“Wow!” The woman who spoke first sighed, “It’s not easy for Lord Sima. Even Duke Deng has taken a liking to him. He’s finally made it!”
Before the woman next to her could reply, she heard someone ask, "Which Sima Marquis are you talking about?"
The woman raised her eyes and saw Mingyu. The little girl had fair and bright complexion and looked at her seriously.
"You just came to the capital, right?" The woman looked Mingyu up and down and said, "Everyone knows that there is only one Lord Sima in the capital!"
Fu Lemei secretly held Mingyu's hand and asked, "Is that the Marquis of Anxi who went to the northwest to kill the Tartars?"
The woman was too lazy to talk about all this with the two little girls. Gossip about the powerful can only be discussed in private with people you are familiar with. No one would come up to them and ask questions after hearing it. It's not like they were listening to storytelling in a teahouse. These two little girls were too ignorant.
"Maybe, I'm not sure either, I just heard it from others." The woman said perfunctorily and coldly, pushing her friends beside her, and the two of them hurriedly left with the maid.
Mingyu looked at the two women's backs as they walked away quickly, lost in thought.
Fu Lemei shook Mingyu's hand and whispered, "Don't believe them. Their clothes don't look very good, so I guess their families aren't that good either. Maybe they heard some nonsense and started to talk nonsense."
"That person just said..." Mingyu turned around, looked at Fu Lemei, and asked carefully, "Who is Lord Sima going to marry?" She was shocked for a moment and didn't hear clearly.
From the perspective of Fu Lemei, a naive and lively young lady who has never had to worry about anything, she can't quite understand Mingyu's feelings. However, it doesn't prevent Miss Fu from giving full play to her imagination. Her ex-husband is going to get married again. And the one he is marrying is the daughter of a wealthy family who is several levels higher than Mingyu. As the object of comparison, Mingyu will definitely not be happy. Looking at Mingyu's gaze, Fu Lemei had to say: "The woman said she is the daughter of Duke Deng."
Mingyu stood there, looking at the dragonfly circling low beside the pavilion. Her eyes were blank for a moment. After she recalled what was going on, she asked in a low voice, "Is it the lady whose maiden name is Zhenzhu?" She remembered going to Gao's house with Xu Mingrui and seeing the rich lady from afar.
Fu Lemei nodded, "Among the legitimate daughters of the Deng family, there is only one who is of the right age."
"Oh, so that's it. The daughter of the Duke's Mansion..." Mingyu murmured, unconsciously clenching her handkerchief. She thought that since Sima Hong had married the daughter of the Duke's Mansion, the people in the mansion would no longer despise the new daughter-in-law for her low social status and say that she was not worthy of Lord Sima.
“You, don’t be like this!” Fu Lemei didn’t know how to comfort Mingyu, so she suddenly had an idea and said, “Sima Hong isn’t a very good person either! He… he… it’s Duke Deng who has no vision! He will regret it in the future!”
Mingyu was at a loss whether to laugh or cry again, looking at Fu Lemei who was trying anxiously to persuade her but couldn't find the words to say. She felt that although this girl was a little rash and silly, her true personality was extremely lovable.
"Who is he going to marry..." Mingyu whispered, feeling indescribable anger and loss in her heart. With a vicious emotion that she herself was not aware of, "What does it have to do with me!"
Fu Lemei was watching from the side with great sympathy, and said that she didn't care, even though she was gritting her teeth like this.
After a while, Fu Lejian and Xu Mingye came over and told Fu Leyu, who was waiting outside the pavilion, that they had hired a pleasure boat and it was waiting for them on the shore.
As soon as the few people stepped into the pleasure boat, a dull thunder sounded in the sky. The low-flying dragonflies and swallows seemed to be startled and disappeared in an instant. Soon, raindrops fell and hit the roof of the pleasure boat, making a loud noise.
The ripples formed by the raindrops falling on the lake surface soon formed a whole, and the rain turned into a misty curtain. Looking through the rain curtain, the scenery was different from that on a sunny day.
Fu Lejian was a little older and more steady. He watched his younger brothers Fu Leyu and Fu Lemei get a fishing rod at the stern of the boat and fish in the rain. He smiled and shook his head. Seeing Mingyu sitting there quietly watching the rain, he couldn't help but ask, "Miss Xu, aren't you going to play with Ah Mei?"
Mingyu was startled, then came to her senses, glanced at the smiling Fu Lemei at the stern, shook her head and said apologetically, "No, I don't know how to fish."
Fu Lejian smiled, turned around and went to the stern, acted like an elder brother, and ordered Fu Leyu and Fu Lemei not to play too much, as the noise was making people feel dizzy.
Xu Mingye sat down next to Mingyu and asked with concern: "What's wrong with you? Are you feeling unwell? Why are you so listless? Let's go back when the boat docks."
"No, I'm not feeling uncomfortable. I'm fine." Mingyu shook her head, turned her head and lay down by the window, staring blankly at the rain falling from the sky. She thought the world was really playing a joke on her. She just felt that Prince Qin was a good man, but God immediately told her that Prince Qin had a family. She just changed her impression of Sima Hong, but God told her that Sima Hong had fallen in love with another rich girl.
Xu Mingye pulled Mingyu over with his big hand and asked in a low voice, "What's going on?" All the emotions in this girl's heart were written on her face. Looking at her melancholy and sad expression, even when Xu's Canteen had just opened and business was not good, this money-loving girl had never been seen so depressed.
"Not really..." Mingyu wanted to explain, but her emotions surged into her heart, and her eyes became sore. She wanted to find someone to talk to. Looking at her brother who was concerned, she couldn't help but say to Xu Mingye, "I just heard someone say that Sima Hong had set his eyes on the daughter of Duke Deng..."
Xu Mingye was stunned for a moment, then he gritted his teeth, his handsome face ferocious, "This bastard, he has his eyes on someone else but still comes to provoke you again and again? He is really a dog that can't change..." Xu Mingye stopped talking halfway through the scolding. He was a scholar and couldn't say anything too harsh.
Mingyu was a little embarrassed, and felt that Xu Mingye had gone too far. She couldn't help but defend Sima Hong, saying, "I don't know if it's true yet. Maybe it's a misunderstanding... Wasn't there a rumor before that he could drink Tartar blood, eat Tartar flesh, and turn beans into soldiers?"
Xu Mingye was anxious and angry. He glared at Mingyu, gritting his teeth even more than before, "You are fooling yourself like this! Is he so good? Why didn't you think he was good before? Don't you know what kind of person he is? Just giving him a flat-haired beast makes you think he is good? I think you will get yourself into trouble sooner or later, and you won't even have a place to cry!"
Mingyu's face turned red and white, and she lowered her head silently. To be honest, she didn't quite believe that Sima Hong would like Deng Zhenzhu, but she couldn't help but believe that the two families were interested in getting married. The four words "equally matched" were like a needle piercing her heart, causing her heart to ache.
Fu Lemei, who had already caught a big fish with Fu Leyu, was in high spirits. She excitedly called Mingyu from the stern of the boat to go fishing with her. Mingyu forced a smile and showed little interest. When she was about to refuse, Xu Mingye flicked his finger at Mingyu's forehead, and Mingyu stared at him angrily.
"Who are you showing your dejected look to?" Xu Mingye sneered. "Whether he gets married or not, does it have anything to do with you? Look at you, you look like a grudge woman! Why are you glaring at me? Didn't Miss Fu ask you to go fishing? Go quickly, and make fish soup at home when you catch some fish."
Mingyu snorted. Although she knew that Xu Mingye was trying to enlighten her, she still couldn't help but give Xu Mingye a cold look and pulled Xu Mingye to the stern. Seeing Xu Mingye coming over, Fu Lemei, who was laughing with her two brothers, immediately stood up straight and spoke in a lower voice, becoming a lady with a blush on her face and a closed smile.
Fu Lejian saw it, smiled, and remained calm. He secretly sighed that he never thought that his sister, who was like a boy, would also have such a day of love. He thought Xu Mingye was also good, but his parents probably looked down on the Xu family's family background. Let his sister like him, as long as she didn't do anything out of the ordinary, he would pretend not to know. Who doesn't have someone they like in this world? His sister is about to get married, and the brother and sister won't be together for long.
The rain stopped and the sun came out in the afternoon. After everyone had a great time, they asked the boatman to row the boat back to the shore. After saying goodbye to the Fu brothers and sisters, Mingyu and Xu Mingye took two grass carps weighing two or three pounds home and had delicious fish soup for dinner.
As summer approaches, it gets darker and darker. Mingyu returns to her room after dinner. The sunset has not yet completely set, and the orange-red sun hangs on the horizon. The room is quiet. The fresh wind after the rain blows across the windowsill, making the books open on the table rustle. The crabapple flowers in the yard were at the end of their blooming period. After this storm, all the petals fell to the ground, and the fragrance of the flowers seemed to linger in the air.
Mingyu sat by the window, enjoying the breeze blowing in from the windowsill. It was a rare quiet and pleasant evening. The disappointment she felt in the afternoon when she heard the news that Sima Hong was going to get married was blown away to an unknown corner of her heart by the wind.
The afterglow of the setting sun gradually dimmed, and the starling in the cage also tucked its head and folded its wings, sleeping, no longer chirping during the day. Mingyu was filled with black lines on her forehead when she thought of this stupid bird. No matter how she taught it, this stupid bird could not learn anything else, and could only shout the same sentence over and over again, "Mingyu likes Sima Hong! Good luck and good fortune!"
She had no choice but to lock the stupid bird in her room, for fear that others would hear it. Even if she had many mouths all over her body, she couldn't explain it clearly.
Mingyu touched the jade ruyi hidden under the pillow. It was cold and delicate to the touch. She put the jade ruyi next to the mynah bird. Mingyu sat there staring blankly. Thinking of that idiot, she felt angry for no reason.
Since you don't cherish her, why bother to mess with her heart!