Chapter 36 Wedding Night
In the morning, in the Taimiao Temple, Han Ruzi met the empress Cui Nuan and Cui Xiaojun for the first time. She had been canonized at home and was considered an official empress. The gorgeous and complicated large court clothes could not hide her thin body, and the huge phoenix crown on her head was crumbling. More and more she was still a child.
The bead curtain blocked her entire face, and Han Ruzi didn't see her appearance.
In fact, the two of them had no chance to watch each other at all. They stood side by side with seven or eight steps in between, looked up at the tablet above, and listened to the ritual palace reciting the sacrificial offerings to the ancestors in a cadenced tones. In a solemn atmosphere, Stiffer than a puppet.
The second time we met was at Cishun Palace. The emperor and the queen came here to visit the queen mother. It was no different from being in the Taimiao Temple. They were still surrounded by a group of people. Walking and kneeling were all performed according to the requirements of the ritual officials. The queen mother appeared, but she did not speak in person. The female official around her did it for her, and persuaded the queen.
Next, the queen had another ceremony. The emperor went to the Hall of Qinzheng to accept the official congratulations from the princes and ministers. The scale was much smaller than when he was enthroned. The level of the title or official position is linked, I can't come, the gift money must arrive, and every item of the ritual official must be read out.
Han Ruzi sat there bored and thought, if he was the real emperor, he must go to see if the gold and silver really existed afterwards. Now he doesn't even know where the royal warehouse is.
In the list of the second batch of congratulators, Han Ruzi heard the name of Junyang Hou Huabin, glanced at it, and saw a sturdy beard in the specified position, who looked from forty to seventy years old. It is possible to be ten years old, and it is quite eye-catching among several queues.
Han Ruzi could not think of any attendant who looked like this man.
The Qinzheng Hall is relatively small, and there are not many people coming in each time, so He Bai lasted for a long time. Han Ruzi had nothing to do, so he silently performed the reverse breathing method. The abdominal pain had already disappeared, and there was a faint flow of breath in the body. It can satisfy Meng E.
In the evening, the emperor returned to Tai'an Palace to perform the last ceremony of the big wedding, eat and drink with the queen, and then enter the bridal chamber.
The queen had arrived, and sat upright on the brocade table. The emperor sat at the table and sat in the right seat. The ritual officer still shouted out every move of the two newcomers. Han Ruzi took the wine glass from a female officer and touched it with the queen. Then bite the bullet and drink it.
No one cares whether the emperor can drink or not, everything is done according to the rules, a good emperor will never change the rules on a whim, and even a puppet emperor will not.
After three cups of wine, the emperor and the queen ate a few dishes with rich meanings. The banquet was removed, but the ceremony did not end. Ten middle-aged female officials took turns to sprinkle flowers and fruits on the newlyweds, singing strange songs in their mouths. . Next, three witches, two men and one woman, came on stage and used more strange songs to dispel the evil spirits. In the end, a male ceremonial officer and a female ceremonial officer represented the emperor and the queen respectively, making promises and oaths to the gods of heaven and earth. It sounds like the queen has more oaths to abide by.
There is only one oath in Han Ruzi's heart, that is, not to touch the queen.
The sky was dark, the candles were bright, and the lengthy ceremony ended. The female officials surrounded the queen into the bridal chamber, then exited, lined up in two lines, and respectfully invited the emperor to enter the chamber.
The moment the door was closed behind him, Han Ruzi suddenly realized that he was a little afraid of this moment. The more he suppressed it during the day, the more fearful he was now. Cui Xiaojun was different from the maid who taught husband and wife. He was an official queen. , worshipped with the emperor, and drank wine together.
They are a real couple!
Han Ruzi didn't know why he was afraid, the queen was much thinner than the palace maid Tong Qing'e.
Standing at the door for a while, Han Ruzi realized that Tong Qing'e was standing beside the queen, looking at the emperor with puzzled eyes.
The emperor was also confused, "Why...why did you stay?"
"Slave... ask for a phoenix crown for the queen."
Han Ruzi breathed a sigh of relief. Indeed, the phoenix crown on the queen's head was so large and heavy that it could not be lifted by one person.
"Can you?" Tong Qing'e asked.
"Uh... OK."
Tong Qing'e carefully helped the queen take off the phoenix crown and put it on a plate next to it. She also helped the queen and the emperor to take off their heavy wedding dresses, folded them carefully, and then left with both hands holding the phoenix crown.
Since then, no one will do the work for the newcomer.
Most of the candles in the room had been blown out, and only one remained beside the bed. The flickering candlelight made the bride's face blurry. Han Ruzi stood there for a while, then walked to the bed and faced the queen.
It was a pale-faced little girl with a few strands of hair hanging wetly on her cheeks, her eyes were large, and her eyes were full of blankness, and she couldn't tell whether it was fear or indifference.
Looking at each other for a moment, the queen lowered her gaze.
The awkward feeling crawled upward like a vine, and gradually restrained Han Ruzi's neck, forcing him to say something to ease the atmosphere, he opened his mouth for a while and finally spit out a sentence: "Are you tired?"
The queen hummed softly without raising her head.
Han Ruzi still opened his mouth, ready to say the second sentence, but the result was unexpected - he hiccupped.
The hiccup was very light and short. Han Ruzi hurriedly shut his mouth and held his breath. It didn't take long for the second hiccup to pop out of his throat persistently. Go back, the more frequent the hiccup.
The queen looked up and looked at the emperor suspiciously.
"Right...uh...can't afford...uh...I might...uh...a little...uh..." Han Ruzi couldn't go on.
The queen pursed her lips and smiled, "Your Majesty is too nervous."
Han Ruzi shook his head vigorously, he understood what was going on, and it was all to blame for the medicinal pill Meng E gave him, which caused abdominal pain a few days ago, and now brings hiccups, "I... uh... later... uh... ...just fine."
"There is water on the table..."
Han Ruzi hurriedly turned around and ran to the table, picked up the teapot, poured a glass of water, and drank it in small sips, but it was useless. Once he almost sprayed the water out, he quietly performed the reverse breathing method. Stopped, but not as often.
A hand gently stroked his back, Han Ruzi was startled, hurriedly dodged, and said to the queen, "Don't come here."
Empress Cui Xiaojun raised her right hand and said in confusion, "Yes, Your Majesty. Does Your Majesty really need help?"
Han Ruzi shook his head. As soon as he was nervous, the hiccups became serious again. He put one hand on the table, closed his eyes, and concentrated on his breathing, trying to track the direction of the breath in his body. once.
He opened his eyes, and it seemed that the queen was still standing by, yawning.
"Sorry." Han Ruzi felt very sorry, "You must be exhausted, er, go to sleep."
"Your Majesty, rest as well."
"I... uh... I have to stand for a while, you go to sleep first."
"Yes, Your Majesty." The Queen walked to the bedside, lifted a corner of the quilt, slipped in gently, and lay there motionless.
Han Ruzi blew out the last candle, walked to the chair in the dark, removed several cases on it, and lay down on it. He didn't care if there were no quilts and pillows. In the silence, he felt that he heard a very slight sigh, which was not disappointment and regret, but relaxation and release.
The young queen was as nervous as he was.
Han Ruzi had something on his mind and didn't sleep well, so he got up early the next day, tiptoed to the side of the bed, and met a pair of big, slightly frightened eyes in the dim sunlight.
The queen did not dare to sleep much.
The two looked at each other for a moment, and Han Ruzi whispered, "Someone will come in to urge us to get up, I have to... uh..." The hiccup didn't stop completely.
The queen nodded slightly and rubbed against the bed. She slept apparently soundly, and the quilt hardly changed.
Han Ruzi lay in bed, thinking about his promise to the King of the East Sea, and found that the hiccups tended to get worse.
There was a knock on the door, "Your Majesty, it's time to get up."
When he knocked on the door for the second time, Han Ruzi said, "Come in."
Numerous palace maids filed in, and the emperor and the queen once again entered into a life of action puppets, dressing, bathing in different rooms, changing new clothes, incense, dressing neatly, and going to greet the queen mother together.
The empress met the empress dowager on the first day of the wedding, and the etiquette was still very important. The courtyard of Cishun Palace was crowded with female officials and deacon eunuchs. The emperor and empress first knelt outside the door. Mentoring.
Han Ruzi hopes that the less the queen learns, the better.
There was no figure of the East Sea King in the crowd.
The emperor who just got married is also going to take charge of the government, which means that the people are the foundation. Another news came from Kanto. The war went as well as expected, but the rebels were far from being eliminated. There were quite a few cities in the Qi Kingdom who were loyal to the King of Qi and could not hold on to it. The most important thing was that the leader of the rebellion, the King of Qi himself, had not yet been eliminated. He was arrested. After the defeat of Luoyang, he disappeared all of a sudden. Taifu Cui Hong allocated a large number of troops to track down the whereabouts of King Qi. There were many clues, but all of them died.
As usual, Han Ruzi didn't stay in Qinzheng Pavilion for too long. In less than a quarter of an hour, he frequently heard an unfamiliar name - Chunyu Xiao, which did not sound like a court official or a local hero. , a bit like King Qi's military advisor, and a bit like a mage.
When the eunuch asked the emperor to drive back to the palace, Han Ruzi finally couldn't bear it anymore and asked the prime minister, "This Chunyu Xiao... uh... who is this person?"
The emperor rarely asked questions, and it was even more unprecedented for him to speak with hiccups. The prime minister was a little stunned for a while, and the eunuchs who surrounded the emperor were also quite nervous. It was not until no one in the Tingzheng Pavilion came out to stop him that Yin Wuhao bowed to the ground, trembling. He said, "Chunyuxiao is a man of interest in Guandong. He is the one who bewitched King Qi to rebel. He is the master of rebellion. Rest assured, Your Majesty, Chunyuxiao will never go unpunished for too long."
A man of hope, it was the first time that Han Ruzi heard this name.
The queen was not in Tai'an Palace, and I didn't know where she was taken. She didn't come back all day, but Han Ruzi felt relieved. He had nothing else to do, so he kept running the reverse breathing method to suppress the urge to hiccups.
In the afternoon, the imperial concubine Shangguan came to supervise a group of eunuchs and palace maids to clean up the new house, and only had a short time to chat privately with the emperor.
"Treat the queen well, she will be very useful in the future."
Han Ruzi didn't care about "the future" and asked in a low voice, "Who put the note to me that day?"
The imperial concubine didn't want to answer, and after thinking for a moment, she said, "Zhang Yanghao is the one chosen by Luo Huanzhang."
To solve a doubt, Han Ruzi asked again: "You said that the queen mother killed Si Di, is there any evidence?"
It was for this reason that the imperial concubine came here, and she answered succinctly, "Yes, Zuo Ji is the evidence. If Your Majesty can subdue Zuo Ji, you will know the truth."
(seeking for collection and recommendation)