Mikago

"Master?" Lu You asked in surprise, "You have something to do with me?"

"it's me."

Qi Yunchu's voice came slowly from a distance.

"You are late, give me a proper reason."

It was only then that Lu You realized that Mr. Chang Qiu was sitting on the beauty couch next to the bookshelf on the north wall, holding a volume of books in his hands.

He hurriedly told Qi Yunchu about Yang Ren's punishment of the young eunuch, and then mentioned the matter of the three big eunuchs.

Qi Yunchu nodded slightly, and then he cleared up Lu You's confusion: "It's Feilong stable, Liuhou envoy and Nongyulou envoy who came to pick their own newcomers. I promised this matter, but I forgot."

Lu You had heard of both the Flying Dragon Stable and the Forbidden Garden Liuhou, but he had rarely heard of the Nongyu Tower.I just heard that Liu'er, who was crying in the outer clean room, was also led into the Nongyu Building last year, and has never appeared in the Ministry of Internal Affairs since then.

Thinking of this, Lu You just wanted to ask, but was blocked by Li Hongzhi.

"Hey, you two are really anxious to death. Hurry up and talk about serious things!"

Only then did Qi Yunchu ask Lu You: "After entering the palace, I asked you to continue practicing martial arts with your master, did you obey?"

"Have."

Lu You replied: "On the Moon Shadow Terrace to the west of Yeting, there is only an old Shang Palace guard who is deaf and blind. During the day, I help her do some chores of cleaning and running errands. At night, the master asks me to practice martial arts on the Moon Shadow Terrace. These days Come, without a day's interruption."

Qi Yunchu nodded, then turned to Li Hongqu: "I asked you to teach him archery, what's the matter?"

"On the night of the full moon, within a hundred paces." Li Hongzhi replied, "Although it is not the best, but compared to his opponent, it is definitely more than enough."

"Adversary?" Lu You was taken aback for a moment: "Could it be that you want me to deal with someone in the palace?"

Before Qi Yunchu opened his mouth, Li Hongqu had already laughed out loud.

"It's up to you? Do you want to move the people in the palace? Let's practice for five or ten years first. I told you to shoot arrows, but I didn't tell you to kill people."

"Archery?" Lu You's mind was spinning fast: "You mean, Yan She? But that is a grand ceremony that only the clan and favored ministers can participate in. How can I have room to play?"

"Who said that you, a little eunuch, are going to be let out?" Li Honghe laughed narrowly: "Even your wise and mighty Lord Qi Qiu has never broken such a precedent."

Otherwise, let him shoot arrows when he comes on stage?

Lu You felt another thud in his heart, and blurted out: "Don't tell me you want me to pretend to be King Xuan again?!"

This time, Li Hongzhi stopped talking and just stared at him with an ambiguous smile.

Lu You was horrified by her look, and kept shaking his head: "I can't!"

"Why not?" Li Hongju asked him back: "Didn't you pretend to be King Xuan before?"

"This is different from that! First of all, I have never seen the etiquette of shooting a salute with my own eyes. If I go into battle rashly, I will definitely make a mistake. Besides, there must be many clan relatives on this occasion, and I don't know any of them. Really can not……"

"You really can't do it?"

Qi Yunchu, who had been silent all this time, repeated what Lu You said just now.

"You don't hesitate to turn yourself into a half-disabled body and go through all kinds of hardships to enter Yeting Palace, just to shake your head at me and say something wrong?"

"Do not……"

Lu You opened her mouth and was about to deny it, but then she thought about it - didn't her attitude just now correspond to what Qi Yunchu said.

It was as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over his head. He felt embarrassed, but his mind cleared up a bit.

At this time, I heard Qi Yunchu say again: "Remember I told you from the beginning that I will not force you to make any decisions. If you are willing to be a palace slave in this Ministry of Internal Affairs for the rest of your life, you will live every moment of your life." It's a day of fear. I won't stop you either. Just go back to the house."

After finishing speaking, he ignored him again.

After being chased away, Lu You didn't take a step forward. Instead, he felt as if his body was filled with lead, and he couldn't move a step.

The surroundings were terribly quiet, and even the sound of rain outside the house was inaudible.Lu You felt embarrassed, so he wanted to turn to Li Honghe for help, but from the corner of his eyes, he saw a water bowl beside Qi Yunchu's beauty bed.

A branch of crabapple was inserted on the edge of the bowl, and its petals fell on the water surface, attracting two red fish in the bowl to compete for food and chatter loudly.

Lu You's eyelids twitched, and he muttered, "But I... really don't know what to do."

"You don't have to worry about that."

Li Hongqu finally saved him again: "Then this is the first time King Xuan has participated in this year. I will tell you how to do it. It's very simple."

With the lessons learned from Qinglong Temple, Lu You felt that she was a little unreliable, so he was only half-believing, but asked: "If someone wants to talk to me, and I don't recognize the person's identity, what should I do? ?”

Li Hongju cast her eyes on Qi Yunchu, but Qi Yunchu didn't even look at them, and just flipped through the book by himself.

Knowing his temper, Lu You was hesitating on what step to end up on, when suddenly Li Honghe pinned his head on the floor.

"Okay, okay, admit your mistake quickly. Don't waste time!"

Lu You knew that there was only one way in front of him, so he lowered his head and said, "I was wrong."

Li Hongqu asked again: "What's wrong?"

"The mistake is... You shouldn't say that you can't do it without thinking about it. The mistake is that you shouldn't forget your original intention and why you entered the palace."

"Born in sorrow, died in peace—that's what you say."

Li Honghe poked him hard on the forehead, then turned to look at Qi Yunchu.

"He knows he's wrong, so don't embarrass him. Just keep talking."

Only then did Qi Yunchu put down the scroll, and lazily said: "Tomorrow is cold food, and we will have a seven-day holiday during the Qingming Festival. At that time, there will be banquets in the inner court and the harem. You have to recognize people, then it is the best time."

After speaking, he finally raised his head to look at Lu You.

The eyes of the two met, and the ignorance hidden in Lu You's heart suddenly seemed to find support.

During the cold food festival, fireworks are prohibited.Violators may cause hail and snow disasters.

Just after Xushi that night, the Shangshi inner courtyard on the east side of Zichen Palace extinguished the stove fire that had been burning for a whole year.In the Ganlu Hall, the eunuch of the Palace Bureau brought the Ye Mingzhu and put it in the palm of the bronze lamp slave.

When the winter drum of the curfew sounded from Chaotianmen Street, the whole city of Zhaojing extinguished the lights and candles little by little, and slipped into the dense night.

For Lu You, there is no difference whether there is fire or not.

There are no lights and candles on the Moon Shadow Stage all year round, and he has long been used to being with the dark night.On the contrary, when he thought that he was about to replace King Xuan in front of the crowd, he felt a little uneasy all the time.

But whether you want it or not, after tonight, the moon phase will gradually become full.Soon after, even in the dead of night with no lights or candles, there was no way to hide all the secrets.

The next morning, the first day of cold food.

Slightly later than usual, senior officials of the third rank and above entered the Zichen Palace through the Chaotian Gate one after another.But instead of going straight to the main hall of Qianyuan at the Chaohui, he turned westward, passed through the courtyard of Zhongshu Province, and came to the front of Baifu Hall.

Adhering to the courtyard wall of Baifu Hall, there are [-] rooms built, with eaves and corridors running through the front door, undulating like a dragon, surrounding the main hall in the north.

At this moment, the envoys of the tent had already laid the mattresses under the eaves, the envoys of Shangshi had prepared maltose and apricot cheese, and the envoys of the wine shop presented fine wine.Ladies and eunuchs lined up on both sides.

A grand banquet is at hand.

Lu You, who was neatly dressed, stood among the group of silent eunuchs, lowering his eyes.

He heard the ministers knelt down and saluted in the wide open space in the middle of the courtyard, shouting long live.Immediately afterwards, the sound of footsteps spread out to the surroundings and entered the surrounding porches.

The eunuch was ordered to shout loudly: "The banquet begins—"

On the edge of the pond on the west side of the courtyard, musicians from Jiaofang began to play "Liangzhou Song".Eight eunuchs carried two goals with stone lotus bases and placed them on the east and west sides of the courtyard.

Immediately afterwards, only the sound of hooves was heard.Two teams of eight women each, dressed in light green and light yellow silk shirts, sat on tall horses and held silver bells and colorful sticks, and entered the courtyard from the opposite Baifu Gate and Chengqing Gate.

Another eunuch acted as the referee, and walked into the arena holding a small ball carved from driftwood.

A wonderful polo match is about to start, and the originally quiet courtyard slowly becomes alive.

"Give this jug of wine to the third person in the east corridor, that is the imperial historian Ren Jikang. The one on his left is the servant under the door, and the one on the right is Tai Changqing."

"remembered."

Lu You nodded, took the tray from the eunuch who was leading him, and walked towards the east corridor.

Ren Jikang was born in Shenyou 21 years ago, so he is exactly 50 years old this year.There are two sons and a daughter under his knees. The eldest son is idle in Taifu Temple, and the second son is useless.His only daughter married a distant relative of the Tang family and currently does not live in the capital.

Ren Jikang will be present at the competition on March [-], but he claims to be too old to participate in the competition.

In this case, the son is allowed to shoot instead of the father.However, Ren Jikang's two sons are not good at archery, so they dare not show off in front of the imperial court.

All these things above were recorded in a notebook that Qi Yunchu handed over to Lu You yesterday.

In addition to Ren Jikang, there are 24 other people in the handbook.Lu You wanted to remember them all, but he only had two days.

"Don't be stunned!"

The eunuch who led him urged in his ear again: "Send this jug of wine to the center of the south corridor, Minister of the Ministry of Officials, Tang Quan. Be careful!"

correct.

Lu You suddenly recalled that on the day of Yan She, Tang Quan would also bring Tang Ruilang over.

At that time, Rui Lang will represent the Tang family and compete with him on the same field.