On the night when the ban was lifted, I took advantage of the fact that the people in the palace were preparing to repair Weiyang Palace and changed into a set of palace maid's clothes and escaped. Nangong City was full of lights. However, it was already late and I had few places to go. Only the Jiaofang beside the river of Qiu Haigou was brightly lit as if it was daytime. Therefore, I spread my hair, took off my palace maid's coat and swaggered in.
There were incense and powder everywhere in the workshop. There were musical instruments, male and female geisha. When a customer came up, they would throw themselves into their arms. Of course, I was an exception. As soon as I entered, everyone treated me like air, which made me feel at ease and convenient.
"The emperor is here, have you eaten?" Yu Quan 'er, the fourth-level courtesan of the school, was watering the rich tree on the second floor. She saw me patting the wrinkles on my clothes and walked in while waving. She asked me if I had dinner.
"I've eaten. Sister Yu, your tree is still alive.”I answered her with a smile.
"Hey, this unlucky child! My tree can live for hundreds of years. It might die later than us.”
"Then I'll have to steal it and sell it.”
"Go to hell." She scolded me and continued watering the water, ignoring me.
I smiled triumphantly and wanted to go up to the second floor to talk to her, but I heard something interesting at the corner of the second floor.
There were a few uncles pouring wine and drinking to their hearts 'content in the private room at the corner. When the wine was in full swing, they naturally had to talk about the current hot topics. I often hung out in the teaching workshop, so I was used to this kind of scene. However, when I was about to walk through the door of the private room, I heard something about me.
"Hey, hey, did you hear? The female minister went to Yizhao. She didn't declare war, nor did she go to an appointment for peace talks. She went to discuss marriage!”
"What? She was almost sixty years old and still had to marry back to the North?”
"Of course not for herself! It's for our emperor."
"That can't be right, our Southern Dynasty's current ruler hates the Northern Dynasty so much, how can he marry a Northern Dynasty person for the Emperor?”
"These things probably started from the bet Feng Yin made with General Fan Rong on the wall at the end of the war before he died in battle."
"You know the inside story? Tell me!"
The uncle who started the conversation continued to speak. I lowered my head and leaned against the wall to listen. The specific matters from eight years ago were probably like this.
Feng Yin was the leader of the Northern Feng rebel faction eight years ago. She was a genius in both civil and military affairs among the women, but she had a bad heart. She looked down on all emperors with the Ji surname and was bent on usurping the throne. The person sitting on the throne of the Northern Dynasty was her niece, Feng Tianjiao.
Feng Yin loved to listen to opera, so she drew a big circle around Yi Zhao. In this circle, and after she had already caused a big rebellion and was very successful, the only sect that could be considered to be worthy of her attention was Beijing's Blessed Hall.
The Blessed Hall was established in the first year of Chuanwu. It had always insisted on promoting Beijing opera and Kunqu opera. It was even willing to give performances to poor and sick children without charging tickets. This move was very appreciated by Feng Yin and she continued to invest in the Blessed Hall. Therefore, it could become bigger and bigger. There were even branches of the Blessed Hall in other prefectures, but it was only limited to the Northern Dynasty.
Fan Rong was the deceased Emperor's most trusted aide and a guard in front of the palace. The gossip magazines of the Great Zhou had been saying for years that he had an unspeakable relationship with the former Emperor and Feng Yin. However, the truth was that he had indeed attacked the Northern Feng after the death of the former Emperor, and Feng Yin was the one guarding the city wall of Bingzhou. The conversation between the two men in front of Bingzhou's mountains and rivers was still unknown, but it was likely that Fan Rong had said something wrong, and Feng Yin had given the order to shoot him and his army to death at the city gate.
Fan Rong was not the first to be shot to death. When the soldiers behind him were basically riddled with holes, he knew that he would not be able to escape. Thus, before he died, he made a venomous oath to Feng Yin. I want the thing you love the most to be destroyed by my Great Zhou.
When Feng Yin heard this, she leaned against the city wall and smiled." I don't have anything I love the most now. Oh, I've been enjoying the opera recently."
"That's fine too." Fan Rong pointed his sword at the people on the city wall. He was probably very suffocated at the time, so he was panting.
"You don't have to say it. I'll say it. Eight years ago, I met you. You said that no one would have a good result like this. Now, I will make a marriage agreement for the person you are loyal to and the thing I love---betroth the most popular child of the Blessed Hall to the emperor eight years later. I bet that this will definitely not have a good result, and the loser will be you.”
"Eight years later? We don't even know who's the emperor now!" Not only was Fan Rong panting, he was probably about to cough up blood. That was before I was discovered by Old Lady Zheng and the throne was not locked down. It was always unknown.
The uncle who had spoken made his own guess. He said that Feng Yin had wanted him to marry the most popular Peking opera idol in Blessed Hall because she felt that he would definitely be able to make Fan Rong submit to him and be loyal to her.
It seemed that these two must have liked to bet with each other when they were young. They were still so addicted before they died.
However, he did not expect the ending to be so tragic. General Fan Rong saw that he was about to be captured and was unwilling to be defeated. He felt that he had no face to face the elders of the Southern Dynasty. He pulled out the long knife at his waist and committed suicide. His blood was left at the gate of Bingzhou City, and the soil was bright red.
No one had seen Feng Yin's expression at that time. She was the winner anyway, and nothing else mattered.
This oath spread more and more until everyone knew about it. But later on, people did not expect that Old Lady Zheng would find me and help me to the throne of the Southern Dynasty. No matter what, the person Fan Rong was loyal to could only be me.
Therefore, the eight-year agreement had arrived. The Northern Dynasty was now going to marry the most popular girl in the Blessed Hall, the one who sang green clothes, to the current emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty, whether she was five years old or eighty-five years old. If she did not dare to marry this character, then she would be throwing the face of her ancestors in front of the traitor. If she didn't even dare to keep this promise for the loyal minister who died in battle and didn't even dare to marry her, then she would indirectly admit that the southern dynasty couldn't defeat the northern dynasty, which was equivalent to directly surrendering to the northern dynasty.
I was also shocked when I heard it. I squatted down by the fence on the second floor and carefully thought through the thoughts of the incident. Then, I forced myself to ignore Uncle's vivid speech and the gossip of the love triangle from the previous dynasty. I should think about whether I was really going to get married now!
I thought about the Weiyang Palace's grand renovation in the afternoon. It had been seven years and nine months since the poison oath bet had taken effect.
In three months, I'll be getting married.
I squatted with my mouth wide open. I wanted to stand up and return to the palace immediately, but I realized that my legs were numb from squatting. I could only squat at the stairs on the second floor like I was going to the toilet.
Yu Quan 'er saw that I was going to come up and waited for me elsewhere on the second floor for a while. She didn't wait for me, so she came to look for me. However, she saw me here with a look of wanting to pull her up.
"Emperor, why are you being so indecent here?”Yu Quan 'er pulled me up. When she heard that my legs were numb, she brought me a stool from somewhere else.
"Sis, I just heard that I'm getting married. Is that true?”I still maintained an expression with my mouth wide open. My eyes were in a daze as I stared straight ahead.
"Oh, you mean this? I heard Mom talking to us about it when I was eating porridge this morning. It's true, but isn't it a good thing? Why do you look so sad?" As she answered my question, she watched my face gradually squeeze together.
"If you don't become an actor, you'll really be blind to the extent of your exaggerated expression.”
"Who did you marry? Aren't the Blessed Hall full of old men?"
"It's the most popular! The most popular one! Think about it! I don't believe you don't know. Didn't you secretly ask Sister Xiangying to take you to see that person's tour last time?”
"Who is it? Who was it? I've just received a huge shock and my brain can't be used!!”
Yu Quan 'er saw my bitter look, rolled up her sleeves and sat down beside me, telling me the answer that I was extremely afraid of. After hearing this answer, my eyes slowly widened.
"It's Zhang Jiao 'er from Blessed Hall.”
It was him?
Although that character sang Qingyi, he was a boy.
I know this boy because he became famous when he was young. He was a very popular character in the north. He has been like this since he was young. Even in the south, a lot of people know him.
And I've even seen him before. No one knows about this. Although I don't remember seeing him this time, and it happened very coincidentally, I know that it was him.
As everyone knows, I was raised in the south until I was four. Although it isn't very close to the capital, I've learned everything that a young master should learn.
At that time, I hadn't received the order to become the Emperor of the Great Zhou, but I couldn't neglect the things I had to learn. After all, my grandfather was still around at that time. He hated children who didn't work hard the most. Therefore, before the age of four, I had basically been reading the books of sages. I had come into contact with those grand principles earlier than my peers.
However, there are times when I find it boring. Moreover, I'm very playful by nature, and sometimes I'll bury the root of trouble.
Once, I was playful and secretly took a boat with my family's maidservant to Kaifeng City to retrieve the gold, silver, and soft goods left behind by my grandmother's family. I wanted to use them in case of war and exchange them for some food in Jinling. But when I went over, I ran like crazy. I wanted to eat authentic snacks from the north and watch the acrobatics from the north. From that time, it could be seen that I was a crazy and loved to travel.
I grabbed the corner of my mother's clothes and held a sticky bean bun in my hand. I looked at the end of the downtown street and saw a garden with a small door, but it was filled with low pine trees. At that time, my father had just died and I was the only daughter in the family. To be honest, no one could control me. I was curious, so I let go of my mother's hand and quietly slipped in.
The garden was a play garden. I had read about it in a book a long time ago. Although this place wasn't as magnificent as the book described, it was still clean and comfortable.
In front of the hall, there were a few grandpas who were chewing fruits and drinking tea. They shook their heads and looked at the performers on the stage. I had been studying since I was young, so my eyesight wasn't good. I had to get closer to see what was being performed on the stage, but I didn't want anyone to notice, so I could only move from one pillar to another, slowly moving around. Maybe I wasn't too developed back then (I was only four years old now), so no one really noticed me.
I looked at the child on the stage. He had a few small braids on the back of his head, which were long and thin. There were two small bangs in front of his head. He was singing a very old Kunqu opera," I took off my kasaya, took off my kasaya, and sealed the monk's room. From then on, I threw away the Samadhi Fire. Master, Master, it was not that I betrayed my righteousness and fled."
When I was young, I had never heard of such things. If there was an occasional family celebration or if they wanted to listen to a play to relieve their boredom, they would ask the amateur opera troupes from the south to come over and sing. The professional experts would all gather in the north. Every time I listen to the opera at home, I feel bored at first. I will still pull the servants to play cricket or grasshopper in the room.
I was confused when I heard that. He wasn't that old. I was only four years old at that time, and he was about fourteen.
"There will be no result in the end. The place where I want to become a monk is a place where people are trapped. To jump out of the cage, one must sigh as soon as possible that life is easy to grow old! Sigh, life is easy to grow old."
I thought it was so nice. I couldn't hear it when I got home. I forgot that if I didn't go out now, no one would come and take me home.
After all, I was still a child at that time. It was understandable.
There was a commotion outside. I knew they were here to catch me, but I really didn't want to go back. When I went back, the house was full of white flags. My father had been gone for half a year, but there was still no sound at home. If I hadn't followed them out today and threatened them, they would have sent me back at the gate of Jin Ling city.
I didn't want to go back. I was afraid that people would find me. I quietly hid in the cracks of a pile of mahogany costume boxes. I was afraid that people would see me.
Someone came into the garden to look for me, scaring away half of the guests. From my angle, the child on the stage turned green.
I didn't feel good either. Don't look at me because I'm young. I've basically learned all the ways of the world from books. I know that I'm probably the one who caused trouble.
Seriously, couldn't she buy more things?
I crawled out from the corner dejectedly. Don't think that this is a plot from a movie. I'm a good child. I've never been rebellious since I was young.
The moment the buyer's mother saw me, she rushed over and cried for her parents. She shouted," Our master!”
Sigh, who wants to be her master? Just this shout has caused a lot of wrinkles on my small face. I'm done feeling uncomfortable.
The few servants still did not show mercy. They wanted to argue with the opera garden manager and called the servant boy who was guarding the door to call for people.
I saw that the matter was about to blow up. There was already a big commotion on the second floor. I quickly waved my hand and said that I was hungry and wanted to eat. Let's go. Only then did my people give up.
Can you blame him for this? Then wouldn't I be harming the people?
Taking advantage of the chaos, I lifted my head slightly from the buyer's arms and peeked through a small slit. In the chaos, I glanced at the little boy who was singing " Down the Mountain " on the stage. He was also looking at me with a confused expression. He probably didn't know what had happened, but I didn't want him to know either.
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