Yang Wan felt that the "skin" he was talking about was too concrete, so concrete that it seemed as if his figure was about to turn into ashes in front of her. She felt a sudden pain in her heart, and she almost didn't care about anything else. She bent down and hugged the man firmly in her arms.
When she pulled him like that, Deng Ying quickly stretched out one hand to hold onto the steps, while the other hand hung in the air in panic.
"Wan Wan..."
Yang Wan buried her face in his shoulder and said, "Don't say anything naughty."
Deng Ying slowly relaxed her shoulders and tentatively placed her hands on her back. "Okay, I won't say anything. Don't do this."
Yang Wan did not listen to Deng Ying, but hugged his waist tightly.
Although he is tall, he is always thin. Even when he wears several layers of fine official uniforms, he still gives people a feeling of being thin and bony. In Yang Wan's previous aesthetic taste for men, "romantic bone structure" is undoubtedly the highest level. But such people mostly exist in paper, and after years and fate, their skin has been worn out and thin, and their bone structure is honestly exposed. Readers only need to sigh at the book, and do not need to bear his real life.
So it was just a taste.
That's not love.
And between love and interest, there is something called "desire for harmony".
It is more than the hug of today, or even more than the caress in the room, but wanting the thin skin of this person to stick to oneself, to caress gently, to taste his bones deeply in the boundless night, and finally to be lifted into the clouds by a "hand".
Thinking about this, Yang Wan actually wanted to cry.
After Deng Ying was tortured, she sat beside his couch. At that time, in order to recover from his wounds, he was naked, with only a piece of cotton cloth covering his wounds. At that time, she was so reserved to guard the boundary between herself and Deng Ying, avoiding his most "ugly" wounds and his "remaining life" that was about to begin. But now, she wanted Deng Ying to lie down in her room, remove the covering with her own hands, and then move away his hand that was trying to cover it, without saying a word, quietly staring at the biggest wound on his body.
She has never been a person who clings to imperfections, and she has no aesthetic taste for "imperfection".
But she had a sour desire for Deng Ying's body, and a love for his life that had nothing to do with time.
But how can I express these ideas to this humble person
"I told you about buying a house before. Are you looking at it?"
As she spoke, she gently let go of Deng Ying and pressed her forehead to calm the sourness in her heart.
Deng Ying had no idea what was going on in Yang Wan's heart at this moment, and still answered her question calmly.
"I'm looking. I've already picked out two or three places. I want you to help me take another look."
"It's hard to leave the palace, isn't it? What do you think?"
"It's okay. In a couple of days, when I have some free time, I will go and copy the pictures of those gardens and bring them back to show you."
Yang Wan smiled and said, "I have forgotten what I did before."
As they were talking, He Yu came over and said Yi Lang had woken up. Deng Ying stood up and waited behind the screen with the eunuch.
Yang Wan also stood up.
At that time, the rain stopped, the clouds cleared, and the sky was bright.
Seeing that Yang Wan's eyes were still following him, Deng Ying looked up and smiled at her.
Yang Wan raised her head and looked towards the boundless sky. The birds were singing far away in the clouds, and the wind blew through the treetops, shaking the branches and leaves, singing along with them.
June of the 13th year of Zhenning.
Deng Ying is still alive and her life is still going on.
If she could buy the rest of Deng Ying's life, Yang Wan would give away everything she had.
**
In a flash, summer is over.
A few bursts of autumn rain quickly cooled the weather in the capital. The autumn leaves were blown by the wind and could not be swept away no matter how hard the palace servants tried.
When Yang Lun returned to Beijing, he missed Bai Huan's birthday.
It is said that the whole mansion was bustling for several days, but it also exhausted the old man's mind. He fell seriously ill immediately after the autumn came, and his illness was raging. Emperor Zhenning not only gave him medicine, but also ordered Yi Lang to come to the mansion in person to inquire about his illness.
Bai Yuyang, Zhang Cong and others all advised Bai Huan to have a good rest, but Bai Huan finally struggled to get up on his own and went into the cabinet with other ministers to discuss matters every day, even earlier than usual.
In order to take care of Bai Huan's illness, the emperor ordered the Xinxinsi to supply charcoal to the cabinet duty room at Huiji Gate in advance.
When Yang Lun walked to the front door of Huiji, he happened to see Deng Ying talking to Chen Hua from Xixinsi.
Chen Hua looked a little embarrassed. He grabbed the back of his head and said:
"Director, the Ministry of Revenue has indeed been tight on collecting this year. These are all the money His Majesty has awarded us. I really can't spare any more for you, but if you don't mind, I can take some of the baskets that we supply to the Mixing Hall every day. I'll have someone pick them up and send them to you."
Deng Ying nodded, "Thank you very much."
"Where are you from? It's my duty to work for you. I have the silver you mentioned last time. I have prepared it for you. Take a look...
"What silver?"
Yang Lun's voice interrupted their conversation.
Chen Hua turned around and saw that it was Yang Lun, and he quickly bowed. "Master Yang is back."
Yang Lun took two steps forward, looked Deng Ying in the eye and said, "Isn't your greed enough?"
Deng Ying turned sideways and said to Chen Hua, "Let's go back first."
Chen Hua replied "yes" and walked past Yang Lun without saying a word.
Yang Lun looked back at Chen Hua and said coldly, "Did you see how Fu Bainian was escorted to the capital? Did you see how Li Chao was locked up by the Ministry of Justice? These two people, one is the governor of Jingzhou, the brother-in-law of the King of Song, and the other is the consort of Princess Fuqing. Now they are both in the Ministry of Justice and are waiting to be tried."
"yes."
Deng Ying nodded, "I saw it."
Yang Lun coughed, but unexpectedly, this cough affected his lung injury and made his cough even more severe.
He has not fully recovered since he fell into the water in Jiangyou after drinking in May. His throat feels uncomfortable when he talks too much. Now facing Deng Ying, he is in a bad mood again. His internal organs are boiling and his face is starting to turn red. After he finally recovers, his voice is louder than before.
"There should be some in here too!"
After he said this, he didn't say anything else. He flicked his sleeves and strode towards the main room.
Although there was no imperial meeting that day, because Yang Lun was to take the lead in discussing the strange field case, in addition to a few cabinet ministers, Bai Yuyang from the Ministry of Justice and two or three officials from the Ministry of Revenue were all present.
Deng Ying followed Yang Lun as he approached the Zhifang. There was an official named Liang from the Ministry of Revenue. He was very afraid of the East Depot because he had been investigated by the East Depot’s guards for starving his concubine to death.
But he had never met the Director of the East Factory, Deng Ying. When he suddenly heard the eunuch outside calling his title, he subconsciously stood up from his seat and said, "Director Deng, please sit down."
Deng Ying was bowing to Bai Huan, and was a little surprised to hear such a voice. He turned around and saw that it was a minister he didn't know very well. He didn't say anything, but bowed to him, pretending not to hear it, and covered up the words that were damaging to him and the cabinet. He stood in front of the door.
"My Lords, please discuss it. I am waiting for the draft."
Zhang Cong and others were already accustomed to Deng Ying's humility. They moistened their throats with tea, started with a few pleasantries, and then went straight into the political topic.
"Did Lord Yang ask about Concubine Ning's illness?"
Yang Lun said: "No."
Zhang Cong sighed and said, "In fact, I should have written a memorial and asked about it."
"Mr. Zhang, please speak directly if you have anything to say."
Zhang Cong smiled and waved his hand, "I don't mean anything behind this. I'm just worried about your health and your students."
The cabinet does not discuss private matters. The discussion stopped here. Zhang Cong took a sip of tea and when he spoke again, his mind had changed.
"In fact, in my opinion, Fu Bainian can be charged with a serious crime. After all, King Song has stopped talking. But Li Chao... needs to be considered again. Duke Jing has passed away. If Li Chao is charged with a serious crime again, Princess Fuqing's lineage will be destroyed, which is really not good."
Bai Huan propped himself up from the table and said, "Now it's not a question of punishment. These people are related to the clan members. If they want to be pardoned, Your Majesty can pardon them with just one word. What the Ministry of Justice needs to do now is to make them spit out all the land."
Bai Yuyang said, "The Ministry of Justice has ways to make them confess. As for Fu Bainian, no torture was used yesterday. He was already scared out of his wits, but he also had something to be dissatisfied about. There are many school fields in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas, and it is not uncommon for school fields to be cultivated privately. He mentioned a... academy in Hangzhou, I can't remember it at the moment, I have to go back and look through the files."
Yang Lun said, "School fields are different from civilian fields. They were originally funded by the imperial court to support the education of each state. The academies make a living from these fields, and most of them have no vacant fields. If there are any strange fields, they must be included in the Ministry of Revenue for liquidation, and cannot be immediately given to the prefectures and counties for planting. When I came back, all the academies were preparing for this year's autumn examination. The students were already very nervous and didn't advocate moving the school fields."
After he said that, he glanced at Deng Ying. Deng Ying stood there with her head down, but did not look at him.
Bai Yuyang retorted: "Minister Yang, your "Plan for Clearing the Fields" was not originally written like this."
Yang Lun did not hesitate and said directly: "You have never been to the south, do you know what the situation is like there? You are all scholars, don't you understand what the imperial examination means to those students? If you take away the school land at this time, isn't it just closing the academy?"
Bai Yuyang stood up at once, "What do you mean? The Ministry of Justice has come to this point in the trial, so why can't it question your Ministry of Revenue?"
Yang Lun also stood up, "You can ask questions, but our Ministry of Revenue has to take care of the six ministries of civil affairs and education. You can't just do whatever you want. You have been in the same dynasty for so many years. Although this is unpleasant to hear, I dare not say it."
"… "
“Yuyang.
Bai Huan stopped Bai Yuyang and pressed his palm towards Yang Lun: "Sit down, sit down, you understand what I said, and it makes sense."
After hearing what his father said, Bai Yuyang didn't say anything more.
Bai Huan waved his hand and said, "That's enough, let's stop here for the Hangzhou Xuetian matter, Deng Bingbi."
"The servant is here."
"Turn it over, let's make a draft."
"yes."
**
It was past noon and a pot of charcoal in the duty room had been burned out.
Deng Ying personally folded the draft memorial with the tickets clipped in, handed it to the junior eunuch to take back to the Silijian, straightened his official robe, and was about to go to the Inner East Factory.
"Stand still."
Deng Ying turned around and saw Yang Lun already standing behind him.
Deng Ying glanced behind him and said, "This is not the place to talk, let's go to the factory office."
Yang Lun shouted, "Don't be so presumptuous. Why did you follow me to that place?"
Deng Ying turned around and said, "Do you want to interrogate me here? Yang Zixi..."
"shut up!"
"yes… "
Deng Ying bowed and saluted: "If you don't want to go to the Inner East Factory, then go to my room. I dare not ask for anything else. I beg you not to scold me in public and save some face for me."