Rong Lu stood at the gate that Lan Er was going to pass through when he entered the Forbidden City. Dressed in the uniform of the Manchurian Guards, he looked tall and proud. The expression on his face was full of hope and disappointment, and it was a real emotional duel.
He was proud of Lan Er because he loved her. He wanted her to be chosen, for in this way all the honor would be to her; but if she was really chosen, he would lose her forever. If she is not chosen, she will be sullen all the time.
However, if she is actually chosen, she may also be unhappy. All this, Rong Lu knew in his heart, despite this, when Lan Er entered the Forbidden City and saw him standing at the gate of the city on a mission, he still stood very straight and showed great pride.
His eyes were staring directly into Lan Er's eyes, and his stiff lips, which were trying to control and not let the trembling, show such a sentence: "Lan Er, you are so magnificent today!"
She smiled slightly. She understands Ronglu's feelings, but she has great ambitions. She disappointed Ronglu, but she comforted herself with these reasons; her name was the emperor's first edict, and no matter how much resistance she might encounter, she had to enter the Forbidden City. But she was seriously prepared for the summons.
She wore her best costume, and if she couldn't achieve the "grandeur" that Rong Lu called, she wouldn't be a woman.
She didn't hide herself, and she didn't hide it from Ronglu either; if she hadn't been chosen, she would have felt really very sad. As for the question of loving and being loved, it does not need to be considered at all.
When she passed ronglu, her head did not turn back, dispelling the love she had for Ronglu in the past.
By the time Lan Er arrived, the sixteen had already entered the reception hall. It was a group of laughing maidens, excited, with fervent expectations, for one of them would be chosen as a concubine.
The room is a double room, and the wall of the room is a row of shelves filled with priceless treasures.
When these Manchurian girls came in with high heels to show the emperor and empress their costumes and charms, there was a frequent clattering sound on the stone slabs. They walked around on their own, admiring rare treasures they had never seen before, and constantly casting fascinating glimpses at the Xianfeng Emperor. Surrounded by eunuchs, servants, and court maids.
The reception hall is a busy place. One by one, the young girls came to be inspected, with the Xianfeng Emperor sitting on the left and the empress sitting on his right. Throughout the process, the queen had been frowning unhappily, carefully moving from this young face to that young face, examining it repeatedly. Xian Feng was impatient.
Then, Rong Lu's sweetheart Lan Er came in.
Lan Er pretended to be flattering without pretense. After leaving her father's house, she remained Lan'er, exactly the way she was. This real Lan Er, who completely maintained his true colors, walked in front of the two most honorable people in all of China.
She acted spontaneously and did not show any charm that was not her own. She didn't throw a seductive look at Xian Feng, she didn't try to pretend to be happy. She looked impatient like Xian Feng. Apparently, she undoubtedly became the most beautiful of the seventeen. Sixteen other people realized this right away. As a result, hostile eyes and jealous eyes were all turned to Lan Er, but she didn't mind at all.
Then, the chief eunuch An Dehai began to announce the names and ages of the seventeen people in a monotonous voice: "Baoyu" and "Lan'er".
The chief eunuch Andehai read the list in a monotonous voice.
The Empress has a say in the matter of choosing a concubine. When the list was finished and the seventeen people prostrated their heads together, XianFeng turned to the empress again and again and asked, "What do you think of this one?"
The man mentioned was called to the Queen, who took her hand and examined it carefully.
"She must not, her hands are so rough, not from the hands of noble families!"
These tricks were spoken in the language of the court, so the seventeen girls could not understand them.
"She can't, she wants to pretend to walk properly, but she can't."
"Which of these seventeen do you think is the most appropriate?"
"By my point, the one named Baoyu was chosen."
The emperor almost forgot his own imperial dignity and laughed out loud. In terms of beauty, Baoyu is really an unfortunate person, her appearance is ruined by some smallpox left by smallpox, and her eyes are fighting eyes, and her walking appearance is very clumsy. She very much wanted to be chosen, because she repeatedly looked at the queen and wanted to show her charm, and because she was a cockfighter, the result made her look very ridiculous.
So when the jade was mentioned, the emperor just shook his head gently.
"I like Lan'er this girl," he said at last, "she is dignified, elegant, self-assured, unpretentious, very beautiful." ”
"It is for these reasons that you mentioned that I think she is not suitable, because she is so beautiful, it is possible that she is not virtuous." Gu Feng shook his head again. Of course, the meaning is different from the previous shaking of the head.
Although Lan Er expressed boredom with the whole process, she was not negligent at all. Clever and clever Lan Er, she noticed that the emperor's eyes turned to look at her again and again.
During the visit, Rong Lu's shadow did not enter her heart at all. She expected the man sitting next to the empress dowager on the kang to be able to choose her out of seventeen.
At the same time, she immediately realized that the queen would become her mortal enemy. At the first opportunity, when he was not looking at her, she looked closely at her face, remembering the foreshadowing of the clouds of smoke that had swirled from the incense burner, and how the smoke had formed the face of a man who was now sitting on the dragon stove in front of him, and beside him sat her mortal enemy, the Queen Mother.
Lan Er was very excited, her heart was beating very hard, but she didn't show it at all. She didn't seem to notice the expressions the other sixteen had on her face. After all, they were women, and they observed very carefully, realizing that the emperor liked her the most, so they all threw hostile glances at her.
Although the sixteen men already knew who the emperor had chosen, they still showed off their style and wanted to attract the emperor's attention. They giggled in front of the emperor (but the emperor's eyes stared away and paid no attention to them), giggled, ran around pretending to be dignified, prostrated, and laughed.
Tea was delivered. At this time, the emperor and the empress could observe the girls more closely, and from them they could understand what kind of upbringing they had received in the past. The girls still giggled from time to time, looking into each other's eyes and smiling.
But among the sixteen people, no matter who it was, as long as they saw Lan Er, they didn't smile at all. The Empress and the Emperor were bored long before the end of the meeting. However, the edict stipulates the time of visit. When the time comes, the girls will have to leave whether they like it or not. The boredom was obvious, because Xian Feng had made a decision, and there was no need for them to wait any longer.
Lan Er no longer looked at Emperor Xianfeng, she already knew everything she wanted to know.
When the time came for the end of the visit, the emperor moved his seat on the kang. In a very short moment, his eyes turned to Lan Er again.
Apparently, the prettiest of the seventeen, after a pause, the chief eunuch took a look at one of the many clocks that were used as ornaments, and then announced, "When the meeting is over, you can all retire." ”
Didn't anyone get selected? However, this is not the case. Sixteen were not selected, one was chosen. They were all sent away, so as not to arouse the jealousy of the other sixteen people, or not to make those who lost feel ashamed. One of the seventeen who had left together was to return according to another edict.
One of the seventeen beautiful Manchurian maidens, Baoyu, who was only slightly inferior to the other sixteen, also bowed her head very politely to the emperor and empress and withdrew.
Lan Er's palanquin stopped outside the city gate, and as she passed the city gate, she glanced at Rong Lu, but she didn't see him. She was thinking that soon another holy decree would come down and order one of the seventeen to return to the palace, and then she would never leave there again.
Seventeen little girls, the eldest less than seventeen and the youngest less than fourteen, left the Forbidden City. Sixteen of them wouldn't come back, but one of them was coming back, and Lan Er was sure in her heart that she had this luck.
When she came out of the Forbidden City, she did not see Rong Lu or the sad look on his face, but sat in a palanquin and went straight to the city in Beijing.
Is she sure she was chosen?
Many years later, she said, "At that time, I left with the others, but I knew I would come back, and it wouldn't be long!"
There are many small shops along Hardgate Avenue. She stopped and went to a small shop to buy some small bits and pieces. Perhaps because of the bad business in the past few days, the owner's attitude towards Lan Er was very rude.
Lan Er replied to her rudeness, and she let the shopkeeper know that she would retaliate against him.
"When I become the concubine of the Xianfeng Emperor, I will kill you!" She told him. The shopkeeper laughed contemptuously.
But he should remember her words as she herself remembered them. He should have recalled the incident with a smile, as she had told the story many years later.
After that, if she had ever had the idea of missing Ronglu, she wouldn't have said it to anyone, except for Ronglu, but even if she really had such thoughts, Ronglu, who was loyal to her to the death, would never know.
So Lan Er returned to her father's house and waited. But while she waited, she herself quietly prepared the exquisite headdress worn by the married woman in Manchuria.
Aunt Lan'er was waiting for the summons at her father's house, and she believed that the moment would come. All her life she felt that some kind of miracle would happen to her. She has always had ambitions and has always dreamed great dreams.
Although this incident had surpassed her arrogant wishes, it could not be said to be completely unexpected, because she dared to dream. Just like that, she waited at her father's house.
This time, the attitude of the messenger of the annunciation was very different from the first time! The eunuch who had delivered the edict for the first time was arrogant and empty-eyed, as if he were a benefactor, or that he was planting flowers on cow dung. This time, many eunuchs came, and they brought many very precious gifts to Lan Er's parents, and the eunuchs also brought a very luxurious empty palanquin.
Lan Er, who was waiting to be summoned, expected that when this moment came, he would be very excited. But when this great moment really came, when she saw a group of eunuchs in palace clothes approaching her room, she was very calm, as if all this was expected.
She looked forward to glory and wealth, and now glory and wealth have really come to her. It's all because she's pretty.
The parents were ecstatic at this gift worth thousands of taels of silver. They were extremely happy that their daughter Lan Er had such good luck.
When the eunuchs were invited and entered their quarters, Lan'er's parents put away the gifts and gave them Lan'er.
The Forbidden City is bustling with fanatical celebrations. This day is an important day for Xianfeng's life.
Lan Er was carried into the palace, xianfeng was waiting for her arrival, and he hid his eagerness with a cold expression. While waiting, he recalled every line of her figure, for they had left a very deep impression on his memory. Of the seventeen girls who participated in the fateful meeting for the first time, none of them had a face or name that he could remember except Lan'er. Lan Er was dignified and idyllic and proud of her surroundings.
What a beautiful girl, naturally, is to make the man turn his head to her—to be put into the vault of Xianfeng, to be his plaything, and to be thrown aside when he gets bored.