This fellow Xie Jinglan, although he is a nominal young master, has a arrogant temperament. In his eyes, it was only a matter of time before the eldest young master in the main courtyard would be trampled under his feet sooner or later. When he was inscribed on the golden list and marched through the streets, the Xie family would kneel under his horse with tears in his eyes, begging for his forgiveness.
Whenever he was bullied, he would think about the future when he was proud of himself. The broken teeth were mixed with blood and swallowed in his stomach, but his anger could not go away. The teeth and blood touched one after another in his heart. . He did not remember what Mencius said about "conquering people with virtue", but only remembered what Sima Qian said "a gentleman takes revenge, and it is not too late for ten years".
To get ahead, the only way is the imperial examination. The Xie family is a scholarly family and has been an official for generations. Unfortunately, it was passed down to the generation of Xie Bingfeng, the uncle of the Xie family. However, he learned from Dai Shengyan, a great scholar, and was an official with integrity and integrity, but he gained a good reputation for being a scholar and an official with integrity.
It has become a common practice to judge characters in the Holy Dynasty, and his reputation can really be eaten as food. Xie Bingfeng has no ability to do practical things, but he can lead the students all over the world. The literati and scholars are proud to follow the door of Xie's family. The Xie family attaches great importance to the studies of their descendants, and employs the great Confucian scholars in the clan to lead clan studies.
The eldest lady had a son who couldn't support the wall with mud. For fear that Xie Jinglan would pass him, Xie Jinglan was not allowed to go to the clan school to study, and she did not give him a copy of pen, ink, paper and inkstone. Xie Jinglan had no choice but to pick up the old books that the eldest young master Xie Jingtao used from the warehouse, hid in the corner to overhear Mr. Zuxue's lectures, and wrote on the ground with branches. After studying so stumblingly, he swallowed most of the Four Books and Five Classics, and no serious students in the school could compare to him.
Xie Jinglan ignored Xia Houlin, sat at the table and picked out the scraps of grass from the pile of paper, and then glued the scraps together bit by bit.
These books are not sages and sages, but the level of his entry. Only by stepping on this book of bullshit can he become a man of excellence.
As soon as Xia Houlin saw these scraps of paper, his head became big, and he picked a few pieces of paper at random, and found that although he recognized the characters on them, the characters on them didn't recognize him. Aunt Lan asked him to help, but he could only stand by and watch.
Sunset west of the mountains, the night is getting darker. There were no oil lamps in the room, only candles were used. Xie Jinglan was afraid that the candles would burn the paper, so he refused to put the candles on the table. The shadows of the two people in the dilapidated house stretched long on the wall, like two ghostly shadows.
Xia Houlin took a nap on the table, seeing that Xie Jinglan was still sticking.
He was thin and frail, and he was obviously the same twelve years old as Xia Houlin. Xia Houlin was strong and strong, but he seemed to be able to run away with a gust of wind. It had been sticking for too long, and his eyes had already bloomed. Xie Jinglan couldn't help rubbing his eyes, seeing that Xia Houlin's heart made of wood lumps actually gave birth to a bit of pity.
Xia Houlin was a scumbag who didn't hit the roof for three days. Even if he practiced knives for more than two hours, let alone sitting here and sticking to broken books. When he was on the mountain, he chased pheasants and caught rabbits for seven out of ten days, and only three days left to memorize and practice sword skills.
He picked up the straw paper that Xie Jinglan had thrown away from the ground, and found that there were also characters on it. The characters were not well written, the ink was thick and thin, and there were a lot of side-effects. It seems that the writing brush used for writing is very poor. , hair is not smooth, very rough. He looked around, and sure enough, on the ground, he saw a bald brush with ink dipped in the sparse hair.
This sissy has some patience. Although Xia Houlin was a mixed bag, he respected those who were willing to work hard.
"Hey, that, young master," he wasn't used to being a servant. He called this "young master" awkwardly. Xia Hou scratched his head and said, "It's getting late, why don't you go to bed?"
Xie Jinglan didn't lift his head and said, "If you're sleepy, go to sleep by yourself, it's useless at all anyway."
This guy didn't read all the sage books, but he learned a lot of irritating skills. Xia Houlin had a good temper and didn't care about him, saying: "You have to stick to the year of the monkey and the month of the horse. I will go to the library for you to steal a copy tomorrow. I heard that the Xie family's Xiuwen Hall has a large collection of books, and he even carved books himself, the book of Xiuwen Hall. It's the best book in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, with a wide frame and big words like eyes, so it's easy to read. The best book is right in front of you, so why are you sticking it here and there?"
Xie Jinglan finally raised his head from the pile of papers and said, "Stealing? What did you do for a living? Don't bring the tricks you learned from outside into the house. Be careful if you get caught and implicate us."
"Yes, you are high-spirited and virtuous, so you can stick to it slowly." Xiahou Rin asked for a bit of fun, and left the table, "It's obviously the young master of Xie's residence, and it's just a few books, it was originally his own, return
He didn't dare to steal it, he was sticking to the paper like a turtle with his head shrunk. The fat fat man would definitely laugh out loud when he knew it. "
"Wait." Xie Jinglan stared at Xia Houlin with a sneer.
"What's wrong?"
"No matter how bad I Xie Jinglan is, it's not your turn to make fun of me." Xie Jinglan stood up, grabbed Xia Houlin's collar, and said fiercely, "You are my servant, I don't need you to teach me! "
"Come on, you," Xia Houlin pushed Xie Jinglan away, "You're not as good as a servant, you're still a young master."
Xie Jinglan suddenly jumped up and punched Xia Houlin in the face. Xie Jinglan was so thin that only a handful of bones were left, and there was no flesh on his hands. A hard fist hit his face suddenly, Xia Houlin's face suddenly turned green, and the fire was burning. Xia Houlin was also in a hurry, and without a word, he threw his fists and started working. Xie Jinglan was weak and weak, so he couldn't beat Xia Houlin at all. But after two strokes, he was riding under Xia Houlin, and he couldn't get up no matter how much he earned.
"Are you satisfied? Just your body, you don't have enough space between your teeth? Hit me?" Xia Houlin patted his face and smiled smugly, "Look at your ability, you can't beat that dead fat man, so you want to hit me. Come to vent your anger? Although I am with you now, it is not for you to bully!"
Xie Jinglan struggled for a long time to no avail, completely collapsed on the ground, looking at the roof with a few holes leaking, filled with grief and shame, his eyes suddenly became wet. He quickly covered his eyes with his hands, gritted his teeth and did not speak.
He was beaten by Xie Jingtao during the day, and he didn't shed a single tear, but at this moment, the tears flowed like a flood, and he couldn't stop.
"Why are you crying? Hey, don't cry!" Xia Houlin panicked, got up from Xie Jinglan and helped him up, "Didn't I just touch you a few times? Don't cry!"
"I didn't cry!" Xie Jinglan turned his head away, preventing Xia Houlin from seeing his red eyes.
Xia Houlin only knew that he was afraid of girls crying, but he didn't expect that he couldn't stand boys crying, so he surrendered at once: "It's alright, alright, I'll apologize to you."
"Get out of here, I don't want to see you!"
"Hey, don't be like this, I apologize to you, I'm wrong, I shouldn't have made a rude remark just now."
Xie Jinglan remained silent, Xia Houlin was helpless, and sat with Xie Jinglan for a while, scratching his ears and cheeks, and said, "Then I'm going to bed, don't cry."
Xie Jinglan didn't turn her head to look at him, so Xia Houlin had to stand up and leave.
The surroundings finally fell silent, the candle flames went out at some point, and the heavy darkness pressed down from all directions. Xie Jinglan sat on the ground alone, tears falling again. His eyes adjusted to the darkness in the room, and he stood up leaning on the stool, one of the legs of the stool was short, and it was wobbly and unsteady, and he almost fell.
Pushing open the door and entering the yard, the small yard is covered with fallen leaves, and the two jars of lotus have long since withered, leaving only the white withered stems.
Twelve years of bitterness poured into my heart at this moment. Everyone else has a mother, but he alone does not. Although he has a father, it seems that he has no mother. He grew up alone in this most remote yard, like a rice ball that anyone can knead and flatten, anyone can come and pinch it. Now even his subordinates don't take him seriously.
He laughed sarcastically, and Xia Houlin's words just now rang in his ears again - "It's obviously the young master of Xie's residence, just a few books, they are his own, and he doesn't dare to steal them, he's on the sticky paper like a tortoise. , that fat fat man will definitely lose his teeth when he knows it."
Xia Houlin was right, it should have been his. He stood for a while, waiting for the tears on his cheeks to be dried by the wind, clenched his fists, and walked out of the corner door.
It was silent and no one was around. In order to save money, the eldest lady even put out the lanterns in the corridor. It was late winter, the cold wind at night made his cheeks hurt, and the road was pitch-dark. Thanks to Xie Jinglan remembering the way to the library, he walked lightly with his memory.
After walking for a stick of incense, he arrived at the library. When he got close, he found that the door was locked. He had no key and could not open the door. After walking around the library, I couldn't find any gaps that I could get into, and the doors and windows were closed tightly.
Standing in front of the door for a while, Xie Jinglan was stunned by the wind, and he turned around and walked back as if he had just woken up from a dream. As soon as he turned his head, he saw a young man turning out from behind the pillar and looking at him with a smile.
With a "cut", he turned his head and said, "Why did you follow me? Did you come to see me joking?"
"How dare you be small?"
Xia Houlin took out a thin wire from his sleeve and drilled it into the keyhole. With a "click", the lock fell off and the door opened slightly with a small crack. Xia Houlin pushed open the door and greeted Xie Jinglan to come in. Xie Jinglan pursed her lips and finally followed.
"Hurry up, if you want any book, go and get it." Xia Houlu softly closed the door and said.
Xie Jinglan didn't speak, looked at the pitch-black room, and thought to himself that it was pitch-dark here, how would he find books
Just as he was thinking about it, Xia Houlin took out the fire book and blew it lightly, and a cluster of flames lit up between his fingers, illuminating the faces of the two of them. The two were face to face, separated by a cluster of flames, close at hand.
Xie Jinglan looked at him. At this moment, Xia Houlin had cleaned up his personal appearance. His face was clean, his complexion was a little dark, and it was a very healthy honey color. Xie Jinglan was twelve years old and didn't know anything about looking at people. He only knew that it was good to look good or not. He gave birth to a good face himself, and even had higher requirements for others. The people in the house looked back and forth, and everyone felt that they were hurting their eyes, especially Xie Jingtao from the main courtyard. In his eyes It's just anger and resentment, unsightly.
Xia Houlin's appearance was worthy of the word "okay", Xie Jinglan looked at him a lot, but Xia Houlin was just riding on him and beating him, and he felt awkward for a while, but he still didn't. take care of him.
Xia Houlin looked at his cold face, a little troubled, and said: "Are you still angry? Young master, please do it, don't be angry with me, okay? Come on, look at me, I'm saluteing you, please. Your lord has a lot, so please spare the little one this time."
"Who's angry with you. Hmph, I've never seen such a presumptuous servant like you. You are lucky to meet me. If Xie Jingtao was left alone, you would have died eight hundred times!" Overkill, he turned his head to look for the book.
"That's not right, the little one is lucky. When I meet a kind-hearted master like the young master Jinglan, the young master loves the little one and doesn't care about the little one."
Xia Houlin was able to cultivate a good skill with smooth hands, Xie Jinglan got off the donkey along the slope, and his face looked much better.
The bookshelves in the library building are so densely arranged that only two people can pass between the bookshelves. The shelves are so high that they seem to reach the roof. There was a stale smell in the room, and the air seemed to be filled with cold air. Xia Houlin felt a little creepy, and poked Xie Jinglan on the back, asking him to hurry up.
Xie Jinglan walked through three bookshelves and found that the library was arranging the books in the order of Qilue. The two of them stared at each other and searched for a cup of tea before they found Chen Hao's "Ritual" on the seventeenth bookshelf. Anthology". Xie Jinglan only took the first volume, he wanted to read the second volume after reading it.
"Will you be found missing books?"
"I found a fart, didn't you see that the books are all gray? The books here haven't been turned out for hundreds of years."
"Don't say foul language!" Xie Jinglan knocked Xia Houlin a shudder, and took another roll, "Then I'll take another roll."
Xia Houlin took the first volume, flipped through it at will, and suddenly widened his eyes.
"What's wrong?" Xie Jinglan noticed Xia Houlin's strangeness, and turned his head to look at it, and was instantly stunned.
The book is full of bright and moving pictures of erotic palaces. The bodies of men and women are overlapped, and the expressions on their faces are vividly drawn.
"What, what is this?" Xie Jinglan closed the book, his face was so hot that he could steam eggs.
"Picture of the Erotic Palace! If I read it correctly, this is the famous "Swallow's Sleeping Pleasure Picture", which was written by the Yuan Dynasty painter Zhao Xiyan. My mother has a fake one, shouldn't the one here be genuine?" , "This picture is rich in brush, the figure is exquisite, and even the patterns of clothing, flowers and plants are intricately depicted, it can be said to be the best in the erotic palace. Look, this one is called 'Red Plum Hanging Upside Down', this one is 'Yingti Chunxiao', and this one It's 'Jiangnan sells summer'."
Xie Jinglan listened to Xia Houlin saying a lot, and caught the least important: "What? Did you just say your mother?"
Xia Houlin was excited for a while, and he said without saying, "No, no, no, I mean, your father is a prude, and actually collects erotic pictures in the library!"
Xie Jinglan's face turned even redder, he hurriedly put the album back on the shelf, and said, "I won't take this one, I'll take the other one."
"Don't," Xia Houlin put the album into his arms, with a malicious smile on the corner of his mouth, "Let's take it back and study it! Reading at night with the lights on, it's not a good feeling! Young master Jinglan, you must have never seen it before. Are you curious about these?"
Xie Jinglan sternly refused: "No!"
"I didn't expect you to be a serious person," Xia Houlin said with a smile, "If you don't look at it, don't look at it, but it's useful to keep this thing, so take it first."
Xia Houlin asked Xie Jinglan to take him to Little Fatty's study. Xie Jinglan didn't know what medicine he sold in the gourd, but he couldn't resist his stalking, so he had to take him there. The two sneaked into the main courtyard cautiously, Xia Houlin repeated his old tricks, unlocked the study room, and stepped inside.
Xie Jinglan raised his voice in his heart. It was the first time he did this kind of trickery, but seeing Xia Houlin's seemingly sure-footed appearance, he didn't want to be compared by him, so he held his courage and pretended not to be afraid. He followed behind Xia Houlin, his eyes wandering in the study, looking at the decorations around him.
There was a plaque hanging in the middle of the room with the words "Sweeping Ye Shan Fang" written on it, Xie Jinglan snorted, a character like Xie Jingtao really tarnished such an elegant name. On the table was a black inkstone, a Liaohao pen, a high-class student Xuan from Jingxian, Anhui. He carefully touched the flat and soft rice paper, and bursts of envy filled his heart.
He stood there and hesitated for a while, thinking about whether to take a few cards back, anyway, Xie Jingtao, the ignorant idiot, would definitely not find it. After thinking about it for a long time, he gave up, Xie Jingtao couldn't find it, and his subordinates might find out, it's better not to make extra troubles.
Xia Houlin found a stack of books on the table, and took out the "Book of Rites" inside. It turned out to be the same cover as what they got in the library. It was the cover of the book that Xie Jia Xiu Wentang carved by himself. Xia Houlin put the fake "Book of Rites" on the top, took the real book, and greeted Xie Jinglan to leave.
Xie Jinglan knew at a glance that Xia Houlin had made a crooked idea.
Xia Houlin shook his head, smiled slightly, and said: "Today, when I entered the mansion, I heard from the maid that the master will be back tomorrow. You prudent father is the most important child and grandson's education, you guess he has one thing he must do when he comes back. What is it?"
Xie Jinglan understood, his chest was hot, but he was unwilling to accept Xia Houlin's feelings, and said, "I think some bad ideas may not work."
Xiahou smiled gracefully: "Then let's wait and see."