There was a cooing sound outside the window. A carrier pigeon was standing on the windowsill outside, its enlarged shadow cast on the window.
The bed curtain was opened by a hand.
Si Que got up from the couch and walked towards the window. As soon as the window was opened, the carrier pigeon standing on the windowsill outside immediately flapped its wings and flew in, landing on Si Que's wrist.
Si Que lowered his eyes, took off the letter tube tied to his leg, and took out the rolled-up letter. He scanned the contents of the letter at a glance under the light on the corner of the table.
"What a waste." He frowned, with obvious impatience in his eyes.
You Yuji gathered her clothes and sat up, lifting the bed curtain to look at Si Que. The soft light shone on his profile, reflecting his impatient expression in You Yuji's eyes.
Si Que suddenly raised his eyes and looked at You Yuji.
You Yuji didn't quite understand what his look meant.
Si Que had already withdrawn his gaze. He pulled out a chair and sat down behind the long desk, then took a pen and wrote a reply.
He writes very quickly.
Ji Shu paused for a moment and said, "Write a letter to your two brothers and ask them to come back."
You Yuji had already gotten out of bed and put on her clothes, and walked slowly towards Si Que. She walked to Si Que, put her hand on his shoulder, and lowered her eyes to read what he was writing.
After a quick glance, I found that it was some military content.
You Yuji glanced at him, then looked away, returning her gaze to Si Que's face. She raised her hand, gently touched his cheek with the back of her finger, and asked softly, "Why are you suddenly getting involved in these things?"
"for you."
You Yuji's fingertips that were gently stroking his cheek froze.
The night is late and the dew is heavy.
Lin Yingying sat alone in the courtyard, staring blankly at the small wild flowers growing out of the soil beside the corridor. She had been sitting here for a long time, so long that she forgot how late it was.
The sound of bricks rolling down the wall finally brought Lin Yingying back to her senses. She looked over in the direction of the sound. In the pitch black, she could only vaguely see a figure jumping down from the wall, but she couldn't see who it was.
"Who is it!" She raised her voice and shouted, then immediately stood up and stepped back.
“Woof woof woof woof…” The big yellow dog stationed at the gate of the yard immediately started barking wildly.
"Why is the young lady living here alone without any family? Tsk, could it be that she has committed a crime and is fleeing?"
Several figures gradually approached, and the lanterns hanging on the apricot tree slowly reflected their appearance. There were four men in total, wearing ordinary coarse cloth shirts, folding their arms and staggering as they walked, and one of them even had a dogtail grass in his mouth. At first glance, they were the hooligans who caused trouble on the streets every day.
"Brother Qian, am I right? There is a beauty in this yard! I took a glimpse of her last time when I went to steal apricots from next door and climbed up the tree. Hehe."
"Who's shouting outside?" Cui Yu put on her clothes, took a knife and rushed out of the house, grabbed Lin Yingying and pulled her to her side.
"Oh, there's another one inside! This one looks good too." The little gangster rubbed his hands, and his eyes as big as green beans rolled around twice.
These hooligans had done a lot of stealing and kidnapping, so Lin Yingying and Cuiyu knew exactly why they broke in in the middle of the night.
There was a little maid in the room, who was bought by Cuiyu today. She was not very old. When she came out, she told the little maid to hide in the room and not run out.
Cui Yu winked at Lin Yingying, then put one hand on her waist, raised the knife in her other hand, and raised her already loud voice: "Okay! Under the emperor's feet, you are trespassing into private houses to kill people! I will risk my life today, but I won't let you do what you want. At most, I will chop off one by one!"
The four little hooligans' eyes had already lit up when they saw the two beautiful young ladies, but when they heard Cuiyu's words, they were all stunned.
While they were stunned, Lin Yingying quickly ran towards the gate of the courtyard.
"Where are you going? Where are you running?" A gangster turned around and chased Lin Yingying.
Lin Yingying didn't want to run away to save her life. She ran to the gate of the yard desperately. The little gangster had already caught up with her and hugged her from behind. While struggling desperately, Lin Yingying finally touched the dog cage that was locked with Da Huang and struggled to pry the padlock open.
The barking Dahuang immediately came out of the dog cage and bit the leg of the person who was hugging Lin Yingying.
"Help! Ahhh you mad dog, help me open it!"
The other three people ran over and beat the mad dog that was biting people with sticks in their hands.
Lin Yingying looked pale as she watched them beating rhubarb. She turned around with trembling legs, went to the corner of the yard, picked up the hoe she used for farm work, ran over and made a mess of things: "Go! Hurry up!"
Cuiyu also rushed over with a sharp kitchen knife in hand, waving it at the men. Her voice was much louder than Lin Yingying's, and she swung the knife wildly while shouting, "Damn bastards! You dare to come to my territory and do evil? Today, you come in upright and leave horizontally!"
There was such a loud noise here that all the neighbors were woken up, but no one came to help for a while. They all hid in their homes and listened to the noise.
These hooligans just knew that there was a lonely and helpless beautiful lady living in this courtyard, so they wanted to come and taste her fragrance, but they didn't really want to kill anyone. In their eyes, killing someone means paying with one's life, but bullying a young lady is not a big deal. They can brag about it to others, but the bullied young lady will try her best to cover it up for her reputation, serve them well in the future, and welcome them to come again at any time...
But they did not expect that these two young ladies, though delicate and pretty in appearance, had fierce and aggressive temperaments. Before they could taste the delicious food, someone was bitten by a dog first, and now he was being beaten with a hoe and a kitchen knife.
They were not kind-hearted people to begin with, and for a moment they felt annoyed.
"Hiss." Qian San took a breath. It really hurt when the hoe hit his leg. He looked at Lin Yingying angrily and hit her with the stick in his hand.
The natural disparity in strength made Lin Yingying completely unable to withstand the blow. Even though she dodged in time by turning sideways, the blow hit her arm and caused her hand to tremble. The hoe in her hand fell to the ground and she fell to the ground.
"Yingying!" Cuiyu screamed and tried to rush towards Lin Yingying. But her wrist was grabbed and the kitchen knife in her hand was taken away.
She was not in control of her body, but she was free to speak. Cuiyu cursed viciously.
Only the big yellow dog, half the height of a man, was still desperately protecting its master.
The little girl hiding in the house was so scared that she burst into tears. She looked outside through the crack in the door, wondering whether she should go out and fight together.
In the chaos, the gate of the courtyard was suddenly kicked open. A team of royal guards rushed in from outside and surrounded the people in the courtyard. The sound of swords being drawn was uniform, and the sword light was shining with a cold silver aura.
Lin Yingying looked at the guards, frowned, slowly turned her head to look at the gate of the courtyard, and watched Jiang Yunche walk in from outside the courtyard.
He was still the same, dressed in a green shirt like a scholar, with a gentle jade face filled with moonlight. The night was too dark, and his eyes looking at me were hard to see clearly.
For a moment, Lin Yingying felt mixed emotions.
Did he know that she was the one who started the fire? When did he know that? Lin Yingying felt a burning pain on her arm and her face was still stained with a fishy smell. She wanted to disappear right where she was, not wanting him to see her in such a state of disgrace.
Jiang Yunche stopped beside Lin Yingying, and the hem of his silver silk brocade skirt brushed against Lin Yingying's legs. He squatted down and used the back of his fingers to wipe off the blood on Lin Yingying's face, who knew whose blood it was.
"Is this the life you want?" he asked.
Lin Yingying looked at Jiang Yunche in front of her, her heart was in agony. He had done nothing, and it was none of his business, but at this moment she felt a sense of humiliation she had never felt before. This sense of humiliation was not given by Jiang Yunche, but came from her own inferiority complex.
Lin Yingying opened her eyes wide and took a breath very slowly - this was a method she learned when she was a child. She did this whenever she was punished and wanted to cry, so she could hold back her tears.
She even slowly pulled up the corners of her lips, revealing a pair of dimples. She smiled at Jiang Yunche. She was the best at smiling, a skill she had acquired since she was a child.
"Yes." she said with a smile.
Jiang Yunche stood up suddenly, and the hem of his gorgeous clothes brushed Lin Yingying's face. He turned around and left without any regrets.
With the sound of "swish" the swords were put away, all the guards he brought with him put away their swords at the same time and marched out of the narrow courtyard in orderly steps.
Lin Yingying lowered her head before tears dared to fall.
The gangsters were already scared out of their wits. Although Jiang Yunche had already left with his guards, they knew that they could not afford to offend the people living in this courtyard, so they immediately ran out in a hurry.
Dahuang chased to the gate of the courtyard and continued barking desperately in the direction outside the yard.
Cuiyu shook her sore and painful wrist and walked towards Lin Yingying, asking, "Does it hurt after being hit by the stick?"
Lin Yingying shook her head, as if all her energy had been drained away.
Cui Yu simply sat next to her in the courtyard, not saying much, just accompanying her silently.
After a long while, Lin Yingying seemed to come back to life. She stood up with great effort and reached out to Cuiyu to pull her up. She smiled at Cuiyu and said, "Go back to sleep. We still have to choose a place to open a shop tomorrow."
"Yes." Cuiyu nodded, and she and Lin Yingying supported each other and went into the house. She secretly thought in her heart that she had originally planned to use all the remaining money to do business, but it seemed that she should save a little bit and buy a gatekeeper tomorrow. It would also be good for courage.
The noise gradually died down. The neighbors who heard the news discussed it at home, and then fell asleep again with a loud snore.
There was a sedan parked at the entrance of the alley.
"My lord, those people have been dealt with." The subordinate stood outside the sedan and reported.
No words were conveyed from the sedan chair.
Jiang Yunche looked out the window, his sight passed over the houses one by one, and landed on Lin Yingying's small courtyard, watching her house turn off the lights. His world seemed to darken in an instant.
It turned out that it was all his wishful thinking from the beginning to the end. All her smiles and tenderness were a deliberate conspiracy to escape.
In Xici Palace, You Yuji and Princess Jinnan sat together, quietly waiting for the Empress Dowager Cixi. They arrived at an unlucky time, as the Empress Dowager Cixi had just laid down for a nap, so the two could only wait in the flower hall first.
As the Empress Dowager Cixi aged, she began to have a light sleep, having difficulty falling asleep and waking up easily. Therefore, the Empress Dowager Cixi's daily routine was very different from that of ordinary people. She often did not sleep well the night before, so she would leave everything behind and lie down to rest whenever she felt like sleeping the next day.
You Yuji smiled and looked at Princess Jinnan's belly, and asked gently, "Is he well behaved today?"
Originally, You Yuji only planned to do this by herself. She was grateful that Princess Jinnan was willing to accompany her on this trip despite her current condition.
"Very well behaved recently." The princess said with a smile.
She had a smile on her face, but she was worried. She was already in poor health, and had to take a lot of medicine when she was pregnant with this child. She was really worried every day, afraid that another child would die...
You Yuji and the princess sat in the hall for more than half an hour before the Empress Dowager Cixi came over. The eunuch's shrill voice announced that the Empress Dowager Cixi had arrived, and You Yuji and the princess immediately stood up to greet her.
The Empress Dowager Cixi walked in slowly, holding the nanny's hand.
"Long live the Queen Mother." You Yuji and the princess knelt slightly and saluted.
"No thanks. Please sit down." The Empress Dowager Cixi sat down in the chair.
You Yuji and the princess sat down again. She raised her head and looked at the Empress Dowager Cixi. After not seeing her for a few months, there seemed to be a lot more white hair on her temples.