Chapter 31 (Catching Bugs) Do you want to climb over the wall?...

Dusk fell, and all the shops on the main street of the Protectorate were closed. Only the two lanterns in front of the Protectorate were still emitting a fist-sized light in the night.

A guard in plain clothes entered the house with a letter, saying that he had something to give to Xing Yao, Feng Shuo's constant companion.

He was of low status and naturally had no qualifications to meet Feng Shuo directly.

The servant in the mansion said that he came at the wrong time. "Guard Xing followed the prince to suppress the Turkic army that attacked Dingjia Village a few days ago. I'm afraid he won't be back until tomorrow morning." The guard

didn't dare to leave. He was ordered to secretly monitor the cook surnamed Jiang. He intuitively told him that the letter in his hand to be sent to the capital was extremely important. He was afraid of delaying the information, so he stood in the corridor and waited.

A group of people walked slowly from the other end of the corridor. The woman in the lead was wearing a lilac vine pattern bodice, a goose yellow skirt, and a jade bracelet of the best water color on her hand. She looked quite proud, and it was obvious that she had an extraordinary status in the mansion. The maids behind her were holding gold and jade bowls and plates in their hands. Some of the food on the plates was only touched once, and some were not touched at all.

When the servant saw the woman, he called her warmly, "Aunt Fangqing."

The woman was beautiful, but she was only in her twenties. Since he called her "Aunt," she must have come from the palace. The guard lowered his head and didn't dare to look at her. Fangqing

was the head maid of the Grand Empress Dowager. In the mansion, apart from the masters, only Nanny Song and the old housekeeper were taller than her.

When she saw the guard dressed like that, she asked, "Why is there a man from outside the mansion?"

The servant hurriedly said, "He's here to do work for the prince. He said there are important letters that must be handed over to Guard Xing in person."

Fang Qing immediately scolded, "It's rude! The Grand Empress Dowager lives here, how can a man from outside the mansion stay overnight!"

As soon as she brought up the Grand Empress Dowager's name, the servant and the guard were frightened. The guard hurriedly said, "Auntie, calm down. I'll go to the gate of the mansion to wait for the prince."

The autumn air was getting stronger day by day, and the night wind was biting. If you waited in the corridor inside the mansion, you could still avoid the wind, but if you waited outside the mansion, you would have to blow in the cold wind all the time.

When Fang Qing heard that this was a letter that was to be handed over to Feng Shuo by Xing Yao, something flashed through her eyes, and she said to the guard: "Give me the letter, and I will pass it to Guard Xing for you."

The guard hesitated. He was able to work under Feng Shuo, so he naturally knew whether important things could be passed through other people's hands.

Seeing that he didn't say anything, Fang Qing's eyebrows and eyes were fierce, and she shouted: "Are you still worried that I will break my promise?"

After all, she was someone who came out of the palace. Once this momentum came out, how could the guard resist it? He quickly handed the letter over: "Thank you, aunt."

Fang Qing took the letter and left with a few maids in a haughty manner. The guard was afraid of getting into any more trouble, so he left quickly.

After walking a long way, Fang Qing took a quick look at the letter in her hand, and could barely recognize from the big word "Dou" in small calligraphy that it was sent to the capital. She didn't care where the letter came from or what it was related to, but was secretly happy that she had another reason to get close to Feng Shuo.

A cold wind blew, and the lantern under the corridor was shaken, and the figure swayed with it.

Fang Qing glanced at the dark night: "It's this hour, I wonder if the prince has had dinner yet..."

The maid behind her knew what she was thinking, and said: "The prince has gone to pay tribute to the Turkic army, I'm afraid he hasn't had time to eat yet. Sister Fang Qing, you spent so much time preparing lunch at noon, why do you say that it was Nanny Song who asked the kitchen to prepare it for the prince?"

Fang Qing pretended to be angry and glared at the maid: "After all, it's for the prince's good. What's the difference between saying that I made it and saying that Nanny Song asked the kitchen to make it?"

The maid said . He joked, "Of course there is a difference. The prince has had no one to know the temperature for so many years. When you come, sister Fangqing, won't there be someone to know the temperature?"

Fangqing was delighted by these words, but she scolded, "Who gave you the courage to make trouble for the master? I just hope that the queen can get better soon, and don't do it again like this afternoon, when the prince went to pay his respects and the queen almost hit her forehead with a teacup..."

If it weren't for this reason, the prince would never leave the house without eating. It was

a cold night with heavy dew. Fangqing didn't go back to her room to rest, but went to the kitchen to make soup, while asking the little maid to keep an eye on the movement at the gate.

When Feng Shuo returned home, it was past midnight.

Fang Qing got the letter from the maid, and heard that Feng Shuo was in the study, so she quickly put the letter in her pocket and went over with the cooked soup.

However, she was stopped by the guards at the door of the study, "The study is a restricted area, no one is allowed to enter without permission!"

The guards following Feng Shuo were not like the servants in the mansion. They all looked indifferent, and did not give her, a popular figure in front of the Grand Empress Dowager, any face.

Fang Qing was a little embarrassed: "I came to bring supper to the prince."

The guards refused coldly: "The prince never eats after the evening hour."

This bowl of soup was boiled in vain. Fang Qing was embarrassed and unwilling. She wanted to say that she had a letter to present to Feng Shuo, but she was afraid that the guards would ask her to hand the letter to him directly. After thinking it over, she said, "I have something to report to the prince in person regarding the Grand Concubine."

The guard went in to pass the message and came out soon, letting Fang Qing in.

Fang Qing was overjoyed and hurriedly carried the soup bowl in her hand.

Five candles were lit on the high-foot candlestick, illuminating the area in front of the desk.

The man inside was frowning and writing something under the candlelight. There were still dried bloodstains on his armor, and his whole body was full of arrogance and aggressiveness after just experiencing a fight, making people dare not look directly at him.

There was a piece of broken ice and snow in those cold eyes, and a drop of blood splashed under the corner of his eye looked like a small cinnabar teardrop, which made his whole face look charming.

Fang Qing heard the sound of her heartbeat speeding up. She looked at Feng Shuo infatuatedly and forgot her words for a while.

Feng Shuo hadn't heard Fang Qing speak for a long time, and raised his eyebrows impatiently. When he saw her expression, the aura around him turned cold, "How is my mother?"

Fang Qing was startled back to her senses by this chilling voice, and she stuttered and told him what dishes the Grand Concubine had eaten tonight.

Seeing Feng Shuo's gloomy face, Fang Qing knew that she would probably anger him if she asked for an audience under the guise of the Grand Concubine, so she quickly put the soup bowl on the low table beside her and took out the letter from her pocket: "Someone came into the mansion at night and asked me to give this letter to the prince."

Feng Shuo stopped writing, his eyes like ice knives swept towards Fang Qing, and the corners of his delicate lips raised a sarcastic arc, and he snorted softly.

He said nothing, but Fang Qing only felt that her legs were shaking so much that she could hardly stand, and she felt cold from head to toe.

Xing Yao frowned and looked at Fang Qing. He knew that she had violated the master's taboo. First, she entered the study under the pretext of being the Grand Concubine, and now she took the letter sent by the informant by some unknown method. If she had not been the Grand Concubine's maid, the master would have ordered her to be dragged out and beaten to death.

Feng Shuo said coldly: "If my people don't even know who to give things to, then there is no need for them to live."

Fang Qing's face was panicked. She didn't expect that the matter would be so serious.

When she was in the palace, as the Grand Concubine's maid, she had naturally handled all the confidential letters. She thought she could also be treated like that by Feng Shuo, but now she realized that she was wrong.

Fang Qing knelt down as soon as her knees softened, and begged with trembling lips: "Prince, I swear that I have never read this letter. This letter has been like this since it was handed to me. I...I couldn't bear to see the person who came to deliver the letter waiting in the middle of the night, so I decided to present it to you on his behalf. Please forgive me this time for the many years I have served the Grand Empress Dowager..." When

Feng Shuo heard her say this, his eyes became colder, and a sneer formed on his lips: "If it weren't for your mother, do you think you can still kneel here and talk now?"

Hearing this, Fang Qing's face lost all color, and even though she was kneeling, she was shaking like a sieve.

Feng Shuo asked her coldly: "How did this letter get into your hands?"

Fang Qing then told the truth with a trembling voice.

Feng Shuo's eyes were colder, and his face was full of sneers: "After leaving the palace, don't you even know how to be an obedient dog? You can even reach out to me, who gave you the courage?"

Fang Qing regretted her decision and kowtowed like a garlic: "Prince! I know I was wrong! I was just worried that you didn't have dinner, so I wanted to send you a cup of soup..."

Feng Shuo's eyes were full of coldness and disgust: "Next time you use your mother as an excuse, you don't have to keep your tongue."

"Drag him away and give him thirty strokes of the cane."

The guards at the door of the study immediately entered the room to drag people away, and Xing Yao stepped forward and took the letter from Fang Qing's hand.

In Feng Shuo's position, he received countless secret letters every day. If the matter was serious, there would be a secret mark on the secret letter.

Xing Yao saw that there was no secret seal on the letter, so he thought it was just an ordinary letter, and it would not be too late to reply in three to five days.

He put the letter in the corner of the desk, and sorted the pile of letters on the desk that had not been sorted out according to whether they had secret seals.

The large pile of letters without secret seals were all placed on Jiang Yanyi's letter, and these could be replied to temporarily. The urgent secret letters with secret seals were placed in another pile, and those had to be replied to within two days.

When the old housekeeper Fu Xi made tea and brought it to Feng Shuo, he saw Fang Qing being gagged and caned in the yard.

He shook his head secretly, Fang Qing's thoughts could not be hidden from his eyes. It was just that he saw that she was doing her duty on weekdays and never overstepped anything, so he didn't punish her. Who would have thought that she would do such a stupid thing today.

After he finished refilling Feng Shuo's tea in the study, he advised: "Prince, the mansion must have a mistress to be decent. You are twenty-two now."

He was originally a eunuch in the palace, and his voice was sharper than that of ordinary people.

Women in the Daxuan Dynasty usually got engaged before they reached the age of marriage, and men also got engaged before they reached the age of twenty, unless the family was in mourning, which would delay it for a few years. It was rare for a prince like Feng Shuo to not even have a maid to warm his bed at this age. In

the early years, when the young emperor had not yet succeeded to the throne, many court officials criticized him for this. Some even spread rumors directly, saying that Feng Shuo had a feminine appearance and might have a male-male relationship.

There were many powerful and noble people in the capital who liked to molest boys, but they also had beautiful wives and maids in their mansions. Feng Shuo was alone from the beginning to the end, and the rumors became more and more outrageous, saying that he was no different from those young prostitutes in Nanfeng Pavilion, and even made up stories about his affair with his generals, which were very convincing.

In the end, the rumors stopped and no one in the capital dared to spread them anymore because Feng Shuo used extremely violent means to cut off the tongues of those who made up the rumors and sent them to Nanfeng Pavilion for a romantic affair.

He verified the rumors on those people in the same way as they made up rumors about him.

Several court officials who spread rumors died directly in Nanfeng Pavilion. The whole court was shocked for a while, but no one dared to say anything.

The old emperor was bedridden and could no longer restrain him. If it weren't for the last iron chain tied to his neck by the Grand Concubine, the new emperor would not have been able to sit on the throne.

It was also because he had acted too cruelly and violently in those years, and the new emperor was about to take the throne, that the famous nobles in the capital did not dare to promise their daughters to him.

They were afraid that their daughters would suffer under his rule, and they were even more afraid that their family would become the target of oppression after the new emperor took the throne.

After Fu Xi finished speaking, he did not hear Feng Shuo respond, and could not help but sigh: "If there is no candidate for the principal wife that you like, you can appoint a concubine first."

Feng Shuo, who was originally reading official documents at his desk, stopped writing when he heard this, and his eyebrows were all frosty: "There will only be one principal wife in the Liaonan Palace."

Fu Xi watched Feng Shuo grow up, and he knew very well how the late emperor treated them and their mother. Feng Shuo's current temper was largely due to the late emperor and the Grand Empress Dowager.

When Feng Shuo was just born, the late emperor felt that he had let down the late emperor and queen, and planned to strangle him to death.

The Grand Empress Dowager knew that the late emperor was looking for the shadow of the late emperor and queen in her. If she died, there would be no one in the world who looked so similar to the late emperor and queen. The Grand Empress Dowager threatened to die, so that the late emperor spared Feng Shuo's life.

Fu Xi sincerely hoped that Feng Shuo and the Grand Empress Dowager could move on from that past. This mother and son had suffered enough in their lives.

Thinking of the past, his eyes were red: "Although the Grand Empress Dowager didn't recognize you later, whenever she saw a child of three or five years old, she would be stunned for a long time and ask people around her where her Yannu was..."

Yannu was Feng Shuo's childhood name.

When Feng Shuo heard this, the indifference on his face finally cracked, and he raised his hand to cover his eyes.

Fu Xi shivered and said, "I think if you have a child, the Empress Dowager will feel better after seeing the child."

Feng Shuo asked him, "If I take a concubine just to have a child, how will I deal with it when the princess marries me in the future?"

"If you don't mind, just send the concubine away after the child is born. When the princess marries me in the future, I will give the child to her to raise."

Feng Shuo looked at Fu Xi coldly, "Do you think their situation is any different from that of my mother?"

Fu Xi was silent.

It was already four o'clock in the morning, and it was time to go to the Xizhou camp.

Feng Shuo didn't say anything more to Fu Xi, he went back to his room, changed into clean clothes and was about to go out.

He always went to the barracks to eat in the past, so the chefs in the mansion were naturally happy not to have to get up early to prepare meals. Although there is now a Grand Empress Dowager, she has not gotten up at this hour, so the kitchen is still full of cold dishes.

He was originally going to go to the gate, but when he passed the west cross yard, he saw the high wall and suddenly changed direction and walked in that direction.

Behind the wall was the yard rented by Jiang Yanyi.

He didn't know why he came here.

But after standing against the wall with his arms folded for a while, his restless mood inexplicably calmed down.

The memories of his childhood in the palace came to his mind.

Everyone in the palace said that his mother was spoiled, but he knew that his mother always had scars on her body. For countless days and nights, his mother hugged him and cried.

She said: "Yannu, grow up quickly, and take mother out of this cage when you grow up."

She also said: "Yannu, you must only be good to one girl in the future, don't let her down."

Feng Shuo stopped thinking about it, raised his head and looked at the sky which was still in the twilight. He didn't like to think about these.

His mother's eyes with tears and her figure kneeling at the feet of the late emperor to pray were his nightmares for the rest of his life.

With a "click", something fell at his feet.

Feng Shuo lowered his eyes and saw a ripe pomegranate that had fallen.

There is a pomegranate tree planted next to the high wall. It is quite old. It is probably because the previous owner of this house did not have many children, so he planted the tree to pray for a child. Now the tree is taller than the wall, and it extends a canopy of shade to the other side of the wall.

It is the season when pomegranates are ripe, and the tree is full of ripe fruits.

Feng Shuo stared at it for a while, jumped lightly to climb over the wall, and just picked a pomegranate, but accidentally knocked one off. The pomegranate fell into the yard on Jiang Yanyi's side with a "click".

He was slightly startled.

Do you want to go down and pick it up?