Tell love
out of the inn, is the night of Changan.
The Lantern Festival has just ended, the street is still a happy atmosphere, I walk alone on the long street, the heart is very lonely, thinking it is better to go back to Yuhang, and then take a look at the place where I grew up.
Out of the city gate, I saw a look of panic guards came to hand over, as if something big had happened, and saw that the person who came to give the order was Zhou Wen’s bodyguard, my heart tightened.
I thought these people were coming to arrest me, but what I didn’t expect was that by eavesdropping on what they said, I knew that the person they were looking for was Zhou Wen.
It turned out that after today’s court, Zhou Wen went to Liquan Square to drink again, from Si Shi to You Shi. After that, Zhou Wen had to walk alone, but he didn’t come back until late at night.
The city gate is now under martial law, and the identity I used was forged by the parrot for me, and it is likely that I will not be able to pass. When I thought about it, I turned around and walked back.
Because Zhou Wen was lost, there were many heavily armed soldiers in the city in an instant. I hid from the crowd and walked all the way to Changle Square. In the southeast corner
of Changle Square, there are many craftsmen who make silk and bamboo crafts.
When I was in Huang Zhangsun Mansion, I was excluded by Zhou Wen’s backyard because of my low status. Once they deliberately broke the bamboo flute given to Zhou Wen by the first prince and framed me. At that time, I was worried about Gu Taifu, and had no intention of fighting with them. Thinking that my mother was good at silk and bamboo, and I also knew the flute, I thought I could also repair this thing.
For this reason, I sneaked to Changle Square to buy tools for repairing flutes, and made friends with several craftsmen who were skilled in this way.
Later, as expected, we repaired the flute as well as before. Zhou Wen was kept in the dark and never saw it.
This time, Changan was blocked, I have nowhere to go, the first place to think of is to go to them.
According to my memory, I went to find some friends I had made at that time, but unexpectedly, when I walked into the narrow lane of Changle Square, I saw Zhou Wen leaning drunk on the steps.
His white robe had been dyed gray, his jade crown was crooked, his face was slightly red, and his eyes were blurred, which I had never seen before.
Perhaps because I had never seen him before, I couldn’t help but take one more look. Just as I was about to bow my head and walk away, I heard him say, “Is that you?”? The bell.
I pretended not to hear it and steeled myself to continue walking, but I heard him say with a faint smile, “It’s not you. You won’t come back to Chang’an again.”
I look at him like that, really do not seem to put on, can not help but want to ask him two words, but the thought of having promised Gu Taifu, then ruthless under the heart.
I left Changle Square directly, went to Gu Taifu’s residence, and told him where Zhou Wen was. Then I asked him for a token to leave the city and was about to leave. But
Gu Taifu stopped me. He frowned and hesitated for a long time before he said, “Do you know why Your Majesty got lost?”
I don’t know, and I don’t want to know.
It can be seen that Gu Taifu actually did not want to tell me the reason, but now, he seems to have a reason to say.
Finally, Gu Taifu sighed.
“I’ve been in politics for 30 years, and I’ve met countless wise men. No one has ever been better than Your Majesty.” He looked into the distance, as if immersed in memories of the past. “When Your Majesty was eight years old, the late emperor appointed me to be his teacher. When I first met Your Majesty, I was not impressed by his qualifications, but the more I got along with him, the more I respected him.”
Gu Taifu pursed his lips and seemed to remember something: I still remember that at that time, the late prince had just left, and your majesty was immersed in sadness. He held a kitten in his arms and talked to it all day, without any sign of pulling himself together. I was worried, so I consulted with his mother and concubine and asked him to grow up as soon as possible. So I thought of a plan to poison the civet cat to make him understand that people in the palace were dangerous and could not continue to be weak. Sure enough, it was not long before he came to me and told me that he wanted to sit on the throne. I was glad that the plot had succeeded in leading him to grow up step by step, and in this way, Your Majesty grew up to be thirteen years old.
Gu Taifu did not know what to think of, and his face was a little sad: That year, the third emperor’s uncle, who usually loved your majesty the most, suddenly defected and falsely accused your majesty of murdering the emperor’s second son in public. The late emperor believed it and put the people of Zhangsun Mansion in prison. I thought your majesty would be very sad and wanted to comfort him, but unexpectedly, he just looked at me calmly. He told me, “If the king is still alive, he can’t lose.” After that, Your Majesty took drastic measures to bring down the second son of the emperor, who was the most popular at that time, and his power was able to compete with the eight kings.
Gu Taifu raised his eyebrows and looked at me. “You must have the same doubts as me. How could such a small child suddenly become like this?”
I nodded, listening to Gu Taifu continue: “I tried to test him, the results of your majesty and I said a word, that sentence, I remember to this day.” When I
heard this, I fell silent. Unexpectedly, that day, Zhou Wen said to Gu Taifu with a sneer, “Taifu felt that I was betrayed by the third emperor’s uncle and was not sad. Is it strange?”? When you and your mother were smearing medicine on the civet cat, when I was lying in bed in pain, I was also sad. It was just a sad moment, and then I figured it out thoroughly. Since you all want me to sit on the throne, I’ll sit on it.
It turned out that from the very beginning, Zhou Wen realized that after his father’s death, his only remaining comfort was used as a tool to force him to grow up, and the people who forced him were his teacher and his mother.
This matter, Zhou Wen has been aware of, but did not attack, or in accordance with the growth route they planned for him, step by step to cut through the thorns.
This incident also made Gu Taifu understand that Zhou Wen was probably the smartest, kindest, and most tolerant child in the world.
It’s just a pity that he was born in the imperial family. After
that, Gu Taifu changed his attitude towards Zhou Wen and became more respectful. Zhou Wen also lived up to expectations and grew into an excellent emperor. In the past, I only knew that Zhou Wen was a person without weaknesses, but now I understand that he was hurt by all the weaknesses. So, just freeze yourself up and no longer have superfluous emotions. After
listening to my opinion, Gu Taifu sighed again.
Do you think Your Majesty has no weakness? Maybe it used to be like this, but now, you are his only weakness, even if the pain keeps breaking out, he has not given up.
Gu Taifu’s words are so exaggerated that I don’t want to believe them.
I emptied my cup of tea and decided to leave. Seeing my intention, Gu Taifu opened his mouth first: At the beginning, you stabbed him in the Western Hills and left without saying goodbye. If he wanted to catch you, there were ten thousand ways. If he wanted to hurt you, there were ten thousand ways. But do you know why he didn’t do anything this time?
At this point, I am really curious, if Zhou Wen does something, whether it is to arrest me, or continue to design me, I can live a good life with a good conscience.
But he didn’t do anything, so it seemed that I was the villain who had done something bad, and the feeling of owing others made me very uncomfortable.
Gu Taifu smiled bitterly and said, “When Your Majesty wakes up, he will send someone to find you. I thought he would kill you and make himself completely lost. I didn’t expect that Your Majesty would just let someone watch you from a distance and send him a message.”
Gu Taifu told me that at first, my news was sent back to the palace every three days, and Zhou Wen would read every letter. At that time, I had just settled down at the border. In order to make a living, I guarded the property for the caravan and was in danger several times. Zhou Wen saw that it was not easy for me to make money, so he tried to make his eyes drop gold and let me pick it up in vain.
But unexpectedly, I was worried that the money belonged to the caravan, so I went around looking for people to ask, and every time it was always falsely claimed, which made him blind.
Zhou Wen thought over and over again and wanted to find someone to give me a stable job, but unexpectedly, when the eyes were observing me, they found that a parrot who opened an inn also quietly blocked several disasters for me.
Later, the parrot offered me a job, and I accepted it. Zhou Wen was both happy and unhappy. Happily, I finally don’t have to go out to fight with people every day. Unhappily, he is worried that the parrot and I will face each other day and night, and will fall in love with each other after a long time.
Zhou Wen went to court with illness during the day, pretending to be all right, thinking about my affairs at night, and his body soon could not stand it. Gu Taifu saw it and had a long talk with Zhou Wen, hoping that he could put me down.
Zhou Wen finally agreed to Gu Taifu, and after that day, he restrained himself from looking at things related to me, and began to try to erase the traces of my existence. Zhou Wen did all
this very well. He never read the letter from the border again. Gu Taifu thought that Zhou Wen was going to put it down, but unexpectedly, when the envoy of Tubo came to court, Zhou Wen suddenly launched an attack on Tubo. From that day on, he began to care about things related to Tubo.
These days, Zhou Wen not only inquired about the local conditions and customs of Tubo, but also went to Liquan Square to chat with people and personally asked about some details. Because these had nothing to do with me, Gu Taifu only thought that Zhou Wen had other plans for Tubo and did not delve into them.
But unexpectedly, Zhou Wen seemed to be more and more addicted to these, and even the spies of Tubo heard about it.
They thought that Zhou Wen took a fancy to Tubo as a treasure land and wanted to take Tubo into his pocket. For this reason, they were full of fear and trepidation. In just half a month, many people invited by various parties sneaked into Chang’an to inquire about the news.
Gu Taifu could not guess Zhou Wen’s idea, and finally could not help asking him, but unexpectedly, Zhou Wen told Gu Taifu innocently that Tubo was sparsely populated and had different customs. Even if it was captured, it would be difficult to sinicize. He inquired about the local conditions and customs, just because he was curious..
At this point, Gu Taifu finally understood what Zhou Wen was doing. He had always known that Zhou Wen was clever, but he had never thought that he would use his cleverness in such a place.
Zhou Wen knew that he could not see anything about me, so he thought of a compromise way to understand the town where I live now, and through imagination, drink poison to quench thirst. In the next court
today, Gu Taifu and Zhou Wen tore their faces and told him bluntly that if they went on like this, not to mention whether the officials of the Tubo would be frightened, if they really believed that Zhou Wen would attack the Tubo, maybe there would be a war.
Zhou Wen realized the seriousness of the problem and finally promised that today was the last time to go to Liquan Square.
But unexpectedly, after getting drunk, he got lost. When I
heard such a thing, I felt a little sour in my heart, but intuitively I thought it was unlikely. So I lowered my face and said, “Whose idea was it this time?”? I was on the verge of taking the play seriously. When
Gu Taifu heard me say this, he laughed angrily and said, “Your Majesty and I did use you, but now, Your Majesty is a very important minister. If it weren’t for Your Majesty..” To you.. He didn’t seem to want to say the rest of the words, and in the middle of it, he said bitterly, “Why should I bother to do these things?”
See me silent.
Gu Taifu’s tone was somewhat melancholy and indignant: “If in the past, Your Majesty couldn’t do it, I would make a decision for him and kill you directly.”. But I have been his teacher for many years, not only the feelings of the monarch and his subjects, your majesty for the throne of Jiangshan, has given up all the love and hate, now only this soft rib, the old man really. I really can’t bear to take it down like this. I really didn’t know what to say when I
saw his gesture. I was silent for a long time before I uttered a sentence: “But I’ve already put him down in my heart, and I don’t want to pick him up again.”
Moments later, Gu Taifu heaved a deep sigh: “Go and see Your Majesty. If you want to leave after reading it, I won’t stop you.”
My remaining sense told me that this was absolutely impossible. Gu Taifu saw my worries and assured me: “After seeing you, if you insist on leaving, I will send you out of the city with the guarantee of my head.”
It has to be said that Gu Taifu also worked hard for Zhou Wen. He must have felt that after saying so much about Zhou Wen’s suffering, let me go to see Zhou Wen and see his sad scene. With two more words, I would probably be softhearted for a while and stay for Zhou Wen.
However, I am not born to be a person who likes others because I am moved. If I like a person, it must be because he is worthy of my love. If I choose to stay for a person, it must be because I can live the life I want after I stay.
So when you think about it, it doesn’t matter if you don’t see this side. When
Gu Taifu saw that he could not persuade me to stay, he finally stopped asking me to stay. He put the token in my hand and sighed with regret: “Girls like you are rare in the world. No wonder Your Majesty is like this.” “If I had known this, I shouldn’t have wasted my breath,”
he laughed at himself. With a slight nod,
I said, “Well, goodbye.”
I turned around and stepped out of the main hall. As soon as I reached the courtyard, I saw a tall and straight figure. Zhou Wen probably woke up drunk and came out of the wing sleepily.
As soon as he came out, he bumped into me.
I didn’t want to talk to him, so subconsciously I wanted to bow my head and leave, but Chou Wen looked at me steadily and shouted, “Stop!”
I stood there at a loss, but Chou Wen looked at me carefully. After a moment, he slightly raised the corners of his mouth: “You’ve lost weight, and you’re tanned..”
I didn’t know how to answer his words, so I had to smile awkwardly: “Your Majesty is awake, go and have a cup of sobering tea..” What
I think is that he went to tea, and I just left.
Unexpectedly, Chou Wen pursed his lips and said, “Mrs. Ku has just sent someone to give me a drink.”
Hearing what he said, I was slightly surprised. He smiled again and said, “Taifu is also kind. He just sent someone to tell me that you are going to see me later. He must hope that I will behave in a down-and-out way so as to win sympathy.”. Unfortunately, he doesn’t understand you. Only I know that you won’t come at all. As soon as
he said this, I was even more embarrassed, so I had to pretend that I had something to do and said to Zhou Wen that it was getting late and I should go.
Chou Wen didn’t stop me. He followed me out of the courtyard. Seeing my surprise, he sighed slightly: “It’s too late. I’ll see you off.”
I refused him several times in a row, and if I didn’t allow him to see me off now, it would be a bit inhuman, so I nodded my head. The
night in Chang’an was as cool as water. Zhou Wen and I walked side by side in the street. I did not speak, and Zhou Wen did not deliberately look for a topic. We walked in silence. Unexpectedly, this silence did not make people feel embarrassed, but reminded me of many days and nights with Zhou Wen.
At the beginning, when he went to war with him to suppress the rebellion, Zhou Wen had a hard time meeting the enemy. When he felt very anxious, he always liked to let me go with him for a walk outside the camp.
We are not good at expression, he never complained to me, I will not say anything good to comfort him, just quietly accompany him on the road, the only thing in my mind is that no matter what the future is, this bloody road of killing, where he goes, I will accompany him.
Perhaps this idea naturally gives people the power of interdependence. Every time we come back from a walk in the barracks, we embrace each other and sleep well.
Now on the long street, there is still the same silence, but things have changed, and the emotions contained in the silence have been completely different.
Chang’an curfew, the gate has been sealed, Zhou Wen found an inn for me, let me go out of the city the next morning.
I was very grateful and wanted to watch him leave, but unexpectedly, Zhou Wen’s bodyguard suddenly came forward and asked for another room next door for him.
Seeing that I didn’t understand, Chou Wen smiled uneasily. “You can’t say anything about being lost today. Gu Taifu hid it from my mother. The key has been laid in the palace. Tomorrow morning, the guards will send me to court.”
I nodded and didn’t think much of it.
On this day, I had a quarrel with a parrot and then met Zhou Wen. I was very tired. I fell down and went to sleep. When I was sleeping in a daze, I heard a rustling sound on the wall.
I knew that Chou Wen was sleeping next door, and our beds were only separated by a wall. When I heard the noise, I suspected that something had happened to him. So I knocked on the wall and called out tentatively, “Your Majesty?”
Strangely, the sound of friction gradually stopped, and there was a soft snoring sound.
I was curious, but when I heard him sleeping soundly, I didn’t think much about it. After a long time, I was sleepy, and the friction on the wall sounded again. My
heart tightened and I knocked on the wall: “Chou Wen!”
Chou Wen seemed to wake up from a deep sleep. Through the wall, there was sleepiness in his voice: “What’s wrong?” A bell?
“Did you hear any strange noises?”
Chou Wen seemed to listen carefully for a while before he realized, “This is a simple place. Maybe there are mice digging holes. If you’re afraid, I’ll go there and watch over you.” I was obviously more afraid of him
than of mice, so I rejected him.
After a while, I closed my eyes, my breath sank again, and the sound of rustling sounded again, which made my doubts more and more intense. If it was really a mouse, the mouse was too clever. Every time I fell asleep, it began to move. As soon as I
thought about it, I continued to breathe calmly, carefully looking for the source of the sound. Soon, I found a thin hole in the wall, which seemed to be about to break through. I did not say anything, but took out a dagger and plunged it quickly, accurately and ruthlessly.
Soon, there was a muffled hum over there. Obviously, this is not an ordinary mouse.
I was so angry that I laughed. “Chou Wen!”! Is it fun for you to stay up in the middle of the night and dig out the wall?
Perhaps it was so embarrassing that he didn’t want to admit it. He just pretended to be surprised. Why is there a knife on the wall? What are you doing, Ling Dang? How dare
this fellow make a counter-charge.
I didn’t want to talk to him, but he knocked at the door. I didn’t open it for him. I hoped he would go back by himself. Chou Wen’s voice was low, with a touch of pity in it: “I don’t sleep honestly. There’s an extra knife on the wall. I dare not sleep there.”
Obviously, he’s pretending to be pathetic again.
I didn’t want to talk to him, but I couldn’t help laughing at the way he pretended to snore while secretly picking the wall. In desperation, I opened the door, and Zhou Wen’s eyes lit up a little bit.
I saw his fingers hidden in his sleeve and couldn’t help asking, “Did I hurt you just now?”
Chou Wen is still playing dumb: “I’m not hurt. I’m just scared.” Then he added, “I’m afraid there’s no way to sleep over there. I’ll ask someone to ask if there’s any other room..”
Now in the middle of the night, the room is already full, and if you can find an empty room, you will be damned.
I tugged at the corners of my mouth and said helplessly, “Your Majesty, come in and sleep.”
Zhou Wen listened and quickly entered the room, closed the door, took off his boots, and lay down beside the bed, moving flowing clouds and running water, as if he was afraid that I would go back on my word. With a slight sigh,
I packed my bags and prepared to leave. “Where are you going?” Chou Wen asked anxiously.
I glanced at the sky outside. “There are still a few hours before dawn. Your Majesty will sleep a little longer. I’m going to leave the city.”
Chou Wen frowned. “Are you angry?”
“No.”
Chou Wen finally confessed to me, “I didn’t mean to..” When I was lying in bed, I wanted to sleep, but when I thought that tomorrow morning I would be far apart, I couldn’t sleep. He sighed, “Originally I just wanted to take a closer look at you, but I was afraid that I would turn over the window too much and be discovered by you. I thought about it, so I might as well make a hole quietly while you were asleep..” Unexpectedly, the technique was not good, and he was caught in the act.
Hearing what he said, I couldn’t help laughing. “I’m not that narrow-minded. I’m not angry with you.”
I am so careful to avoid him, in fact, because I am afraid, since the parrot broke my mind, I do not know how many nights I have been dreaming of Zhou Wen, but forced to endure it by reason.
I know that I have little resistance to the present Zhou Wen, and I know that even if I can accept Zhou Wen again, I can’t accept myself in the Forbidden City.
If this love will change me beyond recognition and make me live a life I don’t want, then all I can do for myself is to be cruel. When I
figured it out, I said goodbye to him.
When Chou Wen heard this, he had the courage to hug me tightly from behind. “Don’t go,” he pleaded softly in his ear. In the past,
Zhou Wen also said flattering words to me, but at that time, these words often lead to other routines, so listen to the ears, always with a bit of coldness.
Now, listening to his plea, there seems to be nothing in it but vulnerability. My
heart is sour and I can’t say a word.
Seeing that I did not speak, he did not push him away, so he dared to pick me up and put me on the bed. After a moment, a delicate kiss fell on his ear.
Heaven and earth are big. Where is the end? A man must have a home. I want to give you a home.
The voice fell for a long time, I noticed a dripping on my face, reached out and touched it, only to find that I was crying.
When Chou Wen saw my tears, he slowly released me:.. It was I who was so abrupt.
I shook my head. These tears had nothing to do with Zhou Wen. When I was alone at the border, when I was wronged and missed Ah Niang, and when I had nowhere to go on New Year’s Eve, they were already in my eyes, but I never met a shoulder that I could lean on and cry.
My tears gradually can not stop, from a low sob into a hoarse voice, Zhou Wen seems to begin to love me, he held me tightly in the chest, carefully kissed. After
a moment, I realized that I couldn’t go on like this. I tried to wipe away my tears and smiled at him. “It’s time for me to go, and it’s time for Your Majesty to go to court.”
Chou Wen held me in her arms without letting go. “I know what you’re worried about. You probably think it’s foolish to put shackles on the rest of your life for the sake of a momentary impulse. You might as well not do it. But you never asked me if I would like to bear these shackles for you.”
I didn’t understand what he meant. Chou Wen forced me to look him in the eye and said, “After you left, I gave myself two choices. Either I tried to forget you and go back to the way I used to be, or I gave up all my glory and really fought for myself.”
I was shocked by the deep meaning of Zhou Wen’s words. You know, it is not easy to seize the throne, and it is even more difficult to escape from the throne.
Once Zhou Wen was no longer the emperor, all his reliance turned into pressure on him, and all his courtiers turned into blades hanging over his head.
From then on, nothing, the world turned upside down.
I shook my head, unable to agree with him to make such a choice, but Zhou Wen seemed to have made up his mind: “The moment I saw you today, I knew that I would never go back to the way I used to be.”. I didn’t make this decision just because of you. From the age of eight, I was forced to embark on the road to seize the throne. In the past, I lived for the safety of my mother, for Gu Taifu and the families that supported me. Now I’m nearly thirty years old, and I’m halfway through my life, and I want to live for myself.
Seeing that I couldn’t stop my tears, Chou Wen carefully wiped them away for me and scraped the tip of my nose with her finger. “I didn’t realize before, but you’re also a little crying bag.”
I tried to wipe away my tears, but still tried to dissuade him: “Chou Wen, I don’t want to hurt you.”
He raised his eyebrows and smiled. “Who said you hurt me?” He clasped my hand and held it with his fingers. “In the past, you only wanted to escape from that terrible palace. From now on, you might as well take me with you.”
