Chapter 43 Chapter 43 Shen Jingchen
==Chapter 43==
Perhaps it was because Qiao Anyu was too abnormal, so when Feng Wenyu once again saw Qiao Anyu's carriage heading towards the theater, his curiosity reached its peak.
She turned around so suddenly, like a thief, that Jinshu almost grabbed her and asked, "Where are you going, young lady?"
Feng Wenyu touched her nose and lowered her voice slightly:
"I'm just curious, who is in this theater that would attract Qiao Anyu to go there again and again."
Well, this is for fun.
Jinshu didn't stop her, but suggested, "There are so many bad people in this theater. Why don't you ask Uncle Zhou to come along?"
The Uncle Zhou she mentioned was the groom who usually picked up and dropped off Feng Wenyu. When he was young, he was a convoy escort in the escort agency and was quite skilled in martial arts. Otherwise, Zhou Yueyu would not have arranged him to be with Feng Wenyu.
Feng Wenyu understood the implication of Jinshu's words. He could watch the fun, but he had to ensure his safety.
She was not a person without sense of propriety, and did not refute Jinshu's proposal. Shuyao hurriedly called Uncle Zhou. Feng Wenyu looked up and saw that Qiao Anyu's carriage was about to disappear at the end of the street. They had no time to chat and hurriedly chased after it.
With Uncle Zhou around, Feng Wenyu didn't embarrass himself.
It was this behavior of following others that made her feel a little guilty, and she was afraid that she would be caught in the act by Qiao Anyu.
In a fit of rage, she chased after him. When she calmed down, she realized that she had been a little rash. When she was debating whether to continue following him, the carriage in front stopped.
Feng Wenyu held his breath and subconsciously turned sideways, thinking guiltily, he wouldn't discover her, right?
If Qiao Anyu caught her, who knows how he would embarrass her!
Immediately afterwards, Feng Wenyu saw Qiao Anyu get off the carriage and walk into the theater with only a maid. She parked the carriage at the corner of the alley. Feng Wenyu instantly understood her intention. She didn't want to attract attention.
Feng Wenyu was a little hesitant. Should she continue to follow?
She was a little curious about Qiao Anyu's abnormality, but it was a bit annoying to get to the bottom of other people's secrets when she knew they were hiding something. With this in mind, Feng Wenyu stopped and was about to turn around and leave when she watched Qiao Anyu step into the Jiaofangsi.
Qiao Anyu went to the Jiaofangsi!
When this realization came clearly to his mind, Feng Wenyu almost dropped his jaw in shock.
What is Jiaofangsi? It trains all kinds of actors and actresses. Occasionally, criminals will be sent to Jiaofangsi. To be frank, it is also a brothel, at most slightly better than a brothel. The actors there are not so easy to sell their bodies to customers.
Just because it’s not easy doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.
Feng Wenyu had also heard of the reputation of the Jiaofangsi, which was considered the largest brothel in the capital. It housed not only actors but also actors and actresses. Therefore, not only men came in and out of the place, but there were also some women, all of whom came under the pretext of attending operas.
However, those women were usually married, and there were few unmarried girls entering and leaving the Jiaofangsi.
Life is hard for women these days. They can't enjoy a few years of peace after getting married. There are countless women taking concubines. Some women with soft personalities just swallow their anger and live their lives like that. Those with strong personalities will endure it for the sake of their children.
Feng Wenyu came from a high-class family and knew very well that these people might appear wealthy and powerful on the outside, but who knows how filthy they were inside.
Divorce is difficult, after all, if there is a quarrel, it is not just one person who loses face. However, once the children have their own families and there are no worries, they may not quarrel openly, but there are women who go in and out of the Jiaofangsi in the name of watching operas in private!
As far as Feng Wenyu knew, there was an official who was sent to a remote place and favored his concubine over his wife. His wife could not stand it, so she went to Zhuangzi under the pretext of fasting and chanting Buddhist scriptures.
The title is just to fool outsiders! In fact, his private life is extremely happy.
That official was full of talk about morality and ethics, and he cared a lot about his reputation. What could he do? Could he be willing to give up his reputation and divorce?
Not only did he not dare to spread the news, he also had to find excuses for his wife on his own. The so-called vegetarianism and Buddhist chanting was the news he spread.
Just like Feng Wenyu, her mother had told her more than once that when it comes to marriage, marrying up is not good, and marrying down is not good either. She should choose one with a slightly lower threshold. If things don't go well in the future, she can just move into her own house. She even said that she would add some houses to her dowry.
Even though Feng Wenyu knew about these dirty things, she never thought that Qiao Anyu would dare to go to the Music Bureau when she was still in her boudoir!
If this gets out, it will ruin the reputation of the girl from the Qiao family.
Even though Master Qiao only wanted her as a daughter, there were many girls from the Qiao family's side branches! Once people doubted the Qiao family's family tradition, they would no longer care about the main branch or the side branches!
Especially now that the Second Prince and the Fourth Prince are at a critical moment in the fight for the throne, the Fourth Prince is the Queen's biological son and the grandson of the Qiao family. Once the Qiao family's reputation is tarnished, the Second Prince's faction will certainly use this as an opportunity to vigorously criticize the Qiao family and the Fourth Prince.
Is Qiao Anyu crazy? !
How dare you be so confused at this time.
Moreover, Qiao Anyu has already been engaged to the Li family. Once the Li family knows that Qiao Anyu has been in and out of the Jiaofangsi, no matter whether she is really there to listen to opera or to see people, they will not be able to continue the marriage.
It doesn't matter if the engagement is broken off. With the power of the Qiao family, it won't be difficult for Qiao Anyu to divorce and remarry.
But the reputation cannot be ruined!
Feng Wenyu couldn't help but wonder, could it be that Qiao Anyu was forced to get engaged to the Li family, and this behavior was a silent protest?
But that's too stupid. Who wouldn't find fault with others and ruin their own reputation?
Besides, she believed that she had some understanding of Qiao Anyu, and it was impossible for Qiao Anyu to force herself to go to such a place just for a show.
The more he analyzed, the more numb Feng Wenyu became.
So, Qiao Anyu really fell in love with an actor in the Jiaofangsi?
Feng Wenyu turned his head stiffly and asked Xiang Jinshu, "I saw it wrong, didn't I?"
Jinshu knew what she was asking and answered her with a mixture of laughter and tears:
"Miss Qiao did go in."
Jinshu was a little worried that the girl would follow in out of curiosity, so she quickly tried to dissuade her, "Miss, it's getting late, we should go back home."
To be honest, Feng Wenyu really wanted to find out who was so charming that could make Qiao Anyu, who was so arrogant, so fascinated.
But she didn't have the courage.
She didn't know why, but she suddenly remembered the scene in Yangzhou City when she and her cousin were chasing the servants of their family. When they were about to approach Yunyan Tower, Gu Yushi appeared in anger.
That was the first time she got so angry when she saw Gu Yu.
He was filled with grief and anger, and seemed to harbor a deep-seated hatred that made him unable to control his emotions.
Feng Wenyu still remembers it vividly to this day.
Feng Wenyu pursed her lips imperceptibly. She also felt it was boring, so she turned around and said, "Let's go back."
No matter who he is, he has nothing to do with her.
Inside the Jiaofangsi.
The people in the private room heard the sound. He lowered his eyes and sat quietly in front of the piano. He was like the osmanthus in the Moon Palace, cold and bright, making people dare not touch or break it. But his hands were wrapped in gauze, as if he was a banished immortal fallen into the mortal world, or like a beautiful jade with flaws. It made people feel sorry for him, but at the same time, they couldn't help but give rise to delusions and a desire to destroy.
After Qiao Anyu came in, he asked someone to close the door of the private room.
She immediately noticed the gauze on his hand and became anxious: "Are they torturing you again?!"
If Gu Yushi saw this person, he would definitely recognize him at a glance as the Young Master Linyu whom he hated to the core, but he was not there. There was only Qiao Anyu in front of him. Qiao Anyu did not recognize any Young Master Linyu, but only knew that he was the eldest son of the Shen family, and only recognized Shen Jingchen.
Shen Jingchen was far less calm than he would be twelve years later. He had only been in the Jiaofangsi for a year, and at most his temper had been tempered. He sat in front of the stage like a puppet for people's entertainment.
Before he could recover from the Shen family's defeat, he had already fallen from a height into the dust.
People who used to know each other and friends avoid seeing each other, or they come to see the miserable state of the people they used to look up to and satisfy their own hidden desires.
Shen Jingchen didn't want to have anything to do with the past anymore.
To him, it was a scar. Letting people who knew him in the past see his embarrassment would only make him more aware of his current situation, and make him more... embarrassed.
Shen Jingchen lowered his eyes and responded to Qiao Anyu's words in an extremely cold manner:
"This has nothing to do with Miss Qiao."
After he finished speaking, he frowned slightly, disapproving of Qiao Anyu's behavior of going in and out of the Jiaofangsi, and said in a slightly stiff tone: "You shouldn't come again."
He had already reminded Qiao Anyu not to come to the Jiaofangsi again.
But Qiao Anyu insisted on his own way and refused to listen to his advice.
Even though he knew that Qiao Anyu's every visit would make his life better, Shen Jingchen was unwilling to do so.
He has fallen to this point. Qiao Anyu is the rare person who has shown kindness to him after the Shen family's downfall. He cannot use this compassion to drag her into the quagmire.
Seeing that he was still so cold, Qiao Anyu couldn't help feeling a little frustrated.
It was like this in the past. He was the grandson of Shen Jijiu. The Shen family was a scholarly family. As the president of the Imperial College, Shen Jijiu had countless disciples and his reputation was known throughout the world. As his eldest grandson, he was personally taught by him since childhood and developed a cold temperament.
The first time Qiao Anyu met him was at the Imperial College.
Qiao Anyu had seen too many people fawning over her because of her status, but she didn't find it annoying. She had just seen it so many times that she got used to it and no longer paid any attention to it.
That time, she also went to find her cousin, the Fourth Prince. When she first met Shen Jingchen, he was neither humble nor arrogant, and treated her cousin indifferently.
The three of them said goodbye, and she couldn't help but look back again and again. Later, she could see that her cousin was dissatisfied with his attitude. She didn't know what was wrong with her, but she unconsciously said something good on his behalf: "Mr. Chen is obsessed with literature and doesn't understand the ways of the world. Why should my cousin bother with him?"
From then on, it seemed as if something was destined.
Once he appeared, she always chased after him subconsciously.
But to him, she was just a passerby, a visitor. No matter how noble her family background was, he never took her seriously.
Qiao Anyu was sad about this more than once.
She originally thought that he was such a cold and aloof person, and that he was just as she said, ignorant of the ways of the world.
But later, she realized she was wrong.
He just didn't like her.
Only then did she realize that he could also fall in love with others. Once he fell in love with someone, he would be no different from ordinary people. He would worry, be nervous, feel uneasy, and even feel jealous.
Qiao Anyu silently called his name in her heart - Shen Jingchen.
Shen Jijiu named him Jingchen, but he is actually a man without any dust.
Even if someone he dislikes appears in front of him a hundred times, he will still turn a blind eye to him.
Perhaps it was because of her youthful admiration for Ai, or perhaps it was because this was her only long-term hope that could not be fulfilled, which made Shen Jingchen become an obsession in her heart.
She had already known that Shen Jingchen was in the Jiaofang Division.
But the pressure from the Qiao family and her elders made her dare not go there, nor could she come to see her.
He will never know how much she paid to be here to see him.
She traded her marriage for this time together.
Before the wedding, the Qiao family would not stop her from going to the Jiaofangsi, but that was all.
She still remembers the day her grandmother, who always loved her, asked her disappointedly, "Is it worth it?"
Qiao Anyu couldn’t tell whether it was worth it or not, she just wanted to get rid of the obsession in her heart.
Besides, if she couldn't marry the one she loved, whoever she married wouldn't matter. After all, her family would carefully choose the right person for her and wouldn't harm her.
Qiao Anyu looked at Shen Jingchen's profile. She sat down quietly, stopping him from playing the piano. She said:
"Don't play the piano today, just stay with me for a while."
When the Shen family was still there, no matter how hard she chased him, they would always pass each other by. Now, he was forced to stop and had to stay in the same room with her.
Qiao Anyu examined her own thoughts and thought blankly that she didn't seem to feel happy either.
He is not happy either.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com