Hu Shanwei

Chapter 108: Undue expectations

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Exposed to the wind and sun and serving the animals all day, Hu Shanwei became darker and thinner. His hair was tied into a bun on top of his head, covered with a black net scarf. In order to make it easier to ride a horse and feed the deer, he wore a plain round-necked bamboo cloth robe, blurring his gender.

However, in Muchun's eyes, Sister Shanwei is the most dazzling one among the blooming plum blossoms, blooming proudly on the dry branches. It turns out that a flower does not have to be gorgeous; character is also a kind of beauty.

And Muchun seems to be still the same. After returning from a year of expedition, he is still the high-spirited, ruffian and naughty young man.

Mu Chun's scorching gaze enveloped her, and Hu Shanwei felt the temperature in her body rising higher and higher. This was the Xiaoling Mausoleum, the resting place of Empress Xiaoci, and she couldn't be too presumptuous.

Hu Shanwei cleared his throat, frowned, and tightened the reins in his hands, "It's good that you're back. Many people didn't make it back during the southern expedition this time."

Mu Chun said: "Yes, my father never came back."

Hu Shanwei looked at him quietly. Mu Chun suddenly realized the meaning of her words and slapped his forehead like a goose. "Oh, I got it wrong. You meant death in battle. My father is still alive."

The relationship between father and son is as thin as paper.

The situation became awkward. The impatient deer began to use their antlers to nudge the bamboo basket on Hu Shanwei's horse, begging for food. One deer missed its aim and nudge her leg.

Muchun acted faster, stretched out his long arms to grab the deer's antlers, and warned it, "You lusty deer, you poke there, you poke there? If you don't repent, I will roast you and eat you."

This was an adult deer, very strong. It was very uncomfortable when Mu Chun grabbed its horns. It shook its slender neck to try to break free. How could Mu Chun let it go? He simply jumped from the horse's back to the deer's back and grabbed its two horns. "Do you accept it? Do you accept it?"

The big deer simply jumped and ran, trying to throw off the stranger on its back. Mu Chun held on tightly, but the deer was quite smart and ran towards the forest. At such a fast speed, it could skewer Mu Chun with branches and roast him.

Seeing that a branch was about to pierce his eyeball, Mu Chun chose to admit defeat. He jumped from the deer's back to the flowerbed, rolled over with the momentum of falling, and crushed the hydrangeas on the ground.

Hu Shanwei rode his horse to the place. Mu Chun stood up with the help of a tree and pointed at the deer that had "fled for fear of crime". "Sister Shanwei, you must avenge me. Let it starve."

Hu Shanwei looked at the withered hydrangeas, and the joy of reunion disappeared in an instant. "Nine days from now will be the anniversary of Empress Xiaoci's death. The royal family and ministers will come to the Xiaoling Mausoleum to pay homage. Can you bring these flowers back to life within nine days?"

Mu Chun knew that he had gotten into trouble, and hurriedly said, "I'll go to the flower market and buy some hydrangeas to plant."

When Muchun went to buy flowers, the deer gathered around again. Hu Shanwei fed the deer one by one and suddenly understood why she liked the deer in Xiaoling Mausoleum. These deer were very similar to Muchun. They were beautiful in appearance, pleasing to the eye, greedy, and naughty when it came to food. They liked to get close to her, circle around her, and chase her.

And they were always getting into little troubles, which made her angry, but she couldn't bear to scold them, so she just complained a few words and finally cleaned up the mess for them - these deer also liked to harm flowers and trees and eat some flowers to satisfy their appetite.

Muchun bought a cart of hydrangeas in full bloom and returned to the Xiaoling Mausoleum, where he plucked out the dead flowers and replanted them. Hu Shanwei brought a food box to feed him and a scent box to repel mosquitoes.

"I only have simple food here, you can share some." Hu Shanwei opened the food box, which contained a fish, a bowl of chicken nuggets, a bowl of lotus seed soup, all freshly caught from the pond in the mausoleum area, and a bowl of rice.

Mu Chun looked at the simple food and felt very sad: "You have lived a very hard year."

Hu Shanwei said, "Princess Huaiqing and others send people to send some things from time to time. I have enough food and clothing here, but guarding the mausoleum should be done like guarding the mausoleum. Life is simple and of course it can't be compared with the extravagant wealth in the palace. Anyway, I come from a humble family, so I don't feel it's hard."

Muchun squatted down to eat, as naturally as he used to squat on the street to eat noodles.

Hu Shanwei couldn't help but think of the time when she met Mu Chun. It was the day when she took the exam to be a female official and also her birthday. After the exam, she went home and finished her work in the bookstore. There was no food for her at home, so she went to a restaurant to celebrate her birthday. Mu Chun, who often went to the bookstore to read for free, was squatting outside with a bowl of noodles. She thought he was a poor student.

But this poor student silently gave her the meal money.

Of course, later Hu Shanwei found out that Mu Chun had a special hobby of squatting outside to eat noodles. He was rebellious and unruly, and his father didn't like him, his uncle didn't love him, he had a home but seemed to have no home, and squatting on the street to eat noodles and integrate into the mundane world made him feel inexplicably comfortable.

Seeing her staring at him while eating, Mu Chun asked casually, "Did you make this?"

Hu Shanwei nodded. "The chicken and lotus seeds were picked by Haitang, and the fish was caught in a bamboo basket trap placed at the bottom of the water this morning. I cooked all three dishes. I didn't control the heat well, and the fish skin broke when fried."

After knowing each other for four years, this was the first time that Mu Chun had eaten the food cooked by Sister Shan Wei. Mu Chun said hurriedly, "Broken ones are better. I like to eat broken ones. Broken ones... well, they are more flavorful."

Mu Chun ate the meal very hard and even drank up all the soup, leaving only a pile of insoluble fish bones, which were as clean as if they had been licked by a cat.

After the meal, Haitang came over to collect the bowls and food boxes, and even lied tactfully, "I'm too tired today. I need to go to bed early, so I won't come to help."

Mu Chun dug the hole, and Hu Shanwei put pots of hydrangea into the hole and covered it with soil. When night fell, they lit lanterns and continued to replant in perfect harmony.

Mu Chun was very strong. After digging a row of holes with a shovel, he ran over to plant flowers and fill the holes with soil with Hu Shanwei. Every time he did the same trick under the cover of soil, he would stretch out his hand and entwine his fingers with hers under the pretext of filling the holes.

The fingers entangled through the soft soil, and when the tingling feeling was about to reach the heart, they quickly separated to plant the second hydrangea and fill the soil back. The warm fingers penetrated the soil, entangled and teased again, and then separated again.

Over and over again.

The Xiaoling Mausoleum was heavily guarded. Even at night, patrolling mausoleum guards would pass by every once in a while.

Hu Shanwei's heart rose and fell, left and right with the rhythm of his fingers. Sometimes he was nervous, sometimes he was happy, and more often he was both nervous and happy.

The two people who were planting flowers did not say a word, and there was not even any eye contact. From the perspective of the soldiers patrolling the tomb, the two were just planting flowers in an orderly manner, and there was no sign of the affection beneath the soil.

All the senses of the two people's bodies disappeared, and were all concentrated on the fingers, as if only the fingers had the sense of touch. Every touch was like pouring a bucket of water into a boiling oil pan. The sizzling boiling oil splashed and exploded like fireworks, and the soul trembled.

Hu Shanwei listened to Mu Chun's increasingly heavy breathing, his face flushed and his heart pounding. However, he didn't know that Mu Chun saw the sweat on her temples rolling down her neck and staying in the neck hollow at the collarbone. He was thirsty, and the drop of crystal in the neck hollow was the elixir that quenched his thirst. It was so close, but unfortunately he couldn't drink it.

As fireflies danced among the newly planted clusters of embroidered autumn flowers, the replanting was completed. Muchun carried two buckets of water to water the flowers, ensuring that they would survive until the tenth anniversary on August 8.

"It's finally done." Hu Shanwei squatted in the bucket and washed the dirt off her hands - she didn't want Mu Chun to see the blush on her cheeks.

Muchun regretted it very much at this time: I should have rolled around more and harmed more flowers, so that I could stay with Sister Shanwei longer.

Mu Chun returned with regret, sighing on horseback.

Hu Shanwei often had hallucinations while taking a bath in a wooden tub. He felt feathers brushing against his fingertips and when he stretched out his hands from the water, there was nothing.

Haitang was washing her hair behind her and asked tentatively, "Master Mu... just left like that?"

Hu Shanwei said: "Xiaoling Mausoleum is a special place, outsiders are not allowed to stay overnight."

Haitang: "Lord Mu is not an outsider, right?"

Hu Shanwei: "His surname is Mu." He is not from the Zhu family, so it is not right for him to stay here.

"Oh." Haitang said, "What a pity."

Hu Shanwei was alert: "What are you thinking about, girl?"

Haitang pretended not to see the blood-red color on her earlobes, "I thought it would be great if Lord Mu could help feed the deer tomorrow, so you and I could sleep in."

Hu Shanwei's eyes were filled with worry. "I heard from Ji Gang that Lord Mu will most likely be crowned the Marquis of Xiping when he returns."

Haitang said: "It's a good thing to be crowned as a prince, why are you not happy?"

Hu Shanwei said: "Marquis Xiping is guarding Yunnan, and his beloved son Mu Sheng is with him. But according to the rules, if a general is in charge of the army outside, he must leave his family in the capital as hostages. This is a kind of restraint."

Haitang was even more puzzled. "But the wife of Marquis Xiping and several other children are all in the capital?"

Hu Shanwei said: "No one in Xiping Marquis's mansion is as important as a prince who inherits the title, so Xiping Marquis's request to confer the title of prince on Mu Chun is definitely not to fulfill Empress Xiaoci's wish as Ji Gang said, but just to follow the trend and show his loyalty to the emperor."

Emperor Hongwu and Mu Ying were first monarch and subject, and then father and son. Mu Ying had always been well-behaved, very clear about his position, and kept a clear mind, so when Emperor Hongwu ordered Feng Cheng to replace Mu Chun, Mu Ying guessed the hidden meaning and immediately wrote a memorial to request that Mu Chun be granted the title of Marquis of Xiping.

It was not that Mu Ying suddenly changed his attitude towards his eldest son, but that Mu Ying knew the current situation. He was in charge of a large army at the border, guarding the southwest, and his favorite second son, Mu Sheng, was by his side. Emperor Hongwu needed a hostage of importance to stay in the capital.

This is the case for all noble families. The Mu family cannot be treated specially, so no matter how much Mu Ying dislikes Mu Chun, he can only choose this annoying eldest son.

Haitang suddenly realized, "You are isolated from the world at the Xiaoling Mausoleum, yet you can still see it so clearly."

Hu Shanwei sighed, "I can see it, but I can't tell him face to face. Just assume that it is as Ji Gang and the others guessed, that Marquis Xiping and Emperor Hongwu are both trying to fulfill Empress Xiaoci's last wish, so that Mu Chun will feel better."

Haitang said, "Lord Mu is a carefree person by nature, why would he care about these things? He has already become the crown prince, so who cares what the reason was? Others don't have this ability."

Do you really not care at all

Impossible. The hurt of ordinary people can be healed slowly, even forgotten and not cared about. But the hurt of family is lifelong, deeply affecting a person's personality and future choices.

Muchun's unruly madness is also a shell formed for self-protection after being hurt by his family.

Hu Shanwei had a deep understanding of this. She told Mu Chun that she wanted to grow out of her own shell, and Mu Chun immediately understood what she meant.

So even though she knew this, she didn't have the heart to expose it to Mu Chun in person - with Mu Chun's intelligence, he would be able to guess it sooner or later. If he didn't say it himself, why would he hurt others

Liking someone is often not an easy thing, because you will be happy for his happiness, and even more painful for his pain, and it will be magnified countless times on yourself.

Hu Shanwei reminded Haitang, "Talk less and do more. Don't mention these things that have nothing to do with you, or you may get into trouble."

Haitang took a dry towel and wrung out her hair. "Let's not talk about Lord Mu... Let's talk about you. You will be leaving Xiaoling in two years. I am an official slave. I will definitely return to the palace to continue to be a maid in two years. But what about you? In two years, you will be 26 years old. What are your plans? Last time, Shang Gong Cao came to Xiaoling to find fault and insisted that you didn't clean it well. It seems that it will be difficult for you to return to the palace to continue to be a female official."

Haitang is a kind person. She is worried about Hu Shanwei's future. Her career as a female official is blocked by Cao Shanggong. Where will Hu Shanwei go in the future? Lord Mu, who is about to be named the son of Xiping Hou, is a good choice...

Hu Shanwei was not in a position to tell Haitang about his secret alliance with Lady Cao, so he said vaguely, "We'll see. Let's finish the work at hand first. There are still two years left, so there are plenty of opportunities."

At night, the flowers are bright and the moon is dark, shrouded in light mist.

Hu Shanwei had his hair loose and was not wearing any shoes. His socks were stained green by the moss between the rocks.

Green fireflies flickered all around, as if in a dream. In the hydrangea bushes, the shadows of the flowers overlapped and the breeze was fragrant. That person was indeed standing in the bushes and smiling.

Hu Shanwei was surprised and happy, and turned his back to him.

He said, "Since you turned your face away, why did you come here with the pillow?"

"How could I..." Hu Shanwei looked down and found that she was indeed holding a pillow! This was the most embarrassing moment in her life. How could she have held the pillow out without knowing why

She felt the footsteps behind her getting closer and closer, until she could hear the breathing, and a warm body pressed against her back. She could feel the heartbeat behind her was as urgent as hers, and it seemed like it was about to jump out of her throat.

The belt of her clothes was wide and the collar was loose. She didn't dare to look back. She buried her head in the pillow and asked in a muffled voice, "What are you going to do?"

The man whispered, "This is your dream. It's your territory and you are the boss. I will do whatever you want. Just like this pillow, it wasn't there just now, but when you saw me, there was an extra pillow in your hand. You wanted me to come closer, so I came over."

Hu Shanwei refused to admit it. "Nonsense, it was you who flirted with Meng Lang, why don't you leave quickly."

"You say that, but you don't really mean it." A warm and soft touch was placed on the crook of her neck. "This is what you really think."

Her whole body was stiff and she dared not move. It was so scary. Could this person be the worm in her stomach

"No," the man said. "I am a prisoner living deep inside you, trapped inside you, unable to leave. I know all your desires - if you want, I will do it."

The dream is getting more and more dangerous. I can't have any improper thoughts about him. Wake up, wake up quickly...

Hu Shanwei sat up suddenly. It was all a dream. He was lying on the couch, and he had the pillow in his arms without knowing when. Even the back of his neck felt numb and itchy, just like in the dream.

Hu Shanwei was startled and reached out to touch it. He felt a small lump on the back of her neck and heard a buzzing sound. It turned out that a mosquito had entered the bed curtain and bit her.

Hu Shanwei felt relieved, but inexplicably disappointed. She laughed at herself and thought that the regrettable thing in the world is that people are a couple in dreams but become alone when they wake up.

The author has something to say: Mu Chun: Let the unreasonable desires come more violently~~~~

We were together in the dream, but alone after waking up - from "Romance of the West Chamber"

It’s New Year’s Day, so please leave a comment to cheer me up. I will continue to give out 100 red envelopes in this chapter.

Congratulations to reader Xiaofei for receiving a 100-point red envelope

№15 Netizen: Xiaofei Comment: "Hu Shanwei" Score: 2 Published time: 2019-02-08 23:59:17 Reviewed chapter: 109

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