds of houses, and the verandah courtyard surrounded by the main hall and back hall is the center of the royal mansion. Not only are there priceless household utensils, but also many important things.

It will naturally not be finished in a while, but it will be uncertain if there is any further delay.

"Master Xu, go in and put out the fire right away, Eunuch Zhao, go back to the palace and report to the emperor immediately, to see if you need to transfer the Beijing camp to put out the fire or make other arrangements."

Eunuch Zhao hurriedly said: "Our family thinks the same way, Lord Long Live is still waiting, as long as people are fine, Prince Jing is safe and sound?"

Xiao Jinghua said: "Father was dispatching his family to fight the fire, so the fire didn't spread."

"Okay, then let's go back to the palace first."

Xu Shixing didn't have any objections, he transferred the soldiers and horses into the palace, and Shuntian Fu Yin watched from the side, and said: "Then I'll inform all the prefectures next to the street to make them prepare for fire prevention."

After discussing with everyone, Xiao Mingrui said to Xiao Jinghua, "It's important to advance to the mansion to fight the fire."

At this time Xiao Jinglan came out from the mansion, saw Xiao Mingrui there, paused, stepped forward and cupped his hands and said: "It turns out that the prince is here. Brother, father told you to go over, and I will replace you here."

Xiao Jinghua looked at the bandage on his arm, frowned and said, "The wound can be treated, how can I run around?"

Xiao Jinglan said embarrassingly: "It's nothing, it's just a little skin trauma, and the medicine has already been applied."

Xiao Mingrui glanced at him, and said calmly: "Jing Lan was injured in order to save his aunt, this is great filial piety."

Xiao Jinglan's bright beautiful eyes flashed magnificent colors in the firelight, making it impossible to see through his thoughts.

"My lord, you are being polite, this is what I should do."

Xiao Mingrui narrowed his black eyes slightly, and said coldly: "That's good, I'll go in and take a look."

While talking at this moment, the prince of Wei Guogong next door also came over. Apart from the good relationship, he was also worried that the fire would spread and burn down his own house, so he planned to come to help.

When Xiao Mingrui came to the scene of the fire, he saw the scorching heat. The guards of Prince Jing's mansion had advanced and retreated in an orderly manner under the arrangement of Prince Jing, busy and unhurriedly using the large water tanks standing around the mansion to fight the fire.

Officers and soldiers have already set up water dragons to aim at the burning surroundings to cool down and put out the fire to buy time.

The Bingmasi people are organizing people to tear down the houses and clean up the isolation belt.

Xiao Mingrui nodded secretly, as expected of Prince Jing, he was able to keep his servants busy at such a time and put out the fire in an orderly manner, after all, he was a famous general.

Xiao Jinghua led him into a small two-story building outside the fire scene. At this moment, Prince Jing was dispatching troops inside. Even at this time, he was calm and relaxed, showing the demeanor of a general.

"Mingrui is here too." Prince Jing is Xiao Mingrui's elder, so he can naturally call him by his name like this, "You just came back to Beijing, so you were alarmed."

"Uncle's words are being polite." Xiao Mingrui admired, "Only a famous general like Uncle can arrange everything so busy and not chaotic at this time."

Prince Jing shook his head and sighed, showing some sadness.

Xiao Mingrui knew that something happened to Concubine Jing, but it was a family matter, family ugliness should not be publicized, and Prince Jing would not tell him.

He then changed the subject: "Are there any casualties in the mansion? Are all aunts and cousins ​​alright?"

"Except for the burning of a few servants, there were no casualties. The third child and his younger sister Qing Li were taking care of the princess, but the weather has been dry recently, so I didn't expect it to cause a fire."

Xiao Mingrui knew that there must be tricks in it.

For example, why did Princess Jing's good behavior cause the fire? Did it happen by accident, or did she deliberately set it on fire?

If it was intentional, why would it be done?
Judging by Prince Jing's attitude, it was obvious that he didn't want to publicize the matter, so he pretended not to know and only discussed the aftermath.

After half an hour, eunuch Zhao got the emperor's order and transferred the first battalion of the Beijing camp to fight the fire.

At night, the firebreak was also isolated, and half of the palace was burning. Judging from the situation, it might burn until dawn.

He knew that there was nothing to do in the future, and after a while, several palaces had sent people to express their condolences, and there was no need for him to stay here, so he bid farewell to Prince Jing and went home.

In front of the main entrance and past the screen wall, the sedan chair hall in front of the gatehouse was in a hurry, and there was also a lot of traffic in front of the palace.

Xiao Jinglan was entertaining people, and looked a little tired. Seeing him coming out, he cupped his hands and said, "Thank you, Your Highness."

Xiao Mingrui walked up to him, his eyes were deep, with some tentativeness: "Jing Lan, my aunt is not in a good condition."

Xiao Jinglan raised his eyebrows, shook his head and said, "Mother has been ill all the time, it's not too bad."

Seeing that the boy's mouth was quite strict, Xiao Mingrui stopped probing, and raised the corners of his mouth: "Then take good care of aunt, after this incident, aunt may need to take care of her even more."

Xiao Jinglan cupped his hands to thank him, but looked at his receding back with deep eyes.

He didn't know what Xiao Mingrui knew, but he also didn't know what he did.

Xiao Jinglan looked at the raging flames, and there was a strange light in his eyes.

This fire seemed to have burned a lot of things, and burned some memories that he didn't want to touch.

It's okay to burn them all.

Xiao Jinglan looked at the raging flames, thinking silently.

The beautiful face brought a sense of loneliness at this moment.

When Xiao Mingrui returned to Luowang Mansion, he entered Tianxiang Garden and found that the lights were still on.

Lu'er was guarding the door, Xiao Mingrui asked: "Princess Wang is still asleep?"

"Yes, the princess has been waiting for you to come back."

Xiao Mingrui turned into the bedroom, and sure enough, he saw Murong Wei half leaning against the beauty, looking at something with relish in front of the light, and writing while taking notes.

Xiangyu who was waiting next to her was so sleepy that she dozed off, her little head almost fell asleep.

Xiao Mingrui smiled, "Wei'er, haven't you slept yet? Didn't I tell you not to wait?"

Only then did Murong Wei see that he was back, and she put down her pen on the pen holder, "I can't sleep either, so I got up and wrote something."

Xiangyu woke up with a start, terrified.

Murong Wei waved her hand and said, "Seeing how sleepy you are, go down. You don't need to wait here."

Xiangyu Nuonuo withdrew.

"What are you looking at, Suiyuan menu? Why did you see the menu?"

"Don't you want to make something to eat? I usually seldom do it. Didn't you say you like my dishes? I want to try it myself."

She is a foodie, but she doesn't like to make it herself, she just likes to enjoy.

But seeing how much he liked the dishes she made, she felt that it would be more fulfilling to cook them by herself.

Xiao Mingrui kissed her lightly, "Fool, why do you do it yourself? What do I keep all those cooks for?"

He held her catkins, looked at those slender fingers as green onions, white as new bamboo shoots, he was even more reluctant to get his hands rough. "Don't make your hands rough, you just need to direct by the side."

(End of this chapter)