He picked up the wine pot again, filled his own and Gu Yanfei's glasses with wine, and changed the subject: "The Yu family has a villa in Peng County, Yuzhou. In the back mountain of this villa, a woman is buried."
"This woman was sent to this villa sixteen years ago, and later gave birth to a daughter."
Chu Yi spoke each word clearly, and his tone was always gentle and gentle.
Xiahou Qing narrowed her eyes slightly, and the jade cup in her hand suddenly stopped. The wine in the cup swayed up and down, almost spilling out of the rim.
Chu Yi drank the wine slowly.
The pavilion became silent, with only the cries of cats and peacocks outside the pavilion.
After a moment of silence, Chu Yi continued, "This villa is a retreat left by the Yu family. It is registered in the name of a loyal servant and is rarely known. Zhuangzi privately hid gold, silver, jewelry, land deeds, house deeds, ancient books, and several bloodlines of this branch... It is also the last wealth of the Yu family."
Xiahou Qing still didn't say anything, and slowly turned the jade cup in his hand which was half filled with wine.
The sun shines through the jade cup which is as thin as a cicada's wing. From the side, you can also see the rippling wine in the cup, which is as crystal clear as amber and beautiful beyond words.
"Jingshan." Xiahou Qing suddenly called out, his voice a little hoarse, and raised his hand to gesture.
The young man in black named Jingshan understood what he meant and took out a palm-sized box and placed it in front of Xiahou Qing.
Xiahou Qing stretched out a finger and pushed the box towards Chu Yi, "This is a return gift."
Chu Yi put down the empty wine glass, opened the box and saw a neatly folded piece of silk paper inside.
"I never take advantage of others."
Xiahou Qing spoke this sentence very slowly, his voice was extremely pleasant to the ear, and when he spoke these words, the ending tone was upturned, which was indescribably alluring and enchanting, as if a fox charm from the mountains and forests had walked into the mortal world.
As he spoke, a faint smile slowly formed on the corners of his lips.
His smile is always enchanting and weird, which makes people feel cold in their hearts and makes people feel that he has bad intentions.
Chu Yi slowly unfolded the silk paper and looked at it with half-closed eyes.
"My Lord, this return gift is really thoughtful." Chu Yi smiled softly, and under the reflection of the wine in the glass, his black pupils seemed to be covered with a layer of bright moonlight.
Two people are sitting opposite each other, one is like a demon, the other is like a fairy, the painting is weird.
“Meow meow meow!”
The cat's excited voice became even more excited, and it successfully sat on the peacock's back again by making a feint to the east and attacking in the west.
Gu Yanfei looked at the arrogant and cunning cat, listened to the two people's witty remarks, and muttered, "What a cunning cat."
These two are so cunning!
The two cunning people chatted back and forth, and by the time they raised their glasses to drink, it was already one o'clock in the afternoon.
Xiahou Qing left half an hour later, and it was not until dusk that Chu Yi sent Gu Yanfei and the cat back to the Gu Mansion in the capital.
The sun had half set, the evening sky was getting darker and darker, and the red glow occupied half of the sky.
At the gate of Gu Mansion, Gu Yuan had been waiting in the courtyard behind the gate. With a depressed look on his face, he looked through the open corner door at Gu Yanfei saying goodbye to Chu Yi with a smile outside the mansion, and then he slowly rode his horse into the mansion.
"Brother," Gu Yanfei rode his horse to Gu Yuan, got off the horse, and stroked Hongyu's slender and beautiful neck while smiling, "You came back so early today."
It’s only the You hour now.
Before Gu Yanfei came back, Gu Yuan had a lot to say in his heart. Now facing his sister, all those thousands of words turned into a dry sentence: "I'm taking a day off today..."
The eldest prince gave him a day off this morning. He was very happy at first. On his way back home from the palace, he was thinking that he could take his sister out of the city for an outing today. But when he came back, he found out that his sister had been abducted and taken out to play.
The eldest prince obviously didn't take him with him on purpose! Gu Yuan's eyes twitched, and he recalled the moment when his sister and the eldest prince were talking and laughing happily. His mood became even more complicated, and he felt sad that his sister was about to be taken away.
Gu Yuan couldn't help but take two steps forward and gently touched the top of Gu Yanfei's soft head.
When he got closer, he saw that the calico cat was sleeping like a ball of fur in the hood of Gu Yanfei's cloak. His heart softened and a thought suddenly popped up in his mind: this cat is so attached to my sister, I'm afraid it will come with my sister as a dowry.
Dowry?
His stern face looked a bit fierce and cold, and the servant Wutong beside him felt a pang in his heart, worried that the young master was angry.
Gu Yuan didn't pay any attention to Wutong at all. He was worried about his sister's dowry.
He still remembered hearing from a friend that his sister's dowry had been prepared for ten years, but his mother still thought it was not good enough, so she recently sent people to travel thousands of miles to Yue State and the Western Regions to purchase it.
He is already ten years behind others. Shouldn't he hurry up and save up a dowry for his sister? Although the capital is prosperous, there are still many good things that need to be purchased from other places. Tea is better in Yangzhou, silk is better in Yueguo, and porcelain is better in Yuzhou... It takes time to go back and forth to these places! The more Gu Yuan thought about it, the more anxious he became. He hurriedly said, "Sister, I'm going out for a while and will be back soon."
"Wait!" Gu Yanfei suddenly walked over and gently patted Gu Yuan on the shoulder, "It's bad luck."
Gu Yanfei looked at Gu Yuan again and smiled with satisfaction, "Okay!"
"Then I'm leaving." Gu Yuan didn't ask any more questions and hurriedly walked towards the east corner gate. However, after taking only one step, he remembered something and changed direction, heading towards the stable.
Gu Yanfei blinked his eyes and gave Wutong a look, meaning, what's wrong with you, brother? Wutong: "..."
Wutong was also unsure of his young master's thoughts. He only vaguely guessed that the eldest young master was not angry, but seemed to have something urgent to do.
"Second Miss, let me go and take a look." Wutong quickly chased Gu Yuan to the stable.
Only Gu Yanfei and Hongyu were left looking at each other, and the red horse called out "Huaihui" twice heartlessly.
Gu Yuan was a man of swift and decisive actions. He acted as soon as he said he would. He immediately went to Fan's house a few streets away, talked to his friends for a few words, and then left.
An hour later, the other party arrived at Lanshan Pavilion, one of the four most famous restaurants in the capital, and met Gu Yuan.
"Gu Yuan, this is the dowry list for my fifth sister." A young man in his twenties, wearing an apricot-red gown, took out a few pieces of haphazardly folded silk paper from his arms and placed them on the table.
The red gold lace hair crown on Fan Beiran's head was shining brightly, and the whole person was as conspicuous as a lantern in the darkness.
"Am I loyal enough?" As soon as he sat down, he proudly asked Gu Yuan for a reward, "I copied this secretly without my mother's knowledge. For this, I bribed my seventh brother to pester my mother."
Gu Yuan picked up the dowry list, and a hint of smile appeared on his stern face as he faced his friend. He said, "I'll buy you the wine today."
"That's not enough!" Fan Beiran raised his head and drank the wine in the glass in one gulp. He put the empty glass heavily on the table and said with a smile, "Recently, there are a few people who play the pipa and sing songs in Lanshan Pavilion. Their voices are like those of a yellow oriole, and they are not worse than those Huadan and Qingyi in Tianyin Pavilion."
Without waiting for Gu Yuan's agreement, Fan Beiran called his servant in and said with a playful smile, "Go and call Mo Liu, Yue San, Duan Wu and the others, and tell them that Gu Yuan wants to invite them to drink and listen to some music."
His servant ran away happily.
"You are a very busy man now, busy with work all day long, and you don't even have time to race with us." Fan Beiran pouted sourly and shrugged, "Today you must get drunk with us!"
Gu Yuan's response was to raise his head and drink up the wine in the cup. Then he called the waiter over and ordered ten more jars of fine wine.
Fan Beiran was delighted and slammed the table, saying, "Gu Dayuan, if we don't finish the wine today, no one is allowed to leave!"
Ten jars of fine wine were moved into the private room one after another, making the room seem a lot more crowded. The waiter grinned from ear to ear and happily put down the last jar of wine.
"Please wait a moment, gentlemen. The girls who will sing will be here soon." The waiter came over to pour wine for the two men with a smile on his face. Then he heard a noise coming from the street outside the window.
Gu Yuan and Fan Beiran both looked down casually, and saw that the cloth shop opposite Lanshan Pavilion was crowded with a lot of people coming and going. The shop assistants carried rolls of cloth out of the shop and loaded them into a green-covered carriage.
Some people on the street were attracted by the hustle and bustle here. They stopped curiously and asked other passers-by. The entrance of the cloth shop became more and more lively.
The waiter stretched his neck and glanced at the street from the window, and started to chat with a smile: "I heard that people from Prince Kang's Mansion came to do some shopping across the street."
"Come to think of it, Prince Kang is getting married soon, so I must go there to join in the fun and see how elaborate the weddings of the royal nobles are."
"I heard that Prince Kang's palace will give out silver as a reward. Last time when the prince of Prince Rui got married, several baskets of copper coins and silver ingots were given out. Several children from my cousin's family got the silver ingots."
The waiter became more and more excited as he spoke, his eyes shining.
Fan Beiran and Gu Yuan grew up together. Even if Gu Yuan didn't say it directly today, Fan Beiran guessed that Gu Yuan asked him for the dowry list because of Gu Yanfei.
He patted Gu Yuan on the shoulder and said, "If there's anything I can help you with, just tell me. Your sister is still my sister!"
(End of this chapter)
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