Chapter 85: Xiaoyingzhou

Of the five islands in Taiye Lake, Xiaofanghu and Xiaoyingzhou are the largest, but the scenery of the former is winding and strange, and it is inevitably particularly rugged and rugged, with almost no open space, which is not very suitable for large-scale banquets.

In contrast, Xiaoyingzhou has a natural flat land, which is enough to accommodate the people participating in the summer banquet.

The group accompanied the Empress Dowager to the dock not far from Yanfu Palace. Several pleasure boats were waiting for a long time. These pleasure boats were obviously not used for a long time and were temporarily picked up. The paint color was bright, and in order to cover up the smell, they had to be fumigated with many spices. At this moment, people could smell the strong fragrance before they approached.

The Empress Dowager was old after all, and she frowned slightly when she saw this.

Queen Mother Ji also covered her nose with a handkerchief, looked at the Queen in reproach, and said, "Even if the summer banquet was held unexpectedly, since it was decided to be held on the island, why didn't you clean up the pleasure boat in advance? It's so fuming now, and I feel dizzy before I even get on it."

"To answer your question, mother, I have had people prepare the pleasure boat since I took on the task." Queen Ji apologized and explained, "It's just that the palace hasn't been on the lake for a long time, so the people below have been slack, so except for the small boat that Minghui and the others use to play, there is no pleasure boat that doesn't need to be repaired... Otherwise, I have people repair that boat. Get the boat over here?"

"Nonsense!" said Queen Mother Ji unhappily, "How many people can the boat that Minghui and the others often use hold? They are young and can withstand the bumps, but I and my people can't stand it."

The Grand Empress Dowager sighed and said, "Forget it, I am in a momentary mood, and it is difficult for the Queen. Let's do this, ask them to put out the incense on the boat, open the curtain to get some fresh air, and then we will go up."

Queen Ji breathed a sigh of relief and bowed, "Thank you, Grandmother, I will ask someone to do it right away."

So after a delay at the dock, the group of people landed on Xiaoyingzhou one after another.

This Xiaoyingzhou is lush with vegetation, and there is only a slope in the northeast corner. Because it is full of green pines, it is called Songling.

Although the rest of the place is not flat, it is also flat. Looking around, flowers compete for beauty, branches and leaves compete for green, streams from nowhere meander, and the gurgling sound of water is endless. The path is wide and low, and only a few steps up and down are needed occasionally. Probably because the royal family had not visited for a long time, many birds and small animals lived in this place. They were not afraid of people coming, but looked around curiously, and sometimes even got close to the nearby branches to observe.

The Empress Dowager looked at it with some emotion. She held the hand of the palace maid and said to the Empress Dowager Ji who was half a step behind her: "When the late emperor was still alive, he liked Xiaoyingzhou the most and often brought me here to rest... In a blink of an eye, so many years have passed."

The late emperor she was talking about was not Emperor Xiaozong, but Emperor Shenzong.

Queen Mother Ji listened and sighed: "I still remember that you liked the Shicui Pavilion in front the most. This time, the Queen held a banquet and specially placed it in front of Shicui Pavilion for us."

"Really?" The Grand Empress Dowager nodded slightly, saying that the Queen Mother and the Queen were thoughtful, and asked again, "Has Hengyun Pavilion been cleaned?"

"That was the place that the late emperor visited most often when he came to Xiaoyingzhou. How could it be missed?" Queen Mother Ji said, "It's all cleaned up. Do you want to go later? The daughter-in-law will accompany you?"

The Grand Empress Dowager was disappointed for a while and said, "Let's talk about it later. I have something important to do today."

As they were talking, they arrived at Shicui Pavilion. This is a small courtyard at the foot of Songling. It is surrounded by emerald green of varying shades, without any purple or red. There is a small waterfall beside the pavilion, with a drop of only two people. The water is clear and the summer heat is dissipated. In the small pool under the waterfall, there are many deep and shallow green leaves, and more than a dozen koi are floating and swimming.

The red and green colors look very beautiful.

The carps were not surprised to see people coming, but instead gathered on the shore, as if begging for food.

The Empress Dowager stood by the pond for a while, and personally leaned over to pick up a pebble that was washed clean and round by the waterfall. She said that when she was young, she came to the island with Emperor Shenzong, and she loved to pick all kinds of stones here. Every time she found a beautiful one, she was very happy and would show it off to Emperor Shenzong and Emperor Xiaozong... As she spoke, the smile in the corners of her eyes faded: "Later, there were more and more beautiful ones, and I was dazzled. I realized that the palace people were deliberately trying to please her and secretly replaced the stones that were carefully selected from outside. I felt that it was boring."

Seeing this, Empress Dowager Ji hurriedly changed the topic, coaxed the Empress Dowager and said something else, and then entered Shicuixuan with a crowd of people.

...Uh, entering Shicuixuan means that the Empress Dowager, the three Empress Dowagers, the Empress, the masters, the three princesses, a county lady, and their attendants all entered.

The others were all waiting outside.

For fear of disturbing the big guys inside, the concubines who stayed at the door didn't line up neatly and keep silent, but they didn't dare to be too presumptuous. They just walked around and talked in a low voice occasionally.

Yun Fenghuang looked around and went to find Yun Qingman. Who knew that Yun Qingman, who was not far away just now, was nowhere to be seen. It was Xue Xiaoge who saw her turning around and asked, and said: "I saw sister Qingman just now. She didn't seem to be feeling well. She asked the palace maid to help her and went over there. She probably wanted to find a place where no one was to catch her breath."

"What happened?" Yun Fenghuang thanked her and chased in the direction she pointed. Sure enough, not far away, he saw Yun Qingman behind a tall camphor tree. Most of her body was hanging on the palace maid. She was holding her chest and vomiting repeatedly.

There was a sour smell around the master and servant. Looking at the ground again, a lot of filth that had not been fully digested had been vomited.

Yun Fenghuang hurriedly stepped forward to help the palace maid support the person, and asked in surprise, "Did you eat something bad?"

"...It wouldn't be good on the boat." Yun Qingman raised her pale face, her forehead covered with fine beads of sweat, and said feebly, "The palace servant in front of my sister kept pinching me until I got ashore. , If the Empress Dowager had gone in any later, I'm afraid she would have lost her etiquette... She seemed to be seasick."

Although she was of high birth, as a concubine who was destined to get married, she was raised in a boudoir where no one knew her. She had never been on a boat before, so she had no idea that she had such a problem.

The breath that is dying now is filled with regret, "If I had known that I would not be able to ask my sister for help in asking for leave, I don't know if I would be able to survive the rest of the trip."

"Who would have thought of this?" Yun Fenghuang and the palace maid helped her sit down on a nearby clean grass blade and comforted her, "Don't worry, there are so many people in the palace, maybe the queen has some arrangements. , and rest here, I will ask someone to collect your vomited things first, in case others wander by and see the bad thing, and then look for any seasickness medicine... If it doesn't work, just give it quietly. You go back."

Yun Qingman asked worriedly: "Is it possible? It's so lively today, the Empress Dowager and the three empress dowagers are all here..."

"It's just easier to deal with when there are more people. There's not much time to pay attention to us." Yun Fenghuang didn't think this was a difficult thing to handle. After all, neither she nor Yun Qingman were indispensable to the summer party. If you are absent or not, who at the top will care?

So I sent Xile to run errands, and sure enough, it didn't take long before he brought two little chamberlains with brooms and dustpans to clean up. They came back with the Queen's words, saying that the Queen didn't expect anyone to get seasick. The key is that Taiyechi is like this. Yun Qingman fainted even though she was so dizzy, but there was no seasickness medicine on the old island. If Yun Qingman felt that it was too much, someone could send her back to Tongxia Palace to rest.

Yun Qingman hesitated for a while and decided not to go back yet. Firstly, she had recovered a lot after vomiting. Secondly, today was an opportunity to get together with her parents' family and she didn't want to miss it.

So Yun Fenghuang sat with her under the tree for a while, until Xile came over and reminded her that the banquet furnishings such as tables, chairs, bowls and chopsticks had been laid out in the open space in front of Shi Cuixuan, and the palace was scattered. The concubines all gathered together. They were afraid that the Empress Dowager and the others were about to come out, so they all went over to join them.

After they passed by, they saw that the empty space that had just been empty and could accommodate the ceremonial procession of the Empress Dowager and the others had been covered with colorful mats, seats were spread out, and screens were spread out. They lined up in a meandering manner, dividing the entire banquet venue into two parts.

Judging from the styles and colors of tables, chairs, bowls and chopsticks, they are arranged according to men on the left and women on the right. As for the female family members, the wife of the internal destiny is on the left and the wife of the external destiny is on the right.

In the center of the banquet was a medium-sized open space, with a platform as high as one person set up, presumably for silk and bamboo singing and dancing.

The foreign ministers should have landed on the island by now, but they haven't shown up yet. They were probably detained and waited elsewhere to avoid suspicion.

Not long after, a chamberlain holding a fly whisk came out of Shi Cuixuan and hurried away. Soon another person came out, beckoning the concubines to line up in silence and file into the table.

Soon the chamberlain who had left earlier also came out of the forest with a large group of married women wearing jingle bells, and sat down at the table one by one.

The two parties finished the ceremony in a hurry, but before they could say a few words to each other, the steward and chamberlain coughed and reminded everyone to be silent.

Immediately, from the gauze and carved gaps of the screen, I saw that the courtiers invited to the summer banquet were lined up according to their status, walking slowly from the path behind Shi Cuixuan.

The place where they sat was blocked by a screen, and only the outlines of shadows could be seen from the women's side. Yun Fenghuang glanced at it for a few times and picked up the glass cup in front of him without interest, sipping the rose water in small sips.

Yun Qingman, on the other hand, watched without blinking, then suddenly leaned next to her ear and whispered, "I saw daddy and the others."

Yun Fenghuang said "hmm" without raising his head: "We should have a chance to meet him later."

Yun Qingman wanted to speak, but he caught a glimpse of his aunt making a "hush" gesture towards him, and quickly sat upright, pretending that he was very demure and ladylike.

After all the ministers greeted each other in low voices and sat down, someone went into Shicuixuan to inform. After a while, everyone came out surrounded by the Empress Dowager. Those who were sitting together naturally got up from their seats and knelt down to welcome Feng Jia.

The Empress Dowager called after entering the table and asked everyone to sit back. She exchanged a few words with the important ministers of the clan, and also expressed her condolences to several older and loyal ministers. Seeing that the time was about the same, she ordered the banquet to begin.

The dishes and singing and dancing for the banquet came at the same time, and the originally quiet forest suddenly became lively.

After three rounds of drinking, the Queen Mother and others excused themselves to change their clothes and left, leaving the place to the juniors.

Seeing this, Wei Hengyan immediately came over and pulled Yun Fenghuang and Yun Qingman, saying why don't we all go for a walk together?

When she said this, she winked at Yun Fenghuang.

Yun Fenghuang understood it and said: "Qingman just saw her father and brother. Do you want to find someone from your family? There are so many people here. They are scattered and I don't know if they can get together later. How can I get together later?" Why don’t we just look for it together?”

Wei Hengyan immediately agreed. She couldn't go directly to Deng Chengzhai, who was neither a relative nor an acquaintance. However, Yun Qike, the brother of the Yun sisters, and Deng Chengzhai were both students of the Emperor. They were classmates for eight years. Regardless of whether they introduced Deng Chengzhai's character in private, , or you can help introduce him later and contact Deng Chengzhai in person. They are both excellent candidates.

Otherwise, she wouldn't have hurried over to find Yun Fenghuang and Yun Qingman as soon as she saw the Empress Dowager and her people leave.

However, at this moment, a maid came over, bowed to them, and said to Yun Qingman, "Fourth Miss, Madam wants you to come over and talk."