Prince Consort

Chapter 2
White smoke curled up from the incense burner, a pair of hands hurriedly picked up the teacup beside the incense burner, and then the person hurried to the bed, helped the girl on the couch, and gave her water to drink.

Bai Zhi felt that her dry lips were moistened by a stream of warm tea, which made her very comfortable.She opened her eyes slightly, and the first thing she saw was an ink painting of mountains and rivers, which was lifelike and majestic.

Why does this painting feel so familiar?

"Miss, you are finally awake."

It was a familiar voice again.Bai Zhi looked sideways at the girl with the double-horned bun in front of her, and was startled: "Qing He?" Isn't Qing He married?The Qing He in front of me seems to be a shrunken version, only twelve or thirteen years old.

"Miss." Qing He threw herself into Bai Zhi's arms, and Li Hua kept crying in the rain.

what happened?Did she fail to commit suicide by jumping off a building?
With a "squeak", the door was opened, and a woman dressed in plain clothes, holding a Buddhist bead, and a kind-looking woman came in. She walked to Bai Zhi's side and smiled peacefully: "Zhi'er, you finally woke up, God bless you!" .”

The moment Bai Zhi saw her own mother, she couldn't describe it in terms of astonishment and astonishment. She was already frightened out of her body by this scene.Her own mother died of a plague when she was 15 years old.

Seeing that Bai Zhi's face was pale, the madam thought it was a serious illness, so she ordered the nanny to say, "Hurry up and ask Dr. Wang to come and have a look."

"Yes."

Bai Zhi had to digest the truth of the matter for three days.It is now the seventh year of Kangshun, the fifth year before she committed suicide, the year of the late emperor's reign.At this time, she was still an ignorant girl, her mother was still alive, and her father was only a five-pin-knowledgeer from Jiangnan Water Village, and her second mother was obedient.

So what she experienced before was a dream?But how could it be so realistic?When she thought of Mutusu, her heart ached. If it was a dream, did she love her too much?
"Miss, your body has almost recovered, why don't you go for a walk in the backyard? The peach blossoms are in full bloom, very beautiful." Qing He made suggestions while helping Bai Zhi, who had just woken up, to comb her hair.

"Okay, I've been so bony, I haven't been active for a long time." Bai Zhi stretched her waist and exhaled heavily.

Qing He covered her mouth and snickered: "Miss, do you want to dive into the water again?"

"You discovered all of this." Bai Zhi joked.

Qing He's face turned pale, and she hurriedly said: "Bah bah, this is not serious. Madam said, the lake will be filled with soil sooner or later, so that the young lady will not be unhappy and jump into the lake to commit suicide."

Bai Zhi laughed.In the past, when she was unhappy, she would cry, make trouble and hang herself, and she was so capricious.She didn't deny Qing He's words, but honestly bowed her head and admitted her mistake: "I won't dare again in the future, dying once is enough to satisfy my curiosity."

Qing He put down her hairbrush, very dissatisfied with her joke: "Your curiosity hurt me, and I was scolded by the master."

"Well, sugar double cooking cake as compensation."

"That's about the same." Qing He shyly smiled contentedly.

Bai Zhi is also smiling.Such Qinghe is really nice.She wished so much that Qinghe would always be like this, and a piece of sugar double-cooked cake would be enough.

The backyard of Baifu is full of peach blossoms.Every March, the pink and tender peach blossoms are full of branches, and the fallen petals are colorful, which is unbelievably beautiful.Holding the hem of her skirt, Bai Zhi walked on the cobblestone path, looking at the pink and tender piece, she felt very happy.

"Sister." Someone behind her suddenly called her.

Bai Zhi stamped her feet, she naturally knew who was calling her.That was her half-sister who was very similar to her.Bai Zhi turned her head and smiled: "Your sister is also here to enjoy the flowers?"

"That's right, it's such a beautiful scene, it's really a waste not to witness it." Bai Shao stepped forward and raised her hand to pick off the fallen flowers from Bai Zhi's hair.

What a considerate sister!Bai Zhi sneered in her heart, she was really confused by Bai Shao's appearance in the past, she regarded Bai Shao as her own sister, but Bai Shao stabbed her twice in the back.

With grievances in her heart, Bai Zhi could no longer have that pure family affection, she said: "How is Er Niang recently?"

"Blessed by the Buddha, everything is safe and healthy. The aunt just said that she would go to the White Horse Temple to fulfill her vows. Has the message reached my sister?"

"none."

Bai Zhi's mother, Liu Shi, eats fast and recites Buddha all the year round, and lives in Baima Temple every three days.As the eldest daughter, she was supposed to serve her mother by her side, but in the past she was really not interested in praying to Buddha, so she was replaced by the well-behaved Bai Shao.

Now it's not as good as before, Bai Zhi said to Bai Shao: "Sister, from now on I can just accompany mother to the White Horse Temple, I really troubled you before."

Bai Shao's face turned pale, and she smiled awkwardly: "Where is my sister, I'm too happy to serve you."

"It's enough if you have this kind of heart." Bai Zhi's eyes were full of alienation.

As smart as Bai Shao, he can naturally hear the meaning of Bai Zhi.She just finds it strange that the current Bai Zhi and the Bai Zhi she knows are not the same person, but seem to be the same person.

Knowing that Bai Zhi was going to accompany her to the White Horse Temple to fulfill her wish, Liu was quite surprised.After all, she is her own child, and she knows exactly what kind of person her daughter is. It is impossible for Bai Zhi to be interested in the matter of offering incense and eating vegetarian food.

On the carriage to the White Horse Temple, Liu finally couldn't bear to ask: "Zhi'er, what's the wind blowing today, that you want to accompany your mother to go to incense and eat vegetarian food?"

Bai Zhi was brewing a cup of Biluochun in a purple sand pot, holding it to her mouth, took a breath, and handed it to Liu Shi.After Liu Shi caught her, Bai Zhi said: "Before, Zhi'er was ignorant. After walking around the gate of hell, she suddenly realized a truth. You can't be a person if you don't like relatives; you can't be a son if you don't like relatives."

Liu was very relieved, and stroked Bai Zhi's hair: "Zhi'er, if your father knows that you have changed like this, he will be happy."

She will work hard to protect this home so that there is no internal trouble or foreign invasion.If she remembers correctly, this year, her father will meet a turning point in his official career, the crown prince.The incident started when her sister accompanied her mother to the White Horse Temple.

If the younger sister hadn't seen the peach blossoms behind the Zhaishe, and chanted a doggerel for the Taifu to hear, arousing curiosity, and self-introduced her family, her father would not have been invited by the Taifu. After becoming a Beijing official, the family began to disintegrate, breaking apart inch by inch.

Today, she came here instead of her younger sister, just to snuff out the fuse.

White Horse Temple is the most prosperous temple in Sioux City.The dignitaries and dignitaries of Sucheng love to come here to offer incense and worship Buddha.

As soon as he got off the carriage, the nanny led two followers around to make a detour to arrange a dormitory.Bai Zhi carefully supported Mrs. Liu and walked towards the main entrance.There is an endless stream of people offering incense today, and Bai Zhi has seen it.

After burning the incense, Mrs. Liu wanted to talk to the abbot, so she ordered Bai Zhi to wait outside.Bai Zhi was so bored, she waited for a long time and didn't see her mother come out, her feet were sore, she found a stone bench and sat down, raised one foot, put it on the stone bench next to her, beat and pinched, stretched her muscles and bones.

"Little girl, I think you are a martial arts prodigy!" Suddenly an unserious voice came from her ear, she shrank in a daze, and saw a big face that was magnified several times flashing in front of her eyes. The fist swung over and hit him in the eye.

The man was knocked down to the ground, covered his eye that was hit by the fist with one hand, and supported himself with the other hand: "I'm sure I'm not mistaken, little girl, you are such a prodigy in martial arts!" The man let go of his hand, The eye circles are all purple and black, very similar to the black and white bear's eyes in the land of Xishu.

"who are you?"

"Bear wind."

"I don't know." Bai Zhi just wanted to stand up and leave, but was stopped by Xiong Feng.

"Don't you want to practice martial arts, little girl? Uncle will teach you."

"No." Bai Zhi lifted her leg and left.Xiong Feng, who was lying on the ground, hugged Bai Zhi's thigh and yelled, "Please let me teach you martial arts."

"..." Bai Zhi suddenly felt speechless, thought for a moment and said, "The reason."

"I am already 60 years old. Because I have devoted myself to martial arts, I have no wife and no children. I just learned that I have an incurable disease and I will die soon. I am afraid that there will be no successors for my martial arts. I am so sad!"

Seeing him moved with emotion, Bai Zhi looked sad and compassionate.In the dream, she was an unworldly young lady with weak writing skills, she only relied on her flamboyant personality to protect herself, if she learns martial arts now, it would be good.

"Where do I learn from?"

"The bamboo forest behind the White Horse Temple will wait for me at the entrance every day from now on."

"Maybe."

Xiong Feng looks like a teachable child, looking at Bai Zhi full of expectation: "I am very pleased." After the gust of wind passed, Xiong Feng disappeared without a trace.Bai Zhi couldn't help sighing, he is so vigorous, does he really suffer from an incurable disease?

Mrs. Liu eats fast and recites Buddha all the year round, and is quite familiar with the abbot of the White Horse Temple, so the chat time is a bit long.Xiong Feng came and went in a hurry, after he left, Bai Zhi sat back on the stone bench, playing with the white silk handkerchief in her hand.

The embroidery on this handkerchief was her first female favorite, a bright red peony.In her dream, she loved the bright red color very much, but now it seems that she has lost that interest, and instead finds it tacky.

Catch up tomorrow to embroider the hibiscus out of the water.Thinking about it, Bai Zhi couldn't help but let go of her hand, and it happened that a gust of wind blew up, and the handkerchief flew away along with the wind.Bai Zhi was shocked, and looked in the direction where the handkerchief flew away, and saw a group of people in fine clothes coming from the corner, and the handkerchief happened to land at the feet of the leading lady.

The noble lady lowered her head slightly and gestured with her eyes, and the girl beside her bowed and picked up the handkerchief and handed it to the noble lady.

Bai Zhi secretly screamed in her heart that something was wrong, and planned 36 tricks, walking is the best plan, and then she wanted to get away, but the lady called out from behind: "Miss, stay a while, your handkerchief."

Bai Zhi had no choice but to accept her fate, looked back and smiled, walked over with lowered eyebrows, and bowed to her: "Thank you, Princess."

"Oh? How do you know I'm the princess?"

This rhetorical question made Bai Zhi stunned.Then she thought about it for herself, and really wanted to slap herself.Distraught for a moment, she used what she saw in the dream to the present.

Bai Zhi could only bite the bullet and said: "I heard that Princess Gong likes red dresses, and Prince Gong dotes on his wife, so he made ninety-nine 81 red dresses of different styles, all of which are trimmed with gold silk, and the sleeves are all decorated with a peony bordered with gold thread. As a logo, it is unparalleled in the world and unique.”

The concubine glanced at the peony on her sleeve, and smiled knowingly: "Very clever girl."

In the dream, Bai Zhi's favorite person to curry favor with is Princess Gong, because she is Mu Tusu's mother.It's just that now, she wants to avoid it.

"Your girl is pretty good, how long have you practiced?"

"Minnv is stupid, it's been five years." She lied on purpose.If it is only two years, the princess will definitely look at her with admiration.This is not what she wants.

"Oh, no wonder." The princess smiled slightly.

Coincidentally, Mrs. Liu and the abbot came out together, Mrs. Liu saw Bai Zhi, and said, "Zhier, I kept you waiting." The abbot on the other side saw the princess, put his hands on his chest, and bowed halfway to her: "Princess. "

Mrs. Liu was stunned for a moment, and hurriedly bowed to the princess: "The woman pays her respects to the princess."

"Get up, I'm just praying to the Buddha to keep my children safe. You are free, you can do what you want." After speaking, the princess stopped looking at them and started talking with the abbot.

Bai Zhi and Liu Shi silently bowed and left.

After leaving the White Horse Temple and returning to the White Mansion in a carriage, Liu Shi spoke to Bai Zhi.She said: "Zhi'er, just now, Cai Niang asked for a lottery for you and your father. You are destined for marriage, and your father is for career. Sigh!"

Bai Zhi observed her words and expressions, and realized that Liu Shi's expression was wrong.

Sure enough, Mrs. Liu sighed and said: "Signing a Taoist marriage is not as good as you wish, there are many ups and downs, and it takes a lot of wind and rain to melt into a rainbow."

"What about father's official career?"

"If you make a wrong move, if you make a wrong move, you will never recover."

In the dream, her father was on the wrong team and supported the prince. In the end, he was regarded as a thorn in the side of the third prince who took over the heir apparent, and was soon exterminated by Mu Tusu's plan.It really is a wrong move, a wrong step, and there will never be a day to turn around.From this point of view, everything in the dream might actually happen.But now with her, no matter what, she will not let that happen again.

Now, although she can't guarantee that she can prevent her father from standing on the wrong team, she can reverse his father's official career.As long as she doesn't meet the Taifu, her father will not be a Beijing official, and there will be no team to stand on.

Bai Zhi patted the back of Liu Shi's hand lightly, and comforted: "Mother, you are worrying too much. Some things can be reversed."

Liu Shi closed her eyes and stopped talking.

Bai Zhi wanted to practice martial arts, since she met Xiong Feng at the White Horse Temple, she went to the Bamboo Forest of the White Horse Temple to study alone every day.Xiong Feng also arrives on time every day and gives all his money.One day, Baizhi came early, and Xiongfeng was not seen, so she sat down on a boulder, broke off a bamboo branch, and wrote on the mud floor. Suddenly, she heard a melodious flute sound echoing among the bamboo, circling and circling, and a hundred birds flying together. It's like dancing to the music.

Bai Zhi stopped the bamboo branch in her hand and was stunned.Following the music, she approached the source of the sound of the flute until she saw, in the depths of the bamboo, there was a person in a white shirt sitting on a boulder, with long jet-black hair like a waterfall, and slender fingers jumping on the flute body, lightly and gracefully. publicity.

What a familiar figure!Bai Zhi was trembling all over, she didn't dare to blink her eyes, and kept backing away involuntarily.It was as if her body was telling her not to approach him!Bai Zhi accidentally touched the bamboo behind her and made a noise, the man in the white shirt looked back.

He had a peerless face that seemed to be from a lifetime ago, and his eyes were filled with the indifference that had remained unchanged for thousands of years.This face was in a dream, she wanted to see it.But now, she was terrified.She almost ran away, running desperately, as if only in this way could she have hope of life.

Mutusu!In that dream, the man she couldn't ask for.

Mutusu's usually calm eyes looked at the woman who was desperately fleeing him with a little bit of astonishment.Does he look that scary?But what he saw in the woman's eyes was not only panic, but also faint hatred.

He was very puzzled.

Bai Zhi kept running for an unknown amount of time, until she bumped into a human wall recklessly, and was bounced back to the ground due to excessive force.

"Good apprentice, are you seeing a ghost?" Xiong Feng smiled.

Bai Zhi quickly stood up, shaking her head like a rattle.

"Good apprentice, I came here today to say goodbye to you."

Bai Zhi was puzzled: "You haven't taught me all your martial arts yet."

"That's enough, you can't be too greedy."

The corner of Bai Zhi's mouth twitched, when did she get greedy?Over the past few days, the only memory she had was bringing him various pastries in a bamboo basket every day, as well as the hotel accommodation fee.As for martial arts, she also learned a few tricks of self-defense.

"We will meet again someday, good disciple, master is gone." Xiong Feng whistled with his hand, a horse suddenly jumped out from the forest, he quickly got on the horse, waved to Bai Zhi, and then left in a hurry.

Bai Zhi thought, maybe she was blackmailed.This so-called master is actually just a charlatan who cheats on food and drink.

Well, just a little bit of fun in a boring life.

The appearance of Xiong Feng changed Bai Zhi somewhat, at least made her resolve to become a "martial arts" person.Bai Zhi is an impatient person, so she invited the female martial arts master to come to Baifu to teach the next day.

The female master of the martial arts hall is named Qiu Chan, she is three years older than Bai Zhi, she is lively and active, illiterate, but she is very kind.But within a few days, they became good friends.Due to the strict family education in the White House, the girls who have not left the court live in seclusion and know nothing about the outside world.

Now that Ticada is here, it's like having a message.

"Zhi'er, let me tell you, the girl from the steamed stuffed bun shop on North Street has become the concubine of Mr. Chen, and now she wears gold and silver, not to mention how beautiful she is." Qiu Chan looked forward to it.

"If it were me, I'd rather be a wife of trash than a concubine of a rich man." Bai Zhi said embarrassingly.She understands the misery of the concubine better than anyone else, if the husband loves him, it's all right; if he doesn't love him, the concubine will not even be as good as a flower or a grass in the house, if she says she doesn't want it, she can just don't want it, and throw it away like a bag.

"Zhi'er, you must be destined to be a wife, a daughter-in-law and Lord Zhizhou's favorite."

Bai Zhi smiled but did not answer.She deserved her miserable fate in the dream.In the dream, her father had arranged a marriage for her, and she was a good match.But in order to marry Mu Tusu, she let go of her original partner and became his concubine. She was also despised as a "high climber".

She really suffered.

"I don't want to think about it, I'm still young."

"It's not too young. After your official lady and Ji pass, you can start to arrange marriages. Unlike ordinary people like us, marry if you can, and become concubines if you can't."

"Don't belittle yourself, your life is in your own hands."

"Hey, no wonder so many girls who have not left the cabinet plan to control their own destiny."

Bai Zhi was puzzled.

"Have you ever heard of Prince Gong's only son, Mu Tusu?"

"Never." Bai Zhi said nonsense with a calm face.

(End of this chapter)