On the day Cui Ying came to teach her writing again, Nanxiu asked accidentally, "How is my grandpa's health?"
"It's very good. I no longer have a cough, and my cold illness is almost gone."
"Where's the toon tree in the yard?"
"The leaves are still green, and I don't like the smell of toon."
"There is a persimmon tree at the other end of the alley."
"Never noticed."
"Did you give all the gold and silver to Grandpa?"
"I also kept a tael of silver for myself as payment for running errands."
"Okay, thank you brother."
He answered accurately and thought he had deceived Nan Xiu until Nan Xiu silently finished writing a return poem.
He had already walked a few steps away. For some reason, he glanced back casually, and then looked at her. She couldn't see his face, only the white gauze from head to waist.
There are tears in Nanxiu's eyes, but they haven't fallen yet. She is very stupid, but she has feelings. She can't express that feeling, but she just knows that what she is thinking is true, even if he answered so fluently just now , she also found it hard to believe him.
"Why are you crying?" he asked her.
"I...my grandpa...is gone...is it...?" She asked twitchingly, her eyes as red as little rabbits.
"..." Cui Ying doesn't like to lie either.
He went to Wusang Bridge that day and happened to meet the private school teacher. He told him that Nanxiu's grandfather had passed away a month after she went to the county government office, and those letters were all entrusted to the teacher before his death. Write, he said. If the little girl in his family asks someone to write a letter, she must remember to reply. She must also write during the holidays. No matter whether she can receive it or not, she must send it to the servants of the palace.
"My grandpa is dead?"
"Yes, he was gone not long after you left." Cui Ying felt that her tongue was astringent and she couldn't say a complete sentence.
"I...I will never...have a home..."
"Stop crying, okay?" He threw the veil to her.
"I...I don't have a home..."
"Okay, you're making me upset."
She suddenly stood up and ran away without looking back.
Cui Ying was left alone in a daze.
In the evening, he gave the embroiderer money and asked Nan Xiu how she was.
The embroiderers said that she had a high fever and it would not go down for a long time.
He distributed the gold in his sleeves piece by piece to the embroiderers and asked them to take good care of her. He would come to see her tomorrow.
Nanxiu has always been in good health, but this time, she has been ill on and off for more than a month.
She would no longer go to Lichen Courtyard to learn calligraphy from him, she would no longer recite those difficult-to-understand poems with him, she would no longer nag at him, and she would no longer take out endless candies from her sleeves. .
I won’t call him brother in his ear anymore.
Through the veil, he also saw that her face was pale, and her face had lost its rosy color, as if all her energy had been sucked away by a goblin.
He knew it was a little late, but it was not too late. If he quit now and let go of the hatred he shouldn't have, he would still have a chance.
That night, Nanxiu passed by Lichen Courtyard and was stopped by him.
"Why don't you come again?"
"I learned to write just because I wanted to write to my grandpa. Now that my grandpa is gone, I don't know who to write to."
"Your husband-in-law named Cui, you can write to him."
"I originally wanted to take him to my grandpa and tell him that I don't have to worry about my future husband. I will find him myself. Now that grandpa is not here, who should I take him to? Besides, I don't know him either. He doesn't know me either. I heard Sister Ruan say that if a couple doesn't like each other, they won't be happy. Now it seems that Cui Ying and I won't be happy, and there's nothing to be proud of if I marry him."
"Then what do you want?" Cui Ying asked her.
"Home, I just want a home. Someone will always be waiting for me at home. That's all I want."
Cui Ying said yes.
"Um?"
"I said yes, I'll give it to you."
"What do you mean."
"You said you want to marry someone you like?"
"yes."
"Do you like me?"
"I like you, but I only regard you as a friend, a mentor, and..."
He lifted the veil, and she could see his face clearly under the moonlight.
"Brother, you... turn out to be like this..."
"You call me brother, why do you never ask me what my name is?"
"I... I forgot..." She looked at him blankly. She had never seen such a beautiful person before, like a person peeled out of suet jade, with eyes as bright as a small animal, unstained by fine dust.
"I can tell you what my name is."
He took her hand and wrote on her palm, "Cui, Ying."
After writing the last stroke, Nan Xiu retracted her hand in panic, "You... you... you..."
Unable to speak any more.
"I have placed incense on your grandfather's grave and promised your grandfather that I will take care of you for the rest of your life. If you don't give up, I will stay with you for the rest of your life."
Before he could finish speaking, Nanxiu ran away.
"Running again," he muttered.
Madam saw Cui Ying again. He had taken off his veil. They hadn't seen each other for dozens of days. There were no red rashes on his face, but there was a look that he had never had before. It was a kind of anger, and it was no longer the sluggishness before. , depressed, now he looks like half boy and half man.
"Nan Xiu, that kid, do you like him?"
Cui Ying said no.
"I love her. If I see her tears, I will be heartbroken. If I can't hear her voice, I will be impatient. If she says she wants something, I want to get it for her and deliver it to her."
"Are you tempted? That's ridiculous." Madam raised her eyelids.
"Isn't this what you want? You designed to give me a rash and drive him away from me."
"Why should I do this?" Madam refused to admit, "If I see you as an eyesore, I will naturally get rid of you. You are not a threat to me at all. You are nothing, even the dirt under my feet. You can’t even compare.”
Cui Ying nodded and said, "It's all what you said. But, how true is it?"
"Presumptuous!" Madam was furious.
"Since you believe what you just said is true, why are you angry at me? You know very well that you can't kill me. If you kill me, he will never come back to you, and you will never get him again. But every day I am by his side will make it difficult for you. Looking at his eyes looking at me, you just want to gouge out my heart and tear me into pieces, don’t you?"
"You... shut up! That's nonsense!"
"Madam is a smart person, and the villain has always known it. You let Nanxiu get close to me, you want me to fall in love, and let me escape from Bolu by myself. In this way, even if he hates you, he will not bother to settle accounts with you. He will always look for me. , until he is tired. When he is tired, if you comfort him with your heart, he will go back to the past with you."
"...You already know, why do you still want to get into the trap?" the lady asked him.
Cui Ying smiled and said, "There is something I want in the trap. As a person like me, if I want something in a hurry, I will leave even if it is a dead end."
The lady sighed, "What a person you are... No wonder he likes you. You look so much like him, you are just the same as he was when he was seventeen."
(End of chapter)