my demon

Chapter 1 The Little Emperor

The hall is deep, with hanging curtains, and in the dim light, a pair of dark golden bronze cranes with slender legs and sharp beaks stand beside the ocher-red columns. A wisp of light smoke rises from their mouths and slowly spreads out. The air is full of dragons. The unique deep and long fragrance of saliva.

Years of incense in the bedroom is next to the curtains, so that the bed curtains and pillows are filled with this delicate and long fragrance. Xiao Yan does not dislike this fragrance, but at this moment he is distracted by the faintly visible smoke. But there is nothing else to do.

The old doctor Jiang Mushu closed his eyes, touched Xiao Yan's wrist, pressed it for a long time, then asked the other hand, and continued to count the pulse, without saying a word for a long time.Xiao Yan leaned on the big welcoming pillow, almost suspicious that the old doctor Jiang had fallen asleep.

But after a long time, he still opened his eyes slightly, and respectfully invited Xiao Yan's wrist back, and tremblingly retreated down the steps, the servant next to him hurriedly stepped forward and asked, "How is the body of the holy dragon?"

The old doctor Jiang respectfully mumbled a series of vague and incomprehensible things that everyone couldn't understand, such as the stomach pulse is heavy, the stomach qi does not rise, and so on, and then he came to a conclusion: "The emperor just has a disharmony of spleen and stomach. Eat a light diet and recuperate for a few days."

Xiao Yan let out a long breath, knowing that this time he would not be able to escape starvation for a few more days.Ever since he was sensible, whenever he felt unwell, had a cold, headache, stomach ache or fatigue, the old doctor Jiang would take his pulse every time, and every time he came to take the pulse, he would have to starve quietly for a few days , except for rice soup and clear porridge, nothing...

Little Imperial Doctor Jiang was much better before, and he would also prescribe some tuckahoe cakes and Bazhen cakes for him, which was not so hard to bear, but Imperial Doctor Jiang only came to take his own pulse when Old Imperial Doctor Jiang was unwell and could not accept the edict to enter the palace. ...

Thinking of the starving hunger, his face turned blue, and he closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep.Move less, be hungry slowly, where can I steal some food then?

The palace was so clean that the mice probably starved to death.

The imperial doctor went down, and the chief servant who was waiting on him also went to report to the regent and the queen mother. Xiao Yan got up and drank a bowl of clear porridge. Sure enough, after a while, Aunt Gong came in front of the queen mother, with her waist straight and her head bowed on the armrest. Ask below: "The empress dowager was very worried when she heard that the dragon was not in good health. She sent her servants to inquire. The empress is reading the scriptures and making offerings to the Buddha. After reading the scriptures, she will come to visit the emperor in person..."

Xiao Yan skillfully replied: "Empress Lao is worried, I'm safe, don't dare to disturb the holy body of the empress, please Gong Shanggong go back, do not dissuade the empress, I have a sickness here, what can I do if I offended the empress? Gong Shanggong is worried."

Aunt Gong quickly smiled and said: "The emperor is filial, the servants will go back to the court, and please the emperor to rest in peace. If there is anything you need, just send someone to tell, the queen mother will not allow it."

Xiao Yan nodded slightly, and then ordered the people around him to send Aunt Gong out, and then slowly relaxed, only feeling that the routine socializing with mother, kindness and filial piety was exhausting, and the porridge he just ate felt that he had bottomed out , The stomach has begun to feel empty.

He got up, put on his winter fur, and went to the study slowly. Since he was uncomfortable, he didn't have to do his homework, but he didn't want to lie on the bed. He just used the excuse of going to the study to find books to pass the time. The servants Follow him closely.

Outside the window was still a bleak winter scene, Xiao Yan hugged his fur coat tightly, knowing that it would be impossible to collect some wild vegetable leaves and fruits to satisfy his hunger while visiting the garden, and the snacks must have been removed in the study, so he could only move as little as possible, Only in this way can the porridge stay in the stomach for a longer time.

He entered the upper study room, took a book and began to read it quietly. After a while, the little waiter who had polished his ink really slacked off. After all, the little emperor started reading for a long time, and soon they quietly left the upper study room one after another. Xiao Yan knew that they went to the gatehouse on the east side to gamble.

This is a habit he connived consciously. There are a lot of on-duty jobs in the palace, and the on-duty servants are boring. They must be gambling, eating, drinking and playing tricks. Xiao Yan deliberately never urged them, and never asked them, so they became more slack and bold. When I got up, I often gambled in the tea room during the day.

But he doesn't care, only in this way can he have some time to be alone and to breathe.

Xiao Yan turned to the back of the bookshelf, looking for an "idle book" in the eyes of the great scholars. The great scholars who teach the emperor are always very strict. They take turns to teach the young emperor, but they have different opinions. Xiao Yan sneered at his book theory, and Xiao Yan discovered when he was very young that even among famous scholars who had read poetry and books, they would have different understandings of the same literary theory, and they would be tit-for-tat. light.

But other than that, they made a strict list of the books the little emperor wanted to read.

Obviously, they don't just read these books themselves, why do they strictly limit the scope of their reading?

Xiao Yan began to think about this problem very early, and began to quietly look for books outside the scope of the book list in the upper study room. Obviously, the previous emperors of the Xiao family did not just read the Four Books and Five Classics. He found books in the upper study room. Many apparently belonged to the private collections of successive generations of ancestors.

For example, "Seven Signs of Yunji", "Huang Ting Jing", "Baopuzi", "Song of Youxian", "Floating Record of Emperor's Son", etc., are obviously left by Yingzong.

In name, Yingzong is Xiao Yan's grandfather. It is said that he was very wise and powerful when he was young, but in his middle age, it is said that he met a fairy while hunting, and then became obsessed with self-cultivation. Immortal body, detached from the mundane, and boundless life.

It's a pity that he died of a pill in the end, and the Taoist priest who offered the pill was killed by a car. After that, the folk practice of Taoism subsided a little, but after the Queen Mother, they began to worship Buddha again. Buddhism and Taoism have the same origin, and gradually the people began to respect practice stand up.

Out of curiosity, Xiao Yan swallowed jujubes before, half-understood, and read a lot, but he also knew that the great scholars were very taboo about the emperor not asking the common people about ghosts and gods, and he was even more worried that the emperor would change his temperament, so he carefully read it. I hide that I have read these books.

He also found a lot of playbooks that absolutely should not appear in the palace, such as "You Long Xi Feng", "The Legend of Yuying", "The History of the Girlfriend", "The Legend of the Silver Screen" and so on, with exquisite illustrations in the middle , It's just a book cover wrapped in a serious book.

The words used in the folk tales are very bold, and the plot is extremely absurd. This should be hidden by the previous generation, that is, the nominal father of the Emperor Mizong, whom he has never met.

Minzong was very absurd and indulgent. There were countless people in the harem, playing and hunting every day, neglecting political affairs, and died of drunkenness at a very young age. In the midst of great chaos, Xiao Yan, who had just turned six years old and suffered from smallpox, was selected and sent to Beijing from a distant fief, where he was adopted under the name of the Minzong. The queen mother and the regent assisted him in ascending the throne.The palace people occasionally talked about it in private, but they all thought that the former emperor was ridiculous.

Xiao Yan silently took out a copy of "Gui Zang" and flipped through it, remembering that he didn't understand it before, but now he was hungry, so he didn't want to read too tiring books, so he put it back and touched a copy of "Zi Bu Yu" " came out, and slowly flipped through the stories of ghosts, ghosts and people in it, and turned to a page of the story of flower spirits, and couldn't help but stare at it.

Just when he saw the flower essence boy fell to the ground drunk and turned into a book of peonies, and when he was discovered by his best friend in the same class, Xiao Yan felt nervous and could not help leaning against the bookshelf, eager to turn to the next page to see clearly, but Unexpectedly, he didn't know where he pressed it, and the bookshelf suddenly retreated, revealing a narrow angle, and he fell directly into the dark passage without reacting at all.

He raised his head in astonishment, only to see that the bookshelf had been smoothly closed again, and he was in a dark secret passage.

This is the secret room?

He felt that the air was circulating, and it wasn't too dark. He thought for a while, touched the bookshelf, and found a hinge at the back, pressed it, and pushed the bookshelf away. He walked back to the study room, thought for a while, The candlestick was lit with a torch, and he returned to the dark passage with the candlestick in his hand.

Holding the candlestick, he walked slowly, the secret passage was going downwards, and he followed the secret passage, and soon entered a secret room.

The secret room is very simple, with a stone bed and a stone table, and a wooden box under the stone bed.

He lowered his head, dragged the wooden box out, pressed the ears of the copper box, and opened the box.A gust of icy air gushed out as the box was opened, tiny snowflakes fluttered with icy light, a white bone skull suddenly popped out of the box, its mouth clicked up and down, almost biting Xiao Yan hand.

Xiao Yan put away his sleeves, took two steps back, and saw the skull turn around on the ground, then opened his mouth wide to him, showing his sharp teeth, and clicked a few times, the gray-white dry bone in the candlelight was very strange. , and in the sunken deep black eye hole, two clusters of faint blue flames ignited, strange and frightening.