He Simu seemed stunned. She narrowed her eyes slightly and said, "Are you really not going to use this transaction for something valuable?"
"value?"
In the grass on a summer morning, the hot wind blew up the smell of dust and blood, blowing her long hair and sleeves towards Duan Xu, within his reach.
Duan Xu lowered his eyes, then raised them to look at He Simu. He had just killed many people and was still in an excited state, his eyes were bright and hot.
"I want you to see me in my wedding dress. It only happens once in a lifetime. Don't you think it's very valuable?"
He took off the black silver hairband on his head, and handed it to her, smiling like a crescent moon: "I am sending this as a letter to invite Your Highness. I will hold a banquet at your residence on the auspicious date of June 18th. I hope you will take the time to come and add to the auspicious atmosphere of the new year and the good news of a happy marriage. Please do not refuse."
He Simu looked down at his white fingers, and saw silver pine and cypress painted on the black hairband. She was not sure if it was black and silver, but she had heard from Meng Wan before that Duan Xu liked the combination of black and silver the most.
When she took Duan Xu to the ghost world, he was always wearing black clothes and silver jewelry, just like the ebony and silver sword. She asked him why he dressed like this, and he smiled and said, "I want you to see me as I really am."
He was very good at doing things that were difficult to understand but impressive, such as wearing black and white around her, and inviting her to his wedding banquet.
He Simu looked into Duan Xu's eyes, was silent for a moment and said, "Okay, I agree."
She took the black and silver hairband from his hand and said with a smile, "General Duan, congratulations."
This is a good thing. The world is full of colors. Why should we be obsessed with black and white just because of ghosts
When He Simu disappeared in a puff of green smoke, Fang Xianye took a long time to react before rubbing his brows and turning to Duan Xu to ask, "Who is she?"
Duan Xu seemed reluctant to look away. He just stared at the direction where the girl disappeared and smiled softly: "My sweetheart."
"Sweetheart? She is clearly not a human, is she a ghost? You said she is the ghost king, she..."
"Fang Ji..." Duan Xu suddenly stretched out his voice, turned around, and said lazily with a smile: "How about you give birth to a child in the future and let him recognize me as his godfather? Or if you don't feel bad, just adopt him to me."
This question may seem irrelevant, but its meaning is self-evident—Duan Xu is serious, so serious that even eight horses cannot pull him back.
Fang Xianye was stunned for a moment, his eyes darkened, he turned around and walked towards his sedan chair, angrily saying as he walked: "You lunatic, you are only suitable for an old man!"
Duan Xu burst into laughter behind him.
The fact that Fang Xianye had been assassinated was not made public. Duan Xu looked at Duan Chengzhang's gloomy face over the next few days and was probably sure that his father would not have any evil intentions for the time being.
Duan Jingyuan, who is naturally not good at catching undercurrents, may be the person in the entire Duan Mansion who is most focused on Duan Xu's wedding.
She thought her brother and her father would need to consider it for a while, but they decided on the girl from the Wang family so quickly and set a date for the engagement. Wang Suyi preferred quietness to noise and rarely participated in other girls' gatherings, so Duan Jingyuan was not very familiar with her. However, Wang Suyi was very beautiful and spoke in a gentle manner. She seemed to be a gentle girl, so it seemed that there was no big problem for her to be her sister-in-law.
Third brother is getting married, which makes Duan Jingyuan feel a little disappointed for no reason. She has wanted to marry someone like third brother since she was a child. Although third brother has grown up and his personality has changed, she still uses third brother as a yardstick to compare with other young men in Nandu. Now, this yardstick is about to be taken away by someone else.
However, she felt that her third brother did not seem happy about marrying a new bride. Perhaps it was because of the many troubles in the court. She vaguely heard that the court was investigating a case and her brother was implicated.
Hey, damn Pei Dang!
Fang Xianye's calm and peaceful features flashed through her mind. She hesitated for a moment, and then cursed in her heart: Damn Fang Xianye!
Banquets have always been a place where Duan Jingyuan can show off her talents. She decided to make a new and most unique dress and to create a new and most elegant and sweet fragrance to show her importance to the life of her dearest third brother.
That day, she excitedly went to the largest incense shop in the city, Yueranju, to get the best amber materials for incense. When Duan Jingyuan was picking spices at Yueranju, she saw a girl of medium height, plain-looking but well-dressed, walk in, take off the sachet from her waist and throw it to the incense master, saying, "Make me a similar sachet. The materials are agarwood, amber, storax, mint leaves, white hyacinth, and benzoin."
When Duan Jingyuan smelled the scent of the sachet, she was surprised by the familiar smell. Because the scents in the incense shop were mixed, she couldn't confirm it immediately. After the girl next to her reported the ingredients of the fragrance, she was even more surprised - wasn't this the incense she made for her third brother
Duan Jingyuan looked the girl up and down in surprise. The girl seemed to have noticed something and turned her head to look at her, then smiled and said, "Miss, why are you looking at me?"
There was a sense of arrogance and pride in her smile, but strangely, it was not annoying, and there was even a hint of oppression.
"Ah... I think this fragrance is very pleasant. Did you make it yourself, young lady? What's its name?" Duan Jingyuan asked in a roundabout way.
The girl tapped her fingers on the counter absentmindedly and shook her head. "No? This fragrance is called..."
She seemed to think for a while, then she smiled as if she remembered something.
"Call me Duan Shunxi."
Duan Jingyuan opened his eyes wide, his heart skipped a beat, and when he looked at the girl again, there was pity in his eyes.
Today, the incense master at Yueranju seemed a little absent-minded and almost gave Duan Jingyuan the wrong amber material. The incense he made for "Duan Shunxi" was also missing a white hyacinth, which made the smell wrong. The girl who made the incense didn't notice it at all, and it was only after Duan Jingyuan reminded the incense master that he discovered it and made a new one.
Duan Jingyuan finally watched the girl go away, sighing and thinking that this girl must be a girl who loves her brother. She didn't know where she heard about the fragrance of her third brother's body, so she made a sachet of the same kind to carry with her so that she could smell the fragrance and remember her lover. Her third brother's marriage broke the hearts of many women in Nandu. This is really a disaster for a beautiful man.
After returning home, she asked Duan Xu whether he had told others the recipe of the spice she made for him. After getting an affirmative answer, she told him about it and expressed the same emotion.
After hearing this, Duan Xu was stunned for a moment and then laughed, as if he was very happy. He confirmed: "You said that Master Xiang mixed the wrong spices, but she didn't notice it at all?"
"Yes? Yeah, that's also very strange."
Duan Xu laughed even more happily and said softly, "How cute."
Duan Jingyuan felt that Duan Xu's expression was not right. She poked his shoulder and warned him, "Third brother, you are going to get married, so you can't just think that others are cute. In my opinion, you'd better stop being jealous of Fang Xianye for Miss Luo Xian from Yumao Tower."
Duan Xu always agreed readily, and Duan Jingyuan took out the new perfume she made today and gave it to Duan Xu like a treasure, asking him to smell it and guess the ingredients. This was a game Duan Jingyuan liked to play with him, because Duan Xu had a keen sense of smell and could tell all the ingredients she used to make the perfume just by smelling it.
This time Duan Xu also smelled it as usual, and leisurely reported the ingredients of his younger sister's new fragrance one by one. Duan Jingyuan frowned and said, "Third brother, you missed two ingredients? Fennel and lily."
Although she put very little of these two spices, it was impossible for Duan Xu not to smell them with his usual level. Duan Xu was also stunned when he heard this. He lowered his head and smelled the sachet carefully for a while, and his eyes sank slightly.
Seeing that he was silent, Duan Jingyuan thought that he was hit hard, so he comforted him helplessly: "It's possible to make mistakes occasionally, Third Brother, don't take it too seriously."
"I can't smell it anymore..." Duan Xu whispered. He raised his eyes and looked at Duan Jingyuan. There were complicated emotions in his eyes, which frightened her for a moment. But soon Duan Xu smiled, returned the sachet to her and said, "It seems that I am really getting old, Jingyuan. I am afraid that I will fail this game often in the future."
Duan Jingyuan whispered, "You'll only be twenty this August, what do you mean by old?"
"Haha, after all, human senses will gradually decline with age." Duan Xu touched Duan Jingyuan's head and said lightly: "It's common sense in the world."
After that, he put his hands behind his back, turned around and walked out with a smile, his green sleeves fluttering, looking so young and as if he would stay young forever. Duan Jingyuan held the sachet, and because of the word "decline", he felt a sense of melancholy for no reason.
When He Simu returned to the Imperial Master's Mansion, He Jia Fengyi was standing in the courtyard with his birch stick, observing the stars. The floor tiles of his astrological courtyard were painted black, and the stars were painted with gold patterns, encompassing the vast starry sky within a short distance. He stood in the Dou constellation drawn on the floor tiles, and pointed the wooden stick at the three stars of the Dou constellation. One of the four bells hanging on the top of the wooden stick made a crisp sound, and he stretched out his hand and quickly calculated something.
When he saw He Simu walk into the yard, he put his wooden stick on the ground, leaned on it and smiled, "Where are you, old ancestor?"
The wooden stick seemed to have grown into the ground, and even Ren Hejia and Feng Yi could stand upright on it without moving.
He Simu raised the sachet in his hand and said, "Match the sachet."
"If you can't smell anything, why do you need to wear a sachet?"
"I can't smell, but I like myself to smell like this, right?"
He Jia Feng Yi immediately replied, "Cheng Cheng Cheng." He Simu was about to enter the house when she suddenly turned back to look at He Jia Feng Yi. She held onto the door frame and seemed to hesitate for a moment before asking, "What kind of gifts are popular for weddings these days?"
"That depends on who's getting married. Are you going to give Duan Xu a gift?"
"He invited me to his wedding, so I can't go empty-handed."
He Jia Fengyi's body tilted, and he almost fell down because he didn't hold on to his wooden stick. His ancestor never liked to attend weddings or funerals. She didn't come to his parents' wedding, and then her parents' funeral, and her brothers and sisters' wedding banquets. He thought she wanted him to send the gift on her behalf, but he didn't expect her to attend in person? This is really partiality and favoring love over friendship.
Receiving He Jia Feng Yi's accusing look, He Simu felt a little guilty. She coughed twice and said, "It's different. This is the condition for him to exchange his five senses."
He Jia Feng Yi sighed and said, "I find that you are surprisingly indulgent towards him."
"It's just a deal."
He Jia Fengyi waved his hand to stop the topic. He knew that his ancestor would not admit her repeated concessions to Duan Xu, so he changed the subject and said, "I have prepared a gift for him that has turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Recently, the court is investigating the Ma Zheng corruption case. Originally, the Minister of War and the Minister of Imperial Households were going to lose their heads, but unexpectedly, the key witness changed his testimony and said that he was instructed by someone else and the evidence was forged. The timing of Ma Zheng's corruption case and Duan Xu's advocacy of attacking Yunluo was too good. The Minister of Dali Temple Jing Yan suspected Duan Xu, and now he has also been targeted by Pei Guogong's people. Pei Guogong's people will probably continue to attack him later by taking advantage of this incident."
"Although the matter I'm investigating has nothing to do with this case, it can help Duan Xu a lot. People like him probably don't care much about material things, so I can just prepare some other gifts."
He Simu didn't know what was going on in the Daliang court—nor did she want to know. She frowned and said, "This is your gift, but what should I give you?"
"You've been with him for so long, don't you know what he likes? You and him have exchanged five senses, and what you like when you get the feeling is what he likes, isn't it?"
What does she like when she gets the feeling? He Simu thought seriously, what does she like
Sun, wind, ice, rain, snow.
The smell of peony, green grass, firewood and rice.
Duan Xu's pulse, heartbeat, breathing, and fragrance
How is this possible? Can it be given as a gift
This was not the first time He Simu had given a gift. She had always been quite straightforward in giving gifts in the past, mostly taking out some ancient treasures from her treasure house that were hundreds of years old and giving them away generously. However, she knew that Duan Xu didn't care about these things, perhaps because of the painting he had given her with great care, she unconsciously became cautious about giving a return gift.
She wanted to give Duan Xu a gift that he really liked and that would make him happy. But she was not good at this kind of thing. She was better at destroying or protecting rather than giving.
He Simu sighed and rubbed her brows. To please someone, this feeling was subtle and unfamiliar to her.
He Jia Feng Yi observed the old ancestor's expression for a while, waved his hand and said, "Forget it. Old ancestor, have you forgotten that you are an evil ghost? For mortals, receiving gifts from ghosts on weddings is not only not a good thing, but also very unlucky. You give him a gift, do you think he will accept it or not?"
He Simu was stunned for a moment, then chuckled and said, "Really?"
She turned and walked into the room.
He Jia Fengyi shook his head and took back his wooden stick. He poked it at the heart constellation, and the stick began to spin rapidly. All the bells made crisp and irregular sounds, as if someone was discussing something. He crossed his arms and smiled with satisfaction, saying, "Mars is in the heart constellation, and the auspicious day is coming."