Chapter 605 The Guest Watering the Orchids [Requesting Monthly Tickets!]
The large ship of Taoshouzhai, inside the main hall.
After leading the two guests who had come from afar inside, before Senior Sister Xue Zhongzhu could lose her temper, Yu Nianyuan quickly grabbed Li Shu by the back of her collar and carried her out the door, where she was pitifully and helplessly waving her short legs.
The master and apprentice left the hall to Xue Zhongzhu and the two guests.
In a small room at the back of the hall, Yu Nianyuan returned, bringing back a bowl of fish soup to comfort Li Shu.
Yu Nianyuan turned and left, then called over the proprietress of Taoshouzhai and gave her some instructions.
Before long, the defenses on the merchant ship became increasingly tight, and the Yue women hurried back and forth.
After enjoying the river breeze and rain for a while at the bow of the boat, Yu Nianyuan counted the time, turned around, and stepped into the hall again with his bare feet tied with a red rope...
Participate in the secret meeting.
About 15 minutes later.
Yu Nianyuan left the secret council hall again.
She carried a bowl of delicious, milky-white sturgeon soup in one hand and walked into the small room at the back of the hall where her well-behaved disciple was settled.
"Master! Did I upset my eldest sister again? Her eyes were so scary just now..."
Li Shu rushed over, grabbed Yu Nianyuan's leg, buried her face in her thigh, and looked reluctant to leave.
Yu Nianyuan lowered his head and patted the little girl's head, while handing her a handkerchief, indicating that Li Shu should not wipe her snot on her thigh.
"Master..." Li Shu looked a little embarrassed and lowered her head to wipe her runny nose.
Yu Nianyuan remained calm as he poured the fish soup from the bowl in his hand into the empty bowl in front of Li Shu, dividing it in half.
"Even though your eldest uncle is busy with important matters, he still remembered to ask me to serve you another bowl."
"Did the eldest master send it?"
Li Shu held the fish soup bowl in both hands and asked with a curious look:
"Master, why is my eldest uncle being so solicitous for no reason? Is it because you said he must be up to no good?"
Yu Nianyuan: ...
The gentle lady in white suddenly realized that not letting her apprentice linger in the hall was the right thing to do.
Just then, I heard some gurgling sounds of people drinking soup.
Yu Nianyuan lowered his head and glanced at his obedient disciple.
Li Shu held a bowl bigger than her face in both hands, tilted her head back, and downed the entire bowl of white sturgeon soup in one gulp: "Slurp, slurp~"
She put down the empty bowl, slightly out of breath, her lips stained with milky white soup, and wiped them with the back of her hand.
Yu Nianyuan retrieved the handkerchief, wiped Li Shu's nose, and said:
"You're really in luck today, you've eaten more than the guests."
The little girl with her hair in pigtails held an empty bowl, licked her lips, and asked expectantly:
"Master, there's only one left. When are we going to cook it?"
Yu Nianyuan retorted, "This morning when I caught one in the jar, weren't you looking quite unhappy?"
Li Shu sniffled, tapped her chin with her index finger, and whispered:
“I was worried that Big White and Little White would be separated. Master, let me tell you, they have a very good relationship. They always spin around in the water tank together, which makes my head spin. With such a good relationship, do you think it can be separated? I can’t bear to part with them.”
The little girl with her hair tied in a bun sighed, paused, took the bowl of fish soup from her master, took a sip from the rim of the bowl, a drop of white showing at the corner of her mouth, and with a wave of her little hand, made her decision:
"Forget it, Xiaobai is gone, how can Dabai live alone? Let them go together, so they can look after each other on the road. In the words of the book that Master taught us, it's like... it's like... living together as a pair and retiring from the world."
"Shut up, I didn't teach you to use it like that. This isn't about flying together, it's about both going into your stomach."
“It’s all the same…” Li Shu tugged at the hem of the gentle white-clad lady’s dress and shook it: “When will Master make his move on Da Bai’s side? I need to be prepared.”
"Food preparation?"
"No, it's preparing for sadness."
"Oh."
Yu Nianyuan shook his head, paused for a moment, and then said softly:
"We need to wait for your seventh uncle to come home. This is something your master specially left for her to nourish her body."
"When will Seventh Martial Aunt come home? Does she like that older sister who wears her eyes covered?" Li Shu asked innocently.
Yu Nianyuan remained silent.
She walked over, opened the window, and looked towards Jiangzhou.
The room was quiet for a while.
Yu Nianyuan heard Li Shu's weak voice coming from behind him.
"Master, I'm sorry, I won't rush you for the fish soup anymore. It's fine as long as you wait..."
"No."
Yu Nianyuan suddenly interrupted:
“We’ll be able to bring your seventh martial aunt home soon.” He paused, then added, “We’ll definitely bring her home.”
Under Li Shu's bright gaze, Yu Nianyuan turned his head and glanced in the direction of the hall where the secret meeting was taking place.
...
"Mr. Wei has come all the way from the southwest, avoiding many obstacles along the way. You must have had a long and arduous journey."
"It's not hard work, it's the First Lady who has worked hard. The incident with the Xingzi Lake Buddha was also thanks to the First Lady's intervention, otherwise the consequences would have been unimaginable."
Xuezhongzhu remained silent, his expression indifferent.
After Yu Nianyuan and his apprentice left the hall, only Xue Zhongzhu and two men in straw raincoats and hats remained.
The two then removed their straw hats and raincoats, shook off the rainwater, and sat down together opposite Xuezhongzhu.
In front of each of the three people was a bowl of sturgeon soup with a delicious, milky-white broth.
However, the white sturgeon soup in front of the candle in the snow remained completely still.
The other two men, dressed in straw raincoats and hats, silently lowered their heads and drank soup to warm themselves.
Xuezhongzhu's pair of emerald eyes, with their cold gaze, sized up the two of them.
Or rather, he was just sizing up one of them, the middle-aged man who was leading the group, Mr. Wei.
She ignored the other man who appeared to be the deputy based on the seating arrangement.
Mr. Wei was wearing a faded white shirt, his face was thin, and his lips were pale and bloodless, as if he had caught a slight cold. He would occasionally take out a white handkerchief to cover his mouth and cough.
The man following behind him was younger, with an average appearance and a somewhat taciturn demeanor. He was also wearing a scholar's robe, but he was burly and looked more like a military officer from the border army than a scholar.
The taciturn man carried a cylindrical cloth bag on his back, which appeared to be wrapped around a scroll.
If Ouyang Rong were here now, he would definitely recognize the two of them.
Wei Shaoqi and Du Shuqing.
The two men joined Li Zhengyan in raising the flag and plotting a rebellion.
Wei Shaoqi was privately addressed as "Mr." by Li Zhengyan.
As for Du Shuqing, if Hu Fu and Ouyang Rong's descriptions are correct, he was secretly involved in the rebellion of Cai Qin and 1,500 garrison soldiers...
Wei Shaoqi took the full bowl of fish soup that Du Shuqing sullenly handed him, took a sip, and looked up, his eyes shining as he gazed at the indifferent Xue Zhongzhu:
"I heard that on that day, the Great Queen and the reclusive master of your clan turned the tide, intercepting the Buddha's head in the street and thwarting the treacherous Zhou emperor's scheme..."
Snow Candle seemed unwilling to mention that incident at all, and interrupted with a wave of his sleeve:
"The collapse of the Xingzifang Buddha and the suppression of the bandits had nothing to do with me or my sect, or rather, no direct connection... I will not mention this today."
Wei Shaoqi immediately revealed a strange smile that said "I understand." Seeing this, a snow-white longsword with a maiden name next to the Snow Candle cushion made a "clucking" sound and trembled.
Wei Shaoqi and Du Shuqing couldn't help but glance at them sideways.
Xuezhongzhu first closed her eyes, took a deep breath, opened her blue eyes, and tried her best to calm down in a very polite tone:
"Mr. Wei's arrival time is a little longer than the secret letter predicted."
"There was a delay on the way."
Wei Shaoqi smiled, his tone casual:
"Qin Jingzhen's Xuanwu Camp is indeed troublesome. We passed by them several times on the way. Fortunately, I and Shuqing have been to this area of Jiangzhou before. Shuqing, in particular, has a photographic memory, is well-versed in the terrain, and is skilled at making maps. He is a natural-born military genius... He is very familiar with this area, which allowed us to travel without incident."
"That's good."
Xuezhongzhu then glanced at the taciturn young man who was being praised so highly by Mr. Wei.
Du Shuqing sat upright, took off a cylindrical cloth bag from his back, placed it across his lap, and looked straight ahead.
Wei Shaoqi remembered something, put down his soup bowl, and said in a casual, conversational tone:
"Actually, we could have arrived a day earlier, but Shuqing loves orchids. When we passed by a familiar place, we stopped for a while and stayed overnight to tend to an old orchid..."
"You two, right here in Jiangzhou, under the very nose of the imperial court, still have this leisure and inclination?"
"Isn't the Great Queen the same? This ship sails boldly on the river, right under the nose of the pseudo-Zhou court, isn't it?"
"Hmm." Xue Zhongzhu remained noncommittal.
After a moment, she glanced at Wei Shaoqi, who was drinking soup with a gentle expression and a smile, then nodded with a stern face:
"Regarding the Buddha statue, we are indeed grateful for Mr. Wei and Mr. Li's initial reminder."
"It was just a small favor."
Wei Shaoqi shook his head, his expression serious, and said:
"However, building this Buddha statue in the Tiannan Jianghu region did indeed disrupt the tacit understanding between the Ligan royal family and the first emperor of that dynasty at the beginning of the Daqian dynasty."
"Tiannan Jianghu is farthest from Guanzhong. Yuanjun and your sect have made great efforts to stabilize Tiannan Jianghu over the years."
"That's the same idea from Lord Li's side. Our Kuangfu Mansion and the Duke of Yingguo Mansion respect the existence of the Yuan Emperor. Unlike the tyrannical Zhou Dynasty, we have no intention of offending him."
The candle in the snow looked slightly better:
"It's rare that you have this kind of understanding. We, Jianze, have been following the rules for too long, which makes many people think that we, Jianze, are not in accordance with the court's control. But who has really overstepped the line? Does Zhou Ting dare to admit it?"
Wei Shaoqi smiled slightly.
Suddenly, the candle in the snow said:
"I've always been curious about why Mr. Wei plotted a rebellion. I heard that when you were in the Censorate, Master Di valued you highly and even groomed you as his successor..."
Wei Shaoqi's expression remained unchanged as he spoke softly:
"The kindness of the Master is indeed hard to repay, but... we are not on the same path and cannot work together."
"What do you mean by 'different paths'?"
Xuezhongzhu raised an eyebrow and pressed for an answer.
Wei Shaoqi's expression visibly turned somewhat melancholy. Staring at the steaming white sturgeon soup in his hand, he seemed lost in thought, and said softly:
"The Master is planning for what happens after death. I understand the Master's intentions, but I do not agree with them. Some things are wrong if done even a moment too late."
Xuezhongzhu didn't press further, his expression uninterested as he said:
"I thought he was loyal to Zhou Tong and was acting as an accomplice to that Empress Wei."
Wei Shaoqi was silent for a moment, then suddenly asked:
"If the Master is acting as an accomplice to the tyrant, why doesn't he come personally to deal with our southwestern rebellion and subdue our Kuangfu Army?"
"Isn't this to avoid suspicion?"
Snow Candle pursed its lips:
"Could the Empress Wei really trust him enough to let him leave her sight and go out of the capital to quell the rebellion?"
Wei Shaoqi shook his head:
“Even if you can’t come, Master, you have a hundred ways. If you had just devoted yourself to the war in the southwest, Lord Li and I would have lost long ago. We wouldn’t have this opportunity now.”
"You're not afraid of death, are you? You make it sound so casual."
In the snow, the azure eyes narrowed slightly:
"Why do I sense that you lack the conviction to win? Am I mistaken? What exactly are you fighting for?"
Du Shuqing lowered his head to drink the hot soup, glancing at the rain outside the window.
Wei Shaoqi smiled and said, "Eliminate the tyrannical guards and restore order to the country."
Upon hearing this standard slogan of rebellion, Xue Zhongzhu frowned slightly.
"The Xunyang Prince's Mansion that you want to support will not support this, nor will it be of one mind with you," she sneered.
Wei Shaoqi remained calm and drank the soup gently.
At this point, Du Shuqing finished eating and went to the side to stroll around the hall.
Passing by a desk displaying books and manuscripts, he seemed to notice something, picked up a manuscript at random, and began to browse through it.
"What is Shuqing doing?"
Before Xue Zhongzhu could even frown, Wei Shaoqi asked curiously, but Du Shuqing remained silent.
"Put the things down," Xue Zhongzhu said coldly.
Du Shuqing walked back, ignoring Xuezhongzhu, and said in a muffled voice:
“That poem, ‘Qing Yu An,’ was written by Ouyang Lianghan not long ago on the Lantern Festival, and Mr. Wei praised it on the way.”
Wei Shaoqi was taken aback, then smiled and looked at Xue Zhongzhu:
"The Empress Dowager likes this too?"
Suppressing his anger, Xuezhongzhu said:
“I didn’t look at it privately. My second junior sister likes these kinds of things and teaches them to her new disciple. As guests, how can you touch the host’s things without permission?”
"Sorry, that's just how Shuqing is. Whenever he arrives at a new place, he likes to observe the details of the surrounding terrain and think about escape routes in advance..."
Wei Shaoqi turned to Du Shuqing and made him apologize.
The latter bowed slightly, "Please calm down, Your Excellency."
Snow Candle sneered: "Observing the escape route? You don't trust me? You think I'd betray you?"
"No. It's just Shuqing's habit of leading troops, which is hard to change in a short time. I hope Your Majesty will not take offense."
Wei Shaoqi shook his head, turned to look at the poem manuscript that Du Shuqing had just put down, and sighed:
"Your Majesty, do not be blinded by this man's poetic talent alone; he is not merely proficient in poetry."
The candle in the snow frowned:
"What's the meaning?"
She paused, then nodded upon seeing Wei Shaoqi's sigh.
"My second junior sister seems to have said the same thing. She said this person is probably the mastermind behind the Xunyang Grottoes Buddha project, similar to Lin Cheng back then."
“Lin Cheng is far inferior to him,” Du Shuqing suddenly said.
Wei Shaoqi also nodded slightly:
"If the person in charge of the Xingzi Lake Buddha had not been Lin Cheng, but Ouyang Lianghan, and had not been marginalized by that group of court idiots, then it wouldn't have been so easy for the Great Empress to succeed. We might as well say, it would have been too late."
"Fortunately, that's just how the court is; there's never a shortage of self-righteous people who give unsolicited advice to experts. This has been the case before, and it will continue to be so in the future."
Upon hearing this, Xuezhongzhu couldn't help but glance at the Lantern Festival poem that she had previously thought was "not bad."
Du Shuqing spoke again in a sullen voice:
“Mr. Wei had previously advised you not to kill Lin Cheng and the Wei family, but you did not listen. Now, although the landing of the Buddha statue has been temporarily delayed, it has helped Ouyang Lianghan regain power and clear out his political enemies. This is not a good thing for us.”
The candle in the snow stared coldly at him:
"First, Lin Cheng and the others were not killed by my men. Second, are you instructing me on how to do things? Do you think that we, the Yunmeng Sword Marsh, are just swords in the hands of your Kuangfu Army, to be used as easily as your own limbs?"
The atmosphere suddenly fell silent.
"Alright, things have come to this point, let's not dwell on the past. We've come here today to discuss important matters with Your Majesty, so let's not spoil the mood."
Du Shuqing said softly, "I'm telling the truth."
Xuezhongzhu sneered: "It's the truth, but it's a bit of nonsense."
Wei Shaoqi, feeling helpless, took the initiative to ease the atmosphere.
Xue Zhongzhu's expression quickly composed herself, glancing at the long cloth bundle on Du Shuqing's lap...
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(End of this chapter)
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