nucmednet Chapter 112 Standing in a team is standing in a team, life is life
Chapter 112 Standing in a team is standing in a team, life is life
"You are worthy of being my master." Han She laughed at himself and put down the sword in his hand. "I lost."
Li Xiyun picked up the wet wooden box and brushed off the dirt on the surface. Han She stared at the wooden box, gripped the hilt of his sword and took two steps forward, but suddenly realized that his sword "Zhengxin" had been broken and he no longer had the confidence to compete with his master.
Maybe tonight, maybe forever.
Han She took out the short dagger from his waist and threw it to Li Xiyun. Li Xiyun took it with one hand and said casually, "Thank you!"
"No, I should thank the teacher."
Han She knew clearly in his mind that the teacher not only let the water go, but also let the sea go, otherwise he would have been defeated even more easily.
The teacher clearly carried a long sword with him tonight, but now it is missing. How do we know if this is not the teacher's kindness to his disciples?
It’s a pity that the disciple not only disappointed his teacher, but also failed to fulfill his responsibilities.
Han She watched Li Xiyun climb up the palace wall with the wooden box in his arms, then walk away on the overlapping eaves, and disappear into the hazy night in a few rises and falls.
......
A month later, it was late autumn, the morning mist had not yet dissipated, and the north wind had already brought a bit of winter chill.
During this month, there was unrest everywhere in the palace.
In the back garden, the relationship between Concubine Jia and Concubine Xian became increasingly tense. They confronted each other several times in Chitang Garden, and their opposition was already exposed.
On the surface, Imperial Concubine Jia always deliberately made it difficult for Concubine Xian to lose face in public, and even warned her from time to time not to have any rebellious thoughts; behind the scenes, Imperial Concubine Jia often made things difficult for Concubine Xian in private. It was common for her to be called to Chitang Garden alone to be verbally reprimanded, and corporal punishment was also common.
Yu Liu was always in a bad mood every time he came back from Chitang Garden. Eight out of ten days he would squat in a corner and secretly cry. Su Feiran felt distressed but there was nothing she could do because she hadn't seen Qin Fengan for almost a month.
Everyone knew why Concubine Jia was unhappy with Concubine Xian, because the emperor had not summoned Su Feiran to sleep with him for the past month, but had transferred his favor to Concubine Xian. He asked Lin Xiuqing to watch a play today, played chess with Lin Xiuqing in Dali Garden tomorrow, and watched the moon with Lin Xiuqing the day after tomorrow. He was never idle.
Su Feiran had just entered the palace, and the emperor got tired of her after two days of novelty, but Lin Xiuqing was an old man in the palace. When Lin Xiuqing regained favor, Concubine Jia was neglected for a while, so it was understandable that she felt jealous.
However, Lin Xiuqing did not seem to tell Qin Fengan about the grievances she suffered in the harem. Qin Fengan knew nothing about this, so Wu Jiayan dared to make things worse.
——Don't you want to be a virtuous concubine who doesn't cause trouble to His Majesty? Then I want to see how long you can pretend?
She even announced publicly that she would not participate in the poetry competition to be held three days later to celebrate Empress Xian's birthday.
There were many concubines in the back garden who followed the lead of Concubine Jia. When Concubine Jia said to withdraw, they followed suit and withdrew. This move instantly turned the poetry competition into an unspoken act of standing in line. The remaining concubines suddenly felt caught in a dilemma and didn't know what to do.
This situation is a silent contest between the two giants in the harem.
Now that Concubine Shuo has been demoted, the only one who is on equal footing with them is Concubine Ning. But Concubine Ning has no real power to manage the harem, nor is she favored by the emperor, so she cannot get involved in the cliques between the two.
As a member of the Purple Palace, Su Feiran naturally stood on Lin Xiuqing's side and took the lead in organizing the poetry competition.
The sisters from the Purple Palace, Xie Zhiqi and Ma Shuya, also lent their full support to the poetry competition. Song Chengpei and Zeng Wenxin were favored by Concubine Xian after entering the palace, so they naturally stood on her side. In addition, the only ones who participated in the poetry competition were An Yuchen, Yang Luoxiu and Wang Qian.
Li Changsui, Song Chengpei, Shen Linghan and Gu Yinfeng finally announced their withdrawal for various reasons. Some of them, such as Concubine Ning Li Changsui, did not do so to support Concubine Jia, but because the forces behind them had some connection with the Lin family behind the Queen Mother, and they did not want to be involved in this mess.
The choices of the others were predictable, as their preferences could be seen from their daily interactions. However, Yang Luoxiu's joining was beyond everyone's expectations.
The people in Zichen Palace were particularly surprised. Yang Luoxiu explained, "After all, it was Concubine Jia who sent her to the Buddhist temple for punishment that day. Compared to Liu Ronghua, I am even less willing to be loyal to Concubine Jia."
Yang Luoxiu's attitude was already very strange, and Wang Qian's attitude was even stranger.
When the news of the poetry contest first spread, the concubines were still hesitating and watching. Su Feiran and Xie Zhiqi were the first to join in to support Lin Xiuqing, and then it was not Ma Shuya who joined, but Wang Qian.
If Wang Qian was expressing her apology for rejecting the Queen Mother, then there was no decent reason to explain the other things she did in the past month.
At first, Su Feiran always felt that someone was secretly following him from behind. When he turned around, he did not see anyone, but he faintly smelled the scent of pear blossoms - that was the scent of the ointment that Wang Qian liked to apply.
A few days later, Su Feiran received an invitation from Wang Qian, who asked Xiu Ze to bring it to him solemnly, saying that she wanted to have a good chat with Liu Ronghua. However, before Su Feiran rushed to Taiyi Palace, Wang Qian always encountered some unexpected events and had to withdraw the invitation.
Su Feiran's temper gradually rose as she was repeatedly evaded after withdrawing her request. She went directly to the Taiyi Palace to wait, but saw Wang Qian, who had nothing to do, leisurely walk out of the palace gate. Seeing Su Feiran suddenly appear in the courtyard, Wang Qian was like a mouse seeing a cat, and she "whoosh" ran back to the inner room, suddenly closed the palace door, and let Su Feiran be turned away in front of her.
Su Feiran stood in front of the palace door and shouted to Wang Qian through the door, but he heard Wang Qian's voice intermittently, as if she was crying and making up a reason to ask her to go back.
“What’s going on????” Su Feiran was confused.
The same situation happened repeatedly within a month. No one knew what happened to Wang Qian, but judging from her firm attitude in signing up for the poetry competition, it did not seem like she disliked Su Feiran or did not want to associate with him.
On the contrary, it seemed as if she wanted to face Su Feiran directly, but was a little shy.
However, although not all concubines would participate in the competition, they would all be present to watch when the poetry competition began.
After all, expressing one's stance is one thing, but whether or not to give face to the empress dowager is another.
In order to make the poetry competition interesting and interesting, Han Tan chose to keep the schedule secret, not even telling the Queen Mother. Everyone would only get the topic after the poetry competition started, and there was absolutely no room for preparation.
Han Tan's decision suddenly raised the difficulty of the poetry contest, and the contestants studied late into the night. Everyone knew that Empress Xian would win in the end, but Empress Xian was good at poetry and books. If they could defeat Empress Xian, they might become famous in the back garden and make the emperor look up to them.