Pihanjin

Today's crown prince's coronation is actually a bit special. The special thing is that in addition to the civil and military officials, there are also a thousand senior citizens from the people in the square in front of the Taimiao Temple. These old people, holding crane sticks and wearing new clothes, not only were able to enter the Taimiao Temple to observe the ceremony, but also received the emperor's grace and gave them their seats.

Such a grand scene was unique in the previous dynasties.

The auspicious time determined by the supervisor of the Si Tianjian in charge of the ephemeris is the three o'clock today. Now, there are less than a quarter of an hour left at the three quarters of the time. The crown prince, the hundred officials and the thousand elders have all taken their places, but the emperor has not yet appeared.

Before the majestic and majestic Taimiao with heavy eaves, ancient cypresses, Liu Guan, the minister of ceremonies and one of the nine ministers, stood in the shrine, looking up from time to time, and glanced at the rising sun. There was a slight anxious look on it.

The crowning of the crown prince, the second only to the emperor's ascension to the throne, is related to the national system and is granted by the destiny. Every step has been rehearsed in advance, and there is no room for mistakes. What's more, there are thousands of seniors waiting with excitement outside the Taimiao Temple. If it is delayed, it will not only be a bad omen, but it will also cause various doubts in the court and even the people.

Liu An guessed that the reason why the emperor called the elderly to respect the elders was to make the prince quickly establish the image of his destiny among the people.

First, he summoned important ministers to lecture, ordered to be loyal to the prince, and established the status of the prince in the court, and then arranged it like this. Frankly speaking, although he has been with the emperor for many years and knows that the emperor has always liked the prince, he seems a little unusual to the emperor. He didn't really understand it. If it weren't for the emperor's prosperous years and grand plans to be developed, he would even have the feeling that the emperor had retired and now wanted to fully support the prince to replace him.

Naturally, this is ridiculous. The only explanation should be that the emperor attached great importance to the successor he established early on, which is why there is such an arrangement today.

But the auspicious time is coming, and the others have not yet appeared. If it is delayed, it will not be a trivial matter for a high-profile new prince.

He heard that the counselor standing behind him also began to whisper suspiciously, and he became more and more anxious. He was about to send someone to inquire again, and heard a rumbling drum sound in front of him. He looked up and saw the emperor wearing a crown and a dragon robe, together with the queen.

The Taimiao, which had thousands of people, was instantly solemn and silent.

According to the old system, the queen is not ranked in Japan today, but since it is a new dynasty, there are some rules, and the emperor has the final say. He could summon a thousand elders to the imperial temple to observe the ceremony, and naturally he could also accompany the queen.

Liu An breathed a sigh of relief, and immediately led the ceremony officer behind him to greet him.

The Empress was seated, and after receiving the pilgrimage, an official walked out of the Taimiao Temple and proclaimed in a loud voice, "It's three o'clock, and the ceremony begins!"

When his voice fell, solemn and peaceful music and dance were played around, Binzan took his place, the ceremony led the prince out, and the coronation ceremony began.

Compared with the previous emperor's enthronement ceremony, this ceremony was just a reduction of three kneeling and five kowtows to three kneeling and three kowtows. Various rituals were interspersed in the middle. The sun gradually reached the top of the head. The elaborate etiquette is coming to an end.

A row of palace servants filed in with trays covered with yellow silk in their hands.

The trays in their hands contained the crown of the prince, the talisman and the booklet respectively.

Xie Changgeng stood in front of the Majesty facing thousands of people in Taimiao Square. Under the steps opposite him, are the crown prince and the accompanying praise officers who are waiting for him to be crowned.

Mu Fulan has been sitting behind him. Under the sun, she saw a small dark red wet mark gradually appearing on the clothes on his back.

The imprint was like a drop of water stained at first, and gradually expanded like a copper coin, getting bigger and bigger, infiltrating the warp and weft of the finely textured fabric of the dragon robe, like a piece of blood-colored sweat oozing through the clothes.

No one noticed, and he didn't seem to notice it at all. He was still standing there, shoulders straight and motionless.

The palace man finally stopped at the designated position and raised the tray.

With steady steps, he descended the steps, took the crown of the prince with both hands, walked to the little boy who was kneeling in the middle, and put the golden crown firmly on his head.

After the crown was crowned, the little boy took over the talisman and the book that he had given him, held it high above the top, and immediately gave three salutations of thanks.

The sun hung brightly overhead. The clothes were stacked heavily, and Mu Fulan felt sweat constantly bubbling from her skin, and she quickly soaked through her underwear. The clothes were clinging to her back, making her feel extremely tormented.

She couldn't take her eyes off the man in front of her. She has never felt like this moment has passed so slowly. It seemed like a long time, and finally, she heard the call of the ceremony officer, "Complete the ceremony—" in her ears, and the music and dance sounded again, and the prince was led down.

Under the guidance of the Ritual Officer, on the square, nearly a thousand officials and those thousand elderly people who were standing today knelt down and kowtowed to the ground. In the tidy and tidy sending of mountains and seas, Mu Fulan watched him turn around. Walked back towards himself.

Ten steps, eight steps, five steps...

She clearly saw a layer of fine sweat dripping out of his forehead, and could no longer wait for him to finish the journey by himself.

She stood up, ignoring the side glances of a few praising officers in the distance, and quickly walked up to him. Under the cover of Cao Jin and several palace servants who were rushing to catch up, she stretched out her hand and supported him. arm on one side.

The fingertips inadvertently touched his palm, and the tentacles were cold and wet.

He paused in his footsteps, and gently released her hand that was holding his arm, and continued to walk forward by himself.

Mu Fulan followed him silently to the front of the yurt. As he did when he came, he ascended the yurt, left the imperial temple, and then got into the palace chariot that was waiting outside.

The door was closed, and there was no one else's sight around.

This time, he did not refuse her support.

He was supported by her, sat down slowly, heaved a sigh of relief, turned his face, saw her looking at him, smiled at her, and said in a low voice, "I'm fine." Then he closed his eyes, leaned his head to the other side, and rested on the wall of the car, motionless, as if he had fallen asleep.

The palace chariot galloped forward and went forward. The wheel suddenly ran over a small pebble on the ground, and the body jolted.

His body swayed.

Mu Fulan subconsciously reached out to help him again.

The moment her hand just touched him, without warning, the man's body softened, as if a newborn baby had escaped from the warrior's hard armor shell, and slipped silently from his seat, exhausted. The ground, forehead, pressed on the upper of the pair of embroidered golden phoenix palace shoes on her feet.

Mu Fulan lowered her head.

The man who was pressing on her feet had his eyes closed, his face was like golden paper, and there was no blood on his face.

She knelt in the carriage, hugged him, untied his belt, removed the layers of outer clothes, and saw that the back of the snow-white underwear was stained with blood.

Scarlet blood continued to seep from the wet gauze at the wound site, drop by drop, splashing on the floor of the carriage.

Her teeth trembled uncontrollably. She pressed the bleeding opening, raised her head, and shouted sharply towards the outside of the carriage: "Hurry up! Hurry up!"

…

A seated carriage was carried straight into the bedroom of the Ziwei Palace. The imperial physicians were busy around the bed, their expressions solemn.

Mu Fulan stood in front of the window of the outer hall.

She was still dressed up, and her hands were covered with dried blood, and no one was called to wash it. Several palace servants stood far away and looked at her quietly. However, she looked out the window at the spring flowers and trees that were about to bloom, as if she was fascinated by it.

In the inner hall, there was a crisp "ding" sound of an iron tool falling into the tray.

After a long time, she turned her head and looked at the imperial doctor who was walking towards her.

"Reporting to the Queen, the entire length of the sleeve arrow has been drawn out of Your Majesty's body, and the probe has been carefully probed, and there is nothing left. The wound has been cleaned, the blood has stopped temporarily, and there is no more gushing. But the Queen also knows that, Your Majesty Excessive blood loss, serious damage to the soul, and damage to the lungs, we still need to see what happens next."

Mu Fulan was silent for a moment, and said, "You have all worked hard. Go and rest first, you can leave the two here, and the rest go to the Queen Mother's place to guard. I will take care of the follow-up of Your Majesty's injury."

The Imperial Physician walked away.

Xie Changgeng was lying in the inner hall, his eyes were half open and half closed, and he was also half unconscious and half awake. He wanted to open his eyes completely, but all his strength had left him, and even breathing became extremely painful. He wanted to fall asleep just like that, but the still clear trace of consciousness seemed to be tightly hooked by something, and he stubbornly refused to leave him. Until a few voices of the woman spoke faintly in his ears, this familiar and pleasant voice, like a hot spring water gently brushing through the pores of his body, he suddenly felt his whole body relax, as if in pain also left him. He closed his eyes and lost consciousness.

He slept long and deep this time. When he finally woke up, he knew it was late at night.

The ears were silent, not the slightest sound could be heard.

He is no stranger to the deep palace and the long night, the ghostly silence. In his previous life, he had spent an unknown number of such long nights.

But at this moment, in the bedroom of the deep palace, beside him, there was a dim red warm light.

He opened his eyes and turned his head slowly.

He saw her leaning on a temporary couch in front of the bed, her body slightly curled up, her eyes closed, as if she had been staying here, extremely tired, and fell into a deep sleep.

He looked at her.

At this moment, for some reason, in Xie Changgeng's mind, a scene from many years suddenly popped up.

It was at the foot of Tianshan Mountain in the distant Jincheng. That night, in the small tent, there were also such dim red warm lights. She went down the mountain in search of medicine. .

This scene, like an old dream, caused a burst of sourness to burst out of his chest.

At that time, he was still full of secret hopes, hoping to keep her.

He stared at the woman in the dim red light, not daring to breathe loudly, for fear of waking her up.

He sat up slowly, got down, stepped on the still soft steps, and gently came to the couch where she was lying, and gently placed a quilt covering his body on her shoulders.

As she got closer, Fang could see clearly that there was a faint blue halo under her eyes.

He stared at the face under his eyelids, raised his hand involuntarily, and stretched it out slowly. However, just as his fingertips were about to touch her, he seemed to be scorched by a candle. Yes, he suddenly retracted his hand, turned around suddenly, but accidentally touched the wound, a burst of pain came from his lungs, his chest felt tight, as if he wanted to cough up blood, his eyes were even darker, and he could not stand still for a while.

Mu Fulan was awakened by a startle. She opened her eyes and saw that she was covered with a quilt. The man had woken up at some point, with his back to him, and one hand on the edge of the bed, his body hunched down in pain.

She was startled, got off the bed in a hurry, held him up, let him support her, and lay down slowly, then sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed the acupoints on his back for him.

Xie Changgeng gradually slowed down, closed his eyes and said, "I'm fine. It was just an accident. You go and rest. I'll call the palace staff if something happens."

Mu Fulan slowly withdrew her hand, but did not get up and leave.

She looked at the man's haggard face with no blood and beard, and said in a low voice: "I said that day, the ceremony can be postponed. Why do you take such a risk?"

Xie Changgeng seemed to be asleep, and did not respond at first. After a long time, he slowly opened his eyes, met the two eyes she cast towards him, and said, "Xi'er is destined by destiny. As long as I still have a breath, the coronation ceremony that has been decided cannot be changed."

Mu Fulan was silent. He also stopped talking.

Lights jump. One of them is lying down and the other is sitting. They are close at hand, but they seem to be facing each other at the end of the world.

"you…"

"you…"

The two suddenly spoke in unison, then stopped and looked at each other.

His eyes were very bright and dark, but they seemed to be flickering faintly.

Mu Fulan's heartbeat suddenly accelerated.

Just then, she heard footsteps behind her. She turned her head and saw Xi'er walking in.

The little boy stopped beside the two and said, "Mother, you are tired. Go and rest. I can't sleep. I will serve the royal father."

"I will take good care of the royal father." He stared at Xie Changgeng and said.