Chapter 61 Who exactly is the general in my dream?
Lu Zhaoruo knew that Abao was having a good time at the Gu residence, but she didn't know that she was having such a good time.
Geng Qionghua set off for Beijing today. Before leaving, she visited her, but stood outside the threshold and refused to come in. She covered her mouth and nose with a handkerchief and said some polite words such as "please accept my condolences" and "take care of yourself".
Before ending, she added, "Once you're fully recovered, you must come to the capital to find me, so that I can show you the hospitality of a host."
There was some truth to that; she really wished Lu Zhaoruo would go to the capital, but unfortunately, he probably wouldn't survive more than a hundred days with this tuberculosis.
"Of course I'll go and bother you."
Lu Zhaoruo coughed weakly twice.
After about half a cup of tea's time, footsteps sounded again outside the courtyard.
Granny Yang returned, carrying a heavy brocade pouch in her hands, her face showing some unease: "My mistress said that she... she will never forget the sisterly bond, and she wants Madam Lu to get well soon."
Dongrou was puzzled. This Lady Geng spoke so affectionately, but she didn't even go in to look at her own wife. She said she came specially to deliver the memorial arch, but her eyes were so unfocused, like she was acting in a shadow play.
Now that she's about to leave, she's sending money again... It's hard to tell whether she's sincere or not.
Inside the carriage, Geng Qionghua was resting with her eyes closed.
Granny Yang lifted the carriage curtain and slipped inside.
"My wife..."
After a moment's hesitation, Granny Yang couldn't help but ask, "This old servant doesn't understand, if you look down on Madam Lu, why do you still..."
Before she could finish speaking, Geng Qionghua suddenly opened her eyes, her gaze chillingly cold, and Yang Mama immediately fell silent.
"What do you know?"
Geng Qionghua scolded.
She lifted the carriage curtain and watched the Shen residence recede into the distance, the shadow of the archway stretched long and thin in the setting sun.
"It's just some loose change, just give it to her."
After a long silence, she lowered her voice and added, "Who would have thought she would contract tuberculosis? She really has a short life."
She suddenly felt a tightness in her chest: "But..."
She clenched the handkerchief tightly, her voice strained, "It's not my fault."
Granny Yang didn't quite understand.
The carriage slowly drove out of the city gate of Jizhou, its wheels rolling over the bluestone road with a dull thud.
As Geng Qionghua watched the two characters "Jizhou" gradually disappear from the city wall, her tense shoulders and back finally relaxed slightly...
indoor.
Lu Zhaoruo opened the brocade pouch and found twenty ingots of snowflake-shaped silver and a pair of filigree inlaid gold bracelets.
She weighed it in her hand; it was at least eighty taels of silver.
"My wife..."
Dongrou hesitated and said, "Is Madam Geng truly sincere towards you? I think it's only natural that she wouldn't dare to approach you, considering that you claim to have tuberculosis..."
Lu Zhaoruo was unsure for a moment.
In her previous life, when the Geng family was demoted to Jizhou, Geng Qionghua did indeed suddenly become close to her. Especially after Shen Rongzhi went to sea, she would visit the Shen family every few days.
Later, in Beijing, although she discovered that the other party was using her "widow" status to gain fame among wealthy women, she did not do anything outrageous.
She secretly understood at the time.
Geng Qionghua's situation in her husband's family was difficult, and her scheming was out of desperation.
I just didn't like being used as a living memorial arch, so I gradually distanced myself from them.
But now...
Lu Zhaoruo stared at the jade pendant on the table, her eyes growing darker.
Not only did she lie and claim that Shen Rongzhi died at the hands of Japanese pirates, but she also held the jade pendant that she had personally given to Shen Rongzhi.
Was it just a momentary act of greed, or was there another motive?
Even after being reborn, she couldn't see the true face of this "close friend."
As dusk settled.
Dongrou quietly returned from outside, holding a steaming bowl of sweetened custard in her hands.
As soon as he entered, he hurriedly said, "Madam, I just saw Zhang Shi go to the orphanage!"
Lu Zhaoruo leaned against the window and softly hummed in response.
She had long anticipated that Zhang would visit the child often, after all, he was a member of the Shen family. Now that her son was bringing his new bride home, the old woman was probably eager to share the good news with her little granddaughter, even though the infant couldn't understand a word.
"That child... should be one year old by now."
Lu Zhaoruo lightly tapped the window frame with her fingertips, a faint smile appearing on her lips.
The unfaithful man's child with his mistress is already a year old, yet he is still staying at the Shen residence.
Dongrou twisted the hem of her clothes and couldn't help but say, "This servant really doesn't understand... According to the stories in the book, if the principal wife knew about the existence of the concubine's child, she would either beat or kill him or sell him off... Besides, they are so cruel to you... You are more wronged than the principal wives in the stories."
She glanced furtively at Lu Zhaoruo: "What's wrong, my wife...?"
"Why are you being so soft-hearted?"
Lu Zhaoruo took over the conversation.
The ungrateful woman called "Zhu Niang" in her past life is now just an infant in swaddling clothes. Since the seeds of evil have not yet been sown, she would not stoop to harming a baby.
Besides... keeping her around will soon prove very useful.
"My lady, are we just going to let the old lady visit every day?"
Dongrou said anxiously, "This servant sees that she can't wait to take her back to the mansion and raise her!"
Looking at the darkening sky outside the window, Lu Zhaoruo said calmly, "Let her go."
When the Shen family falls from grace, whether it will be a blessing or a curse... depends on the child's fate.
late at night.
Lu Zhaoruo fell into that dream once again.
The north wind swirled snowflakes, and the world was shrouded in a vast expanse of white.
The general, clad in gilded fish-scale armor, his knees sinking deep into the snow, was inching toward her, one step at a time, kneeling as he went.
This time she didn't ask "Who are you?".
Instead, she asked, "Why do you always disturb my peaceful sleep?"
She suppressed her fear and asked, "What grudge do we have against each other?"
The figure in iron-clad armor remained silent, only the wind and snow howled.
Lu Zhaoruo suddenly woke up.
She sat wrapped in her quilt, deep in thought.
Gilded fish-scale armor... must belong to a military general of the third rank or above.
Are they the heroic souls who died on the battlefield? Or do they have unresolved grudges against me?
But besides the Shen family, who else could she have such a deep-seated hatred with?
No, that kneeling posture, with each step taken, was clearly an act of atonement.
It is both atonement and...
She closed her eyes.
He kept repeating the names of military generals and their grudges...
She suddenly opened her eyes, and a thought flashed through her mind: Could it be that beast who defiled her back then?
Because she only had a grudge against him, and moreover, she even made him join the navy...
But then she changed her mind and rejected the idea.
That man was only in his early twenties, while the general in the dream looked like he was over forty.
Moreover, during this period, she did not stab him in the back or make him join the army. In her previous life, she never knew whether he had actually joined the navy until her death.
Lu Zhaoruo composed herself.
After leaving the Shen family and going to the capital with my elder brother, I must visit the Daxiangguo Temple.
There's a monument there commemorating the fallen soldiers; perhaps we can find some clues there...
Unfortunately, there was always a layer of mist in her dreams, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't see the face behind that iron mask. If she could see the real face, even just the outline of the eyebrows and eyes, it would be much easier to find it.
She gazed at the already pitch-black night outside.
Just two more months, and that heartless man will be bringing his new lover into the house.
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