7. Hasty wedding
Fan Changyu hurriedly said, "It's a fake bribe."
She told him her plan in detail: "After you and I get married, you can call it a gift to the outside world, so as to preserve the property left by my parents. My family still has a little money, and after the property is transferred, we will be able to make ends meet. I will invite the best doctor in town to treat your injuries with the best medicine. After you recover, it is up to you to stay or leave."
Xie Zheng raised his eyes, and the upturned corners of his eyes made him look even colder. "Aren't you afraid that after I leave, your uncle will come and ask you for the house?"
Fan Changyu said, "After the property has been transferred, I am not afraid of him no matter how he makes trouble. Besides, when you leave, I will just say that you are away for something, and others will not know whether it is true or not."
Xie Zheng said something ambiguous: "You are really thoughtful."
Fan Changyu didn't know whether his words were a compliment or criticism, so he asked awkwardly, "Well...what do you think?"
"Let me think about it." His eyelids were half closed, and the expression in his eyes was unclear, as if he was really considering it.
Fan Changyu couldn't help feeling a little nervous. She thought back to what she had just said. Although she said that he could stay or go after his injury healed, she didn't say what she would give him if he left, and what she could promise him if he stayed.
She thought about it for a moment and added, "If you want to leave after your injury heals, I will give you enough support. If you have nowhere to go..."
She glanced at the other's pale face and the wounds all over his body. Because the underwear he wore yesterday was soaked in blood, Carpenter Zhao couldn't find any clothes to change him, so he put his own tattered coarse linen shirt on him first.
His hands, in addition to various scrapes, were also covered with a thick layer of scars and cracks, and it looked like he had not had a good life in the past.
Since he was really sick and poor at the moment, Fan Changyu made a bold promise: "Don't worry, I will kill pigs and feed you in the future!"
Xie Zheng: “…”
The expression on his face at this moment was truly wonderful.
If there were people who knew him present, I'm afraid that just by hearing these words, they would have already thought of how they would die.
The only person in the world who dares to say that she raised him is probably the woman in front of me.
However, if she knew her true reputation, she would never say such words to him, and would even let him die in the snow without saving him.
Thinking of this, Xie Zheng's eyes were already filled with mockery.
He asked, "Why?"
Fan Changyu didn't understand what he meant: "What?"
He was surprisingly patient at this moment, as if he really wanted to know why she said that she would raise him: "You and I are not related at all. If my injuries don't heal, I will most likely become a useless person. What do you want from raising me?"
Fan Changyu replied honestly: "You look good."
Xie Zheng was stunned on the spot, not expecting such a superficial reason. After a while, he frowned and asked, "Is it just because of this?"
Fan Changyu blinked, as if to say "what else?"
Xie Zheng naturally knew that he was not bad looking, but this was the first time that someone had praised him so bluntly. He said, "There are so many people with outstanding looks in the world."
Fan Changyu said: "But the person I carried back from the snow happened to be you."
Her original intention was just to explain the other person's words that there are so many good-looking people in the world, but after she finished speaking, the other person looked at her with an even stranger look.
Fan Changyu realized later that his words had some misunderstandings, and quickly continued to explain: "What I mean is that everything may be predestined..."
As a person who only judges appearance by appearance, she just happened to pick up the one with the best appearance, so she thought that if he had nowhere to go in the future and her personality was compatible with his, it would be nice to just get along with him.
If the other party is not interested, she will definitely not force it, after all, a forced melon is not sweet.
However, the other party did not give her a chance to finish explaining. He frowned and interrupted her, saying, "After the injury is healed, Yan will leave on his own and will not bother you too much."
The corners of his eyes and eyebrows were cold, as if he had already determined that he had improper thoughts about him.
Fan Changyu was speechless: "...Alright."
The other party seemed to not want to have anything to do with her anymore, nor did he want to owe her anything, so he spoke again in a cold voice: "Miss, please make a wish. I will repay you for saving my life one day."
Fan Changyu waved his hands in despair: "You are willing to pretend to be a bribe to help me save my family property, which is a great help to me."
She never talks nonsense again, because it would be bad if people misunderstood her.
Unexpectedly, I heard a sentence: "If I take it as a gift, it is just to repay the kindness of taking me in."
Fan Changyu looked up in astonishment, looking at the other person's handsome face, and asked uncertainly: "You mean, you agree to the fake bribe?"
Xie Zheng nodded.
Fan Changyu almost cried with joy: "We can sign a deed as proof and set a deadline for the marriage. When the deadline is up, I will immediately write you a divorce letter and will never force you to stay. If you want to leave early, I will also give you a divorce letter and will not stop you."
This way he won't have to worry that I have any improper thoughts about him and will detain me and not release me.
Xie Zheng: “…That doesn’t have to be the case.”
He closed his eyes and asked again: "What is your wish, young lady?"
Fan Changyu thought for a moment and said, "I want to start running the pig shed my father left behind as soon as possible. It would be best if I could raise a hundred pigs in the future."
“…”
This wish is really simple and plain, and it is about pigs.
Xie Zheng was silent for two breaths: "Miss, you are exaggerating."
Fan Changyu thought that one hundred pigs were worth at least one hundred taels. He could buy a house with two courtyards in the town, but that would only cost a little over one hundred taels. Wasn't that too little?
She said another number against her conscience: "The two hundred?"
Xie Zheng: “…”
Forget it, just give her more money when you leave.
Seeing that he was silent, Fan Changyu thought that he had spoken too much and said awkwardly: "As the old saying goes, saving a life is better than building... better than building a tower. I don't actually expect you to repay me..."
When Xie Zheng heard her say, "Saving a life is better than building a seven-story pagoda," his eyelids twitched slightly, and he interrupted her: "Yan will remember your kindness."
He had said this, so Fan Changyu didn't want to continue the topic and asked, "Well... since you have agreed to the fake marriage, do you have anything else to ask me?"
The person sitting by the window just shook his head slightly, and didn't seem to take the so-called bribery seriously.
Fan Changyu thought about it and felt that it made sense. It was all fake anyway and they were not really getting married. There was no need to find out every detail of each other's ancestors.
She said: "The wedding may be a bit rushed, probably just in the next two days."
Xie Zheng just said, "You can arrange it."
His raven-like eyelashes half-drooped, covering all the dark colors in his eyes: "But my household registration documents were also taken away by the bandits. I guess I have to go to the government to get a new household registration."
Fan Changyu said: "This is not difficult. Since you are giving me the money, you can add the account to my family's account."
Both parties had reached a consensus, so Fan Changyu did not stay any longer and went back to prepare for the wedding.
Before leaving, she saw that he had not finished drinking much of his pig lung soup, so she reminded him, "The soup should have gotten cold, drink it up."
Xie Zheng: “…Yeah.”
She didn't seem to know that the pig lung soup she cooked tasted weird?
Xie Zheng was the only one left in the room. He opened the window and looked at the sky which had just cleared up after the snow, his eyes darkening.
The man who took over his military power was a mad dog. If he couldn't find his body, he would probably quickly investigate the refugees who had fled to nearby state capitals.
He could fabricate a false identity, but he could not forge household registration documents. If the Jizhou government also began to investigate the unregistered refugees, he would soon be exposed.
According to the laws of this dynasty, if one is granted as bribery, the household registration can be changed to the granted land.
This is the real reason why he agreed to the fake bribery.
As for that woman...
His eyes and consciousness fell on the pig lung soup placed aside.
He had already granted her one wish, so if he gave her something in return, it wouldn't be considered as him owing her anything.
Thinking of her natural words "You are pretty", his pretty eyebrows wrinkled unconsciously.
Oh, superficial.
He put his fingers to his lips and blew a clear whistle. In a moment, a pure white Saker Falcon swooped down from the sky and landed steadily on the windowsill.
Xie Zheng handed the bowl over: "Eat it."
The Saker Falcon glanced at the cooked pork lung slices in the bowl with its black eyes and turned its head away stubbornly.
Xie Zheng glanced over, and the Saker Falcon picked up a piece of pig liver and swallowed it reluctantly.
-
As luck would have it, just as Fan Changyu had agreed to the fake bribery, Captain Wang sent someone to secretly inform her that Fan Da had indeed asked someone to write a complaint and submit it to the county government, and that the case would be tried soon.
When Mr. and Mrs. Zhao, the carpenter, learned about this, they were so anxious that blisters appeared on their lips. Fan Changyu, on the other hand, remained calm and said, "Let's keep the wedding simple. When the time comes, we'll invite all the neighbors to have a meal together and let everyone know that I'm asking for money."
In order to avoid worrying the old couple too much and to prevent others from noticing the flaw, she has not yet told them that the bribery is fake.
Aunt Zhao said worriedly, "It's too late to make the wedding dress..."
Fan Changyu didn't take it seriously: "Just wear a red dress to match it, right?"
The money she earned from selling pork and the compensation she received after the incident at the casino that day only added up to three taels, and this little money had to be spent wisely.
However, she still had new clothes to wear, but the man who was going to be given as a donation to her did not. His original clothes were chopped into tatters, and during his recovery period, he wore a loose undershirt and an old jacket from Carpenter Zhao. No matter what, he had to have a new set of clothes made for him on the wedding day.
Fan Changyu gritted his teeth, spent half a guan of money, went to the cloth shop and bought a piece of ochre-red material, and asked the tailor living in the alley to make him a new set of clothes.
Fan Changyu had his reasons for buying this dark red material. He wanted to make it into clothes that could be worn as wedding attire on the wedding day, and could also be worn as everyday clothing.
When the tailor heard that Fan Changyu was going to get married, she smiled and said a lot of auspicious things. Knowing that Fan Changyu's family was not well off, she refused to accept her wages no matter what, and just considered making this wedding dress as a gift.
But the size still needs to be measured.
Fan Changyu wanted to ask Uncle Zhao for help, but he was out shopping for wedding supplies, so she had to go upstairs by herself: "You don't have a decent dress on the wedding day. I'll measure your size and have someone make you one."
Xie Zheng nodded readily.
In order to measure the size more accurately, he did not wear the old shirt of Carpenter Zhao, but only wore an undershirt to expose his back to Fan Changyu.
Fan Changyu spread out his thumb and index finger and measured from his left shoulder to his right shoulder. Through a thin layer of underwear, the texture that his fingertips touched was warm and firm.
Although she had patted his back to calm him down when he was seriously injured and coughing up blood, she had no other thoughts as human life was at stake. Maybe at this moment, neither of them spoke and the room was so quiet that they could hear each other's breathing clearly, which made her feel a little embarrassed for some reason.
On the one hand, she was afraid that he would misunderstand that she had improper thoughts about him, so she tried to reduce physical contact with him as much as possible. On the other hand, she tried to ignore the temperature from her fingertips and concentrate on memorizing the size.
"One foot and five." After measuring the size, she hurriedly handed the old clothes to Xie Zheng and asked him to put it on, as if she was trying to avoid it.
I was wondering in my heart that this man looked thin, but I didn't expect that his shoulders and back were broad, and the clothes he wore were almost the same size as my father's.
Before leaving, she told him about the general process of the wedding tomorrow: "The wedding is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. It is inconvenient for you to go downstairs, so Uncle Zhao will carry you downstairs."
Marriage is the same as "dusk", and dusk is the auspicious time.
For some reason, the other party refused decisively: "No need, I can go downstairs on my own with crutches."
Fan Changyu worriedly asked, "Will it tear the wound?"
"No problem."
Seeing that he insisted, Fan Changyu agreed to his decision and went home to continue preparing for the wedding.
A banquet was inevitable, so she took out a tael of silver to buy a pig. The chef, Aunt Zhao, helped her go to the neighbors and asked her aunt who was good at cooking to come and help the next day.
You also need to prepare some wedding candies and cakes.
She said she wanted to keep everything simple, but after calculating all the expenses, she had spent all the money she had.
Fan Changyu was busy until midnight without having time to rest. Aunt Zhao had no children, so helping her prepare for the wedding was like worrying about her own daughter, and she followed her around, running around.
After Changning fell asleep, Aunt Zhao mysteriously handed her a booklet.
Fan Changyu glanced at it and quickly closed it, feeling half embarrassed and half mortified: "He's injured like that, there's no need for this..."
Aunt Zhao glared at her and said, "It will be useful someday."
Fan Changyu had no choice but to accept the booklet.
The tailor was a skillful woman and she prepared a wedding dress and sent it over that night.
Fan Changyu originally only wanted to make a suit for Xie Zheng, but she didn't expect the tailor to find ways to save cloth and made a suit of the same color for her.
The tailor said with a smile, "How can a newlywed wear different clothes? I saw that the remaining material could make you another set of clothes, so I hurried to make it. Please don't complain if my craftsmanship is not good."
Fan Changyu had worked for a tailor before and had her clothing measurements preserved.
Fan Changyu felt mixed emotions: "Thank you, Aunt Fang."
The tailor urged, "Put it on quickly so your aunt and I can take a look. If it doesn't fit, we can still make some changes now."
There was not enough fabric, so the tailor made the wedding dress very simple. It looked no different from ordinary clothes, but the style was elegant.
When Fan Changyu went into the house and changed into the veil, she came out. Aunt Zhao and the tailor said it looked good. The tailor joked, "Once you put on the veil tomorrow, you'll be a beautiful bride!"
Fan Changyu asked: "Since it is a bribe, shouldn't the veil be put on the groom?"
The tailor and Aunt Zhao both burst into laughter: "You little girl..."
Fan Changyu was purely curious. After all, if she really wanted that guy to put the lid on and give it to her, she was afraid that he would turn hostile on the spot.
Speaking of the groom, the tailor lady became curious: "I heard that your handsome husband was rescued by you from a bandit at Huchakou. Is he handsome?"
Before Fan Changyu could even open her mouth, Aunt Zhao replied on her behalf: "Won't you be able to see the wedding tomorrow?"
The tailor smiled and said yes, then made a few more jokes before going home.
When Aunt Zhao was talking to Fan Changyu alone, she thought about the fact that the daughter was going to get married the next day, and she couldn't help but feel sad for her: "The daughters of those wealthy families only have someone carry them down from the embroidery tower on their wedding day, and then ride in a sedan chair to the sound of music and drums all the way to their husband's house..."
Fan Changyu did not feel sad. Instead, he recalled the time when he had asked Uncle Zhao to carry him downstairs tomorrow, but Uncle Zhao had refused with a cold face.
Could this be the reason why he refused?
-
Besides the Fan family, the other family that kept the lights on that night was the Song family a few doors away.
Mother Song got up at night and saw that the light was still on in her son's room. She knocked on the door and said, "My dear, it's so late. You should go to bed."
A man's calm voice came from the room: "I'll go to sleep after I finish reading this book."
Song's mother felt half sorry for her son and half relieved. She said, "Don't watch too late" and went back to her room.
Inside the room, candlelight was shining brightly. Song Yan was holding a scroll but had not turned a page for a long time. The inkstone, writing brush and ink had long been knocked to the ground, and the room was in a mess.
The hand holding the scroll was also holding so tightly that the knuckles turned white.
She is getting married?
The author has something to say:
Fan Changyu: Uncle Zhao will carry you downstairs tomorrow.
Xie Zheng: Reject!
Fan Changyu: Cover your head.
Xie Zheng: Reject!!!
---
The update is late, I will give a red envelope to those who have been waiting for a long time~
It rained two days ago, and I told my friends that the summer seems to be getting hotter every year. I went out on a sunny day yesterday, and when I got home I had a splitting headache and felt nauseous. I wanted to vomit but couldn't, so I went to the hospital.
Well, I got heatstroke qaq, the slap in the face came so quickly.
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