outside the imperial city

Chapter 77

Bei Qianling sat at the desk, reviewing the memorial.The red candle burned out, and he stayed up all night.

"Your Majesty," someone came to report, "Yao Fanglan asks to see you."

Bei Qianling put down the vermilion pen: "Let him in."

Before Bei Qianling became emperor, Yao Fanglan never regarded him as a prince, but the emperor was different.As soon as Yao Fanglan entered the room, she knelt down and said, "Greetings to the emperor."

"Get up." Bei Qianling said, "I said you don't need to be polite when there are no outsiders."

"You still have to have proper etiquette and respect." Yao Fanglan glanced at the table, "Your Majesty, you should take care of your health. I'll prepare some tonic for you later."

Bei Qianling waved his hand and told the eunuch to close the door, leaving the two of them alone.He sighed: "It's not that I don't want to sleep, it's that I can't sleep."

"Your Majesty is worried about the conferment of the Empress that I mentioned yesterday?" Yao Fanglan put his hands in his sleeves, "Is it because you don't know who to choose?"

Bei Qianling smiled and said, "Ah, with your exquisite mind, how could you not know what I'm thinking? As expected, I am, and I still can't let it go."

"Your Majesty," Yao Fanglan pulled out a scroll from his sleeve, and presented it to Bei Qianling, "This one was presented to you by a courtier. It may be helpful to you."

"Why can't I change my habit of hiding things in my sleeves even though I'm wearing an official uniform?" Bei Qianling slowly opened the scroll, and soon stopped laughing.

The painting shows a woman in a light-colored skirt, standing on a small boat, playing a flute.The lotus blossomed at her feet, the mandarin ducks swam by the side of the boat, the woman closed her eyes, her face looked expressionless, but she seemed to be smiling.

Next to the painting, there are two poems written in the graceful font of a woman——

Nianzi, know each other, love each other and miss each other, depend on each other, accompany each other and remember each other, carry each other day and night, support each other, and stay together for a lifetime.

Consonant rhinoceros, double flowers, double leaves and double branches, double dwelling, double wings, double lotus, double mandarin ducks sharing water, double drunk and warm curtain. (Note: Quoted from Song "Nine Zhang Ji")

"Jingxiang," Bei Qianling stroked the painted face, "Have you come to Jingyang?"

"Yes." Yao Fanglan said.

"This is the first time I saw Jingxiang, in the Xizhao Palace." A nostalgic look appeared on Bei Qianling's face, "From then on, I knew that she was free."

But in a man-made lake, her flute sounded out the vastness of the world.Even if she is trapped in a small palace, she is free.

"I shouldn't have trapped her by my side." Bei Qianling couldn't take her eyes off the painting, "I shouldn't use her identity as a queen, or even a concubine, to restrain her."

"You are too self-righteous." Yao Fanglan said, "This is also her wish."

"I'd rather let myself miss it than make her regret it in the future." Bei Qianling carefully rolled up the scroll, "Stop talking, the business is important. You came here just to talk about this?"

"No." Yao Fanglan had a look of complete control over the situation, "Before in Zhongyue, the emperor promised to invite me to drink the best Qiulubai in Jingyang, do you remember?"

Bei Qianling raised her forehead: "You want to...?"

"I don't need you to get drunk for three days and three nights, just for one night, let's have a good chat." Yao Zanglan omitted the honorifics, "Brother."

In the other courtyard of the palace, Bei Qianling ordered someone to set up a table in the middle of the courtyard, and filled the table with Qiu Lubai from various restaurants in Quanjingyang.

"What?" Yao Fanglan teased, "So you don't know where the best Qiulubai in Jingyang comes from."

"It's been a long time since I heard you joking with me." Bei Qianling drank a glass of wine, "You are still you, and I am still you. Why do you think our relationship has changed?"

"Our relationship has not changed. You will always be a benefactor, friend, and elder brother in my heart." Yao Zanglan toasted him, "However, your status is different. It's like we can't go back to our youth. I can't be the same as before For you. The emperor is the Ninth Five-Year Supreme, and no exception can be made for anyone. After all, this is the path we chose, and there is nothing to be sentimental about."

"That's right, you're right." Bei Qianling said, "You said that I became the emperor, but why did I become weak instead?"

"It's not that we're weak, the king also has his own feelings." He was able to confide to himself like this, and Yao Zanglan felt very happy, "These thoughts have been accumulated in your heart for too long, so you seem more sentimental than before. In fact, as long as you want, you can talk to me at any time." I said."

"But compared to me, I think a wife who truly suits your heart can resolve your worries better." Yao Fanglan poured him a glass of wine.

Bei Qianling simply didn't use the cup, and raised the jug to drink: "Why, are you here for a matchmaker?"

It was the first time for Yao Fanglan to see such an alcoholic Bei Qianling, and she was stunned for a moment.

"Qianling, what are you resisting?"

He had asked himself that question a long time ago.Since the two love each other, why can't they be together?

Bei Qianling has always been very restrained, no matter what kind of banquet he is at, he will drink up to three cups.Yao Zanglan never knew that he could drink so much, he was almost as good as Jing Lingshuo.It's over, what if he is not drunk, but he is drunk first?

"Zhen Lan, I once told you that you are not Zhen, so you don't have to carry this country after all." Bei Qianling drank so much wine, but she was not drunk at all, "Zhen's position is too high, she is indifferent by nature, She is also the only woman I love, and I am not willing to let her take on the responsibility of mothering the world."

"In the past, I said that I had too much debt and I couldn't repay his affection, so I always refused, which only made him hurt even more." Yao Fanglan drank the wine in the glass, "Looking at it now, the The entanglement is simply my willfulness. The real important thing is that two people are together. It is much better for two people to share each other than one person to carry it."

"You dare not marry her because you say it is for her good, but in fact you dare not take the responsibility of making her happy." Yao Fanglan couldn't help laughing, "I, you, and Chu Jingqing are all the same fool."

They both love so humblely, it seems that the whole world can give each other happiness except themselves.

"This is a problem with my education." Bei Qianling also laughed, "It was great to have you by my side in those days."

"This is the same for me, brother. So I hope you are happy. Even the emperor can have his own happiness." Yao Fanglan said, "It's much sadder than being in love alone. .”

"Yes." Bei Qianling drank the last drop of wine in the flagon, "You are right."

They both know each other's intentions, but one is always resisting, while the other just waits.

If you are unrequited love, after a long time, you will always forget it.Just like Emperor Shaoxuan's love for Jingyang, no matter how unforgettable, has gone through the torrent of time, and finally turned into a light sentence "I used to love"?

However, falling in love and not staying together is not as simple as that.

Perhaps, on a certain night after many years, when he is very old, when he looks up at the starry sky alone, he will still remember that a long time ago, there was a woman with eyes like stars and long hair like night, whom I love so much She, she loves me so much, but we are not together.

"She has wasted six years for you, can't she prove that only you can give her happiness?" Yao Fanglan raised her voice a little excitedly.

Bei Qianling's face was full of bitterness: "It's because she has wasted six years for me, so I can't let her waste more."

Yao Fanglan sighed: "Why are you so stubborn?"

"No need to say any more." A beautiful female voice sounded, "I can understand the painstaking efforts of the emperor."

Bei Qianling stood up and looked at the woman slowly approaching in disbelief: "Jingxiang?"

Jingxiang bowed slightly: "All blessings, Your Majesty, Jingxiang is very polite."

Before Bei Qianling recovered from the shock, Jing Xiang had already walked to Yao Fanglan's side: "Master Yao, if it's convenient, can you let me have a few drinks with the emperor?"

"Okay." Jing Xiang's words had a magical power that made people dare not listen to them.So even though it was something unplanned, Yao Fanglan still obeyed and left the courtyard.

Jingxiang didn't have his own wine glass, so he followed Bei Qianling's example, opened the lid of the wine pot and drank from it, but he drank in small sips.

"You're still the same," Bei Qianling sat down, "People don't know what you're thinking."

Jingxiang didn't answer, but wiped the corners of his lips with his sleeve: "Conversing with the emperor like this was when you first arrived in Xizhao six years ago. Later, even if you were in Xizhao, you didn't want to talk to me anymore. .”

Bei Qianling smiled wryly, and took another sip of wine.

That's because I found that I fell in love with you, and if I talk again, I will only be unable to leave you even more.

"I've been waiting for you." Jingxiang always had a faint smile on his face. "First, you fall in love with me, second, you ascend the throne, third, you stand firm, and fourth, you accept my heart. We wait for you." One, two, three, four...but we can only blame us for not being destined."

"Jingxiang, I—"

Bei Qianling called her name, but didn't know what to say, so he could only drink.He had never been so depressed in his life.

"Your Majesty, please rest assured that Jingxiang came here not to force you to marry me." Jingxiang's eyes didn't even show any waves, "I just want to see you again and tell you that I haven't even thought about it until now. Nothing has changed. And, I'm glad you're not completely uninterested in me after all."

"I fully understand your decision, waiting for you is my wishful thinking." Jingxiang took another sip of wine, "But, in the days to come, I hope you can completely forget me. It's over, you don't have to regret anything. "

"You are really a strange woman." Bei Qianling touched the wine bottle in Jingxiang's hand with her own wine bottle, "I have never seen you lose your temper."

"That's because you were never by my side when I was crying." Jing Xiang's tone was flat, just stating a fact, but to Bei Qianling's ears, it was a heart-pounding sentence.

Yao Zanglan walked up to the eaves, and Jing Lishuo was sitting under the moon waiting for him.

"How are you? Don't you have a cold?" Yao Fanglan sat down beside him, "Why don't you go back to sleep?"

"Tuofu, I'm fine." It was rare for Jing Lingshuo not to harass him, he looked at the scene in the courtyard with his cheeks on his hands, his face seemed a little heavy.

"What's wrong with you?" Yao Fanglan thought it was funny, "Touching the scene to make you fall in love?"

Only then did Jing Shuo look at Yao Fanglan: "Yao Yao, do you really think it's appropriate to bring them together?"

Yao Fanglan was puzzled: "What do you mean?"

Jing Yushuo said: "The emperor has his own difficulties, and what he said is quite right. The queen is not easy to do, the struggle in the harem is beyond our men's imagination, and Naiyun is a big country, Jing Xiang married into the palace, it must be It will be very hard. Jingxiang can also understand, that is to say, they have reached an agreement, are we outsiders qualified to intervene?"

"I didn't want to accept you at the beginning, wasn't it because I had difficulties?" Yao Fanglan smiled and said, "Don't you also understand? In Tongque Terrace, we also reached an agreement, didn't we? Then what did you do? Give up? "

Yao Zanglan leaned closer to Jing Lishuo, whispered in his ear frivolously, "But why do I remember that I was forced to kiss me?"

"Are you taking revenge for last night?" Jing Yanshuo felt helpless after being molested for no reason, "We're talking about serious business now."

In the past, this person would restrain himself a little in front of serious matters, but now it has become worse, and he can get sick anytime, anywhere.

"Okay, business." Yao Fanglan dragged his voice and sat back in his seat. "To sum up, even if I really have difficulties, I will try my best to see if it is really an insurmountable gap."

"However," Jing Lingshuo insisted, "one of them is deep in the city, and the other is indifferent. Will they be happy together?"

"Why are you a mother-in-law?" Yao Zanglan scratched her hair, "I'm like this, you're like that, don't you just barely live?"

"Yao Fanglan, I'll get angry if you talk about us again." Jing Lingshuo felt the veins on his forehead pop up after a long time, "What do you do and what do I do? What do you mean by barely? What are you dissatisfied with?"

"Don't," Yao Zanglan put his hands in the air and pressed down from top to bottom, as if trying to suppress Jing Shuo's anger, "I'm just joking around after drinking too much alcohol. My lord, general, calm down." Calm down."

Considering that he really drank a lot, Jing Shuo forgave him for the time being: "I'll take care of you when I go home."

Yao Fanglan's face suddenly calmed down: "As Miss Xinfeng said, not all lovers can get married in the end, but the two of them should not belong to that category. Moreover, compared to the emperor's current concubines, Princess Jingxiang is more qualified to be a queen, and the same tragedy must never happen again."

Jing Lingshuo: "..." I told you to be upright, but you are not upright, you have to think about being upright to be upright, right?

"Even if they no longer love each other in the future, or even regret getting together?" Jing Shuo said.

"Jingshuo, don't be angry, I'm serious this time." Yao Zanglan looked straight into Jing Lingshuo's eyes, "Will there be a day in the future when you and I will no longer love each other, and even regret that we came together ?”

Jing Lingshuo said decisively, "Impossible."

Yao Fanglan asked back: "Why? Can you guarantee that people's hearts will not change?"

Jing Lingshuo couldn't answer: "Anyway, it's impossible."

Yao Fanglan smiled and said: "So, none of us can see what will happen in the future, we can only do not leave any regrets now. If there is a day when any of them changes their hearts, they will already be together happily Many years."

Jing Yanshuo smiled: "You won again."

As a woman, Jingxiang was too strong to drink.When Yao Fanglan turned her attention to the courtyard again, she was already drunk on the table.

Bei Qianling walked behind her, took off his yellow robe and covered her body.He took away her flagon and found that it was empty, shook his head and said: "Really, I can't drink wine, but I drank so much."

He squatted down and stared at Jingxiang's sleeping face.She was very gentle when she was asleep, not at all as cold as when she was awake.

Bei Qianling guessed that it was supposed to be very gentle and serene, but at this moment, there were tears in the corners of Jingxiang's eyes.Tears slid down the side of his face, leaving a faint trace of tears.

"You were never by my side when I cried."

Bei Qianling's heart clenched into a ball, and he wiped away the unfallen tears with his fingers, and then hooked up the lovesickness tears with the tip of his tongue.

It's really bitter, bitter to the heart.

He walked to the door and said softly: "Come here, bring Princess Jingxiang to Jinyuan Palace. Be careful not to wake her up."

"Let's go," Jing Lingshuo stood up, "Go back and wait for her."

"Yeah." Yao Fanglan watched Bei Qianling sit back and drink alone, and sniffed, "It's a pity that these autumn dews are white."

"After you succeed, let him reward you with a restaurant." Jing Shuo sneered.

Yao Zanglan stretched her finger under her nose to block the sadness: "That's right."

The author has something to say:

Suddenly, I felt that the three sworn brothers were really not ordinary troubles.Let me sort out their conflicts: the elder brother Bei Qianling feels that Jingxiang is indifferent and free by nature, and marrying into the palace is a wrong for her; the second elder brother Yao Fanglan feels that he has not repaid his great revenge and has a kindness to pay back, and he still vaguely wants to die I feel that I am not worthy of the prince's love; my little brother Chu Jingqing, the entanglement is understandable, after all, he has a broken arm, and he feels that he can't give Bei Qianhan happiness, and he also feels that he wants to compensate him instead of really liking him. he.How can I write so entangled...