The sun was shining brightly, the painting boat undulating slightly with the rippling of the water waves, and there was the buzzing sound of the tourists in the distance. Ning Yi was sitting with Xiao Chan on the side of the boat against the lake. In the field of vision, there were still boats approaching from a distance, and the sky flew over the companion birds.
"Okay, what happened?"
After sitting down, the atmosphere between the two was somewhat silent. Xiaochan didn't sit upright, she sat on the edge of the chair sideways. This was a somewhat restrained way of sitting. If it was in an ordinary family, the maid would not dare to sit upright in front of the master. This is what it would be like, but Xiaochan was in front of Ning Yi. She had long since let go of those formalized respects, and suddenly this attitude again may only mean that she was thinking about something that was difficult to decide. Seeing that the fingers of her hands were still tightly twisted together, Ning Yi stretched out her hand and held her back. One of her hands was in the palm of her hand, the palm was fair and small, and when it was placed in Ning Yi's hand, it trembled slightly, but it finally made Xiaochan take a breath.
"Uncle, uncle..."
"Um?"
"Uncle... can you promise me one thing?"
The girl asked timidly, and her words gradually turned lower. Ning Yi smiled slightly: "If you don't tell me anything, I don't know if I can do it or not."
"I-I want my uncle to agree to me. What I said to my uncle later, if... If my uncle doesn't agree, don't tell the lady, okay?"
"Oh? Can't I tell your lady?"
"It's not..."
Chan'er shook her head softly, one of her hands was held in Ning Yi's, she felt a little reassured, and after thinking for a while, she decided to speak, but her face gradually turned crimson.
"Uncle, uncle, can you... talk to the young lady, say... say... this evening, no, or tomorrow night... any day... Uncle and young lady, come out one night and not live with the young lady, okay... "
Her words were difficult and ambiguous, and it was too arrogant to keep the two masters together at night as a servant girl. Ning Yi was stunned for a moment, Xiaochan should also be aware of the ambiguity of these words, her face was red and white and anxious for a while, she was usually just a simple and lovely smiling face, but at this time, various expressions were mixed together. The left hand that was held by Ning Yi shrank and wanted to pull it back, but Ning Yi exerted force on her hand and couldn't pull it back, so she touched her right hand, lowered her head, and bowed on the chair, Ning Yi had already I couldn't see her face, I just felt that her skin was about to burn, not only the palms of her hands, but also her originally white neck was already burning red.
"Uncle only needs to accompany Xiaochan, accompany Xiaochan... Uncle only needs to sleep with Xiaochan for one night."
She finished her words with force, and lowered her forehead to Ning Yi's hand. In the shadow of the ship's side, the girl's thin body seemed to curl up in a ball in front of Ning Yi. Ning Yi thought for a while, then sat down a bit, put her forehead on his shoulder, and sighed: "Wait a few days, and go through the door, won't it be alright?"
There are ships coming in the distance of the field of vision. If you look more carefully, you may be able to see the situation here, but Ning Yi doesn't care now, Xiaochan shook her head slightly on his shoulder: "No, there is no door..."
After saying this, she moved her body back, reached out and wiped her eyes, and raised her head slightly to reveal a forced smile: "Xiaochan has thought about it, but the door is closed, Xiaochan... Xiaochan is the one with the uncle and uncle. From now on, it's fine to be a maid of the house, even if you don't need a name."
Ning Yi looked at her and didn't speak. His concept was different from that of people at this time. Name and status were irrelevant, but for Xiaochan and others, it was impossible. As far as the concept is concerned, it can be a concubine or a concubine. With the ceremony, there will be multiple names. Even if the status of a concubine is not high, what many concubines pursue can only be These names, for them, may have some important symbolic meanings.
Even if Ning Yi can use his own influence to make this family as harmonious as possible, try to be... weird, but for Xiao Chan and others, there are always some things that cannot be eliminated. In fact, it's not just the identity of the concubine. With the closeness between Ning Yi and Xiaochan, more things could have been done between the two. The reason why Ning Yi did not move forward was because he knew that at least for Xiaochan Words, those rituals, should be meaningful.
She is just a maid, but she can still have a ceremony. This ceremony may be very small and only a few people in the family may participate, but at least in that ceremony, she can also be valued like an ordinary woman. A bridal candle. These will be meaningful in her life, so Ning Yi hopes that these experiences of hers can be complete, but she said at this time that it only needs to be one night, and the thoughts in it can be imagined.
Not knowing what to say for a while, Xiaochan looked at him with prayer in her eyes. She couldn't tell the young lady about this, because she knew that Ning Yi had status at home, so she begged Ning Yi to speak out. After a long while, he added: "I-I've been thinking about it for a long time..."
She tried her best to calm down and said in a low voice, "Me, Juaner and I didn't originally follow Miss's maid, only Sister Xing'er followed Miss from the beginning. Later, Miss asked two people to help, Juaner and I. The lady who just arrived. We have always been helping the lady with things. If you really pass the door, the family's views will be different. Maybe they will say that Xiaochan is a concubine, and it is not good to show her face again. It's not easy to manage the things in charge, otherwise you will be said to be restless. Even if I, I follow the uncle, I still have to do things with the young lady... "
Having said that, he looked up at Ning Yi: "Master, don't think about it, I like my uncle very much, but... But... Anyway, Xiaochan can take care of it. She can also help the young lady and serve the uncle, it doesn't matter... " She lowered her voice and then returned to normal, "Also, there are Juaner and Sister Xing'er, we are all maids, if I am with my uncle, my identity will be different in the future, and getting along might not be as good as before. … I have a very good relationship with Juan’er, and I treat Sister Xing’er as my own sister, and I don’t want to be alienated…”
Having said that, the courage in her heart was finally exhausted, Ning Yi organized a speech: "I... I won't talk nonsense with your lady, but with her shrewdness, if I say it, I will deal with it according to your thoughts. Do you think she can't think of it as your idea? Or is it that she can't think of what you think?"
"Uh?"
"Think about it, what will happen to your lady after I relay it?"
"Unexpectedly..."
"She may find you to pretend to lose her temper, but in the end it's the result..." Ning Yi played with her slender fingers, "Some things are decided by this era, but for me, I do... I like you very much and don't want to let it go. You leave, Xiaochan..." He folded his hands together and wrapped the girl's palm in it, "For a lifetime, you only want one thing, do you want to marry?"
For some of Ning Yi's words, Xiaochan obviously didn't understand it, but at this time she just blushed slightly: "Xiaochan, Xiaochan are originally from the uncle and the young lady, whether you marry or not... But I don't want to let the young lady get married. unhappy… "
"Since that's said, let me deal with your lady, eh?" Without answering Xiaochan's last sentence, Ning Yi smiled and made a decision. Xiaochan was stunned, and then clicked Nodding, showing a shy smile. There may not be a perfect solution to many things. At this time, Ning Yi was just a little moved, but he didn't necessarily have a specific idea. Of course, some things didn't necessarily need to be solved.
In the last life, I was in such a circle and reached the highest point. In the surrounding environment, wives are rarer than mistresses. One-night stands are often more practical than love. Money and power cannot bring true feelings. On the contrary, the more materialistic, Everything around is more distorted. After a lot of experience and tired, he will yearn for pure things, but it does not mean that he will completely idealize these things.
Su Tan'er's sudden rush of mood, Xiaochan's endearing complacency, are all part of this innocence, and the distress between the two is part of this era. At this time when there is no concept of monogamy, It's not really that serious.
Ning Yi took this matter all over his body and comforted him a few words, believing that Ning Yi's Xiaochan also became cheerful. At this time, recalling that she had just begged Ning Yi to sleep with her for one night, she was shy again, saying a few gossips like "the clouds in the sky are like fish scales, so strange", and ran away in a hurry. I wanted to take her off the boat to watch a group of talented people recite poetry, but naturally I couldn't find her at this time.
After delaying these hours, in fact, everyone who is going to arrive today has basically arrived. Xiaoyingzhou itself is a long and narrow annular island. Although it is also a beautiful water garden at this time, it is not as large as later generations. There is no place on the island where a large number of people can gather. There are a lot of people here. At this time, people walk and sit in the forest to enjoy the scenery, which seems to be similar to the outing.
However, of course, there are still poetry parties. At this time, the large and small boats parked on the shore are almost connected. The real poetry party is actually held not on the shore, but on several large boats parked on the shore.
"It's still too hot in the beginning of autumn. It's not a practice to hold a poetry festival at this time. It's a precedent set by Xiong Ruming, who served as the prefect here a few years ago. The bottom line—of course, if you say that, it’s not really a big problem. The prefect Xiong invited many people to come to the island to play, let the big households donate some supplies, let the talented people write some poems, and write about the time when everyone was together The spirit of hardship, at that time invited Qian Xiwen Qiangong, Mu Bochang Mugong, Chang Yuan Changgong and other people to help to build up the momentum, now Changgong has passed away, but this poem will be preserved at the beginning of the autumn, if not so, they literati It's not enough to invite so many businessmen to make a big splash."
The time was about the same. Luo Tian, who had been strolling around for a while, also arrived at the painting boat and was about to pick up his wife to go to the official meeting. Ning Yi thought about the reason for the Liqiu Poetry Meeting and said, "I'm afraid it won't be very harmonious. ?"
"There used to be noble people who borrowed poems to ridicule merchants, but some people would refute things from that year. At that time, it was considered that the rich contributed money and made strong contributions, and made a good reputation for everyone. And please ask The people who came here have a background in poetry and prose, like Zhuojing, who was also a famous talented girl back then, huh... In fact, the Liqiu Poetry Festival is not as utilitarian as it used to be, visiting the garden, writing poetry, and in the evening, here There will be a banquet carefully prepared by the chef of Fuqing Building, and some water lanterns will be placed at night to pray for blessings, which is quite lively…”
After Luo Tian finished speaking, he led his wife away. When Juaner was cleaning up the tea bowl and fruit plate, Su Taner pulled Ning Yi aside and said softly, "I just saw that Chan'er's eyes were red, what did she tell you? ?"
Ning Yi relayed Chan'er's request to her, Su Tan'er was silent for a moment, and put her forehead on Ning Yi's shoulder without speaking.