The mother and daughter pair spoke a lot this afternoon, talking about the days after An Jinxiu marries, how An Yuanzhi would be once he joined the army, Shangguan Yong, how he would be when he raise their son and a lot of things about the future. At this moment, when things were no longer possible to be recalled, An Jin and the Aunt Xiehad a tacit understanding to only think about their future.
At dusk, rain began to fall again from the clear sky. The guest room, which was not bright to begin with, became dark all of a sudden.
"You also have a family to take care of. After you go to the Buddhist hall and worship Buddha, you can go back. Don't let your family wait for you for too long."
An Jinxiu held onto Aunt Xiu hand and said, "I don't know when I'll be able to see you again after I leave."
"There will be another chance." Aunt Xiu pulled up An Jinxiu to her feet. "Quickly go to the buddhist hall and remember to be sincere."
An Jinxiu walked out of the guest room. The old woman who had greeted her before came out of the hall and called out to her from afar, "Second Madam, His Majesty has arrived. The Crown Princess wants you to meet him at the gate."
An Jinxiu was stunned. Shouldn't she, as a concubine, avoid him? Why did he want her to pick up the car? And why would the Emperor come to the Anshi temple?
"The Esteemed wangfei told you to go, so you won't leave any idle rumors. You can go, and see His Majesty. That'll be good too."
It was indeed a good thing to see the Emperor Shizong in person, to be able to impress him for Shangguan Yong. An Jinxiu just couldn't understand, what day was it today, even the Emperor had come to the main hall, it was as if they had agreed, someone had already arranged it like this?
The old woman who had come to pass on the message walked up to An Jin. When she saw that she was still standing there without moving, she hurriedly urged her, "Second Madam, hurry up and leave. That's a saint's carriage, you can't neglect it."
Under the repeated urging of this old woman, An Jin didn't have much time to think. After glancing at the woman, she brought her to the entrance of the Main Hall.
At this time, the Shizong had already arrived at the gate of the An family monastery. Initially, the Emperor didn't want to bother with the crown prince at all, but the crown prince had invited him in front of all the other princes, thinking that the princes had caused a lot of trouble behind his back for the sake of Wang Yuan, and had even criticized the crown prince in many ways.
The Emperor had never thought of crippling the crown prince to look at the princes, and other than the fifth prince, Bai Chengze, who had a normal expression, the rest of them all revealed expressions of watching a good show, as if they were waiting for him to scold the crown prince. This was the brother of the royal family. At that time, the Emperor felt a wave of helplessness and finally agreed to the crown prince's request in front of all the princes.
The Emepror didn't care about the princes' moods after that. He only knew that the Crown Prince was relieved of a great burden.
As he went out of the palace to hunt, even the Shizong was only slightly dressed. In the eyes of the Shizong, there was a large group of people following him, and even the wild animals were scared off. What kind of prey could he possibly hunt?
Usually when hunting, the Crown Prince would put the safety of the dragons as the top priority and urge the Emperor to bring the imperial guards and the imperial guards. However, this time, the Crown Prince did not try to persuade him.
The Emperor was happy. He felt that the Crown Prince was afraid of being scolded by him.
It was a sunny day after the rain, and the air was fresh. As the horse galloped through the forest in the mountains of the northern city, the raindrops that accumulated on the branches began to fall.
When he was deep in the mountains, he saw many animals that he could easily meet. He nocked an arrow and shot it through the neck of a sika deer. He asked the crown prince, "Have you prepared this place in advance?"
The crown prince followed behind him and said, "I can't hide anything from royal father. This son wants royal father to have a better time today, so I had the guards take care of the mountain beforehand."
Shizong turned to look at the crown prince and said, "You'd better not hide anything from me."
He dismounted from his horse and knelt in front of the horse. "Imperial Father, this subject is truly not aware of the matter with Wang Yuan. I also want Fourth Brother to quickly capture those two deathsworn from Wang Yuan to prove my innocence."
Shizong only looked at the guard who had placed the blood of the deer not far away and said to the crown prince, "Don't bring up the matter about Wang Yuan for now. You are the crown prince, you don't have to lower yourself like this in front of me."
The Crown Prince smiled bitterly to himself. He was just an official after all. How could he dare not be humble? Wang Yuan was practically beyond his means. "This son thanks Imperial Father," The crown prince kowtowed to the Emperor.
"Rise," Shizong said, as he ran past the crown prince, his legs clamping on the horse's side.
By the time the Crown Prince stood up, the Shizong had already led the guards to the west side of the forest.
"Your Highness," the guard said as he walked over with two wooden gourds that were carved with fine patterns and filled with the blood of the deer.
The crown prince looked at the two gourds and said to the guards, "Be careful with them. My royal father and I may need to consume them in a while."
"This servant obeys," the guard said as he hung the two wooden gourds by his waist.
The Crown Prince then mounted his horse and started to chase after Shizong.
Half a day passed unknowingly as Shizong led his guards to hunt in the forest north of the city. As the sky darkened, Shizong realized that he had stayed in the forest from the afternoon until dusk.
"Father," The Crown Prince looked up at the sky and stepped forward, "It seems that the rain is coming again. This son knows that the An clan's home is here, so why don't you go there and rest?"
"An clan ?" Shizong said, "What did you do now?"
The Crown Prince shook his head, "This son doesn't dare. It's just that I don't dare. It's just that today, An Jinyam has accompanied her mother to offer incense."
The Shizong said, "Is today the day of incense?"
The Crown Prince smiled and said, "An Jinyan said that she missed her mother and sister, so I allowed her to leave the palace."
"Sister?" The first person that came to the mind of the Emperor was An Jinge, whose etiquette was unknown. With a darkened face, he said, " Zhen knows her little sister. It's better for the Crown Princess not to meet spoiled girls."
The crown prince hurriedly asked, "Father, are you talking about Miss An Jinge? The Crown Prince's wife was having a headache for her little sister, but this time, the one she wanted to see was her little sister who was married off, what was her name? "The Crown Prince pretended to think about it, then said," I can't remember her name.
Shizong's face turned back to him. "An Jinxiu," he said to the crown prince.
The Crown Prince laughed, "Yes, it's that name. I was too stupid to recall it."
"Let's go to An's monastery," said the Shizong.
The crown prince hurriedly said, "This son will lead the way for royal father."
At this time, the raindrops had already started to drip from the sky. As the rain began to fall, Eunuch Xie was about to put on the raincoat, but was rejected by the crown prince. He then said, "Spring rain is as precious as oil, what is there to hide from?"
As the Crown Prince listened to the auspicious words of Eunuch Xie, his heart sank to the bottom. Talking about An Jin to the Emperor was actually the final attempt of the crown prince. If the latter had no impression of this little concubine born, Ah Jin, then no matter how many plans the crown prince had made beforehand, the Emperor would persuade him to return to the palace because of the slippery roads in the rain.
However, from the looks of it now, what Eunuch Xie and An Jinyan said was not wrong. His Imperial Father truly cared about An Jinxiu. There was no way for him to turn back now. He could only go on to the end.
In his heart, the Crown Prince apologized to An Jinxiu. A little girl's life was insignificant compared to the Crown Prince's position and the lives of the people behind him.
When the Shizong arrived at the gate of the An clan's monastery, he was disappointed that he didn't see An Jinxiu in the crowd. Just as the Shizong was about to say "go back to the palace", he saw An Jinxiu hurrying out from the gate. Perhaps it was because he had walked a little faster, but when An Jin appeared before the Emperor, she was slightly out of breath.
"Father," The Crown Prince saw that An Jin and took a look at the Shizong's appearance. Although he knew what was going on, he remained calm and said to the Shizong, "Would you like to rest in the main hall?"
The Shi Zong acknowledged and dismounted himself without the help of the guards.
An Jin did not raise her head to look at the Emperor and instead knelt down behind the Qin family to receive the emperor's carriage.
"You may rise now." At this point, the Emperor stopped looking at An Jin and raised his hand towards the kneeling figure in front of the entrance.
After An Jinyan stood up, she smiled at the Emperor, "Why is father here?"
Shizong went to the main hall and said, "Why, can't I come to the main hall?"
An Jinyan hurriedly said, "Imperial Father, this temple is only a domestic temple, and has always been treated as a place for my grandma to rest in her retirement. This time, it will be extraordinary."
"What a mouth you have," Shizong laughed at An Jinyan's coaxing. The Shizong had heard of this monastery in the An clan, but it was his first time here and had seen it with his own eyes. It was only then that he believed the words of the ministers. An's home nunnery was not at all inferior to those burning temples. At the north and south of the hall, there was a central line going from south to north through the gate. There was a buddhist temple surrounded by galleries and pavilions, and as one raised one's head to look at the corner of the eaves, it covered up the entire sky. Because it was a hall, it was less grand and more refined.
"Father is tired," the crown prince said to An Jinyan from behind. "Lead the way."
The Emepror walked under the eaves of the buddhist hall. At this time, his clothes were already half wet, but the Emepror didn't care.
An Jinyan smiled and said, "This was built after a few generations of the An family. Father, your daughter-in-law's family all believes in the Buddha."
The Shizong turned around and entered the buddhist hall behind him, saying, "Believing in Buddha is a good thing."
The Crown Prince followed behind him and asked, "Does royal father want an incense stick to burn?"
The Shizong looked at the Buddha statue in the buddhist hall and said, "Does I still need to pray to God?"
The Crown Prince hurriedly apologized to the Shi Zong.
An Jinxiu and Madam Qin stood outside the buddhist hall, listening to the conversation between the Emperor and Crown prince. Just by listening to the words of the crown prince praising the Emperor, An Jinxiu was not comparable to Bai Chengze in terms of words, and it would not be wrong for him to lose to him in this life.
An Jinyan said to the Shizong, "Father, are you going to rest in the quiet room?" Listening to the rain in the buddhist hall is still a very elegant thing to do. "
When Madam Qin heard the people in the buddhist hall walk to the back of the hall, she turned back to An Jin and said, "If you can talk to His Majesty in a while, say something nice. It's also for the good of your general."