Spring in Nanjing

Chapter 12: secret

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"What's wrong? What's wrong?" Zhou Chujin stood up in a panic, hugged Zhou Shaojin tightly, and shouted to the maid, "Hold the incense, apply the incense, light the lamp quickly!"

The room lit up.

Zhou Shaojin looked at the blood on his hands, his face showing horror, and he screamed miserably as if he was in a state of collapse: "Blood, blood, blood..."

"Shaojin, Shaojin." Zhou Chujin's voice changed with fear. "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, sister is here! Sister is here!" As she spoke, she also saw the blood on Zhou Shaojin's hand. She quickly lifted the quilt and saw that there was a patch of blood under Zhou Shaojin. Zhou Chujin breathed a sigh of relief, and her heart fell. She said in an angry and amused tone: "Okay, okay, it's okay, it's okay, your menstrual period has come!"

Is that really true

Zhou Shaojin looked at Zhou Chujin anxiously.

Zhou Chujin tapped her sister’s forehead and said with a smile: “Can my sister really lie to you? Look at you…” She smiled and shook her head, and said: “Our Shaojin has also grown up!” At the end of her words, she was already very emotional.

Zhou Shaojin didn't understand.

Fan Liu, who heard the noise and ran in wearing her clothes and slippers, knew.

"This is the Second Miss's first time!" She instructed Shi Xiang with a smile, "Go and boil some brown sugar water for the Second Miss!" But she turned around and went back to her room.

Zhou Chujin held his sister in his arms and whispered in her ear some things to pay attention to.

But Zhou Shaojin was in a daze.

In other words, she just had a dream.

It's not a return to the past.

But that dream revealed the secret that she had hidden deep in her heart and dared not touch for the past ten years.

When the news of Cheng Lu and Wu Baozhang's engagement came out, it was very sudden. At that time, her elder sister had already married, and her grandmother and aunt were secretly helping her prepare for the wedding. Not to mention the fourth room, even Cheng Lu's mother Jiang was very surprised and hurried over to find out the truth.

My grandmother was such a strong person, but she fell ill all of a sudden.

Uncle Miao was so angry that he kept cursing. Cheng Yi rolled up his sleeves and wanted to find Cheng Lu to settle the score, but Cheng Gao stopped Cheng Yi: "Now that things have come to this, can Cheng Lu still break off the engagement with the Wu family? Even if he wants to break off the engagement with the Wu family and marry Shao Jin, don't think we will agree." He sneered, "It's all our fault that we didn't know him well and mistook an ungrateful person for a gentleman. Shao Jin will get married in the future. Your making a fuss is just a romantic affair for Cheng Lu, but it can cost Shao Jin's life. A gentleman's revenge is never too late. Just wait and see. If I don't deal with him, I won't be named 'Cheng'."

The eldest aunt also stopped Cheng Yi: "This matter is just a verbal agreement between our two families, and there is no token of exchange. It was our fault. You must not make a fuss. If any rumors spread, Shao Jin will be the only one who suffers." She also advised her, "Let's just think of it as a dog bite. In the future, the eldest aunt will find you a better family than Cheng Lu, and live in harmony with you, so that Cheng Lu will regret it."

She was unwilling to accept it.

It wasn't her who was clinging to Cheng Lu. Now that Cheng Lu had betrayed her, it became her fault. Not only that, but she also implicated her grandmother, aunt, uncle, and cousins, all of whom were embarrassed because of her.

So when her father wrote to her saying that her stepmother would come to take her to her new post, she was unwilling to follow her stepmother to Baoding, saying, "My grandmother will make the decision for me."

The stepmother didn't dare to make the decision, so she wrote a letter to her father and temporarily lived in the Cheng family.

Cheng Lu didn't come, but Wu Baozhang did.

Wu Baozhang knelt in front of her, his face full of shame: "This marriage was decided by my stepmother. By the time I found out, the two families had already made the decision... If I had known in advance, I would never have agreed to it..."

She didn't care what Wu Baozhang thought.

Cousin Gao was right. No matter what, the two families could not cancel the engagement. Even if they did, she would not marry Cheng Lu. She just wanted an explanation!

Cheng Ji asked her to go for a walk in the garden, saying that he had something to say to her.

They walked to a small cave made of Taihu stones beside the waterside pavilion. Cheng Ji winked at her mysteriously and said, "Wait here. I have something good for you."

She was waiting in the cave for Cheng Ji to come back.

But what he got was a drunk Cheng Xu.

Zhou Shaojin began to tremble.

Like sifting bran, uncontrollable, the teeth chattering against each other and making a clattering sound.

"Shaojin, Shaojin." Zhou Chujin was so scared that she was about to cry. She hugged her sister in her arms again and shouted at Fan Liu, "Go and invite my aunt over. Go and invite my aunt over."

“I’m fine, I’m fine.” Zhou Shaojin hugged his sister tightly, like a dying person holding a life-saving straw, greedily absorbing the warmth from Zhou Chujin, “I’m just cold, sister, hold me, hold me... Don’t call me aunt, it’s too embarrassing... It’s better to let me die... Don’t call me aunt..."

"Okay, okay, okay. I won't call you aunt." Zhou Chujin's tears fell, "I'll hold you, I'll hold you."

Zhou Shaojin refused and insisted that Zhou Chujin call Fan Liu back.

Zhou Chujin nodded and winked at Fan Liushi.

Mrs. Fan Liu was standing at the door.

Zhou Chujin hugged Zhou Shaojin tightly.

Zhou Shaojin leaned on his sister's shoulder and began to cry.

She seemed to hear Cheng Ji's scream and the voice of disbelief: "Why are you here? What are you doing? How could you do such a shameless thing! I want to tell my mother, no, I want to tell my aunt..."

Then, many people came over.

Someone helped her up, took her back to her bedroom, cleaned her, changed her clothes, and tucked her into bed...

She was in a daze, not knowing the difference between day and night.

Afterwards, she was helped to the hall.

My aunt and Yuan were arguing there, and Yuan pointed at her nose and called her lewd and promiscuous.

Later, her father rushed back and stood by her bed, silently shedding tears.

My uncle came in with my grandmother, bent his knees and was about to kneel down to apologize to my father.

Without saying a word, my father helped my grandmother up and walked out.

She got engaged to Cheng Xu.

Yuan wanted to teach her personally.

My grandmother and aunt disagreed.

Yuan raised her chin high and said sarcastically, "She is the wife of our Cheng family. You can't even take care of a girl who lives in seclusion, let alone the eldest grandson's wife who is in charge of the household."

My grandmother and my aunt were choked and speechless, their faces turning red.

"I'll go!" She stood up.

The aunt wiped her tears and helped her dress up helplessly.

Cheng Xu peeked at her on her way to the main house.

Yuan humiliated her in the side room of the upper house.

In front of her, he also instructed the mother who accompanied the emperor in the bedroom to find a few maids who were good-looking and smart, so that they could serve as Cheng Xu's concubines in the future.

She knelt numbly in the ear room, reciting "The Commandments for Women", and let them torment her.

But one day, when she looked up inadvertently, the contempt and disdain shown by the maids and old women when they looked at her hurt her heart like needles.

She suddenly woke up.

I felt like I had a long dream.

Why does she have to live like this

What did she do wrong again

Why can Cheng Xu get away with it without any punishment, while she has to suffer here under the condemnation of thousands of people

Where did your sister go

She is going to find her sister!

If her sister knew that she was living this kind of life, she would definitely help her!

She put all the gold and silver ingots in the box in her arms, and on a windy and moonless night, she and her wet nurse Fan Liu left the Cheng family and left Jinling.

Fan Liushi found a large cargo ship to Beijing, and the two hid in the bottom of the cabin. She vomited all the way to Beijing, but encountered a heavy snowstorm in Tongzhou and was trapped in the post station. Fan Liushi pawned the Fan family's ancestral gold bracelet, and they were able to find the Liao family's old house in Beijing.

She didn't know whether the news of her departure had spread to Kyoto, or whether the Liao family knew what happened in Jinling. She was afraid that her sister would be looked down upon because of her, so she rented a small courtyard not far from the Liao residence to live.

The wind and snow in the north cut into people's bodies like knives, freezing cold.

Fan Liu was squatting at the entrance of the alley where her sister lived, waiting for someone. She huddled in a room with no floor heating and drafts coming in from all sides, with only a brazier in the house to keep warm. It was not until the ninth day that Fan Liu, whose face had turned blue from the cold, appeared in front of her with her sleeves rolled up and her sister, who was covered in snow and covered her face with a hood.

"How did you become so thin?" my sister exclaimed in surprise.

Not sure if it was because of the cold, fear, or embarrassment, she was shivering and couldn't utter a word.

Fortunately, the elder sister did not ask anything. She took off her fur coat and wrapped her tightly in her arms. She turned to Fan Liu and said, "How can we live here? You pack up and move to the small farm that I brought as a dowry with the second young lady."

Those caring words, still carrying the warmth of his sister's body temperature and fragrance, made Zhou Shaojin, who was frightened but trying hard to hold back, burst into tears like a collapsed river dam.

Her sister patted her back gently and comforted her.

Mrs. Fan Liu wanted to say something but stopped herself.

"It's okay!" the elder sister said in a deep voice, "I've asked Ma Ci to go there - all the servants there will be sent to my farm in Langfang, and the maids and servants to serve you will be bought from Shandong. Wait for the second young lady to recover for a few days, her complexion will not be so bad, and those maids and servants will be used more easily, then you can move to my place. If the people from the Liao family ask, just say that Shaojin missed me and came to the capital to visit me." As she spoke, her face suddenly turned cold, "Her son is a treasure, but is our Zhou family's daughter a weed? You just live here with me, I don't want anyone to say anything bad about you. After a while, I will find a good marriage for Shaojin, so that she won't think that Shaojin can't get married except to the Cheng family!"

Can she still get married like this

Does my sister know what happened to her

She opened her eyes wide in surprise, not daring to look at her sister, and looked at Fan Liu.

Mrs. Fan Liu nodded with tears in her eyes.

She felt relieved.

She would rather jump into Mochou Lake than have to say such a shameful thing again in person to her sister, whom she cared about the most and was closest to.

"Sister!" She wanted to stop her sister, but she murmured, not knowing how to start.

"I have my own opinion on this matter," said the elder sister, suppressing her anger. "Just focus on getting well in my little farm!"

Yes, with her sister protecting her, what does she have to be afraid of!

She felt relieved and focused on recuperating her health on the small farm.

Who knew that she would be pregnant

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※(To be continued)