Chapter 11: Chanting the Buddha's name may seem like a Buddhist scripture at first glance, but upon closer inspection, it is a romantic book. ...
Liu Renfu said, "Princess Jiayi has been married to Zhang Jin for over half a month. I heard that they initially slept in separate rooms, which caused some gossip. But after a few days, they slept together again, and no one dared to gossip anymore."
The old man said "hmm" lightly when he heard this, and motioned Liu Renfu to continue.
Liu Renfu lay on the ground, motionless. "There's not much else worth talking about. It's just that a young eunuch on duty in the Imperial Garden said he saw Prince Yu pestering Princess Jiayi who had just returned to the palace—"
"Nonsense!" The old man threw the letter in his hand, and a red flush appeared on his face. He was obviously very angry, and I don't know who he was scolding for being nonsense.
"Your Majesty, please calm down, calm down." Liu Renfu knew he had touched the old man's sore spot and quickly said, "What Prince Yu did was indeed wrong. When I heard about it, I immediately asked the people from the East Factory to keep an eye on you two. If they hadn't kept an eye on you, I wouldn't have known that Prince Yu would bow his head. I went to the top scholar's residence this morning to apologize!"
"Apologize... humph," the old man said grimly, "He's just afraid that this will get to me, and he won't be able to explain himself! He's been so complacent over the years, and he's stretched his hands too far. Does he really think I'm old and confused and can't see what he's up to?"
Liu Renfu lay there obediently, keeping quiet. The princes were also a big worry for the old man. Everyone in the court and the country was secretly guessing who would be the crown prince, but only this group of old eunuchs knew it all clearly and never said a word.
The old man raged for a moment, then lowered his head to review the memorials. Smoke from the incense burner swirled, and the old man frowned and waved it away. The eunuchs and palace maids beside him immediately knelt forward and silently replaced the incense.
When the fifth watch sounded, the old man stood up tremblingly, his body hunched and his face pale. Liu Renfu hurried forward to support him, crying, "Your Majesty, take care of yourself!"
The old man ignored him and asked, "Big Buddy, do you know what the most regrettable thing in the world is?"
Liu Renfu squeezed out two tears and said, "I only know that if Your Majesty is not well, it will be the most regrettable thing in the world."
The old man was laughed at by him: "You!"
Liu Renfu also laughed, but tears were streaming down his face as he laughed.
"The most regrettable thing in the world is a son who is not as good as his father." The old man patted the shoulder of the eunuch who had been his lifelong companion and sighed, "Of all my good sons, not a single one can inherit the throne! My dear companion, at the morning court later, tell the cabinet to put this matter on hold for a few days."
"I obey your command."
The old man's eyes were filled with desolation. He said softly, "Be good, celebrate the New Year first..."
…
There are still ten days until the Chinese New Year.
The Buddhist hall was renovated for more than half a month. The chosen location was an empty room in the backyard facing north and south. Now it has taken shape. All that’s left is to go to Daxinglong Temple to invite the statue of Guanyin Bodhisattva.
He Er was a temporary laborer hired to repair the Buddhist temple. He was skilled in carpentry and had built temples for several ladies in the capital, but this was his first time working on a princess's. He couldn't help but wonder what this princess of Daning looked like.
Normally, it would be inconvenient for the women of the inner house to see a man like him, but building a Buddhist temple was a big deal, and the princess was personally responsible for it, so she had to see him. So He Er took the opportunity and waited in front of the nearly completed Buddhist temple, waiting for the princess to come and take a look.
First there was the sound of soft footsteps, then the laughter of maids, the scent of incense on the women's bodies and jasmine hair oil on their hair, and the lively and bustling crowd rushed towards the Buddhist temple and pounced on He Er.
One girl laughed, "How could our princess be so contented as to chant Buddha's name? She copied chapters from a storybook and mixed them in with the Diamond Sutra and the Ksitigarbha Sutra. She recited Buddhist scriptures while glancing at the storybook. She read a page and burned it. I bet the Buddha has almost read the entire storybook!"
The girls burst into laughter.
At this time, a young girl's angry voice was heard: "Qianshan, don't say anymore! If you say it again...if you say it again, I will ask my aunt to slap you in the face!" The voice was soft, with a special, slightly hoarse ending, which made people feel numb all over. There was no trace of majesty in it.
The girls were not afraid of the threat of being slapped at all and laughed so hard that they were shaking with laughter.
He Er was kneeling on the ground with his head down to avoid suspicion, but when he heard this, he secretly raised his eyelids and saw several pairs of embroidered shoes of various colors. One of them had a horse-faced skirt that was so long that it reached the ground. He must have thought it belonged to Princess Jiayi.
He looked carefully and saw that she was wearing a horse-faced skirt with a white butterfly pattern and a lake blue satin fox fur cape. The girls were busy teasing each other, so he continued to look at her boldly.
The princess, holding an enameled porcelain heater, had a small, pointed chin and was a beautiful woman with cat-like eyes like dewy peach blossoms, upturned at the corners, and thick, curly eyelashes. Her slender eyebrows were furrowed in anger, a subtle charm between them.
"What are you looking at?" A tall maid caught a glimpse of He Er's little action and immediately said angrily, "If you look at me again, you bastard, I'll dig your eyes out!"
He Er knew when to stop, and quickly lowered his head, begging for mercy: "Auntie, I won't do it again! I just accidentally saw the princess and thought she was a fairy. I couldn't recover for a while. Please forgive me, I kowtow to the princess and apologize!"
After saying this, he began to kowtow loudly.
"Come on, get up now." The princess glanced at him with her cat-like eyes and said calmly, "Take me to the Buddhist temple."
He Ergang's heart dropped back into his stomach. He thought these dignitaries wouldn't bother with him, as they were used to peeping at ladies. Besides, they were just looking, he never touched them. He still kowtowed and said, "Thank you, Princess! You are kind-hearted and worthy of being a vegetarian and a Buddhist. I wish you a long and healthy life!"
Eat vegetarian food and chant Buddhist scriptures.
Zhou Xian withdrew his gaze and thought silently. He hated vegetarianism and wanted to eat meat. It was almost lunchtime, so he had to finish his visit to the Buddhist temple and eat in the main hall.
The Buddhist hall was just like that: a shrine, a long table for offerings, kneeling mats... everything else, all standard features, nothing much to say. Zhou Xian walked around and turned to Qianshan beside him. "Tell them to build a few more long cabinets to store the copied Buddhist scriptures."
Qianshan agreed, paused, and muttered, "Are you really not using this to keep the storybook privately?"
"You talk too much today!" Zhou Xian was a little annoyed and angry.
Qianshan covered his mouth and laughed, and stopped exposing his princess's shortcomings, otherwise he would really make her angry and it would be difficult to appease her.
She accompanied the princess out of the Buddhist hall and all the way to the main hall. After settling the princess down, Qianshan ran out again, grabbed a servant, and ordered, "Take your men and teach that temporary worker named He a lesson these days. Don't hit him too hard, just make him glare! Fortunately, the princess didn't take it too seriously. If he meets a master with a bad temper in the future, he might lose his life!" How could the servant dare to disobey? He quickly agreed.
While Qianshan and the servant were plotting a beating for He Er, Zhou Xian sat at the table, warming his hand by the incense burner. Wang Xiang, noticing him approaching, leaned down and whispered in his ear, "This morning's court session was peaceful; no one mentioned the Jiangsu and Zhejiang cases."
Zhou Xian merely raised an eyebrow at this, unsurprised. With the year drawing to a close, everyone wanted to enjoy a good year, even his father, the supreme ruler. Though emperors were known to be ruthless, they still cherished that faint bond of kinship. But the people of Jiangsu and Zhejiang suffered greatly, their fields seized, their crops barren, their cries to heaven and earth availing them no response. Who would care for their kindness?
"After the New Year, some people will be miserable." Zhou Xian was not in a hurry. He turned his gaze to the nearby area and saw the maids carrying plates and starting to set out the dishes. He then changed the subject and asked, "What dishes do we have today?"
It wasn't Aunt Yuxi who replied, but the wife of the cook, Lao Jiang. Everyone called her "Lao Jiang's," but Zhou Xian followed Zhang Jin's lead and called her "Aunt Cui." Aunt Cui smiled and said, "Princess, I stewed pork elbows with rock sugar today. It's very soft and mushy. Brother Jin loves it the most. I've sent it to him. Princess, please try it too."
It is interesting to say that the servants who came in with Zhou Shan all called Zhang Jin "Prince Consort"; those who came into the mansion a few days ago called him "Sir"; and those who accompanied him all the way from Suzhou to the capital called him "Brother Jin".
Zhou Xian loves to talk to Aunt Cui.
Though illiterate and somewhat gruff, this woman easily endeared herself to others. Cui Yi was a fiery, outspoken woman, having traveled extensively in her youth and gained a wealth of knowledge, often speaking directly. Zhou Xian described her as a lively, enthusiastic person; who wouldn't enjoy talking to someone who was popular?
For example, right now.
"Why does the Prince Consort always like to eat these sticky foods?" Zhou Xian teased someone. "A few days ago it was stewed four-happiness meatballs, and today it's pork elbow. When others saw it, they thought it was some old man from some family!"
Aunt Cui smiled and said, "That's just Jin'er's habit. Back then, when he was poor and couldn't afford the private school fees, he'd ask Lao Jiang to make him a big pork elbow, stewed until it melted in a sip. After he ate the elbow, he'd sit down at the table and start writing quickly. Within a few days, he'd finished an article and earn his writing fees. Over time, it became a habit."
"Earning a fee for writing?" Zhou Xian was stunned. "What kind of articles does he write?"
As Aunt Cui served the dishes, she said, "What else could it be? Of course it's one of those popular chapter books. I heard that Brother Jin's was very popular back then!"
I wouldn't have seen it myself...
Zhou Xian suddenly felt subtly embarrassed. He remembered the banned book he had asked someone to bring to him a few years ago. The book was popular in the Jiangnan area and its content was spicy and bold, covering both romantic affairs and criticizing current affairs, which made him particularly fond of it.
He silently lowered his head and ate the pork elbow. It was indeed soft, sweet and greasy, and just right to eat with rice.
There is absolutely no such coincidence in the world!
As night fell, Zhou Xian was copying Buddhist scriptures at his desk, just to keep things simple. He had listened to Aunt Cui's words at noon and couldn't help but overthink things, but seeing Zhang Jinwei's upright face that evening, he dismissed the idea.
There was no one around, and Aunt Yuxi was making the bed in the inner room. He quietly took out a book with "Diamond Sutra" written on the cover, but when he opened it, it turned out to be some unspeakable banned book.
Zhou Xian carefully recalled Zhang Jinwei's palace examination essay, remembering only its brilliant and elegant parallelism, a stark contrast to the lively and straightforward language of the banned texts. He knew that many high-ranking officials in the court wrote official documents while also embracing a profusion of prose and poetry. However...
"The princess is practicing calligraphy?"
A man's gentle voice suddenly came out. Zhou Xian closed the book with a snap and looked thoughtful, as if he was wondering whether his handwriting was beautiful.
Zhang Jinwei walked to the table, rested one hand on it, and said with a smile: "Your handwriting is really good. The strokes are simple, vigorous, and steady, yet elegant and graceful. If the Buddha saw it, he would definitely like it very much."
"Your Excellency, your compliment is too great." Zhou Xian, still in shock, forced a smile. "It's just a token of my sincerity. My writing is average. I just hope the Buddha will accept it."
Zhang Jinwei continued, "I heard from them that the Buddhist temple is almost finished. After the New Year, Princess, will you go to the temple to invite the Buddha back to your residence?"
"I asked my aunt to visit Master Huiming of Daxinglong Temple, and went to the temple to pray to Guanyin Bodhisattva on the 16th day of the first lunar month." Zhou Xian said with a smile on his face and a smile on his face.
Asking Buddha for help is the most important part of Zhou Xian’s plan.
His mother had some connection with Master Huiming, so he could contact him in the name of "inviting the Buddha". On the eighth day of April next year, the Buddha's birthday, the monks from Daxinglong Temple would go outside the city to give alms, and he would follow them on the grounds of sincerity, and then pretend to disappear.
It's not too meticulous, but there are opportunities and a way out.
Zhang Jinwei nodded and said, "Okay."
He deliberately pretended not to see the paper at the bottom, leaving only a corner exposed, which read "...the lewd old man meets the clever woman..." He knew the plot by heart.
It’s really strange. Wasn’t his “The Story of the Treasure Mirror” banned?
How did it get into the palace?
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