Chapter 34 Chapter 34 A Blank Dream
After Ji Xiao woke up from that dream, he locked himself in the room and refused to come out.
He couldn't understand why he had such a dream, and in the dream he was acting like a dog wagging its tail and begging for mercy to that stupid woman Jiang Wanwan!
Could it be that he subconsciously wants to be a dog for others?
As soon as this thought came to his mind, Ji Xiao's face turned so ugly that he almost wanted to slap himself. He shouted directly at Changji who was guarding the door, "Changji, go get this prince a whip!"
Changji thought that the prince wanted to teach someone a lesson, so he immediately went back with a black leather whip.
Ji Xiao took the whip and weighed it in his hand, and found that it was different from the whip in his dream. Then he thought, it was still a whip anyway. But when he thought about what he was going to do, he felt so ashamed that smoke was coming out of his head.
He glanced at the timid and mean Changji again, and his brows furrowed even deeper. Was he really going to sacrifice himself to this extent just for a broken dream?
"Prince, what's wrong with you? Are you feeling unwell?" Changji had just finished speaking these caring words when he was frightened by the prince's fierce gaze.
The prince's next words made Changji even more suspicious that the prince was possessed by a ghost, or that he had encountered an evil spirit. Or perhaps he had encountered an evil spirit in broad daylight and eaten poisonous mushrooms.
Ji Xiao, his neck flushed with shame, gritted his teeth and mentally prepared himself for a long time before finally convincing himself to throw the whip to Changji. Gnashing his teeth like he wanted to devour him alive, he said, "Come on, whip me."
"Prince, this is not good." Changji, who took the whip, shook his head frantically, his legs went weak and he almost knelt down.
"If I tell you to, just do it. Why are you being so cowardly?"
"No, I am just a servant. How can I harm the prince's noble body? This is no different from killing me!" Seeing that there was no other way, Changji could only bite the bullet and say, "Prince, if it really doesn't work, I will go and get a Taoist priest for you right now."
The prince's current condition can only be resolved by asking a Taoist priest or a monk to exorcise the evil spirits.
Ji Xiaohu glared at him impatiently, "This prince is not sick. If I tell you to, just do it now. Why are you dithering?"
"Don't worry, it was this prince who asked you to smoke, and I will never cause you any trouble later. If you don't do it, this prince will let you replace Ji Bao to clean the toilet for a month." Ji Xiao didn't expect that Changji, who looked quite smart on weekdays, could be so stupid today.
Changji couldn't help swallowing his saliva when he thought of his younger brother Jibao, who was punished to clean the toilet after doing something wrong some time ago. He thought that the prince had said so, and if he didn't do it, he was afraid that the whip would hit him in the next second.
He could only hold the whip tightly, close his eyes and say, "My lord, please forgive me for my offense."
"Just fight me when I tell you to. Why are you talking so much nonsense?"
The moment the whip broke through the air and landed on his body, burning pain instantly spread throughout his body. Strangely, Ji Xiao did not feel any beautiful pleasure as in his dream, but only the violent desire to twist his head off.
After enduring two more whippings alone, Ji Xiao, grimacing in pain, wondered if it was because the person whipping him was a man that caused this.
Jiang Wu is a woman, so he should change to another woman.
"That's enough, stop." Ji Xiao, whose back was ripped open by the beating, gasped for air as he felt a surge of brutality coursing through his body. He endured the throbbing pain in his forehead and back and said in a hoarse voice, "Call Aunt Lan in."
Aunt Lan was the head maid in the courtyard who took care of his daily life.
When the prince told him to stop, Changji, who had thrown down the whip, immediately breathed a sigh of relief. But he was worried that the prince would ask him to whip him again, so he immediately went to call Lan Gu in.
When Aunt Lan heard that she was going to whip the prince, her legs immediately softened with fear and she knelt on the ground and kowtowed, "No, I can't do that. Even if the prince kills me, I can't do that."
"Prince, have I done something wrong recently?" If it weren't for this, Aunt Lan couldn't imagine why the prince tortured her like that.
Changji glanced at the prince's face, which was about to turn as dark as the bottom of a pot, and hurriedly leaned over to Lan Gu's ear and whispered in a low voice, "The prince must have been possessed by an evil spirit. They asked us to whip him to exorcise the evil spirit."
Aunt Lan raised her face, which was almost covered with tears and snot, and asked, "Really?"
Changji nodded heavily, otherwise he could not explain why the prince wanted him to whip him.
After he said that, Aunt Lan thought that the prince had gone against his nature and wanted to whip him herself. Maybe he was really possessed by an evil spirit. As the prince's personal maid, she should exorcise the evil spirit for him.
Raising her sleeve to wipe away her tears, Aunt Lan immediately whipped him with the whip without hesitation, "My Lord, I am sorry for offending you."
Ji Xiao was whipped before he was ready. The pain was so severe that his head was about to fly off. Then he was whipped a second time and a third time.
The strange thing was that the whip that Aunt Lang used on him, like Changji, only aroused his violent desire to destroy everything and his rage to strangle the other person to death. It did not give him the pleasure of being crawled and bitten by ants as in his dream.
Could it be that the whip used was wrong?
At this moment, Ji Xiao was in deep confusion.
———
After accepting the amulet given by Song Jin, Jiang Wu went straight to the warehouse.
This was her first time entering the storeroom since her marriage. The steward guarding the door did not stop her, but instead asked, "Madam, what do you want to take? I will help you get it out."
Jiang Wu refused, because she was going to empty the warehouse and couldn't tell anyone what she had taken. That was just like a mouse telling the cat guarding the rice jar, "I'm going to steal your rice tonight, you'd better be careful."
After opening several boxes, he found that they were filled with gold, antiques, jewelry, calligraphy and paintings. Jiang Wu felt distressed when he thought that these would no longer belong to him soon, and he wished he could move them all away.
Just as she was thinking about whether to take the gold or the jewelry, her eyes were attracted by a book placed in the jewelry box.
Thanks to the literacy training he had gained during this period, Jiang Wu could already recognize what was written on the cover.
He picked it up and flipped through a few pages. Although some of the words were still hard to recognize, fortunately he could guess that it was a medical book. He didn't know why he kept such a book in the warehouse.
The steward standing guard outside the storeroom saw that the lady had only taken out one book and asked in confusion, "Madam, aren't you going to take anything else?"
"No, this book is enough for me." The moment he held the book in his arms, Jiang Wu seemed to hear the sound of his heart beating violently.
Even the attraction of this book to her was far beyond that of gold, silver and jewelry.
"Madam, please wait a moment." The steward returned to the storeroom and quickly came out with something wrapped in cloth. "This is a complete set of silver needles made of black iron. I think Madam will need them in the future."
Jiang Wu, who had not expected such a good thing, naturally would not refuse. After expressing his gratitude, he walked towards Hengwu Garden.
The steward reported to the Prime Minister truthfully what the lady had taken from the warehouse. You should know that whenever a dead mouse was taken out of the warehouse, it would be recorded in the book, but the size of the mouse would determine whether it was reported to the Prime Minister.
Although Xie Ji did not participate in setting the questions, he had to review the papers. Moreover, the neighboring country would be visiting Yan with its princess soon, and the flood in Qinzhou was enough to keep him busy.
She was not surprised when the steward told her that she had taken a medical book from the warehouse. Her surname was Jiang, and medicine was in her blood, so she would naturally get close to him.
Jiang Wu started flipping through the book after receiving it, and found that the biggest obstacle was that she didn't know many words, especially some words that looked very similar but had very different meanings. Even with pictures, she still had difficulty reading.
"Madam, the master is back and is waiting for you to have dinner in the main hall." Juan'er's voice sounded, and Jiang Wu raised her head from the book.
"Wait, I'll be right there."
After arriving at the main hall, Jiang Wu noticed that there were two more people dining today.
Shen Tingxue, whom she hadn't seen for a long time, had lost a lot of weight, and there was no longer any contempt for her in her eyes. Her attitude was so calm that it made Jiang Wu feel uneasy.
On the other hand, Song Jin also saw her coming and stood up with a smile on his face, "Sister-in-law, you are here."
Jiang Wu nodded and was about to sit down, but then he remembered that he hadn't washed his hands yet, so he had to wash his hands before sitting down.
Soon, the dishes were brought to the table one by one by the maids.
It was autumn, and the dishes at the mansion had shifted from being light and refreshing to nourishing and moistening. Because of the saying "in spring, eat flowers; in summer, eat fruits; in autumn, eat wild mushrooms; in winter, drink soup," most of the dishes on the table today were mushroom-based. And because autumn brings plump crabs, each person on the table also had a bowl of orange-stuffed crab, except for Song Jin and Xie Ji, who didn't have any.
Xie Ji explained: "Crabs are cold in nature. Eating too much can easily cause gastrointestinal discomfort. You have an exam tomorrow, so it's better to eat more home-cooked meals. After your exam is over, I will prepare a crab feast for you."
"Thank you, cousin, for considering Rong'an. However, Rong'an doesn't like crabs very much, so the crab feast will be cancelled." Regardless of whether Song Jin wanted to eat crabs or not, he had to stand up and thank him.
Jiang Wu scooped a spoonful of orange stuffed crab with a spoon, and his eyes suddenly lit up as he scooped a few more spoonfuls and put them in his mouth.
Xie Ji saw that she was eating so fast and was worried that she would choke, so he scooped a bowl of deer antler mushroom, tangerine peel and old duck soup for her and said, "Eat slowly. If you like it, you can ask the kitchen to make it tomorrow."
Shen Tingxue, whose bony fingers gripping the spoon handle were tightened to the point of turning white, smiled and said, "I remember that Master never liked talking while eating. But if you ask me, crabs still need to be paired with rice wine."
"People's habits often change. Although rice wine goes well with crabs, it's not suitable for everyone."
Song Jin, who was eating with his head down, could only mock him in his heart, and even thought that he was a hypocrite whose words and deeds were inconsistent, and that it was not worth it for Tingxue to like such a man.
After finishing his meal and digesting his food, Jiang Wu returned to Hengwu Garden and picked up the book he had read today.
Because she was reading so intently, she didn't even notice when he came in, until the book in her hand was taken away.
"What are you looking at, madam? You're looking at it so intently." She didn't even notice that he had been in for so long.
Jiang Wu blinked his eyes after his book was taken away, and found that candles had been lit in the room. No wonder he felt that the light was dim just now and then suddenly became bright again.
"Reading." Jiang Wu had just finished replying when she saw him flipping through his own book. She couldn't help but ask, "Does my husband understand the content in it?"
"No." After Xie Ji returned the book to his wife, he inevitably asked, "Madam, do you want to study medicine?"
"I was just taking a look. Why are you asking that?" If she was holding a medical book in her hand, it meant she wanted to study medicine. If she was holding a musical score in her hand, did it mean she wanted to learn the piano?
Xie Ji sighed softly, restraining himself as he reached out to smooth down her hair. "Because after people have enough food and clothing, they always need to pursue spiritual abundance, so as not to waste their lives doing nothing. I'm not saying you're not good right now, I just hope you can have a hobby of your own."
"Even if it's painting, piano, or medicine, anything is fine."
Jiang Wu did not answer immediately, because in the past sixteen years, all she had thought about was getting married after she reached the age of 15, having a few children, and then taking care of her husband and children and serving her parents-in-law, living an ordinary life like all the girls in the village. She had never thought about anything else.
"I haven't thought about it yet, but what I want now is to finish reading this book first and then learn to read." Of course, what she wanted most was to wait until she was divorced by him, move out half of his warehouse, and let those three despicable men who wanted to ruin her reputation suffer the consequences.
"Okay, if there's anything you don't understand, remember to ask me."
"I will, my husband, don't worry." What made Jiang Wu secretly happy was that he didn't ask her about today's homework, otherwise he would have discovered that she hadn't written a single word today.
Although it was just a meal, for Song Jin it was more like a rage. After returning to Xiuzhu Pavilion where he lived, he pinched his palms until they were bruised purple before he could control the urge to smash everything in front of him.
But he knew he couldn't.
Because once he destroyed anything in the house, it might reach his ears, making him dissatisfied and fearful of him, because he did not have the blood of their Xie family flowing in his veins.
It was precisely because he didn't have Xie family blood that he treated him differently. Otherwise, why would he not prepare a portion for him when he knew he liked crabs? Besides, it was just a bowl of orange-stuffed crab, so it wouldn't hurt to eat it.
Song Jinye was not the child born after Aunt Xie Ji married in, but was born to the current head of the Song family, Song Jinye's father's original wife. Because he was the child born to the original wife, after Aunt Xie Ji married in, he, the child born to the original wife, became an eyesore in the family.
The same thing happened this time when he went to Beijing to take the imperial examination. If he hadn't been so shameless as to stay at the Xie family, he would have died on the streets long ago.
He hated his stepmother, the Xie family, and even more so, this hypocritical hypocrite. If that woman didn't have him as a backer, and the Song family didn't depend on him for survival, his father wouldn't treat him like that, and the servants in the mansion wouldn't flatter him just because he wasn't that woman's biological son!
He hated the Xie family, his stepmother, and Xie Ji, but what he didn't expect was that the girl who had given him the only warmth in his childhood would like the person he hated. He had caught her crying in front of him more than once, which made him so sad that he couldn't breathe.
He didn't understand why Tingxue would fall for that hypocrite, but it didn't matter. As long as she liked it, he would try his best to satisfy her. As long as he could see her smile again, even if he was despised by everyone in the world, what would it matter?
Song Jin fell asleep with a heart full of resentment, but found himself in a strange dream.
In the dream, he was wearing a plain robe, his hair was not tied up but casually draped behind him, and he was kneeling in front of a bed.
There was a woman lying on the bed, and he was holding a bowl of medicine, probably taking care of the sick woman.
Then he moved his eyes and observed the furnishings in the house. It was a very simple room, yet exuded a scholarly elegance everywhere.
There is a plum blossom painting by the monk Liuru hanging on the wall, and a small table with a cloud pattern of auspiciousness stands by the window. On the table, a white jade willow-leaf vase is slanted with a few red plum blossoms in bud. From this, it can be inferred that it is winter now.
After kneeling for so long, Song Jin's feet felt numb. The woman on the bed remained motionless, presumably asleep. He stood up, placed the medicine bowl on the round wooden table beside him, and walked out.
He didn't feel much cold inside the house, so he couldn't tell what season it was. But after opening the door, a sharp cold wind whistled in, clearly telling him that it was winter.
He wanted to come out, but found that he couldn't leave the house at all, as if a mysterious force had imprisoned him here.
Soon, he thought of the sick woman in the house. Perhaps she was the reason why he was trapped here.
When he returned to the room and wanted to see clearly what the woman lying on the bed looked like, he was still obstructed as when he went out, and he could not see the woman's face at all.
After this happened many times, Song Jin lost interest and instead found a place to sit down, waiting for him to go out.
It was snowing outside the window, the snow was heavy and the wind was strong, because some snowflakes drifted in through the gaps in the window frame that was not closed tightly.
After Song Jin woke up, he found that there was still no white light in the sky. He breathed a sigh of relief and lost his sleepiness.
He didn't care much about that dream. What he cared about was whether he could pass the next exam.
Ah Zhu, who was about to call the young master to get up, saw that he had woken up and said, "Young master, you are awake. I was just about to call you to get up."
"After washing my face, it's time to eat. Breakfast has just been delivered from the kitchen. I saw that it's a very rich breakfast, and it's all breakfast from the health side."
"No need, just eat breakfast outside later." Song Jin didn't dare to eat the food prepared by the mansion, let alone at a crucial turning point in his destiny.
After exiting through the back door, they saw a carriage parked outside. Gao Lang, who was leaning against the carriage, smiled and said, "My dear cousin, you're here. My Lord was worried that the exam would be crowded and the roads would be blocked, so he specifically ordered me to escort you to the exam room."
Song Jin hadn't expected him to arrange a carriage to pick him up, and immediately felt uneasy and alert. However, he wore a flattered smile on his face. "I didn't expect my cousin to be so thoughtful. Sir Gao, please thank him for me."
"Young Master is your cousin. It would be awkward for you to thank each other."
After getting on the carriage, Song Jin was thinking about what he would encounter along the way, such as the carriage wheel breaking halfway and pulling him to the other direction of the examination room, or black-clad men and hooligans being arranged on the road to prevent him from taking the exam.
After his palms were sweating and his back was cold, and he had almost thought of every possible method the other party could use, the carriage finally stopped.
As the curtain was lifted, the gate of the Imperial Examination Hall was not far away. Because the road was crowded with stalls selling pens, ink, paper, inkstones and food, it was difficult for the carriage to enter and it had to stop outside. This also made Song Jin's heart, which had been hanging in the air, feel a little relieved.
After getting off the carriage, worried that something might happen if he was late, Gao Lang suddenly called out to him and handed him a book bag. "My dear cousin, this is the amulet and writing brush and inkstone that the master prepared for you. I wish you success in the exam and a place on the list of top scorers."
After receiving the book bag, Song Jin's face flushed with excitement because of the affirmation. He bowed repeatedly with tears of gratitude, "Don't worry, Master Gao. I will definitely not let you down."
After the other person turned and left, he threw the school bag to Ah Zhu with a smile on his face and said coldly, "Find a deserted place and burn it later."
Ah Zhu was puzzled: "Master, these are all prepared by the Prime Minister with great kindness, why don't you want them?"
"It's because he prepared it that I can't accept it." Song Jin didn't think he would be so kind, and he didn't believe that there really were so-called gentlemen in the world. If there were, they would be hypocrites seeking fame and reputation.
When Gao Lang was sending Song Jin to the Imperial College for the exam, Xie Ji also got up and was giving instructions to the housekeeper, "Pack his things and send him to a courtyard in the south of the city. He can go there directly after the exam."
"Why don't you just throw his things away and arrange a place for him to stay?" Xie Yu on the side felt that the Prime Minister was still too soft-hearted. If anyone dared to covet his wife, he would break the person's legs immediately. How could he let the person stay until the day of the exam and finally find him a place to stay.
"After all, I am the cousin of that kid." When he came to him exhausted, Xie Ji sent someone to inquire about his life in Jiankang.
After marrying into the Song family, my aunt soon gave birth to a son and a daughter. Coupled with my aunt's deliberate indulgence, the servants, who always followed the situation, would certainly flatter and despise a child left by the original wife.
As a result, although Song Jin was the eldest son, his life in the mansion was not necessarily very good.
Xie Yu wanted to say, "Sir, you're only a few years older than him." Besides, no matter how good you treat that kid, he's bound to be an ungrateful person.
Did you dare to sneak into the backyard before you saw him?
-----------------------
The author has something to say: I have come up with 4 new dreams, which one do you want to see? [Dog head holding a rose][Dog head holding a rose][Dog head holding a rose]
1. You are a female student who secretly climbed into bed with a husband who was drugged.
2. You are a newly widowed woman and you are no longer content to spy on your neighbors.
3. You are a shady disciple who wants to hide his master. You are a sickly master haunted by an evil spirit.
4. After being bullied by their elder sister, the twin half-brothers gradually turned evil. You like to humiliate them and treat them like dogs.
5. You are free to play [dog head holding a rose]
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
