Chapter 37 Chapter 37 Dreams are hard to keep.
Qizhou, Panlou Street.
It is New Year's Eve, and the streets are filled with colorful flowers, colorful lanterns, and fragrant wines are brewed to celebrate the auspicious occasion.
Wangchunlou, the most luxurious building on the street, is a veritable den of money in the entire Qizhou.
At this moment, a loud noise came from the room with a golden sign in the attic, and several girls dressed in gorgeous clothes ran out screaming.
"He booked the best room here, and I thought he was a wealthy man, but he turned out to be a lunatic! What bad luck!"
"ah!"
The woman was speaking when a flash of sword suddenly appeared and blocked her path. Shi Zhu drew his sword and said coldly, "Watch your tongue!"
In Qizhou, few people dared to appear in Wangchun Tower with swords, and several girls were frightened and immediately lifted their skirts to avoid them.
Shi Zhu looked through the half-open door at Ji Sui, who lay drunk and in a mess inside the house. He sighed softly and said to the attendant beside him, "Go and invite the lady over."
*
"Throughout history, dreams are the hardest to hold onto; once you wake up from a dream, it's over."
During the New Year, a sad melody came from somewhere.
Ji Sui lay on the couch and slowly drank the remaining wine in the cup.
“Ding-dong—”
The wine cup fell onto the porcelain fragments all over the floor.
The melodious and ethereal sound outside the window brought him back to today three years ago.
The young man held the wooden box in his hands and waited in the cold wind for three hours. The streets were already deserted late at night. Just as he was about to leave with his head down, Lin Zhen hurriedly arrived on horseback wearing a cloak.
"What's wrong?" She dismounted and ran straight to him.
Lin Chu's patience was exhausted. He stuffed the wooden box into Lin Zhen's hands unhappily and turned away.
She frowned and opened the box, revealing a piece of plum blossom cake.
She seemed very dissatisfied. She caught up with Lin Chu in a few steps and asked, "Is this the important matter you mentioned?"
He didn't answer out of spite, and she didn't ask again. In the end, she even gave the cakes he made for her to a beggar on the roadside.
Even so, when Lin Zhen slipped in the snow and fell behind him, he turned around and picked her up.
Lin Zhen injured his foot and could not ride the horse alone, so he could only be carried onto the horse reluctantly and ride the red horse with him.
The moonlight made the snow on the ground appear crystal clear and silvery white. The big red lanterns on both sides of the street fluttered in the wind, as if sympathizing with their owners' injuries. The horses also walked very slowly, step by step.
Lin Zhen's long hair was blown by the cold wind on his face, making him feel itchy.
"Lin Zhen, your hair is really a nuisance."
“…”
He forgot that this was Lin Zhen's horse and underestimated Lin Zhen's temper. He just wanted to tease her, but when the whistle sounded, the red horse raised its front hooves high and almost threw him off the horse.
He grabbed the reins fiercely and held Lin Zhen tightly in his arms.
Lin Zhen snorted coldly. He said nothing, but lowered his head to smell the deep and fragrant scent of agarwood in her hair.
He later realized that it was the smell that made him feel most at ease.
The person in his arms felt uncomfortable being confined and couldn't help but moan. Ji Wei slowly opened his eyes and looked down at her.
"Are you awake?"
Lin Yue pulled away from his embrace and sat up. While picking up the ointment and gauze that Ji Sui had knocked to the ground, she continued, "The wound on your back is badly ulcerated. Don't move anymore."
Shi Zhu sent someone to find her to apply medicine to Ji Rui. Ever since the last battle on the banks of the Yishui River, he had refused to take medicine and would not allow anyone to get close to him, not even her when he was awake.
She actually wished he was unconscious...
Ji Sui leaned back on the couch, watching coldly as Lin Yue bent over to clean up the mess on the floor one by one. His finger was accidentally pricked by a piece of broken porcelain, so he frowned and put his fingertip in his mouth, then soon he buried his head in the mess with red eyes.
She was very close to him, just within his reach, and he could see every detail of her features.
She does look a lot like Lin Zhen. There are even people in this world who are more like Lin Zhen than she is.
As long as he wants, he can indulge in this beautiful dream.
Dreams are just dreams after all.
Even if there are tens of millions of people like her, they are not her.
Lin Zhen is dead.
In this life, no matter when or where, he will never see her again.
*
"You can go now. You don't have to appear in front of me anymore."
Ji Bai's cold words echoed in her mind, and Lin Yue walked out of the room in a daze.
Does he mean... to let her go?
This was the freedom she had once risked her life to pursue.
But for some reason, she couldn't feel any joy in her heart at this moment.
She didn't know how she walked out of Wangchun Tower until Shizhu, who was guarding the door, called out to her, "Madam, do you recognize this person?"
Lin Yue finally came to her senses and looked at the man who was stopped behind Shi Zhu. She almost blurted out, "I don't recognize him!"
She was about to leave when she heard the man call out, "Yuer!"
"I said I don't know you, get out of here!" Lin Yue took two steps to him and said sternly.
"Why do you smell so strongly of blood?"
"Are you hurt, Yue'er?"
"There seems to be a smell of decay, Yue'er, let me diagnose it quickly!"
Bai Ce tried hard to break free from the people who were holding him, but he was thin and had been hungry for several days, so his efforts were in vain.
Lin Yue didn't want to pay attention to him, but Shi Zhu beside her asked in surprise: "Are you a doctor?!"
He couldn't believe that the blind man in front of him, with tattered clothes and white gauze covering his eyes, was actually a doctor.
It is said that a blind person has other senses that are superior to ordinary people. He can follow Lin Yue all the way and detect the master's injury through the breath on Lin Yue's body at the first time. Perhaps he is a master.
Shi Zhu was still lost in thought when a steward from the Li Mansion, the governor, approached with an umbrella and said, "Master Shi..., our master has a private banquet in the backyard. We'd like your master to come over for a drink. Please let us know."
Shi Zhu nodded and said to the attendant beside him, "Send the Madam back to the Li Mansion first." Finally, he pointed at Ce and said, "Take him away as well."
*
Ten days later, Chen Mansion.
Lin Zhen carefully adjusted Qi Yushi's chest armor, and then put on his outer clothes one by one.
After spending several days together day and night, she had unknowingly become very skilled at these things.
Seeing Lin Zhen's frown and cautious look, Qi Yushi chuckled and said, "It's just a banquet, Madam, you can relax. Among all the people at the banquet hall, Madam is the best in terms of appearance and talent."
Hearing this, Lin Zhen stopped what he was doing and looked at him deeply.
It’s not that she was really thinking about this matter, but Qi Yushi’s words suddenly woke her up.
Three days ago, Qi Yushi received a secret letter stating that Marquis Yong'an was not captured and taken to Dian State, but was imprisoned in the residence of Li Kangyu, the governor of Qizhou.
On the same day, they received an invitation from the wife of the Governor Shi, saying that the Lantern Festival was approaching, and she invited the couple to stay at her house to celebrate the festival together.
They wanted to take this opportunity to rescue Marquis Yong'an from Li's mansion.
The Li couple were already very suspicious of them and were extremely wary. This journey would definitely be dangerous. If she showed such a worried and nervous expression on her face, wouldn't it put them in even greater danger?
Lin Zhen exhaled slowly, raised his head and looked back at him with a smile.
*
Li Mansion.
In Zuixin Pavilion, a man in black clothes was drinking a sip with his head down. A heavy snow fell after the New Year, and it had not stopped for several days. The weather became a little colder, but the man seemed unaware of it. He sat in the pavilion in a thin suit with arrow sleeves, letting the cold wind blow past him.
Behind the rockery not far away, Lin Yue, wearing a crane cloak, quietly looked at the man in the pavilion.
Ji Wei had told her not to appear in front of him, and the fear of him finally prevailed in her heart. Lin Yue stopped for a while, then walked away silently.
On the way back to the house, she heard a loud noise and subconsciously leaned over to take a look.
Several servants formed a small circle and threw the purses in their hands back and forth. The man surrounded in the circle tried to grab the purses from left and right, but because he was blind, he kept missing and was kicked and trampled by the servants.
Lin Yue recognized Bai Ce at a glance.
She had intended to ignore them, but she couldn't stand their wanton bullying, so she stepped forward and scolded them, "How dare you cause trouble in the yard in broad daylight!"
It was the festive season, and the mansion was bustling with guests, and the servants were showered with tips. Their masters had been lax in their supervision recently, so they had no choice but to buy some wine in private. After drinking too much, they happened to run into a blind man, and saw an exquisite purse fall from his body. On a whim, they started to have fun with him.
"So this is the owner of the purse, your lover!" Several servants burst into laughter.
What’s more, he staggered to Lin Yue and said with a malicious smile: “Don’t tell me, she is quite pretty!”
The strong smell of alcohol hit Lin Yue's nose. She frowned in disgust and said, "Get out of here!"
"you--"
Before this guy could finish his words, Bai Ce, who suddenly struggled to get up from the ground, punched him hard from behind. He was so angry that he was about to fight back, but someone who had been staring at Lin Yue for a long time finally came to his senses, hurried forward to stop the man, whispered a few words in his ear, and ran away with everyone.
The purse fell alone at Lin Yue's feet.
The hibiscus and kingfisher pattern embroidered on it was her favorite, so she used to wear it often.
Lin Yue just glanced at him lightly and turned away.
"Yuer!"
"Yue'er, I know I have committed an unforgivable sin. I am not here to beg for your forgiveness, but I just want to see with my own eyes... to see if you are doing well."
On the day when the incident happened in the Lin Mansion, in order to protect Lin Yue, Lin Zhen left her on the way back to the city from Lanruo Temple. He originally wanted to make sure that the situation was stable before sending someone to pick her up and bring her back to the mansion, but he did not expect that he would have no chance of escape once he returned.
Lin Yue waited in the pavilion until midnight, but still could not see her sister, so she had to walk back to the city. Unexpectedly, she got lost on the way and accidentally walked into the mountains and got injured. Fortunately, she was rescued by an old lady who was picking herbs.
The old lady treated her very well, taking good care of her every day, and even borrowed money to slaughter pigs and cows for her to nourish her body.
She had a son at home. Although he had an eye disease, he was a gentle man. He covered his eyes with a white veil and sat in the pile of medicinal herbs in the back room all day long. The only time he got up and walked was to boil medicine for her.
She was very grateful to them, until one day, the old lady asked her to marry Bai Ce, and she suddenly realized that all the benefits were not for free.
She didn't want to, and neither did Bai Ce.
After her leg injury healed, she said goodbye to them, but she didn't expect that she would be forced to stay by the old woman and tied up in the room that day.
Later, red candles were lit, and a strange fragrance filled the air...
"That's enough! I don't want to hear any more!"
"You shouldn't have come to me, and you should have known that I didn't want to see you again."
She glanced at the thin figure not far away, paused for a moment, and threw the cloak in her hand to the ground.
*
The steward of the mansion came to Zuixin Pavilion to convey a message that the master had received a letter from the capital, which mentioned Ji Sui, and specially invited him to the study to read it together.
"Oh, I forgot. Madam invited several officials' families into the mansion today. I'm afraid they have arrived at the Chuihua Gate by now. Please follow me through the side door." The steward suddenly laughed as they were walking.
Ji Sui entered the palace secretly, and no one in the entire Qizhou knew that General Ji, who was fighting in Yizhou, had already arrived here.
He had been at Li's house for more than half a month and had never seen any guests, let alone female guests.
Ji Sui nodded slightly and followed the steward to take a detour through the moon gate on the side.
After a while, Lin Zhen, led by his servants, slowly passed through the moon gate.
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