Spirit of the Phoenix: 26. Chenzheng

Old lady Qin gently unfolded the prince's handwriting, a thin piece of white paper, faintly exuding the fragrance of roses, full of the lover's little thoughts in love.

The pattern on the paper is not the flower pattern of my daughter's house, but an ink pastoral painting.

On the left is a piece of paddy rice, which is fresh and green in early spring.

There are three farmers working in the field, wearing bamboo hats and coir raincoats, one for each of the young and old.

If the left side of the picture is normal, the right half looks very weird. A high blue-gray wall encloses a small farmyard. A rose tree beside the wall is in full bloom, with bright red petals falling all over the ground, which at first glance looks like blood on the ground.

In the small courtyard, there was a cardamom girl with half-rolled sleeves, revealing her white forearms, half of her body protruding from the high wall, reaching out to reach the plump and round pomegranates hanging on the branches.

When Qin Laoshu saw this, her heart beat wildly.

She wanted to stand up, but she became dizzy for a while, and barely supported the second Miss Qin who came to help her: "Quickly call...quickly call the elder."

The head of the Qin family is the elder Qin Miao. Although he has no achievements in his official career, he barely passed the exam until he was thirty. But he is very smart in business and manages the affairs of the Qin family very well.

After Li's rebellion and King Ding's victory over the rebellion, dozens of noble gentry took advantage of the situation to rise up, but after twenty years, only a handful of them are still standing in the capital.

Qin Miao looked at the picture of the prince, and pondered for a while: "Is it too arbitrary to say that something happened to Baolin in the palace based on this painting alone? Besides, the prince has never been cowardly. It's strange, for no reason, don't you think too much?"

Qin Laoshu frowned: "When the sage came to the throne, the prince was just an ignorant child. His mother died early and he had no help from his family. The sage was not in tune. To survive these four years safely, either the city The scheming is extraordinary, or there are experts in the palace to help."

"No matter what the situation is, it must not be underestimated." She said slowly, moving her finger to the picture, "Look, there are three farmers planting grain on the left side of the picture. Three, people, and grain together Together is the word Qin. There are old and young farmers, which is a metaphor for our Qin family."

"Most farmyards are fenced, but in this picture there is a tall gray palace wall. How much the prince grew up in the farm when he was a child, he will definitely know the difference. The palace wall was drawn on purpose, isn't it? What does it imply in the palace?"

Old Shuren Qin calmed down and continued: "There is a tree of flowers by the wall, which is a red apricot coming out of the wall. The petals are scattered all over the ground, like blood flowing all over the ground. The petals are fallen flowers. If you want to say that all of this is a coincidence, and there is no half reference to metaphors, it would be too overbearing!"

"What's more, what worries me the most is the palace lady in the painting, reaching for the pomegranate on the branch."

There are many pomegranates, what the old lady Qin is worried about is that Qin Baolin stepped on a high branch in order to seek a child, and got involved in a storm that he shouldn't be involved in, so there are "Qin" family members, young and old, "lost everywhere" "Blood flows into rivers".

But even if all of this makes sense, what about the "red apricot cheating"? Qin Laoshu didn't think about it for a while, so she simply put it aside and didn't think about it.

"Tell her to hide her strength and bide her time, and avoid the queen's edge. But she is getting used to her temper, and she wants to cause some trouble." Qin Laoshu pondered, "There are several supervisors in the palace, and someone will ask someone to ask. Good money, no matter what trouble Baolin gets into, let’s avoid disaster if you lose your money.”

Qin Miao nodded slowly: "If something happened to Xiangying, we will owe the prince this favor. In the future, I don't know if we will still be able to pay it back..."

The Qin family was still worried about the favor they owed, but they never expected that Qin Xiangying, Baolin in the palace, had become a corpse as early as the early morning hours.

At this time, the little prince was waiting outside Zhaoyang Hall.

His father, the Empress Yuji, had no intention of governing, and was disturbed from sleeping because of Qin Baolin's disappearance the night before, so he took advantage of this to avoid the morning court and hid in Zhaoyang Hall to catch up on sleep.

The little prince stood outside the hall and did not allow anyone to approach him, like a slender bamboo pole. Everyone in the palace knew about his eccentricity of not allowing anyone to serve him close to him, and they all waited aside with no surprise.

When the hour was right, the little prince squinted his eyes to look at the sun in the sky, heaved a long sigh of relief, and said softly into his arms, "It's almost time, it's time for us to go in."

He slowly pushed open the door of Zhaoyang Hall, the creaking sound alarmed the dedicated emperor in the hall.

The emperor turned his head with the anger of being peeped into the secret, but found that it was his son who pushed the door in regardless of the imperial decree.

"Ruier, come here." The emperor breathed a sigh of relief, with the kindness of his long-lost father, "Look at how well this is carved."

The emperor opened his legs and squatted on a footrest under the desk, like the ordinary country carpenter he had seen countless times in his childhood.

The prince was in a daze for a moment, and blurted out that he wanted to call "Daddy". In the palace with carved beams and painted columns, the floating dust can be clearly seen between the towering columns. He was immediately dragged back to reality by all this, and closed his mouth tightly.

The little prince approached silently, and recognized a small wooden sword carved in his father's hand, which was very similar to his childhood favorite.

"This one is not well carved, not as good as the one you had when you were a child." The emperor smiled simple and honestly, "But for your brother to play with, it is always done by daddy himself, so you can rest assured."

He was babbling on and on about rounding the corners so they wouldn't cut a baby's hand and stuff like that. In words, he was full of expectations for this unborn child, and asked the little prince cautiously: "Rui'er also wants something, and daddy will carve it for you too?"

The little prince closed his eyes abruptly, with his nails deeply embedded in his palms, but when he opened his eyes, his eyes were clear, and he said to the emperor gently and meticulously: "Father, if you are free, I still need a brush for my case. How about using the piece of red cedar left over from last time?"

The emperor's eyes lit up, and he looked for the piece of red cedar with high spirits. But the little prince said softly at this moment: "Father, Qin Baolin...is dead."