Her body slumped limply, leaning against the back of the chair, and she spoke weakly, "Perhaps... the time has really come... Sir, if you promise me to clear the place, I will tell you everything."
Fu Mingrui looked around and nodded to the yamen runners.
The yamen runners then led the others outside the courtyard away. All the yamen runners in the hall also left the hall, Zhao Cheng and Wang Quan carried Huang Zong out, and together with the others, closed all the doors of the hall.
The sunlight was blocked by the door, and the hall became a little darker.
A faint ray of light came in through the window and fell on the two cold skeletons on the ground, which made people sigh with great sadness.
"My younger brother, Lu Jingting, is the son of a relative of my mother's. Because he is so handsome and cute, my parents adopted him as their godson, and he also became my younger brother. Later, they discovered that he had a talent for painting, so he came to my house to learn painting from my husband. When he came... he was only twelve years old..." Mrs. Lu's eyes became distant and empty, as if she was looking into a black hole that would never end. The darkness in the black hole gradually sucked away her consciousness. "I still remember... the day he came was the day when the cherry blossoms were in full bloom. The cherry seedlings... were given to my husband by a person from the East China Sea..."
A faint smile appeared on Lu's lips. Sakura petals suddenly flew in front of her, bringing her back to the beautiful time when they were in love...
At that time, Lu's eldest son and second daughter had already been born. When her younger brother Lu Jingting came, Lu was six months pregnant with her third child.
Mrs. Lu also likes her adopted brother Lu Xuan and Lu Jingting very much.
I met him once when I went back to my parents' home to visit a few years ago. The child was only eight years old at that time. He was so fair, with red lips and white teeth. No girl of the same age in the family could compare to him. The boy was as beautiful as jade and as lusty as a flower. No one who saw him disliked him. They all wanted to kiss him, hug him and hold him high.
Therefore, Lu Jingting was also strictly protected by his parents at home, because they also heard that some men liked boys and they were afraid that they would be abducted by bad people.
At that time, Huang Ye and Lu were also in love in the eyes of outsiders. Lu was also a scholarly family with a beautiful appearance. Every day, they watched the moon in front of the courtyard and drank tea under the moon. You painted, I sharpened the inkstone, and we treated each other with respect and treated each other with equal respect.
Huang Ye did not marry any concubines, so in the eyes of others, Huang Ye was extremely devoted to Lu, and the two of them were simply a perfect couple.
Recently, Huang Ye's painting skills have reached a bottleneck, and Lu has also noticed Huang Ye's distress. It's just right for him to take in an apprentice to divert some of his attention.
Huang Ye had no intention of taking in a disciple as he was still young. He believed that taking in a disciple was something that should be done when one was in his seventies or eighties and it was a little too early to do so now.
But because Mrs. Lu had high praise for the child, and also because Huang Ye was Mrs. Lu's sworn brother, he reluctantly agreed.
It was a day when cherry blossoms were in full bloom and spring was in full swing. Huang Ye and his wife were waiting in the yard for the child to arrive. After a while, the old housekeeper came with a father and son.
The cherry blossoms are like rain, the boy is like a flower, and those eyes like autumn waves instantly enter Huang Ye's heart behind the petals of cherry blossoms. From then on, the boy's face was engraved in his mind, making him obsessed and unforgettable.
The boy also admired and revered Huang Ye. His eyes were bright and lively. He looked at Huang Ye like a deer in the mountains. The deer also touched Huang Ye's heart. He couldn't believe it. How could there be a boy with such an androgynous appearance in this world? How could there be such a natural and pure boy
Mrs. Lu was busy greeting relatives, and Lu Xuan happened to admire Huang Ye, so Mrs. Lu asked Huang Ye to take Lu Xuan to visit the Huang residence.
Huang Ye took care of Lu Xuan for three years, watching him grow from a twelve-year-old boy to a fifteen-year-old teenager.
Mrs. Lu kept laughing at him, saying that she was reluctant at first, but now she likes him very much and dotes on him like her own son.
Indeed, Huang Ye doted on Lu Xuan like his own son because of his talent for painting, but none of his children inherited his talent.
In the past three years, he devoted all his energy to teaching Lu Xuan. He found that Lu Xuan was indeed quite talented, so he taught him everything he knew. Given time, this child would definitely surpass him as his master. If Lu Xuan became famous, he would be more respected as his master. At that time, he would not be a painter, but a master of Chinese painting.
Lu Xuan had already lost his childishness. Other boys grew more ugly as they grew older, but Lu Xuan was born a beautiful boy, and he became more and more beautiful as he grew older. At the age of fifteen, his face was like the autumn moon, his complexion was like lotus, his eyes were full of autumn waves, and his black hair was flying. The maids in the entire Huang family were all excited when they saw him.
Not to mention the women, the men were also stunned sometimes. It was really true that none of the women in the world were as stunningly beautiful as Lu Xuan...
"If I had let my younger brother leave my husband at that time, perhaps... I could have saved their lives..." Mrs. Lu raised her old, wrinkled hands and wiped the tears from her eyes. "My younger brother became more and more handsome. Although I was worried, I thought my husband was not a homosexual, so I didn't have too many suspicions about them being together day and night... But... something happened... That year... The weather was particularly hot... I still remember... The drought that year was also the worst year..."
That year, it was the hottest day of the year.
The drought in the north was extremely severe, and a large number of victims flocked to Beijing. Begging victims could be seen on the streets of the capital.
At this moment, Huang Ye was watching Lu Xuan painting in Yunyan Pavilion.
Yunyan Pavilion was the pavilion that Yi Jixuan later climbed. It was also where Huang Ye usually painted.
Under Huang Ye's guidance, Lu Xuan's painting skills improved by leaps and bounds in three years. By the age of fifteen, he had learned 90% of Huang Ye's painting skills. When his paintings were shown to others, ordinary people could not tell whether they were from his hand or Huang Ye's.
At this time, he was painting the white waterfall hanging from the distant green mountains and the plum forest standing by the stream nearby according to Huang Ye's request.
Huang Ye stood beside him and fanned him attentively. He really treated him better than his own son.
This year's scorching heat has made the capital city extremely hot.
Lu Xuan was wearing a thin white shirt, with sweat slightly seeping out of his neck. Huang Ye waved his folding fan, but it fanned out a wisp of refreshing sandalwood fragrance. He was slightly startled, and his eyes fell on Lu Xuan's slender white neck: "What fragrance did Ting'er use today?"
"Old sandalwood that my sister gave me." Lu Jingting answered while painting, and raised his sleeve to smell it. "I sweat a lot in summer, and I was afraid that it would stink the teacher, so I stink it for a little longer today." When Lu Jingting spoke, his eyes were full of respect for his teacher. He didn't want his stinky sweat to stink his teacher.
Huang Ye's eyes were filled with a doting smile: "What a child..." Rourou's voice was more intoxicated, but her eyes were involuntarily burning in this elegant fragrance, slowly moving down along Lu Xuan's back. Another folding fan fell, fanning Lu Xuan's thin clothes lightly, revealing a curvy waistline. (To be continued)