195, two years
195, two years
The days of reading went on day after day, from autumn to winter, and then from winter to autumn. Time flew by, and two years passed in the blink of an eye.
In the winter of that year, a serious snowstorm occurred in Kyoto Prefecture. The snowstorm was even more severe in the north. Even the people in Kyoto Prefecture heard about it.
The emperor even got angry several times in the court over the issue of disaster relief.
Lu Mingfei was in the Imperial Academy, so he knew more about the court. The people outside only knew that the emperor lost his temper in the court, but they didn't know the reason for his anger, but they did know the reason.
The reason is that although severe snow disasters occurred in various places this year, the Ministry of Revenue was unable to provide money for disaster relief.
In his early years, the emperor was a diligent and hardworking emperor, but in recent years he had gradually become addicted to beauty and extravagant living. Even the morning court session was changed from once a day to once every three times, and now once every five days. Rumors of the emperor's favoritism towards Concubine Wan and neglect of state affairs even spread outside the palace.
The reason why the Ministry of Revenue could not provide silver for disaster relief was largely because the emperor had spent most of the court's money on building a temporary palace three years ago. Now, they could not even provide silver for disaster relief.
What a ridiculous and ironic reason!
Being in the Imperial Academy, they knew more about the palace than the outside world. In the court, besides the emperor's extravagant life, the officials in the court were also seriously corrupt and took bribes.
The floods of the past two years, for example, were caused by officials coveting the money for river embankment construction, which ultimately led to the embankment's collapse, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of people. Before the floods were over, plague struck again, and many of those who had managed to escape the floods died in the subsequent plague.
Even those in Kyoto Prefecture had heard that in some villages to the south, nine out of ten houses were now empty, and the people were living a very difficult life.
Coupled with the rampant corruption and evil officials, the people were driven to revolt. Since last year, there have been frequent rebellions by disaster victims in some places. The imperial court has repeatedly sent troops to suppress them, and many more evil incidents have occurred.
Thinking of this, Lu Mingfei felt a little confused. Is this the country and emperor he will be loyal to in the future?
Is this country worthy of his support?
Is such an emperor worthy of his loyalty?
But with the court in this state now, if there are no honest officials serving in the court, I am afraid that within ten years, the world will be in chaos.
When a nation prospers, the people suffer; when it perishes, the people suffer. Recalling this line from a Yuan Dynasty poet, Lu Mingfei felt a deep sense of helplessness. In feudal society, regardless of the nation's success or failure, it was the ordinary people who ultimately suffered.
He couldn't help but think of the era when he lived in the past. Compared with this era, the lives of the people in that era were really too happy.
However, Lu Mingfei also knew in his heart that it would take a long time and the efforts of countless generations for society to reach the civilization of the era before he came.
Snowflakes are falling quietly in the middle of the night.
Suddenly, footsteps were heard. Lu Mingfei was not surprised at all to see someone appear in front of his window.
Their eyes met, and he tilted his head to the side, motioning for Zhao Lang to come over. He also turned and walked towards the door, opened it, and let the person outside into his room. He asked, "Why are you here? It's snowing so hard outside."
The Spring Festival is just two days away. Imperial College closed for the holidays half a month ago, so he returned home to study and stopped staying at the Imperial College. So, for the time being, he's been living in this small courtyard on Chunxi Road.
His family had purchased this house two years ago, and it was now their home in Kyoto Prefecture. However, his father and mother lived with his younger brother and others at the braised food shop, so when he came back from the Imperial College, he would stay in the small courtyard here. Zhang Qi also worked with him, so the two of them spent more time here.
"I came here just because I wanted to. Do I need a reason?" Zhao Lang stood in front of the fireplace, warming himself by the fire. He looked back at the young man standing beside him and asked.
"Of course not. You, the eldest master, can go wherever you want. Why does he need a reason?" Lu Mingfei raised his head and looked at Zhao Lang, who was a head taller than him. His heart was full of envy and jealousy.
He has grown a lot in the past two years, but when he stands next to Zhao Lang, their heights are not on the same level.
After the New Year, he would be seventeen years old, and his height would be around 1.7 meters. Zhao Lang was two or three years older than him, but Zhao Lang's current height was estimated to be over 1.85 meters, almost 1.9 meters.
Over the past few years, he had watched Zhao Lang grow in stature, as if he had taken growth hormones. He had tried very hard to catch up with Zhao Lang, but he was still far behind.
Looking at Zhao Lang's height, Lu Mingfei could only comfort himself in his heart that he was still young and still growing, and he still had the chance to grow taller!
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Zhao Lang asked when he noticed Lu Mingfei's gaze on him.
"There are only two of us here. If I don't look at you, who else can I look at?" Lu Mingfei retracted his gaze and looked at the firewood burning in the fireplace.
Zhao Lang looked at the boy's beautiful profile, then turned back to look at the wood burning in the stove and asked Lu Mingfei, "It's so late at night and so cold outside. What were you looking at with the window open?"
"I was just thinking, the snow is so heavy tonight, I wonder how many people will die tomorrow morning." Having said that, Lu Mingfei couldn't help but sigh, turned around to pick up the copper kettle on the fireplace, and came over to pour a cup of hot water for Zhao Lang.
He sat down on the recliner beside the round table and motioned Zhao Lang to come over and drink some water.
Zhao Lang looked at the young man sitting there waiting for him, walked over, sat down on another recliner that was empty for him, and looked at the young man sitting opposite him.
Originally, there was only one recliner in Lu Mingfei's room, but because someone always liked to come to his house to find him, he later added another recliner to the room.
Because his parents and brothers did not live here for many years, Zhang Qi had seen and knew Zhao Lang, so Zhao Lang had no scruples when he came to see him now, and often came to his place in the evening to drink tea and chat with him.
The relationship between the two has not changed over the years, and they are still good friends who meet in the middle of the night.
"Everyone has their own destiny. You don't need to think too much." Zhao Lang picked up the cup in front of him, blew on it, and slowly took a sip of hot water.
Lu Mingfei knew very well that everyone has their own destiny. They can only control their own life and death, but not the life and death of others.
Meeting Zhao Lang's gaze, he knew that what Zhao Lang said was correct. He also knew Zhao Lang's situation in Kyoto Prefecture over the years. Even if Zhao Lang wanted to do something, he couldn't do it.
"Have you had dinner? Are you hungry? Do you want to have a midnight snack?" Knowing that this person often did not have three meals a day, he asked habitually.
"I had lunch." Zhao Lang put down the cup in his hand and looked at the young man opposite him.
"...Then wait a minute, I'll go to the kitchen and get some food." Upon hearing this, Lu Mingfei asked Zhao Lang to wait for him here. He went out alone, went to the kitchen, got some food, brought it back to the room, and placed it on the low table where they drank tea.
During this period, he came back to live here, and there was always hot food on the stove in the kitchen for him to eat whenever he wanted, so there was always hot food on the stove in the kitchen.
Today Zhang Qi brought back a basket of meat buns. He ate some and half a basket was left on the stove. Just now, when he went to the kitchen, he picked up a large bowl of meat buns and gave some to the guards outside.
There was also half a bowl of braised rabbit meat, half a plate of steamed sausage, and a small bowl of pickled radish on the table.
"These are my leftovers from dinner. Don't be disgusted by them." Lu Mingfei put the food on the table and a set of bowls and chopsticks in front of Zhao Lang, and said.
Zhao Lang picked up a bun with his chopsticks, raised his eyes to look at the young man who was speaking, and asked, "When have you ever looked at me with disdain?"
Hearing this, Lu Mingfei smiled. Prince Zhao was picky, but when he came to eat at his restaurant, he had never seen Zhao Lang complain about the food. But if he was not picky, he didn't look like one.
Zhao Lang didn't like Lu Mingfei staring at him while he was eating, so he raised his chin and motioned Lu Mingfei to pick up his chopsticks as well, "Don't just watch me eat, eat something too."
"Young Master, you still need someone to accompany you for dinner?"
Despite saying so, Lu Mingfei still picked up the chopsticks in front of him, picked up a little pickled radish and put it into his mouth, and said to Zhao Lang: "I plan to go down after the New Year and take part in the provincial examination next year."
"Well, that's good. I'll find some provincial examination papers from previous years for you later." Zhao Lang said.
"Okay." Lu Mingfei didn't refuse and said to Zhao Lang, "By the way, can you help me find out who will be the chief examiner for next year's provincial examination?"
Zhao Lang said "hmm", which was considered as his agreement.
The two of them had a late-night snack. After Lu Mingfei cleaned the table, he set up the chessboard and asked Zhao Lang to play chess with him. It was late at night, and it was still snowing outside. He didn't feel like going to Prince Ding's mansion to practice archery.
In the past two years, he has never stopped training in riding and archery. His archery skills have improved from being a novice to now. At least he can always rank among the top ten in the archery exams of the Imperial College.
In addition to this, there is also chess training, and Zhao Lang has always been his teacher.
After more than two years of time and training, he has now improved a lot on the chessboard. In the chess examination of the Imperial College, he is no longer ranked in the bottom half, but is now ranked in the front half.
However, the two fought on the chessboard, and he was defeated by Zhao Lang without a single piece of armor left.
"Thank you." Zhao Lang placed the last chess piece and looked up at the young man opposite him.
"..." Lu Mingfei glanced at himself on the chessboard, where he had nowhere to go. He put the chess piece in his hand back into the small bowl, and began to clear the chess pieces on the board. He looked at Zhao Lang and said, "One more game!"
"Not coming anymore." But Zhao Lang didn't want to get off and leaned back in the recliner.
"Come on, let's play another game." Lu Mingfei was a little unwilling to lose the previous game of chess. He felt that he was only a little bit away from winning.
In the past few years, he played chess with Zhao Lang and could win one game out of five.
"No, it's boring without a prize." The look in Zhao Lang's eyes when he looked at Lu Mingfei clearly said, you have to give me some prize before I will continue to play with you.
"..." Lu Mingfei. Author's words: Thank you Bole 9492239 (9492239) for your support, mua! To know more exciting content, please leave me a message on Liancheng Reading
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