Chapter 143: Ice and Fire
Phoenix walked out of the room with a pale face and a dazed look.
When she stepped over the threshold, she accidentally tripped and almost fell.
Li Nuo almost spit out his tea.
Died of laughter.
He still wants to teach his mother to play the piano. Does she think she has never tried it?
Some things cannot be forced. My wife will never have talent in this life. Li Nuo has long recognized this reality.
She has her own track.
At the gate of Song Mansion.
Phoenix got on the carriage with a smile on her face.
Nightingale said in distress: "People are obviously ignoring you. How can you still laugh at a time like this?"
Phoenix smiled softly and said, "What do you know? Being angry means that he cares. If he doesn't care at all, that would be the worst outcome..."
Nightingale asked directly: "So what are you going to do next?"
Fenghuang said, "I have made an appointment with his wife. When I am free, I will come and teach her flower arrangement."
Yuanyang smiled and said, "I see. This is the roundabout tactic in military strategy. If you can't fight head-on, then avoid the enemy's sharp edge and make a roundabout move..."
In fact, Phoenix felt helpless as well.
She also wanted to confront him head-on.
But they didn't even give her a chance to confront him head-on.
She had no choice but to resort to this desperate measure.
This is really a bad idea.
Teaching his wife these things is really more painful than killing her.
But I have to pretend that I don't care.
But she was the one who made the mistake first, so no matter how painful it was, she had to grit her teeth and endure it.
Li Nuo thought that after Fenghuang taught his lady once, she would be convinced and give up the idea of teaching her.
Unexpectedly, the next afternoon, when he came back from the Ministry of Justice, he saw Fenghuang again at home.
She can really endure what ordinary people cannot endure, and teach what ordinary people cannot teach.
In a place like Chang'an, to run a small music hall to its current status requires some extraordinary skills.
Li Nuo made an appointment with several old gentlemen today, and when he finished teaching them, Fenghuang had already left.
There are two vases of flowers on the table in the room.
One of the bottles has different heights, good density, and a good balance of movement and stillness, which is both solemn and harmonious.
Li Nuo could even feel the slight sadness of the person who arranged the flowers from the vase.
And another bottle.
It can also be considered a vase of flower arrangement.
Song Jiaren sat at the table, looked up at Li Nuo, and asked expectantly, "Can you tell which vase of flowers I put in?"
Li Nuo was silent for a moment and said, "I... can't tell."
In fact, he seldom lies in front of his wife.
But sometimes, it's okay to tell a little lie.
After a moment, he pretended to be casual and said: "Actually, if you don't like it, you don't have to learn these messed up things..."
Song Jiaren said: "I like it very much..."
Li Nuo didn't say anything else.
After all, there is no law that says that if you have a talent for martial arts, you can't like playing the piano, painting, and flower arranging...
Li Nuo thought that Fenghuang would only last two or three days, but he didn't expect that she actually lasted for half a month.
Even Li Nuo had to admit it.
This woman is so cruel to herself.
This is not teaching, it is clearly atonement.
My wife and Mu'er went out with the old lady and they haven't come back yet.
Phoenix was waiting in the room.
Li Nuo was reading a book by himself. At a certain moment, he felt a little thirsty. Just as he made a move to pick up the cup, Fenghuang came over immediately and prepared to refill his tea.
Li Nuo took the cup away and said, "I can do it myself. I don't want to bother Miss Fenghuang."
Although Chang'an selected the top twenty courtesans, there was also an uncrowned king besides the twenty.
Among the top twenty courtesans, two are from Yuyin Pavilion.
But most of the guests who go to Yuyin Pavilion are there for the Phoenix.
It would cost fifty taels to see her once, one hundred taels to listen to her play the piano, and drinking a cup of tea she poured herself would cost two hundred taels at least.
He can't afford such expensive tea.
Li Nuo poured himself a cup of tea and read a book for a while. Suddenly he realized that there had been no movement in the room for a long time.
He tilted his head to look, and saw Fenghuang standing beside him, tears falling from her eyes.
The carefully applied makeup on her face had been smudged, and when she wiped her tears, she wiped them elsewhere. Her face, which was once enough to charm everyone, was now streaked with red and white, giving it a messy, ruined beauty.
Li Nuo immediately stood up, kept a certain distance from her, and said, "Don't cry, I didn't do anything to you..."
My wife will be back soon, don't let her misunderstand.
Fenghuang not only did not stop crying, but she cried even louder. She squatted down, buried her head in her knees, and choked up and said, "It's all my fault. I was the one who spread those rumors. Yuyin Pavilion has taken away the business of those brothels and music houses. They threatened us that if Yuyin Pavilion does not move away, we will be killed without a burial place. We are just some weak women, helpless in Chang'an, and without any background. I, I have no other choice..."
She cried so sadly that her whole body was shaking.
Li Nuo said helplessly: "Can you please stop crying first..."
Fenghuang raised her head, her face full of tears, and asked, "Then can you forgive me?"
What Phoenix did was indeed not fair.
However, Li Nuo was sometimes unkind to them.
Put yourself in Phoenix's shoes. If you were Phoenix, facing this situation, there would probably be no better way.
Moreover, her attitude in expressing her apology was quite sincere. At least she had taken good care of his wife these days.
He taught her how to arrange flowers and how to play the piano.
Especially the latter.
Even Li Nuo sometimes felt that it was too cruel to her.
But Li Nuo did not agree immediately.
The wife is the wife and he is him. If you forgive her easily, she might dare to do it again next time.
Li Nuo helped her up and said, "It depends on how you perform in the future..."
…
Song Jiaren walked into the room, looked around, then turned around and looked at the yard, and asked, "Miss Fenghuang didn't come today?"
Li Nuo said: "She came here just now, but you were not at home, so she went back."
"oh."
Song Jiaren responded and sat opposite Li Nuo.
Li Nuo glanced at his wife and asked on a whim, "What do you think of Phoenix?"
Song Jiaren said: "It's amazing."
This was praise from her heart.
She can play the piano, dance, know calligraphy, paint, and do flower arrangement. She can do everything that she can't do, and Song Jiaren envied all of this.
She looked at Li Nuo and asked, "You seem... not to like Miss Phoenix very much."
Although the rumors outside were outrageous, in Song Jiaren's memory, he seemed to be not very enthusiastic about Miss Phoenix from the very beginning.
Especially in the past half month.
She clearly felt that his attitude towards Miss Phoenix was very bad.
Whenever Miss Phoenix talked to him, he always acted as if he didn't want to talk to her.
He didn't even want to look at her any more.
Li Nuo looked at Song Jiaren and asked, "Should I like Miss Fenghuang?"
Song Jiaren said nothing more.
He really doesn't seem to be interested in the things he likes.
But he can do it very well himself.
Is this a smart person?
…
At this moment, in Yuyin Pavilion.
Just now at the Song Mansion, all the carefully prepared makeup was ruined by crying.
Fenghuang sat in front of the mirror, touching up her makeup with a faint smile on her face.
Nightingale stood beside her and asked, "Did he forgive you?"
Phoenix said: "No."
Nightingale rolled her eyes at him, "How can you be so happy without you?"
Phoenix said happily, "But he talked to me."
"What did he say?" asked the Nightingale.
Fenghuang smiled and said, "He said that whether he would forgive me or not would depend on my future performance. He said that, which means he has decided to forgive me. As long as I behave better next time, we can go back to the way we were before..."
The Nightingale looked at the humble Phoenix with suspicion in her eyes.
She murmured, "Didn't you say that you could play with all the men in the world, little dandy, at will? I think it's you who's being played with. At the beginning, it was agreed that Master Li would be deeply attracted by your charm, but why do I feel like you fell in love with it first?"
"How could I?" Phoenix chuckled and said, "It's just that I was wrong in this matter. If I had known earlier, I would not have acted on my own and told him the truth..."
Nightingale said sadly: "You didn't expect that she has no interest in you at all?"
Phoenix said angrily: "Will you die if you don't tell the truth?"
…
Since entering the twelfth lunar month, the weather has been getting colder.
The lady herself practiced an icy-attributed technique, so she was naturally not afraid of the cold. But Li Nuo felt that covering himself with a quilt at night was not enough. Last night, he was woken up by the cold once.
It snowed yesterday, which means winter has really arrived.
This morning, the maid in the Song mansion took away two thin quilts and replaced them with a thick winter quilt.
Neither Li Nuo nor Song Jiaren said anything. When they took Mu'er out skiing, they saw a store selling winter quilts on sale. Li Nuo pretended not to see it and Song Jiaren didn't mention it either.
After playing with Mu'er for most of the day, the three of them returned to the Song Mansion.
Li Nuo walked into the room and saw two winter quilts on the bed.
He turned to look at the maid who was cleaning the yard and asked, "Xiao Die, who brought the other quilt?"
The maid turned around and said, "I don't know. When I came, there were already two quilts there. Maybe the old lady was afraid that the son-in-law and the young lady would be cold, so she asked someone to send another quilt..."
"Got it. There's no need to clean here. Go do something else."
“But I haven’t finished cleaning yet…”
"No problem, go ahead!"
"Oh, I'm leaving then..."
Watching the little maid leave, Li Nuo looked around, picked up a quilt and walked into the side room.
When he came out again, his hands were empty.
night.
Because there was only one quilt, the two of them had to share one tonight.
It was snowing heavily outside. Li Nuo was covered with a thick quilt, with his sweet-smelling wife beside him. He closed his eyes and thought to himself, "It's so warm..."
The cold wind was howling. In another courtyard of the Song Mansion, a woman curled up on a bed without a quilt. She could only circulate her Qi to keep warm. She gritted her teeth and said, "This damn weather is really cold..."
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
