"Your Highness the Fifth Prince." The old eunuch outside the Changming Palace folded his sleeves and held a fly whisk in his arms, and bowed deeply to Qi Dan. "Old minister Rong is too talkative...Why did His Highness visit Changming Palace at night?"
The old eunuch's name was Ji Sinian. He had entered the palace to serve the emperor after urinating. He had served two generations of kings for more than fifty years. Ji Sinian was honest, honest and capable, so he was appointed by the emperor as the general manager of the eunuch department "Fengtian Jian" and concurrently as the eunuch Si Li Bingbi, and he was highly regarded.
Qi Dan smiled softly and said: "As a son, do you need a reason to come to visit your father?"
Ji Sinian nodded. He was indeed just asking a routine question to report to the emperor, and had no intention of deliberately obstructing him. After Ji Sinian entered the Changming Palace, Qi Dan suddenly thought of some questions - Logically speaking, as the eunuch closest to his father, Ji Sinian should have been waiting inside, so why did he come out to stand guard?
Not long after, Ji Sinian came out of Changming Hall and bowed respectfully to Qi Dan, "Fifth Prince, please."
Changming Hall means holding a candle and keeping the light bright day and night. The first emperor of the Sheng Kingdom gave it the name "Changming" in order to exhort himself and encourage his descendants to be diligent in government affairs and work hard to govern. It was the imperial study room of the Sheng Kingdom, ranking first among the three palaces in the back - the other two palaces in the back three palaces were respectively They are "Changqing Palace" and "Changning Palace". The word "Qingning" is taken from the ancient sage's classic "Tao Te Ching", "Heaven gets one to make it clear", "Earth gets one to make it peaceful"; the emperor is the sky , the queen is the land, the Changqing Palace and Changning Palace are naturally the bedrooms of the emperor and the queen.
In addition to the three back palaces, there are two front halls in the palace, namely the "Zending Hall" and the "Eternal Life Hall". The Zenith Hall is a place for sacrifices and ceremonies, such as worshiping saints, heaven and earth, the emperor's enthronement, Major ceremonies such as weddings, canonization of queens, and military expeditions were actually used less often; the Changsheng Hall was the main place where the emperor went to court to meet with his ministers. The first two palaces and the back three palaces are collectively called the "Five Senses City", which is also the official name of the Shengguo Palace. It has many meanings - one means a person's facial features, and the other means the official positions of five humeral officials. Three means the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, four means east, west, south, north, center, and the five directions, and five means commemorating the ancient ancestors and the five emperors.
At this moment, the Changming Hall was brightly lit, dozens of palace lanterns illuminated the Imperial Study Room as if it were daytime, and the sandalwood incense coming from the incense burner curled around the entire hall, making it seem like you were in a fairyland in heaven.
Qi Dan followed Ji Sinian in and found that in the Changming Hall, in addition to his father handling memorials in front of the desk, there was another person standing beside him, holding a gold tray and silver soup bowl, serving meals. The young eunuch who was serving the emperor was similar in age to Qi Dan, but his behavior was very reserved and shy: "Young Xiao Bailu has met His Highness the Fifth Prince." After saying that, he lowered his head and did not dare to confront Qi Dan. See.
"Shan'er." Qi Changgeng, the current emperor of the Dasheng Empire, put down the memorial in his hand and looked at his son: "Why do you think of going back to the palace today?"
As the fifth prince and the "King of Zhao", Qi Dan is usually very free--it can even be said that he is more leisurely than more than 99% of the people in the Sheng Kingdom--because he is neither the prince nor the important position, of course he is innocent. And Qi Dan's character was that of a person who couldn't stay in the palace, so he spent the whole day hanging out with Jiang Wenbing outside the palace, "living" in the palace of General Hussar.
It is also quite interesting to talk about the residences of these princes and princesses. The eldest prince, the prince, has his own residence in the palace. The other princes and princesses also have their own residences. The male one is in the east and the female one is in the west. It is also called the east residence and the west residence. . Both the east and west buildings were built on both sides of the palace - Qi Dan once jokingly called them "side buildings", and "side" is a homonym for "toilet", which was inevitably a bit indecent, and he was once punished by his father for this. Once the princes of the Sheng Kingdom came of age, they could leave the palace and live in their own palaces. Qi Dan had long been unwilling to live in the "side residence". As soon as he came of age, he fled the "side residence" as if he were running away. Except for the necessary etiquette ceremonies, I rarely go back to the palace, let alone visit my father's Changming Palace.
"Father...I have something important to discuss with you..." Qi Dan hesitated for a long time, but finally made his purpose known. He glanced at the two eunuchs, one old and one young.
Qi Changgeng understood his son's intention. He waved his hand and asked the young eunuch Xiao Bailu to put down the soup bowl, "You two go down first."
The two eunuchs nodded solemnly, "I take my leave." Then they slowly exited the Changming Palace.
"It seems that you have been very close to the son of General Hussar recently. It seems that you have made a fuss all over the city because of something?" It was Qi Dan who hesitated to speak, but it was Qi Changgeng who asked first.
"Back to my father... Shan'er and Jiang Wenbing have known each other since childhood. Recently, one of his clan brothers, a nephew who is also a hussar general, broke the law. He wants me to help plead for mercy..." Qi Shanjiang Jiang Chen said a few days ago He reported the whole case to his father. Of course, he did not tell the whole story. For example, the overt and covert fight between him and Li Mastiffchun was naturally impossible for his father to know.
"That's it..." Qi Changgeng originally wanted to say how could a small Shanhe government official dare to punish Jiang Chen, a member of the Household Department, but when he heard that this young man was Li Mastiff Chun's protégé, he didn't find it surprising. After all, Li Zhanchun also looked upright. He picked up the lotus seed soup and blew on it, then sipped it with a spoon, "Tell me, what do you want to report to me when you return to the palace this time?"
Qi Dan walked to his father and knelt down on the other side of the desk. He swallowed and his Adam's apple squirmed. "Father... I would like to ask you... to grant me a hand in marriage."
Qi Changgeng raised his eyebrows, "Oh? I remember your mother-in-law said several times before that you were of marriageable age and wanted to marry you earlier, but you refused... Why did you think of it and asked me for a marriage today? ?”
"Of course I have someone I admire in my heart now." Qi Dan said with a smile, "In those days, I still felt that I was living a carefree life alone, but now several of the royal brothers have been married - counting the days. It's my turn, otherwise it will inevitably be a bit awkward when the sixth brother has a family and I, the fifth brother, am still alone."
These words are quite reasonable, Qi Changgeng thought to himself. "Shan'er... you have to know that you are a prince, and when you marry, you must marry a girl whose status matches yours. Don't just find a prostitute from a brothel and marry her back in a daze, that would be inappropriate. …”
"Your name is really famous in the capital, Mr. Bai." Qi Changgeng's words were serious, but the topic suddenly changed, and it was quite teasing.
"How could that be possible..." As he spoke, the fifth prince broke into cold sweat. Are these stories of yours actually reaching the ears of your father? Or...that his father has always been paying attention to him?
"The person I want to marry is of course not just a concubine, but my real wife, the prosperous Princess Zhao. And this girl's family background, appearance, and talent are all very suitable for my son." Qi Dan respectfully said said.
"Oh...? Which girl is worthy of my son missing so much?" Qi Changgeng asked, but his expression didn't seem to be very curious.
Qi Dan took a deep breath and said, "The girl I like is the granddaughter of Zhu Gong, the Minister of Household Affairs, and my best friend since childhood - Zhu Zhao'er."
Zhu Zhaoer? The granddaughter of the household secretary? Qi Changgeng searched his mind and found that he didn't have many impressions of this woman. However, since she was born in the Household Affairs Bureau, she was considered a son. "It is a good thing to marry a wife and have children according to royal regulations. If you really want to, my father will do whatever you want."
That's fine - although Zhu Gong is one of the six ministers and holds an important position, after all, he is old and his heirs are not very outstanding - the Zhu family is not part of his future plans and will fade out of the court sooner or later. Since my son is interested, there is no harm in just following his wishes.
Qi Changgeng's understatement of the promise brought Qi Dan not joy but anger - was he really the one who had been perfunctory and abandoned by his father?
Twenty years ago, before the winter arrived before Qi Dan was born, the sky had already started to snow abnormally. This kind of heavy snow continued until the day when Qi Dan's mother-in-law, Concubine Liu Guifei, gave birth to her son - that day, the heavy snowfall that lasted for more than three months ended, and the sky was blue and clear.
Qi Changgeng specially ordered the famous masters of metaphysics, Taoist Guanyuan and Mr. Bu Suan, to come to the palace to tell Qi Dan's fortune. However, after seeing the infant Qi Dan, the Bu Suan's eyes went dark and he fainted on the spot. Guan Yuan The Taoist didn't know what he saw, his face was very dazed, but in the end he just muttered, "Gold body, jade roof. This boy's talent is extraordinary, he must not be a thing in the pool."
There is a saying that when something goes wrong, there must be a monster. So many visions and strange things naturally made Qi Changgeng have some prejudices against Qi Dan - even though Qi Dan is the smartest among his princes, and the one whose personality is most similar to his own. , but Qi Changgeng couldn't like him at all, and even felt a little disgusted and alienated from him.
Because of the prophecies spoken by Taoist Guanyuan, he wanted to strangle Qi Dan more than once while he was still in his infancy, but after all, the poison of a tiger cannot eat its own child - how could he have the heart to harm his own son? So Qi Changgeng found another way. His education method for Qi Dan was always to "raise the weak". He was obedient to him but never deliberately trained him.
At this moment, Qi Dan once again felt his father's attitude towards him - the attitude that seemed doting but actually perfunctory. His expression became a little distorted for a moment - just for a moment.
And when Qi Dan raised his head and looked at his father again, his face was full of joy, "So, father, you agree to my marriage?"
Qi Changgeng nodded, "Since she is the granddaughter of the Minister of the Ministry of Finance, it is of course the best thing. The marriage is entirely up to you - but you still have to inform your mother and concubine first, and discuss it with your mother and concubine. It’ll take a while.” He symbolically reminded Qi Dan. In fact, in his mind, even if Qi Dan married a commoner's daughter, or even a brothel singer, it didn't matter. It was just that it would not sound good if the royal family behaved like this - Qi Dan only had to abide by the ancestral etiquette and not overstep it. Whatever you like, just do it.
Qi Changgeng has always been very perfunctory about Qi Dan, and he doesn't even seem to care about marriage - since it is not a political marriage, there is nothing to care about.
"Okay, thank you father for your love." Qi Dan lowered his head and knelt down to his father, "I understand."
Qi Dan's back was trembling as he left. Was he crying? Or is it anger? Qi Changgeng looked at his son's back and felt infinite sadness in his heart - Qi Dan was clearly his biological son, but he was not loved as much as the son of a worm.
As a father, why don't you want to favor smart children? But the birth of Qi Dan violated Qi Changgeng's biggest taboo - he didn't want any of his sons to make the same mistakes as him.
