ask
The song next to him was still being played, but the person who had chosen it was not paying much attention. He lowered his eyes, thinking about something, and only continued listening after a while.
After the courtesan finished playing, she seemed to be particularly curious and asked, "It is truly a relief for our distinguished guest to come from so far away. I wonder what advice you have for me?"
Qin Lan's expression brightened: "There is something I'm quite concerned about."
"Please enlighten me."
He asked bluntly, "May I ask, my beautiful lady, when will you come to Cang County and add color to this place?"
Unexpectedly, the person behind the screen paused for a moment before answering, "Thirty years of the Restoration."
Three years ago.
It happened to be the year when the Wu Mi movement began to rise.
Qin Lan stroked his wine cup and smiled, "I feel particularly moved by the music. My beloved has been away from home for three years. Do you miss it?"
The courtesan didn't know what she was thinking about. When she raised her hand, her sleeve lightly brushed over the strings of the zither, evoking a burst of music.
"...You can't have it all, but between the gains and the losses, I've already understood. I don't dare trouble you to ask more."
She spoke the first sentence very softly, and only Qin Lan, who was sitting closest to the screen, heard it.
He raised an eyebrow in interest, showing interest, but didn't ask any further questions. He smiled and said, "You have no worries. It's admirable."
The courtesan did not answer. Her faint laughter could be heard in the quiet room. Although she missed her hometown, she was not sad.
She was very happy, so she adjusted a few notes, changed the key, and switched to another piece of music.
The song was not a famous one and was very rare. It should be a song from her hometown - perhaps in a small town somewhere, by a stream or lake.
The sound of the piano flows slowly, clear and ethereal, delicate and lingering, as if using each string to outline the picture she wants to depict.
It was a small stream that flowed around an unknown village. People washed their clothes and rinsed their mouths by the stream. Smoke from cooking fell from the mountain beside and curled up. The pillow stone leaned against the edge of the riverbed, guarding this comfortable and joyful stream with its quiet body, rushing towards the distance.
When the song ended, Qin Lan had nothing else to ask, and the screen showed the colors of flowers and birds again.
The music lingered, a cool breeze blew by, and the lingering fragrance dissipated, just like the empty tune she played, rolling together towards the bright moonlit night.
It seemed as if no one was waiting there.
—
The prefect was the host of the banquet, but no one knew what Meng Zheng or Xiao Yingzhu said to him, because after the dinner started, they disappeared.
As if avoiding suspicion.
He failed to manage the affairs of Cang County effectively. The imperial court might be reviewing his performance and waiting for the turmoil to pass before sentencing the officials involved one by one.
The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind it.
There's no need to rush.
Zhuyu Pavilion provides excellent service and privacy, and there were not too many irrelevant people disturbing us throughout the whole process.
The food is well prepared and the colors are attractive.
The rice smells delicious, but the highlight of this banquet is the courtesan, and the dinner party is just an obvious cover that few people know about.
Now that there are no outsiders around, we can seize the opportunity to ask each other what we think.
Qin Lan shook the wine that Yu He brought, and lowered his eyes to look at the clear liquid casting tiny shadows under the light.
"What do you think? Is this the courtesan herself?" According to what Xizhen described, this should be the same as her.
It’s a long story. After Jiang Nian left in the afternoon, several of them talked about the recent close affairs between the court and Cang County.
In addition to ordering Meng Zheng to wipe out the remnants, Emperor Changde also ordered the third prince Meng Hao, who has been stationed at the border for many years, to return to the capital and become the chief general in defending Huan State. He will lead the army to guard the front line and will be the first choice to launch an attack when necessary.
Time is running out. The news about Meng Hao's handover with other generals has just come out, which means that there have been changes in Donglan. However, the few people here who are responsible for the core of the incident are slow and leisurely, not nervous at all, and still proceed at their own pace.
As for things related to Cang County, for example, the most popular courtesan in the current brothel is the goddess chosen by the Wu Mi people.
That is, it was discovered by the Wu Mi people who had been lurking in Cang County for many years and were spies for the Wu Mi people.
This matter first reached Xuan Gui and Xi Zhen, and then Xuan Gui reported it to Xiao Yingzhu.
After all, this matter was only spread by a spy, and the rest of the internal process is unknown, so whether this matter is true or false remains to be discussed.
Even if Xizhen later said something to Yu He that could not be brought up at the moment, and made Yu He believe it, Xiao Yingzhu and Meng Zheng were not so closely related, so it would not be so easy to pass the test, and they had to confirm it with their own eyes.
The matter of the Tongzhi was about to be resolved. Xizhen had other considerations in mind, but any further delay would only take a day or two, so he acted as a guarantor.
When he came to Zhuyu Pavilion this time, he would know if the person the boss could invite was the same person he met at the Goddess Conference.
So he asked Qin Lan a few questions.
When Qin Lan saw Xi Zhen secretly going to find Yu He, he knew what was going on. Now he just cooperated with him, followed Xi Zhen's thinking step by step, and did what he asked.
The answer given by the courtesan at this moment was no different from what Xizhen said.
Everyone turned their attention to Xi Zhen, and Jiang Nian secretly took out a notebook from her bag to write something down. Before she could even unpin the homemade pen, the surroundings suddenly became unusually quiet.
Suddenly, she heard laughter from downstairs outside the box. She looked up in confusion and stopped what she was doing.
Xizhen, who was listening intently to the courtesan's performance, suddenly became distracted. His long and dense eyelashes drooped, hiding the distracting thoughts in his eyes.
A faint shadow covered his brows. Recalling the faint sound of the table being tapped just now, Jiang Nian suddenly understood.
There were many people in the box, and speaking at this moment would definitely attract attention. She hesitated for a moment in front of everyone, but still asked:
"Sir, have you ever been able to play music?"
“…”
Two of the words seemed taboo, and Xizhen came back to his senses as if he had been electrocuted. He frowned and glanced at her very lightly, his gaze without any hesitation, as if he just wanted to confirm whether there was someone who said this - no matter who it was, just being able to see the spokesperson was enough.
The emotions contained in that glance were extremely complicated.
When Jiang Nian was taking notes, the look that Xizhen had just given him kept replaying in his mind.
After contemplation, confusion, hesitation and suspicion, the emotion that comes with looking back is called homesickness.
To what words did he respond that this emotion occurred?
Was it the music she was talking about, or the question she asked... or was it simply related to the song played by the courtesan?
"The person invited by the owner of this attic is the same goddess who visited the Goddess Association that day."
"As for the evidence."
A hint of sadness appeared on Xizhen's beautiful face, but when Jiang Nian looked at it carefully, it was empty again.
"As Duke Xiao said, I will explain the details to you all after the matter with the magistrate is concluded."
Like a withered flower.
Jiang Nian looked at Xizhen's facial features, and this word suddenly appeared in his mind.
"Then isn't this goddess originally from Huandu? Why was she chosen as a goddess by the Wumi people?"
In the era before war, the people of Huan were wealthy, and it seemed unlikely that they would inexplicably flee to the defeated country.
"Um."
Since there were other people present, Xizhen couldn't explain it in detail and could only casually cover it up.
"Do we need someone to keep an eye on you from now on?"
Meng Zheng didn't understand the situation. The affairs he was responsible for were only a small part of the core events in Cang County, and he didn't know much.
Yu He replied calmly: "I have sent people to guard the hidden place."
"That's fine."
The topic seemed to have ended here. Although the goddess was suspicious, there was too little information about her. Only after arriving in Cang County and personally summoning her for questioning could we confirm some of her identity.
She hid her information so well.
This should make people feel worried, after all, it greatly limits the control over the Wu Mi people, but in this silent atmosphere, someone laughed softly.
He slowly picked up the cup and sipped the wine, looking at the stream pillow with a smile on his face.
"Is this what you consider good?"
Xiao Yingzhu was hinting at something.
Xizhen, with a slightly gloomy face, turned around and followed the sound. The withered flowers scattered on the ground absorbed the blood and bloomed beautifully again.
He curled his eyes and looked normal.
"It's hard to say. I'm not a god... I'm just a human being with a long-lasting love."
The sound of the stream pillow is soft and gentle, like a soft flower.
But this seemingly gentle and soft flower hides a cold sharpness. Its icy and tiny edge can penetrate into a person's warm sleeves, pass through tens of millions of neurons, and reach the fragile heart of human beings that needs the most protection.
Jiang Nian didn't understand what Xi Zhen meant at all - perhaps only people who have been in the same situation could understand, such as Xiao Yingzhu, but this did not prevent his words from touching her. Wherever his words passed, she felt a chill.
When it reaches the bottom of my heart, I even feel a dull pain like being pricked by a needle.
Jiang Nian felt that she was not a sentimental person, and it was even less likely that she could empathize with others. What she missed most was only the bygone era.
The atmosphere is calm.
This often happens when they talk.
It’s not that there is nothing to say, nor is there anything to ask.
It just gives each other some time to think, adjust what they think because of something that has changed, or be alert to their own positions and judgments.
They are not enemies, so they should live in harmony and there is no need to use swords against each other.
At this point, if we continue to do these stupid things, we will end up killing a thousand enemies and losing eight hundred of our own.
—
The banquet did not last long, and ended in just an hour.
It was completely dark when I came out.
Jiang Nian gathered her clothes and caught a glimpse of Xiao Yingzhu standing in front of the Zhuyu Pavilion and talking with Qin Lan. She didn't know what they were talking about, but there was a hint of mockery in Qin Lan's expression.
She was walking after everyone else, so she was a few steps behind them.
I have just walked out of the gate of Zhuyu Pavilion and am standing on the steps looking down.
The layout here has been deliberately divided by officials.
The high places are for the nobles, and the low places are for the common people.
The epidemic was rampant, but Cang County was completely different because of this division.
The civilian area at the city gate is where ordinary people live, and spreading out to the side are the corners where poor people live.
Recently, in order to facilitate medical practice, doctors hired from outside were settled at the city gate to facilitate the arrival of people from the civilian area.
Those who were most susceptible to infection would flock there, squatting there to beg for some medicinal herbs. Those who were lucky enough to see a doctor would then take a break.
The world is our home, and as long as we have a place to sleep, we can still move around when we open our eyes. Even if the city patrol comes, we will scatter like birds and beasts for a while and then return to our original places to rest. We will not care about what the city patrol says about the "city appearance".
However, the other side of the city presents a completely different picture.
The building where Jiang Nian was standing was high up, and he could see the streets full of lights. Although it was lonely, it was like a sweet dream before the darkness.
Prosperity and shabbyness are separated by only a street, which divides poverty and wealth into two ends, serving as a warning in the heart and setting rules that class boundaries cannot be crossed.
The night wind blew through the hall, lifting the hair beside her ears. Jiang Nian heard the laughter and cheers coming from the singing hall not far away. Her eyes turned and Meng Zheng's beautiful and unrestrained eyebrows came into her sight.
He seemed to be looking in the direction she was looking, but now he felt her gaze and withdrew his gaze from that direction. He held the beads he had taken off his wrist in his hand and looked at her with a smile on his face. He intentionally or unintentionally brought up a topic in front of someone at the bottom of the stairs.
"What do you think of this city, Doctor?"
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