Gu Juefei did stay late at the Yuewei Museum.
Even when the letter had arrived at the General's Mansion, the others were still sitting upstairs in the Yuewei Museum, with a long case beside him, and there was half a pot of wine in the jug on the case.
It's just that Ji Zhiyin, who had been drinking with him before, has gone back now.
Ji Lao is old after all.
He gave it a try today, and it was a complete success, so he lost his shape and happily pulled Gu Juefei up and drank two glasses.
Gu Juefei didn't say anything yet, this old gentleman shouted that he couldn't do it after drinking three glasses of wine.
In the end, it was Gu Juefei who arranged someone to send him back.
As for himself, he stayed in the Yuewei Pavilion and drank a small pot of wine.
"Eldest son, everything is packed, shall we go back?"
With a somewhat brisk voice, Chen Fan sounded outside the door.
He was just sent by Gu Juefei to clean up the answer sheets for this examination at the Weiwei Library. Because Meng Ji was away, he was busy for a while, and it was over at this time.
But when he came back, he was a little surprised to see Gu Juefei sitting alone by the window.
Gu Juefei's alcohol intake has never been bad, and his head is still very clear.
Hearing the voice, he poured himself a glass of wine and didn't look back: "Are you picking up money on the road? So happy."
Chen Fan suddenly felt a little embarrassed, but fortunately, Gu Juefei just sat by the window and still looked out, and didn't notice his embarrassment, so he quickly said: "Well... I'm not very happy, that is, that is, I feel that the eldest son is today. It seems to be very happy, so Chen Fan is also very happy."
Are you happy...
Gu Juefei looked at the wine in the glass, but he couldn't help smiling when he heard the words: "You kid has become a fortune-teller, isn't it? You can see whether I am happy or not."
"Uh… "
Chen Fan scratched his head, a little tangled.
He actually had a stubborn temperament, and he didn't really hear that Gu Juefei was just making a joke on him. Instead, he thought about it for a long time and replied seriously: "Anyway, Mr. Ji said that Young Master Xue has spiritual energy, and he also said that you This trip is not in vain, I see that you are different from usual, so you must be very happy."
different from usual
Gu Juefei was curious about what he usually looked like.
He raised his eyebrows slightly, drank the wine in the glass, and asked, "Where's Meng Ji?"
"Mr. Meng sent Mr. Ji back, saying that he won't be able to come back in a while, and he's going to inquire about the news from Princess Yongning."
Chen Fan recalled what Meng Ji said when he left, and answered honestly.
"He said that during the apprenticeship ceremony before, he saw the eldest princess leaving halfway, and he felt that something was wrong. As for the news, he said that he would come back to you when he came back."
When Meng Ji was doing things, Gu Juefei was still very relieved.
But Princess Yongning...
He frowned slightly, and the smile on his lips became somewhat ironic: he didn't see the situation at the apprenticeship ceremony at that time, but when he turned his head back, Princess Yongning had disappeared.
Guess also knows, she is afraid that she is not very used to it.
There were not many people who knew about Xue Kuang back then, and Princess Yongning was one of them.
She could see Xue Kuang being plotted to death by him, but now she couldn't see him coveting Xue Kuang's widow, and she couldn't bear him accepting Xue Kuang's direct son as a student...
In the final analysis, there is still quite a connection between her and the General's Mansion.
Isn't the late husband of Princess Yongning the uncle Xue Huan of Xue Kuang? It was just that at the border back then, he also unfortunately died and died in battle.
The thoughts overlapped so far, and the deep dark light in Gu Juefei's eyes became more and more obscure, but it disappeared as he lowered his eyes.
Putting down the wine cup, holding the long table in his hand, he got up.
After the prosperous period, the Yuewei Museum looked a little desolate on this starry and moon-filled night.
Gu Juefei glanced at it, but what suddenly came to mind was Xue Chi's answer sheet, but it was Lu Jinxi who was watching him with a dangling demeanor.
He smiled slightly, then turned around and walked outside: "Let's go, it's getting late, it's time to go back."
When the child has entered.
There are thousands of households in the capital, and there is silence. Apart from the soldiers patrolling the city, there were no other figures on the street. Whether it is a dignitary or a commoner, they are now in a general sound sleep.
But at this moment, Wan Baochang, the chief steward of the Grand Master's Mansion, felt uneasy.
"Ugh… "
He stood near the side door, looking at the lantern of the Taishi's mansion hanging next to him for a while, and the stars and moon in the sky for a while, but his heart was full of ups and downs, and he couldn't help but start pacing back and forth.
"Tattoo..."
On the silent road, the sound of horse hooves was heard in the distance, and it was getting closer.
Wan Bao often heard it, he was shocked, and quickly stopped to look at the source of the sound.
Not long after, a tall jujube red horse and a carriage appeared on the road at the back. Gu Juefei, who was wearing a black azure crane cloak, came back alone.
When he reached the gate of the mansion, he turned over and dismounted, and there was a faint smile on his lips.
"Housekeeper Wan, are you still here at this hour?"
At a glance, he saw Wan Baochang who was waiting by the door, Gu Juefei handed the reins to the servant who came up, walked up, and asked in a normal tone.
Wan Baochang was relieved when he saw him: "You are back, Master has been waiting for you for a long time."
"… "
At this moment, Gu Juefei stepped into the gate of the mansion, but suddenly stopped, and the faint smile on his lips slowly disappeared.
"wait for me?"
"Yes, in the ancestral hall, after you come back, I will let you go."
Wan Baochang glanced at him cautiously, but in fact, he felt a little bit scared. Because today's scene always reminds him unconsciously of six years ago...
Also night.
Also waiting for Gu Juefei to come back.
It is also the shrine.
The difference is that the moon and stars are sparse tonight, and it was raining heavily that night.
Gu Juefei looked back at the night sky, as if he wanted to see if there would be an earth-shaking downpour tonight, but soon, he withdrew his eyes, nodded, and smiled plainly: "I'll go."
This demeanor seems to be no different from Gu Juefei of the past.
After speaking, he started again, but the direction he was going was no longer his own courtyard.
Wan Bao often looked at it, only to feel inexplicably uncomfortable.
He wanted to follow, light a lantern for the eldest son, and send him over, but when he thought of Gu Chengqian's order, he stopped and stayed where he was.
In the huge Taishi Mansion, the lights were turned off everywhere.
Only the ancestral hall located in the deepest part of the house is still lit. Three or five dim yellow lamps illuminate the plaques in the hall, and the portraits of the sages of the Gu family hanging on the three walls. A dark red wooden staff on a table—
The "Family Law" of the Gu family.
Of course, it also followed a figure in the hall.
The Taishi, who used to be the most powerful in the court, now has a little old-fashioned dragon bell. The gray hair was dazzled by the dim candlelight. But his figure was still straight, as if he was still standing on the court.
The events of the past overlapped in his mind.
Xue Kuang's young face kept flashing in front of his eyes, and in the blink of an eye, it was covered with blood, which was cut off by the sharp light of the sword.
Gu Chengqian stood for so long that he had forgotten the time and was even a little dazed.
Behind him, when the footsteps sounded, he did not react immediately.
Until the voice he was waiting for sounded: "It's so late, I don't know if Master Taishi is looking for me, what's the matter?"
His voice was calm, and he could not hear the ups and downs of emotions.
The unfamiliar and polite "Master Taishi" separated the father and son who should have been intimate.
When Gu Chengqian looked back, Gu Juefei had already walked in.
He stopped a few steps behind him, his face was calm, and he couldn't pick out the slightest mistake, and there was even a little smile in his eyes.
It was as if he was not facing his father, but any ordinary person in the world.
How familiar
How strange.
This is what people all over the world praised, and he was the next head of the Gu family.
At this moment, great ridicule, accompanied by disappointment and anger, poured out of his heart.
Gu Chengqian closed his eyes slightly, and almost tried his best to keep himself calm. He only looked at him and said coldly, "Kneel down."
kneel down
Gu Juefei heard the words, but suddenly hooked his lips, and there was no surprise in his demeanor. It seems that before he came, he already knew what would happen and what would happen.
Six years ago, wasn't that the case
When he returned from the palace, Wan Bao often told him that his father was waiting for him in the ancestral hall. So he went, and what was waiting for him was the same "kneel down" that seemed to be utterly disappointed.
Six years ago, I didn't know what was waiting for me, so I knelt down according to my words.
But today...
Gu Juefei's gaze swept across the "ancestors" of Gu's family in the ancestral hall, and finally fell back on Gu Chengqian's body. He opened his mouth with a smile, and asked lightly, "Master Taishi, What did you hear today?"
There is no sarcasm in the words, and there is no concealment in the slightest.
People are still standing upright in the hall, where does it mean to kneel at all
"Okay, okay, okay! You're good at it now..."
When Gu Chengqian saw it, the anger that had been suppressed was constantly rising and falling in his chest. He turned around directly, took down the "family law" on the record, and held it tightly in his hand.
"I'll ask you again, are you kneeling or not?!"
"kneel?"
Hearing this, Gu Juefei finally sneered.
"I'm not at fault, why should I kneel?"
"No fault and no fault?!"
Gu Chengqian couldn't help but questioned loudly, almost all of Zaisuke's calmness and rationality all his life was exhausted at this moment.
"You Gu Juefei dare to say so openly that you are right?!"
"boom!"
The dark red wooden staff was raised high and swung directly towards Gu Juefei!
"Xue Kuang has already made plans for you. He died in battle, and his bones are gone! How lonely is his widow alive?"
"It's not enough for you to figure him out, and now you have to accept him as a posthumous student!"
"A six-year-old child, innocent and ignorant of the world! Gu Juefei, Gu Juefei, how dare you do such a thing that betrays God's conscience and destroys human relations!"
"boom!"
It's heavy again!
The excruciating pain immediately came from his body.
This is the pain that Gu Juefei had experienced six years ago. At that time, not only did he feel pain, but he even felt full of incomprehension. The bone-eroding chill was more than physical pain.
But now, what is left
Sure enough, he knew that he wanted to accept Xue Chi as a student.
Princess Yongning, who was the insider of what happened back then, didn't think much of him, let alone his father who always felt sorry for Xue Chi, a "loyal and good general"
He should have thought that when he came back, it would be a violent storm.
One day, Saisuke.
The father who drove him out of the house.
Gu Juefei thought that he should feel a little deeper at this time, but at the end, his heart was ashes, perhaps, there was the slowly rising, squeezing for too long...
Unwilling, and angry.
"In your heart, I am so sinful, so unbearable. Even accepting a student has become a full of conspiracy calculations!"
He stared at Gu Chengqian's body trembling with anger, his gray hair due to his old age, and finally laughed almost sullenly.
"Father, why don't you think it's me who sees his talent, intelligence, and sincerity, and wants to teach it with all my money?"
Father…
Simple words, but at this moment, they are extremely heavy.
The moment he heard it, Gu Chengqian was in a trance uncontrollably, and countless images appeared in his mind.
It was when the young Gu Juefei could write his name for the first time, when the school-going Gu Juefei refuted his husband for the first time, when he decided to travel far away, when he went out to say goodbye, it was the Gu Juefei who was inscribed on the Golden List at the Xinglin Banquet. When seeing him...
One at a time, one at a time.
But these voices ended on the rainy night six years ago.
They all turned into a rusty and indifferent "Master Taishi"...
Standing in front of him is his son, Gu Chengqian!
He taught him knowledge, knew him by etiquette, knew him by righteousness, heard him by the world's livelihood, and hoped that he would become the most resourceful, best, and best person in the world.
The love between father and son dissolves in blood.
Who can endure irrelevance, who can cut it off with one knife
The wrinkles on his face were filled with traces of time, and Gu Chengqian's eyes suddenly turned red.
How much did he think about it, let him shout such a sound, write off everything in the past
Just like the six years of the gap between father and son, it never existed; also when they only saw the grievances and calculations of breaking up, it never happened...
But he can't.
Xue Kuang looked at him in Tianying Soul!
Those innocent soldiers in the army looked at him!
How can all this be written off like this
Looking at Gu Juefei in front of him, this "perfect man" who could hardly pick out a mistake in his eyes, Gu Chengqian's face was suddenly filled with hatred and disgust!
Those cruel three words finally came out: "...You are not worthy!"
You do not deserve.
It was like a loud slap that suddenly fell on the face!
Gu Juefei suddenly felt that it was actually raining on this starry night.
It's big and it's cold.
It was even bigger and colder than it was back then. It froze his body and flesh, bone and blood, and also drowned out the hope of the last spark in that mass of dead ashes, which will no longer rekindle.
Not worthy.
Ten years of cold window, learning to get rich five cars; four years of study tour, knowledge all over the world. He once made strategies for the world, once made practical theories, and once saved the people of Li from starvation and cold...
Twenty-nine years, in the end, in exchange for "unworthy"!
Just because of one Xue Kuang!
A meritorious minister, a chaotic minister and thief!
"Not worthy of..."
Gu Juefei suddenly wanted to laugh, but in the end he was afraid that he would burst into tears, so he had to bury the irony and disappointment in his heart.
Then, pour out the hostile aura leached little by little.
The good-looking eyebrow peaks are stained with a few frost-like chills.
He finally smiled, and the emotions that had been suppressed for six years in his heart were finally released at this moment, like an endless cloud covering his eyes, full of malice.
"It's not worthy anymore, then if I tell Master Taishi - I still want to marry Lu Jinxi?"
"… "
At this moment, Gu Chengqian was stunned.
A chill rose from under his feet, making him tremble uncontrollably, and the anger in his chest boiled to the extreme at this moment!
"you you!"
"I am about to stand, and I have already reached the age of marrying a wife and having children, starting a family and starting a business."
Gu Chengqian pointed at Gu Juefei's finger, trembling along with his old body and gray beard, but Gu Juefei didn't have the slightest reaction, just spoke in a straight voice.
"Now I am happy with her, and Master Taishi also praised her a lot earlier, isn't it?"
"Badness..."
Gu Chengqian was already trembling with anger when he heard it.
Gu Juefei, who was standing in front of him, seemed to be the handsome young man of the past, but at this moment, in his eyes, he was a real beast with a human face, a monster in human skin!
"They are orphans and widows, and they have no grievances with you... How dare you! How dare you?!"
"evil creature!"
"evil creature!"
"I beat you to death!"
He clenched the dark red wooden staff tightly, and was about to swing it towards Gu Juefei's body.
But maybe it was because he had been standing for a long time tonight, maybe it was because his body was not as good as before, maybe it was because his anger was rising.
"when!"
The hard iron and sandalwood staff slammed heavily on the ground.
Gu Chengqian held on to one end of the wooden stick, gasping for breath, only to feel that his standing was unsteady, and he almost fell to the ground.
old.
also sick.
Gu Juefei stood in front of him, watching this scene, without speaking, he was clearly lit by the candlelight of the ancestral hall, but he seemed to be standing in darkness.
After a long time, he slowly walked up.
He took the heavy iron and sandalwood staff from Gu Chengqian's clenched hand, put it back on the shelf in front of the case, and said lightly: "The sky is cold and dew is heavy, Master Taishi should go back to rest early. If there is nothing else. , if you feel bad, you will retire first."
After all, he bowed.
Gu Juefei stood there almost slumped, and only looked at him with those eyes that were about to burst into flames, but Gu Juefei didn't even look at him, let alone what his reaction was, he just took a step and walked towards the outside of the ancestral hall.
"Don't even think about it!"
"Gu Juefei, I won't agree, don't even think about it!!!"
About a dozen steps out of the way, the hoarse and angry voice came from the ancestral hall behind him.
Gu Juefei's footsteps stopped, but he didn't look back, just raised his head and looked at the night sky...
It is still the bright moon, and there are still stars.
Nothing has changed.
Just like people.
do not agree...
So what
Gu Juefei slowly withdrew his gaze and walked towards his courtyard in the west of the mansion. After passing through the corridors and passages he had walked thousands of times, he saw the door that was hidden.
Getting used to the days in Xue Cui Ding, his courtyard is now only himself.
So at this moment, the yard is pitch-dark, with no light at all, only the begonias and pear flowers that were planted a few years ago, glowing a little white under the moonlight.
He went in.
Just before he could open the door, a snow-white, small shadow suddenly appeared in the room on the other side: "Woo, woo, woo!"
It was a snow-white puppy.
It seems that when Gu Juefei opened the door, it heard movement, or smelled a familiar smell, and rushed out and ran towards Gu Juefei.
It's just that it's too happy and runs too happily.
Seeing that it was about to get to Gu Juefei's side, it didn't have time to stop, and slammed its head into the low threshold, and suddenly cried out "Oooooooooo" pitifully.
Gu Juefei saw it and was stunned for a moment.
Even though the pain on the shoulders, back, waist and side was terrifying, at this time, he couldn't help but laugh: "The lost dog meets the lost dog, and the broken heart meets the broken heart. If you hit this one, you will not be able to feel wronged..."
"Woooo."
The little milk dog bit the corner of his robe and wagged his tail, and he didn't know if he understood.
So Gu Juefei didn't go back, as if he had lost his strength, he slowly sat down on the steps. When the wind blows in the cold night, it seems to be cold to the bone.
Perhaps because of the moonlight, there was no blood on his face and lips.
In the air, there was a faint smell of blood, mixed with a faint floral fragrance.
Seeing him sit down, the little milk dog also ran two steps over and lay beside him.
One person and one dog, all together under the eaves watching the moon.
"Not worthy of..."
Gu Juefei just put his hand on its furry little head, looking at it, or maybe looking at himself; asking it, maybe asking himself.
"Gu Juefei, I said that I am sincere now, do you believe it..."