Volume 2: Residence in the Capital Chapter 264: The Flower Blossom Season Moves the Capital
Although the Lantern Festival lasts for seven days from the 12th to the 18th day of the first lunar month, the lighting of lanterns on the 15th day of the first lunar month has always been the most lively day of the year in the capital.
In addition to the decorations of lights and colorful lanterns in several streets from Donghuamen in the inner city to Dong'anmen in the outer city and all the way to Dengshi Hutong, dignitaries and wealthy families would also make colorful lanterns and even light lantern towers on this day. In the early years, they competed openly and secretly for the limelight.
That is to say, from the reign of Emperor Yingzong to the reign of Emperor Ruizong to the current emperor, the wealth of the people has increased, but the trend of competing for luxury among the dignitaries has been repeatedly suppressed by the three emperors. The size of the lantern towers has been strictly limited to two stories high, so the powerful and wealthy people can only compete with each other in the design of the lantern towers, and be ingenious, which can be regarded as a visual feast of this era for the people of the capital.
Therefore, on the night of the Lantern Festival, the sky was full of fireworks and every household would go out in full force. In order to maintain public order, the government naturally treated it as a formidable enemy. In addition to the three shifts of officials from Shuntian Prefecture and Daxing and Wanping County, the Ruiqi Battalion also dressed in plain clothes to work in the city. Although there were many theft lawsuits, there were fewer cases of fighting and kidnapping than before.
During the Lantern Festival of this year, Zhang Shou received an invitation from Zhu Ying to go see the lanterns a few days earlier. Although he had seen countless more splendid night views in various skyscrapers and mountaintop observation decks, he was not very interested in watching lanterns, but since the beauty had an appointment, he naturally agreed and went to Zhaoguogong Mansion to pick her up in the evening.
However, when he saw Zhu Ying, he could not help but look up and down at her new clothes - a black cloak with bright red lining, a gorgeous bright red Shu brocade jacket with peony embroidery, a brown and yellow sable rabbit-shaped hairpin on her head, a string of round South China Sea pearls in her phoenix beak on her long golden hairpin, and a jeweled phoenix on her neck. At first glance, she looked magnificent and glittering with jewels.
Zhang Shou smiled and looked at him for a moment before walking forward and saying, "When you came out, I thought the goddess in the painting had come to the human world! You are dressed more luxuriously than usual, are you trying to attract everyone's attention?"
Zhu Ying had been looking forward to watching the lanterns with Zhang Shou. When she heard this, she couldn't help but look at Zhang Shou's seemingly ordinary green shirt with bamboo embroidery on the edges. She was both excited and happy: "Ah Shou, you are the immortal who has been banished from heaven! Fortunately, you don't dress up. If you were dressed so conspicuously, all the young girls and wives on the street would stop looking at the lanterns and only look at you!"
She said with a smile, "My second brother just said to me that there are many people in the Lantern Festival. If I go out dressed like this, someone might think I've met a fat sheep... Haha, he didn't think about it. I brought thirty guards with me today! I just want to dress up in jewels and jewels. Let's see who dares to attack us. If one comes, I'll beat him to death. If two come, I'll beat them to death!"
After making a domineering declaration, she was both angry and amused when she saw Mother Li, who had sent her out. She called the guards to prepare the carriages. Zhu Ying came to Zhang Shou and whispered, "Ah Shou, you don't know that today in Qingning Palace, the Queen Mother issued an imperial decree to take away the Queen's seal and ribbon! The Queen naturally cried and complained about her injustice, but the Emperor produced a lot of evidence of the Queen's family's crimes."
Although Zhang Shou felt that the inexplicable assassination before was not the work of the Queen, he was not sure. Moreover, he had been tricked by the mother and her two children more than once. Although he had fought back against them, he could not go too far because of their identities. Now that he heard the news revealed by Zhu Ying, he was naturally in a very good mood.
Looking at Zhu Ying chirping like a happy little bird, he felt even more relaxed.
He smiled and took her hand naturally, and walked straight out: "It's getting late, let's go! By the way, after watching the lanterns, let's follow others and go to the snack stalls to see if there are any delicious snacks. At least eat a few different Yuanxiao before coming back, how about that?"
"Okay!" Zhu Ying looked at the two people holding hands tightly, with the corners of her mouth curled up high. She was so happy that she couldn't help but say, "A Shou, my family also built a lantern tower in Dengshi Hutong. I'll take you to see it later. It was just put up today!"
Zhang Shou agreed, but he had other thoughts in his mind, so he naturally ignored the eyes around him when he was pulling Zhu Ying out of Qing'an Hall, and he didn't even notice Zhu Tingfang's gaze. When he got out of the gate and mounted his horse, he found that in addition to Zhu Hong and the familiar guards, there were indeed many new faces following him, so he smiled at Zhu Ying.
"With so many people following us, we will really attract attention when we walk in the Lantern Festival."
"So what? Are we afraid of being seen?" Zhu Ying was not wearing a hooded cape, and her face was full of excitement. "I just want to bring so many people to show off in the city. Do those sneaky guys have the guts to come out and fight with us?"
Zhang Shou was immediately amused: "How could anyone be so bold? On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, during the Lantern Festival, the officials and soldiers from all over the country are already on high alert. Facing such a large group of people like us, they definitely wouldn't dare to cause trouble!"
"That's right. Besides, there's also Ah Liu!" Zhu Ying habitually mentioned the boy again, but then she couldn't help looking around and asked in confusion, "Where's Ah Liu? Isn't he going with us to see the lanterns today?"
Zhang Shou said nonchalantly, "It's a rare day for Yuanxiao. I know you will definitely bring enough people with you today, so I gave him a day off." In fact, the guy got angry a few days ago because of the assassin and said that he was going to "argue" with those local tyrants . As for the result of the argument, to be honest, he didn't want to know...
Although Zhu Ying was somewhat curious about where Ah Liu was going, she didn't care much after hearing what Zhang Shou said. When Zhu Hong brought Zhang Shou's horse over, she watched Zhang Shou climb onto the horse, then she jumped onto the horse with one neat move, then rode over to walk side by side with Zhang Shou, and then she smiled and said, "Ah Shou, your horsemanship is much better than before!"
"Yeah, even if I wanted to get on the horse, I couldn't do it without Ah Liu's support. And I was always trembling with fear, for fear that the horse would kick and kick me."
Zhang Shou made no secret of his poor riding skills in the past - in fact, he is not much better now. He dare not ride his horse at full speed. What if the horse goes too fast and he falls off? Does he want Ah Liu to perform a flying save in the street?
Zhu Ying laughed so hard upon hearing this that she shook the reins of her mount and walked forward excitedly, saying as she walked, "Your horse is a trained imperial horse from the palace. It is the most docile. Not to mention kicking, it won't even be startled by loud noises."
Zhang Shou let his mount lead him forward slowly, listening to Zhu Ying explaining that the imperial horses in the palace should be gentle and obedient, not fast and unruly. She then extended the idea from imperial horses to military horses, and finally lamented that if he encountered a fierce horse like the one that Wu Zetian trained for Emperor Taizong, he would definitely release it back to the grassland and let it run free...
At the gate of Duke Zhao's mansion, Zhu Tingfang watched the man and woman walking away surrounded by many guards . His face looked just like the sky which was gradually getting darker. It was not a pretty sight at all.
Madam Li, who saw his mood, smiled and said, "Young Master, men should get married when they are old enough, and women should get married when they are old enough. Young Miss has always been picky, but she fell in love with Young Master Shou at first sight. In addition, the two families have already made an engagement, so this is the best marriage. What's more, Young Master Shou is sincere to Young Master, otherwise Madam Tai and Madam would not have recognized him so quickly."
Zhu Tingfang was still staring intently at the end of the road in front of the door. Even though Zhu Ying and Zhang Shou and their group were no longer visible to him, he kept looking at it for a long time. However, he ignored what Mother Li said and turned around and walked back in silence.
Of course he knew what Mother Li said was true. Zhu Ying was deeply in love with Zhang Shou, which could be seen from her words and actions towards him. And he could also see that, at least for now, Zhang Shou did have feelings for Zhu Ying. The look in his eyes when he looked at Zhu Ying reminded him of the time when his father looked at his stepmother. But the more he thought about it, the more uneasy he felt.
The relationship between his stepmother and father had almost ended, and it had lasted for sixteen years. He could not tolerate his sister repeating the same mistake again. However, the conflict between his father and stepmother was not because his father had fallen in love with someone else. Moreover, his father had not held military power in recent years and had not been involved in state affairs. To others, he was just a duke with honors, but Zhang Shou was different.
Although Zhang Shou's current position is low, he is very good at dancing with the sleeves, very good at getting along with people, and more importantly, he has real talent and knowledge, so he is deeply appreciated by the emperor. Although the emperor likes Yingying, his cousin, very much now, it is not impossible that he will value Zhang Shou more in the future, so that he will side with Zhang Shou when there is a disagreement between the couple.
Sometimes it may not be a good thing to marry a man who is too good in appearance but whose inner qualities match his appearance!
Even though Zhu Ying told him Zhang Shou's words with joy when she came back that day, he believed that Zhang Shou was sincere when he said that, but he could not be sure that a person could maintain this sincerity for a lifetime.
Thinking of this, Zhu Tingfang suddenly stopped, and then without even looking at Mother Li behind him, he suddenly turned around and walked out again, heading straight for the South Courtyard Stables. When he untied his usual mount and trotted out of the South Gate, Mother Li, who had just followed him, wanted to chase him, but after running two steps, she finally stopped.
The Lantern Festival is so big that the eldest son may not be able to catch up with the eldest lady and the Shou son. Even if he did, what would happen? At most, he would be an eyesore between the two children who are deeply in love with each other. The eldest son has been strong and cold since he was a child, but he has never been able to get past the eldest lady, let alone break up her wishful marriage.
When night fell, Zhang Shou and Zhu Ying were already standing in the sea of countless colorful lanterns in Lantern Market Hutong. Although all these lanterns were covered with colored paper or silk to show their colorful colors, Zhang Shou was still impressed by the craftsmanship of the skilled craftsmen.
Especially when Zhu Ying raised her hand to signal him to look at the huge peony lantern on the lantern tower not far away, he saw the stretched peony petals and the various flower-shaped lanterns dotted around the two-story lantern tower, just like the moon surrounded by stars. He couldn't help but smile and said, "Only the peony is the true national beauty. When the flowers bloom, the capital city is moved. Yingying, is that your lantern tower?"
"Yes!" Zhu Ying smiled happily, "I like peonies the most, so my grandmother promised me that I would make a peony lantern this year."
She paused, then turned to look at Zhang Shou and said, "Ah Shou, my favorite Tang Dynasty poem is "Spring River Moon Night", so I have kept . But besides that, my favorite poem is "Appreciating Peonies" by Liu Yuxi. But I only like the second half of the poem, I don't like the first two lines. Because praising peonies does not need to belittle peonies and lotus flowers."
Zhu Ying's eyes were bright and clear, as if she was not commenting on Tang poetry, but on herself: "The reason why the peony is the most beautiful among all flowers is not because other flowers are not good enough, but because it is the best, so it is the true national beauty, and it is the one that moves the capital when it blooms!"
When Zhang Shou first heard Zhu Ying confess that she liked Spring River Moon Night the most, he couldn't help but be moved. When he heard that she actually treasured the oil-paper umbrella he casually gave her for sun protection, his mood became even more subtle. After all, he was actually very cold to her at that time.
However, her comments on the peony deeply moved him.
He looked into her eyes and smiled slightly, "Yingying, do you know why when you proudly said just now why the peony is the most beautiful among all the flowers, it was so dazzling that even these colored lights were eclipsed?"
"Really?" Zhu Ying tilted her head slightly, and the smile on her face deepened. "I also think that you, Shou, are more beautiful than these lanterns! Today we enjoy the lanterns, and let the lanterns enjoy us too!"
Zhu Hong, who was following behind and on guard at all times, tried to restrain himself, but his good hearing enabled him to hear clearly every word of Zhang Shou and Zhu Ying, and his face turned red involuntarily.
The young lady's words are really too bold! Can't she be a little more modest?
However, Zhu Ying's words were only half right. At this time of night, the mute colored lanterns naturally could not come to admire them, but those who admired the lanterns also admired her and Zhang Shou. Among them, some people just looked at them quietly, while others pointed and talked unscrupulously. Fortunately, Zhu Hong and the other thirty guards had a strong deterrent effect, so no one dared to approach.
As for those with ulterior motives, of course they couldn't even get five steps within the vicinity of this perfect couple.
Zhu Tingfang, who was riding behind, had to push through the crowd to move forward. If it weren't for his usual mentality that still had the upper hand, if it was another big brother who only cared about his sister, he would probably use the whip to drive the crowd away.
Even so, he felt even worse when he saw the two men leaving from the exit of the Lantern Market near Dong'anmen, but not planning to go home, and instead visiting the snack stalls opened there by the emperor's special decree.
The food at their home was extremely delicious, but Zhu Ying was always picky. Who knows if the raw materials of these things from outside were cleaned, who knows if the people who made them washed their hands, who knows if they wore masks to block out the smell, how could they eat anything they wanted...what if they got sick!
Zhang Shou naturally had no idea that his future brother-in-law was already going crazy. He took Zhu Ying to visit each stall, and when he found a stall that was packed with people, Zhu Ying couldn't help but pull him in out of curiosity. He had no choice but to follow her. When he got to the front and saw the person who was busy, he thought he was seeing things.
