Chapter 32
After the fireworks, the sound of firecrackers continued to explode in the distant streets and one or two dogs barking could be heard faintly in the night.
Xie Zheng half-clenched his fist and tapped lightly on the table where Fan Changyu was lying: "Wake up."
Drunk and sleepy, Fan Changyu only responded vaguely, then he put his head on his arm in a more comfortable position and continued to sleep.
Seeing that he couldn't wake her up, Xie Zheng hesitated for a moment, then stood up and walked over, helped her up and prepared to carry her back to the room.
This commotion made Fan Changyu open her eyes in a daze. Her cheeks were still red, and for a moment Xie Zheng couldn't tell whether she was awake or drunk.
He held her arm to prevent her from falling, and asked, "Can you go back to your room by yourself?"
Fan Changyu tilted his head to look at him. His hair was a little ruffled due to the sleeping posture just now. He looked silly and obedient, with a blank look in his eyes, as if he didn't recognize who was in front of him.
Xie Zheng was startled at first, then he looked away and frowned, "You don't even know your alcohol tolerance, yet you dare to drink recklessly."
He pulled her hand and tried to lift her up halfway, but he heard her mumbling something incoherently.
Xie Zheng couldn't hear clearly, so he leaned closer to listen: "What?"
Fan Changyu was not conscious at all, her head was moving slowly, and when Xie Zheng leaned closer to listen to her, her head just dropped again, her lips lightly brushed his cheek, her head just buried in the crook of his neck, and her already dazed and sleepy eyes closed, she had no idea what she had done.
Xie Zheng froze.
Time seemed to stop at that moment; the sounds of wind, snow, and the burning bonfire all stopped.
Her furry head was resting against his neck, her breathing was long and shallow, and it seemed that she was fast asleep.
Xie Zheng didn't move for a long while until a weak voice came from the side: "Sister?"
Xie Zheng turned his head and saw that Changning seemed to have just woken up. She was still holding her red seal in one hand, rubbing her sleepy eyes with the other hand, and looking at him and Fan Changyu in confusion.
He placed his thin fingers lightly on his lips and made a "huh" gesture. His hair fell in front of his forehead and his eyes were dark and calm in the light. "Your sister is asleep. Don't wake her up."
Changning nodded obediently.
Xie Zheng pointed to the oil lamp beside him and asked, "Can you lift the oil lamp?"
Little Changning nodded even more vigorously.
She walked in front holding the oil lamp in both hands. Xie Zheng put one hand under Fan Changyu's armpit and the other hand under her knee, picked her up horizontally, and walked steadily behind Changning.
Fan Changyu had carried him back from the wild twice, but this was the first time he held her in his arms.
She was thinner than he had imagined.
Yes, in just two months, she experienced the death of her parents, the breaking off of her childhood sweetheart's engagement, and her uncle seizing her family property. More recently, these two assassinations were enough to scare an ordinary person into trembling with fear for a lifetime.
On the surface, she looked like nothing had happened. She still went out early and came back late every day to earn money to support her family. She was never seen starving at the dinner table, and she would play and laugh with the child when she was trying to comfort her sister.
In the past, Xie Zheng thought that she was careless, but at this moment, he suddenly felt that maybe... she was not careless. She just knew that she couldn't be sad all the time, so she worked hard to make money, ate well every day, slept well, and didn't dare to let herself get sick, nor did she dare to let herself lose her confidence.
Because she is the only one her sister can rely on, she cannot fall down.
The road from the main room to the north room is not long, but in the interweaving of darkness and light, Xie Zheng's heart was filled with many complicated emotions.
When they arrived at the north room, Changning was not tall enough to put the oil lamp on the table, so he placed the oil lamp on a round stool.
Xie Zheng put the sleeping Fan Changyu on the bed, and Changning ran over, grabbed the shoes on Fan Changyu's feet with both hands, and pulled them back with all her strength to help her sister take off the shoes.
The child was full of energy but still didn't know how to do it, so Xie Zheng said, "I'll do it."
He helped to take off her shoes and wanted to cover Fan Changyu with the quilt, but Changning said, "Sister, you haven't taken off your skirt yet."
Xie Zheng paused for a moment and coaxed the child, "Your sister is asleep. Taking off her clothes might wake her up. Let her sleep like this."
Changning then stopped.
When he covered Fan Changyu with a quilt, the child kicked off her shoes and climbed onto the bed, tucking in the corners of the quilt for her sister like a little adult.
Xie Zheng waited until the children had laid down before he placed the oil lamp on the wooden table beside him. He turned his head to glance at the bed curtains. Under the dim light, Fan Changyu's face had a faint red from drunkenness, and he slept obediently and quietly.
He suddenly remembered the night when he taught her the laws of Dayin. She fell asleep while reciting the laws, lying on the desk, and choked out the word "mother" in her sleep.
The strange and unfamiliar feeling in my heart rose up again.
"Brother-in-law?"
Chang Ning saw that he was staring at this side, so he blinked and called him.
Xie Zheng came to his senses and said, "Don't tell your sister what happened in that room just now."
Little Changning was confused: "What's the matter?"
Xie Zheng was silent for a moment, thinking that she had just woken up and might not have seen it, so he said, "Nothing."
When he was about to put out the oil lamp, the child asked, "Brother-in-law, don't you need a light when you go back to your room?"
"Need not."
As he finished speaking, the oil lamp went out and the room fell into darkness.
Xie Zheng walked calmly out of the room in the dark, closing the door behind him.
Before he returned to his room, he took the Saker Falcon that was still in the chicken coop beside the fire pit away. After entering the room, he lit the oil lamp, ground ink, and finished writing the letter that he had not finished writing during the day. Then he put the letter into a bamboo tube and tied it to the Saker Falcon's feet.
The injuries on the Saker Falcon's wings and feet have almost healed. Since it hasn't been flying these days and has been fed a large bowl of fresh minced meat or offal every day, the falcon has become rounder.
When Xie Zheng raised his arm to let the Saker Falcon jump up, he felt the weight on his forearm and wrinkled his brows slightly: "After delivering the letter, fly outside until dark and come back."
The Saker Falcon's eyes consciously glanced towards the large bowl of minced meat in the main hall. Feeling the cold breath behind it, it quickly flapped its wings and flew into the deep night.
After the Saker Falcon flew away, Xie Zheng did not go into the house. Instead, he stood under the eaves with his hands behind his back and watched the heavy snow falling like willow catkins for a long time.
When he asked Zhao to buy food, he anticipated that the government would eventually notice it.
Zhao Wen came to see him a few days ago, and he had asked Zhao Wen to deliver the grain to the place he designated first. The letter sent by Hai Dongqing was to ask his old subordinates to transport the grain.
The Wei family thought that they could get rid of him without any soldiers and then take over his 100,000 troops in Huizhou. It was a very good plan, but since he was not dead, the good days of the father and son were over.
He didn't believe the rumor about the Battle of Jinzhou sixteen years ago that suddenly spread a few months ago. However, after his good uncle learned that he was secretly investigating the Battle of Jinzhou, he set a trap on the battlefield to kill him, which undoubtedly confirmed the rumor.
Before taking back the military power of Huizhou, he had to use the help of the Wei family to remove the hidden thorns they had planted around him.
Thinking about how he had acknowledged a thief as his father for sixteen years, Xie Zheng raised his mouth with a hint of mockery.
If that woman had not chosen to follow his father when she learned of his father's death, would he not have been raised by Wei Yan and would not have had to acknowledge the thief as his father for sixteen years?
He closed his eyes heavily, and the lantern under the eaves cast a shadow on his tall nose.
Somehow, I thought of the two sisters from the Fan family again.
For a moment, Xie Zheng was actually a little jealous of that child.
He was about the same age as her when he encountered misfortune in his childhood, but when the Xie family mansion collapsed, there was no one behind him to protect him from the wind and rain.
How lucky that child is, without parents, but still has a sister who supports her...
When he opened his eyes again, all the emotions in Xie Zheng's eyes had subsided.
He turned around and went back to his room. As soon as he took off his outer robe and lay down, he felt something was wrong under his pillow.
He sat up, took away the pillow, and when he saw a red envelope under the pillow, there was a moment of confusion on his handsome face.
Pressure money.
The New Year is the same as the New Year ghosts. People believe that giving New Year money can ward off evil spirits and bring peace.
Was this put there for him by that woman?
Xie Zheng opened the red envelope and found several silver ingots inside.
Each one weighs less than one or two ounces, but when I hold it in my hand, I feel it is heavy.
Xie Zheng couldn't remember how long it had been since he had received any New Year's Eve money. After his parents passed away, the only time he received New Year's Eve money was from his grandmother when she was still alive.
Wei Yan had been cold-blooded and tough all his life. He had never shown kindness to his nephew, let alone his own sons. Naturally, he would not let anyone prepare red envelopes for them during the New Year.
Xie Zheng lay on his back on the bed, one hand behind his head, the other hand holding a silver ingot in front of his eyes. He looked calm and attentive in the candlelight, with some other emotions between his pretty eyebrows.
Her parents have passed away, so there will be no one to give her any New Year's money from now on, right?
-
The next day, when Fan Changyu woke up, he felt his head was a little swollen.
Because she was drunk, she got up a little late, and Changning was no longer in the room.
She slowly got up and found that her clothes were all on her body. She tried hard to recall what happened last night, but her drunken memory was blank.
However, if she was able to return to her room, it was either because she walked back by herself or because Yan Zheng helped her back.
When Fan Changyu thought about the latter, he felt anxious.
This was really embarrassing. She was even drunk on sake. If this got out, she would be laughed at.
She pressed her aching forehead, and just after getting up and washing up, she heard Changning crying from the main room.
Fan Changyu walked out and asked, "What happened?"
Chang Ning squatted beside the chicken coop, crying and wailing: "Fan Fan is gone..."
Fan Changyu was also stunned when he saw the empty chicken coop. He said, "Maybe the cage door was not closed last night, so the gyrfalcon recovered from its wing injury and flew away."
Changning cried even more sadly.
Fan Changyu had no choice but to take out the gyrfalcon and go back to find the falcon's father and mother. Only then did Changning slowly stop crying.
Xie Zheng probably heard the crying in the room. When he came out, he saw Chang Ning still crying beside the chicken coop. He said, "It will come back again."
Chang Ning raised her tearful eyes and asked, "Really?"
Fan Changyu thought he was just coaxing a child, and was afraid that Changning would be even more upset if he found out that his lies were fake. He didn't care about the embarrassment of getting drunk last night and glanced at Xie Zheng.
Xie Zheng didn't understand her look at first, but after Fan Changyu coaxed Chang Ning away, he said to him, "You don't have to lie to her like that. Chang Ning might just be too lonely. I plan to raise a nest of chicks in the spring. She'll have new playmates and won't remember the gyrfalcon anymore."
Xie Zheng said: "I didn't coax her."
This time it was Fan Changyu's turn to be stunned.
He couldn't confess the fact that the falcon was sent to deliver the letter yet. Xie Zheng lied without blushing: "After the falcon is trained, it will be released again. Only when it can fly back is it completely tamed."
When Fan Changyu heard this, he thought, isn't this still an unknown?
She looked at Xie Zheng suspiciously: "Are you so sure you can fly back?"
Xie Zheng nodded calmly.
Although Fan Changyu was still somewhat confused, he did not know how to train falcons, so he did not say anything.
A lot of the bacon she smoked some time ago is still hanging above the fire pit. Most of it is for sale, and only a small part is for eating.
When her parents were still alive, her father would bring a piece of meat to visit the two elders of the Fan family on this day every year. Now that her parents are gone, although Fan Changyu is not close to the old couple, she is the elder after all, so she still has to pretend to be polite.
After breakfast, she planned to bring a piece of bacon to the old couple and then come back. After asking Xie Zheng to help look after Changning, she took the bacon and went out.
Mr. Fan died not long ago, and the old house of the Fan family has had a miserable time over the past few years.
When Fan Changyu left, only the old couple of the Fan family were at home. Liu took her two children back to her parents' home to celebrate the New Year.
Maybe because both of their sons died in one year, the old couple suffered quite a blow. Mrs. Fan was bedridden, and Mr. Fan's already gray hair turned almost completely white, and the clothes he wore during the New Year were dirty and wrinkled.
I don't know if it's because he has no intention to clean up, or because his daughter-in-law is now in charge, but life is not easy.
He saw Fan Changyu and asked her to come into the house and sit by the fire.
But Fan Changyu just wanted to leave after giving the things, and said, "Ning Niang is still waiting for me at home, so I won't stay any longer."
Father Fan looked at the bacon she brought, probably remembering that his youngest son would bring a piece of meat every New Year. His eyes became red, and he said, "Come in and sit down. I think I should tell you some things about your father's past."
Fan Changyu was stunned when she heard this. What was there about her father in the past that she didn't know?
Seeing that Old Man Fan staggered into the house after he finished speaking, Fan Changyu hesitated for a moment, but finally followed him.
The author has something to say:
Today's update is late, I will send 100 red envelopes to the babies who have been waiting for a long time~
There will be another update in the evening, I will try to write something thicker (fist)
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