The little lady in the dining room

Chapter 146
After the two of them finished their tossing, they nestled on the couch and talked for a while, and then Xue Li was so sleepy that she was about to fall asleep.After Xie Zhaojing stayed for a while, he became more sober and began to think about Concubine Hui.

It had been eight or nine years since Concubine Hui entered the East Palace, and he had never seen Concubine Hui like this.

So Concubine Hui's actions today really made him panic - not to say that he was scared, but he was really "caught off guard".

After calming down, I still feel a little flustered.The main reason was that he didn't know why Concubine Hui was acting like this all of a sudden. He asked her what was the matter and she didn't tell the truth, which made him unable to deal with everything. He was really afraid that she wanted to plead for the Queen Mother or some family.

——Concubine Hui is too virtuous, if she speaks for the queen mother with the word "filial piety" at this time, it will put him in a dilemma.If it really broke out, he could only treat Concubine Hui together, but Concubine Hui was the one he wanted to protect.She had helped him for too long, whether he liked it or not, he couldn't bear to punish her and the queen mother together.

She had done nothing wrong after all.Even with An Jin's matter, it just didn't suit his heart.Many times he was thinking that it would be fine if Concubine Hui had never been in the palace at all, and it would be easy for all of them.

The more the emperor thought about it, the more he frowned. Suddenly there were two knocks on the door, and he tilted his head slightly: "Say."

"Your Majesty." Xiao Cheng's voice came from outside, "Lan Xin, the grand maid of Roujia Palace, came to Zichen Palace to report that Mrs. Hui Concubine is not feeling well, and I would like to ask Your Majesty to come and have a look."

The emperor took a deep breath, and spoke calmly: "If you feel unwell, go to the imperial doctor. If the imperial doctor can't see it, you can go to the imperial doctor and say that I have fallen asleep."

Xueli was already half asleep, but became clear during the conversation. She raised her eyes and put her arms around his arm: "Maybe it's better for your majesty to go and see?"

Xie Zhaofu frowned, and looked at her sideways, but saw that her expression was very sincere, not showing generosity.

Xue Li yawned and said, "Concubine Hui never visits His Majesty for nothing...Maybe she is really sick?"

When she is very sick, she becomes vulnerable and wants to see people close to her. She can empathize with this.If Concubine Hui is like this now, apart from inviting the emperor, she can't find anyone else...

Xueli regained his composure, and somehow saw that he didn't want to go, and suggested: "Otherwise, Your Majesty should call Madam and take a look sometime later?"

Xie Zhao sighed lightly, unable to tell her what Concubine Hui had done a moment ago, so he just said to the outside as usual: "Answer what I just said, go."

"No." Outside the door, Xiaocheng answered, and the figure disappeared from the yellow light.

Xueli didn't dare to persuade her any more, she blamed herself for talking too much just now, so she shrank back under the quilt, closed her eyes and went back to sleep quietly.

Xie Zhao lay on his side and hugged her, wondering if she felt that he was being cruel, and after thinking about it, he had to do so——If Concubine Hui really wanted to intercede with the Queen Mother, it would be better if he didn't see her, lest things come to an end I can't stop it; if she is not pleading for the queen mother, but really wants to win favor...

Then he would be a bastard to throw Sydney away now.

Sydney slept very peacefully this time.After staying outside the palace for more than a month, she actually felt that she slept well, especially when she was tired from playing with the children during the day, but it was still different from this sleep.

It was such a comfortable sleep!When she woke up, she didn't remember what dream she had at night, but she was absolutely sure that it was a good dream, because the soft feeling in her heart lingered for a long time after she opened her eyes.

At this time he had already left to go up, she rolled towards him wantonly, looked down and saw a yellow fluffy tail protruding from the couch, pulled it, and Yuxiang crawled out from under the tower and jumped onto the couch .

"You bad lion." Xue Li lazily embraced it, and Yu Xiang lay on her side, turning her back to her big head and rubbing against her face.

She said with a straight face: "Who let you in yesterday! When did you come in! You also learned to listen to the foot of the bed!"

Yu Xiang struggled to turn around, covered her face with her big paws, rubbed her flesh pads against her face, and Xue Li also stroked its hairy face: "Hey, Ayao's mother Fu is coming today, so I have to wait for you." It's a serious foreign life woman in Luo'an city, don't scare her, do you hear me?"

Yu Xiang showed her a good face with a wheezing voice.

However, it's not really good.

Both Fu's mothers came early, and Ah Yao was still having breakfast with Ah Yuan at that time, grabbing the carrot meat bun in his hand and eating it deliciously, Sydney patted her: "Come on, Ah Yao, and greet Fu's mother."

Ah Yao looked sideways, and immediately got up obediently, rinsed his mouth with the water that Han brought over, walked over to Song Shi and Fan Shi, and said, "Mother Fu, all blessings!"

"Emperor Concubine." The two of them smiled and replied Qianqian. The etiquette of the monarch and his ministers is not bad, and the prestige between teachers and students is still there.

Then little Ah Yao was a little anxious, mother had told her to respect mother Fu, but she hadn't had enough breakfast yet...

So she hesitated and turned her head to ask Sydney: "Mom, can I still have breakfast?"

Or do you want to go to school now?

The two mothers of Fu laughed when they heard it, and the younger Mrs. Song knelt down and said, "Di Ji eats slowly. We came early today, and we will show Lady Ruan what we need to teach Di Ji first. in a hurry."

Ah Yao is happy!Another Fu said "Thank you Fu mother", and then ran back to have breakfast with his younger brother.

Sydney took the two Fu mothers out.The room in the main courtyard that was originally vacant for the palace servants on duty to rest for a while has been cleared out a few days ago and turned into a small study room. Set it up again.

Anyway, the Liuge Courtyard is so big, so it’s okay to go back and rest that night—that room is a bit of a waste, and few people really go there to rest, and it’s even more wasteful to set up a room farther away from the main courtyard.

Sydney brought the two Fu mothers into this newly purchased study room. The furniture in the study room was all new, and Xie Zhao personally picked out the books and sent them to them.Fan and Song looked through it together. There are "Three Character Classics", "Hundred Surnames", and "Thousand Character Classics", which are suitable for children to read, and there are also poems and songs that can be read more to increase talent. .There is even a thick stack of copybooks, most of which are single-page red characters, which are convenient for children to describe.

While flipping through the copybook, Fan Shizheng smiled and praised Xue Li for teaching A Yao to be sensible and polite, Yu Xiang strolled in at a lazy pace.

Fan and Song: "..."

Before entering the palace, I heard that she had raised a lion here, but no matter how prepared she was, she was still frightened when she saw it.Fan asked Xue Li politely if he could take him out, and Xue Li tried hard to coax him away.

But when Ayao was in class, it followed in with a natural look, and this time it was useless to be coaxed by anyone. It sat down two feet away from Ayao's table calmly, with the same expression on its face. Seriously like listening to a lecture.

Fan and Song: "..."

A Yao studied very seriously, because she was young, and the content she was studying was still very simple, half of which was memorizing simple things, and the other half was practicing calligraphy.Practicing calligraphy is somewhat boring for children, but because she has started to practice writing slowly more than half a year ago, she doesn't find it so difficult now.

After studying for most of the day, when it was time to take a break, the two Fu mothers praised her to Xueli in private, saying that Ayao is so sensible, and her handwriting is much more beautiful than that of many children of her age.Xue Li happily took over the big letters written by A Yao to read, and then carefully collected them, planning to show the emperor to see them later!
Of course, Ah Yao should have a better lunch.Because the Fan family and the Song family also ate here directly, Xue Li simply asked Dou Sha to send the lunch to the study for them to use together, and get acquainted by the way.

The kitchen at the back made eight dishes, four meat and four vegetarian dishes. The meat dishes were Mushu meat, sauerkraut white meat, honey sauce chicken wings and shredded beef fried tea tree mushrooms; Fish-flavored eggplant.

Sydney made another loofah duck soup with her own hands and sent it in.After the soup is simmered enough, the loofah and duck meat are delicious enough, and Ayao has always liked it.

During the meal, the smell of fish lingers around.Ah Yao lost her younger brother and added Fu's mother, so she was a little cautious, usually she would get some meat to feed Yuxiang, but today she didn't have the intention.

But Yuxiang doesn't understand!After walking around for a long time, seeing the little master ignoring it, he was not happy, so he stood up and put his front paw on A Yao's leg: "Wow!"

Song couldn't laugh or cry, took out a piece of meat and put it in the palm of his hand: "Here comes the fragrance of fish."

Yu Xiang's eyes suddenly glowed, and since then she has decided that this strange human being is one of her own!

That night, the emperor was very happy after hearing Fugui's report on Diji's first day of class.He also asked Fu's mother what homework she had left for her. Fugui replied that she memorized the few sections of the "San Zi Jing" she learned today, and then wrote [-] more characters.

Xie Zhao thought about it, each sheet should have twelve characters, and thirty sheets would be 360 ​​characters.He felt that it was a bit too much, but he didn't block it directly, so as not to damage the authority of the Fu mothers in A Yao's heart on the first day.

He then said to Fugui: "Go back and watch. If Di Ji finishes writing, then you don't need to say anything. If you haven't finished writing by Haishi, just say that I told her to go to bed early, and you can talk about it in private when Fu's mother comes tomorrow." Just tell Mother Fu that the homework is too heavy."

Ah Yao is only four years old, it is important to study hard, but it cannot overwhelm her.At least you have to get enough sleep, otherwise it will be bad for your health after a long time.

Fugui respectfully agreed and then resigned. Xie Zhao looked at the two pages that Sydney specially asked him to send, and he was really happy.The more A Yao grows up, the more she can see that Xueli has taught her well—not only making her well-behaved and sensible, but also always being happy.

It can be regarded as living up to the promise made to Lu Yong and his wife in the past.

The emperor sighed briefly, put down those two pages, and then picked up the memorial that he hadn't read just now.Continue to read, the joy in my heart also surged up again.

When he nodded yesterday to allow Wei Chen to arrest people, he hadn't realized the cruelty in it, and Wei Chen probably didn't realize it himself.At that time, what they thought was that they ransacked their homes first, and then tried them harshly. They would always be able to confess what they should confess. , most of the dissatisfaction will disappear.

Today, after one night, he suddenly realized that no matter how dissatisfied the court is, it doesn't matter.

The current clear situation is that the five clans whose homes have been ransacked will never regain their vitality. Even if no charges can be found, they will be completely defeated, defeated by his strong imperial power.As for if he really can't find it at all, he will face unprecedented resentment and impeachment from the courtiers...

That's actually not that scary.In the future, he will have enough time and methods to smooth out these grievances, even if it takes five, ten, or 20 years, it doesn't matter. Compared with the hard nail of "threat from foreign relatives", these are trivial matters.

The emperor smiled when he thought about it. After a while, he put the memorial in his hand, weighed it again, and drew up a pen to draw up an order, and directly gave Wei Chen the seat of the commander of the imperial guard.

In short, tough measures have been used, so it is better to continue to be tough in defending Chen Wuyu.It may be easier than anything else to promote Wei Chen and let the courtiers know his attitude on this matter.

Just like Sydney used to live in a stew pot for the Queen Mother, it might be a good thing to completely change the way of doing things.

Half a month later, the Qu family's crimes have not yet been clarified, but the Lu family's major and minor crimes have been convicted.On the evening of the day when the emperor ordered the Lu family to be exiled to a place of bitter cold, the empress dowager drove back to the palace.

Everyone knew where she came back to the palace from, but no one dared to say.

Although no one dared to say it, the palace's attitude towards the Queen Mother was more or less different.

She no longer has the power and confidence to interfere in the government affairs. Even though she is still the queen mother, even if she is greeted by concubines of the sixth palace with big gifts when she enters the palace gate, everyone feels that she has been stripped of her luster.

It was true that she looked bleak and had lost a lot of weight.The complexion that was rosy and plump half a month ago has now become dull and dull, the cheekbones are protruding high, and the hollows in the cheeks are extremely obvious. Sitting on the chariot, she didn't say a word, and even ordered all the concubines There was no excuse, so I went straight to Changle Palace.

Everyone is wondering what will happen next.Or to put it a bit closer... What kind of scene would it be if His Majesty went to Changle Palace to greet the Queen Mother.

There is a knife on the head of the word forbearance. Your Majesty has endured the Queen Mother for so many years. Will he pull this knife out of his heart now and stab the Queen Mother even harder?
In the Zichen Palace, the emperor finally had half a day of leisure, so he asked the palace servants to fetch a stack of paper with red grids, dipped a pen in cinnabar, and wrote a red copybook for A Yao.

Sydney said that recently Ah Yao has not been concentrating on his studies as in the past few days, and sometimes secretly teases Yu Xiang who is in the study.Because she hadn't chosen another reading companion, she pointed to Suanmei and Wumei to accompany her to study. As a result of her distraction, the accompanying reading was punished for Di Ji, and she was called by Fu's mother to slap her palms and stand and listen to the lecture.

In fact, they all know that this is a trivial matter.For a child, it’s normal to feel bored once the freshness wears off, especially reading and practicing calligraphy, which are not considered “interesting” at her age. She can persist for half a month before feeling bored, Xie Zhao They all wanted to hug her up and praise her...

But it is necessary to help her study hard. After three days of distressed observation, Sydney discovered two things.

One is that when A Yao practices calligraphy in front of Fu's mother, she always feels sad and uncomfortable, but when she writes by herself at night, if A Yuan also writes with her with a brush next to her—even if he is just scratching!Ah Yao was able to write down very seriously, probably because he felt that his younger brother had a companion by his side, so his heart would not be boring.

Second, it was Ah Yao who heard that Fu's mother was coming again this morning, she was so upset, so she lost her temper and tore up two copybooks.Xueli didn't repeat her, and held her in her arms, pointed at the torn copybook and coaxed her, "Ah Yao, this is a copybook written by your father himself. You know that father is very busy, right? He is very busy. I also wrote a copybook to you. I hope you will study hard and grow up. When you are tired from studying, you can tell your mother, and your mother can go to your father and mother to discuss letting you take a rest, but if you tear things randomly No, you know?"

A Yao huddled in her arms and cried for a while with red eyes, then raised her head and asked her sobbingly: "Is the copybook written by the emperor?"

"That's right, it's all written by my father!" Xue Li nodded.

At that time, she just told A Yao the truth, and the result was that A Yao had studied very hard all day, and she could not sit still in the afternoon, but she obediently endured it, her little face was full of determination!

Afterwards she asked Ah Yao, and Ah Yao said: "Father is so busy and still writes, and I have nothing else to do, so I should write well."

When this word reached Xie Zhao's ears, he immediately felt the importance of "leading by example". He didn't go out to relax when he was rarely free. He prepared a pen and paper before writing the copybook. Write two copies, one for each sibling.A Yao wrote it well, and A Yuan can do whatever he wants to describe.

He wrote earnestly, and his speed was not fast, until he wrote the sentence "The households are sealed off to eight counties, and the family is given to thousands of soldiers". There are already two stacks of paper in hand.

Chen Jijiang had been waiting anxiously, seeing that His Majesty had finally put down his pen, he was finally able to come forward.

"Your Majesty." He bowed, "Your Majesty...the Empress Dowager has returned to Changle Palace."

Xie Zhao was slightly taken aback, and suddenly said "Oh", he actually forgot about it.

Chen Jijiang didn't stop, just a reminder, and he didn't know whether to ask His Majesty to go down to say hello.After all, the word filial piety is at the top of the list, if he doesn't want to go, it will be difficult to do it when he asks this question.

Sure enough, luckily I didn't ask.

The emperor said: "I haven't eaten yet, I'm going to see Sydney."

Chen Jijiang bowed and said nothing nonsense.I felt that it was inappropriate for the emperor to do this, but I was secretly relieved, and felt that going to Liugeyuan was much better than going to Changle Palace.

Dinner has already been eaten in Liugeyuan, and at this moment, Sydney is concentrating on making supper.

When she was eating dinner in the evening, she suddenly became greedy, and she has been tossing about for a long time now.

The filling is mainly pork, and a little pork skin jelly is also added to adjust the taste. Cooking wine, soy sauce, sugar, ginger and sesame oil are added for seasoning.Now it’s wrapped up and ready to be fried, and bursts of full-bodied aroma linger around, the salty meat smells slightly sweet, making her have to swallow her saliva to resist opening the pot in advance .

When the lid was uncovered, the outer skin bulged, and the white chubby chubby chubby chubby chubby chubby chubby ones turned golden yellow at the bottom and oily at the top. Sydney bent down a little, and happily sprinkled sesame seeds and chopped green onion on them one by one. It smells immediately when it is hot, and the full aroma just now becomes richer in an instant.

Ayao and Ayuan must also like it!
In her heart, she filled out the fried pancakes one by one, and when she turned her head, she heard the word "it smells so good", and at the same time, the fried pancake on top was quickly taken away.

"...It's so hot!" Xie Zhao, who felt that he was robbing, miscalculated, alternated his hands and quickly changed the fried food twice, but was defeated by Wen Wen. The stolen goods fell on the ground and rolled to the door. It really became a success. Got "stolen" goods.

Yu Xiang sprinted past the door like a yellow lightning bolt, and took the raw fried food away from Da Ya Ji.

Xue Li looked at the emperor pitifully, gave him a look of "Your Majesty, are you so hungry?", and then asked solemnly, "Your Majesty, what's the matter?"

"Well, there is something important." The emperor coughed lightly in embarrassment, and said after thinking for a while, "Call Su Shi to come too, and talk about two things together."

(End of this chapter)