Chapter 68 Locking the Wutong Tree (Part 1) The world will never see another young master Song.
A perfectly normal sentence, when it came out of her mouth, sounded sarcastic and unpleasant.
Fortunately, Gu Lianzhou was not angry, but his eyes were quite depressed and his tone was somewhat aggrieved, "Senior brother, are you making fun of me?"
Song Qiling scratched his head, a hint of embarrassment flashing across his face: "Sorry, look, I'm talking nonsense again."
The sounds of clinking glasses drifted from afar, mingling with the cacophony of voices, as if through a thin film of water, hazy and unreal.
She leaned lightly against her junior brother's shoulder and muttered softly, "It's so lively."
The man beside him gave a muffled "hmm".
Song Qiling glanced at Gu Lianzhou's tight lips and asked in confusion, "Weren't you going to talk to me more? Why are you now like a sawing gourd?"
Gu Lianzhou clutched the fabric on his lap, his lowered eyelashes concealing the emotions in his eyes, his voice hoarse with nervousness: "Senior brother, I want to leave with you."
His voice was soft, yet it carried the force of thunder, striking Song Qiling so hard she nearly fell off the rock. "Why?"
Junior brother has clearly met Uncle Nie as he wished, and the journey can be considered a success. Why did he suddenly turn his attention to me at the last minute?
“I…I have other things to do next, and it’s not convenient to bring you along. Besides, you’ve been away from home for so long, your family will worry, won’t they?” Song Qiling blurted out almost without thinking.
After disguising herself as a man, she never intended to form deep relationships with anyone. Gu Lianzhou's appearance was already an accident. Seeing that this relationship was about to end, how could she continue to entangle herself with him?
Perhaps because of her strong reaction, Gu Lianzhou tugged at the corner of his lips and laughed self-deprecatingly, "I was just joking around with you, did you really take it seriously, Senior Brother?"
Song Qiling choked for a moment.
When did my junior brother start making jokes like this?
Seeing that she had calmed down, Gu Lianzhou looked up at the full moon in the sky and said with regret, "I'm afraid I won't be able to enjoy the moon and chat with you again, Senior Brother. I was feeling sentimental, so I started rambling. I hope you'll forgive me."
Song Qiling's stiff smile relaxed. She looked up like Gu Lianzhou and saw a dark cloud covering half the moon. She chuckled and said, "The moon has its phases, and people also have their partings. Junior brother, there's no need to be sad."
Gu Lianzhou shifted his gaze slightly, landing on his senior brother's profile, where he saw hope brimming in the bright moonlight.
My senior brother seemed completely unconcerned about the separation.
How heartless!
-
Under the cover of night, Song Qiling slipped out of the Murong residence, boarded a pre-arranged carriage, and headed towards Lake Stone Lane.
The carriage rolled along for about half an hour before she called it to a stop. She took out one or two taels of silver and handed it to the coachman. Song Qiling then got off the carriage with her heavy luggage on her back and walked into the quiet, narrow alley.
She stepped on the bluestone slabs, winding her way through the crowd until she reached a small courtyard with a low wall, and clicked her tongue softly.
The door lock was broken, with only a brass clasp hanging loosely on it. Just as the broker had said, it was dilapidated, but its advantage was that it was cheap.
The smell in the yard was almost the same as outside; it was quite dry. The firewood piled up in the corner was neatly stacked, and the water vat was filled with clear water, as if it had been swept and cleaned in advance.
After checking the courtyard, Song Qiling turned around and walked towards the gate. Fortunately, the bolt on the inside of the gate was not broken. After locking the gate from the inside, she breathed a sigh of relief and walked into the inner room.
As soon as she pushed open the door, she was blinded by a blast of dust. Song Qiling's face immediately contorted in a grimace, and she rubbed her eyes, muttering to herself, "You get what you pay for."
He took out a candle from his bundle and lit it. The warm yellow candlelight illuminated the cramped bedroom. The room contained only an elmwood couch and a crippled table, pitifully shabby.
After scooping water from the tub and washing herself quickly, Song Qiling lay down fully clothed. It was late, and she no longer had the energy to tidy the house, so she had to make do for the night.
As the sun rises and the sky begins to lighten, the east gradually turns a pale white.
Song Qiling was awakened by the sound of a clapper at the alley entrance.
Outside the coarse cloth curtain, sunlight shone through the window paper onto the bluish-gray floor tiles, so bright that you could see dust motes swirling in the beams of light.
She stared at the dusty beam for a while, then jumped up and took a blue cloth bundle from the bedside.
He changed into a slightly oversized linen shirt, took out a round box and a small silver knife from his bundle, and then sat down at the low table, facing the light from the window.
As she unscrewed the round box, a mossy, earthy smell wafted out. Song Qiling frowned slightly as she looked at the germanium-colored ointment inside.
It contained a disguise cream that had been specially ordered from a rouge shop a few days ago, for the purpose of "changing one's appearance".
Song Qiling put down the box, raised her hand to pull off the ribbon binding her hair at the back of her head, and looked up at the bronze mirror in front of her. The mirror reflected her beautiful face, with her black hair cascading down her shoulders, making her lips red and teeth white, like a vibrant painting.
She still looks too feminine.
If someone sees this, they will inevitably become suspicious.
Thinking this, she washed her hands with a handkerchief, first applying the grayish-yellow face cream evenly to her exposed skin, then dipping the cream in and drawing on her Adam's apple, before taking out a thick charcoal pencil to outline her long, slanted eyebrows that reached her temples.
Still not satisfied, she added thick, short black stubble to her cheeks. Only when her face became even more heroic did she stop, deliberately lowering her voice in front of the mirror.
"From this day forward, there will be no more Young Master Song in this world."
-
As soon as the sun climbed over the gray tiled eaves at the alley entrance, Old Zhao pushed his empty cart out of the side gate of the Prince's Mansion.
The cart wheels crunched over the bits of vegetable scraps stuck in the cracks of the bluestone slabs, making a rough, creaking sound. He lifted his sweaty coarse cloth jacket to wipe his face and bumped into Li the peddler, who was squatting by the wall smoking a pipe.
"Brother, delivering vegetables again? You're quick today." Li the peddler moved aside, revealing half of a polished stone doorstep, gesturing for Old Zhao to come and sit down.
Old Zhao responded in a muffled voice, released the car handle, sat down on the stone doorstep, and pulled out his pipe from his waist. The brass pipe struck the stone slab, scattering a few specks of aged ash.
“What’s the use of speed? It won’t earn you much money.” He suddenly spat. “That sickly man at home coughed up blood again last night, and the medicine didn’t work.”
"Oh dear, how did it get so serious? Is the medicine not right?" The peddler Li was a kind-hearted man. "Why don't you try another doctor? I think the new clinic on East Street is pretty good. I heard that the doctor there once treated a concubine in the palace."
Old Zhao's face was clouded with worry. He glanced at the high outer wall of the Prince's Mansion, his dry lips parted, and he asked, "A newly opened clinic? How much is the consultation fee?"
Li the peddler forced a sly smile and announced a number, only to see Old Zhao shake his head, holding his pipe, "No, Gouwa needs money to go to private school this autumn."
"Yes, my child's education is of utmost importance." He wiped non-existent sweat from his forehead with his sleeve and took a puff of his pipe.
As a widower, he naturally didn't understand Old Zhao's worries about having a family to support, so he could only try to amuse himself with other things: "Hey, the old lady's birthday is coming up in a few days. The Prince's Mansion will definitely hold a big banquet then, and you can make some money from it, can't you..."
On second thought, the oil and fat probably wouldn't be enough for the servants under the Prince's mansion to divide up, and by the time it reached Old Zhao, there probably wouldn't even be a drop of oil left.
Sure enough, as soon as he finished speaking, Old Zhao lowered his head and began to dig his rough, cracked fingers into his hair.
"Why……"
This made the man very worried.
Li the peddler stopped smoking, got up from the ground feeling awkward, brushed the dust off his clothes, bent over, picked up his groceries, and said goodbye to Old Zhao.
After walking more than ten steps into the alley, I saw a man standing in front of me behaving suspiciously.
The man was wearing a faded coarse cloth shirt with a rough stitch around the cuffs and worn-out cloth shoes, looking extremely shabby.
The two met on a narrow road. The man with a full beard grinned at him, and Li the peddler shuddered and gripped his carrying pole tightly as he hurried on his way.
In broad daylight, could I have encountered a madman?
Song Qiling watched the disheveled Li the peddler walk away, and slowly suppressed her smile. She turned to look at Old Zhao sitting by the corner gate of the Prince's Mansion, clutched the tattered hem of her clothes, and walked forward.
Hearing the noise, the man assumed it was the peddler returning and grumbled as he looked up: "What brings you here today...?"
The words were on the tip of her tongue when she was startled by the strange man in front of her and stopped abruptly.
"Don't be afraid, brother." Song Qiling lifted his clothes and sat down next to Old Zhao without hesitation. Seeing that the pipe in his hand was not smoking, he took out a tinderbox from his waist, blew on it, and lit it for him.
Old Zhao stared blankly at the strangely shaped tinder on his pipe, wanting to ask where it came from, but feeling uneasy all over.
Therefore, he turned to look at Song Qiling and asked warily, "Who are you?"
Song Qiling smiled as she put away the tinderbox, then took out a cloth bag from her bosom: "Then let's get straight to the point."
She opened a corner of the cloth bag, revealing gleaming silver ingots underneath: "Brother, I have a favor to ask of you, and I hope you can grant it."
Old Zhao had never seen such money before. He felt a chill run down his spine and stammered, "What...what do you need the money for?"
Song Qiling held the silver ingots, looked up at the man in front of her, and grinned, "Brother, please accept this money first. I'll deliver your vegetables for this month."
What nonsense are you spouting?
Old Zhao jumped to his feet, took a big step back, and glared at Song Qiling angrily, saying, "Which young master sent you to mess with me? Put away your stinking money and get as far away as you can."
Hey, why is this person so short-tempered?
Song Qiling blinked, an innocent look flashing across his rough, masculine face: "I overheard your conversation just now. You really need money right now, don't you?"
She looked down at the silver in her hand and said, puzzled, "I'm making a deal with you, not using you for my amusement."
"A deal?" Old Zhao wondered if he had misheard. "Gives me money and lets me do the work? Where in the world can you find such a good deal?"
Song Qiling put the cloth bag back into his arms and stood up: "If you don't want it, then forget it. I have this money, why would I beg you? There are plenty of people who would."
Having said that, he shuffled away.
Seeing this, Old Zhao hurriedly called out, "Wait...wait a minute."
Song Qiling stopped, looking dejected, and glanced at the man: "Regret it?"
Old Zhao stared at Song Qiling's retreating figure, suddenly recalling the scene last night when his wife woke up coughing and vomited blood clots all over the bed. He swallowed twice, took a few steps forward, and said as if he had made a huge decision, "I promise you."
“Alright.” Song Qiling took out a cloth bag from her bosom, took out a silver ingot from it, and handed it to Old Zhao. “In case you change your mind again, this is a deposit. Come to the back gate of the Prince’s Mansion in seven days and I will settle the remaining amount.”
She stared intently at the man before her and lowered her voice, saying, "If anyone asks you about this, just say that your cousin from the countryside came to the city to look for relatives and is helping you for a while. Would that save you the trouble?"
Old Zhao gripped the silver in his hand tightly, and nodded emphatically upon hearing this, saying, "I understand."
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