Zhao Defang's road to the virtuous king

"Wait to eat melons." Defang looked at Concubine Di and said, "It was getting dark at night, and the melon sellers put the unsold melons back into the baskets, and then put away all the melon rinds on the ground."

"My lord, are you taking the melon skin away?"

"Yes, the common people will take these back to feed the pigs, and the leftover meals, soup and so on are fine."

"The melon sellers have been taken away, how can Mr. Lu eat melons?"

"Master Lu ran over at this time, and quickly picked up a piece of melon rind that hadn't been received in the basket and ate it."

"Huh? The melon rind that fell on the ground?"

"Yes, Master Lu was dizzy from hunger at the time, and he ate several pieces of melon rind in a row. The melon seller was also taken aback. Seeing his pity, he gave him an uncut melon. Thank you, Master Lu. After that, I brought the melon back home for my mother to eat, and then put away the melon rind, and at night when my mother fell asleep, he would eat the melon rind to satisfy his hunger."

"Although Mr. Lu is living in poverty and hunger, he still does not forget to be filial to his mother, study hard, and win the top spot in the gold list. It is really admirable."

"Yes." Defang nodded, "After Mr. Lu won the number one prize, he spared no expense to build a small pavilion by the Yishui River, which used to pick up melon rinds, and named it [饐gua]"

"A melon? Isn't that just a rotten melon?"

"That's right, Confucius said: You can't get tired of fine food, and you can't get tired of fine meat." Defang said, "But if you eat meat, you don't eat it. If you eat fish, you lose meat, so you don't eat it. Mr. Lu is a scholar, so you should know this, but you eat it all in your stomach." If you are not full, how can you take care of these things?"

"Master Lu is also inspired by this."

"This is what the "Book of the Later Han" says: Where there is a will, there is a way."

"In ancient times, there was Gou Jian who tried his best to fight hard, and thousands of armored soldiers defeated and strengthened Wu. Today, there is a holy meritorious deed, which is inspired by melons, and he has studied hard for nine years to be the top of the gold list."

[Lv Mengzheng, word: Sheng Gong, number one scholar in the Ding Chou Division in the second year of Taiping Xingguo. 】

"Madam is really good." Defang looked at Concubine Di with a smile, "My concubine is better than ten champions."

"My lord will say nice things to tease my concubines."

"Ma'am is fine." Defang added some hot tea to Concubine Di, and at this moment Baili approached, "My lord, the national player is asking to see you."

Defang turned his head to look at Jin Shangde, "National player, come in quickly and sit down."

Jin Shangde walked into the pavilion and did not take a seat, "My lord, I have something to say to my lord."

"What you want to talk about last night, sit down first, sit down and talk."

"I'm not sitting down anymore, my lord, can you please talk about it outside the pavilion?"

"Why do you need to go outside the pavilion?"

Concubine Di looked at Jin Shangde, "National player, is it my business?"

"Ah?" Defang became anxious when she heard this, "National player, my lady."

"No, no, no," Jin Shangde quickly explained, "It's not the empress, I'm just worried that the empress will...worry in vain."

"Worried? How can you be worried if it has nothing to do with your empress? Could it be that the lonely king can't do it?"

"It's not the prince either."

"National player, just tell me, what's the matter?"

"Yes. Yes. About General Huyan."

"General Huyan?" Defang and Concubine Di looked at each other, but didn't understand what it meant. "What's wrong with him?"

Jin Shangde looked at Concubine Di and then at Defang. Seeing this, Defang said, "National player, since it's not your mother's business, you can talk about it, but...how did you talk about General Huyan?"

Jin Shangde sighed softly, and said softly, "My lord, my lord, General Huyan. I'm afraid. His life is not long."

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