That night, the carriage arrived at Binzhou.
The city of Binzhou is not big, and the inns are far less magnificent than those in the capital.
The house that Qi Hui found was surrounded by jujube trees, and the trees were full of flowers before they came to bear fruit.
Several people had dinner in the hall, and most of the people who lived with them were businessmen.
They spoke all kinds of dialects, most of which Xia Xun couldn't understand.
One of the tables made him look at it twice more.
—They speak Baiyue language, which is the local dialect of Lingnan.
There was also a straw basket under their table.
Xia Xun is very familiar with this kind of basket. He has carried it up the mountain to gather medicine, caught snakes, and made many by hand.
The first big money he and his elder brother made was selling the hand-woven straw baskets they made themselves.
Qi Yan was concentrating on eating, the injury on his back was not fully healed, and every movement was very slow.
Xia Xun didn't know what his purpose of going to Gyeongju was.
Qi Yan had a calm demeanor without any flaws, Xia Xun could not tell from his face whether what he was going to do in Gyeongju was easy or difficult.
Qi Yan noticed that Xia Xun was looking at him, and slowly raised his eyes to look back.
Xia Xun's fingertips bitten by him began to ache again.
He looks away.
Qi Yan suddenly smiled at him:
"I'm afraid you will be wronged these few days and live in the same room with me."
Xia Xun patted the chopsticks on the table:
"Master Zhongshu is so rich that he won't even pay more for a room?!"
Qi Yan didn't move in all directions, and said gently:
"Let me ask you, what would you do if I let you live in a room alone? I'm afraid you'd run away before bedtime."
Xia Xun replied to him directly:
"If you don't arrest me, how can I run away? Since you know I want to leave, why don't you let me go back to Lingnan? When I go back to Douzhou, we will be separated from each other, and we will live freely, so there is no need for Mr. Zhongshu to worry about it!"
Qi Yan was not angry either, and looked at him with a smile on his chin.
Xia Xun's heart trembled suddenly, and she immediately looked away.
Qi Yan is very good-looking, far more beautiful than him.
Xia Xun grew up in the capital since she was a child, and has met countless princes and nobles. They were born in the family of Zhongming Dingshi, and each has its own bearing.
But no one can compare to Qi Yan.
The emperor's favorite daughter, the princess, is a beauty that shakes the world. Xia Xun was lucky enough to meet her once when she was a child.
Her eyes are like autumn waters, she is slim and graceful, her frown and smile are full of celestial bearing, and she is a well-deserved reputation.
But she is still not as pretty as Qi Yan.
What Xia Xun likes most is Qi Yan's eyes, his eyes are deep-set, there is always a tinge of red under his eyes, and there is a small mole at the end of his eyes.
Between looking and looking, there is no ups and downs.
When he looked deeply at him, Shishi would be moved, but Xia Xun, who was a child, might not even be as good as Shishi.
It was only natural that he liked Qi Yan back then, who wouldn't like him
Qi Yan is very self-aware, he knows he is good-looking.
He repeated his old trick and looked at Xia Xun with such affectionate eyes on purpose, thinking that he would still be fooled.
Xia Xun took a bite of the dish and pretended to be nonchalant.
Qi Yan spoke softly, with a deep and mellow voice:
"Even if I let you go, you are penniless, how can you go back to your Lingnan?"
He blinked slowly, with a smile on his face:
"I've always wondered, why do you always want to go back? Is there someone better than me?"
Xia Xun fumbled for the clean teacup, and said slowly:
"In Douzhou, there are more demoted officials and exiled criminals than the local Baiyue people. The Baiyue people are hardworking and enthusiastic, but they don't understand our language; the prisoners sentenced to exile have to do hard labor, and they can't live for more than two or three years. Years; the officials were afraid of being relegated again, and they all kept silent. Such a place, not to mention the capital, even this small Binzhou, is better than it by a hundred times and a thousand times."
Qi Yan's expression gradually became serious.
Xia Xun looked into the depths of his eyes:
"That place has one advantage, only this, in my heart, it is far better than any corner in the world - there is no you, the place without you is the best."
The smile on Qi Yan's face completely disappeared, his brows gradually furrowed, the corners of his eyes drooped, looking sad and distressed.
And Xia Xun couldn't even tell whether Qi Yan's seemingly affectionate and worried face was a disguise.
He put down his teacup, got up and left.
Back in the guest room, Xia Xun took out an extra set of bedding and spread it on the floor.
When Qi Yan came in, he was about to close his clothes and lie down.
Qi Yan walked to the table and put down the food box he was carrying:
"...I didn't feel full just now. I went to the street and bought some dim sum. Come over and have a taste."
Xia Xun didn't look back:
"I'm very full, Master Zhongshu please help yourself."
Qi Yan paused, and suddenly said something out of nowhere:
"Let's make a bet, if you win, you sleep on the ground, if I win, you sleep on the bed."
Xia Xun snorted: "It's boring!"
Qi Yan sat down at the table, poured out some tea, wrote a word on the table with the water on it, and said to Xia Xun:
"I bet you don't recognize the word I wrote."
Knowing that it was an aggressive method, Xia Xun still took the bait.
He walked over a few steps:
"Do you think I haven't read a book?! I-?"
Qi Yan wrote the word "Xie" and asked him:
"Then tell me, what does this word mean?"
... Xia Xun really didn't know him, and was stunned.
Qi Yan couldn't hide her smile:
"I knew you didn't know."
Xia Xun became angry from embarrassment:
"What is your relationship with me? What do you know about me??"
Qi Yan's smile became more and more obvious, and finally he laughed out loud.
After finally stopping laughing, he pointed to the word and said to Xia Xun:
"If you were willing to put in effort to memorize memorization when you were young, you wouldn't lose today. This word is in "Zuo Zhuan", and it comes from the one you copied fifty times but didn't memorize."
Xia Xun remembered.
On the second day of his sixteenth birthday, he climbed over the wall to find Qi Yan as usual.
He suffered some injuries to his face, his knees were swollen, and he walked with a limp.
Qi Yan asked worriedly: "What's the matter?"
Xia Xun Han Han Yile:
"It's okay! I just fell down! It's okay!"
Qi Yan asked Xia Xun to sit down, took out the medicated oil, poured it into the palm of his hand, rubbed it to warm it up, and applied it on Xia Xun's knees.
His knees were red and purple, mottled, looking miserable.
Qi Yan put more strength into his hands, and rubbed vigorously at his most swollen place, trying to loosen the bruise.
Xia Xun ate the pomegranate that Qi Hui had peeled, and let him press it without moving.
After a while, Qi Yan suddenly asked:
"Doesn't it hurt?"
Xia Xun immediately sold out: "Of course it hurts! It hurts!"
Qi Yan looked distressed and curious, and asked:
"Then I press so hard, why don't you cry out the pain at all?"
Xia Xun blinked a few times and said innocently:
"It won't hurt after calling out a few times, and I'm used to it! I'm often injured, so I can bear the pain better!"
Qi Yan's expression gradually changed and became a little complicated, Xia Xun couldn't understand.
After pressing his legs, Qi Yan put away the medicinal oil and asked again:
"How did you fall? Injure yourself so badly?"
In order to prevaricate, Xia Xun stuffed a lot of pomegranates into Qi Yan's hand.
"Eat it quickly! It's not astringent at all! You bought this, if you don't eat it, I'll eat it up!"
Qi Yan stared at his face, thinking about putting the pomegranate into his mouth.
After eating a plate of pomegranate pulp, Qi Yan wiped off the red juice on Xia Xun's face with a handkerchief:
"I thought about it all night, and I still feel that a wooden water cart is too simple as your birthday gift. I prepared a new gift for you this morning, and it's outside. You can go and see for yourself."
Regardless of the pain in her knee, Xia Xun stood up excitedly:
"What what? What is it??"
Qi Yan said, "It's a koi."
Xia Xun likes koi very much, and there are also koi in Xiafu Lake.
It's just that the courtyard he lives in is very remote, as far as eight miles away from the lake, and the promenade to watch the lake is in his parents' courtyard, so he dare not go in at all.
After getting to know Qi Yan, what he regretted the most was the dry lake in Qi Yan's house.
If it is full of water, how many koi can be raised.
Knowing that Qi Yan gave him a koi, Xia Xun was so happy that she almost jumped up:
"How do you have the money to pour the lake water in??"
Qi Yan shook his head:
"Of course I don't have that much money, but I can still buy a fish tank and raise a few koi."
He motioned Xia Xun to look at the corridor, where there was a brand new fish tank.
"Go and count, how many red carp are there in the fish tank?"
Xia Xun happily rushed over, pushed aside the water lilies on the water, and suddenly saw a dozen carps.
They are very small and haven't grown up yet, but they are precious enough to Xia Xun.
He kept stirring the water surface, causing the small fish to swim around.
Shao Bo stood in the room with no joy on her face, she was worried and resentful.
Qi Yan had already noticed that he sent Xia Xun away just to ask Shao Bo:
"How did your son get hurt?"
Shao Bo's mouth was flattened, tears filled his eyes, and he said to Qi Yan in a crying voice:
"My master is too eccentric! The second young master is ignorant and spends his time, and the master never asks! Our young master is just doing some carpentry, and he just doesn't like it! He finds excuses to trouble him every day! His heart is biased." Grandma's home!"
Xia Xun doesn't like reading, especially not good at memorizing articles.
A few days ago, the Master taught "Zuo Zhuan" and arranged an ancient text for the disciples to understand and recite by themselves.
During a spot check in school today, the master asked Xia Xun if he had any opinions on that article.
Xia Xun didn't say anything.
The master asked him to recite another passage, but Xia Xun stumbled on the recitation, and the preamble didn't match the afterword.
In a rage, the master punished him for copying fifty times.
After Xia Xun returned to the mansion, the companion boy told Xia Hongxi about the incident. Xia Hongxi was furious and went to Xia Xun's courtyard to question his teacher, just in time Xia Xun was playing with those small wooden pieces.
In a fit of anger, Xia Hongxi scolded him, saying that he was ignorant, playful and despondent, and punished him to kneel in the ancestral hall.
Shaobo said angrily:
"I went to kneel without eating lunch! Kneeling until just now! The knee is swollen from kneeling! It didn't fall at all!"
Qi Yan lowered her head and said nothing.
Shaobo complained to him:
"You didn't see it, did you? There is still a gash on the young master's brow bone, which the master smashed with an oil lamp! He didn't want you to see him, so he deliberately covered it with his hair!"
Qi Yan looked at Xia Xun.
In the afterglow of the setting sun, Xia Xun was pawing by the bathtub, playing with the koi happily, looking heartless.
Anyone who looks at him will think that he is a carefree son of a rich family. He has been well-clothed and well-fed since he was a child, without any worries.
Qi Yan thought for a while, then asked loudly:
"Xia Xun, why did your eyebrows hurt too?"
Xia Xun repeats the old trick:
"I fell! I fell with my knees!"
Qi Yan and Shao Bo looked at each other and said:
"Xia Xun, the injuries on your body are caused by your elder brother, right?"
Xia Xun poked at the leaves of the water lily, but found nothing:
"How is it possible! Although my elder brother doesn't like me, he never bullies me. This is all because of my father—"
He realized that he had been fooled and shut up abruptly.
Turning around, he happened to meet Shang Qi Yan's reproachful and distressed eyes.
He understood at a glance that Qi Yan knew everything.
He panicked and wanted to lie:
"No, it's not—you listen to me—"
Qi Yan reprimanded:
"It's all like this, you still want to hide it from me?"
Xia Xun sighed as if giving up, and said awkwardly:
"How did you know? Shaobo told you? Oh, I told her not to tell you! I didn't mean to hide it from you on purpose. The main reason is... I feel a little ashamed. Such an adult should be fined to kneel." ,It is really… "
The more he spoke, the lower his voice became, his face turned red with embarrassment.
Qi Yan waved at him:
"come over."