Every late spring, the rhododendrons on the hill behind the Jokhang Temple in Beijing bloom in full bloom.
Zhou Shaojin walked on the bluestone path on the back mountain of the Jokhang Temple. He felt that his life was like the blooming azalea. It seemed brilliant, but in fact it only lasted for a few days. After that, there was only loneliness after withering.
She couldn't help but look up at the pavilion on the top of the mountain.
Amidst the green, the red pavilion is bright and eye-catching, the high eaves are exquisite and slender. A tall and slender man in a green robe leans against the railing and looks into the distance. The corners of his robe, blown by the wind on the top of the mountain, flutter like a butterfly, revealing his snow-white knee-length pants, as if he is about to fly away with the wind, just like the person in the painting, indescribably handsome and free and easy.
Zhou Shaojin felt sore in the corners of his eyes and pinched his sleeves tightly.
There was a cold hardness at my fingertips.
She calmed down a little and walked slowly towards the top of the mountain.
"You're here!" The person in the pavilion showed joy on his face and came out to greet him.
Zhou Shaojin stood still and said coldly, "Cheng Lu, you don't have the handwritten letter my father wrote to Uncle Cheng, right?"
The man called "Cheng Lu" was surprised, frowned and said unhappily: "Shao Jin, who told you what nonsense? We grew up together, don't you know what kind of person I am? If Wu Baozhang hadn't deliberately tried to please my mother and made her misunderstand, how could my mother send someone to the Wu family to propose marriage? How could there be a rift between you and me, allowing Cheng Xu to take advantage of it..."
When Zhou Shaojin heard Cheng Lu mention the words "Cheng Xu", his face suddenly turned pale and his hands and feet couldn't stop shaking slightly.
Cheng Lu realized that he had said something wrong, and a trace of regret flashed in his eyes. He quickly changed the subject and said, "I have been thinking about you all these years. I heard that the Cheng family was executed, so I rushed here from Ningbo overnight because I was afraid that you would be implicated by your father..."
Zhou Shaojin took a deep breath to calm herself down. Seeing that Cheng Lu was still treating her like an ignorant woman and child, she couldn't help but interrupt him and said sarcastically, "So you want to make that complaint, accusing my father of being a member of the Cheng family, colluding with the Cheng family, and being an accomplice of the Cheng family?"
"You are wronging me again!" Cheng Lu's face changed again and again when he heard this, and he said anxiously, "If I wanted to expose my uncle, I would have sent the letter to the governor's office long ago. Why wait until now! I said this just to get you to come out and see me!"
Zhou Shaojin was silent.
He is right!
If she wasn't worried about her father's safety, as a woman in the inner house, she would not come out to see him no matter what Cheng Lu said.
Seeing this, Cheng Lu couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief and said, "Shao Jin, your father is the son-in-law of the Cheng family. The emperor intends to put the Cheng family to death, but he is also concerned that the Cheng family's in-laws are all masters of poetry and literature in Jiangnan, and he is afraid of causing unrest in the literati in Jiangnan. This is why he cut the Gordian knot and only implicated the Cheng family. But who can guarantee that the emperor will not settle the accounts afterwards and purge the Cheng family's disciples and old friends? Your father will definitely be implicated by then. Even your brother-in-law Liao Shaotang, as the eldest son of the Liao family, can only draw a clear line with the Zhou family for the sake of the Liao family's century-old foundation!
“What will you do then
"Can you still bear to drag down your sister at this time
"It would be fine if you and Lin Shisheng treated each other with respect, but Lin Shisheng favors his concubine over his wife. You've been married for only a year, and he took in a concubine on the grounds that you were 'childless'. When your mother-in-law died, he threw you to the farm in the name of 'recuperation', and let that concubine take charge of the household affairs of the mansion. He also had three children with that concubine. He no longer had eyes for you! Once you have no one to rely on, it's good enough for him not to add insult to injury. You want to keep your position as the main wife, that's impossible. I'm afraid he'll go all out and secretly give you medicine and announce to the public that you 'died of illness'... Are you just going to sit there and wait for death?"
As he spoke, he took a few steps forward and walked in front of Zhou Shaojin, softening his voice and saying, "Shaojin, come with me! Let's never care about the troubles of this world again, and just live our own fairy-like life wholeheartedly, okay? I have achieved some success in Ningbo now, and whoever sees me dares to call me 'Master Cheng' disrespectfully - I am no longer the Cheng Lu who had no power and depended on the Cheng family for life! When the time comes, I will build you a yard like Wanxiangju, plant a magnolia in front of the door, and a grape vine in the yard. In the spring, you can paint through the window and I will read a book on the side. In the summer, you can dry your hair under the grape vine and I will comb your hair on the side, just like when we were children, okay?"
After not seeing her for ten years, she no longer had the delicate and shy look of a young girl. Her originally slender figure was even thinner than a bamboo shoot, and her skin, which was as delicate as a touch of a bamboo, was no longer as rosy as before, but pale as white. There were two shallow wrinkles between her eyebrows due to long-term frowning, and her expression was full of melancholy. But even so, she was still stunningly beautiful, and because she was too thin, she looked even more fragile and beautiful than before, which made people feel pity for her and afraid that she would be blown away by the wind on the top of the mountain.
A woman like this should be held in the palm of her hand and lived her life!
As soon as the thought came to his mind, Cheng Lu couldn't help but hug Zhou Shaojin in his arms, his tone revealing expectation and tenderness: "I will protect you! No one will bully you again! Whether it's the Cheng family or the Zhou family, we will forget everything and start over..."
His words suddenly stopped and he let go of Zhou Shaojin with a look of horror.
Zhou Shaojin's eyes turned red without knowing when, staring at Cheng Lu with hatred: "Go with you? Then how are you going to place your wife? Don't forget, it was your father-in-law who took you in when you were at your lowest point, and it was your father-in-law who took you into business and supported you in starting your own business when you were most helpless. That's why you became the 'Master Cheng' today! Or have you never thought of divorcing your wife and marrying someone else, but just want to coax me into eloping with you?"
How could Zhou Shaojin, who has always been gentle and timid and couldn't even bear to pick a flower, actually hurt him
Cheng Lu was so shocked that he had no time to care about anything else.
He looked down at his abdomen.
A pair of yellow scissors pierced deeply into his abdomen. Bright red blood flowed out along the scissors, slowly soaking his clothes and also dyeing red the pair of white and transparent hands that were tightly holding the scissors... It also hurt Cheng Lu's eyes.
"You're crazy!" He looked at Zhou Shaojin in disbelief and pushed her away.
The thin Zhou Shaojin staggered two steps and fell to the ground. Her palms were rubbed raw, her hair was messy, and her body was covered with dust. But she immediately got up and rushed towards Cheng Lu who was covering his abdomen regardless of anything: "To this day, you still want to lie to me! I am no longer the Zhou Shaojin of ten years ago. I saw you that day, you were standing under the rose tree, wearing those dark green shoes with cloud patterns. You watched me being bullied by that bastard Cheng Xu, and you didn't say a word... Now you are threatening me, saying that you have evidence of my father and Uncle Cheng's collusion, and that my sister and brother-in-law will be implicated by the Zhou family. You said that Lin Shisheng would kill me... In the end, you just want me to commit myself to you... I would rather I had never met you! You despicable villain!"
Tears couldn't stop flowing from her eyes.
She wanted to stab Cheng Lu again, but the blood on her hands made her limbs weak, and she couldn't pull the scissors out of Cheng Lu's body. She was unwilling to give up the chance to kill Cheng Lu, so she had to twist the scissors randomly.
This made Cheng Lu's injuries even worse.
He came to his senses in a cold sweat from the pain.
What happened back then was exposed, and Zhou Shaojin, who had always obeyed him, dared to turn against him, which made Cheng Lu furious.
He slapped Zhou Shaojin hard and cursed, "Bitch! You are just a pair of old shoes that Cheng Xu didn't want after sleeping with you. What qualifications do you have to question me? Isn't it for this reason that Lin Shisheng never enters your room? Do you think you are still the second lady of the Zhou family..."
Zhou Shaojin didn't dodge or evade, and let him slap him in the face.
She just pursed her lips and held the scissors tightly.
Only then did Cheng Lu realize Zhou Shaojin's intention.
He couldn't push Zhou Shaojin away, and the pain where he was stabbed was excruciating, which made him scared.
Am I going to die here
He instinctively grabbed Zhou Shaojin's neck and said in panic: "Do you think you can kill me like this? Stop dreaming! I might as well tell you honestly, when the Cheng family was raided, although the fourth master Cheng ran away and then rescued Cheng Xu from the execution ground, the soldiers were chasing them everywhere. The last time they were found in Huaihua, Huguang, Cheng Xu had one arm chopped off! So what if he is the eldest grandson of the Cheng family? So what if he is a 19-year-old Jieyuanlang? Now he is still a rat crossing the street, and everyone is shouting and beating him, and he can't take care of himself! You are counting on him to save you, you might as well sleep with Lin Shisheng. Maybe Lin Shisheng will give you a way to live because you are Cheng Xu's beloved!"
Cheng Xu!
When Zhou Shaojin heard the name again, he was stunned for a moment. He no longer had the heart to care about Cheng Lu's viciousness.
She remembered that in the first few years after she arrived in Beijing, Cheng Xu would always kneel at her sister's door on her birthday in the twelfth lunar month.
The heavy snow fell on him, turning him into a snowman.
Later, Master Cheng Si came and had him put on a carriage, and he never came again!
But now that he has found her, she is no longer afraid.
She had no intention of walking out of the Jokhang Temple alive!
Or be killed by Cheng Lu!
Or commit suicide!
She also knew that the scissors were not enough to kill Cheng Lu.
But she couldn't find anything better to assassinate Cheng Lu without making any noise.
Moreover, her father was still in high office at that time, her sister and brother-in-law were still safe, and the Jokhang Temple where she met Cheng Lu was where she worshipped Buddha all year round. If she died in the back mountain of the Jokhang Temple, Cheng Lu would not be able to escape the charge of raping a decent woman!
Even if he wanted to frame the Zhou family, he couldn't do it!
That's enough!
In her life, because she fell in love with Cheng Lu, she made her upright father lose face, her gentle and capable sister worry about her, and her uncle Cheng and the royal family fell out. All she could do now was to make her father have one less enemy and her sister less dangerous. When she met her uncle Cheng in the underworld, she could cover her face and pay her respects to him.
As for her reputation, it was ruined ten years ago, so what is there to worry about!
She looked up, and saw the blue sky.
it's beautiful!
Just like what she saw when she was lying in the back garden of the Cheng family as a child.
At that time, her sister had not yet married, Cheng Ji had not yet died, and she had not yet been grouped together with them and Cheng Lu.
They imitated the ancients and held a banquet with wine flowing and water playing, playing the piano and flute, catching butterflies and fighting with grass, and having fun...
She regrets it so much!
How could she fall in love with Cheng Lu, this hypocrite, in the first place
If only I could go back in time.
She will definitely open her eyes, see clearly the human heart, stop being so weak, and stay away from Cheng Lu...
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Sisters and brothers, new books, please collect, recommend, click, various data streams...
O(∩_∩)O~
※(To be continued)