Chapter 36: The childhood sweetheart's mumbling has a bit of the charm of the wife-watching stone. ...
Lin Meizhu said angrily, "I don't want to die...and you can't die either. It's better to live a miserable life than to die."
After the moxibustion, Lin Meizhu placed the needles on the acupuncture points. Chuqi hissed, "Eleven, are you able to do this?"
Lin Meizhu raised her eyebrows, twisting the needle in her hand, and said in a somewhat indignant tone: "Why not?"
Chuqi said: "My hands are unfamiliar."
Lin Meizhu was silent for a moment, then admitted, "I only recently had the opportunity to pick up this craft again."
This was not a good start, and Chuqi felt a little regretful.
Lin Meizhu ran the tip of her thumb along the meridians on his arm, feeling it was much harder than before. She stopped at a small indentation and pressed it with moderate force. Chu Qi tilted his head and met her eyes, then immediately released the strength from his upper body and asked, "Is it okay?"
Lin Meizhu hummed softly, her hands still working as she dropped a few more silver needles. She glanced at the pale pink scar on her shoulder blade and asked, "How did you get this injury?"
Chu Qi didn't know when he'd gotten injured again, so he subconsciously reached out to touch it. Lin Meizhu pretended to swat his hand away, "Don't move!" Chu Qi smiled, his eyebrows curved, "I don't know, maybe it was from horseback archery class."
Among the liberal arts, horseback riding and archery were only supplementary subjects. However, Lin Meizhu knew his temperament well and said, "Don't be so aggressive."
Chuqi just smiled and didn't answer. He thought to himself that he worked so hard for you before, and later he worked so hard just because he was used to it. If he didn't keep himself so busy that he had no time to think about you, he would have gone crazy long ago.
He said with emotion: "So you didn't lie to me."
"What?"
"You always told me that you would respect me when you grow up. Just now, when I saw you being so indifferent to me, I cursed you in my heart as a heartless little liar."
"If I'm a small liar, then you're a big liar."
Chu Qi immediately realized what she was talking about, couldn't help laughing, and felt soft inside, "I only lied to you that time."
Around the summer when she was six or seven years old, Lin Meiju fell in love with the simple and cute Kodou in the pond, and she caught quite a few of them and raised them in clay pots.
Lin Meizhu had been raised by Chuqi, and she never doubted his words. One day, she counted the Kedou and found they were a few fewer, with no signs of them leaping out. Chuqi mysteriously declared that the Kedou had become immortals, and that if she could witness their transformation, her wishes would come true. Lin Meizhu was overjoyed and moved the small clay pot to her bedside, staring at it from morning till night, insisting she must witness the moment Kedou attained immortality.
Then one day, he accidentally dozed off and the basin was empty. Lin Meizhu hugged the basin and burst into tears. Chuqi had just wanted to play a trick on her, waiting for her to scream in fear when she saw the frogs jump out, but who knew she would react so strongly?
Lin Meizhu was extremely panicked. She pulled his sleeve and said, "I didn't see the Immortal Kedou. What should I do with my wish?"
Chu Qi wiped her tears and replied, "Actually, you have already seen it. Otherwise, how could you suddenly fall asleep? This is a trick of the immortals."
She breathed a sigh of relief: "That's great, my wish can come true."
Chuqi was curious: "What wish did you make?"
Lin Meizhu counted on her fingers and said, "I pray to the immortal to bless Brother Chuqi so that he won't feel any more pain. I pray that he can bless Brother Chuqi to be reunited with his family as soon as possible. Also, I hope that our family can have enough food to eat every day."
She made three wishes, two of which were completely for herself, and for the remaining one, she wanted him to be part of this family.
Chuqi's nose immediately became sore and he almost shed tears. From then on, he had only one wish: he hoped she would be happy.
Lin Meizhu was about to ask him to move to another position for acupuncture when she suddenly heard him turn his face away. She had been laughed at for years about the incident with the immortal Ke Dou, and she didn't know what it reminded him of.
She was very understanding and pretended not to hear. He was actually embarrassed to let others see him when he couldn't hide his tears.
The only sound in their ears was the crackling of burning moxa, the slightly bitter smell of medicine lingered at the tip of their noses, the books rustled in the wind from the window, and in the distance came the sounds of shouting and laughter from the streets. Both of them were a little dazed, as if this was just an ordinary afternoon in Lingnan.
But they were also very clear that something was different, but they both tacitly did not mention it.
After the cool breeze dissipated the herbal smoky scent in the room, Lin Meizhu finished her needles one by one. She was used to treating female patients and habitually patted them to signal her end. Chu Qi, also a medical practitioner, anticipated the end and sat up, her hand accidentally landing on his hip.
Before Lin Meizhu could say anything, Chuqi sat on the edge of the bed like a shy young wife, raising her eyelids as if wanting to see but not daring to. She said softly while tying her belt, "It's okay."
Lin Meizhu wanted to gloss over the matter vaguely, but after hearing him say that it was neither yes nor no, she felt like a pervert who was molesting a decent woman. She could only cough lightly and change the subject: "Didn't you say you had something for me?"
Chuqi ran over to get the package, and looked back to see that Lin Meiju had already put on her veil.
Lin Meizhu passed by several scholars when she was hiring a carriage at the door.
The first one, with a white, round face, was walking and eating a sesame pancake, mumbling incoherently, "I stayed up too late reading on the seventh day of the first lunar month, and it kept me awake."
His tall, thin companion sneered, "You're full of maggots! I can hear you snoring from the next room!"
The fat man pointed with two fingers and said, "Zhang San, you are so vulgar."
Zhang Yixin replied: "Or I can switch rooms with you, and Chuqi and I will stay together."
Zhou Liangnian said disdainfully, "I don't want it. That Lu Zhao guy has so many problems. He'll chase him out if he swallows too loudly." He turned around and saw that the man was almost behind him. He changed the subject loudly, "This shopkeeper is so stingy. He doesn't even want to give me more candles. Chuqi will get sick sooner or later. I think we should move in. This place is too far from the academy and it's too noisy."
When he saw the scene in the living room clearly, Zhou Liangnian stopped chewing the pancake in his mouth, his eyes shining, and walked quickly towards Chuqi who was sitting at the table, pressing his shoulder vigorously, "Good brother! You've made a fortune!"
Zhang Yixin looked over and saw that the table was full of food. Feeling hungry, he put the book in his hand aside and sat down opposite Zhou Liangnian.
Zhou Liangnian took a sip of tea to moisten his throat, muttering as he picked up some food, "Who's hosting? They're so generous, could it be that some young lady has taken a fancy to you?"
Zhang Yixin smiled and said, "It's not surprising..."
Lu Qingyan, who was sitting opposite Chuqi, glanced at the two people who were chattering non-stop, and suddenly stopped talking. Several people looked at Chuqi together.
Chuqi's face was half sad and half desolate. He stared blankly at the sparse rain curtain outside the window, with a bit of the charm of the man named Wang Ziyan.
Zhou Liangnian hadn't realized the seriousness of the situation yet. He poked the bottom of the bowl with his chopsticks and said with a crow's mouth, "What happened to you, Chuqi? Was your sweetheart abandon you?"
Chuqi lowered his head and said nothing.
Zhang Lu and the other man glared at Zhou Liangnian with hatred almost at the same time.
Zhou Liangnian shouted: "My goodness! You! Did I say something wrong? I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Second brother was wrong, hit me, come on!" As he said that, he stretched out his face for Chuqi to hit him.
Lu Qingyan pushed his face away with a folding fan and said, "My cousin knows some people in the capital. Maybe she can find a way to help you find someone."
The shopkeeper was watching Chuqi and the others talking, wondering where that familiar feeling came from. Just then, a wandering monk came by the door, asking for water. The shopkeeper waved his old friend over and whispered, "Old Huang, look at that scholar. Doesn't he look familiar?"
The wandering monk drank a bowl of water like a cow, holding his belly and squinting his eyes. "Who is it? The one with the cold face? The son of the Lu family in Jiaxing, Zhejiang, a noble family."
The shopkeeper shook his head. "The one across from him! The one with the earrings! I always feel like I've seen him somewhere before."
The wandering monk smacked his lips and said, "Oh, you mean Xiao Yulang."
The wandering monk, who moved around the city frequently, was naturally well-informed. He knew that many teahouses and restaurants had already set up "betting lists" to place bets on whether southern candidates would make it into the top three. The most popular candidate was the jade-faced young man with a small earring in his right ear. As for why the small character was added, it was to make it clear that Yu Lang could only be that one person.
The shopkeeper clapped his hands vigorously, excited as if he had finally found a soulmate: "Yes! Yes! Yulang! Song Yulang! I remember now, he looks like Mr. Song!"
The wandering monk also saw Chuqi in person for the first time. He looked at him carefully and disagreed: "I don't think he looks like him."
Even after many years, both of them have not forgotten the amazement they felt when they first met Song Jiusi, and they are silently comparing them in their memories.
The shopkeeper tugged at his friend's sleeve and moved him. "I'm not talking about his looks, I'm talking about... well, I can't really explain it. Look at him from this angle, from his back and from the side. When he smiles, he looks especially like..."
The wandering monk looked at it again and again and could not deny it.
The shopkeeper was a little anxious and grabbed his old friend to stop him from leaving. He thought to himself: Smile! Smile! Stop looking so sad and smile!
A waiter came into the store, walked to the seventh table, handed over an iron plate and said a few words.
Chuqi stood up suddenly, holding the iron plate excitedly, as if he was confirming something.
The shopkeeper saw the corners of his mouth gradually rise, and unconsciously began to smile too. He tapped his friend's arm and said, "Look, look! He's smiling!" The wandering monk couldn't help laughing too, and finally nodded, "I feel like, there is indeed some resemblance."
The two of them laughed foolishly for a while before remembering the serious matter. The shopkeeper asked expectantly, "Do you think this could be Mr. Song's descendant?"
The wandering monk stroked his long beard and said, "You're forgetful now that you're old. Not long after Song Daxueshi got married, his wife died in childbirth, and he never remarried. How could he have had any children?"
The shopkeeper asked again: "Could it be a collateral branch?"
The wandering monk said, "Several of the Song family's nephews and nephews died or were injured in their quest to seek justice for Mr. Song. Those who returned from the battlefield soon died of relapses of their old injuries. I haven't heard of any children left behind."
The shopkeeper refused to give up: "I remember Mr. Song had a sister who married the Huaixi Li family..."
The two of them thought of the tragic extermination of the Li family at the same time and were shocked and speechless.
"It's a pity that the Song family's bloodline is completely cut off."
The wandering monk clasped his hands together and whispered a Buddhist verse: "The earth, the sun and the moon, in due time all will vanish. Nothing has ever escaped the hand of impermanence!"
He put down the bowl of water and looked outside. The rain had stopped, and the smoky clouds were blown apart into flocs, pouring down strands of light from the sky.
The sunlight is a bit dazzling.
Shen Changfeng stood at the gate of the imperial prison and squinted his eyes. He couldn't see clearly, but he heard the sound of the carriage coming, and the corners of his mouth twitched.
After taking only two steps, he saw the white deer emblem on the carriage and stopped again.
Not her.
Even though he had a premonition that she might not come back, he still had hope in his heart. Shen Changfeng's heart slowly sank, his throat felt as if it was blocked by a ball of cotton, and he asked the visitor, "Where is the young lady?"
How would Qingsong know where Lin Meiju is?
He escorted Su Qinxue and the others to the capital, and the journey was a dreadful one. First, Su Qinxue was reportedly in a bad mood, and her sister, Su Yuwan, had abandoned the official route and instead sought secluded mountain paths, claiming to enjoy the beautiful scenery and relax. After truly straying from the right path, the two complained about the mosquitoes, their food, and their sleep. Su Yuwan then began to blame Qingsong. Hearing that Shen Changfeng had been imprisoned, Su Qinxue was incredibly anxious and urged him to rush straight to the capital. The excessive speed caused Su Qinxue to vomit, and Qingsong was again reprimanded.
Qingsong felt like he had aged several dozen years after going out. Seeing Shen Changfeng's unfriendly expression, Laosong bitterly told him what he knew: "I heard that the newly opened Hongxi Inn by the Crown Princess is very prosperous and very popular among scholars. She usually works in the accounting office, but today... she should be at home, right?"
Shen Changfeng suddenly asked: "What has the young lady ever given me before? Besides food."
Qingsong carefully looked at the mount beside Shen Changfeng, "There is one right here."
A worn sweat towel was casually placed in the side pocket of the Black Horse Saddle. Only now did Shen Changfeng realize how much he had neglected her. In fact, anyone around him knew what she had done better than he did.
Shen Changfeng held the handkerchief in his hand and suddenly became very anxious. A voice urged him to leave quickly and go back quickly.
Qingsong remembered Su Qinxue's instructions, "Prince, the county lady's carriage is behind."
After all, Su Qinxue was a new widow, and after hearing the rumors these days, she had to restrain herself even though she wanted to see Shen Changfeng very much.
Shen Changfeng was so focused on the other person that he was too lazy to show any expression. He jumped onto his horse swiftly, leaving an afterimage for the people behind him.
He returned to the palace without saying a word. His release was not publicized, and the people in the palace were quite surprised to see him back. Shen Changfeng went straight to Qinghui Hall. The main room was empty, just as it was before he left.
I heard that some families, to ward off bad luck, would have people with bad experiences step over a fire basin when they entered the house, or wash their faces with grapefruit leaves soaked in water. Lin Meizhu had considered everything carefully, but she clearly didn't believe these rumors. Otherwise, why wouldn't they have made any preparations?
There was no brazier, no pomelo leaves, no handmade needlework, and no seasonal cakes or tea. There was only a cold, big red wedding character that looked at him sarcastically.
Although Shen Changfeng was sitting, he felt unsettled. He looked at the boxes and cages scattered all over the floor of Furong Garden and suddenly became extremely angry: "Didn't I tell you to put the things back?! Didn't you just ignore my words?"
The left and right people said timidly: "It was the Crown Prince's Consort who said so, no need to bother."
"Don't bother me, what do you mean by 'don't bother me'?!" It sounded like she wasn't going to stay here anymore. "Don't bother me"?!
Shen Changfeng's eyes were bloodshot as he shouted sternly, "Put everything back where it belongs, now! Immediately!"
He pressed his palm against the corner of the table, and the veins on the back of his hand bulged. "Where is the Crown Princess now?"
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