incense as a medium

Chapter 160 The Queen Mother
There is a saying in Xu Shen's "Shuowen" in the Eastern Han Dynasty: "Jade, the beauty of stone, has five virtues, moistening with warmth, and benevolence..."

"Five Classics Tongyi Li" also said: "Jade has five virtues: warm and lustrous, which resembles wisdom; sharp but not harmful, which resembles benevolence; restraint and not scratchy, which resembles righteousness; , must be seen from the outside, some are like faith; hanging like a pendant, some are like ritual."

From these verses, we can see the meaning of jade. Now that such a flawless white jade has been rewarded to Liu Bailu, the meaning it represents is even more extraordinary.

Not only was Liu Bailu moved, but Qi Peiyun kowtowed several times in succession, shouting: "The Holy One is an eternal king, rare to see through the ages, comparable to Yao, Shun and Yu soup..."

Eloquently spitting and flying for half an hour to praise the emperor.

Liu Bailu didn't know whether he should resign and go to see the Queen Mother. He looked awkwardly at the high-spirited emperor, and then at the chattering Qi Peiyun. Pretending not to see it, Liu Bailu held up the hem of her skirt and quietly kicked him with her toes.

The distance between the two was very close, and Liu Bailu's movements were small, but the emperor still saw it clearly. He coughed, covered his mouth with his fist and smiled, "You go down first."

"Yes. The concubine will leave." Liu Bailu got up, bowed his knees and took a few small steps back, then turned and left.

The emperor looked at Qi Peiyun who turned around and stared at Liu Bailu's back, and groped on the table angrily for a long time, picked up the booklet but saw that the content on it was still on the table, picked up the paperweight, it was too heavy, It would be fine to hit someone, but I was afraid that it would be troublesome to repair the hundreds of years of gold bricks. In the end, he picked up the writing brush that was just at hand and threw it down.

The soft wolf hair brushed a few points of vermilion across Qi Peiyun's face. Qi Peiyun raised his head subconsciously, and the brush flew out along the tip of his nose. The vermilion color left a big spot on the bridge of his nose and cheeks. hook.

Qi Peiyun looked down at the shining gold bricks, and couldn't help but be overjoyed: "I thank the sage for the reward!"

The emperor was angry and laughed, and finally waved his hands impatiently: "Come on, I have nothing to say to you, Xiao Jiu misses you very much, and I have said a lot of good things for you here, since you are here Just stay with him for a while."

"Yes, thank you, Your Majesty, I will leave." Qi Peiyun retreated, found a little eunuch to lead the way, and spent some money before he realized that the Ninth Prince was locked up by the emperor in order to intercede for him. He touched his nose, hehe With a smile, he jumped to the door of Minghua Hall where the Ninth Prince lived.

Several guards looked at the gate of Minghua Palace strictly, and when they saw Qi Peiyun coming, they immediately stepped forward to stop them: "Who is coming!"

"Come here to release the Ninth Prince by order of the Holy One." Qi Peiyun pointed at the big scarlet mark on his face and said.

The guards didn't know Qi Peiyun, but they recognized the little eunuch who showed him the way, and they looked at him in unison: "Is what he said true?"

"This..." The little eunuch hesitated for a moment. He was not in the palace at the time, so he didn't know what happened inside, but he heard the emperor's words that he wanted him to see the Ninth Prince, so he said carefully, "Your Majesty really asked Mr. Qi to come to see His Highness the Ninth Prince." .”

"Look, look, this is the emperor's vermilion pen! Get out of the way!" Qi Peiyun triumphantly raised his face to let them see: "Which one of you can let the emperor write on your face? Hurry up and get out of the way! "

Liu Bailu accompanied the maid leading the way to the Palace of Compassion and Ning, before he was notified, a maid in charge came out and said with a smile: "The empress dowager, Mrs. Xuan Qi, will see you."

Liu Bailu smiled and nodded to the maid: "Aunt Chixia, long time no see."

Chixia said with a smile: "Mrs. Qi, go in quickly, the empress dowager has been talking about you for a long time."

Liu Bailu stepped in, walked through the central hall with ease and entered the East Room, bowed down to the kind-hearted Empress Dowager sitting above: "Qi Liu has seen the Empress Dowager Qiansui."

"Get up quickly and let the Ai family take a look." The queen mother is now old, her body is not in good shape, and her voice is a little weak.

Liu Bailu hurriedly got up and knelt down at the Empress Dowager's feet, looked up at the mottled white hair in the Empress Dowager's hair: "The Empress Dowager."

The queen mother squinted her eyes for a while, then sighed: "The good boy went to such a place, alas... you have suffered all these years."

Liu Bailu shook his head with a smile, and there was some respect and admiration in the three-point smile and some indifference in the past: "The queen mother is serious, although the son does not talk about the father's mistakes, but it was the father who was negligent and didn't pay attention. It wasn't until the change of the former Crown Prince that there will be great chaos in the future, the so-called lax teaching and teacher laziness, even if no one else framed it, father should be punished."

The Empress Dowager stretched out her hand to pull her up, and said: "Your child is sincere in heart. It was right not to agree to my suggestion to marry the fifth child, otherwise you will not be eaten by those women in his house!"

The fifth prince had already been engaged to the fourth daughter of Cheng Guogong, the daughter of the former queen's direct sister. If the Liu family agreed to this marriage, Liu Bailu would be the side concubine. Although such a position would not humiliate Liu Bailu, it was still inferior to joining Other wealthy families are the head of the house.

Liu Bailu looked a little embarrassed. Back then, the Empress Dowager only mentioned this matter, and the only people who knew about it were them and Chixia, but she didn't expect that the Empress Dowager still remembered, and she took advantage of the opportunity to sit sideways beside the Empress Dowager: "It's from Bailu Not high, for fear of humiliating His Highness the Fifth Prince."

"You child..." The queen mother seemed a little worried, and said: "Now these grandchildren are not worried, let alone that the inner house is not safe, but the old four's house is good, but the cold face of the old four is probably not good. No woman would dare to step forward to compete for favor..."

Liu Bailu opened his mouth slightly, why did the queen mother mention this in front of her?Seeing the empress dowager's dazed expression, she couldn't help but look at Chi Xia, who shook her head at her and made a silent gesture.

Liu Bailu had to listen to these private royal affairs. After an unknown period of time, the Queen Mother seemed to be thirsty. She stopped her mouth and stretched out her hand to catch the tea that Chixia handed over. She took a sip. She looked at Liu Bailu and asked: "Where were we talking?"

Liu Bailu didn't realize it for a while, and didn't answer the conversation, but Chixia hurriedly said: "Ask Mrs. Qi how she has been at the border all these years."

"That's right, I heard that you were arrested by the Dayan tribe, but have you been bullied?" the Queen Mother asked.

This……

Liu Bailu and Chixia with an unnatural expression looked at each other, shook his head with a smile and said: "In the early years, the Dayan tribe besieged Yongkang Pass, but in the end they reaped the consequences and suffered heavy losses. Needless to say, the Ministry, so the people of the Dayan Ministry learned that Miss Du’s father was a Taoist in Kangding, so they kidnapped Miss Du to ask for food. They never made things difficult for the concubine.”

This is the result of Mr. Du's discussion with Liu Junge after he formally came to thank him. No matter what the original intentions of those people were, they insisted that they wanted to kidnap people in exchange for food and grass. What Liu Bailu suffered was just an innocent disaster. He is the target, but he is also a victim. The most important thing is that neither of them was bullied.

This is also an excellent response if someone asks about it in the future.Liu Bailu disagreed with this excuse, but after much deliberation, there was no other better excuse to explain why the eldest prince of the Dayan tribe arrested her and Du Shuang, so he had no choice but to agree.

Now that the queen mother asked, she naturally answered in the same way.

The queen mother sighed: "Is it often not good to eat at the border? I heard that you have a child. What does the child eat?"

Liu Bailu was stunned again by the queen mother's magical touch, she glanced at Chixia, and said with a smile: "It's easy for children to eat, cook a bowl of mustard noodles, crack an egg, cut some chopped green onions and order a little Soy sauce, vinegar and sesame oil can make them full."

"Isn't this noodle expensive?" The Queen Mother thought about it: "I remember that they said that the noodles I ate cost a handful of tens of taels of silver. A small handful is not enough for me to eat for ten and a half months."

Liu Bailu pursed his lips, this tribute is very expensive, not to mention that there is a lot of exploitation, maybe there is no silver at all on that side, and the silver falls into the hands of the buyer, let alone the supplier Merchants also have to give purchase rebates.

Dozens of taels of silver to buy high-quality tribute noodles is enough to eat every day for several years. Liu Bailu held the empress dowager's withered hand and said: "The concubine can't buy such expensive noodles. Yongkangguan There are some families who know how to make bearded noodles by themselves, but concubines can't, so they take the noodles and find someone to help them do it. A bag of noodles is only a dozen or so characters, and the concubine's children can eat for more than half a year. "

"I'm hungry, go and cook me a bowl of noodles." The Queen Mother suddenly licked her lower lip.

Liu Bailu's mind didn't turn the corner all of a sudden, Chixia quickly pulled Liu Bailu to lead him away, and when they arrived at the small kitchen of the Compassionate Ning Palace, Chixia drove everyone out, and personally found a box for Liu Bailu. Xu Mian said: "The queen mother is a little confused now."

"Have you seen the imperial doctor? The queen mother sometimes has a stubborn temper, and she avoids medical treatment, but this disease cannot be delayed." Liu Bailu asked in surprise, the concern in her eyes could not be concealed.

Chixia saw it, smiled and said: "Don't worry, I came out with you because I know you are worried about the Queen Mother's condition. The imperial doctor has seen it, and the imperial doctor said that this illness is not life-threatening, but gradually lost memory, and more It's easy to forget things, and if you want to talk about how to cure them, the imperial doctor can't say anything, so you can only take good care of them."

Liu Bailu obviously relaxed, took Chixia's hand, and said, "Although I know that what I say is unnecessary, I still have to trouble my aunt to take care of the queen mother."

"It's all my job." Chixia said with a smile, "Hurry up and cook the noodles, the queen mother is waiting to eat."

Liu Bailu hurriedly turned around and took a small pot and put it on the small clay stove. She hurried back and forth in the kitchen, while waiting for the water to boil, she said to Chi Xia: "Auntie, Bailu has something to ask, I don't know when it should be done." Speak inappropriately."

"Oh? Let's hear it." Chixia's complexion changed slightly, and she smiled quickly.

(End of this chapter)