Be a tree
Cheng Zhijie held the cold body in his arms, while outside the coffin, the sky was bright with sunlight.
Cheng Zhijie climbed out of the coffin, slowly and methodically tidied Xu Mingyi's clothes, placed Xu Mingyi between the coffins, changed her into a fashionable ruqun (a type of traditional Chinese dress), and went to the jewelry store to sweep up jewelry and headwear as burial goods.
Poor Mingyi didn't know if she could find her hidden gold and silver jewelry. Cheng Zhijie was afraid she wouldn't be able to find it, so he simply replaced it all with new ones.
She won't hide in a corner and cry anymore when she sees new clothes and jewelry because she can't find the hidden jewels.
When the servants arrived in the morning, they were startled, thinking that the young master had gone mad, since that was a dead man.
Today is the ninth day of the third lunar month, the seventh day after Xu Mingyi's death.
Heaven still took pity on poor Mingyi. Cheng Zhijie placed many ice chests in the mourning hall to slow down the decay of Xu Mingyi's body. Fortunately, Xu Mingyi's body does not appear to have changed at present.
Cheng Zhijie's clothes were very damp, so he needed to change.
Cheng Zhijie didn't care that all the servants had run away from the mourning hall.
They were terrified when they saw Cheng Zhijie run out of the coffin in the early morning. Cheng Zhijie was too lazy to investigate their poor work performance; he was content as long as Xu Mingyi was by his side.
While he was changing clothes, the nimble man in black silently appeared in front of the mourning hall, carrying his wife in his arms. His wife wore a veil, and her face was faintly visible behind the thin veil.
"Are you sure now? You just saw him come out of the coffin."
According to the customs of the Great Qi Dynasty, the coffin was sealed on the third day after death, and Xu Mingyi's body was placed in the morgue.
Today is the seventh day after Xu Mingyi's death, and Cheng Zhijie went but did not seal the coffin.
"Wait a bit longer, we'll talk about it tonight."
And then it disappeared without a trace.
—
The joy of the banquet was not found in music, but in the laughter and merriment of the four people, with cups clinking and lively chatter.
"Gaochang wine truly lives up to its reputation!" Sui Zhixu said, swaying as he drank from his wine cup.
"Are you drunk?" Pei Qinglian, slurring her words in her drunken state, stubbornly tried to save face by teasing Sui Zhixu.
"No, I'm just a little dizzy." Sui Zhixu felt fine and her mind was clear.
The purplish-red liquid swirls in the glass, which is exquisitely small and delicate.
Ning Yan was completely drunk and hugged Cui Wan, sobbing uncontrollably, "My lifelong reputation! I hate it! Ahhhhhh—"
"March 9th, today is Mingyi's seventh day after his death, isn't it?" Sui Zhixu suddenly spoke, still holding a wine pot in his arms.
"Ask Awan, what time is it today?" Pei Qinglian shook her head and asked Cui Wan with a thick tongue.
“That’s right.” Cui Wan counted on her fingers, “It’s the seventh day.”
Cui Wan stood up unsteadily, patted her chest, and said, "Liu Xi actually jumped into the lake, serves her right. I just can't stand her, she's so veiled in her words. Every time I do a good deed, my mother always tells me to learn from her. Learn what from her? Learn how she leads people to bully young ladies? But after I told my mother, she never told me to learn from her again, hahaha, that's me for you."
"Miss Cui! A toast to you!" Sui Zhixu filled Cui Wan's cup with wine. "Come, let's drink together, a toast to Mingyi!"
"drink!"
Just as Xu and Cui Wan finished their conversation, Ning Yan suddenly stood up. "No way! I'm going to the Cheng family! I'm not satisfied! I have to go see if Mingyi is alive or dead! Xu, are you coming or not?"
"Let's go!" Encouraged by the alcohol, Sui Zhixu was more carefree than usual. "I want to see it too."
"Me too!" It was Cui Wan and Pei Qinglian, who had a thick tongue.
"Even if she becomes a ghost, she won't hurt me. I'm not afraid!" Cui Wan didn't understand whether Xu Mingyi was dead or not; she was thinking about her being resurrected on the seventh day after death.
The four young ladies, supported by their maids, shakily boarded the carriage and headed straight for the Cheng residence.
The driver was one of Ning Yan's men and wouldn't ask any questions.
Ning Yan dazedly fell off her seat and knelt down in the carriage.
"Third Sister, are you alright?" The commotion was quite loud, so the coachman couldn't help but ask.
"It's alright, just go around to the side gate of the Cheng residence and find one that looks easy to climb over the wall." Even when drunk, Ning Yan didn't forget to find a convenient way for herself.
"yes."
Dan Hong was craving Sui Zhixu's expressionless face. She had gradually learned to imitate Sui Zhixu's blank expression. Now, she was like, "What's going on here?"
In the middle of the night, I went to visit Madam Xu on her seventh day after her death. Dan Hong's eyes were filled with complex emotions, and all she could do was pray for Liu Lü to return.
Liu Lü followed behind the carriage of Sui Zhixu and the other three, keeping a distance that was neither too close nor too far. There should be guards at the Cheng residence, and she was even more careful to conceal her presence as she got closer to the Cheng residence.
As Xu and his companions struggled to climb the wall, Xu, in his drunken stupor, had long forgotten his martial arts skills.
"Pei Qinglian, you're pressing on my hair! You're so heavy, go up there!"
"Oh, sorry, I'll be quick."
"..."
The four of them spent an unknown amount of time climbing up. Ning Yan, in particular, was quite drunk. She thought she hadn't succeeded as soon as she climbed over, and huffed and puffed her way back to where she started.
Ning Yan's maid, "..." My wife, why are you back again?
Let's do it again.
Ning Yan: "You must speak softly. The only person keeping vigil should be Cheng Zhijie."
The four of them, holding hands, moved forward cautiously and slowly.
Sui Zhixu: "Keep an eye on the people."
"clear."
"ah!"
Pei Qinglian quickly covered Cui Wan's mouth and whispered, "What are you doing?"
Cui Wan said innocently, pointing to the people on the ground.
The four men approached to observe. Dressed in mourning clothes, with a face that blended scholarly air with coldness, who else could it be but Cheng Zhijie?
"?" Ning Yan nudged Sui Zhixu with her arm, lowering her voice, "What's going on?"
Sui Zhixu checked his breathing and said, "He's still breathing. He might have been knocked unconscious. It's possible that Mingyi has returned. She's really alive."
Cui Wan thought Xu Mingyi was a ghost, and her voice trembled, "You mean Mingyi came back and knocked Cheng Langjun unconscious?"
"Hmm, what's wrong?" Sui Zhixu looked up, her expression strange, and asked suspiciously, "You don't think she's dead, do you?"
"Huh? Isn't that right?"
"No! He's still alive." Ning Yan remembered saying that; Cui Wan must have misunderstood again.
"That's good. Madam Xu isn't inside now, is she?" Cui Wan stood in front of Cheng Zhijie, pointing her arm towards the mourning hall.
"I don't know." Sui Zhixu stood up and looked in the direction of the mourning hall. White silk and white lanterns were everywhere, swaying in the wind, their meaning unclear.
It blew away some of the drunkenness from the group.
Inside the mourning hall
The coffin made of Phoebe zhennan wood gleamed with a golden light, its patterns were delicate and beautiful, and a faint fragrance lingered around the nose when you got close.
The face beneath the curtain fell with the lady's movement, revealing a dignified and elegant countenance.
The woman in black beside her urged her on, but she was in no hurry. She took the medicine from the woman in black and fed it to "Xu Mingyi". Then she took out a dagger, took out her heart's blood from her chest and dripped it onto "Xu Mingyi's" lips in the coffin. The rest fell onto the peach wood bracelet on her wrist. The next moment, a flash of white light illuminated the mourning hall.
Not far from the mourning hall, Cui Wan was so frightened that she clung to Pei Qinglian and couldn't move.
As Xu Zhi felt that the white light was somewhat familiar, the intoxication in his mind dissipated by three-tenths.
Xu Mingyi sat up in the coffin. "She's awake."
Xu Mingyi pointed to Liu Xi, who had fainted on the ground.
The moment Liu Xi woke up on the ground, Wen Ke immediately sealed her acupoint.
As Xu Mingyi climbed out of the coffin, she asked, "I want to take these jewelry and clothes with me. Can you help me?"
Wen Ke scoffed, "Who do you think you are? Take whatever you want, you can even take the coffin with you."
Xu Mingyi smiled and said, "That won't be necessary. The coffin is for her."
Xu Mingyi tilted her head to meet Liu Xi's gaze. "Long time no see, Madam Liu. I've done quite a few things with your body."
Xu Mingyi picked up the dagger from the ground and patted Liu Xi's cheek, looking down at her. "Look at me, I should have told you the Liu family was raided immediately. On the first night I came to the Liu family on the third day of the third month, I poisoned Liu Zhengshan. I didn't expect the raid to happen so quickly. If I had known, I wouldn't have poisoned him. It was such a waste. Your brother is not as good as you. He is too fragile. He committed suicide by swallowing gold as soon as he found out about the raid. Lord Liu was demoted and exiled. Madam Liu, no, Madam Wang has gone mad. I'm using your body to jump into the lake outside the city."
Xu Mingyi smiled faintly, her pure and innocent face appearing sinister and terrifying under the lights of the mourning hall. Liu Xi's eyes were filled with fear, his body unable to move, and his mouth unable to speak.
Xu Mingyi took out what she wanted and instructed Wen Ke to put Liu Xi inside, saying, "You didn't want to be the Crown Prince's wife, so go do it in the coffin."
With a single, powerful slash, the dagger pierced Liu Xi's throat, nearly severing his neck. Xu Mingyi casually tossed the dagger inside, then pushed the coffin shut completely.
"Nail it up." I don't know what's gotten into Cheng Zhijie; she's dead, yet he seems to have started to love her.
As Liu Xi, she learned some other things, but none of that mattered anymore. Whether Cheng Zhijie and Liu Xi were affectionate or indifferent, whether it was for mutual benefit or friendship, it was all over from now on.
Wen Ke packed up the money and hung it on her body. After checking the ground for bloodstains, she thought, "She's really good at this." She then called out to Xu Mingyi, "Are we coming or not?"
"Let's go." Xu Mingyi took one last look at the mourning hall, hoping to see his own mourning hall in his lifetime.
When she first entered the Cheng family, she had a pot of orchids. She read in a book that "orchids are easy to wither and orchid plants are easy to break."
Sure enough, the flowers withered after winter. The weather was cold, and the delicate flowers were not suitable for growth. She thought that the flowering period of flowers was very short, which she did not like.
She didn't want to be a flower, a gardenia that Ren Chengzhijie could play with. She didn't like pure white gardenias at all. Purity, whiteness, innocence—none of these things had anything to do with her.
She had asked Ah Xu what she was, and now she could figure it out herself.
She was leaving. Chang'an was a vortex of power, and those without power didn't even have the right to go with the flow.
Cheng Zhijie wanted her to stand with him, forgetting that they started from different points, something that couldn't be remedied after they got married.
Leave. There are countless beautiful sights in the world that she has never set foot in. Why sit in Chang'an and die in vain?
She chose a path that would allow her to withdraw completely unscathed.
Wen Ke was carrying Xu Mingyi and was about to leave the Cheng family when she suddenly stopped. Xu Mingyi realized something was wrong and instinctively grabbed Wen Ke's clothes.
Xu Mingyi opened her mouth silently, and Wen Ke shook her head at her. She stopped moving and stayed peacefully in her arms.
Wen Ke sensed a faint aura; the martial arts were very strong, on par with hers. Who in the building has been on a mission in Chang'an recently?
Wen Ke decided to take a different route. The other person was clearly able to conceal their presence, and she didn't want to alert them. Wen Ke turned back, determined to take another route.
Sui Zhixu vaguely heard someone walking on the roof, but didn't look up until the sound subsided. Then, she pulled a few people to the mourning hall. The coffin was tightly closed. Sui Zhixu thought that it was Xu Mingyi and the people she hired.
They are from Tianque Tower.
He said to Ning Yan, "She's gone."
"They've left?"
"Hmm, I heard someone walking on the roof. They were moving very lightly and quickly. They should have left the Cheng family now." Sui Zhixu lowered her eyes, her nose twitching slightly. She smelled a trace of blood.
The white lanterns hanging in the mourning hall swayed in the wind, casting long shadows of the people on the opposite wall.
A soft, rustling sound came from the end of the corridor.
"She's gone?" Cheng Zhijie appeared behind the four people, dressed in mourning clothes.
Xu was making wild guesses in his mind and didn't notice anything amiss; he was careless.
Cui Wan was quite frightened that night, and she was startled again when Cheng Zhijie spoke. She touched her heart and thankfully, it was still beating; she was still alive.
Sui Zhixu didn't know how to say it, and secretly didn't want to tell Cheng Zhijie too much. She wanted her to leave far away and never come back.
The group tacitly fell silent, and Pei Qinglian and Cui Wan showed no embarrassment at having come unannounced, their attitudes quite natural.
Upon seeing this, Cheng Zhijie smiled, swallowing his unspeakable emotions as he swallowed his throat slightly. "It's better that he's gone. It's better that he's alive."
He recalled the winter before last, the last autumn rain of the twenty-sixth year of Jianwu, which drizzled away the last traces of autumn. The winter snow was heavy, which collapsed the thatched huts of many people outside the city. He had been in charge of dealing with it, and at that time there were still people waiting for him to finish his shift.
He was grateful that he had met her standing under the wall before the autumn rain, so she wouldn't have to suffer the harsh winter. Yet he also regretted that there were only these two winters.
He should have noticed: the undecayed corpse, Mingyi's carefully laid plans. She had chosen a path to escape unscathed and no longer needed to wait for him.
Cheng Zhijie closed his eyes and turned around, his voice weary, "It's getting late, so I won't keep you any longer. Please make yourselves at home."
Cheng Zhijie wasn't interested in the coffin. He saw that it was closed, whether it was empty or not, there was nothing in it that could make him care, except for Xu Mingyi.
Sui Zhixu and the others left silently, their drunkenness completely dissipating, the night wind chilling their faces. Only now did they realize what the four of them had done—instead of going home, they had gone to someone's mourning hall to pay their respects late at night.
Sui Zhixu touched her forehead. "Going home is definitely not a good idea. Let's just find an inn."
"Hehe, I think so too." The three of them raised both hands in agreement.
Wen Ke carried Xu Mingyi to find Xia Rong first. Xia Rong, who was anxious, was restless in the original courtyard. Her heart finally calmed down when she saw Xu Mingyi.
"My wife, you've finally come." Xia Rong hugged Xu Mingyi, and Xu Mingyi saw that she was pouting and about to cry, so he gently comforted her.
"I'm back now. Putting everything else aside, after I took the fake death drug, my body was really like I was dead. The wound on my chest is still open."
Wen Ke rolled her eyes. "Otherwise what?"
He angrily took out some wound medicine and sprinkled it on Xu Mingyi's chest, saying, "It's all thanks to you for paying for the medicine so readily. Otherwise, how could the bureau have done such a good job? They even managed to fake it as chronic poisoning for you."
"We'll leave when the city gates open tomorrow morning," Xu Mingyi said, holding Xia Rong's hand.
"I wonder if the assassins in Tianque Tower are as interesting as you."
Xu Mingyi actually saw Cui Wan and the others. She didn't expect them to go to her funeral hall. They were all very kind people, including Wen Ke.
Wen Ke ignored her and jumped up to lean against the tree to sleep.
Xu Mingyi was wearing the clothes Cheng Zhijie had changed into. Feeling it was a bit unlucky, Xu Mingyi quickly went to change.
On the ninth day of the third month, the city gates opened, and the three of them went their separate ways. Xu Mingyi finally made a choice: she would be Mingyi, because only when she was Mingyi was she truly alive.
She no longer wanted to hate Cheng Zhijie, to stab each other with sharp objects late at night, and then apply medicine to each other's wounds. It was too tiring to have hatred mixed with love.
Be a towering tree under a raging storm, be a wild grass in the mountains—whatever she does, just be herself, unyielding and unforgiving.
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