Chapter 85: The past is over. Her distanced look is called...
Her distanced manner caused a tinge of panic to rise in Yinzhen's heart. He grasped her shoulders with both hands and forcefully pulled her up. He bent down slightly and looked straight into her calm eyes. He said helplessly, "Don't be like this. It's my fault..."
This was the first time he admitted his mistakes to someone other than the Emperor and his mother. The difference was that when facing the former two, he kept his back straight even when he was kneeling, and his voice was full of energy.
Now facing the wife, his voice was low, his eyes trembled slightly, and he had no confidence at all.
"What fault could you have done? If there is any fault, it's the fault of us servants." Qi Buchen didn't intend to let him off so easily, and said sarcastically.
Yinzhen, who was facing the classic lines of his girlfriend in later generations for the first time, stammered for a long time and didn't know how to respond. He could only look at Fu Jin with a little pleading in his eyes.
This pitiful look miraculously calmed Qi Buchen's anger, and he stopped trying to embarrass him: "Do you really know you're wrong?"
Yinzhen nodded.
"What's wrong?"
Yinzhen was embarrassed for a moment, then saw Qi Buchen's expression change to a sour one at a visible speed. He quickly dropped his pretentiousness and said, "I shouldn't have hidden it from you and skipped my meal."
Seeing that he realized his mistake, Qi Buchen was satisfied, but still a little angry: "Who did I ask you to eat well for? For me? You're making it seem like I'm trying to harm you. What? Did I poison the food?"
"No." Yinzhen shook his head obediently and coaxed softly, "I know you're doing this for my own good."
"Humph." Qi Buchen glared at him lightly, "What about next?"
"I will definitely eat well in the future and try to catch up with my big brother's appetite." Yinzhen vowed.
Qi Buchen scoffed lightly, "I told you to eat well, not to overeat. Why are you comparing yourself to big brother? You two are so different in physique."
Yinzhen didn't like to hear this, but given the current situation, he didn't dare to refute anything, for fear of angering the person he had just coaxed.
"Let's go and have dinner." The problem was solved. Qi Buchen didn't waste any words, turned around and left the study, and ordered the servants to prepare dinner.
When they started using it, Qi Buchen noticed that someone was missing: "Where's Su Peisheng?"
Since Yinzhen didn't say anything, others didn't dare to speak either.
Qi Buchen understood, probably because Yinzhen had punished him. Well, he was also implicated by her, so he pointed to Xie Hanshan: "Go, ask Eunuch Su to serve the master for dinner."
After hearing the order, Xie Hanshan didn't dare to go immediately and secretly glanced at the other person involved.
Yinzhen lowered his eyes and said nothing.
"Hurry up and go." Qi Buchen urged again.
Xie Hanshan then readily agreed and went out to find Su Peisheng.
After Su Peisheng came in, he greeted his two masters as if nothing had happened, and then stood beside Yinzhen to serve him.
After this incident, Yinzhen no longer disobeyed the order and consumed his daily meals regularly and in the prescribed amounts. He got enough nutrition and grew taller obviously.
The weather was getting warmer, and it was time to make summer clothes. Qi Buchen measured Yinzhen again and said, "It's grown almost three inches."
Unsure of the conversion between the Daqing chi and the meter, she could only estimate with her naked eye that Yinzhen was about 1.7 meters tall. She used to be able to see his chin, but now she could only see his collarbone. This made her a little worried, because for some reason she had never grown taller, and now she had no idea if she was even 1.5 meters tall.
"When will I grow taller?" Qi Buchen sighed carelessly.
Yinzhen let out a low, joyful laugh, but after being glared at, he held back and said half-heartedly, "It's okay. I'll grow taller."
If he hadn't touched her head while talking, Qi Buchen would still be willing to believe him.
Qi Buchen waved his hand away and said unhappily, "Don't touch me! I won't grow taller!"
Yinzhen couldn't help laughing again. Fu Jin always had some weird little taboos.
Before the summer shirts could even be made, Yinzhen had to go on another business trip: "The Emperor wants to go and see the river embankments that were repaired and newly built at the beginning of the year, and also inspect the progress of this year's spring plowing."
After finishing the business, he said with some guilt: "I can't celebrate your birthday with you this year."
Speaking of birthdays, Qi Buchen recalled the misunderstanding that happened on his birthday last year. If that was the case, this birthday would be nothing!
Therefore, he said nonchalantly: "Birthdays can be celebrated any year, the important thing is to do the business."
However, on his birthday, Lin Changqing still brought the gift that Yinzhen had prepared long ago, still in a box.
Qi Buchen sat alone in the room, putting the gifts from last year and this year together and staring at them for a long time.
In the past six months, she has been going out of the city from time to time and has visited all the temples and Taoist temples on the list compiled by Xie Hanshan, but without any results.
She had also lived in the Qing Dynasty for three years, and so far, she hadn't experienced any signs of rejection, either physically or spiritually. This meant she had no other choice but to attempt suicide, hoping for a slim chance of returning home. But regardless of whether her suicide would be worthy of her original self, she herself had already completely lost the courage she had to bite her tongue when she first arrived, after three years of peaceful living.
The most primitive instinct of human beings is survival. No matter what, she still wants to live and live well.
Today is her original body's birthday, and she decided to go to her last destination - the royal temple, Donghuang Temple. If she could find a solution here, it would be the best. If not, then she would perform a ritual to pray for her original body and send her and her former self on their last journey.
Let's wait until she comes back from Donghuang Temple to open these two boxes.
Qi Buchen stood up, took one last look at the two boxes, then walked out without looking back and headed straight for Donghuang Temple.
"Da da da da."
A low-key carriage drove out from the side door of Donghuang Temple and merged into the official road along the small path.
The two servants on the carriage shaft murmured quietly: "Fujin always comes to the temple for her birthday. She is so pious."
"I heard that Fu Jin knelt before the Buddha for half an hour."
Qi Buchen sat in the carriage, listening to the increasingly lively world outside, her heart at peace. Her trip to Donghuang Temple could be summed up in four words: nothing happened.
This should have been a moment of great significance, but it was no different from the ordinary days of the past three years. Perhaps this was God's revelation to her, telling her to live a good life and not to think about trivial things. A simple and ordinary life was the real life.
After the carriage entered the city gate, the smell of fireworks became stronger. Qi Buchen lifted the curtain and looked along the road, the smile on his face gradually widening.
Baohuan chimed in, "What good things did Fu Jin see that made her so happy?"
"Yeah, I'm glad. I'm very happy."
Returning to the house and sitting in front of the dressing table, Qi Buchen took a deep breath and opened the two boxes one by one.
Last year, in the box, there was a green jade hairpin. The carving on the hairpin head was surprisingly familiar. It was a lily in the shape of a lantern. There were only two or three simple flowers, but they looked very cute.
Qi Buchen took it in her hand and rubbed it gently, her heart full of complicated feelings. She didn't expect that she just pointed it out casually to start a conversation, but Yinzhen took it to heart.
But this year's gift was a hairpin inlaid with her favorite pink pearls. The tassels were her favorite long and thin ones. But hanging from the bottom were not pearls, but hollow flowers in the shape of lanterns carved from jade. They looked very pitiful and cute.
It's obvious that these two gifts were carefully designed, and they were not made without care.
Qi Buchen felt sad. Even in her previous life, apart from her parents, no one had ever given her such a thoughtful gift. On her birthday, she usually just went out for a meal with friends.
After holding the two gifts in his hands and rubbing them for a while, Qi Buchen did not put them back into the box, but put them into his daily dressing table.
The summer clothes were made and distributed to the servants, but Yinzhen had not returned yet. Qi Buchen was now torn between wanting him to come back sooner and later.
"Fujin." Xie Hanshan came in from outside with a cheerful look on his face. "Good news."
Qi Buchen unconsciously sat up straighter: "Master is back?"
Xie Hanshan suddenly felt a little embarrassed and at a loss: "No...no."
Qi Buchen felt a little regretful after asking this question. He cursed himself in his heart, but asked calmly, "What's wrong?"
Xie Hanshan put on a smiling face again: "The Lord from the Ministry of Rites just came out from the Guaerjia Mansion to ask for leave!"
"Oh, has the date for His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's wedding been set?" Qi Buchen showed some interest.
"It's settled." Xie Hanshan nodded, "August 8th."
Qi Buchen nodded and said, "Let Mammy Ham prepare the gift and send it over as usual."
A few days after the prince's wedding date was set, Kangxi returned to Beijing, but Yinzhen was not in the team returning to Beijing. Only a young eunuch who followed him brought back a letter.
The letter said that Maocheng had submitted a petition to build a new moon dike, and Yinzhen happened to be there when Kangxi approved it. He thought that he had only been doing some clerical work before, but water control still needed to be put into practice, so he asked Kangxi for permission to stay in Maocheng to study and supervise the construction. However, Kangxi's approval was not long, only about a month.
When Qi Buchen learned that he would not be able to come back in a short time, he felt relieved for some reason. Of course, he did not show it on his face. Instead, he busied himself packing a few boxes of luggage and sent someone to deliver them to Yinzhen.
She also wrote a letter home for the first time, but it was only a few hundred words.
The letter basically said, "I've received your letter. You've been working hard out there. Please pay attention to your diet and don't forget your regular sleep and rest schedule. I'll need to measure your size when you get back, otherwise..."
After a few minor threats, he ended with some news like the prince's wedding date had been set, and then it ended.
After receiving this letter of a hundred words, Yinzhen read it carefully three times and felt an irrepressible joy in his heart. He had an inexplicable feeling that his wife's attitude towards him seemed a little different.
However, after being happy, he felt guilty again because he was fine in the first few days after the business trip and ate on time and in moderation. But then, because of the long journey and serving the emperor, his regular schedule was disrupted.
"Su Peisheng," Yinzhen called out, "What do you think of me... compared to when I first left the capital?"
Su Peisheng looked puzzled, not knowing how to respond: "Ah?"
"Do you look... thinner?" Yinzhen was a little annoyed by the specificity.
Su Peisheng couldn't help but glance at the letter from home that was said to be written by Fu Jin herself. He lowered his head and said cautiously, "My Lord, you look thinner than when you first left the capital."
"Tsk." Yinzhen stood up and turned around twice before finally ordering, "From today on, you... remember to remind me to eat."
Su Peisheng laughed inwardly and replied honestly, "Yeah."
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The author has something to say: Start
Yinzhen: What is eating? A waste of time!
After the letter from my daughter-in-law
Yinzhen: It’s all because of Su Peisheng, the dog slave. I don’t eat and don’t know how to persuade me.
Su Peisheng: ...Sir, I may not be a human, but you are a real dog
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