"Xiang Gong is a weirdo."
"Um?"
The snow was falling, and the two men named husband and wife stood on both sides of the pillar, looking at the courtyard that stretched around. Turning her head, Su Tan'er lowered her head slightly, a smile overflowing from the corner of her mouth.
"Actually... It's not that Xianggong is weird anymore. When he was a child, Tan'er liked to stand upstairs and watch. Xianggong found out, the line of sight is the best here." She stretched out her hand and pointed out into the distance, "Hey, where is it? It's the yard where my father and mother live... The second aunt's... Grandpa's is a little blocked... The third uncle is over there... That lantern, Wen Ying's gang should be walking... "
In the Su Mansion in the dark, each area was clearly demarcated under Su Tan'er's guidance. There were also various figures walking around the courtyards with lanterns. Su Tan'er pointed them out one by one. After a while, she thought about it think.
"When I was young, my concubine didn't live here, but I often liked to come here to play. Sitting upstairs and looking around, the nanny couldn't find me, so I knew I had to come here. I often go inside to hide, hehe, every time I hide in one place, the nanny is stupid, I once changed the place to hide, but she couldn't find it, and I called outside for a long time..."
"Every time the nanny came over, she said that it was windy, or that she was going to eat. My husband may not have imagined that the concubine was in good health when she was a child. , chasing and chasing, but they didn't play with the concubine anymore. As for eating, why do you want to eat, sometimes you don't seem to feel hungry, ask the nurse, the nurse doesn't know. Oh, when my mother gave birth to me, Daddy said that he wanted a boy to inherit the family business, but he gave birth to a girl, and Daddy said it was fine, there was a lady. In fact, the concubine doesn't look like a lady..."
She raised her chin and smiled, but there was no shadow in that smile. Even though she didn't have much knowledge at this time, no matter how she looked, at least in the aspect of "looking like a lady" questionable.
"So later... Well, when the concubine could choose a yard by herself, she moved here with Xiaochan and the others. The husband may not know, but when he dared to move in, the concubine lived in this room. Yes, because the line of sight is better here. But... Later, I moved there, does your husband know why?"
"If you can't see others, others can't see you, right?"
Ning Yi replied casually, and Su Tan'er was silent for a long time: "Before Xiang Gong... did you have any ideals?"
"I..." Ning Yi thought about what happened a long time ago, "I want to build a house."
"Eh?" This answer obviously surprised Su Tan'er. After a while, she said, "Building a house? Like... a mason?"
"Haha." Ning Yi raised his head and smiled, "That's right, masons, masons and the like... Well, almost."
"I never thought about it..." Su Tan'er whispered, Ning Yi tapped lightly on the railing with his fingers, then took out a washed pine flower egg and handed it over across the wooden post: " By the way, let me give you a taste."
"Duck eggs?"
It was snowing, and the light from the lower part of the corridor was quite good, but it was impossible to distinguish the slightly different markings on the eggshell of the duck egg. Su Taner didn't mind that much. He tapped lightly on the railing a few times, reached out and slowly peeled off the shell, peeled off a few pieces and stopped.
"I... When my concubine was young, I actually wanted to be a conjurer... Oh, of course, that's what I thought. Every year my family invited the opera troupe to perform. It looked amazing when I was a child. After becoming an immortal, I also learned something later, just like what you taught Xiaochan that day, Xianggong, look..."
She stretched out her left hand over there. The snowflakes were shining brightly on her wrist, as if it was about to emit light. On her slender and slender fingers, she pinched the few eggshells she had just peeled off. The dust scattered down from her fingertips like thin threads, magical and magnificent. This is probably the secret recipe she learned from some actors. After the performance, she laughed softly, a little happy.
"But of course, neither my father nor my mother would allow me to act as an actor. When I was too young, I couldn't feel some things, and as I got older, I realized that my father and mother were a little unhappy. Male, but even after marrying two concubines, I still couldn't give birth to a younger brother or sister. Sometimes, of course, my father would... Of course he would feel... "
Perhaps because these words were a little difficult to say, Su Tan'er paused there for a long time before taking a deep breath: "Anyway... From then on, the concubine felt very strange... Why can't girls inherit the family business, they Obviously I can't do anything better than me, even if I go to school to learn poetry and math, my concubine will dress up as a boy... Of course, I will be seen through, but no matter what, I don't go out, and I don't go out and scold me. When you go out, you have to sit there and listen to the class. Fortunately, the family runs the school itself. Later, my grandfather also sent a message... So now that the girls of Xiaoqi can go to the school to listen to the class, it is because of the concubine's stubbornness..."
As she spoke, she slowly peeled the eggshell, then smiled slightly, and then seemed to have found something, "Huh", she held up the half-peeled pine flower egg, amber-colored The egg white and the pattern in it shined against the light below.
Ning Yi turned around and leaned against the railing: "Songhua eggs, you can eat them."
"Um?"
She had never seen a duck egg like this before, Su Tan'er thought about it, and then brought the Songhua egg to her mouth, took a bite, and returned to the topic.
"The concubine knows that the husband may not like to hear these words, and men don't like to hear the women say these things. The concubine never tells others, but I think... these must be told to the husband, even if the husband does not like it. ... Tan'er also wants to say that Tan'er is not a domineering and domineering woman. I have been with Xianggong for half a year, and I think Xianggong's temperament may be able to hear these eccentric thoughts, and Tan'er really wants to... think To take care of the Su family, but that's just the mood. Tan'er and Xianggong are husband and wife, and they have a white-headed covenant. Tan'er doesn't want her husband to be like them and have too much grudge against his concubine... If... If... …”
She thought hard about the words, and Ning Yi smiled: "If I really went to be a mason."
Su Tan'er thought for a while, then smiled: "My concubine also wants to be a juggler."
"Oh, actually..." Ning Yi took out a folded piece of rice paper from his bosom, waved it a few times in the air to open it, and handed it to Su Tan'er, "Look at this."
There was not enough light, and some strange pictures were drawn with a brush on the rice paper, and then there were such and such patterns, which were blurred. Su Taner looked at Ning Yi with a little doubt, and then picked up the drawing and wrote Twilight looked carefully...
The various objects on the rice paper look a little weird, and there are some lines and characters that are completely incomprehensible in many places, but they are somewhat similar to the Persian and Hu characters from the west. After watching this for a while, Su Taner Only then did she admit that she couldn't understand it, and raised her head: "Xianggong, this is... a checker?" She may not be able to understand the drawings, but she can somewhat guess what category it belongs to. The price of silk weaving at home is high, and there are many looms and the like. Naturally, she had seen the blueprints, but it was hard to tell which one was more complicated.
In these years, Confucianism paid more attention to humanities than to objects. Su Taner never imagined that her husband, who was usually indifferent and had many incomprehensible behaviors, was actually studying these things seriously. In fact, there are talents in the Su family who specialize in the improvement of looms, but they are basically used as maintenance workers. Craftsmen and craftsmen have a low status in this society. Even if they exaggerate a little and add a name like Gewu, others will not understand. Although many years later, the so-called understanding of things has been understood as the emphasis on physics contained in Confucianism, but in this era, the real so-called understanding of things really has little to do with these. They discuss the inner laws of things as adults. If we discuss in the direction of philosophy, if we develop towards physics, it will be ingenious and obscene, and will be despised by others.
However, as a businessman who can understand the value of a craftsman, Su Tan'er obviously has no prejudice on this matter. Ning Yi smiled: "Do it when you are bored, I don't know if there will be results in two or three years..."
Su Tan'er said: "Actually, there are a few old masters in the family who have some experience with these things, but..." She doesn't discriminate against these things, but after all, the status of craftsmen is low. Several elderly people are more respected in the Su family, and Ning Yi will obviously be criticized.
"It's not urgent, I just like to think about it when I'm free."
"I don't know, what exactly are these pictures of Xianggong used for?"
Ning Yi paused: "What to eat, it's hard to say now."
He looked at the object in Su Tan'er's hand, and Su Tan'er noticed it later, and then he reacted, looking at the preserved egg with only half of it left: "Could it be... this is also the husband..."
"Well, basically."
Su Tan'er was stunned for a while, and then she put the remaining half of the preserved egg into her mouth, chewed it slowly, and swallowed it. Ning Yi looked at the yard in the distance, Su Tan'er rested her hands on the railing and lowered her head, not knowing what she was thinking. After a long time, she saw her smile quietly. It seems that I have done something superfluous.
"Actually, Xianggong already knew what Tan'er was going to say, right?"
After a moment, Ning Yi nodded: "Probably can always guess some."
"Xiang Gong is not a nerd."
"Ah… "
"Xianggong's storytelling in the school is meaningful."
"That's really what I said casually."
Su Tan'er ignored him, looked into the distance, and continued: "The water tune song head is not what the Taoist said."
"… "
"Xiang Gong is a talented person."
"Cough, this is really not..."
Su Tan'er had decided something in her heart, she was already talking to herself at this time, and after a while, she turned her head to look over, this time she was probably asking a question: "However, the Xianggong was in the He Mansion that day, did he really see through the He Family's mind? , also guessed what happened to the Xue family?"
Ning Yi looked at her for a few seconds: "If I say yes, do you believe it?"
"That Xianggong was born with knowledge, and Tan'er's years of experience are completely useless..."
Su Tan'er wrinkled her nose and smiled brightly. Obviously, she has found the answer. At this point, she is still very confident, and this confidence has its basis. In fact, as far as Ning Yi was concerned, it wasn't really a guess. He just happened to collide with the thoughts of the He family because of some incomplete pieces of information. If Su Tan'er could think like this, Ning Yi naturally didn't need to explain anything.
"Xiang Gong is a weirdo," she concluded.
"So is the lady."
"Hehe." Su Tan'er smiled happily, "Tan'er is relieved."
Xueluo was silent and stretched across the entire Jiangning City. In this chaotic human world, the sound of laughter was like a sweet yellow window that was quietly pushed open in a corner, gently closed by this world.
In the winter of the seventh year of Jinghan in the Wu Dynasty, the years were like a meaningful picture scroll.
Song Mao's courtyard.
The lights in the room flickered, the light and shadow swayed slightly on the window lattice, and the young man had come in to invite An. On one side of the house, a sturdy and upright middle-aged man sat at the table, writing while gossiping with the other party one after another. go.
Su Wenxing did not dare to question himself about his uncle, so at this time he had to say something along the way, hoping that his uncle would give some answers.
After a long time, a bell sounded far away. Song Mao put down the brush, raised his head, and pressed the rice paper.
"I haven't finished writing this post yet, so I'll write it after I come back." He stood up with a smile, turned to look at his absent-minded nephew, then walked over, and was silent for a while: "Wen Xing, do you think I'm going to beat you? Sister Tan'er, how difficult is it to take charge of the Su family?"
Su Wenxing's mind was originally about Ning Yi, but when he heard this question, he thought seriously: "Don't dare to deceive uncle, Tan'er sister... she is really outstanding, if she really is in charge of the big house, nephew... a little bit. No confidence at all…”
It's a bit difficult to say this, but it's obviously the most important thing to confess in front of my uncle. After Su Wenxing finished speaking, Song Mao shook his head and patted his shoulder: "You think too much, there is one thing you should never forget, you Tan'er sister. , she's just a woman."
"I... I understand, but what she did, really... "
"You guys, why do you always want to defeat her?" Song Mao smiled, "The Su family is now always headed by the old lady, even if the old lady passed away, there are brothers of the old lady, even if they are side members, they have the right to speak. You have to think about it, if Su Tan'er is really in charge of the Su family, when she is truly independent, she will be under the greatest pressure from the outside world because of her status as a woman. The old lady gave her a chance, and now let her manage things, but after all Under your uncle's wings. Do you think the pressure she will receive in the Su family is greater or less than the pressure she will experience outside the Su family in the future?"
Su Wenxing was confused for a while: "Uncle said..."
"Heh, you... You don't need to surpass her in ability, and you don't need to beat her in the mall. As long as she can't take over the Su family safely, swallow up your second and third bedrooms, or directly overwhelm your second and third bedrooms. It's a break. In the final analysis, she is just a woman, and her ability is dozens of times higher than yours to do what you can do, and you only need to maintain the status quo. If you only want to maintain a big house, then the old lady will never give her this home, because as a woman, she can’t afford the Su family just like this. Wenxing, you have two bedrooms and three bedrooms, Hoi An will live in peace. Do you want her to swallow it?"
Su Wenxing already understood, and was a little excited at this time: "How, how is it possible, how can I wait and wait!" This is a battle that can be won by sitting down.
"Your father understands this truth, and your third uncle also understands it, but they won't tell you clearly, because they are afraid that you children will lose their fighting spirit. Now that you know the truth, don't spread it. What you should do is still Do your best to do it, understand?" Song Mao patted him on the shoulder, "Let's go, accompany your uncle to catch up with your father and mother."
"Yeah." Su Wenxing nodded, just about to follow, and then remembered, "But uncle, what about Ning Yi... He is the husband-in-law of sister Tan'er. If he wants to make trouble for her, wouldn't this be the best chance? "
"This matter..." Song Mao walked to the side, took a sip of the cold sober tea, and considered the vocabulary in his mind. People who can talk and laugh with Qin Siyuan, Kang Xian and the like, don't care whether he has talent or not. Is it easy for a little hair like you? Years of experience in officialdom made him automatically filter out some things, and he never wanted to say heavy words, but looking back at the appearance of this nephew, he still sighed when he remembered that he had some real feelings after all these years.
"This matter... It's okay for others to do it. I want Wen Xing to stay out of it. No matter whether Ning Yi is talented or not, you must remember this." He paused and said the last thing he didn't want to say this evening. , "... lest you humiliate yourself."