"Just don't blame Wan'er. Wan'er can't say what you just said."
Yang Wan looked at Yang Lun and saw a trace of sadness passing through his eyes.
She lowered her head, almost unable to bear to look any further, and simply ignored his words. She turned to the tall man in front of the house and said, "Don't go through the front alley, go through the back of the inner street to Changhe Lane, and then go directly to Qingbo Pavilion."
As they were talking, the Jinyiwei had already arrived at the alley. Yang Lun turned around and looked at them, then said to Yang Wan, "Go ahead. I'll block them over there."
"good."
Yang Wan reached out and helped Zhou Muyi up, "If you can't stop it, forget it. Only by protecting yourself can you help Deng Ying."
Yang Lun said: "That's enough, you're still as long-winded as before."
After saying that, he turned and ran towards the alley.
Yang Wan led Zhou Muyi and his men through Donggong Street. The owner of Qingbo Restaurant hurriedly opened the back door to welcome them in.
Zhou Muyi stumbled into the backyard, looked up and saw Tan Wende sitting in front of the table eating noodles, pointing at Yang Wan and angrily scolding: "Shameless bitch, how dare you bully me..."
Qin Wende put down his bowl and chopsticks and slapped him, "Who are you scolding?"
Yang Wan looked down at Zhou Muyi who was knocked to the ground by Qin Wende, and tucked her hair around his ears and said, "Okay, don't do it. If you really hurt me, what can I do here?"
Qin Wende said, "Madam, why do you want me to come here to do this? Something happened to the governor in the palace, and the people in the inner and outer factories are in chaos."
Yang Wannei pinched her fingers and said, "Close Qingbo Pavilion."
"What?"
Qin Wende looked around and said incredulously, "It's sealed?"
"Yes. Put on your seal from the East Factory."
Zhou Muyi asked, "You brought me here, so you're going to hand me over to the East Factory?"
Yang Wan said in a roundabout way: "Can you shut up! If I wanted to hand you over to the East Factory, why would I bring you to Qingbo Pavilion? I could have the factory guards lock you up in front of the gate of Bai's house and take you away!"
A young student pulled Zhou Muyi's sleeve and said, "Mr. Zhou, stop talking..."
Zhou Muyi finally stopped talking, and Yang Wan finally uncrossed her hands from her waist and said to the students in the hall: "I usually don't talk like this, but I got angry and impatient today. Please bear with me. After this matter is over and your future is bright, I will slowly make amends to you."
After she finished speaking, she paused for a moment, looked up and said to Tan Wende: "The Northern Pacification Office will come sooner or later. No matter what, at least today and tomorrow, I must protect these students."
Qin Wende cursed, "Why? He humiliated the governor like that. Killing him won't be enough to relieve me."
"Qin Wende!"
Yang Wan interrupted him, "This is what you, the governor, meant."
"I know!"
Qin Wende wiped his face and rushed to Zhou Muyi and his men, cursing, "Come here, my Lord, and you'd better kowtow at the door of his house, or I will press your heads into the mud one by one."
He picked up the knife on the table and said to his left and right: "Let's go out and close the hall!"
Outside dusk fell.
The front and back doors of Qingbo Pavilion were both locked and sealed with factory seals.
The students were extremely tired, hungry, and cold. They could no longer muster up the energy and sat and lay around in the study hall.
Zhou Muyi and several other students who had been caned had high fevers and huddled in a corner, shivering.
Yang Wan was cooking noodles in the inner courtyard. The shopkeeper brought out some medicine and stood down to watch the fire for her.
Yang Wan looked at the boiling noodle soup on the stove and asked the shopkeeper, "Is he calmer now?"
The shopkeeper sighed and said, "We are all tired and hungry, and we can't make any more noise."
Yang Wan nodded, raised her head and took a deep breath, "Give me the bowl."
The shopkeeper handed over the porcelain bowl and said to Yang Wan, "The Northern Pacification Office is searching everywhere. Boss, how long can you hide these students?"
Yang Wan said, "At least we can't let him get into any trouble today or tomorrow."
"After tomorrow."
Yang Wan pursed her lips and said, "After tomorrow, if His Majesty does not give a clear order to these students, then I lose."
"Boss..."
Yang Wan lowered her head and said, "I have something to give you."
"Master, you say."
Yang Wan put down her bowl and chopsticks, took out her notebook from her bosom, and handed it to the shopkeeper. The shopkeeper took it, flipped through it, and couldn't help but wonder: "This..."
Yang Wan said, "It doesn't matter if you can't understand the words on it. I hope you can keep it for me. If something happens to me, you can take it away from the capital. You can take all the gold and silver in Qingbo Pavilion. I beg you to keep this notebook."
Zhan Gui said: "Boss, I feel uncomfortable when you say this."
Yang Wan smiled and said, "This is my worst plan. I haven't finished writing the contents yet. I also want to continue writing, and I may not lose. You don't have to think too much, just keep it for me for now."
"."
Yang Wan smiled and nodded, then bent down to continue picking noodles.
The evening breeze after sunset blew into the inner courtyard, and the sparks in the stove were blown everywhere. Yang Wan picked up the bowl of noodles and walked towards the main hall.
The people sitting or lying in the hall woke up when they smelled the fragrance of the noodles.
Yang Wan put the noodles next to Zhou Muyi and poured him a cup of tea. She stood up and looked at him and said, "I know how to cook noodles. You can rely on this to fill your stomach for the next two days."
Zhou Muyi asked, "What exactly do you want to do to me?"
Yang Wan was silent for a while, dragged a stool over, sat in the middle of the main hall, and looked around at everyone in the hall.
"I want you to do for Deng Ying what he can't do."
Zhou Muyi didn't say anything, but a soft voice came from the corner.
"He wants to do something."
Yang Wan raised her head and looked towards the person who was speaking.
The man looked to be no more than fifteen or sixteen years old, with a delicate face and a frail figure.
Yang Wan looked at him and couldn't help but soften her voice, "Take the imperial examination, become an official, and keep your conscience now to do things that benefit the country and the people."
"Maybe... can I participate in today's Spring Examination?"
Yang Wan looked at him in silence for a moment, then suddenly asked, "Do you regret it?"
That person did not come out.
Yang Wan sat quietly with her arms folded. The dim light cast a shadow on her thin figure. She did not hide the tiredness and boredom on her face at all, but she was still trying her best to maintain her posture and mood.
"Do you remember what he said to you on Donggong Street?"
As she spoke, she raised her hands, clenched them into fists and extended them to everyone.
"He asks you, do you want to be like him?"
No one responded in the hall.
The flickering lights made all the shadows look hideous.
The scent of ink and flour mixed together in the hall and went straight into people's noses. The room was crowded and humid, and water droplets condensed on the wooden bookshelves dripped down one by one.
Yang Wan lowered her hands, lowered her head and smiled, "Look, you don't even dare to answer."
"No…"
The young man raised his head and said, "I want to take part in the Spring Examination, I want to be an official, I want to work for the welfare of the people, I don't want to be like him, sister, I... I regret it..."
After hearing this, Yang Wan looked at Zhou Muyi from the side and asked, "What about you? Do you regret it?"
Zhou Muyi clenched his fist and unclenched it. Instead of answering, he asked, "Why don't you call me Yang Wan?"
"right."
"You are eating with him, why did you save me?"
Yang Wan raised her head and said with a hint of jealousy, "Because he wants to save you."
"impossible!"
Yang Wan sneered, "Are you excited?"
Zhou Muyi propped up his chair and said, "If he really wanted to save us, why did he take the land of Chushan Academy for himself? Why did he want to make the academy unable to operate!"
Yang Wan looked at Zhou Muyi coldly, "Didn't you go and smash his and my house? There are some things in there, you saw it, right?"
Zhou Muyi's throat choked.
Yang Wan sat dejectedly under the lamplight, with one hand hanging behind the back of the chair, her voice very faint.
"A wooden bed, an elm desk, two or three boxes, a few thin clothes... Is that enough?"
Zhou Muyi said: "Isn't this a cover for him?"
"A cover? Ha."
Yang Wan smiled and said, "Do you know why Chushan and Hudan academies have managed to survive this half of the year?"
"What do you mean?"
"Zhou Muyi, there is not much land on the school land that can be returned, but he has returned all of it to you. The money that Prime Minister Bai and Shangshu Bai gave you for the academy is all his salary. Even so, he was imprisoned in the imperial prison today because of the crime of school land. And I..."
She smiled to hold back her tears, "But I just want to save you."
Zhou Muyi stiffened his neck and said, "I don't believe what you said, and I don't need you to save me."
"unnecessary?"
Yang Wanti asked a question.
"Zhou Muyi, have you ever been to the imperial prison? Do you know what will happen after you go in?"
As Yang Wan spoke, she took off her jacket and lifted up her shirt to reveal half of her waist and abdomen. The shocking whip wound was still there, crawling on her waist like a centipede.
Most of the people present lowered their heads and avoided her when they saw her doing this.
Yang Wan said: "Don't tell me not to look at anything indecent. There is no "etiquette" to talk about in the imperial prison. Your so-called respectable clothes and the so-called literati's etiquette will all be stripped away by punishment."
After she finished speaking, she put down her skirt, put on her jacket, and stood up from the chair. "Where you want him to go, he has already gone. Where he wants you to go, he also hopes that you will go with a clear conscience. I can only save you once, so I beg you to save your life and walk the path that he could not walk."
Just as she finished speaking, the young man in the corner called her tremblingly, "Sister..."
Yang Wan looked over and asked, "What?"
"I don't understand... What kind of person is Deng Ying?"
"Haven't you been scolding him for so many days?"
"I… "
The young man was speechless.
Yang Wan said: "He doesn't care what kind of person he is in your eyes, but I care, so I said these words. But, for you, what I say is not important. There are dozens of lives and hundreds of dynasties. There are more than tens of millions of people left behind. Except for those who died on the execution ground, they can shout in public and leave their last words. How many of the others can open their mouths. What kind of person he is, you can judge for yourself while you are still alive."
After saying this, Yang Wan dragged the chair back to its original place, walked into the yard and ordered someone to bring in the remaining noodles.
He sat down on the steps alone, hugging his knees.
The moon is bright and the wind is clear, with smoke from cooking fires everywhere.
When no one is around, countless complex emotions come flooding up.
Yang Wan quickly buried her head in her knees, thinking of what she had just said, she couldn't help but grab her sleeves. She wanted to cry, but she knew that this was not the right time to cry. She could only tease herself with a crying voice: "Deng Xiaoying, you have been in love with me for so long, but you only grind two beads for me, never bought me anything, and then threw yourself into jail. You are a scumbag..."