397, the three reunited
397, the three reunited
In mid-March, outside Kyoto City, the grass was green and the birds were singing, and Lord Zhang's carriage returned to Kyoto City in a low-key manner.
When their carriage stopped at the city gate, Ye Zhuoran lifted the curtain and looked out. He turned around and said to the man sitting in the carriage, "It's been a few years since I came back. It seems that this place hasn't changed much since we left."
"Yes." Zhang Lingxuan put down the book in his hand and said seriously.
"Yes?" Ye Zhuoran asked with a puzzled look.
Zhang Lingxuan smiled and nodded. Looking at the young man who turned to look at him, he said, "On our way back, we encountered many caravans heading to Kyoto Prefecture."
"Also, there are many more people queuing up at the city gate to enter the city."
The year they left the capital, Kyoto Prefecture experienced the invasion of the Hu army, the death of the previous emperor, and the accession of the new emperor. It was a year of great chaos in Kyoto Prefecture. Therefore, merchants at that time saw the chaos in Kyoto Prefecture and did not dare to come here to trade. The merchants in Kyoto Prefecture fled, and the city was very depressed.
At the time, the court was plagued by factional strife and political corruption. Zhang Lingxuan realized that he wouldn't achieve much if he stayed in Kyoto and the Hanlin Academy. After discussing it with his good friend Lu Mingfei, he decided to follow his heart and leave Kyoto to serve as an official in the provincial government.
That year, Ye Zhuoran and he left Kyoto together to take up their posts in the provinces. For so many years, the two had been together. After they confirmed their feelings for each other, they secretly pledged their lives together and became sworn brothers.
Two years ago, they each adopted a child and told others that the child was born to a concubine.
However, when they returned to Beijing this time, they brought their two children back with them, but did not bring their concubine back.
In the few years since they left Kyoto Prefecture, they had been following the news here and had also learned about things in Beijun from letters from friends. It wasn't until last year that they received a letter from a friend asking them to return to Kyoto this year.
It just so happened that he had been in office for three years. After Zhang Lingxuan arranged the duties at hand, he took Ye Zhuoran and his two children back to Kyoto Prefecture.
On their way back to Beijing, they saw a caravan heading towards Kyoto City. During the conversation with these merchants, Zhang Lingxuan knew that Kyoto City was now under the control of the regent and the situation should have stabilized.
Otherwise, these merchants with a keen sense of smell would not have dared to run towards Kyoto City when they knew that Kyoto Prefecture was in chaos.
If we were to talk about the group of people in the world who are best at pursuing profit, it would definitely be these businessmen.
He himself was born into a merchant family, but Zhang Lingxuan never thought that merchants were inferior to others. As their good friend Lu Mingfei said, it was because of merchants that goods and money could circulate in the world.
If I have to make a metaphor, businessmen are like fish in a river. A river without fish is just a stagnant pool of water, but a river with fish is full of life.
Thinking of his good friend whom he hadn't seen for a long time, a slight smile appeared on Zhang Lingxuan's face.
"That's true." Ye Zhuoran nodded and agreed with what Zhang Lingxuan said.
Ye Zhuoran was also thinking about not seeing his friend for many years. "Now Ming Fei has become the Minister of Revenue. I wonder if we friends will have the chance to see him again."
Thinking back to the time when the three of them studied together and took the imperial examinations together, all their friends passed the exams and became officials. Only he failed the provincial examination, not even passing it. Thinking of this, Ye Zhuoran couldn't help but feel a little sad.
"Ming Fei won't do that. He's not that kind of person."
Zhang Lingxuan put his hand on Ye Zhuoran's shoulder, patted him gently, and said, "Ming Fei wrote to say that the imperial examination will be resumed this year. You should prepare when you come back and participate in this year's imperial examination."
"What if I fail the exam again?" Ye Zhuoran leaned on Mr. Zhang's shoulder and said a little unconfidently.
"How do you know you'll fail before you even take the test? Zhuoran, you have to believe in yourself. You've learned a lot and gained a lot of experience in the past few years that you've been with me.
If you fail again this time, it's definitely the examiner's fault, not yours. "It's not that Zhang Lingxuan is blindly confident in the person he loves, but that he has personally brought up Ye Zhuoran over the years, and he knows the level of Ye Zhuoran's knowledge and abilities.
If the students he personally taught could not pass the provincial examination, he didn't believe that others could pass.
As they were talking, the car that came up was immediately inspected and allowed to enter the city.
…
However, before the soldiers guarding the city could check their carriages, Zhang Lingxuan saw a man dressed like a guard take out a token, show it to the guard, and seem to say something to the general. The general waved his hand and let their carriages pass.
"Greetings, Lord Zhang, Young Master Ye. I'm the guard beside Lord Lu. My master has held a banquet at the restaurant and asked me to come and pick you up." The one who came to pick people up today was Guard Ma again.
He came forward and revealed his identity to Zhang Lingxuan and Ye Zhuoran.
He had met these two people before, but he didn't know if they still remembered him.
"Oh, you are someone close to Mingfei, right?" Zhang Lingxuan still had some impression of this groom who followed his friend.
"Yes." Guard Ma replied.
"Okay, please lead the way for us." Zhang Lingxuan was not surprised that his friend sent someone to pick them up.
After exchanging a few words with the guards who escorted them back, their carriage entered the city smoothly.
After entering the city, their team of carriages and horses split into two teams. One team of carriages carrying two children and a wet nurse and maid was escorted by guards back to the house they had purchased in Kyoto Prefecture. Zhang Lingxuan took Ye Zhuoran and followed the guide to attend a friend's banquet.
Last year, after receiving a letter from a good friend confirming that they would be returning to Beijing soon, Zhang Lingxuan asked his manager to go back to Beijing first to purchase a house to accommodate the two children. In the future, he planned to bring the two children to live with Ye Zhuoran and had no plans to go home and live with his family.
As for the matter between him and Ye Zhuoran, they had already agreed that they would explain everything to their families after returning to Kyoto Prefecture.
When they reached the upper floor of the restaurant and opened the door of the private room, they saw a familiar smiling face.
"Zhuoran, Lingxuan."
"Ming Fei!"
Lu Mingfei took a few steps forward and grabbed the hands of his two friends.
Ye Zhuoran was so happy that he rushed to his friend and hugged him. He didn't have any worries on the way back to Beijing. He was worried that his friend would become a high-ranking official and would not want him, a useless friend who couldn't even get a job.
But now that they met, he knew that all his worries along the way were unnecessary.
"I'm so happy to see you guys back!" Lu Mingfei patted Ye Zhuoran on the shoulder, looked up at Zhang Lingxuan, who was standing nearby, smiling at them, and asked, "Did your journey back to Beijing go smoothly?"
"It went smoothly, nothing happened." Zhang Lingxuan nodded and said, "On our way back, we encountered a large army that was going to suppress bandits. I chatted with their leading general for a few words and found out that they were soldiers of the Zhenbei Army."
"It just so happened that Prince Ding brought his troops to the capital, and his soldiers had nothing to do, so the Regent arranged for them to suppress the bandits." Lu Mingfei smiled while covering his mouth while saying this.
As soon as he saw Lu Mingfei's smile, Zhang Lingxuan knew there must be something fishy going on. "Is there some story here that we don't know about?"
"Let's sit down and talk slowly." Seeing that both of them were still standing, Lu Mingfei invited Zhang Lingxuan and Ye Zhuoran to sit down.
After the waiter who served the food left, he told the two of them the story.
In fact, there is nothing special about the story. He just saw that Zhao Rui was idle in Kyoto Prefecture and kept causing trouble for Zhao Lang, so he asked Zhao Lang to find an excuse to let Zhao Rui lead the troops out to suppress the bandits.
Now Zhao Lang and Prince Ding have reached an agreement.
However, there were some things that the father and son hadn't announced to the public, so outsiders thought it would be Prince Ding who would ascend the throne. Zhao Rui probably thought so too, which was why he was so reluctant to leave when he learned he was assigned to suppress the bandits.
But no matter which of the father and son becomes emperor, they will notify the princes from all over the country to attend the ceremony. This is also a test for these princes, to see which prince will change his mind and return to the court; and to see which prince is determined to commit suicide and insist on independence.
It would take at least two or three months for these princes to receive the news and rush to the capital. Therefore, the coronation ceremony of the new emperor was scheduled for early June.
Lu Mingfei did not tell his two good friends who had just returned to Beijing about some of the things here. He just picked out some things to say to his friends.
However, as clever as Zhang Lingxuan was, he still learned some information from his friend's brief words that his friend shouldn't reveal. Since his friend didn't say it directly, he wisely didn't ask.
The three of them have known each other since childhood and have been classmates for so many years. It can be said that their relationship is no less than that of brothers.
The three of them haven't seen each other for so many years. Although they have been exchanging letters, the few words in the letters can never compare to meeting in person and having so much to talk about.
Lu Mingfei briefly talked about the situation in Kyoto Prefecture and asked his two good friends how they had been doing over the years they had been away.
"We encountered some difficulties when we first went there, but Zhuoran was with me and he helped me a lot." As Zhang Lingxuan said this, he looked at the young man beside him.
When Ye Zhuoran saw Zhang Lingxuan looking at him, he smiled back at Zhang Lingxuan.
As soon as Lu Mingfei saw how the two friends interacted, he knew that Zhang Lingxuan's long-standing love had finally come to fruition. However, he didn't want to ask about their relationship.
So what they talked about later was all about local politics and economy, as well as some actions of the vassal kings... 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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