After asking all the servants in the mansion, I finally got some clues. But I didn't act immediately, but just sat down, as if nothing had happened.
When Brother Chen came over after hearing the news, I was still sitting by the couch looking at the bridal veil on it.
"What's going on?" Brother Chen didn't know what to do, "Why do you always do this kind of thing?"
“It’s nothing. I don’t believe in fate, so fate wants to kill me and make everything I have go to waste, without me accomplishing anything… Maybe I should just live out my life alone, until I die.” I made circles on my clothes with my hands, feeling a little indifferent and a little helpless.
"At a time like this, you're still talking like a crow." Brother Chen still believed in these things, so he interrupted me quickly and almost prayed to the sky on the spot to wash away the bad luck for me.
"No," I suddenly laughed, stood up, opened my mouth, and pointed at my teeth. "They are all white. If there is one black tooth, I will ask you to pull out all 32 teeth."
"At a time like this, you can still make a joke... Well, your brain works best at this time... Do you have an idea?" He was about to get angry, but suddenly he realized that I could still come up with such a quick wit at this time, so he knew that I was thinking of a solution.
I nodded, but then sighed.
"Why don't you go and persuade your sister-in-law to come back?" Brother Chen got angry again, "I don't care how you offended her, but you have to go find her now."
"I'll think about how to deal with her then."
"You go first. You will have an excuse when you see her." From Brother Chen down, my classmates were very confident in my quick wit, but I was the only one who didn't, because this was the first time for me. And I never thought I had any talent in this area. At least the emperor doubted my ability as a man, and when he taught me a lesson, I showed my confidence and boasting in my ability, which resulted in the queen's severe criticism: "You think this is such a great honor."
Thinking of this, I also noticed the young female thief and her young son. I didn't know their exact names or who the father of the child was. I only knew that they were a poor mother and son who had no one to rely on and were temporarily staying in my house.
I stood up and asked one of them to confirm the clue: "Is there really no one missing in the mansion? Only a car is missing."
After getting a definite answer again, I sat down again. Can I really marry her? Would I be hurting her by doing so? But she left without saying a word, which meant that she had given the decision to me. What should I do
I stood up again immediately, without any further delay, straightened my clothes, led a horse, and sped away amid the discussions of the crowd, leaving behind Brother Chen asking, "Do you know where to chase?"
I didn't answer, because I was just guessing, and by the time I made up my mind, I was already far away from the house, so they couldn't hear me, and I couldn't hear anyone else. So when I chose to go east, I just turned my horse's head and didn't even talk to myself.
I walked to the city gate and asked a few questions. The gatekeeper knew everything. He also mentioned that there was such a carriage, but the driver was wearing a bamboo hat and a dark blue veil, so nothing else could be seen. But he also suggested that I go north from here to enter the city. A beautiful lady came in from here and went north. According to him, she was so beautiful, so beautiful, like a fairy. This is not Jingzhou dialect. It must have been taught by the bird thief in Beihai and his followers.
He treated me like a pervert, although I was indeed a pervert. But at that moment, I had no thoughts about the fairy, but later on, when I sometimes mustered up the courage to expose myself, I thought it was because Guo Pei was also very beautiful.
I put aside my thoughts and chased her all the way. There was a white river to the west for more than ten miles. There was only one road before. When I reached the river, there were roads on both sides of the river. I knew that the horse's speed would be much faster than the carriage on this muddy road, so I was confident that I could catch up with her. Moreover, I had been dragging my feet for so long and did not push the horse hard. She did not have to worry about me catching up with her all at once, and could only stammer and be at a loss. This gave me time to think about it. After all, this was not my forte. Maybe I had already understood what I wanted to do, but when I thought about seeing her again, I could not remember what I understood.
By the end, I began to doubt whether I really understood it, and suggested to myself not to think about anything. When I met her, it would depend on how I would handle the next thing.
I took my own advice, and after saying goodbye, I didn't care about anything else and just urged my horse forward.
Soon I saw the familiar carriage on the other side of the river, wondering how she got there. When I saw the surrounding scenery, I realized that I had missed the Baishui Bridge. I must have not paid attention when I was thinking of a way, and I couldn't help but blame myself. If I had passed Guo Pei's carriage at that time, I would probably have had to "chase" her to the east seaside.
But I didn't plan to turn back, because if I remember correctly, there is another narrow wooden bridge fifteen miles southwest of Baishui Bridge along the water. When we traveled to the east of Baihe River, we often made fun of Ziyuan. We were men, so we crossed the bridge. He couldn't swim, was afraid of heights, and was fat. The bridge was narrow and had no guardrails, so he always crossed the Baishui Bridge. We looked at him along the river and kept laughing at him. Although we often reflected on our own rudeness, we still did it. And we all liked to cross this bridge. The reason was that I came here just for fun. I never dared to tell Yinling this reason, otherwise my earlobes might be bigger today. When I think of the earlobes, I remember that Liu Bei of Lelong County had big earlobes, maybe because his mother or some sister pulled them. At this point, I recalled that Ziyuan had also trained his courage. One time when we were out in the woods, I suddenly found that Ziyuan was missing. As a result, I had a fight with my brothers, and was kicked out by the bad guys to find him. When I walked to the river, I saw Ziyuan trying to be brave as a man. He was crossing the bridge carefully, not daring to look at the water, but could only look at the bridge surface. As a result, he crawled after walking two steps. He actually climbed to the center of the bridge. I have to sigh that Ziyuan's courage must have accumulated for several months. Unexpectedly, he tried to stand up again. At that time, I was startled and screamed, but this scream really scared him - and he really jumped out of fear, but he didn't fall on the bridge surface - in the end I pulled him out, and since then, he never dared to walk on that bridge again.
What am I doing? I asked myself, the person on the other side is my wife, but I am still daydreaming, and I don’t even know why I am thinking about this.
I calmed down and kept moving at the same speed as the carriage. Looking at the person in front of the carriage, I started to think about things. But this time I was thinking about Ziyu. It was the same scene when Ziyu met the unknown woman who came from nowhere. The difference was that there was a row of columns in front of them, while there was a ten-foot-wide river in front of us. They looked at each other affectionately, but she didn't seem to look at me, and I looked at her but was thinking about other things.
When I gathered my concentration again, I realized that I nearly missed the last narrow wooden bridge again. But this time I don't think it's my fault. The dry gray color of the bridge blended into the woods on the northeast bank, and it was difficult to distinguish them in my distracted state.
He quickly turned the horse's head, aimed at the bridge, and urged the horse to charge forward, thinking to himself: "Mouth, mouth, it's up to you." Then he took a few deep breaths to calm himself.
Unexpectedly, things suddenly changed. The horse stumbled on the bridge, and I was caught off guard and fell into the water to the right and front in an ungraceful manner like a big toad.
I am not capable of describing this scene, because at the time I just stared at the water, at a loss, but the only eyewitness at the scene later told me this, without any regard for my identity or dignity.
Then, I did what was a matter of course, which was to accept the fact that I fell into the water, which was still freezing cold in spring.
The situation in the water is very different from what it was a few years ago. The last time I came down to rescue Ziyuan, there definitely weren't so many water plants. But this time I almost rolled into the water plants and was tightly entangled and couldn't get out for a while.
At this time, I calmed down instead, knowing that the more I struggled, the less breath I would have. If I moved and slowly pushed aside all the water plants, I might be able to hold out underwater for half a minute with the breath I had, and then I could get out of trouble.
I guessed that the people above were also anxious and at a loss. It would be better to get out of trouble as soon as possible to avoid making her worry.
The water was quite cold, and I felt a lot more stuffy inside. I didn't save my breath outside, and I felt that I couldn't hold on for much longer. But I thought about it, and my right hand quickly freed my left hand, and then both hands started to tear at my body.
However, I think I was right. I did not have enough air. When I only had one right leg left, I began to feel a little helpless. I tried my best to keep calm, but I could not hold my breath any longer, and my hands and feet began to move around aimlessly. I didn't know what kind of force was pulling at me, but my right leg could not be freed. I was still firmly stuck to the bottom of the river. Although I could see the blurry scenery on the water, I could not let myself take a breath. I only saw a circle of light covering the water, and there was darkness outside the circle.
Suddenly something came into the water and came straight towards me, but I had neither the intention nor the energy to fight with it, because at this moment I felt that I had escaped and was swimming towards the surface, but no matter how hard I swam, I couldn't swim up.
But this thing, everything became blurry in the water, swam straight towards me, and I didn't feel it was a person until it was very close. As a person, it was easy to find, because I suddenly felt much more comfortable, and I could greedily breathe in the warm breath, but this breath came from a woman's mouth, although not much, it made me sober up all of a sudden, and she turned over and folded up to the surface of the water, and I had plenty of time to untie the water grass on my legs.
I knew who was coming to save me, but I didn't expect her to save me, and I didn't expect the way she would save me.
I said to my father in my heart: "Both my father and I owe him a favor." I turned over and ran into the woman who was diving again. I waved my hand to show that I was fine, and swam to the surface with her. The light circle was still there, getting closer and closer, but also getting smaller and smaller, as if it was my only way out of the water, which made me a little panicked, but also a little curious.
But I finally emerged from the water, just when the circle was so tight that my whole body could not be out of the water. I gasped for air while watching the woman hurriedly swim to the shore, lowering her head, dragging her soaked clothes and struggling to climb the muddy shore. She must have been at a loss, and although she brushed her wet hair skillfully, she left a shoe in the mud on the shore without realizing it. I was not much better, because I tried hard to imagine my own situation, but I couldn't remember why I was in the water.
Looking back at the bridge in the water, Ma saw one of his legs stuck in the crack of the wood. Because the bridge was very narrow, he couldn't turn or exert any force to get out. He was feeling embarrassed and panicked, thinking that this bridge would eventually become unusable after all these years.
The wind blew, and the spring water wrinkled slightly. I trembled in the water. When I saw her get on the carriage and lower the curtain, I hurried to get on shore. My clothes were loose and absorbed a lot of water. When I first got out of the water, I felt like I was tied with iron blocks and even felt a little overwhelmed. I picked up my embroidered shoes in the mud and stood by the carriage that was splashing with water. I heard some noise inside and thought it was not a good thing to be next to them. I put down my shoes at the place where I got on the carriage and went to the wooden bridge to lead my poor horse.
The horse's legs were injured, but the bones didn't seem to be broken. I patted the horse's neck and said nice things to it. After all, it was injured by death, so I had to show some appreciation. It was still a little lame when I led it off the bridge, but after walking a little on flat ground, it was soon like a normal person.
During this time, I had my back to the carriage. If the person inside was Yinling, I would have been ruthless and opened the curtain without mercy, pretending to watch, but I couldn't guarantee what she would say to me. But towards Guo Pei, I didn't have the slightest intention of being frivolous. If I were such a person, the poem I wrote on my birthday in Xiangyang that year would have been frivolous and crazy (Note 1). Thinking of this, I suddenly felt very sorry for Yinling. Just when I was unable to resolve the grudge in my heart, I suddenly heard someone calling me from behind, "Zirui, come over and change your clothes."
I wanted to laugh when I heard this: "Madam, you are ridiculous. How can I wear your clothes?"
"I'm making a spring dress for you. Although it's a little thin and the stitches are still unfinished, it's better than being soaked through." I was a little surprised. She was going to leave me and still make clothes for me. This didn't make sense.
But despite my suspicion, I hurried into the forest to find a place to change my clothes, squeezed out several basins of water, wiped them roughly with the squeezed-out clothes, and then changed into the unfinished clothes. When I came out of the deep forest by the roadside, I didn't pay attention to anything else, but I noticed that the embroidered shoes at the boarding area were missing.
The atmosphere was a little awkward for a moment. The key point was that I didn't know what to do, so I could only hand the clothes to her with a silly smile. However, she didn't seem to be restrained. After taking the clothes, she weighed it for a moment and actually laughed.
"If I had known you were so strong, when you were at home, I should have asked you to wring out the clothes when we washed them. Even if two or three of us worked together, we couldn't do as well as you did. It would have been completely dry in half an hour."
And I was just grinning.
The atmosphere was awkward again until Guo Pei propped up the wooden rack, started a fire and began to dry the clothes, and asked me to wring her clothes. She asked me to get close to the fire so as not to catch a cold. I sat down as she said, my mind was blank, and I had no idea. However, when the clothes were dry, she might leave again, and it would be too late, and it would seem that I was not sincere, and I was very anxious.
I took off my shoes, which were also soaked, and put my feet close to the fire, thinking about what to say first. But I thought it would be hard for me to say anything surprising in such a comfortable situation. Fortunately, I quickly said: "Don't leave."
After finishing this sentence, I felt my scalp swelling and my lips numb.
"Zi Rui, you've got a fever!" I heard a cry and then realized why my feet were hot. I quickly pulled my feet back and covered my feet which were a little hot and steaming. I continued, "It's time for us to get engaged. I didn't know it for the first eighteen years. Later, when I found out, I mistook that person for Yin Ling. At that time, I was shocked and didn't know what to do. Later, when I found out that you were the one, I was really shocked. Because this is definitely not something I'm good at, and I seem very incompetent at this."
I heaved a long sigh, feeling that I had gotten started, and then I felt much better. I slowly spoke out my words, but I didn't know if I really thought through them in my head, or if I just spoke them out loud: "I won't beat around the bush. Although I'm a loser, I once told people that I would only marry one wife in the future, but now I'm breaking my promise. But I really hope that Madam will allow me to marry Yinling again. If Madam really can't forgive me, it's not your fault. I'm different from those people who say one thing and mean another and try to attract attention. I mean what I say, and you don't have to be afraid. I hate you, if so, I will let you know. Even so, I will marry you, maybe you think I am doing it to fulfill my father's promise, but I don't really care about you, you are gentle on the outside, but strong on the inside, so you left me. But I am not that kind of person who is sanctimonious, I want to marry you, the reason is the same as yours, but once I make up my mind, I will forget the reason, because it will only make me carry a burden and find an excuse to shirk responsibility. And if you are my wife, I will accompany you for my whole life, hand in hand, until the end of time. "
When I said this, I touched upon some distant memories. I felt sad and even shed tears. I had always thought that these things were entangled and that the love affairs were childish and ridiculous, but now I found that I was actually one of them. I laughed at others for being foolish back then, but now I don't know why I am being mocked. I can only shed tears and feel no comfort.
"I dare not think about the happiness of having two wives, I just ask Madam to agree that I cannot abandon the love of eighteen years, and I cannot forget the righteousness of two generations. Zirui will marry both of them, and Zirui likes both of them." I feel like I have to be more and more childish. "Then please come back with me, Madam?"
"Have you seen the letter I left for you?" Hearing this, I wondered what letter it was. I had no idea. I hadn't seen it, nor had I heard anyone mention it.
If I had seen it, how would I answer her if she asked me about the content? If I hadn't seen it, wouldn't it be very rude? From what she said, it was obvious that there were many relevant words in the letter. But how could it be difficult for me? I didn't want to lie to her, so I just said it in one word.
"What's the use of my letter? If I let you leave because of this, Zirui will be lonely and miserable for the rest of his life. Isn't that ridiculous?" But I also felt that I was very sincere, and it was not entirely for the purpose of solving the problem. After all, I could read these words or not.
She said nothing more, but just kept flipping open her clothes. She could feel white mist rising around her and white smoke curling in front of her.
After more than half an hour, I changed into my original clothes. It was warm and comfortable, but there was a fishy smell of water plants, which made me feel dizzy and nauseous. But it was time to set off anyway, but she seemed indifferent, neither leaving nor going back with me. To be honest, I thought of the "cooked rice and cooked rice" method at that time, which was a rather risky way to marry a wife, and I didn't dare to guess her feelings, so, given that I was not thief-hearted enough, the thief's courage was not much greater than the thief's heart. In the end, I could only watch her think of words.
"Let's go? Let's go home, our home." I wondered if these words were a bit nauseating or ridiculous.
She remained indifferent, and I just stood stupidly beside her. She looked up at me, suddenly smiled, pointed at the car, pointed at the road, and said, "The road is narrow and the car is wide. Who can turn the spokes of the wheel in the opposite direction?"
I finally felt relieved and said, "I am willing to try." It was a great opportunity for me to show off my abilities. It was okay to untie the horse bridle first. The key was that I had to pull the cart, turn it around and turn it on this narrow road that could only accommodate one cart. I didn't expect her cart to be so heavy. I thought to myself that this girl must have brought a lot of things and was really ready to leave. But I turned it around after all, but my face was red and my neck was thick. I tried my best to suppress my heavy breathing. I was a little embarrassed underneath, but I pretended to be calm on the surface.
Because the horse's leg was injured and it was inconvenient to ride, I drove the car with her on the way back. Although I told her that I couldn't do it and Xiangyang Academy didn't teach me, she taught me, saying that it was one of the six arts and I must learn it. She also used words to urge me that a husband must learn to drive, otherwise he would change his course and couldn't stop.
I saw that this person had obviously begun to lean towards Yinling, although his words were very gentle.
So I took my bride back, and when we got back to Xiangyang, it was just after noon, so I can only call this a minor matter.
My new wife doesn't seem to like talking very much. From the time I met her to the time I asked her to leave, I spoke no more than ten sentences. In comparison, I am a little too talkative.
But I am not the only one who has the same problem as me. The lieutenant at the east gate also has the same problem. When I came back, he was about to leave when he was changing shifts. He was still telling the people who came to change shifts about the very beautiful lady, but he said that the lady came alone on horseback and might be from Xiangyang. I admit that I am very lustful, because I just invited my wife back, but I already wanted to see what a very beautiful lady is. But I always feel that I seem to have seen all the ladies of officials in Xiangyang City, and I don’t think any of them are particularly outstanding. Relatively speaking, Ziyu’s sister is more worth looking forward to, and Yinling should be the most beautiful woman in Xiangyang before. Thinking of this, it’s a pity that Yinling has suffered a lot with me, and she has not enjoyed any happiness. After thinking about it, I think the statement that I followed Yinling is more in line with the actual situation, but I didn’t suffer much, but enjoyed 18 years of happy and worry-free and stable happiness.
It will be time for me to bring happiness to my wife in the future, but my current status as a concubine always makes me feel that the future is unpredictable. But when I look back at my wife, there is no dark cloud hanging over my heart. Everything can be done again, after all, I am still myself.
When we were almost home, my wife finally spoke again: "You learned to drive very quickly and you ride well, but you only know how to urge the horse, but not how to rein it in at the right time. You are really a straight-forward person."
I couldn't figure out the connection between the two, so I could only smile foolishly. Actually, I can drive a car, but I just wanted to be lazy, but I was forced to be the driver.
As soon as the guard saw me, he came up and said, "Marquis Fengyun, there is a very beautiful girl looking for you. She is in the living room now."
At that time, my neck was half an inch shorter and my shoulders were an inch higher. I suddenly felt that the turtle and I had something in common, except that it could shrink into place, but I couldn't.
I looked at my wife with a guilty conscience, but there was no expression on her face. I quickly reminded myself that I shouldn't feel guilty, because I had never done anything wrong, but I asked myself why I still felt guilty.
To prove my innocence, I asked my wife to go with me to the living room. But outside the living room, I saw a group of people whispering at the window, from the brothers from Beihai to those teenagers, including **. I also saw the female thief entertaining people for me, but I couldn't see who was coming.
But for me at that moment, the situation outside the window was intolerable.
Finally, I shouted in indignation, "What are you doing? Go back!"
Everyone dispersed, and the woman came out after hearing the noise. I finally breathed a sigh of relief, straightened my back, walked forward and saluted again, "Your Highness, the Prince and Princess of He County has arrived. I hope Zirui will forgive me for not being able to come and greet you."
"Alright, alright, my brother, stop being so polite."
"Sister Qi, why are you here?" This made me feel very strange, especially when I thought about the words of the captain at the city gate.
"Can't I come?"
"No, no, no, you came alone?"
"Well, there are a dozen followers."
"Coming in through the East Gate?"
"Well, you want to check on me." The beautiful girl obviously had some opinions about my chattering.
"Nothing." I shook my head, and suddenly remembered something: "It's just right that my sister is here. I'm getting married tonight, and I'm having a wedding banquet... Madam, come and meet my sister, Princess Shenqi."
Guo Pei stepped forward very respectfully and was about to greet me, but was stopped by this noble lady. After a careful look, she grabbed my collar unexpectedly and said solemnly, "Come in with me."
As soon as we entered the room, she asked the female thief to leave. The female thief was polite and left after doing the courtesy, but she also helped us close the door, which made me feel that something bad was going on. She was holding my collar the whole time, and I didn't know what was going on, but I didn't dare to be stubborn.
"You bastard, your father and I are worried about you. I came to see you, but you didn't go back to visit your mother. I thought you were in danger outside, so I let it go. You've already married Yinling, and now your family doesn't know where Yinling is, but you brought another woman to get married tonight." She immediately drew her sword, but she was a little shorter, so the position of the sword was very indecent. I couldn't help but look down nervously. She looked down at me, but her face didn't blush. After a pause, she threatened me directly: "Where is Yinling? I only thought you were a young man who was concerned about the country and the people, with an open mind and affection, but I didn't expect you to be a lustful and lewd bastard. If you even betray sister Yinling, I will cut off this evil root of yours for the world."
I was a little confused about how to explain this to her, but the sharp blade below made me come up with words quickly. I thought to myself that I could only make up a story. I really couldn't tell her about my family affairs. My family and her family were indeed too closely involved in this. Thinking of this, the person in front of me was no longer my sister.
I reached out with both hands at the same time, each holding the woman's wrist, exerted a little force, and then let go, and then I fled five steps backward. At the same time, I said, "Sister Qi really misunderstood Zirui."
Sister Qi was clearly unprepared to fight back against me, but she was quite annoyed. “I’d like to hear your explanation.”
This sentence did not mean that I was safe, but asked me to explain. However, her sword still flashed towards me, and I hurriedly dodged. At this time, the door was pushed open, and Guo Pei also walked in quickly. Seeing this scene, she hurriedly said: "Sister Qi, stop it, you misunderstood Zirui. If you hurt Zirui, Yinling and Pei may not survive."
Perhaps it was the word "Yinling" that made this noble lady stop. She turned and looked at Guo Pei, who also looked at her. Finally, she turned to me and said, "You go out first. I will come back to ask you questions after I finish talking to this person."
I didn't move for a moment, still standing there, but my eyes had already turned from Qi to my wife. For the first time, I saw her smiling and saying to me, "Just follow Sister Qi. My husband will go out and rest first. Sister Qi and I will only be together for a moment."
I straightened my clothes a little, and a hot, fishy air came out of my clothes, which was very irritating. I said, "I'm going to change my clothes," and left.
Two women always have a lot to talk about, this is what I learned from my father, but I didn't understand it clearly at that time, but this time I understood it clearly, because I even took a shower, changed clothes and came out, and when I got to the door, the two were still talking, but the tone of both sides seemed to be very gentle. I became a little interested, so I wanted to listen closely, and immediately a sword was thrust out from the window pane next to me, and a voice came from the house: "I am talking to someone, don't eavesdrop."
I was planning to solve the problem of "勿" right away, but I decided not to try to be so clever, as it was too dangerous. And I thought of something that I had time to do.
I then sat down in a side room, lit a fire to keep warm, and called the morning maid to ask if she had seen a letter. She said no, so I immediately sent for the most suspicious person.
In a moment, the person was brought to me. I didn't beat around the bush, but just opened my hand and said, "Give me the letter."
The female thief was honest. She took out a letter from her sleeve and handed it to me.
However, when I received the letter, I immediately threw it into the fire and said, "You did the right thing. Maybe after reading the letter, I will not pursue her, but that will be a mistake for my whole life." I could guess the content of the letter to some extent, because I knew the contents of the suicide note my father left me. She must want to help Yinling and I, so she had to do something to sacrifice herself. If I was not aware of it at the time, I would probably regret it for the rest of my life.
"But can you tell me if you have done anything unscrupulous during the past few days?" After reading the letter that turned to ashes in the fire, I asked directly without turning my head.
Before she answered, someone came to report that an old man with a sad face came to see me. I was a little angry, but I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I asked him who that man was. He might be the owner of the East City Grain Store. He didn't recognize him and thought he belonged to someone else.
I felt relieved and told the woman to wait for me inside the house. Then I followed him out to take a look. It seemed that my ability to handle things had indeed improved. I finished the work and came back in a short while.
Sitting down again, I said to the man unhappily, "You are so powerful. He is an official and businessman in Xiangyang, and he is in charge of the grain needs of Xiangyang, Jingzhou. You stole from my Jingzhou government office, and you made him dare not report to the authorities and only come to me. How did you scare him?" I think she had never been so bold before. She was so scared in the thatched cottage that day, but now she is scaring others. This time it must be because she feels that she has a backer. I must not encourage their arrogance.
"I'll go there in the evening." She quickly explained, "Actually, I saw that he had a very young wife, so I thought he must be an old villain."
"Let's go to the government office and let someone else do this favor tomorrow! Otherwise, it will seem like I'm the thief. I'll help him get it back within two days, and you'll send it back to me. Doesn't he think I'm the thief? That family is like that." You think to yourself, if you want to reveal the whole situation of that family, your head will immediately feel dizzy.
"Then which house in Jingzhou can I steal from?"
"What are you doing? Can't you do anything else except stealing?" I really didn't know whether to laugh or cry. How could I have encountered such a person and such a thing
Just then, the tiles above his head started to creak from south to north. There was someone on top, and it seemed there was more than one person. He cursed in his heart who it was. He came out to see, and saw ** on top of him. Behind him were three or four Xianbei people, who were lying on the side of the house, looking at the situation outside and discussing it.
I yelled, "F**k, what are you doing?"
“Brother Xie Zhi! There’s a beautiful girl outside.” Hearing the tone, it was still my fault. What’s wrong with me? Why did I call back so many people? Fortunately, those two… I knew I shouldn’t think too much about the couple. I don’t know why the couple started doing something, as if they were tuning a note, and they would make one note dozens of times, occasionally with the sound of knocking and chiseling.
The pair of women over there drove me away, but the four men over here can drive me crazy.
So, when I sat back, although I closed the door angrily at first, I could only sit down dejectedly, and said weakly: "Since you have come to me, I can't abandon you. I know you have a good reputation among the people, so I will definitely take good care of you. But it's not that I can't support you. Why do you and your son still want to do something secretly? Let your son learn skills and enter the government in the future, isn't it a hundred times better than doing this kind of thing."
"Then we can help you fight in the future." I'll be thankful if you don't cause me any trouble.
"Forget it. You look frail and your son is still alive."
"We can help you as scouts. We are good at this kind of thing." This is a good idea. I nodded slightly.
"Then you should at least tell me your names, right?" I felt that I was also a bit inappropriate. Not just a bit, but very much inappropriate. Recruiting people like this without even knowing their names was both absurd and ridiculous.
"I have no name, and my son has no surname." She lowered her head somewhat sadly.
"What's going on?" I also restrained my expression and asked her seriously.
"Since you are asking, I will answer you. I am not a thief. My parents died early. I only know that my surname is Su. I have no one to rely on. I was abducted and sold to the village. I learned to dance and became a villager at the age of twelve. (Note)"
I closed my eyes and nodded, motioning him to continue. "When I was thirteen, I was pregnant with Yu'er, and I had no idea who his father was. People like us were not allowed to have children, so they asked me to abort him. Maybe it was because of my age at the time that I found out too late. When I found out I was pregnant, I could already feel the baby kicking me. I had become a mother, and I didn't want a child to die in my belly like this, so I wanted to give birth to the child and be a mother. So I didn't dare to be stubborn in front of him, and I turned around and poured out the abortion medicine. But my belly was getting bigger and bigger, and I couldn't hide it anymore. I was anxious and scared, so I risked it for the child. It rained heavily that night, so I was able to escape."
"Someone must have helped me. He might be your master." I couldn't quite remember what I was thinking at the time, but I was thinking that the people in the neighborhood had their own set of professional ethics. If she was not clean in the neighborhood, the clients would be very angry. I wonder if I had some feelings of a playboy, looking down on the people below, especially those in the neighborhood.
"Marquis Ping'an Fengyun is indeed powerful. Someone really saved me. My benefactor is a famous thief. He saw that I was good at fighting, so he taught me these things after I gave birth to a child. Later, when Yu'er grew up, he taught Yu'er again... I told you all this, you won't chase us away, right?" She was very brief, and I also felt that it was unnecessary to be very specific. But when it was her turn to ask me questions, my answers were a little complicated, but also relatively clear.
"You are not allowed to steal without my order. If you promise me, you can stay. But if you meet those very bad corrupt officials and have solid evidence, you don't need to go through me. Just don't let them off easily. You can set fire after stealing, but don't hurt innocent people." After I told her this, she was stunned. Maybe she didn't expect that I would have so many twists and turns on this, and she never thought that I actually supported their stealing business to some extent.
After I finished speaking, she closed her mouth and murmured to herself, "If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would have thought that the master was talking to me. You guys are really nagging." Realizing that she might have let something slip, she quickly covered her mouth.
These words hurt my self-esteem a little. I thought I was just explaining things to her so that nothing would happen in the future, but I was treated as nagging.
But I was still very tolerant, so I asked her: "Can your teacher..."
"I dare not reveal my master's name. Thank you for your help. If you really want to kill me..." She interrupted me, and I interrupted her immediately.
"Then I won't ask anymore." He held her words back in his stomach.
"Marquis Fengyun!" I shuddered when I heard the messenger's voice, fearing that another beautiful girl would come to me. I had finally sorted out these things, so I didn't want to cause any more trouble. Fortunately, this time it was much better: "Xinye Bo is here to see you."
After giving a few brief instructions, he came out to meet Brother Chen. He had been very busy these past few days and had not had a moment to rest. There was a wedding banquet today and he wanted to take a break this morning and afternoon, but so many things happened.
When we met and exchanged greetings, he spoke first, and he started to complain about me: "You didn't tell anyone to let me know when your sister-in-law got back. If someone hadn't come to inform me, I would still be at home worrying."
"I'm sorry, it was my negligence." I could only apologize quickly.
"Is it okay tonight?" He immediately calmed down a lot.
"Okay, okay, no problem. Get everything ready. Since many people are not here, we plan to have a simple ceremony first and then have a big one when the teacher, father-in-law and mother-in-law come. Besides, we were engaged when we were young, so this is just a formality."
"Then you should go to the south as soon as possible after you get married. The Nanman have made some moves recently, but it seems that they want to make peace with the leading figures in Jingzhou. Although you have been demoted, the name of Marquis Ping'an Fengyun is known to everyone in Jingzhou. Most people don't know that you have been demoted, and many people who know don't believe it. Just go under this banner. Besides, I can't leave Xiangyang, so you go there and settle the matter in the south."
"Brother, remember this. I will be on my way tomorrow."
"Tomorrow? Will your sister-in-law be offended?" To be honest, I was expecting him to give me a deadline, so I pretended to be proactive, but I didn't expect him to say, "Then tomorrow, I'll come back to talk to you about the details tomorrow."
In my heart, I secretly blamed Brother Chen for being so heartless. I thought that Brother Chen would see through my tricks, but this is all I can do now.
Brother Chen was very happy to see that I agreed, and he was now waiting for the wedding banquet in the evening. But I still had something to do, so I asked, "Brother Chen, is there no one teaching in Xiangyang School yet?"
"Yeah, that's right." Brother Chen nodded, as if thinking about something.
"Should we invite some wise men to come..."
"I have the same idea. My two sons are now the same age as you were when you first came to the academy. Your family also has this group of children, but they just don't have a good teacher. But it just so happens that these days, a scholar from Jingzhou named Huang Chengyan is traveling with your uncles. He seems to be familiar with your father-in-law. I ran into him a few days ago, and his conversation was quite like that of a teacher. I have an idea in mind, but I don't know if I can keep him."
"Oh, Uncle Zuo and the others haven't left yet?"
"Zuo? There's no one with the surname Zuo. I'm afraid they're gone. The ones with the surnames Xu and Yu are all here."
"Oh, well, do you know where they are?"
"I don't know. I can't have anyone monitor them. If they knew I sent someone to monitor him, Master Huang would definitely not come."
I'm worried. I have to put this matter aside for now. Without a good teacher, I'm really afraid that my son Kong Ming's future will be ruined. As for the others, I think my teaching is enough.
At this moment, the door to the main room was opened, and the two women came out hand in hand. I kept shaking my head in my heart, thinking, "Women!"
Brother Chen was obviously unprepared for Sister Qi's arrival, and he didn't know Sister Qi, so he asked me curiously, "Who is this?"
Before I could finish my words, my wife took over the conversation. I must admit that her introduction was very concise and clear. Brother Chen and my sister exchanged greetings a moment later. After my sister finished her greetings, she came over and said a little embarrassedly: "Zi Rui, I was a little reckless. I misunderstood you just now. Don't blame me, right?"
I smiled and said it was okay.
Things happened one after another, and the messenger spoke again behind me: "Marquis Fengyun, there is a carriage outside."
"Well, what's wrong?"
"A beautiful girl came down..." To be honest, I stumbled and almost fell to the ground. I turned around immediately, quickly pulled out a wooden stick from the weapon rack next to me, and hit him on the head. Then I let him continue, while holding the stick tightly in my hand, ready to hit him again.
"She is holding a child, and that child is yours." He covered his head and shrank his body. The stick in my hand fell immediately and my eyes drifted around.
"Tell them to come in!" I admit that I was a little crazy, and my shouting was a little hysterical. Then I watched him run out quickly, and then I turned around and pretended to be shocked and said to everyone, "I wonder who is trying to frame me again."
"Zi Rui, why are you shaking?"
"Am I shaking?" I admitted that even my tongue was shaking at this moment.
But I was relieved when I saw the person coming. I immediately handed the stick to the messenger and told him to do it. He looked at the stick, then looked at me and finally closed his eyes. He frowned and hit himself on the head, which was heavier than mine. The scene immediately became Sister Qi helping me explain - Yi Yue went home. I quickly told Nalan to have a good rest, and at the same time ordered someone to prepare a good warm room and send someone to find people who know how to take care of children, including three grandmothers and three maids, to settle this baby girl. To be honest, she enjoyed more than me, but when I gave the order, it was as if it was a matter of course.
"Is this the seed that someone created using your name?" Brother Chen's words were somewhat joking, but also a bit harsh.
"Um."
"If you really intend to support her, she will enjoy a better life than me, and probably better than you. Is she really not your daughter?"
"No, we can use blood test to prove our relationship. We really have no relationship at all."
"Are you a good person who has become too big?"
"Actually, she is quite pitiful. Forget it, her mother is dead and her father is nowhere to be found. It doesn't matter if I adopt her. At least I can afford it." I smiled and tried my best to show the nature of a happy boy, but I knew that pretending to be cute was useless to Brother Chen. This trick was only useful to a limited number of people, perhaps only Yinling.
"You, your kindness will eventually bring you trouble. Oh, yes, you were demoted this time just because you were thinking about others. You, you have wasted your best opportunity, I wonder what you will do in the future?" Brother Chen put his hands behind his back and shook his head.
"Zirui did the right thing, and the child did nothing wrong." My wife decided to stand on the same front with me, and I immediately became much braver. I must admit that in front of my wife, I seemed to lack the courage and spirit of a man.
But my brothers had already defined me. They thought that I had lived under the shadow of Yin Ling in my childhood and would be a henpecked man in the future. When I got married, I would no longer be able to flirt with my brothers.
This matter has finally come to an end, and now I can finally get married peacefully.
Maybe I was too nervous about all this, so I asked Brother Chen if he was okay. Brother Chen felt very strange, thinking that I must be a little tired and forgot that I was getting married. I asked him if he had anything else besides this, and he shook his head no, but suddenly remembered something and asked, "Have you been to your master's house since you came back?"
I didn't, and hurriedly packed my clothes and prepared to leave, but was stopped by Brother Chen, "Fool, General Huang and Feng Qing are both in Luoyang, and there are only two pregnant women at home, you are going now?"
"Oh, by the way, I asked a few days ago, and it turns out that the baby hasn't been born yet, so they only sent out wedding invitations but didn't invite anyone. I forgot about it." I patted my chest and finally relaxed a little.
"Everyone else has seen it." Brother Chen saw that I was a little nervous and asked me again.
"Uncle Zhang and Aunt Zhang, after I came back, I went to see them once with Brother Guan. I also went to see Uncle Jiang once, bought medicine for him and sent him some meat. The He family also sent invitations..."
"Alright, alright, that's enough, Zirui, you must be scared and a little nervous. Go and have a rest first, I'll ask someone to arrange other things for you right away, you go and have a rest, the princess should also go and have a rest first, sister-in-law, you should also have a rest, prepare the wedding clothes, and let me do it next!"
I obeyed Brother Chen. I was so depressed today that I almost went crazy. I almost fell on the way back to the room. I remembered that Yi Yue had just arrived. I thought that watching her in Luoyang made me feel much calmer, so I went to her room.
She was still sleeping soundly, unaware of my arrival. Looking at her really made my heart calmer, and I found her there.
The wedding banquet was over very quickly. I was a little tired, so I could only watch with a dazed look as the group of rough guys quickly made the place miserable. I was afraid of this, but fortunately I invited the couple to accompany Sister Qi to the inner room for a special reception. The bride quickly returned to the room. Kong Ming fell asleep on the spot as if he was overwhelmed, and Song Yudong also dozed off in the corner. Only **, Pan Xiang and others seemed to have endless energy. Watching everyone drunk might be an interesting thing, but at this moment I felt that I was powerless.
"Chen Wu, why do you keep your hair like this? It's really ugly. What a joke." Pan Xiang's face was already red, and he seemed to be more talkative than usual. When he saw the somewhat dizzy Chen Wu appear in front of him, the sound of his laughter could probably be heard throughout Xiangyang.
"What's wrong? Brother Zirui also doesn't wear a hair tie or a crown, and he just lets his hair down." Today, he was allowed to drink freely and the child became a little naughty.
"But you..." He laughed so hard after hearing just two words.
"What's wrong with me? Let Brother Zirui judge for me." Chen Wu still felt somewhat justified.
I couldn't escape their pestering after all, so I had to come out and comment on this, but I was a little listless: "It's okay for you to let your hair down, and there's nothing wrong with that, but you can't do it the other way around! My hair is tied up at the back of my head, and my hair hangs at the back of my head, but yours is tied up on your forehead, and it hangs on your face!"
"I think it's more scary and looks more powerful. Girls will also pay more attention to it." Chen Wu bluntly confessed his true thoughts. The child's thoughts are indeed very interesting.
“You look like a fool like this. You look scary enough. If you want to attract girls, you can’t do this. You have to... you have to... you have to..." I almost fell asleep while thinking this. I couldn’t continue saying "you have to" several times.
"Okay, okay, Zirui is tired, let the groom into the bridal chamber?" Brother Chen came out to smooth things over, and helped me up and took me into the inner hall. He helped me sober up a little, and I muttered: "You need to be capable, capable, capable."
"Zi Rui, today is your wedding day, it's inappropriate to drink like this."
"Brother Chen, I didn't drink much, I'm just sleepy. I've been too busy lately, just like the New Year. During the New Year in the past, sister, oh, no, Yinling was always very tired and would doze off during dinner. Now I understand."
"Alright, alright, I'll help you go back. But you're too sleepy. You can even fall asleep while talking to others. You didn't learn other things well in Caotang, but this. Poor me, Fang Han was sitting in front of me, so I never had a chance to sleep."
"It's useless even if you change Ziyuan. You are fatter than him."
"Zi Rui, you are hopeless with your bad mouth, there is really nothing we can do about you. Hey, come here and help Marquis Feng Yun into his room. Zi Rui, I will go and entertain those whores for you, you go and do the important things." Brother Chen smiled and handed me over to the maids and left.
I then stood up straight, still a little shaky, but I didn't want them to help me. I turned around, said goodbye, and walked in by myself: "You are too short. I will be more tired if you help me." I am indeed not a good talker.
I entered the room and closed the door. My bride was waiting for me by the couch. When she saw me come in, she stood up without saying anything. She got a towel for me, wiped my face, and said, "Husband, let's rest."
My heart was beating wildly in my chest, because after she took off my coat, she also took off her own clothes to the extent that my heart had completed such a huge exercise. Then she slid quietly into the bed, leaving me, a fool, standing outside the couch without knowing what was happening.
Seeing that I was a little at a loss, she explained to me: "I heard that most women in the Central Plains want their husbands to get on the bed first before they get on the pillow, while the Yue people do the opposite. I hope you won't blame me."
I don't know if she said this to cover up my shame, so I also took off my clothes like I was taking a shower. I never sleep like this, but at least she was wearing the same amount of clothes as I am now. I think we should respect the wedding customs of the Yue people.
I slowly moved into the bed. The rest of me was cold, but the left side of me that was close to her was warm. My heart was still beating very hard, and I was standing there stiffly, my body tense, especially when her hand came over and grabbed mine.
I felt useless because she was the one who first said, "Let's do it."
But I know I have an advantage, that is, it depends on me at the critical moment, so I followed the agility and vigor of a flower thief and jumped on him. But as for the future, I never thought of writing down such things. I can admit that I am a hypocrite. Anyway, I have long been identified by Yinling as a successful person. Thinking of this, I have a kind of determination and will that is not afraid of boiling water.
Half an hour later, we talked a little more, but I forgot what we said because I was very tired and fell asleep quickly.
But that night, I had a nightmare. I dreamed that I was tightly entangled by water plants and could not get rid of it at all. However, I did not feel suffocated. I felt that I could breathe in the water and was actually quite contented. Suddenly, an old man appeared and said to me calmly and soothingly, "Someone died the year before last, and the corpse oil flowed into the soil. The thatch will grow especially lush the next year." Soon, the water plants all turned into hands. They grabbed me and strangled me tightly, trying to pull me down. I struggled desperately but to no avail. I felt myself slowly falling in fear.
I woke up with a start. It was daybreak. I heard myself shouting. After checking everything in the room, I realized it was a dream. I immediately covered my face with my hands to calm myself down and told myself it was just a dream. I slowly let go of my hands and realized that the people next to me were looking at me. I was at a loss again.
"Did I wake you?"
"Zirui, what's wrong with you?" we said at the same time.
"It doesn't matter."
"It was a nightmare." We answered at the same time.
Then it was all over. I smiled, and she smiled too.
"Your snoring is really loud." She suddenly smiled more brightly. "But my father is the same, so he built my house a hundred feet away from his house, and I can still hear it, so it's okay for me. What did you dream about?"
"It's still early, why not..." I didn't answer her question, but decided to carry on with my career as a flower thief, so I climbed up again.
Suddenly I remembered that the woman in the quilt was already my wife; so, I was really married, to be exact, I was married again.
That year, I was eighteen years old.
Note 1: One part frivolity and two parts madness, but still three parts of love not forgotten. As far as I can remember, this might be a line from a poem by Yu Dafu when he was studying in Japan in his early years. I suddenly remembered it here, so I wrote it down on the pretext of the topic. Suddenly I felt a little unsafe, so I noted it down.
Note: It means prostitute.
Note: Things like invitations can be traced back to the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, and the commonly accepted name of this word may have appeared in the Southern Liang Dynasty during the Northern and Southern Dynasties.