When I returned to the house this summer, I called Yang Yue out and explained the matter to him in a low voice. Hearing that it was Lu Yi's arrangement, Yang Yue couldn't help but be a little surprised and a little suspicious: "Master Lu said you want to send her to Suzhou?"
"Girl Zhai's affairs are extraordinary. She is not only behind the simple matter of raising a family. I think Master Lu has considered it very carefully. Sooner or later, she will be found out if she stays here. Although Gusu is not a long-term plan, but This is the only way to go now.”
Yang Yue hesitated for a long time, then nodded heavily: "Just do as Lord Lu said."
"There is one more thing," Jin Xia grabbed him and said solemnly, "In this matter, Mr. Lu is willing to take care of us, we already owe him a huge favor. I have thought about it, if we go back and forth in the future, When the unidentified incident happened, the two of us will carry this matter down, and we must not implicate him."
"It's natural." Yang Yue hurriedly said.
This summer, I stopped talking about it, and went to the back room to hand over the clothes that Zhai Lanye had changed to Yang Yue: "Throw these clothes into the river, it's best to get some blood on them..."
Yang Yue understood her intention: the officials in the yamen were looking for clothes, and if they ordered them carelessly, they might close the case after a while without finding anyone, which is naturally the best. After wrapping up his clothes, Yang Yue hurried out the door to find Shangguanxi before dawn.
I went back to Zhai Lanye this summer: "It's already arranged, and a boat will pick you up to go to Suzhou at dawn... Sister, you really think about it, and it's too late to go back on it now."
"Gusu..." Zhai Lanye smiled bitterly, "I'm just afraid that it's not far enough, how can I go back on it."
Seeing that she had made up her mind this summer, she stopped persuading her and nodded: "Would you like to take a break while it's still dark?"
Listening to the dense rain outside, Zhai Lanye remembered the mood of listening to the rain at home before, and it was completely different. Leaving the support family, leaving the days of day-to-day tours to the lake and being appreciated by others, and leaving his control, she was both uneasy and had an inexplicable pleasure. Leave him, flee far away, let him know that she is not the one who will always lie down and wait for him obediently.
Handing her a cup of tea, after hesitating for a moment this summer, she said, "Sister, you are leaving soon. There is something I want to ask before you leave, it is about Zhou Xian and Lord Zhou."
Zhou Xianji... Zhai Lanye was silent for a moment, then said softly, "Just ask."
"Since you have someone in your heart, why bother to provoke Lord Zhou again?"
"I... Master Zhou, I'm sorry for him, but I never thought that he would go to a dead end." Zhai Lanye said, tears could not help falling.
"Master Zhou is because he can't find enough silver to marry you, so..."
"No, he took silver taels later, and I rejected him."
"what?"
Zhai Lanye looked at Jinxia: "This is the end of the matter, so I'll tell you the truth. When Lord Zhou first arrived in Yangzhou, I was instructed to do what I like and befriend him."
"Who ordered it?"
"You don't have to ask, and I can't say..." Zhai Lanye shook his head, and then continued, "Master Zhou is a very nice person, and he has always treated me with courtesy. I have great respect for him in my heart. Later, he said that he had written a letter. Go home to raise money, and when the land at home is sold, you can marry me."
"He's been so kind to you." Jin Xia sighed.
"I knew I couldn't drag it on any longer, so I told the master. The master told him that there was another son who wanted to marry me, and he let him die. Who knows, he brought silver taels over the next day, and I couldn't marry him. He rejected him cruelly. Who knew that night... that night he would hang himself."
This summer, I had a bottom line in my heart. Zhou Xian had already brought the money the next day. Obviously, it was not the income from the sale of the land at home. The money was probably part of the money for repairing the river. But what she couldn't understand was that the money for repairing the river was 100,000 taels. Where did the rest of the money go
"Your windows..." she asked tentatively.
Zhai Lanye didn't expect that she would even know about it: "Yes, you can see where he lives from my small building. If you use a telescope, you can see it more clearly. He was busy with official business and was going to the river bank. We can’t see each other every day, so we often face each other at the window.”
"So that night, he deliberately opened the window so that you could see him hanging from the beam and committing suicide?"
"I... I didn't expect him to..." Zhai Lanye twisted the clothes around her heart with her hands, frowning and weeping, "It was my fault, he should have hated me."
"You to him... There is a sachet by his grave, is it yours?"
"You even found the incense bag!" Zhai Lanye was not familiar with the method of handling the case, and looked surprised, "It's mine. Since that night... after the death of Lord Zhou... I always had nightmares about him, and then the old lady Mammy said that he was thinking about me and asked me to cut a strand of hair and bury it by his grave, maybe he would be at ease."
"The stitches on the sachet and Zhou's clothes are from the same person," this summer has become more and more white, "isn't it you?"
"No, it's the old mama in my house," Zhai Lanye said embarrassedly, "That dress... Lord Zhou thought I sewed it."
This summer, I don't know what to say, Zhai Lanye abandoned Zhou Xianji, and she was abandoned again. Zhou Xian had already committed suicide, and she herself threw herself into the river...
When the sky was dawning, Yang Yue came back and said that everything had been arranged.
This summer, Zhai Lanye has been dressed up as a man, and she has been sent to the boat with Yang Yue. Seeing that A Rui was standing at the bow of the boat, he felt relieved this summer. He secretly admired Shangguan Xi for doing things safely, but he didn't understand why A Rui looked at her fiercely.
"Master Shangguan said that there is an embroidery farm in Gusu. She can be an embroiderer when she goes there, but she will be tired and have a hard life. I don't know that she can't get used to it." Yang Yue watched Zhai Lanye get into the cabin.
"When the wind is over, you can take time to see her." This summer, watching the ship sail away steadily, "Sail at night, board the ship at night, and dawn will arrive."
Yang Yue didn't say anything, just watched the boat slowly disappear from his vision.
****************************************************
Two days later.
Radishes, spinach, mushrooms... and toon...
This summer, he was squatting in the kitchen, carefully picking up the vegetable baskets, and then turned to the postman in the kitchen and said with a smile, "Brother, can you give me two eggs too?"
After a cup of tea, the courier watched helplessly as she picked out a small basket of vegetables: mushrooms, spring bamboo shoots, tofu slices, radishes, chicken eggs... Fortunately, these dishes were not worth a lot of money, so he closed his eyes. one eye.
"Are you going to have a table vegetarian meal?" the postman asked her.
Jin Xia nodded with a smile: "Yes, it is advisable to fast today, there are 100,000 merits, you should also be vegetarian."
"real?"
"Of course it's true, I checked the book specially."
This summer, carrying a small basket, he stepped out of the kitchen and went straight to the small courtyard where Lu Yi lived. This small courtyard originally had a separate small kitchen, but Lu Yi went to Yangzhou this time and did not bring any servants with him, so he never used it, but the kitchen was full of pots and pans.
Called well water, carefully washed and selected the vegetables, and soaked the tofu three times in the well water to remove the fishy smell, then sliced the spring bamboo shoots and simmered the soup together with the mushrooms. This summer, after kneading the dough, covering it with a damp cloth, and smelling the fragrance of mushrooms, I was very satisfied... Inviting Lu Yi to eat was the best and most direct way of gratitude she could think of.
Suffering from the shyness of her pocket, she was really in a dilemma in terms of ingredients. She had only a handful of copper plates on her body, not to mention big fish and meat, even fruit and vegetables. To this end, she specially checked the book and found out that it is advisable to fast today, and it is best to invite guests to dinner.
Seeing that the sky is gradually sinking, but for some reason, Lu Yi has not come back. She took a small washed carrot in her hand, and while biting it, she pointed out to probe her brain...
Coincidentally, outside the crescent gate, there is also a person who is probing his brain.
"Dayang!" She recognized him and hurriedly called.
"I just came to your wing to look for you, so I guessed that you might be here with Lord Lu." Yang Yue stepped into the courtyard and smelled the incense at once, "How about you make soup with bamboo shoots and mushrooms?"
"Yeah, is it fragrant? I have to add tofu skin later." This summer said happily, "You came just in time. I want to cook the radish with cooked lard. Do you want to roll the radish first?"
"No, that would suck."
Yang Yue entered the kitchen, rolled up his sleeves habitually, cleaned his hands, and took the white radish and cut it into evenly sized pieces.
As soon as he came, he would be able to pick up his picks this summer. Leaning against the door frame, he bit the little carrot and said inarticulately, "I'm good with noodles... I want to make spring cakes... You remember to make them thin..."
"Understood." Yang Yue lifted off the damp cloth, poked the dough with his hand, tested the softness, and said sideways, "You want to ask Mr. Lu to make a plain table, isn't it good?"
"Master Lu has never eaten any good food. Even if I go bankrupt and get whole chickens and ducks, he may not be uncommon." This Xia Zhenzhen said, "Although my purse cannot stand the test, my loyalty does not need to be tested. Inviting him to dinner is just a wish, how could he not understand."
At this time, someone came slowly outside the crescent moon door, and she didn't notice it.
"By the way, what are you coming to me about? The boss has something to explain? Or... Is there any movement on the street?" asked Yang Yue this summer.
"I heard that I was looking for clothes." Yang Yue's face sank, but his hands didn't stop at all. "Probably send someone to the river to find people."
"That's good. After tossing for two more days at most, it will probably stop. The Orientals are still around, and they can't tell much difference." This summer looked at Yang Yue's expression inquiringly, "Do you miss her?"
Yang Yue lowered his head and smiled, but didn't answer her words: "... I have a letter from you in my arms, you can get it yourself." His hands were full of flour, so it was difficult to reach into his arms.
"My letter?!" Jin Xia said curiously, put the carrot in his mouth, leaned over, and took out a letter lightly with his hands.
"In the letter to my father, it is estimated that your mother brought it to you."
While speaking, Jin Xia had already taken out the letter paper and tilted his head to look carefully. The words on the letter were clearly written by his younger brother Yuan Yi, but what was written...
She was speechless for half a quarter of an hour: "This, this... How much dowry did my mother promise? The Yi family agreed so quickly!"
Yang Yue had seen it before, and smiled: "It seems that the third child of the Yi family has a lot of affection for you, probably because you helped him beat Hei Tai Sui when he was a child."
This summer, he pushed his forehead anxiously: "I don't even remember this matter, young master. He can't commit himself."
"Master Xia, take a breath first, I have something else to tell you." Yang Yue rubbed his face steadily.
She looked at him warily: "Good thing? Bad thing?"
"It depends on what you think, anyway, I think it's a good thing."
"Tell me..." This summer has a bad intuition.
"Xie Xiao, your brother Xie, went to my father and said—" Yang Yue deliberately paused, "He plans to marry you, and wants to write to your mother to propose marriage."
"… "
Now, this summer, I don't even chew carrots, and stay at the local place.
Yang Yue teased her: "Find someone to do the math, have you been lucky recently?"
After a long while, this summer only took a long sigh: "This thing... I really haven't opened for three years, sir, and I have been open for three years!"
A person's voice sounded behind her, faint.
"That's not how it works."