Sushenfang is where the Heishui Mohe people live. There are more Hu people than Han people in the town. Once you enter the town, you will feel like you are in a foreign country. People coming and going are all foreigners, speaking their own language, and their clothing, makeup and hairstyle are also very different from those of the Han people.
Huan Xuan inexplicably developed a feeling of homesickness; his heart beat faster and faster, and the reins of his horse became tighter and tighter.
However, a neighborhood was only a small place, and no matter how slowly they walked, they finally arrived at the gate of the house in a short while.
The yard was at the end of the northern curved alley in the square. Next to the door stood a large elm tree, its bare branches covered with snow. In front of the door were faint traces of horse hooves and wheel tracks - it had snowed just now, and these should have been left by the owner when he went out in the morning.
Huan Xuan suddenly felt a strong sense of fear. Zhu Erlang was the leader of the bandits and he had to be extremely alert. Would they notice something was wrong and escape in advance
As soon as this thought came to his mind, a thin layer of cold sweat immediately broke out on his forehead. He had finally come here after traveling through mountains and rivers, and if the courtyard was empty, he couldn't imagine what he would do.
Guan Liu followed behind and saw his master sitting on his horse motionless. He stepped forward and asked, "Master, are you okay?"
Huan Xuan paused, said "Nothing", dismounted, handed the reins to him, walked to the door, and gently knocked on the doorknob twice.
The shiny copper ring knocked on the black lacquered wooden door, and the "dong dong" sound seemed to knock on his heart.
The moment of waiting for someone to answer the door seemed like a hundred years. Huan Xuan was very nervous. Fortunately, footsteps were finally heard from inside the door. The door opened with a creak. A fifteen or sixteen-year-old boy in green clothes poked his head out of the door and looked at Huan Xuan and Guan Liulang with curiosity in his eyes. "Who are you looking for?"
Guan Liulang asked: "Is this Bai's house?"
The young man nodded: "Yes, what can I do for you two?"
Guan Liulang said, "My son is a merchant from Yangzhou. He wants to ask the master for advice. May I ask if the master is at home?"
Even though Huan Xuan was wearing casual clothes, he still couldn't hide his noble and dignified demeanor, which made him different from ordinary merchants.
The boy didn't seem to dare to neglect him: "Are you two asking about business matters?"
Guan Liulang said yes.
The young man was a little embarrassed: "My husband is ill and is still resting. It is my wife who is in charge of the business..."
Guan Liulang asked, "Is your wife at home?"
The servant said, "My wife has gone to the shop and has not returned home yet. Please wait a moment, I will go in and ask you, my dear."
Huan Xuan said "thank you for your hard work".
The boy ran to the backyard with a clattering sound, and soon came back: "My dear, please ask someone to go to the shop to invite the lady back. Please go to the hall and sit for a while, and have some yogurt."
As he did so, he let the two of them in.
Huan Xuan thanked him, took Guan Liu around the screen door, and followed the servant into the courtyard.
The young boy went to take the reins from Guan Liuli.
Guan Liu said: "This horse is fierce and cannot be touched by strangers. Be careful not to kick it and hurt my brother. I will lead it myself."
The boy then led the horse to the stable.
But the black-faced cat refused to leave. He stubbornly stuck out his neck and raised his hooves to try to get into the yard.
Guan Liulang almost let the horse break free, but he grabbed the reins tightly and said awkwardly: "This horse recognizes its master."
Huan Xuan patted the horse's head gently and whispered, "We are going in to find someone. Why are you, a horse, joining in the fun?"
Naturally, the black-faced man didn't buy his talk and neighed at him and was about to kick him.
Guan Liulang quickly grabbed the reins, sweating profusely, and finally led the horse to the stable.
The boy generously poured a lot of hay into the trough and grabbed a handful of beans for it. The black face didn't even look at it, but snorted and turned away.
Huan Xuan was too lazy to pay attention to the stupid horse and followed the boy towards the inner courtyard.
This is a three-courtyard house. At the entrance are the servants' quarters and stables, and on both sides are a row of warehouses with bundles of goods piled under the corridors. It looks like an ordinary merchant family.
Several brown-clothed servants were loading goods onto the cart. Although they were wearing thick winter clothes, one could tell that they were tall and strong. However, they were used to doing heavy work, so it was no surprise that they were so strong.
After passing through the first gate, the courtyard becomes much tidier.
Elms and locust trees were planted in the courtyard, which was surrounded by a veranda. The snow in the courtyard had been swept clean, and the blue brick floor was shiny with water, shining like oil in the sun. However, the eaves of the roof and the plants were covered with thick snow, which covered the withered winter scenery with a layer of silver.
Huan Xuan's body trembled slightly without him noticing. This courtyard was ordinary and no different from the countless houses around. However, as soon as he stepped in, he felt familiar and intimate for no reason. In a trance, he even smelled the lingering scent in his dream.
She was here, he felt it clearly, she had always been here.
The servant led them to the main hall, brought a couch and said to the two, "Please sit down for a while. Someone has gone to the shop to invite the lady."
After a while, a maid in green brought two bowls of yogurt.
Huan Xuan and Guan Liu Lang would not eat food brought by strangers, otherwise they would not have noticed that this bowl was sprinkled with dried fruits and poured with rose honey and yogurt, exactly the same as what Lu Suisui had made.
The servant said, "Why doesn't the guest want cheese? Is it not to his taste?"
Without waiting for their reply, he muttered to himself, "By the way, southerners don't seem to drink yogurt. I'll make some tea for you two."
Guan Liulang said, "Brother, don't worry. We are not thirsty. We will just sit and wait for your master."
Seeing that he was like this, he no longer insisted and stood aside with his sleeves folded.
Soon, leaden clouds filled the sky and snow began to fall again. In the courtyard that had just been swept clean not long ago, snow gradually accumulated again.
The young servant said, "It's snowing outside. Can you please lower the curtain?"
Huan Xuan shook his head, his eyes passed through the half-rolled up brocade-fronted green bamboo curtain, staring at the falling snow outside the corridor without blinking.
After waiting for about half an hour, footsteps were finally heard outside.
The young boy said, "It must be the lady who has returned. I will go and see her."
Then he ran outside.
Huan Xuan straightened his back immediately, his heart in his throat.
The boy opened the gate with a creak and let a person in.
The woman was tall and looked sharp and capable. She wore a purple satin cotton gown and a grey squirrel fur coat. The grey-black fur made her face look as white as jade.
She is very beautiful, and has a pair of bright eyes, but she is not Lu Suisui.
She was wearing a pair of deerskin boots and walking through the courtyard in the snow towards them. Her boots made a "crunching" sound as they stepped on the snow, as if crushing Huan Xuan's heart.
Guan Liulang glanced at his pale-faced master and whispered, "Sir, are you okay?"
Huan Xuan seemed to see nothing and just looked at the woman disappointedly.
The woman walked into the hall, glanced at the two people, and bowed: "Greetings to the two distinguished guests."
Huan Xuan asked, "Mrs. Lu?"
The woman nodded with a smile: "I wonder which friends the two distinguished guests are from?"
Guan Liulang was about to leave when Huan Xuan's eyes suddenly lit up and he strode out of the house.
The woman was surprised and asked, "Where are you going, guest?"
Huan Xuan pretended not to hear anything. He walked out of the main hall and headed towards the inner courtyard.
The woman picked up her skirt and ran after him. "Please stay, my dear. My dear husband is ill in bed and cannot see you."
The more she tried to stop him, the more Huan Xuan was determined to make his own guess.
When guests come to visit, the male host avoids them and would rather ask his wife to come back from the shop. It seems weird no matter how you look at it.
He didn't notice the doubt until then, it was just a blind spot.
The further he walked in, the more clearly he could feel Sui Sui's presence. He failed to protect her, and she must have broken his heart, so she hid from him.
The woman's screams seemed to come from another world. Everything around her began to distort and deform, and her vision became dim.
But Huan Xuan didn't care about anything else. He staggered into the inner courtyard of someone else's house and pushed the door open with a bang.
The room was filled with the smell of medicine, but he could still smell the scent of medicine.
The cold wind blew into the room through the door, lifting the curtains in front of the bed.
Under the bed lay a pair of grey satin slippers.
Before Huan Xuan could reach the bed, a thin pale figure pushed aside the curtain.
A face was revealed, belonging to a young man who was so thin that only bones were left.
The man was handsome, but his face was pale with a bluish tint, his eye sockets and cheeks were sunken, and his lips were dry and pale. It was obvious that he was seriously ill.
He looked at Huan Xuan with horror: "You... who are you..."
Before he could finish his sentence, he covered his mouth and started coughing violently. His pale face turned red, as if he wanted to cough out his heart, liver, spleen and lungs at the same time.
The woman just now chased after him, walked quickly to the bed, supported her husband, and said nervously: "My dear, my dear, are you okay? That guest went to the wrong yard, don't be afraid, where is I..."
Huan Xuan took a step back, looked at them anxiously for a while, said "sorry" in a low voice, then turned around and walked out in a panic.
Snowflakes were falling one after another. Huan Xuan walked outside in the snow. He looked up and saw that the sky was endlessly gray. The cold and heavy leaden clouds were pressing down on him, making it hard for him to breathe.
He had never been a person who complained about everything, but this was the first time since he was born that he felt powerless. His love was gone, and he would never find her again no matter where he went.
It seemed as if God let him meet Lu Suisui just to take her away from him.
The snowflakes before his eyes turned into dark shadows, like the pale and withered petals of a crabapple tree in late spring, or like a pair of eyes full of sarcasm and smiles, laughing at him for going crazy.
Maybe he was completely crazy. Who else but a madman would come here from afar upon hearing a piece of groundless news? Who else but a madman would inexplicably break into someone else's house and look for someone who didn't even exist
Huan Xuan's vision became increasingly blurred and dim. He felt dizzy and barely managed to stagger forward two steps before finally falling to the ground in the snow.