Ginseng little men. broken vase

STORY THREE.
Vase of the Chinese emperor
Do you remember the names of the three sisters and brother?
For those who have already forgotten the names of the three princesses and the prince, I have created a reminder. The three sisters were named Peony, Peach and Wild Plum. My brother's name was Ginseng. The children also had home names, but only their mother called them these names. These names are Unicorn, Phoenix and Tiger Cub. We will not name the prince's home name here. It was kept a terrible secret.
The three sisters and brother loved to play together, but the king did not allow the children to waste time in vain. The children studied from morning to evening. The prince and the princesses lived in separate palaces and saw each other very rarely. The palaces were nearby, but just like that, on a visit, the prince and princess could not come to each other. If Princess Peach wanted to visit Princess Peony, she had to notify the nanny in the evening.
In the morning, the nanny had to turn to the home teacher. The teacher had to make a petition and give this petition to the Princess's Trustee. The trustee, bowing and smiling, was supposed to deliver the petition personally into the hands of Princess Peach's Tutor. Do you think that Princess Peach could then skip to her sister?
Nothing like this! The princess' mentor had to send the petition to the Chamber of Ceremonies, and only after the Chamber of Ceremonies had given its consent, the princess, accompanied by a nanny, a teacher, a mentor, a trustee and two dozen more servants and maids, sat down in a palanquin and went to play with her sister .
The distance from one palace to another was only four hundred paces, but no one cared. And the princess was sitting in a palanquin, although she would have gladly run to her sister's palace. And only once a year, on the Birthday, children were allowed to live in the same palace all together. Since this year the children were five years old, the king allowed them all to be together in the palace of the queen mother. By royal decree, they were allowed to live under the arches of the queen's palace for five whole weeks. For five weeks, the children could play all together, have fun and not do their homework. Last year they lived in mother's palace for four weeks. Last year, three weeks. What happened when they were two years old, the children did not remember. They were very small then.
Now, on the Fifth Anniversary Festival, the entire city of Yongmingchen was indulging in idleness. For five weeks, every day, fireworks went up into the sky, music was played, and children in Yongmingchen City were given free sweets and toys. Admission to puppet and opera performances was free. And at every turn they showed street performances and a circus. Such a tradition was started on the day when the king found out that his children were born, and this went on for 5 years.
Every year, all the children of Yongmingchen city looked forward to the birthday of the king's heirs. They waited even with more impatience than their birthday. However, the day of the Fifth Anniversary was still different from other birthdays. Guests from four neighboring states were invited to Yongmingchen for the first time.
Princess Wild Plum could go anywhere. She had to train all the time and therefore she was allowed more than her brother and sisters. As you remember, the Fifth Anniversary holiday lasted five weeks. So ordered the king of Yongmingchen. On the day when the second week of the holiday began, Princess Plum met a boy in the forest.
The boy at first did not want to meet the princess. But she, so to speak, simply took the boy prisoner. She grabbed the boy by the hand and said that she would not let him go anywhere if the boy did not tell why he was so sad. The boy tore his hand away and tried to run away, but the Plum Princess caught on a tree branch and instantly ended up on another tree.
Leaping from tree to tree, she overtook the boy and landed right in front of him. The boy said his name was Mo. He asked the princess to let him go now, but in return he promised that tomorrow he would show the girl where the Wish Fulfillment Lake was located. After that, the children separated. Wild Plum returned to the Queen Mother's palace and told her sisters and brother about meeting the boy.
The entire royal court was preparing for the solemn reception and presentation of gifts from the Korean princess, and therefore the children had the opportunity to slip away unnoticed. Princess Peach assumed that the boy named Mo would not come to the meeting, but Wild Plum, for some reason, was confident in her new acquaintance. And so it turned out.
Boy Mo was waiting for his friends near the place where they had agreed with Princess Plum. He was still sad, but he greeted his new friends politely. Of course, Mo knew who was in front of him. Wild Plum had told him yesterday that she was the heiress of the royal court. However, when meeting new friends, Mo did not show subservience. It seemed that his thoughts were far away from here. The prince and princesses were dressed for travel, they knew that it was a long way to the wish-granting lake. However, Mo said that he would not be able to keep his promise. The children were despondent. Princess Plum accused Mo of being a liar. Mo burst into tears and told a strange story.
Elder brother Mo servet in the palace. He has a high position, he keeps order in the Pavilion of Reflections. This is the name of the palace where the king works. The Chinese emperor gave the king of Yongmingchen a vase made of precious porcelain as a gift. The vase was so good that the king had the vase placed in his study. The drawing on the vase helped the king to think about problems and make the right decisions.
The vase was presented two weeks ago, and yesterday, at noon, it was found that the vase was broken. The office was closed. The windows were intact. The king has not been in his office for a week now. Mo's brother's name was Li, and he was the last person to enter the king's office. After the king left the office a week ago, Li checked everything was in order and stamped the pavilion door. That's how it was supposed to be. And yesterday the vase was broken. Tomorrow, the king will arrive at the Pavilion of Reflection, and it is likely that Li and his assistants will be executed. Mo finished his story and burst into tears again.
Ginseng asked Mo to clarify something, and then turned to the sisters
“Sisters, your help will probably be needed again!”
We have never been to that part of the palace, and we do not know on which floor the father's office is located. Plum is your job. As soon as it gets dark, you will have to sneak into the courtyard where the pavilion is located. If your father's office is above the first floor, then Peach, you'll have to call your bird for help again!
The girls did their best to reassure their new friend. We agreed to meet tomorrow at dawn.
When it got dark, Wild Plum made her way past the guards guarding the Pavilion of Reflection. Unfortunately, she could not get into the pavilion itself, but she found out exactly where her father's office was. The office was on the first floor. The windows were glazed with colored glass; the tops of the windows were not glazed, but covered with large bars. The girl thought this way and that, trying to find ways to get into the office, but she didn’t succeed. Returning to her room, she changed her clothes and was soon in front of the chambers that had been allocated to Princess Peach.
Together they went to the third princess - Peony, but she, as always, was not in the room. I had to go to the terrarium, where Peony was talking to the snake. Peony loved this snake very much, she came out of it when she found it in the forest six months ago, wounded and dying. The snake was poisonous, but Peony was not embarrassed. Peony knew what the snake was thinking about and was sure that she would have time to escape if the snake suddenly decided to attack her. But in general, the snake treated Peony well, she considered Princess Peony something like the supreme deity - the goddess of snakes. The snake was upset when she saw the sisters who came for the princess. The snake was jealous and believed that Peony should devote all her worries only to her - the snake Rose.
Soon, the sisters were already knocking on the door that gave access to Prince Ginseng's chambers.
Wild Plum quickly told everything she had time to learn, but she did not learn so much, and the guys became discouraged.
Ginseng offered to bribe one of the servants serving his father's pavilion, but immediately abandoned the idea himself. The children imagined how angry their father would be and trembled. Father punished for such offenses quickly, without hesitation for a long time. Also, the King of Yongmingchen was terrible in anger.
Then Peach took the floor
“I already talked to the bird!” She promised that tomorrow, as soon as dawn, she would try to get into the room.
“I'm afraid that it will be too late tomorrow,” Ginseng said thoughtfully, closing his favorite book of poetry, “for sure, Li and his subordinates have already been taken into custody. Tomorrow morning father will be informed about the broken vase, and Lee's fate will be decided.
- What to do? all three sisters asked in unison
Let the bird fly now.
"Okay, I'll call her!" Peach smiled.
“Are you going to call her right from here?” Plum was surprised
- Why take so long? My bird will hear me wherever I am!
Indeed, soon Princess Peach's bird was already in Prince Ginseng's room.
Princess Peach chirped a request to her favorite bird, and the bird flew away.
It was very boring and anxious to wait, so the four ginsengs got down to business, which they loved very much. The brother opened the poetry book and the children began to read the poems one by one. The competition was coming. At this competition, birthdays, and all the princesses, and the prince who came to congratulate the heirs on their birthday, had to show their talents. The four ginsengs decided to put on a little performance. They now read it by roles.
Finally the bird returned. However, she looked rather sad. She couldn't get into the office. Four days ago, someone dared to break the window in the king's office. The culprit was never found. However, now the glass in the window was of increased strength, and there were as many as three bars. And each of these gratings was smaller than the previous one. The bird made its way through the wide bars and almost got stuck. With great difficulty, she managed to get out and fly away.
Princess Peach smoothed the feathers on the bird's neck and let the bird rest. There was silence in the room.
Suddenly, Princess Peony became alert
Ginseng threw the book on the carpet and turned to his sister
- What's wrongthe battle? What happened?
Rose is calling me!
- Who is Rose? the prince was surprised.
“This is her favorite snake,” Peaches explained to her brother.
Why is she calling you? the prince asked again.
She reads my mind. When she found out that I was in trouble, she offered to help!
- How did you propose? Ginseng was surprised again
“Silently suggested,” said Wild Plum, who had been silent until now, “and why are you surprised? Peach speaks bird language, and Peony generally knows how to talk without opening his mouth, mentally.
- Of course, I knew that Peony was talking mentally, but what about snakes!
- Hush, - Wild Plum raised her finger to her mouth, - we interfere with her!
Peony grimaced in pain, trying to understand what Rosette was telling her. Unlike Princess Peach, she couldn't hear what was being said to her at a great distance.
“I’ll have to go back to the terrarium,” Peony said with concern, “Rosochka cannot crawl out of the terrarium on her own, without my help.
Soon Princess Peony returned. Around her neck was wrapped the most unusual scarf-viper Poppy.
Peony asked her brother and sister not to get too close so that Rosochka would not get nervous.
Ginseng made a plan to break into her father's office, Princess Peony passed this plan to her beloved snake. Then Princess Peony, along with Wild Plum, secretly went to the pavilion to bring the snake as close as possible. At least two hours passed before Peony started up again. Rosette returned from the pavilion and waited for the princess in the bushes. Rose was hungry and annoyed, she had to hide from the servants who flooded the pavilion, so Princess Peony immediately took her pet to the terrarium. When at last she returned to her brother's room, everyone was already languishing with impatience.
Prince Ginseng asked his sister to describe the interior of the room in as much detail as possible. First of all, it was established that, indeed, the windows and doors had been closed for several days. Poppy even determined that only one person had entered the room in the past week. She knew how to determine this by body temperature. Ginseng decided that this person was Li, only he had the right to enter the king's office. Even the servants who glassed the window were not allowed into the office. The window was glazed from the outside. The investigation has again stalled. After all, Lee could not hurt himself and break the vase. The silence was broken by Princess Peach.
“My bird has good eyesight, she was able to see a bright object on her father’s table through the nets and the window, but she couldn’t describe to me what it was. Did Poppy talk about anything out of the ordinary, anything that caught her attention?
“Now I will list everything that my snake saw in the room,” Peony laughed, “and you decide for yourself whether there is something important among what Rosochka saw.
When Peony began to list what the viper saw on the table, three voices stopped her at once. It seemed odd to Ginseng, Peach, and Wild Plum that there was an uncleaned writing brush on their father's desk. The father of the children was a terrible pedant and very strictly ensured that his writing instruments, after work, were thoroughly washed, dried and put into cases.
The writing brush was bright yellow, and it was written in red letters: "Let the holiday last a thousand years."
There was a candle next to the brush. She had already swum for a long time, having burned to the end. Nothing else special, from the story of Peony, the children did not learn.
As time went. The babysitters were about to start looking for their pets to dress up for dinner, and the kids still couldn't come up with a solution.
The princesses were already up to leave, when suddenly Ginseng excitedly said
“One thought came to my mind… I just don’t know how to check it!” I need to know if anything else unexpected happened in the father's pavilion!? If I'm right, something else must have happened around the same time that the window in my father's study was broken.
The sisters looked at each other, the question that the brother asked demanded an answer in which magical powers would not help.
The princesses returned and sat around their brother.
Princess Peach decided that she could help her brother.
Peach had a maid. The girl was curious and knew about all the events that take place in the palace. If anyone could help the four ginseng now, then only she.
After dinner, everyone again gathered in the brother's room.
Peaches carefully questioned the maid, and from the words of the girl it became clear that Ginseng was right. Indeed, at the same time that the window in the study was broken, in the room where the king sometimes rested, someone also broke the window.
Hearing these words, the prince let out a war cry
- I was right! Everything, now I understand everything! Sisters, who do you think benefited from having the vase broken?
The princesses came to a decision at the same time, and this was exactly the answer that their brother expected from them.
“That's right,” Ginseng exclaimed excitedly, “this is the work of the White Shaman!” It was like this: first, the window in the office was broken, Lee rushed in, but immediately there was a clinking of glass in the rest room. Lee did not lock the office and ran out to where the new sound of breaking glass came from. For someThe cabinet remained open for a moment.
At that moment, the shaman's daughter slipped into the pavilion. I don’t know what form she was in, monkeys, or maybe cats, but it doesn’t matter. The only important thing is that she sneaked into her father's office. There she again turned into a girl and lit a candle.
You know that new brushes for writing should be held a little over a candle in order to make it more convenient to write with a brush. However, the shaman's daughter heated the brush not in order to write something with this brush later. She had a different purpose. Hearing steps, the girl again turned into some kind of animal and slipped out of the office.
Li, frustrated at not being able to find the one who broke the window, still managed to notice the mess on the king's table. He saw a lit candle. Li did not look for the one who lit the candle, he simply blew it out and waited for the masters who were supposed to glaze the windows.
Lee probably saw a new brush, but did not dare to move it. However, it didn't matter anymore. The wax in the brush had already warmed up and a small lead pea, which the shaman hid in the handle of the brush, shot into the vase and broke it. This happened after Lee left. After all, the windows were glazed, and the doors were locked, and each was sealed.
“Brother,” Ginseng Plum interrupted, “but if everything was really like that, then I don’t see the point in it. It turns out that the shaman wanted to punish Lee?
“No,” the prince looked seriously at his sister, “the white witch had slightly different plans. The day after tomorrow there will be a holiday of gifts. All gifts brought by our guests will be exhibited in the gift pavilion. I dread to think what kind of war would break out if the Chinese emperor found out that his gift had been treated so impolitely. But enough about the vase. We need to save Lee. Plum sister, can you sneak out of the palace now?
"It's difficult," said the Wild Plum Princess, "but I'll try." Mo told me that he and his brother lived near the place where the giant trepang was caught last year. Hope I find his home.
“Very well,” the prince agreed, “then memorize everything you need to tell Mo.
Princess Plum found the house where Mo lived and relayed everything that Ginseng told her, word for word. Mo managed to tell his brother everything, and in the morning, when they came for Li to take him to prison, Li was able to convey the petition to the judge. Everything ended well.
The king ordered Lee to be released immediately when he learned that the White Witch was to blame for another incident. Mo took the brother and sisters to the wish-granting lake, and the children asked the lake for the same thing. What that wish was, I cannot tell you. I can only assume that the children of the royal family wanted the same thing that all the children in the world want.
I think they asked mom and dad to live forever. And they probably also wished that dad would allow all four of them to get together as often as possible.
What about the vase, you ask? All is well with the vase. In Yongmingchen there was a quarter of artisans, real masters of their craft lived there. The vase was glued together so well that none of those who visited the gift pavilion at the celebration even guessed that this vase had once been broken. She still lies somewhere, under a thick, thick layer of earth. And the inhabitants of the city, which now stands on the site of Yongmingchen, walk around this place and do not suspect that under their feet lies a real treasure, a vase presented by the emperor of China to the king of the city of Yongmingchen.
Have you forgotten the name of the city, which is located between the hills near the blue sea? This city is called Vladivostok.
http://proza.ru/2016/09/08/558