Me and Empress Dowager Cixi

Chapter 27
No sooner had she settled down than the Queen Mother decided to take a nap.According to past experience, she couldn't wake up without two or three hours.After serving her to sleep, we left one person on duty to wait as usual, and the rest of the people all retreated outside the hall to rest.Walking out of the palace gate, the cold wind blowing from outside the pass made me shiver, and my drowsiness disappeared, so I wanted to take a look at this ancient palace.Although I want to walk around, my experience tells me that I can't go far. The Queen Mother may wake up soon. If I can't be found by then, it will definitely cause big trouble, so I can only go back and forth in the corridor outside the palace Pacing, wandering.Although I tried my best, I could only see a small part of the palace due to location constraints.Extending from this small part of the palace, I roughly guessed the architectural layout of this palace.This palace consists of many courtyards and corridors, each courtyard is surrounded by other palaces on three or four sides, and outside the other palaces there must be a corridor connected with other places. Palaces and corridors circle each other, Together, they form a palace maze.A labyrinth like this does not pose any threat to us. Compared with Beijing City, it is just a child's play.The layout of Beijing City is similar to this place, but more tortuous and complicated.

Between the main hall where the Empress Dowager stayed and the side hall where we stayed, there was a very large courtyard in which many lilacs of different colors were planted, each blooming brilliantly.The color of lilac is very elegant and beautiful, giving people a very comfortable feeling, like cute little girls standing in the courtyard; but the smell of the flowers is really unbearable, I can't tell what it is What kind of smell, neither fragrant nor stinky, just exudes an unpleasant smell everywhere.I am more aware of my personality, and I know that I will get used to the smell of these flowers in a few days, so I don't pay too much attention to it.After lingering for about half an hour, a burst of tiredness gradually came up. The fatigue of the past few days was really exhausting.In addition, wandering alone in such a deserted corridor is too lonely.So I went back to my residence, intending to close my eyes and have a good sleep, but it was difficult to fall asleep no matter what, so I could only doze in a hazy way.Not long after, a court lady came and woke me up, saying that the Queen Mother was already turning over and would wake up soon, and asked me to put on my clothes and get ready.

Not long after, the queen mother woke up, and naturally she had to wash up.After everything is settled, it's time for dinner.According to the usual practice, one hundred main dishes were served one after another.Every time I see this scene, I feel scared.Throughout the year, no matter where you are or what changes in the environment, these hundred dishes are always essential.After dinner, under the arrangement of the Queen Mother, everyone did what they should do.Her Majesty talked to us for a while, but soon became very bored.Seeing that she was not interested in speaking, we had no choice but to shut up.After a short pause, the Queen Mother asked for a pair of dice and played the game of "a hundred birds chasing a phoenix" with us.After a while, she also lost interest in the game, so she waved her hand and said she was going to sleep.

That night, we only left two female officers on duty to serve the Queen Mother, and the others withdrew one after another.Since I came here for the first time, I didn't want to go to bed so early, and I was still wandering in the corridor alone.When I was in Beijing, I liked watching the night scene very much, and I still keep this habit here.Under the moonlight, although only a small part of the palace can be seen, it is not difficult to imagine the night scenery of the entire Shengjing after deduction from this.

It was supposed to be a very charming evening, but I couldn't bear the smell of the lilacs, and after a while the interest died.The conditions in the Shengjing Palace were much worse than those in Beijing, and there were no electric lights.How to solve this problem, Qingshan and others had thought of a solution long before Lafayette left.Since Lafayette hates the smell of kerosene the most, the kerosene lamps that are usually used must never be taken out, unless someone does not want to live and deliberately makes himself uncomfortable.In view of such circumstances, kerosene became a taboo in the Queen Mother's quarters, and candles were used instead for lighting.

The candles used in the palace are specially made and very large, but even so, the light still seems dim to those of us who are used to electric lights.In the corridor where I was standing, ten large candles were lit on each side, and they were not placed in candlesticks or walls as usual, but were all placed in lanterns.Some people may say that this is nothing unusual, anyone has seen candles inside a lantern.However, how many people have seen lanterns made of ox horns?From the outside, these horn lanterns are very thin, almost as transparent as glass.For auspiciousness, all the candles in the ox horn lanterns are red, and each one is about half a foot long.It is not an easy task to put such a large candle into the lantern and light it. Maybe the eunuch in charge of lighting the candle is too familiar with this process. During the time I lived in Fengtian, the lanterns in the entire palace I haven't heard of one being burned.There are three copper chains on the top of the horn lamp, so that the horn lamp can be safely hung on the beam under the corridor under the traction of the copper chain.

Maybe the light from the horn lamp is too dim, I always feel that the surrounding environment is a bit weird.Looking out from where I stood, there were one or two dark yellow lights behind each corner, like ghosts lurking in the corners of the corridor.The night was already very deep, and there was no other sound except the chirping of insects, but this excessive tranquility gave me a feeling of not being very quiet, and it could even be said to be a terrifying feeling.Under the dim light, I couldn't help but have some far-fetched imaginations, as if I saw the people who died in this courtyard get up one by one, gradually approaching me.These disturbing imaginations seem to give me an omen: an unexpected tragedy will happen here soon.In the main hall where the Empress Dowager lives, although there are horn lamps the same as the outside, they are not hung, but placed side by side on two special wooden frames.There are many fine patterns carved on the lamp stand made of red sandalwood. The knife walks along the wood texture, leaving behind beautiful patterns. Perhaps the best way to appreciate such patterns is not to look at them, but to use your hands to touch.

The whole palace gives people a melancholy and desolate feeling. I am very surprised why the Queen Mother has not complained about it so far. Is it really because I am getting old and my senses have become dull?Perhaps, the queen mother has already felt this unpleasant atmosphere, but the vicissitudes of life for so many years have taught her to learn to be patient.Compared with the queen mother, those of us who are followers seem a little impatient, and our emotions can easily get out of control.Faced with such a melancholy and desolate scene, I felt a little regretful, regretting that I should not follow the Queen Mother to the outside of the pass.But I also know that these things can only be thought about. Now that I have come here, there is absolutely no reason to quit halfway, let alone I have no such right.Now, I only hope that I can sleep soundly and soundly, and I may forget all the unpleasant things when I wake up the next day.

No matter what reason I can come up with to comfort myself, I still feel scared, worried that I will lose something here.My fragile nerves have been infected with hallucinations about ghosts, and it will be difficult to recover from them without a painful struggle.This palace, like the palaces in Beijing, has been built for hundreds of years. I don't know how many people died in it during these hundreds of years. Their souls stayed in this palace, secretly watching every person who came forward. people who come to live or watch.No matter from which point of view, there must be more ghosts in the Forbidden City in Beijing than here, but because there are a large number of living people living there, it is difficult for the souls of the dead to gain a foothold.But this place is different, there are really too few people left behind.Thinking of this, I didn't even dare to lift my feet, lest the sound I made would disturb the dreams of those ghosts and incur their revenge.

Although I know that these worries are just idle conjectures, I don't have the power to rule them out.I stood blankly in the corridor, letting those confused thoughts tear my soul.In the dim light, if others saw me, they would definitely think it was a ghost.This feeling of terror and self-disturbing behavior still makes me laugh when I think about it, but I was really stuck in it at the time.Thinking about it now, the reason for those confused thoughts at that time was mostly because the scenery in the courtyard was too special and too strange.After all, the scenery outside the customs is different from that of Beijing city, and it cannot be solved by artificial cleaning.Shocked by such horror and confusion, I didn't dare to stay in the corridor for a long time, and returned to my dormitory after standing for a while.

There are four people living in the entire dormitory, except for me, the other three are already fast asleep.I think the queen mother must have fallen asleep at this time.Fear and uneasiness will not invade their dreams. Their bodies and spirits have been completely relaxed and restored, but I can't.The dread of the impending catastrophe tormented me for a long time, until I fell into a half-awake doze.There are always two contradictory views in my mind: on the one hand, I firmly believe that those strange thoughts are produced by my own wild imagination; on the other hand, I also believe that it is my instinct to accurately predict the future.In this state of ups and downs, I unconsciously closed my eyes and fell asleep, without even noticing that it was dawn.

At dawn, I was woken up by a court lady. I opened my eyes and found that other people had already got up. I heard that even Lafayette had already started to wash and wash.So, I hurriedly dressed and put on makeup, and then followed the other maids to greet Lafayette.I don't know why, the sun rose very early that day, and when we walked into the courtyard, it was already bright and bright.Under the sunlight, all the gloomy hallucinations and panics of last night disappeared without a trace, as if they were purified by the sunlight.Although the new day has made my spirits extremely high, the smell of the candles left over from the night before and the smell of lilacs blooming in the courtyard still make me feel very uncomfortable.

(End of this chapter)