The two men faced each other in the wind, one wearing full armor and the other wearing thin clothes.
Faced with such a huge disparity, she did have the courage to fight against a rock with an egg.
Zhang Luo raised the hilt of the knife and pressed down her raised hands lightly.
"I am here on the orders of the Emperor. I will not harm you without His Majesty's order."
After saying that, he turned around and said to Song Yunqing who came out with a blanket, "Go and help her out. And call all the men in Qingbo Pavilion to come out."
After hearing this, the shopkeeper hurriedly stood at the door with his employees.
It was the first time for many of the guys to see the legendary "Youdu Official". They were terrified and trembling, not daring to look up.
Zhang Luo handed the saber in his hand to the captain behind him, then turned to the shopkeeper and said, "There are distinguished people among you, and the people from the Northern Pacification Office cannot go in. So, please take the people in the museum and take out the plates, ink, and paper, and have them all taken away by the Pacification Office to be burned."
The shopkeeper looked inside the door worriedly and couldn't help but ask, "Master Zhang, nothing will happen to our boss, right..."
Zhang Luo looked at Yang Wan's back and said, "As long as you stop printing books and temporarily close the inner workshop, I won't make things difficult for her."
"yes… "
The shopkeeper responded, then turned to the shop assistants and craftsmen behind him and said, "Hurry up, go move the things."
The guys in the hall were busy coming and going.
Yang Wan had been hoarding paper and ink for the previous month, filling up almost the entire warehouse in the inner courtyard. There were also more than 300 plates, and several of the men moved everything out by dusk.
The chill of the night came.
The guys were so tired that they couldn't even speak, and they sat dejectedly in the yard.
Chen Hua was not on duty today, but he came to help look after the family after hearing the news. Seeing that everyone in Qingbo Pavilion was depressed and motionless, and no one was cooking at 3 pm, he had no choice but to cook the rice himself.
When he came out after wiping his hands, he saw Song Yunqing staring blankly at Yang Wan's medicine furnace, so he squatted down and advised Song Yunqing, "Put on more clothes."
Song Yunqing came back to his senses at this moment, looked at the fire and said: "It's okay, I don't feel cold."
Chen Hua said, "The autumn wind is chilling. Miss Wan is so sick. If you get sick again, who will take care of Miss Wan?"
Song Yunqing lowered his head, sighed heavily, raised his head and said to him: "You understand better than me today."
She sniffed as she spoke, "Yes, I shouldn't be so discouraged, but I feel very sad. I watched Yang Wan and Chang Chen all the way. You and I both know what kind of person Chang Chen is. He really shouldn't have ended up like that."
Chen Hua sighed: "Fortunately, the factory officials have Miss Wan."
Song Yunqing said: "I feel sorry for Yang Wan as well."
As she spoke, she glanced at Yang Wan's room. "When she was about to leave the palace, she was not in good health. She had been working day and night to write the book for the factory officials for a while, and later she even proofread the plates herself. Now the book is gone, the plates are gone, and even the ink and paper have been taken away... Look at this empty inner room, it's really disheartening."
Following her words, Chen Hua looked towards the inner room. The lights were dim and the room was empty. Song Yunqing's words of discouragement were really appropriate.
"You feel bad."
Song Yun shook his head lightly, "Speaking of which, after Li Yu died..."
As she spoke, she looked around and added, "After Li Yu died, Qingbo Pavilion was also my home, but now it is gone..."
Gradually she could no longer speak, so she stood up, lifted the lid of the medicine pot, and let the hot steam fill her eyes.
"Go chop wood. There's not enough fire."
Chen Hua nodded silently but squatted without moving.
The emptier the house, the louder the wind.
"You all can go now."
Suddenly a voice came from the porch.
Song Yunqing turned around quickly and saw Yang Wan standing in front of the door wearing a woolen coat.
When the guys saw her come out, they all stood up subconsciously.
Yang Wan smiled at them and said, "It's okay, just sit down. I just have something to say to you while I'm still here."
After she finished speaking, she coughed lightly, cleared her throat, and continued in a calm voice, "I have been running Qingbo Pavilion for two years and have some savings. I originally thought of keeping some to expand the bookstore and using some to renovate the house where Deng Ying and I live, but now I probably can't afford it, so you can all take it away."
"Master, please don't say that."
The shopkeeper walked to the porch and said, "Qingbo Restaurant is also our livelihood. As long as nothing happens to you, we can hold on no matter what."
The men also echoed, "Yes, sir, we didn't get bullied here and we got a lot of money. Now that you're sick, you want us to take the money and go. If we really listen to you, wouldn't that be against our conscience?"
Yang Wan shook her head. "You saw the people from the Northern Pacification Office today. You should know that I have violated the law and will be punished. But to me, everyone's dignity is very precious. I let you go, not for personal reasons, but because I know the humiliation of handing your body over to the criminal law. I admit my guilt, but you are not guilty. You should cherish your freedom and don't be like me."
She coughed a few times as she spoke, and Song Yunqing hurriedly supported her. Yang Wan held Song Yunqing's arm with her backhand: "Yunqing, I didn't have many friends in the inner court. Thank you for your sincerity. I originally wanted to give Qingbo Pavilion to you, but I was afraid of implicating you, so... I will leave all my personal belongings to you."
"Yang Wan..."
"Yun Qing, no matter who you live with, or whether you live alone in the future, I hope you can be freer."
After she finished speaking, she gently let go of Song Yunqing's hand, without saying another word, turned around and slowly walked back to the room.
A single lamp is lit, and the table is filled with warm light.
There is a cold moon in front of the window, and the window is covered with shadows of banana leaves.
Yang Wan sat down behind the desk, took off her heavy clothes, rolled up her sleeves, and reached for a pen.
All the cotton paper used for printing had been taken away by Zhang Luo. What was left in the room now was the bamboo paper she usually used for writing. The paper was a little rough, but it helped her steady her shaking hands. She opened the manuscript and began to write the first paragraph.
In the second year of Zhenning, it was midwinter.
Met Deng Ying at Nanhaizi in the suburbs of Beijing.
It snowed heavily that day, and the ground was covered with white.
I peeked at the injured crane through the window, just like looking up at the spring terrace...
Give away all your possessions and sit calmly with a dying heart.
As she wrote, she gradually understood Deng Ying's state of mind—she was born humble, so she was willing to cultivate herself throughout her life, suppress her fear in her heart, and finally sit meekly in the mud. She was not a weak person, and her love and hate were not vague. She had done everything she wanted to do, but she was unwilling to speak.
Until his death, he was the guardian of this feudal dynasty.
For Yang Wan, this dynasty was a decadent past.
For Deng Ying, it was her home and the place where her literary spirit was placed.
Therefore, I cannot understand Yang Wan's "disobedience" from the 21st century, but I am involuntarily drawn to her power. If my life was castrated at the beginning of the castration, and I have been self-destructing ever since, then Yang Wan, who intervened in my life, is an external force that blocked me behind the cliff and made me want to "live longer".
As long as Deng Ying wanted to "live a good life", it didn't matter if he remained silent, as long as he didn't destroy himself, the rest was for Yang Wan. It was only six hundred years in advance, and she had already prepared for this for several years. So even if she was alone, it didn't matter. Back then, she also faced the noisy Ming history academic community alone, and finally she graduated and her manuscript was passed.
She won.
**
Looking back, it seemed like a dream; when I woke up, the cold moon was still in the window.
Yang Wan didn't know when she fell asleep. When she opened her eyes, Yang Yu was sitting in front of her, holding her sleeves, flipping through her manuscript, and copying it page by page.
"elder sister."
Yang Wan called her.
Yang Yu raised her head when she heard the voice and asked her with a smile: "You haven't eaten yet, are you hungry?"
“Not hungry.”
As she spoke, she lowered her head to look at the pen in Yang Yu's hand. She was about to speak when she heard Yang Yu say, "Wan'er, sister will help you."
As soon as he finished speaking, the door opened, and Song Yunqing and Chen Hua came in with a stack of tissue paper, "We will help you too."
Yang Wan looked at the tissue in Song Yunqing's hand and said in surprise: "Where do we have tissues?"
Song Yunqing said: "It's not ours, it was sent by Mr. Zhou and his friends."
"Mr. Zhou?"
"Yes, the Hanlin Academy's Shujishi, Zhou Muyi."
Yang Wan was stunned for a moment and turned sideways to look outside the door.
The lights in the courtyard were lit up at some point, and the shopkeeper and his staff moved the desk from the inner courtyard to the corridor, with papers spread out on the desk. Zhou Muyi and several students from Chushan and Hudan academies were standing beside the desk.
Yang Wan stood up with the help of the table and walked to the door. Everyone in the yard looked up at her.
The shopkeeper said, "Boss, we have thought about it. We should maintain our dignity and conscience. The factory officials have suffered so much and have never said a word. If you don't say anything, we won't say anything either. Then no one will say anything."
"yes."
A very young waiter said, "Boss, I won't leave either. I don't know many words, but I can write it down. Look, the master from the Hanlin Academy will teach me soon. Look, is this written well?"
"OK… "
Yang Wan's voice was a little choked up. She looked up at Zhou Muyi and said with tears in her eyes, "Master Zhou, do you know that this is a capital crime? Don't you want your future and reputation?"
Zhou Muyi put down the pen in his hand and bowed deeply to Yang Wan: "Our lives and future are given by you and the factory officials."
Yang Wan couldn't help but lower her head to the side and cover her mouth and nose.
Seeing these students, she suddenly couldn't hold it anymore. She kept recalling the scene where Deng Ying rolled up her sleeves on the street and showed them the marks of torture instruments.
Those angry students said, "I was involved in the Xuetian case, so I ended up in this situation. I was tortured and tried in the prison. People waiting for punishment have no dignity. You studied hard for many years. Do you want to end up like me?"
The sound was still ringing in her ears, and she couldn't help but choke up and said, "Maybe I still expect to be repaid, but Deng Ying... Deng Ying definitely doesn't want you to be like me."
Zhou Muyi said: "The emperor follows the will of the people. How do you know that we are not the will of the people? How dare you say that we will be the same as the factory officials?"
After saying that, he reached out to take the pen and said, "Miss Yang, I have read the book you wrote. Your engraver is not from the Huizhou school, and the engraving is not very good. This book is not a classic or historical record, and there is no engraving on the cover. It looks boring at first glance."
Yang Wan rubbed her eyes and said, "I do."
"Then please come out and take a look."
“I have painted it.”