Chapter 18 Spring Snow, Spring Tide, Spring Night Dream.
Some people said that Concubine Shen died of an acute illness, while there were rumors that she committed suicide. Some even believed that the man had given her a cup of poisoned wine.
The truth was reduced to a pile of earth, buried within the palace walls, never to be seen again. The imperial concubine, favored for thirty years, was buried with such a simple and hasty ceremony. Her only son was confined to the palace, crying and banging on the door for a full day and night. Even so, Emperor Yongchang refused to grant Prince Yu permission to see Concubine Shen one last time.
After the first month of the lunar year, people gradually stopped talking about this matter.
During the Yongchang period, people were best at keeping silent.
In February, fresh green leaves appear on the branches, yet the white snow still seems to think spring is too late. The spring snow drifts across the courtyard, like falling petals, graceful and graceful, but the chill is undiminished.
Zhou Xian put down his wolf hair brush and stretched. He leaned his chin on his hand, looking out the window, listening to the rustling of spring snow. Suddenly, he felt sleepy. He had eaten a few extra bites of braised lamb and mutton buns for lunch, and now he was feeling drowsy. It's normal to feel sleepy when you're full.
He stood up and walked around the study casually, pulling out a copy of "Drunk on the Stone" from the bookshelf, intending to take it back to the bedroom, read it before taking a nap, sleep when he felt sleepy, and have dinner when he woke up.
When someone is not at home, Zhou Xian takes over the study, reading this book today, that book tomorrow, and when she gets tired, she draws little figures on paper. Poor someone, the manuscript that he has tried so hard to hide has been repeatedly ignored by Zhou Xian and has not been found yet.
When Zhou Xian woke up from her nap, she was still half asleep. She saw someone sitting beside her bed, smiling and saying, "Princess, are you awake?"
Zhou Xian nodded. He barely woke up, slightly widened his eyes, and looked at the figure beside the couch, wondering what illness this man had.
He also knew that he was immoral. He knew the man's thoughts very well, but he allowed him to get close to him, took advantage of the man's indulgence, and occasionally acted coquettishly and pretended to be stupid to trick him into going out.
For two weeks, he went to Daxinglong Temple every three days. In the morning, he listened to the monks chanting sutras, then held his nose and ate vegetarian food in the temple. After noon, he dragged his feet on the way home, getting later and later every day. The day before, he returned a quarter later than Zhang Jinwei, but the man was not angry, nor did he ask questions. After all, the Jinyiwei were following him, so there was no need to worry too much.
Thinking of this, Zhou Xian poked the man's shoulder with her finger and pretended to complain: "You are blocking my way, my dear Prince Consort. I need to go have dinner!"
The red nail polish he had just dyed was pressed against the man's indigo skin, like petals falling on the water.
Zhang Jinwei smiled, grabbed his hand, and asked, "When did you get your nails done?"
"Guess." Zhou Xian felt that this man's eyes should be blind or not, but he was always blind when he shouldn't be blind. He had wrapped his hands with cloth all night last night, but this man didn't notice it. He didn't know whether he was pretending to be blind or pretending to be stupid.
Of course it's all fake.
Zhang Jinwei held his wife's hand and whispered, "I can't guess, I just know it looks good."
"Do you have something to say to me?" Zhou Xian was in a hurry to eat, but this man didn't move and kept holding him back. He must have something to say.
"Liu Renfu came to the Hanlin Academy today." Zhang Jinwei said.
Zhou Xian was puzzled.
Zhang Jinwei sighed, "The princess has been coming home later and later these days. I don't mind, as long as you have fun. But the one in the palace doesn't seem too happy..."
So that's what it was.
Zhou Xian pretended to be obedient: "I will go early and come back early tomorrow."
"You don't have to come back too early." Zhang Jinwei took his hand and walked towards the dining room, smiling like a big-tailed wolf. "It's good to be a little earlier than me. Just pretend. After a few days, he will be busy and will probably have no time to take care of you. Princess, just remember to be home for dinner."
He spoke as if he could deal with the person in the palace.
Zhou Xian thought that it would be better to behave himself recently. If he showed his true colors, all the preparations of several months would be wasted.
There are still two months until Buddha's birthday, so he is not in a hurry.
…
Dinner was still roasted lamb, plus a leg of deer.
Speaking of the deer leg, it was a gift from the palace, and Zhou Xian was given ten pounds of venison. He didn't like it, finding it pungently fishy, and because of his frail constitution, he didn't dare indulge in any supplements. He had originally planned to have Lao Jiang stew the deer leg and share it with everyone, but then he remembered that Zhang Jinwei hadn't tried it yet. So he reserved one leg and dry-roasted it over charcoal, slicing it thinly as he did so. He then sipped it with a warming Huadiao wine and ate it slowly under the spring snow in the courtyard.
The room, warm as summer from the charcoal fire, was halfway through Zhou Xian's meal when he felt the heat rising. His cheeks flushed, and a thin layer of sweat formed on his forehead. He pressed his handkerchief against his forehead and grumbled softly, "I'm dizzy from the heat, and the food on the table is making me sick the more I look at it. Qianshan, go open the window and get some fresh air."
"The princess feels that meat is too greasy. Ask Lao Jiang to cook a table of pure vegetarian dishes tomorrow, just like the ones in Daxinglong Temple, such as vegetarian noodles and vegetarian Dongpo pork. I guarantee that the princess will miss meat very much!" Qianshan ran to open the window and turned around and said with a smile.
Zhou Xian was so angry at this girl that he choked. He called out to Yu Xi, "Aunt, you've spoiled this girl! Make her eat vegetarian food for a month!"
Everyone laughed.
Zhang Jinwei ate the roasted meat wrapped in thin pancakes. He was tired of all the meat, so he ate a few pancakes and then put down his chopsticks, leaving the venison sizzling on the charcoal. He laughed and said, "I wonder how the vegetarian food at Daxinglong Temple tastes. I remember that the vegetarian food at the temples in Suzhou Prefecture was very good. They used seasonal bamboo shoots, three kinds of mushrooms, and vegetarian chicken. Although it was purely vegetarian, it was no worse than the meat."
I haven't eaten it, so I don't know.
Zhou Xian glanced at the man coldly, thinking that the vegetarian food at Daxinglong Temple tasted like pig food. But he said, "It's okay, but it's not something you can't eat."
That's hard to swallow.
Zhang Jinwei took a sip of wine and saw the girl's chopsticks moving around in all directions, not touching the venison. He asked with a smile, "Princess, don't you like venison?"
"I don't really like it," Zhou Xian said. "It's fishy and hot."
hot.
Deer meat is warm in nature and belongs to the spleen and kidney meridians.
You really can't eat too much of this.
That night, Zhang Jin lay awake, sweating profusely from the heat all over his body. Beside him, the little liar slept peacefully, his hands and feet tucked into his blanket as usual. He pressed against that soft spot, his breath stuttering for a moment, then touched the cold golden ankle bell, bringing him back to consciousness.
Not good.
He suddenly remembered a certain imperial censor. It was rumored that he had feasted on venison, then, at night, became energetic and furious, writing a ten-thousand-word memorial impeaching Chen Yi and his son. This story soon became legendary. Ordinary people, when eating venison, would only think about that kind of thing. Zhang Jin, who prided himself on being a decent person, certainly couldn't pull off such a feat as writing a document in the middle of the night.
Besides, there was someone lying next to him.
After a long period of wandering thoughts, his mind gradually became blurred, but his body became increasingly hot. This heat seemed to melt the spring snow and ice, gathering into a rolling spring tide that poured into his dreams.
It began as an elegant dream. He hazily returned to early spring in the south of the Yangtze River, to the Thirty-Six Ponds of Spring Water, the misty mountains and fields, the shimmering waters. He walked along the lakeshore, as he had for so many years, on his way to his teacher's house.
But he could not reach the end. The old man said that he had encountered a monster. He could not help but smile bitterly in his heart. He was poor and not favored by thieves. He only had a body that could attract the monster's attention.
He was tired from walking, so he leaned against an old willow tree on the bank to rest. Suddenly, he saw the willow tree slanting out, with green silk hanging down on the water, hiding a vague figure.
Water birds, pedestrians, or... monsters?
He was afraid of startling the other party, so he gently pushed the branches aside with his hands, and then his breathing stopped.
hot.
It’s still very cold in early spring, why is it so hot?
A young girl sat on the branch of an old willow tree leaning over the water. Her face was pale, small, and her lips were rosy. Her eyes, shimmering with the water's color, were filled with a shimmering brilliance. Her long black hair fell on the surface of the water. She was wrapped in a half-drenched, half-skinned white gauze dress. The curve of her calf was gentle, and the golden ankle bell on her ankle swayed slightly.
It is a monster living in the mountains who is ignorant of worldly affairs.
Zhang Jinwei was stunned for a moment, then he gritted his teeth, took off his raincoat, and regardless of the biting cold spring water, he quickly walked to the girl, pulled her into his arms, and wrapped her tightly in the raincoat.
The girl looked at him as if he were a fool.
"Aren't you cold?" Zhang Jinwei sighed. "Your hands and feet are usually cold, and now you don't wear proper clothes and you're soaking in the lake. Aren't you afraid of taking medicine?"
The girl said, "What are you doing here? I want to talk to the monks from Daxinglong Temple. You're so annoying!"
Zhang Jinwei laughed in anger: "Are you going to become a nun?"
The girl said, "Yeah."
Zhang Jin was irritated. In his dreams, he wasn't a completely upright man. His hidden desires were exposed, and he realized he was a petty, calculating person. As a child, he had nothing; everything he ate and wore came from others. To say he wasn't jealous was a lie. Now, he had everything he needed, and he would have everything he didn't have in the future. He grew ever more ambitious, both for his career and for his wife.
Of course, there is everything in dreams.
He kissed the girl's lips, soft and sweet. He wondered if she had eaten pastries before bed again. Her tongue was even softer than her lips, and he bit it gently. The hand holding the girl's waist felt an itch, and it turned out to be a furry tail. He opened his eyes and saw that the girl's cat ears were exposed from his kisses.
It really is a little cat demon.
Zhang Jin was feeling overwhelmed by the heat. He wanted to kiss his cat again, but suddenly he trembled all over and suddenly his mind cleared up, finally waking up from his chaotic dream. Just as he wanted to breathe a sigh of relief, his body froze again, and he felt extremely embarrassed.
It’s better not to wake up.
He quietly moved away from the person next to him, forcing himself to calm down, or simply going out to get some cold air. This way, all the romantic thoughts would disappear. If he was discovered... it would be really offensive and rude.
Turning around, I met the pair of sparkling eyes in my dream.
Zhou Xian's eyes would emit a faint light at night. It wasn't noticeable, but if you happened to catch a glimpse of them in the darkness, it would inevitably make you feel uneasy.
Zhang Jin calmed down a bit after being frightened, but the embarrassment still persisted. He asked helplessly in a low, hoarse voice, "Princess, can't you sleep either?"
"I had a dream." Zhou Xian was still half asleep, her voice soft and light, like a feather scraping against someone's body. "I was woken up by the people inside."
"I had a dream, too." Zhang Jinwei smiled, "and woke up for no apparent reason."
After a long silence, there was a faint sound outside the house, perhaps a mouse, or perhaps the sound of things sprouting.
Are you asleep?
Zhang Jin wanted to breathe a sigh of relief and quietly get up to calm down, but the little liar suddenly said, "What dream?"
What dream?
What kind of dreams can one have on a spring night?
Nature is a romantic dream.
Zhang Jin lied to him: "I dreamed of something unpleasant."
Zhou Xian spoke haltingly: "I also dreamt about...annoying..."
He dreamed that he was going to become a monk, but he didn't understand why. After all, dreams don't make sense. The day before he was to become a monk, he was suddenly locked up. The man refused to let him become a monk, crying and making a fuss. He was very rude and annoying.
After a while, Zhang Jin tiptoed out of the bedroom to make sure Zhou Xian was asleep. His body was blown by the cold wind, and the coldness finally subsided.
Mu Xue, who was keeping watch nearby, was dozing off. Startled by his movements, she asked dazedly, "Master, you got up really early today..."
"I can't sleep, so I came out for a walk." Zhang Jinwei smiled at her politely.
Mu Xue did not doubt him and nodded: "Oh, then, Master, be careful not to catch a cold. I will go get you a cloak."
Zhang Jinwei waved his hand: "It's okay."
After saying that, he walked along the corridor to the study and lit the lamp. He saw the fox fur cloak that the man often wore draped over the armchair. The table was a little messy, with a half-finished flower and bird painting and a half-eaten mung bean cake on it... He didn't like maids and servants to mess with his study, so he always did the cleaning himself, so there were traces of that man everywhere.
He sighed deeply, feeling worried. Today, Liu Renfu came to see him. Besides asking him to take good care of the princess, he also mentioned another thing -
Prince Yu is seriously ill and may not be able to go, so he wants to see Princess Jiayi.
He didn't want his wife to meet him.
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