Murong Lian was smoking a hookah on a spring couch in the inner courtyard. On the bedside table stood a few idle books and a pot of wine.
When he saw Gu Mang coming in, he took a big mouthful of floating life like a dream, then spit it out slowly, instructing the left and right: "You guys go down first."
"Yes."
The servants withdrew, leaving only the two of them in the courtyard.
Murong Lian lay lazily on the bamboo couch, without looking at Gu Mang directly, she only tapped the ashes in the cigarette pot, then put it back in her mouth and sneered, "Fireball is really interesting, send a special envoy to my house. Come on, it's still a man with a face covering and a cloak - after all, what's the matter."
Gu Mang said, "It's me."
As soon as Murong Lian heard his voice, he was choked by the smoke he inhaled: "Cough cough cough!!" Soon after he got up, many emotions flashed across his face, shock, anxiety, hatred, hesitation... and even There are some complex contents that others can't see through.
"You? What are you doing here, pretending to be a special envoy, to get beat up?"
Except for a few people in Chonghua, no one knew that Gu Mang was in a state of recovering his memory at the moment, so Gu Mang naturally wouldn't show too much sobriety in front of Murong Lian. He is a spy who has been dormant in the Liao Kingdom for five years. It is not difficult for him to pretend to be, so he pretended to be dull and said: "Don't be angry, I will return your things."
"… "
"The Lord said that you can't ask for the benefits of others. So I'll return this ring to you."
As he said that, he took off the sapphire wrench and handed it to Murong Lian: "Thank you for giving it to me, but it's useless, I don't like it."
"… "
Murong Lian seemed to have been greatly insulted and almost didn't jump up: "Do you know what you are talking about?"
"There are hundreds of such wrenches in the house. If you like the bright little rings, I can give you a few more."
"Fuck! Can his things compare to this?!" Murong Lian angrily snatched it over, "This is—"
Gu Mang waited for him to speak calmly.
"This, this is, but..." Murong Lian seemed to be choked. After choking for a while, some light and dark light flickered in his eyes, and then he said viciously, "... Forget it. What am I telling you about? I originally borrowed it from you, when did it become a gift for you? Even if you don't come and pay it back, I will go to Xihe Mansion to ask for this finger in two days, so don't be too affectionate to me!"
He said, and put the wrench back on his thumb again.
Gu Mang sighed inwardly. Sure enough, Murong Lian wouldn't tell him the secret of the ring so easily. However, he just wanted to give it a try. The purpose of his visit to Shu Mansion was that he just wanted to come back and take a look for himself. After all, there were still some traces in this mansion that he missed too much.
Seeing that he hadn't spoken much, Murong Lian stared at him for a while and asked, "What's the matter, being tortured by Zhou He
Gu Mang said bluntly, "I'm not stupid."
After a pause, he glanced at Murong Lian's smoking gun and said, "Those who smoke this are stupid."
"you!"
Gu Mang said: "You're going to be angry again. You're always angry. Well, I'm a good wolf, so I won't make you unhappy. I'm going back after the delivery. Goodbye."
Murong Lian watched him turn around, her long and narrow eyes narrowed abruptly, and when Gu Mang walked to the side of the Moon Gate in the courtyard, Murong Lian suddenly said grimly, "Stop."
He paced to Gu Mang's side, looked around Gu Mang, and said, "Gu Mang. How do I remember that before you went to Bat Island...you have recovered a lot of consciousness?"
"… "
The slender golden long-handled pipe stretched out, hooked its mouth against Gu Mang's chin, and forcibly lifted it up. Murong Lian squinted her peach blossom eyes and said, "You don't think you are a wolf."
"… "
"Let me think... Did you come here today to mourn your auntie?"
Gu Mang froze suddenly.
Then he turned his face sideways: "Who is that?"
"..." Murong Lian kept silent, staring at Gu Mang for a while.
The two stood at a stalemate, and there was a breeze in the courtyard, blowing the sleeves of Gu Mang's cloak and robes. Murong Lian said, "You really can't remember who she is?"
Gu Mang shook his head.
"You'd better not lie to me. You have been with me for so long. You should be very clear about the consequences of deceiving me."
"I don't know. I don't understand what you're saying."
Gu Mang said, raised his hand and opened Murong Lian's pipe against his chin, wrinkling the bridge of his nose: "It smells so bad, how can you like this." After speaking, he sneezed twice, turned around, and didn't look back. walked out of the courtyard.
He seemed to be calm, but his heart was pounding.
—Why did Murong Lian suddenly mention Aunt Ni to him
Only a handful of people knew about his memory recovery. Did someone leak the secret to Murong Lian? Or is Murong Lian unsure, just testing...
He walked all the way beating in his heart, and when he left Wangshu Mansion, Gu Mang stood there and pondered for a while, but couldn't figure out any clues. In the end, he sighed and decided to stop thinking about this issue for now, but took a detour to Jiang's house.
He really couldn't stand the way Murong Lian was addicted to smoking now. Murong Lian was a very wild person. He had no father since he was a child. After his mother Mrs. Zhao died, no one could look after him, and he has never married a daughter-in-law. Speaking of a noble man dressed in gold and silver, in fact, he is also a bachelor who is left alone.
Gu Mang felt that he would not be able to continue like this, so he planned to go to Pharmacist Jiang to ask Murong Lian for a smoking cessation prescription while he was still awake.
When he arrived at the Jiang Mansion, he discovered that it was not Jiang Fuli who was prescribing medicine in the hall today, but his wife Su Yurou.
As usual, Su Yurou was wearing a silk gauze hat to cover the face that was rumored to be a country and a city. She sent a patient away, raised her head to see Gu Mang entering the room, and said indifferently, "Is the waiter here for a consultation?"
"Grab the medicine. Is Pharmacist Jiang there?"
"My husband went out for a walk a few days ago. If you don't have a difficult illness, you can also get a consultation on your concubine."
"Why did you go to Yunyou again..." Gu Mang couldn't help but lowered his head and thought.
The whereabouts of this Jiang Fuli are really treacherous, and three hundred and sixty-five days a year, most of the time is spent outside. People say that Wenrou Township buries heroic ambitions, but he is better, married a peerless beauty, but let the family live as a widow every day. But on second thought, he didn't seem to be any better than Jiang Fuli, and when such a beauty as Mo Xi was placed in front of him, he still delayed others for more than ten years.
Su Yurou asked, "Do you have to ask my husband to prescribe your prescription?"
"No need." Gu Mang sighed and said, "To disturb Madam, I just want to ask if there is any way to quit this kind of tobacco."
"... Is the waiter from Wangshu Mansion?"
"That's it."
"The waiter, please come back."
Gu Mang's eyes widened: "Why, why?"
Su Yuju said: "You should know that Wang Shujun has no intention of quitting this cigarette. When it comes to quitting addiction, the drug is always the auxiliary, the heart is the main, he wants to smoke, no matter how good the drug is, it will not help, why bother. Smashed the signboard of my pharmacist's house."
"..." Gu Mang opened his mouth and wanted to argue something, but on second thought, what this Madam Su said was not unreasonable. Murong Lian wanted to smoke, but who could stop him.
Gu Mang was restless, but there was nothing he could do. He sighed heavily, thanked Su Yurou, and left the Medicine Master's Mansion.
In fact, I have to say that Gu Mang's feelings towards Murong Lian are very complicated.
On the one hand, he really did not agree with many of Murong Lian's actions, but on the other hand, he understood Murong Lian's heart and could not help feeling pity for him.
Murong Lian's father left early, and his mother, Mrs. Zhao, probably hoped that he could become the same person as Shu Jun, so she completely stifled Murong Lian's innate talent and insisted on setting a path for Murong Lian, and that path was not the same. The end point is to make him a man exactly like his father.
Gu Mang remembered very clearly that Murong Lian loved illusions when he was a child.
But Mrs. Zhao did not allow it.
"What can Illusion do? It can only be the backup of the army! It's all useless! Your father is good at instrumental music, you are his child, and Lexiu is what you should do, don't let me go. detour!"
"Look at Mo Xi! You have the same ability as Lord Fu Ling. They are more talented than you and work harder than you. Don't you know how to reflect?"
"Murong Lian! Buy these illusion scrolls and try again! Believe it or not, I will tear them all up for you!"
After beating, scolding, and arguing day by day, Wangshu Mansion would no longer see the colorful butterflies and flowers conjured by illusions. These things that Murong Lian thought were very beautiful were not worth mentioning in front of his mother, they were all unattainable. countertop stuff.
When Mrs. Zhao was still alive, the most common sentence in the mansion was: "Murong Lian, study hard as your father did, and don't embarrass the Wangshu mansion."
He seems to be living in his father's mold. Others won't care that he is a completely different life. They just put him in according to this mold. Once he does something beyond this frame, they will brutally punish him. cut the flesh and blood, completely ignoring the pain of his dream of being castrated.
As long as some places are not done properly, it will be a lesson of sternness.
"What nonsense, why don't you go to Haosheng to practice?"
"You're tired of eating so much hardship, Murong Lian, you can't do anything!"
"What I give you is the best, and if you don't make it, I see who you are worthy of!"
Gu Mang remembered that Murong Lian struggled very hard at the beginning, arguing with his wife, and ran out of the mansion crying—
"But I just like illusions! I don't like Qin! Why do you keep forcing me like this? I don't want to be Murong Xuan's son! Whoever wants to be whoever is!"
This sentence brought Mrs. Zhao's thunderous fury. It was the only time Murong Lian was beaten to pieces. Such a small child was beaten into a bloody mass, lying on the bed and choking. Out of anger... That appearance is really pitiful.
Gu Mang watched him grow up all the way, watching him like a sick plum, deprived of his love, stripped of his nature, distorted by fate, and forced to grow up to be a replica of his father.
During this process, Murong Lian went from resistance to forbearance, from forbearance to numbness.
In the end, the child who once sat in the sunshine in the courtyard and was so pleased with the transformation of colorful butterflies in the courtyard will never be seen again. Only the guqin in the piano room is clanging like flowing water, and the sound of the jade flute fills the royal city. In the severe cold and heat, In the banana night rain, ten years lingered like a day.
Others said that the sound of the qin was beautiful, but only Gu Mang knew that it wasn't. Murong Lian held funerals one after another for his butterflies and sea of flowers in those golden, jade, silk and bamboo sounds.
Murong Lian was still twisted after all.
Gu Mang had lost his memory before, so in the face of Murong Lian, who was now drunk and dreaming, sipping smoke all day long, he didn't feel anything wrong. But when his childhood memories were retraced through the time mirror, he felt that things were not so simple.
Others may not understand Murong Lian and think he is a rotten person to the core, but Gu Mang has served him since childhood, and Gu Mang knows very well that Murong Lian's rotten ways are definitely not what he is now.
Murong Lian's experience since he was a child has made him a very bad temperament. For example, at the school, he used slave brothers and sisters to deceive Mo Xi for sympathy, causing Mo Xi to be whipped. Another example is to use Gu Mang to blackmail Mo Xi and force Mo Xi to lose to himself in the competition.
Although these behaviors of his are very indiscriminate, they undoubtedly show one point—
Murong Lian likes to win.
How could Murong Lian not like winning? He was scolded and reprimanded since he was a child, and he has become like a lackey used to being beaten. When he hears the stick, his teeth will fight and his body will tremble. Competitiveness has become his instinct, even if his mother has passed away for so many years, he can't get rid of it.
But what is a floating dream? It is the spice that the weak will deceive themselves to sip. Anyone who is sober-minded knows that once they are exposed to such psychedelic smoke, this person is almost useless.
How could Murong Lian take a sigh of relief when his head was sharpened, how could he suddenly pick up something that would rot to the core during the five years of his treason
And that ring.
Although the purpose of the ring is unknown, it should not be harmful. Gu Mang could feel a very strange aura on that ring, and he could almost be sure that Murong Lian put this ring on him to help him.
Murong Lian... Murong Lian...
What did this person know, what was he hiding, and what did he endure
Gu Mang frowned deeply, and he couldn't come up with a clue.
When he got home, it was already noon, and it was lunchtime. Gu Mang entered the hall, but he didn't see any dishes on the table, and he didn't see anyone in the room.
Just when she was wondering, she saw a servant come in from the yard with a fruit bowl. Gu Mang went over and asked her, "Elder sister, what about Xihe-Jun?"
The servants of the Xihe Mansion used to treat Gu Mang in a bad mood, but many people met with the wind. Mo Xi has treated Gu Mang so well these days, even the blind can see it, how could they not be able to smell the slightest bit of it? profound meaning
The maid immediately smiled brightly and said, "Oh, Mr. Gu doesn't need to call me sister, just call me Xiao Su."
Before Gu Mang could get used to the respectful title of "Mr. Gu", she saw that she put the fruit bowl on the table, wiped her hands, and smiled and said, "The Lord will first go to the orange blossom tree in the back garden. Next, you can look there first, and if you can't find it, go to the kitchenette."
Gu Mang was startled: "Small kitchen?"
"yes."
"What is he doing there???"
The author has something to say:
"People in Murong's Family Are Bad"
Murong Lian: I miss the days when I was scolded by the comment section and quit the group as soon as I appeared on the stage. Alas, since wearing Pinru's clothes, my hatred has disappeared, and my heart hurts.
Your Majesty: I miss the days when I hated Murong Lian in the comment section no matter what I did. Alas, since I learned the speaking skills, the hatred value has come to me, my heart hurts so much.
Murong Mengze: I miss the days when I haven't played yet. Alas, since I've played, I've been scolded as soon as I speak. My heart aches.
Murong Chuyi: I miss the days when the comment area thought I was an offense.
Gu Mangmang: ? ? ? Fourth uncle, wake up, you have never lived that kind of life before, okay? ! !