Chapter 7
The Empress Dowager immediately instructed Deputy Governor Liang, “Take two teams of men to guard him, don’t let him get lost in an unfamiliar place.”
Zhou Xian Yang couldn’t help but laugh, “Imperial Grandmother, what kind of wild land haven’t I gotten into before, and you’re still not worried about Jinling City? Do you still think I’m a child?”
The Empress Dowager was not pleased: “Of course you are a child in my eyes!”
Zhou Xian Yang could not refute the Empress Dowager and looked to King Qing for help. King Qing immediately understood, how could he enjoy himself with Vice Governor Liang following him? So he took the initiative to solve the problem: “Imperial grandmother just don’t worry, my grandson will take my fourth brother to go shopping, and make sure he has a good time, and then rest at my place at night.”
“Good, Xian Yao you take him I am assured.” The Empress Dowager knew that Princess Shuji had a deep friendship with Empress Yu, and that her son, King Qing, was naturally more intimate with Xian Yang.
Zhou Xianyang followed his second brother out of the Daming Palace, and before he even left the gate of Zhengyang, people from the Qing Wang residence hurriedly greeted him, saying that the princess was not feeling well and asked His Highness to return.
King Qing had only promised to take his fourth brother for a stroll, so it was difficult for him to leave him behind. Zhou Xian Yang told him not to be polite: “Your sister-in-law is a woman with a body, so you need to be extra careful, so please go back to the palace.”
King Qing was unable to do so, and wanted to send his own men to follow him, but Zhou Xian Yang refused: “Go on, I have guards.”
He insisted, and only then did King Qing rush back to his residence.
Zhou Xianyang took two of his followers from Yangzhou and rode out of the palace to the City God Temple.
Even if it’s just the street, the lanterns of this Lantern Festival are already very pretty, and along the street, the merchants of the wine shops hang their lanterns high, in a variety of exquisite styles and colors, dazzling the eyes, and very different from the Western Qin’s rough and tumble style.
Xiao Nan and Xiao Bei, the two siblings, unlike King Yu who has been staying in the palace, have been wandering around for a while, and are more familiar with the road than he is. But they have never seen the Lantern Festival in Jinling City, and with their mouths open, they bought several lanterns before they even reached the City God Temple.
Yang Zhou Xian laughed at them, “When you see the better ones later, you still have a few hands to hold them.”
This City God Temple, covers an area of more than ten acres, a total of six halls, not only colorful lanterns hanging high, the eaves between the halls are also on the rope, hanging down a long new lanterns, raise your head to see, the sky lanterns across the sky, breathtaking.
A group of three people stood at the bottom of the steps outside the City God Gate, they were so beautiful by the scenery in the courtyard that they stopped and sighed.
“Come, come, come, guess the lantern riddle, no money if you get it!”
As soon as they heard these last three words, Xiao Nan and Xiao Bei immediately dashed over.
On an open space next to the City God Temple, several rows of bamboo poles were set up, and lanterns of various colors were hung on them, draping into a curtain and forest of lights, which was very beautiful. An old man was yelling, “These are the lantern riddles drawn by my master and my son, and they are given to those who have the destiny.”
These lanterns, not only are they exquisitely shaped, they also have patterns painted on them, better than the ones bought by the party, Xiao Nan felt that he had suffered a big loss, but after strolling around inside, he quickly balanced out, “What kind of lantern riddle is this, who can guess it?”
“Master, come and take a look?” Xiao Bei greeted, and Zhou Xian Yang became curious and walked towards the lantern curtain.
The two siblings were staring at a pink peach lantern with a picture of a grassy field, buried in snow, with a trail running through the snow.
The lantern was annotated with a small line that read: playing half a verse.
“What do you mean by half a verse?”
“On a snowy day this grass is surprisingly green, has this lord not been out in winter?”
Xiao Nan and Xiao Bei were originally children from poor families, hadn’t studied much, and had followed Zhou Xian Yang for a few years in Western Qin. Zhou Xian Yang taught them the Hundred Surnames, the Thousand Characters and some poems, but he didn’t have the time or inclination to learn the rest.
Xiao Nan loved the lanterns and stared at them with wide eyes, full of hope: “Master, do you know the answer to the riddle?”
Zhou Xian Yang laughed, “This one you have learned.”
“Huh? What?”
“A line of white road.”
“A line of white road …… a line of white herons going up to the blue sky? This is also possible?” Xiao Nan couldn’t believe that this was the level of the Jinling City lords, and the elder next to him immediately laughed, “Exactly!”
Saying this, he took off the lantern, and Xiao Nan immediately took it. Xiao Bei came to a realization and jumped into action, “So that’s how it is, then I will!”
So, the two of them looked like they were going to win all the lanterns and let go of their guesses.
Seeing that they were in high spirits and were in no hurry to enter the City God Temple, Zhou Xian Yang wandered around in the lantern forest. The lantern riddles were not easy to guess, so the place was quite quiet, with only a few faint voices to be heard.
Among all the lanterns, Zhou Xianyang accidentally noticed one that looked very familiar, which was modeled after the stone lanterns in the palace and made of paper paste.
As soon as he saw this lamp, he remembered the winter of the 12th year of Longzhi.
He dressed up as a small chamberlain quietly send his mother out of the palace. In order to avoid people’s eyes, he panicked and hid in the small flowers outside the Yonghua Palace, behind the stone palace lamp. Later, when he encountered a raid, he had nowhere to hide, but was rescued by a little girl who came out of a short pine.
After so many years, he had forgotten many things, but remembered the pair of eyes illuminated by the lamp at that time.
As if to help him remember the past, at this moment a small fox appeared behind the lantern.
That fox mask was a bit large, and under the wide eye expanse, a pair of almond bright eyes were revealed. The original Chu Chu moving eyes, because of those many harsh brow bone brow peak, and added a tough heroic spirit.
The owner of the eyes, first looked intently at the lanterns on the content, followed by a slight frown brows thinking, and then smile, smile in the colorful night alive, no longer in the brain is fading, afraid to catch the memory.
It was as if everything was happening again.
Zhou Xianyang was like being nailed to the spot, unable to move. He waited until the girl behind the lanterns laughed softly, “This lantern riddle is too strange!”
“Girl, let’s quickly go to the City God Temple, don’t get separated from the Grand Duke and the others.”
When the girl behind her spoke, this girl turned around and headed outside, passing through one lantern after another, Zhou Xian Yang followed without realizing it, and walked all the way out.
“Master, you’re not watching?” Although Xiao Nan and Xiao Bei loved to play, they never lost sight of their duties, and carried their hands full of lanterns to follow them, only to watch Zhou Xian Yang follow a few girls not far away. When they walked, he walked, and when they stopped, he stopped nearby.
It must be the daughter of one of the families who brought their maids out to play. They stopped in front of a sweet potato vendor, and Zhou Xianyang pretended to be next door to buy some candied gourds, using the cover to observe them from the shadows.
The uncle who was selling the candied gourds muttered in his heart: “Such a decent man, you don’t lack money, do you, to buy a bunch of candied gourds and still be so picky? Really rich people extra stingy.
After a while, he got impatient and said, “They’re all about the same age, I’m not taking advantage of you!”
Zhou Xian Yang was embarrassed, so he picked three at random, asked Xiao Nan to come over and pay the bill, and then the three of them stood in the area and ate.
Xiao Nan took a bite, it was really sour, and then looked at the stall across the street, “Why don’t we buy baked sweet potatoes, how sweet that one is.”
When she finished eating, she saw the girl leave. She and her maid were each holding a cloth pocket containing several roasted sweet potatoes, and it was quite heavy, a comical scene, not like a thousand dollars.
He was about to follow, when Xiao Nan said, “Master, wait for me to buy a few roasted sweet potatoes.”
“All the sweet potatoes were bought up by that girl just now.” The woman selling sweet potatoes heard this and told Xiao Nan the unfortunate news.
The woman put the warm quilt on the cart and asked her acquaintance who was running the stall next to her to take care of it, so she carried the child on her back and went to the City God Temple to see what all the fuss was about.
Zhou Xianyang immediately went over to the temple.
Suddenly, a crowd of people poured out from the main gate, pushing the woman to the side and almost falling down the steps. The three of them rushed up to her, protecting the child on her back and helping her to stand steadily on the side.
It turned out to be a large Chang’e moon lantern, was carried out, the lantern is too high, touched the gate of the City God Temple, waste a lot of effort to be out.
Xiao Nan and Xiao Bei exclaimed, “How to sell this lantern?”
The person next to him laughed: “Where are the villagers from? This is a colorful float lantern for the parade! Not for sale!” Surrounded by the crowd, Chang’e was lifted onto a cart and headed to the city so that everyone along the streets of Jinling City could see it.
Yang Zhou Xian did not care about the colorful carts and lanterns, and took advantage of the small crowd to enter the City God Temple.
It was too late, he could no longer find the pair of eyes just now. He was a little remorseful: he should not have thought about the defense of men and women just now, and should have talked to the girl directly.
He wanted to ask: are you the third girl of the British Prince’s family?
He wanted to thank her properly.
Zhou Xian Yang wandered through the lantern crowd in a state of disorientation, followed by Xiao Nan and Xiao Bei.
At that moment, Xiao Nan heard someone call out, “Xian Yang.”
She looked for the voice and saw if it wasn’t General Xiao Rong. Then she immediately patted him, “Master, Rong Xiangyang from the British Duke’s Mansion.”
The four words “British Duke’s Mansion” immediately made Zhou Xian Yang come to his senses and head over to Rong Xiangwang’s side.
The two of them had long since gotten acquainted in Yangzhou and did not have that many rules in private. Zhou Xian Yang saw the Grand Duke of the Rong Family and a few of the ladies all standing around a square table, which was holding a few pockets of baked sweet potatoes.