Deng Ying did not expect that the cabinet had not yet left Taihe Gate at this time.
Seeing Bai Huan in front of him slow down, he also slowed down his pace.
It was a rainy evening with dim sky. Both of them were holding umbrellas. There was a physical barrier between them and they really shouldn't have met like this.
"teacher."
This was said under the umbrella. The raindrops hit the umbrella so loudly that Bai Huan could not hear it clearly.
But he saw Deng Ying put down her umbrella, straighten her robe, kneel down in the rain, and salute him.
The man in blue sat on the ground, and saw that the boy's physique was exactly the same as when he paid homage in the Hanlin Academy that year.
Bai Huan didn't say anything, but just stopped there and didn't move forward.
Bai Huan's son Bai Yuyang saw that his father did not come over, so he resigned from several officials in the six departments, returned to Bai Huan with an umbrella, glanced at Deng Ying who was lying on the ground, then looked at his father who was silent under the umbrella, and urged carefully: "Father, there is no need to argue with this slave."
Unexpectedly, Bai Huan shouted at him, "How dare you."
Bai Yuyang was stunned by the scolding, and lowered his head quickly and said, "Yes, my son is presumptuous, but please be quick, father. The palace gates have been closed half an hour late for today's meeting, and the Taihe Gate has urged for the third time now."
"Let him wait."
"this… "
"wait!"
Bai Huan raised his voice. Bai Yuyang didn't dare to persuade him anymore and had to go back to Taihe Gate.
The rain kept pouring into Deng Ying's shirt through his collar. Bai Huan didn't speak to him, and he couldn't speak either.
After all, he is not Zhang Zhanchun.
Zhang Zhanchun taught Deng Ying by example for many years, and they became so familiar with each other that they were both master and apprentice and friends regardless of age difference.
Bai Huan was different from Zhang Zhanchun. He was an old Hanlin who was rigorous in his studies and never partial. He was also a practical man in politics. In Deng Ying's heart, the relationship between them as teacher and student had always been a little acrimonious.
"Don't call me teacher anymore."
These words sound cold and heartless when heard on a rainy day.
Deng Ying knelt on the ground, her shoulders trembling.
"Why?"
He couldn't help but blurt out the question.
Bai Huan's voice was unsteady, "I won't allow you to humiliate my former best student."
After he said this, he was a little unsteady and staggered forward a few steps. Deng Ying hurriedly stood up to support him, but Bai Huan broke free from him tremblingly and waved his hands, refusing to let Deng Ying get close to him.
"You are already serving in the inner court. I am not worthy of that."
After saying this, he called Bai Yuyang back loudly, held Bai Yuyang's hand, and walked towards Taihe Gate without looking back, staggering all the way.
Deng Ying stood in the rain with his hands hanging down, but he clearly saw Bai Huan's eyes turn red when he turned away from him.
Bai Huan once told many people that Deng Ying was his best student.
So this sentence: "Don't humiliate my former best student." not only hurt Deng Ying's heart, but also truly hurt Bai Huan's heart.
This might not be what Bai Huan wanted, but now he had to break off with this former student.
As for Yang Lun, the same should be true.
Deng Ying said nothing more, stepped aside and bowed to see him off.
Rainwater flowed freely in the cracks of the ground. Although the grass roots and broken leaves were humble, they each had their place here. Deng Ying looked at the mess in front of her and felt inexplicably better.
He waited until Bai Huan walked out of Taihe Gate before he stood up.
After the You hour, lamps were lit everywhere. When Deng Ying returned to the duty room, Zheng Yuejia had just left and left him a set of books wrapped in blue cloth. Next to the books was a set of medicine, also wrapped in oil paper.
The eunuch Li Yu told Deng Ying that the medicine was obtained by Zheng Bingbi from the imperial pharmacy and was good for Deng Ying's health. He told him not to make it public and to find a palace maid in the harem to borrow the inner stove in the empress's palace to boil it.
Each of the six palaces had its own stove, but the duty room on the moat side had none.
But the eunuchs had to prepare their own meals.
Under such circumstances, it was troublesome to set up a stove outside, and most of the servants were too busy to take care of their meals. Therefore, some eunuchs would find a palace maid from various places in the six palaces to eat with.
There was no reason for the palace maid to worry too much, but she could not resist the hospitality of these people.
The palace was lonely, and the eunuchs were all servants, so they had to hold their breath when speaking and doing things. They sympathized with each other, and sometimes they were even warmer than lovers. Over time, the custom of having a meal together emerged in the palace. Eunuchs with a certain status would plan to save money and find a wife who was a vegetable farmer (1).
After Li Yu told him what Zheng Yuejia said, he couldn't help but tease, "If you want to find a wife, I think only the maids in the Shangyi Bureau are worthy of you."
Deng Ying ignored these words. She put the medicine in the cabinet, closed the door and turned on the light. Then she took off her robe, shoes and socks that had been soaked by the rain. Her body was dry, but she felt even colder than the general who had been in the rain.
Li Yu asked him outside the door, "Do you still have any charcoal in there? I thought it was not completely dark yet, so I wanted to try my luck at Xixinsi to see if I could still get some.
Deng Ying walked to the door and answered, "It's February now. Does Xixinsi still supply coal now?"
"There are connections. The owner of the seal of Xixinsi is my sister's lover, and he loves my sister very much. My sister can pull his ears and scold him. I will go over and tell him. He dares not to give it to me. Besides, we all eat from the palace. It's not a big deal for His Majesty to secretly give us some of the leftovers from cooking."
Deng Ying smiled after hearing this and said, "You go ahead. I don't really need you."
Li Yu rubbed his hands at the door and said, "Okay, if you feel cold, come find me."
After saying that, he stepped on the rain puddles and ran away with a crackling sound.
Deng Ying sat down on the bed, lowered her head to untie the side straps, and changed into a new set of undershirts.
It was not too late, and he did not want to go to bed so early, so he casually picked up a book from the ones Zheng Yuejia had sent him, spread it on his knees and read it. He saw that it was the Thousand Character Classic.
This is an introductory book for the inner school, which mainly teaches eunuchs to read and write.
Since the Zhenning period, the amount of paperwork in the court has been very large, and the number of literate eunuchs has not been enough to meet the needs of the 24 government offices in the inner court.
Therefore, the Neishufang has been trying to add more lecturers to the Hanlin Academy.
But this was a rather distorted teacher-student relationship after all, and most of the upright people in the Hanlin Academy did not want to be involved in the inner court. It was not until Bai Huan was ordered to personally teach the eunuchs in the inner school and recommended Yang Lun as well that the phenomenon of no one responding to the order gradually improved.
The book in Deng Ying's hand was the one Bai Huan used when he gave lectures in the inner hall. There were not many annotations on it, but each one was written in great detail. The handwriting was similar to Bai Huan's personality, and it was obvious that he had put a lot of effort into it. Although it was very small, the strokes were strong and not sloppy at all.
Deng Ying moved the lamp to her side, supported her chin with her arm bent, and read page by page.
The rain outside had slowed down, but the water in the moat had risen very high, and the sound of the flow was becoming more and more turbulent.
When the lamp oil was running out, there was a knock on the door.
Deng Ying thought it was Li Yu who came back, so she put down her book and looked towards the door and said, "The door is not bolted."
Yang Wan was standing at the door with a bunch of things in her hands. Even though Deng Ying said the door was not latched, she couldn't free her hands to open the door, so she simply turned her back and pushed it with her butt. Unexpectedly, the door hit the wall with a bang.
"What kind of door is this?"
Yang Wan was shocked and couldn't help but complain.
As he spoke, he walked backwards, found an open space, put down the bottles and jars in his hands, and then he found Deng Ying sitting on the bed, picking at the mattress beneath her with her whole body stiffly.
Although his undershirt was tied neatly, he wore a loose velvet robe on the outside. The quilt covered most of his lower body, but there was a section of his waist that was not covered by the sweat towel.
Deng Ying saw Yang Wan's appearance clearly and sat on the couch in a daze for a moment before coming to her senses.
He realized that his clothes were not in order and he didn't dare to move. After hesitating for a long time, he stiffly moved the book on his knees to his waist to temporarily cover the embarrassing part.
When Yang Wan looked at Deng Ying, she suddenly felt like a shameless old pervert.
"this… "
She wanted to explain, but she swallowed unconsciously. What was terrible was that as she swallowed, Deng Ying actually coughed a few times.
Absolutely amazing, the old color (harmony) is confirmed, no need to explain it now.
Yang Wan patted her face, quickly squatted down to sort out the things on the ground, and covered up: "Did you go to bed so early?"
The voice of the person behind me was equally disorganized.
"I haven't slept yet."
Taking advantage of the time when Yang Wan was squatting on the ground, he tied the belt of his robe and pulled the quilt under his legs.
If Deng Ying refused to get close to others in the past out of courtesy, then now he refuses to get close to others because he is afraid of being humiliated.
When it comes to clothing, everyone understands it tacitly, and no one wants to lose their status first.
But underneath their clothes, some people are hot and flamboyant, while he is cold and broken. From now on, he will lose every game.
He wanted to cover up this losing situation.
But he seemed unable to refuse Yang Wan.
Or in other words, she could always find him when he undressed and let his guard down.
"you… "
"Just lie down. You're not fully recovered yet."
"I'm fine now. The ground is getting damp from the rain. You shouldn't keep squatting there."
Yang Wan turned to look at Deng Ying, and saw him sitting on the couch in a tightly wrapped manner. She rubbed her fingers awkwardly, "I'm sorry, I didn't expect this when I came in. I also feel... a little embarrassed."
Deng Ying shook her head, "It's okay. But why did the girl..."
"Why would you be in the palace?"
Speaking of this topic, Yang Wan smiled sincerely, "I said I would come to see you again, you see, I didn't break my promise."
That's right, she did not break her promise and she really came to see him.
Ever since Yang Lun took her away, Deng Ying didn't dare to think about seeing Yang Wan again.
After all, she was Zhang Luo's fiancée, and the time he spent in the Nanhaizi torture chamber was almost lent to him by God. He didn't know how much retribution he would have to pay for it in the future.
But she actually came to see him.
Deng Ying didn't know how difficult this process was, but he didn't see any sadness on Yang Wan's face at that moment.
After she finished speaking, she even turned around in front of Deng Ying's bed and asked, "Does it look good?"
The dark green skirt spread out like butterfly wings; it was the palace dress of the maid in the Shangyi Bureau.
"nice."
“I think it looks good, too.”
As she spoke, she moved a stool for herself and sat down in front of Deng Ying. "I entered the palace the day before yesterday, and now I am writing some documents for the palace in the Shangyi Bureau. I went to the inner study to look for you yesterday. Unfortunately, you were not there, and only my brother was there. I thought I had never heard him lecture before, so I stayed in the inner study for two hours listening to him talk. As a result, when I returned to the Shangyi Bureau, there were a lot of things to do in the bureau, and I forgot the time when I was busy. Later, I didn't have time to go to the Taihe Hall again. By the way, these things were given to me by Concubine Ning. I didn't bring you anything else, so I put some nuts in a small jar for you. Eat them when you are free. They are not hot tonics, but they are good for your health."
Deng Ying looked at the jars she had laid out on the ground. Each one had a note on it with the name of the nuts in it written on it.
The neat rows of them placed in the corner made him feel inexplicably comfortable.
"I hope you won't reject me, and don't misunderstand my purpose. I just like eating this way, and I want you to try it. I'll teach you."
As she spoke, she stood up and opened the jars, grabbing a handful from each jar.
"Look, you can grab some walnuts, peanuts and preserved fruits every day, and mix them together. It won't be too astringent or sour."
Then he held it in front of Deng Ying.
"Stretch out your hand."
For some reason, Deng Ying found that no matter what Yang Wan asked him to do, he would do it naturally. Even though he didn't quite understand it, he didn't want to make her unhappy because of any hesitation on his part.
He reached out and took the mixed fruits from Yang Wan's hand, and couldn't help asking, "How do you eat this?"
“How to Eat Daily Nuts.”