MTL - Pihanjin-Chapter 19

Zhao Xitai kept coughing, his face flushed red.

Seeing this with his entourage, he hurried forward, took out a medicine bottle he was carrying with him, unplugged it, and sent it to him.

Zhao Xitai held the medicine bottle, took a few breaths, finally stopped coughing and recovered.

There was a hint of shame in his eyes, and he said in a low voice, "I'm really useless. As soon as we meet, I'll make you laugh..."

"I'm not always like this on weekdays! I just didn't expect to meet you here. I remembered what happened when I was a child, and I was excited for a while, and I accidentally took a breath."

He hurriedly explained again.

Mu Fulan smiled.

"Is the prince going to see the princess?"

"I just came out of the princess. You go!"

She deliberately raised the volume, and after speaking, nodded to Zhao Xitai, called the maid, and continued to walk forward.

Zhao Xitai's eyes fell on her. As she slowly turned her face and watched her back, she suddenly caught up and stopped her again.

"Master!"

Mu Fulan turned her head.

He looked at this piece that seemed to overlap with his childhood memories, but it turned into a stunning beauty that he could hardly recognize at first glance. On his face, a faint layer of light appeared as if he had just coughed and had not receded. flush.

"When I saw you in the morning, I wanted to explain something to you. I didn't mean to not see you off when you left Shangjing in the past. I knew you were leaving, and I wanted to see you off, but..."

It's just that at that time, his mother-in-law did not allow him to send off his former playmate in the palace, the little girl whose eyes were like crescent moons when she smiled.

Because of his poor health, his mother-in-law was very strict with him. Don't do this, don't move that. He had no company since he was a child. Everyone respected him, but no one played with him. When they saw him passing by, they had to avoid him, lest they would be implicated if he did something wrong.

Only she doesn't hide from him and plays with him.

He likes being with her, no matter what she does. When she was quietly studying, or she was swinging in the imperial garden, he could hide and watch for a long time, and he would never get bored.

Zhao Xitai paused.

"...At that time I happened to be sick again. Later, when I was healed, you were gone."

"You don't blame me, do you?" he asked cautiously.

The things of her childhood so long ago were so small that they were not worth mentioning at all. If he hadn't mentioned it, she would have lost her impression.

She can stop resenting the son of King Qi who was involved in a cruel power struggle and lost his life like herself before, and even now, if he asks for a doctor, she can bring him to Yaoweng. But he really did not intend to tell him these meaningless old things.

"I forgot about the little things many years ago, and the prince doesn't have to worry about it." She said lightly.

Zhao Xitai stared at her.

"Master Weng, how have you been all these years? A few years ago, I heard that your father, the king, promised you to that giant pirate named Xie..."

Suddenly there was a slight cough nearby.

"Is it Prince Zhao? I just met Xie Jiedu over there. I heard something going on here. I was afraid to disturb the queen mother, so I came to see. It turned out that the prince was here. I heard that you arrived in Beijing a few days ago. , What a coincidence, I actually met here today!"

"Cao Jin has seen the prince!"

The **** Cao walked over with a smile on his face, saluted Zhao Xitai, then turned to Mu Fulan and respectfully called her "Master Weng".

Mu Fulan pretended to have just seen him, and glanced behind Eunuch Cao.

Xie Changgeng didn't come, and still stood there.

Zhao Xitai suddenly heard that Xie Changgeng was also there, and was startled, then raised his eyes and glanced, his face could not help showing a slight embarrassment.

But soon, his expression turned to contempt, his eyes stared at Xie Changgeng coldly, and he did not look away.

Xie Changgeng took a step and walked over, but he did not enter the door, but stopped outside the door.

His two lines of sight fell on the face of Zhao Xitai opposite.

"What's the matter with Zhao Shizi here? I know that Princess Qi asked before the Queen Mother, and Yun Shizi will accompany him into the temple today. But if I remember correctly, the action is only limited to the Buddhist hall. The prince is not a child, you should know that you can stay in the Queen's Temple for a long time. The place. If there is no urgent matter, it is better to go quickly."

His expression was as usual and his tone was calm, but there was a faint commanding tone of life and death.

Zhao Xitai's face became a little ugly, and he said, "I'm here to see my mother-in-law, but you also stop me?"

Xie Changgeng smiled.

"Don't dare. Since the prince is going to see the princess, I will ask someone to **** you. The queen mother is not far from resting here. If the prince accidentally breaks in and disturbs the queen mother, it will be my dereliction of duty."

He turned to Cao Jin.

"Trouble Eunuch Cao, lead the prince to see Princess Qi."

Cao Jin responded and came up with a smile.

"Zhao Shizi, come with me here."

Zhao Xitai's pale face quickly showed a blush of shame and resentment.

He paused for a moment, gritted his teeth, turned his head towards Mu Fulan and said softly, "Master Weng, I'll go to my mother's place first." After speaking, he turned his head and stared at Xie Changgeng angrily, and hurried away.

His two entourage hurriedly followed. Cao Jin also went.

The people left immediately, leaving only Mu Fulan and Xie Changgeng, one standing inside the wall door and the other standing outside the wall door.

The atmosphere suddenly became a little weird.

Xie Changgeng's eyes were a little gloomy, and he said to the maid who was standing aside, who seemed a little overwhelmed, "Send Master Weng to rest."

After he finished speaking, he turned around and was about to leave, but his footsteps paused again. Before leaving, he turned his gaze and glanced at Mu Fulan, and said coldly, "This is not your own home, don't walk around if you have nothing to do!"

Mu Fulan watched him leave with his entourage. He probably didn't realize that he had peeped at him and Cao Jin just now, and he slowly breathed a sigh of relief.

…

After the noon break, Empress Liu finished reciting the second half of the sutra. Near the time of application, the Buddha ceremony was finally completed today. After a short rest, he was ready to leave for the city.

The evening bell rang in the Huguo Temple. The umbrella cover, the guard of honor, and the garrison troops were in their respective positions, from the gate to the foot of the mountain, on both sides of the mountain steps. The monks were also led by the abbot and abbot to send Liu Hou down the mountain.

After a day of tossing, everyone was tired, and the women in the queue were eager to go down the mountain and get on the carriage back to the city. No one made a sound. On the mountain steps, there was only the slight rustling sound of the rich and precious clothes rubbing with the movement. .

From the foot of the mountain to the gate of the mountain, there are one hundred and eight steps built, and there are one hundred and eight dharma gates in the world. Stepping up one step is like stepping through a Dharma door and liberating one kind of karma.

Mu Fulan followed the crowd and followed the stone steps outside the mountain gate, descending step by step to the foot of the mountain. After walking the last step, he stepped on the flat ground.

The steward came to pick her up, and Mu Fulan walked to the carriage that she was riding in, and was about to go up, when suddenly, deep in her heart, there was a mysterious feeling similar to when she first arrived this morning.

Somewhere, there seemed to be some force that was attracting her back.

She turned her head and looked at the mountain gate that had been left behind her.

As the sun sets in the west, the layers of forest are dyed, and in the distance, the mountain gate at the end of the one hundred and eight mountain steps is like a layer of red gold.

A group of mountain birds returning to their nests at sunset, alarmed by the sound of the evening bell, are fluttering their wings and circling back and forth above the main ridge of the mountain gate.

At the moment of turning back, Mu Fulan's gaze froze.

In the sunset light, after she saw the wide open mountain gate, a small figure appeared.

It was a boy, three or two years old, as if attracted by the movement outside the mountain gate, standing quietly in a corner behind the threshold.

The moment that little figure came into view, Mu Fulan's heart burst open as if it had been hit hard by something.

She even seemed to see her Xi'er! Xi'er, who accompanied her in the cold old house in Xie County when she was a child, spent one morning after another!

She must be dazzled!

She tried her best to open her eyes, trying to see more clearly.

A monk came out, took the boy's hand, and led him inside.

The child was taken in, but as if he sensed something, when he turned around, he turned his head and glanced in Mu Fulan's direction.

Soon, the small figure disappeared behind the mountain gate and was invisible.

Mu Fulan's pupils were dilated to the extreme, and she couldn't move, even her breathing stopped.

She has a feeling.

At the foot of the mountain, there were so many people, the boy who looked exactly like Xi'er, before he left, he looked back, looking for himself.

He is looking for himself!

At this moment, she forgot everything around her, turned around abruptly, ran back under the amazed and puzzled gazes of the people around her, and walked up the mountain steps, chasing in the direction of the mountain gate.

Empress Liu had already entered the palace chariot, and under the guard of the imperial army and the eunuchs, the palace chariot took the lead and left slowly.

Xie Changgeng took the reins from his entourage, and was about to mount the horse, when he turned his head and glanced behind him, unexpectedly saw her leave the others and go back, hurried up the mountain steps by herself, and in a blink of an eye she reached ten levels, her back was in a hurry, as if Something urgent was waiting for her up there.

He glanced at the mountain gate in the sunset, and there was nothing unusual except for some monks who were still performing rituals.

He frowned, immediately turned over and dismounted, hurried to catch up, strode up the mountain steps, stretched out his hand from behind, and grabbed her wrist.

"Everyone is gone, what are you doing up there?"

He lowered his voice and asked her at a volume that only he and she could hear.

Mu Fulan's breath was disordered, and she couldn't stop panting. She turned her head and met the two displeased stern eyes that the man behind her cast towards her, and suddenly came to her senses.

She tried her best to suppress the blood-surging heartbeat under her chest at the moment, closed her eyes, calmed her mind, and slowly opened her eyes.

"...Looks like I lost a hairpin. I think it fell into the place where I rested at noon. I was in a hurry and wanted to go back to find..."

Xie Changgeng's eyes swept across her jet-black hair, and slowly released the hand that was holding her wrist, and said, "I'll ask someone to go back and find it for you."

"Thank you."

Mu Fulan didn't look at him, she said in a low voice, lowered her eyes, turned around, descended the steps step by step, boarded the carriage, lowered the warm curtain, and sat down.

Xie Changgeng came back this night, and through the curtain, he said to Mu Fulan, who was already on the bed, "I asked people to search all the places you've been, and they said they couldn't find the hairpin."

"You better think about it again, it's not lost, it's in someone's hands."

He said another sentence, his tone sounded restrained and plain, but the bad intentions were about to come out.

"When I came back at night, I realized that I remembered it wrong. I didn't wear it when I went out in the morning, and the hairpin was in the jewelry box. I'm sorry to bother you." A low voice of response came from the account.

Xie Changgeng paused.

The bed net was low, and she was inside, but she never showed her face.

He frowned and turned away.

Mu Fulan dared not let him see her.

She was afraid that her eyes or expressions would reveal her chaotic mood at the moment.

In her mind, the little figure she saw in front of the mountain gate in the evening appeared over and over again.

She told herself that it was an illusion.

It was because she missed Xi'er so much that she regarded other children as her Xi'er, and when the child looked back, she insisted that she was looking for herself.

But deep down in her heart, another thought was like fire, which made her toss and turn uneasy, wishing the night would pass sooner.

She wants to go to Huguo Temple again to find the child she met in a hurry outside the mountain gate in the evening.