cloud mud

Chapter 2

The New Year's Eve is approaching, and the Zhennan Prince's Mansion is still as clean as before. A few new girls hung a few hand-tied red lanterns, which made them look a bit more popular.

A large open space was opened up in the backyard as a training ground, and the guards of the palace practiced here every day. Xiangxia nestled leisurely in a recliner made of cashmere, held a cup of hot tea, took a sip of the tea foam, and looked at the guards on the field train.

"Jianguan, there is a lazy guy in your team, turn a blind eye, right?" Xiangxia picked up a pebble from a small porcelain bowl at hand, and hit a shadow guard in the training ground on the back waist with a whistling sound. .

"Hey, hello!" Jianguan screamed, staggered, and almost fell down.

The dozen or so guards under him immediately stood up straight without daring to breathe.

The shadow guard named Jianguan rubbed his swollen lower back and turned to look at Xiangxia, and whispered at him, "Everyone has eyes in the back of their heads like you."

Xiangxia didn't care, crossed his legs and leaned on the recliner comfortably, and said lazily: "Everyone should be more energetic, whoever is slack, the one who is unlucky is your officer, do you hear me?"

"Yes!"

A group of little girls at the back drew their bows and aimed at the target, taking advantage of the officer not paying attention, they secretly glanced at Xiangxia, smiled and murmured: "Look, look at Mrs. Xiangxia."

Before he finished speaking, the bow in his hand trembled suddenly, scaring the girl, and the pebble hit the back of the bow with a whizzing sound, Xiangxia snorted: "What are you looking at, hold it flat for me, don't shake your hands. "

"Hey, little one, little girl." Xiangxia knocked on the small table by her side, looking at the female shadow guard on the other side, "Hair is long, cut it, I don't have the money to show you the doctor .”

On the west side of the training ground stood a tall and slender woman in black, with willow eyebrows and slender waist, but she looked heroic. Her long hair was tied at the top, and the tail of her hair hung down her waist. A long knife with a dark green sheath hung from her waist.

Qiuchan cast a cold glance at Xiangxia, curled her shoulder-length hair with her fingertips, and replied, "Yes."

The shadow guards of Zhennan Prince's Mansion are all named after chess records, neat and capable.

The female shadow guard walked to Xiangxia's side, poured a cup of tea to moisten her throat, took a few sips and said in a low voice, "The person who entrusted me outside brought in a handwritten letter, and I put it on your desk."

"I'm not going to tell you, did you refuse all the things from outside?" Xiangxia frowned, and put the teacup on the table in a gentle manner, "Tell them, I just serve the little prince's dog legs, it's nothing Great power can't blow any wind, so they can save their lives."

"It's the second son of the Ning Mansion." Qiu Chan said calmly, "I can't be the master of the family's affairs."

Xiangxia rubbed her chin and thought for a while: "I'll take a look. Hey, don't let them sneak in while they can."

"Yeah." Qiu Chan put down the teacup and went back to the middle of the training ground.

There is a garden outside the training ground, and a few more pavilions and empty pavilions are the main courtyard.

Chu Tan recited the homework given by the grand master a few times, and was bored in the room. He asked the shadow guard on duty and said that Xiangxia had been in the training ground all noon.

"My lord, go out for a walk." Chu Tan threw away the book. The person on duty was a young shadow guard who hadn't figured out his little prince's temper. shoulder, asked in a low voice: "Where is the prince going?"

"Not going out of the house, you don't have to follow, just rest and go." Chu Tan put on his robe belt and walked out of the lobby slowly.

The little shadow guard didn't dare to follow, much less didn't dare not to follow, the prince was kind-hearted, if he bumped into something, the chief shadow guard could beat him to death.

It will be New Year's Eve in a few days, Chu Tan rubbed his cold hands, wandered around the mansion, bypassed the small snow-covered pond, and unknowingly walked into Xiangxia's residence.

Chu Tan was weak, and wanted to go to the training ground, but after walking these few steps, he was completely frozen, so he turned a corner temporarily, and went into Xiangxia's room to warm up for a while, and he would come back later.

The door was unlatched, Chu Tan gently pushed the door open and walked in, the charcoal fire inside was still on, and the warmth was steaming up his body, Chu Tan rubbed his hands, sat on the edge of the desk, and rested for a while.

The room was barely able to settle down, and the clean clothes for a few changes were not stacked, and the clothes collectors just stuffed them in the cupboard at random. For several days of account books and documents, the brush is directly inserted into the inkstone, and if it is damaged, it will be replaced.

How come you always have such a rough life, what a man you are.

Chu Tan really didn't know where to put himself, so he had no choice but to put his things back together, making room for himself to put himself in, resting his elbows on the case table, resting his cheeks, and tidying up the scattered account books on the table with one hand.

With a shake of the hand, two paper cranes fell out.

"..." Chu Tan picked up the paper cranes and found that the wings of the two paper cranes were stuck together with paste, and one of them had a small black spot on its face.

Chu Tan subconsciously raised his hand to touch his face, touching the tear mole in the corner of his eye.As soon as my ears got hot, I quickly stuffed the thing back again. Halfway through, another letter fell out. The letter was not sealed, and half of the letter paper inside fell out.

"Put everything into the account book..." Chu Tan picked it up with a bow, and casually pushed the fallen paper back into the envelope. At this moment, the door was suddenly pushed open, and a gust of cold wind blew in. Xiangxia stood by the door , Seeing Chu Tan inside, he was stunned for a moment.

"My lord? Are you looking for me?" Xiangxia was stunned for a moment, then looked down and saw the handwriting in Chu Tan's hand.

Chu Tan was a little uncomfortable being stared at by him, and handed him the things in his hand, thinking of the paper crane just now, his cheeks became hot, and he avoided his sight and said: "Your..."

"Oh, don't touch my stuff..." Xiangxia hurriedly took the handwritten letter and put it away. The Second Young Master Ning must have nothing good to say when he handed it over, so don't misunderstand the child again.

Chu Tan's face suddenly became a little uneasy, and his face turned pale. He entered the subordinate's residence at will first, and indeed rummaged through his things.

Before Chu Tan could speak, Xiangxia asked hesitantly, "Have you read it?"

"No." Chu Tan's face turned completely dark, Fuxiu stood up, bypassed Xiangxia, and left silently.

Only then did Xiangxia realize that she had made a slip of the tongue. I heard that children of this age are the most sensitive and fragile. Chu Tan was lonely since childhood, and he was even more afraid of the alienation of those close to him.

"You bastard." Xiangxia slapped himself, and just as he was about to catch up, he pulled out Mr. Ning's bullshit handwriting and glanced at what it was about. He didn't see anything else, but saw a line of words "Chu Qi At the moment of the unitary hour, Yunyue Tower has important matters to discuss."

Although the Second Young Master Ning is not a good person, but his eldest brother has a good face, he joined the Xuan Mi Division as a secret agent in his early years, and became a celebrity around the emperor. He was always the first to get any news.

Ning Fu has been trying to curry favor with Chu Tan, maybe he can really tell something.

"The seventh day? Isn't it the seventh day today?" Xiangxia calculated the time, and it was almost three quarters of the unitary hour.

Xiangxia glanced at the entrance of the courtyard where Chu Tan disappeared early, reluctantly picked up the handwriting, and muttered: "I'm sorry, my subordinates have to go and have a look first. I'll kneel on the pegboard to coax you when I come back."

Then he called a few guards around him, ordered him to go down and take good care of his master, and quickly ran away over the wall.

Chu Tan was outside the courtyard, and he thought that Xiangxia would chase him out and coax him, but he didn't expect this person to jump over the wall and run away without saying a word.

It turned out that he had no intention of chasing him at all.

The little shadow guard who had been quietly following Chu Tan jumped down and advised him in a low voice: "My lord, it's too cold, go back quickly."

Chu Tan sighed, lowered his eyelids, turned around and thought about it, and dragged the little shadow guard named Lianjiao out of the palace.

Lianjiao followed tremblingly, feeling extremely desperate: "It's over, I'm cold. If the shadow guard finds out about this, I must be chopped up and fed to chickens."

Chu Tan quietly followed Xiangxia all the way, and saw him enter Yunyue Tower.

Lianjiao was startled, and swallowed her saliva, the officer never visited Fireworks and Willow Lane before.

"Still visiting brothels." Chu Tan quietly stood in the dark and looked at the sea of ​​smoke and willows in the distance, frowning even more tightly.

"That's right!" Lianjiao agreed wholeheartedly, "Who says no! He is really not a thing!" In a blink of an eye, he began to beg again, "Okay, my lord, go back to the house quickly..."

The 16-year-old boy's curiosity and desire for control are astonishingly strong. Chu Tan shook off the little shadow guard who was standing in his way, straightened his outer robe, and slowly walked into Yunyue Tower.

"Hey!" Lianjiao pulled her hair vigorously, and called him in a low voice, "My lord! How could your rich body get into this place..." Just as he was about to chase him in, he was stopped by the spectators.

Go ahead, the whole street will know that the prince of Zhennan Palace has entered the flower building, so he has to wait outside, fortunately the officer is still inside to take care of him.

The person standing on the platform inside saw the young man with extraordinary gestures stepping in, and then quietly looked him up and down in his silver-threaded jade-wisp snow-fox fur. He didn't dare to go up to say hello, he only dared to make amends and laugh at him.

"Where is the one that just came in?" Chu Tan raised his eyes and asked.

"The room above... the one in the back, the name of the shop is Hongmei."

Chu Tan went straight upstairs and walked to the innermost room.

The wooden door with the red plum sign hanging on it was tightly bolted, and there was an increasingly heavy panting sound from inside, occasionally accompanied by a few soft and sticky words from a woman.

Chu Tan froze, and the cold sweat oozed out of his palms, like a basin of cold water poured over his head and face in the cold winter, it was so cold that he was completely cold from the inside to the outside.His frown gradually loosened, his tense shoulders also relaxed, and the disbelief in his eyes turned into a helpless wry smile.

It was because I was too naive, what else could I do after I entered the Yunyue Tower, I don't know how many times he has come here quietly over the years.

Chu Tan always thought that if he was not a prince, but just a child of an ordinary family, he would be able to get closer to Xiangxia, but now he finally convinced himself to accept that the difference between the two is not identity, but because he is a man.

"It's not my fault..." Chu Tan squatted down slowly against the wall, buried his head deeply in his arms.If you can choose, you will not be born in the royal family.

I don't know how long I waited, but Chu Tan almost fell asleep.

It was the door of the room with the red plum sign on the opposite side that was opened first.

Xiangxia came out first, and casually said: "Master Ning, you are welcome, I..."

Before stepping down, Xiangxia stared at Chu Tan who was sleeping in a wretched embrace at the opposite door, her eyes almost popping out.

"Um!?????"

Second Young Master Ning then came out with a fan, his face was a little drunk, and he hiccupped: "Hey, Master Xiangxia don't need to be polite to me, today's wine is very comfortable."

Xiangxia's eyes were quick and his hands were quick, he turned sideways, blocked Chu Tan behind him, pushed the second young master Ning, and said with a smile: "It's getting late, young master, let's go back first."

The Second Young Master Ning was drunk-eyed, put his arm around Xiangxia's shoulder and asked, "Why, do you still want to play more?"

"There is no meat in the house, and I want to be refreshing when I have time." Xiangxia twitched the corners of her mouth, and hid Chu Tan behind her back.

"Oh, I understand, I understand." The Second Young Master Ning had a poor capacity for alcohol, and when he was too drunk, he dragged Xiangxia and wanted to babble, but Xiangxia supported him by the shoulder and pushed him forward: "Hurry up!"

Second Young Master Ning was taken aback, "Oh, it's so fierce." Finally, he walked away waving his folding fan.

Xiangxia turned around and knelt down to look at her poor little girl, stroked his soft hair with one hand, and asked him distressedly:

"My ancestor, why are you still squatting here? You suck the spiritual energy of heaven and earth?"

Chu Tan hugged his knees and rolled himself into a ball, stared blankly at Xiangxia, and slowly raised his head to see the door plate where he was squatting, it said "Qingmei".

Xiangxia looked at him, staring at that tender little face, blushing.