Chapter 160 Fuling Temple, Chu Junli
In the days that followed, Jiang Ning gradually learned some details from Lan Xu.
Lan Xu's family was a cosmetics and perfume seller in the capital, with several small shops and a good business.
Lan Xu was deceived by Cheng Qiwen to the Prime Minister's Mansion when she was in her teens, using the excuse that the Prime Minister's wife wanted to buy cosmetics.
After losing her chastity, Lan Xu was in great pain and had no face to go home. She wanted to commit suicide several times, but she didn't have the courage to put it into practice. In the end, she ran to a nunnery in the suburbs of Beijing to become a nun, intending to live a life of seclusion. However, fate
played a trick on her, and she found out that she was pregnant two months later.
"Ling'er, I wanted to drink the abortion pill at that time."
Lan Xu looked at Jiang Ning with a bitter smile. To this day, recalling the past, she only felt endless pain.
"But when I boiled the medicine and picked it up to drink, I smelled the medicine and suddenly felt it was so bitter. I felt my stomach churning and wanted to vomit, but I didn't blink when I drank the medicine before..." "
Finally, I still drank it with gritted teeth. After drinking half a bowl, I couldn't bear it anymore and vomited it all out with a 'wow'..." "I
threw the medicine bowl and cried loudly. I was thinking at the time that it must be this child. It wants to come into the world and it wants me to be its mother..."
Just like that, Lan Xu decided to give birth to this child, a child that belongs only to her.
The nunnery was not very wealthy, but the nuns in the nunnery were kind-hearted. After learning about Lanxu's decision, they all supported her, helped her buy pregnancy-protecting medicine, took good care of her, and even worried that she was not getting enough nutrition, so they bought meat soup to nourish her body.
"Ling'er, the nuns are all living Bodhisattvas. Without them, I might have died long ago. So later I named you Lanling, because the nunnery is called Fuling Temple. Whenever I see you, I will remember their great kindness!"
After Lanling was born, everyone in the nunnery was very happy. This newborn child brought something called "hope" to this dull place.
Unfortunately, the good times did not last long. When Lanling was five months old, she contracted a strange disease. She had a high fever every day and vomited everything she ate.
The nuns of Fuling Temple pooled their money to hire a doctor, who prescribed medicine, and Lan Ling's condition improved. But the doctor said that the disease would require two months of continuous medication to be cured.
The medicine was too expensive, and they could not afford it.
"I held you and cried all night, and I felt like my eyes were going blind. You are so small, and you have only been in this world for a short time, why do you have to suffer so much? I wish I could exchange my life for your health and safety..."
Jiang Ning sighed softly, raised her sleeves and gently wiped Lan Xu's tears: "Mother, I don't blame you, you have done everything you can, it's enough."
The subsequent story was just as Yuwen Yan wrote in the letter. Lan Xu knelt in the Prime Minister's Mansion with the child in her arms, and Lan Ling finally became Nangong Ling.
Nangong Ya was shocked when he learned that he had another daughter. He originally wanted to let Lan Xu take the child away after curing her, but his father, Lan Ling's grandfather, spoke up.
"How can the blood of our Nangong family be left outside? This child will be called Nangong Ling in the future, and she will be the third lady of the Prime Minister's Mansion. I don't think anyone dares to say no!"
"Did they force you to leave the capital?" Jiang Ning asked quietly, with a flash of coldness in her eyes.
"No, I wanted to leave on my own!"
Lan Xu was afraid that Jiang Ning would misunderstand, so she hurriedly said, "I know you will be embarrassed if you go to the Prime Minister's Mansion. The Prime Minister's wife also has two children. I am afraid that they will treat you badly. I went to ask the lady myself. I made a vow to her that I would never set foot in the capital again and asked her not to blame you."
Seeing Jiang Ning lowered her eyes and said nothing, Lan Xu continued, "The Prime Minister's wife is a good person, really! She told me frankly that she doesn't have such a broad mind to treat you as her own child, but she will not take her anger out on a child. From now on, she is the Prime Minister's wife and you are the third daughter of the Prime Minister's Mansion. You have nothing to do with each other."
"When I was about to leave the capital, the Prime Minister's wife knew that I was penniless, so she gave me one hundred taels of silver as a gift. I returned to Fuling Temple, left half of the silver to the nuns, and took the rest of the money myself. I came to this Qushui City, bought a house and settled down..." When
Lan Xu said this, there was a look of gratitude in her eyes: "The Prime Minister's wife has been very kind to me, and I can't go back on my oath. So... Ling'er, I can't go back to the capital with you!"
"Mom! Don't be so stubborn." Jiang Ning had a headache.
It has been more than ten days since they met each other. Jiang Ning has been persuading Lan Xu to go with her, saying that she and Liu Ming'an will take care of her until the end of her life. However, Lan Xu refused again and again. Until today, Lan Xu told her about the past and once again firmly refused.
"Ling'er, I have nothing else to ask for in my life, but I hope you are happy and safe. Now that I see that you are beautiful, sensible and well-behaved, and have found a good man to spend the rest of your life with, I will die without regrets."
Jiang Ning sighed again. Forget it, I will not persuade her for now. I will accompany her for a while. At worst, I can knock her out and take her away. Anyway, on her wedding day, Lan Xu must sit in the hall.
Previously, she went back to the inn to pack her things and check out, and met the three guards from the Prime Minister's Mansion. After she put in some effort to get rid of them, Jiang Ning has been living in Lan Xu's house these days.
Lan Xu may want to make up for the past ten years. She makes delicious food for Jiang Ning in different ways every day and doesn't let her do any housework. Even if Jiang Ning is bored and wants to sweep the yard, the broom will be snatched away as soon as she picks it up.
"Ling'er, you take a rest, I'll do it, go and play by yourself."
Jiang Ning is really going to be raised to be a young lady who never touches the water of spring.
Jiang Ning walked to the edge of the yard, where a small plot of land was marked out and some flowers and plants were planted.
The snow-white, fingernail-sized flowers were tied to thin flower stems, like a string of small lanterns.
It's bell orchid.
Jiang Ning knew this flower. Nangong Muyan loved to raise flowers, plants and some small animals in her previous life, but unfortunately everything she raised died.
"Alas, is it because I have killed too many people and the murderous aura on my body is too heavy, so I can't raise anything?"
Nangong Muyan asked Jiang Ning this while looking at the dead cactus. At that time, she was only ten years old and was still very afraid of her.
The young Jiang Ning was uneasy, thinking whether to comfort this female killer who frowned because of flowers and plants, but she immediately smiled with relief: "Forget it, if it dies, it dies. I just need to raise you up."
The breeze blew, and the bell orchid flowers swayed gently, like a string of silent wind chimes, but the air was filled with the sweet scent of osmanthus.
The days passed like this, plain and warm. Jiang Ning ate and slept at Lan Xu's house. She had nothing to do every day and was so bored that she spent most of her time thinking about Liu Mingan.
Until this day in March, the government suddenly posted an official notice that the crown prince of Daliang had been established, and it was the former Xiang Wang Yuwen Yan.
What happened? Jiang Ning was puzzled when she heard the news. Didn't Nangong Ya say that the emperor wanted to maintain the situation of Xiang Wang, Rui Wang, and Lin Wang? Why would he establish a crown prince at this time?
When she followed Lan Xu to sell osmanthus cake, Jiang Ning found a busy tavern and sat for a while under the pretext of drinking water.
In such places, men drink and talk loudly, criticize current problems, and the news from all sides is mixed, comparable to the village aunt.
The state's crown prince is a major event in the world. As expected, everyone in the tavern was talking about this matter. Jiang Ning ordered a pot of wine, a dish of salted beef, and a plate of peanuts, and found an inconspicuous corner to stay. Sure enough, she heard the news she wanted soon.
"Mao San, you are back from the capital. Do you know why the King of Xiang was made the crown prince?" Someone asked in a low voice.
It is a capital crime to make irresponsible comments on state affairs, but some people are more curious than the sky. As soon as
these words came out, the eyes of the people in the tavern fell on the little old man called "Mao San".
Alcohol can give people courage, and being watched by thousands of people is another kind of power. Mao San took a sip of wine, scanned it, and had a proud look on his face.
"The crown prince was appointed by the emperor. How can a businessman like me guess what the emperor is thinking?" Mao San pretended to be answering the person asking the question, but in fact his voice was so loud that everyone in the store could hear it: "But I do know another story. I wonder if the two are related. Alas, it's been spreading like wildfire in the capital..."
Mao San smacked his lips, sighed, and slowly drank a few sips of wine, making the listeners very anxious.
"What's the matter? Tell me now!"
"Stop keeping us in suspense,
okay? Tell me now!" "Brother Mao, please be kind and tell me now!"
After whetting everyone's appetite, Mao Sancai spoke mysteriously: "His Royal Highness Prince Rui is dead! He died a miserable death! He was cut hundreds of times, like fish sashimi. When the body was found, it still had its own flesh in its mouth!"
"Hiss~" A series of inhalations were heard, and everyone fell silent.
Jiang Ning's chopsticks that were holding peanuts stopped in mid-air, her expression very solemn.
With such a death, you don't have to think about who did it.
Nangong Muyan!
But didn't Prince Rui have an engagement with her?
Even if she didn't want to get married, she could have been killed with a single knife, and there would have been no need to torture her like this.
What exactly happened in the capital?