"Paner!"
He was looking down at the stall to pick out a plate of Spring Festival couplets, when he turned around, he saw Xue Dazhi and Su Hai standing not far behind him.
She subconsciously frowned.
The cattails on the side looked around curiously, but did not dare to speak.
"It's really you... Pan'er." Probably this sentence was a bit false, Dazhi said it very awkwardly, and couldn't help scratching his head while speaking.
Pan'er knew right away that he must have lied.
Indeed, that day Su Hai's speaker had no intention, but the listener did. For a few days, every morning Dazhi would go around half of Yangzhou City and come to Dongshikou to stay at Dongshikou, just to see if he could meet Pan'er.
Who knows that he really ran into it, but unfortunately he didn't dare to go forward at this time. For a few days, he found that Pan'er would come here to buy things every morning, so he dragged Dazhi to him today and waited for Pan'er.
"Haizi, you asked Pan'er to have something to say, why didn't you say it?" Seeing Pan'er looking at him, Dazhi panicked and bumped Su Hai with his elbow.
Su Hai wanted to scold his mother, but he didn't know who asked Pan'er to have something to say, and he didn't know who wanted to know if Pan'er was doing well.
The Su and Xue families are neighbors, and Xue Dazhi has liked Pan'er since he was a child, but it is a pity that Pan'er was sent to Zhao Wu's house by Yao Jinzhi when he was eight years old. On the surface it was said to be foster care, but in fact the adults knew what it was for, but Dazhi was only a half-grown boy at the time, so he didn't know what it meant.
After all, the Su family's house is not big, and there is no spare room for Pan'er to live in. He knows it.
So after that, he still looked for Pan'er every now and then. Until later, when he grew up, he understood but didn't give up, and the two still kept in touch, but it was the relationship between the brother next door and the sister next door.
Until he learned from his mother that Xue's family had sold Pan'er and made a fortune, he was completely dumbfounded. In his heart, he worked hard just to save enough money to talk to Aunt Yao about marrying Pan'er. In Xue Dazhi's heart, he still didn't believe that Aunt Yao would sell her daughter. The Su family was short of money. With a large betrothal gift, maybe the Su family would agree to his marriage with Pan'er.
It's a pity that the beauty disappeared before he had saved enough money.
Hearing Su Hai say that he saw Pan'er this time, Xue Dazhi really wanted to know if Pan'er was doing well. After all, in the eyes of ordinary people in the market, no one who is a concubine can live a good life. beating and scolding.
If Pan'er had a good life, he would naturally wish her sincerely, even though it would make him very sad. If life is not good...
After all, they grew up together, Su Hai didn't want to refute Dazhi's face in front of others, and besides, he also wanted to know how Pan'er is doing now.
"Well... I saw you here a few days ago, and you ignored me when I called you. I didn't say it. I'm also your second brother. I shouldn't call you no matter what?" Su Hai didn't finish the words. It just reverted to its usual disposition.
Pan'er has always disliked this second elder brother, and turned over silver in his heart, but said on the face: "I didn't hear that."
"Did you not hear me, or did you not want to talk to me? Why, after following the noble man, you don't even recognize your brother?"
Seeing that Su Hai's words became more and more unsightly, Da Zhi pushed him aside, and said, "Pan'er, don't pay attention to Su Hai, he just talks unforgivingly, but in fact your second brother cares about you a lot. We came to find you , In fact, there is no other meaning, just want, just want to know how are you doing?"
Looking at the dark-skinned and tall young man in front of him, Pan'er's mood fluctuated for a while.
She is not the real Su Pan'er, she is the Empress Dowager Yi'an, but she has not forgotten this childhood sweetheart who grew up together.
'Su Pan'er' didn't forget that, Pan'er felt that this young body still had a certain influence on her true self. As the Empress Dowager Yi'an, it is reasonable to say that her mood should not fluctuate after seeing this person. That's how it is now.
"Brother Dazhi..." Pan'er froze for a moment when he called her out.
"Pan'er!" Seeing that Pan'er was still calling himself like before, Dazhi was very excited.
Pan'er took a deep breath, smiled and said, "I'm living a pretty good life now, and I'm married too..."
Just as he was talking, the prince walked out with Zhang Laishun.
"This is-"
Pan'er subconsciously felt a little dazed, as if seeing an old lover and being caught by her husband, but she quickly came to her senses.
"Brother Cong, this is my former neighbor, and this is my second brother." After answering the prince, she hurriedly said to Dazhi and Su Hai, "Second brother, brother Dazhi, I have a good life, this is me... Husband, he works as an accountant."
"You were bought by a nobleman..." Dazhi bumped into Su Hai and interrupted his words.
"As long as you live well, we still have something to do, so let's go first. Where do you live now, Haizi and I will visit you some other day?"
"This..." Pan'er subconsciously glanced at the prince, but she didn't say anything else when she saw the prince. She told Xue Dazhi the address of her current residence.
"We don't know how long we can live here, maybe we will leave after the next year."
Dazhi nodded, and hurriedly pulled Su Hai away.
After the two left, Pan'er looked at the prince.
"I didn't expect to meet them here. My second brother is a bit lazy, so I told him that you are an accountant..."
This is also what Pan'er came up with after a brainstorm, but the crown prince's attire also looks like a down-and-out scholar who works as an accountant for others.
This is not what the prince is looking into.
"Who is that big wise brother?"
Pan'er always felt that the prince's voice was a bit weird, but seeing his expression was quite normal, she didn't have time to think about it, so she replied: "He is Xue Dazhi, the eldest son of the Su family's neighbor Xue's family, because the two families are separated. Recently, I have been like my elder brother since I was a child, and I am more like an older brother than my second elder brother anyway."
elder brother? The prince chewed silently, didn't speak, just glanced at Pan'er.
Just now he went to the Four Treasures of the Study shop to look at brushes and inks. Pan'er saw lanterns and Spring Festival couplets for sale, so he said he would buy two red lanterns and hang them up. When he came out of the Four Treasures Store of the Study, he saw two more men in front of Pan'er.
Anyway, the way the crown prince looked at Xue Dazhi looking at the plate just now didn't look like an older brother.
Childhood sweetheart
Because of this incident, a few people went back without any further shopping.
Pan'er had a headache about whether the Su family would come to find her. Fortunately, she said on the spur of the moment that the prince was an accountant and worked as an accountant in a rich family, which was reasonable.
She is not sure whether the Su family will come to look for her, but she knows that Xue Dazhi will definitely come. When she was sold, Xue Dazhi went to the countryside. The elder brother next door will also care about how her life is going.
Especially when Su Hai interrupted him so much today, he didn't finish some words.
Xue Dazhi is such a character, honest, honest and persistent, that is to say, he is a bit stubborn, and he will definitely try his best to find out whether his life is going well after 'she was sold'.
"Su Pan'er" didn't understand. The Empress Dowager Yi'an in the previous life only realized later that the relationship between her and Brother Da Zhi was not only childhood sweethearts, but also a love affair with concubines. It's just that she was still too young at that time, and she was forced to separate before she had time to realize it. After a long time, everything faded away.
But just now Pan'er didn't ignore the way Xue Dazhi looked at her.
What a headache! If the prince knows about this...
"What are you thinking?"
Such a question popped up next to Leng Buding, Pan'er subconsciously turned his head and saw the prince's face.
"No, I didn't think about anything. I was thinking that some people would hang up the lanterns I bought later," she said, and she stood up, "Master, I'll go and have a look. It would be festive to hang them up sooner." .”
Pan'er's whole body was only short of writing "I'm very guilty" in large characters, so that the prince looked at her back for a long time.
After Pan'er went out, she also realized that there was nothing wrong with her, so why was she guilty? Wouldn't this make people even more suspicious.
But it was too late to react, and Pan'er had to think of a way to persuade the prince to let him play a play with her at that time, so as to deal with Brother Dazhi and the Su family.
In order to show that she wasn't guilty at all, Pan'er seemed to be full of energy next.
The guards took and hung the outer lanterns, and she called Zhang Laishun and Cattail to help with the inner lanterns, and she directed them from below.
Cattails supported the ladder, and Zhang Laishun tremblingly climbed onto the ladder.
How long had he been doing this kind of work? I called my mother in my heart, for fear that I would fall if I was not careful. But with Su Fengyi watching from below, the prince was still sitting in the room, so he could only bite the bullet.
"Master Fengyi, have you read it?"
In fact, Zhang Laishun had already hung up the lantern just now, but Pan'er said it was close.
Because of this sentence, the two of them argued for a long time before they could figure out the meaning.
It turns out that there is a taboo in Yangzhou that you can't say unlucky words during the twelfth lunar month, especially when posting Spring Festival couplets and hanging lanterns. Anyway, I want to talk about auspiciousness. If there are some words that cannot be replaced, I will say it in a vague way.
That's why Zhang Laishun hung the lantern crookedly just now, Pan'er didn't say it was crooked, but said it was almost. But Zhang Laishun didn't understand the difference, what was the difference
"Okay, fine."
Hearing these words, Zhang Laishun breathed a sigh of relief, and climbed down the ladder with trembling legs.
Pan'er entered the room, and said to the prince with a smile, "My lord, I was planning to buy Spring Festival couplets and blessing characters just now, but thinking that your handwriting is so good, it would be shameful for others to take over the lintel. Don’t you want to write a few copies?” In fact, she was also a little flattering, and the previous Emperor Jianping liked to write the word “Fu” and rewarded him, which is the so-called blessing.
"Writing Spring Festival couplets and blessing characters requires red paper."
"I bought the red paper myself."
She asked Qing Dai to fetch the red paper, and affectionately led the prince to the study. When she arrived at the study, she was very attentive, laying paper and grinding ink, and also prepared the pen, waiting for the prince to write.
Because this house has four gates, the main gate, the left and right corner gates and the back gate, plus the gate of the main courtyard, at least five large ones must be written. There are also kitchens and warehouses. This is an indispensable place for folks to post Spring Festival couplets during the New Year, implying wealth and wealth and a good harvest, so two pairs of small ones are needed.
Not to mention the word blessing, the more the better.
At this point, Pan'er also felt that it was a bit too much to write down, how could she labor the prince to do such a thing? But it's hard to get off the tiger, so I can only bite the bullet.
So she didn't dare to say the number of blessings, so she just said to write a few.
Pan'er was in charge of cutting the paper, and the prince was in charge of writing.
When she finished cutting the paper with Qing Dai's help, she was also very tired. Seeing the Prince's wanton display of his faults is quite unpleasant. But she didn't dare to say anything, who made her feel guilty, and asked others for help.
The crown prince wrote a dozen or so blessings, which made Pan'er heave a sigh of relief. When the prince stopped writing and reached out for a handkerchief to wipe his hands, she hurriedly handed over the handkerchief that had been prepared in advance.
It was no different from how Zhang Laishun and Fulu usually served the prince. Then after getting the things in your hands, you have to pretend to appreciate them and say a few nice words of praise. But the prince's writing is really good. Although Pan'er doesn't like to practice calligraphy, he has read many masterpieces and knows that the prince's pen and ink can be regarded as the top class.
She didn't know that after she and the crown prince left Yangzhou, many people came to admire the couplets outside the door, but they were written on paper and could not withstand the wind and sun, so it took more than half a year. It has faded, and was taken back by those caring people, but it was not framed and enshrined.
By the time all this is done, it will be noon.
During lunch, Pan'er was still so attentive that he almost didn't serve the prince as if he were his ancestor. The prince was unhappy at first, but he was amused by her. Later, Pan Er pretended to talk to him, and he pretended to look at her suspiciously.
"I want to tell you something, that is, I met my second elder brother this morning, and I was afraid that he would come to find me, so I lied that His Highness is the accountant..."
After Ting Pan'er stumbled and finished speaking, the prince said: "You mean if they come here, it's time for me to play with you?"
Pan'er nodded repeatedly.
"Will it be for Brother Da Zhi, or for your second brother?"
She was not wary of him asking such a question, and was stunned.