Chapter 90 The past is like smoke. Moonlight shines in from the small window and falls on the ground...
The moonlight shines in from the small window, casting a bright glow on the ground.
Mu Xue kissed the letter, spread out the paper, ground the ink, and wrote her thoughts on the paper.
Seeing you is like seeing you in person.
She picked a branch of osmanthus from the garden, put it in a small sachet, sealed it in a letter box, and asked someone to deliver it to Kulun quickly.
October: Queen Mother’s Birthday.
A grand ceremony was held in the palace. Emperor Kangxi personally led his concubines, princes, and princesses to celebrate the Empress Dowager's birthday.
"I wish my mother, the Queen Mother, a long and blessed life!"
Congratulations flooded the hall like a tide. Mu Xue, dressed in auspicious clothes, mixed in the crowd to pay her respects to the Queen Mother.
Such a loud noise was truly shocking. Mu Xue raised her eyes and looked at the empress dowager who was smiling kindly on the throne, and she felt a little emotional.
Empress Dowager Renxian, this woman from the grassland, the most noble woman of the time, seems to be lost in the crowd in the long river of history.
If she hadn't traveled through time, Mu Xue wouldn't have had any impression of Empress Dowager Renxian. Perhaps it was because the stories of the people around her were so dazzling, the famous Empress Xiaozhuang and the mournful and moving Consort Dong E, which made her look less legendary.
But such a woman's position in the palace was unshakable. For a long time, she had been like Xiaozhuang, taking care of palace affairs and even government affairs when the emperor was young, without making any noise. Her imperial decrees were as important as the emperor's orders.
Even the marriage of Muxue and Fumeng was decided by Emperor Kangxi after consulting Empress Dowager Renxian.
It can be seen that reality is more important than reputation. Mu Xue lowered her eyes and thought so in her heart.
After the audience, birthday gifts were presented one by one. Emperor Kangxi wrote a poem wishing him a long life and presented many gifts.
There were so many rare and precious treasures that the eyes were dazzled, and the ceremonial officer sang in a long and drawn-out voice.
After all, she was old and not very energetic. Apart from the birthday gifts presented by the emperor, the prince and others at the beginning, the empress dowager on the throne gradually became indifferent and just nodded and smiled.
The sunlight shines on the white marble railings in front of the main hall. The gray bricks are free of weeds. The faint scent of green grass that I used to smell as a child is now a distant thing.
She came to this magnificent Forbidden City from the grassland when she was thirteen years old. Her cousin was demoted from the Queen to Consort Jing. After a dispute between the court officials and the Emperor and the Queen Mother, she and her younger sister, Consort Shuhui, got on a horse-drawn carriage and came to the capital in a daze.
She entered the capital and then the Forbidden City. In the palace at dusk, she met her cousin who was deposed because of jealousy and incompetence.
A very beautiful woman, with slightly upturned almond-shaped eyes and an arrogant demeanor. Concubine Jing's personality was completely different from her title. When she saw herself, she sneered, "Seeing that I'm not easy to fool, I took another little one from the grassland."
She didn't know how to answer, so she just stood there in a daze, looking at the gold bricks on the ground with her head down.
Concubine Jing looked at her carefully and smiled: "You are not as pretty as me, and you look stupid. Hey - little niece, I remember your name is Namu Zhong?"
Namu Zhong nodded.
Concubine Jing pinched her chin and forced her to look up. After looking for a while, she frowned again: "But you have to be careful. They are good at bullying people."
"...Thank you very much, Madam."
"Don't call me Empress, I don't want to be Empress anymore." Concubine Jing let go of her hand, turned around and sat on the chair, crossed her legs and said, "After I avoid the limelight, I will go home, back to my grassland. Humph, I don't want to stay in this shitty place."
"But these glazed tiles and red walls are quite beautiful." Namu Zhong said slowly.
"If you like it, then you are lucky, you can watch it for the rest of your life."
In a blink of an eye, the time she had spent in the palace was more than three times that of the grassland.
At first, she was excited. A 13-year-old girl, sitting on the phoenix throne, receiving homage from the ladies inside and outside the palace, her vanity was greatly satisfied. Even so, she remembered the lesson of Concubine Jing being deposed, and would never say or do anything extra.
But her husband thought, "This is honest, but too honest, and boring." When she heard this, she felt like a needle pricked her heart.
The Shunzhi Emperor favored another woman, Dong E, who was as gentle as water. In fact, she didn't like Dong E at first. She thought her voice was too soft and thin, and she couldn't hear it clearly even if the wind was too loud. She thought she walked crookedly and not smooth at all. In short, she didn't like her at all. There were flaws in everything.
Of course, there may be a bit of jealousy involved here.
Concubine Dong E treated her very well. She was a few years older than her, and although she was nominally the empress and concubine, she treated her with respect. But the look Concubine Dong E cast at her gave her the feeling of treating her as a younger sister at home.
Once, she fell seriously ill. She was so sick that I heard that the palace had prepared a coffin for her.
It was not only her body that was ill, but also her heart. At that time, for some reason, she finally had a big quarrel with Emperor Shunzhi, who smashed a bright yellow imperial porcelain bowl to pieces.
Along with the sound of the porcelain bowl breaking, his roar rang out:
"You are not worthy of being the queen. I am going to destroy you!"
Useless? You.
Even when she was sick and groggy and unconscious, these three words were still echoing and roaring in her mind.
After Concubine Jing was deposed, her father, Prince Wu Keshan, did everything he could to get his daughter out of the palace and took her back to the grassland. Although she had to hide her identity, she was able to live the life she liked on the grassland.
However, her father was only the Duke of Khorchin and probably did not have the ability to do it.
She slept curled up there, feeling sometimes cold and sometimes hot, and it was unclear whether the liquid on her face was sweat or tears. She murmured "Eji".
She was embraced in an embrace with a cold fragrance, and a towel was placed on her forehead, gently and comfortably applying it.
It was Dong Efei who came to take care of her. She held her in her arms and said in her not-so-fluent Mongolian: "It's okay, Namu Zhong, it will be fine."
Then Dong Efei began to sing a southern tune as if she was trying to coax a child to sleep. She didn't understand what it meant, but the long melody gradually calmed her down.
It is said that before this, Consort Dong E knelt down for a long time and begged Emperor Shunzhi not to depose her, but Namu Zhong was ill and did not see it.
For five days, Dong Efei took care of her without taking off her clothes. When she was more awake, Dong Efei would tell her some stories to relieve her boredom. Namu Zhong pulled her arm and started calling her sister, which was not in accordance with the rules, but she was happy with it.
When she recovered from her illness, it was like she had a new sister in the palace.
There were also palace maids who secretly told her that Concubine Dong E was deliberately trying to win people's hearts and pretend to be like this in front of her to let her down her guard. If everyone in the palace didn't praise her for her virtue, she would be the queen in reality even though she didn't have the title.
Namu Zhong didn't answer. After a long silence, she said, "If she can really keep pretending, then what's the difference between that and the truth?"
In this palace, who knows what is true and what is false? At least, the warmth I felt during my illness is real.
But such a good woman suffered a tragic fate.
Namu Zhong saw with her own eyes how quickly Concubine Dong E withered away within two years. She first gave birth to the fourth prince after ten months of pregnancy, and suffered a lot during the delivery. She and the emperor were finally happy for the newborn prince for a while, but in the third month, the fourth prince died.
Later, within a short period of time, Dong Efei's father and brother also died one after another.
Dong Efei fell ill and could not get up.
Namu Zhong went to see her, she had a pale face, but she still insisted on greeting him. This made Namu Zhong a little angry, but seeing her haggard appearance, she couldn't say anything.
They sat quietly like this for a while, Dong Efei lying on the couch and Namu Zhong sitting beside it. After a while, Dong Efei suddenly said, "I'm afraid I don't have much time left."
Namu Zhong pursed her lips: "Aren't you afraid?"
"A little bit," Dong Efei smiled, "but I'm not afraid anymore when I think that I'll be able to see my mother, father, brother and my children soon."
She looked at Namu Zhong tenderly: "Empress, please take good care of yourself. You still have a long way to go. Don't have conflicts with His Majesty and the Queen Mother again. It's not good for you."
At the funeral of Consort Dong E, Namu Zhong cried extremely sadly. Later, when Emperor Shunzhi passed away, she was not as sad as that.
Later on, she became more and more calm, and learned from the behavior of Consort Dong E and Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang, and handled palace affairs with increasing ease.
Many years later, many things happened. After the death of the emperor's biological mother, Tong, and Empress Dowager Xiaozhuangwen, she was the most honorable person in the harem.
No one called her Namu Zhong anymore; everyone respectfully called her the Queen Mother.
"Empress Dowager, Korchin presents a white horse as a birthday gift."
Queen Dowager Inhyeon slightly opened her eyes and came back to her senses from the past. "A white horse? I also had a white horse when I was a child."
She was young and free at that time. She loved riding a white horse and leaping across the grassland aimlessly. She had no place to go and all she wanted to do was run around.
She was slightly interested in this birthday gift, and after all the gifts had been presented, she ordered someone to bring the horse over to take a look.
The ladies outside the royal court had already left according to the rules, and those who were able to follow the Empress Dowager Renxian back to the Ningshou Palace for a small gathering were all close concubines, princes' wives and princesses.
Everyone was chatting and laughing, hoping to please her.
After waiting for a while, the white horse came. It was snow-white and its mane shone in the sunlight.
Queen Dowager Inhyeon looked at it for a while, trying to compare it with the white horse in her memory, but she had already forgotten what the white horse looked like.
The white horse from the past has been dead for decades, and the girl who rode the white horse has white hair on her temples and her beauty is gone.
She stepped forward and gently stroked the white horse's mane.
"It's a good horse, but unfortunately I can't ride it anymore."
Queen Dowager Renxian glanced at the princesses beside her and called out, "Fourth Princess."
Mu Xue was hiding in the crowd when she suddenly heard the Queen Mother calling her. She walked forward in surprise.
Empress Dowager Renxian asked, "Are you better at riding now?"
“There should be some improvement.”
"Try."
Mu Xue was stunned for a moment, but still jumped onto the horse as she was told, with very smooth movements.
Queen Dowager Renxian smiled. This granddaughter is really good now. "I heard that your princess mansion is about to be built."
"Yes, the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported that it is almost completed."
"Then you can ride this horse back slowly later. It will be a gift to you."
Mu Xue was stunned, then dismounted and expressed her gratitude.
Queen Dowager Renxian said to her softly, "Everyone has their own destiny. You are the one who married the farthest away among all the princesses now. It just happened that you were caught up in the tragedy. There is nothing we can do about it. But I am very happy that you did not continue to be depressed. You still have a long life ahead of you."
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