Chapter 13 Cannon Fodder White Moonlight 12 Heavy Rain is Coming
When Ali knocked on the door, Xu Lingjia had just finished his meal. Hearing the knock, he hurriedly welcomed her in.
Only a little of each of the vegetarian dishes on the table had been touched. Xu Lingjia looked depressed. Lan Cui and several maids cleared the things on the table, served hot tea to the two of them, and then quietly retreated.
Xu Lingjia stood up from the couch, still wearing the same plain clothes as before, with her long hair flowing like a waterfall. Only then did Ali notice that she was not wearing any jewelry.
"I……"
Xu Lingjia picked up the teacup, then put it down again. He opened his mouth several times but never said anything.
Seeing her sighing and hesitant, Ali asked her suspicions, "Miss Xu, are you here to pay respects to your relatives?"
Xu Lingjia sat up straight abruptly, grabbed Ali's hand tightly, and said with shining eyes: "Do you know my eldest sister too?"
Eldest sister?
Ali hesitated and shook his head, trying to pull his arm out of Xu Lingjia's hand, but she held it tightly.
"I, I don't know Miss Xu's elder sister..."
Xu Lingjia didn't believe it and moved an inch closer, staring into her eyes. "Don't know her? Then how do you know I'm here to pay my respects to her?"
Ali was stared at and pressed against the back of the chair, not daring to move. He said weakly, "...I guessed."
Seeing that she didn't seem to be lying, Xu Lingjia let her go, but his expression was even more melancholy than before: "I thought..."
"Why?" Ali rubbed his arm that was hurt by Xu Lingjia's grip and asked in a low voice.
Xu Lingjia moved the corners of his mouth and forced out a smile that was uglier than crying: "I thought that besides my brother and I, there were still people in this world who still remembered her."
Ali's expression shifted slightly, and he intuitively felt that he was getting closer to the truth: "What kind of person is Miss Xu's eldest sister?"
As soon as he finished speaking, a look of nostalgia slowly appeared on Xu Lingjia's face.
In fact, she didn't have many memories of her elder sister, and most of the things she knew were from people in the mansion.
She and her elder sister were half-sisters, and were ten years apart in age. When Xu Lingjia was still a babbling child, Xu Lingrong had grown into a graceful young lady and was quite famous in Beijing.
But the girl's outstanding charm is not just due to her appearance and family background.
Xu Lingrong was raised by the Duke of Fuguo. He had a generous personality and was best at riding and archery. He always took the lead among the children of the capital. He was also familiar with the art of war since he was a child, and the Duke of Fuguo was very proud of him.
Even the late emperor once said that this woman would be able to expand the territory of our dynasty in the future and become a great general.
But all this collapsed a few years later.
Xu Lingrong fell in love with a man regardless of everything and insisted on marrying him, but the Duke of Fuguo naturally refused to agree.
The father and daughter both had the same bad temper and had a big argument, and neither of them could convince the other.
Xu Lingcheng, who always listened to his elder sister, also acted out of character and argued with his elder sister many times. The most serious incident was when Xu Lingrong stabbed Xu Lingcheng with a sword for speaking without thinking, and the siblings became enemies.
During that period, the entire Duke's Mansion was shrouded in dark clouds and everyone was silent.
After the last quarrel in the study subsided, the extremely furious Duke Fuguo severed his father-daughter relationship with Xu Lingrong and did not even show up on the wedding day.
It was on this day that Xu Lingjia met his elder sister again.
She was only eight years old at that time, and she heard the nanny in the courtyard say that after her eldest sister got married, she would move out of the house and live in the groom's house.
After hearing this, Xu Lingjia was extremely anxious and sneaked into his elder sister's yard before dawn.
The courtyard was covered in bright red silk hanging everywhere, and it was a sea of red, but there was no one there.
She quietly pushed open the door and saw her elder sister sitting in front of the mirror. Her elder sister was wearing a bright red wedding dress, with rosy cheeks and rosy cheeks, and was dazzlingly beautiful.
Xu Lingjia lay in front of the crack of the door and stared blankly until her elder sister in the mirror waved at her.
"Eldest sister."
Xu Lingjia called out obediently, and Xu Lingrong held her on his lap and said a lot of things.
But Xu Lingjia got up too early, and soon she was staggering around like a chick pecking at rice. She heard her elder sister laugh, holding her in her arms and coaxing her softly.
"Jia'er, you must be filial to your father on behalf of your elder sister. Don't talk back to him or make him angry, okay?"
Xu Lingjia leaned comfortably in Xu Lingrong's arms, half asleep and half awake, and asked, "What about my eldest sister?"
The eldest sister seemed to laugh again, but this laugh was too light and faint, like a whisper.
Xu Lingjia slept very soundly and when he woke up he was back in his own little bed.
She rubbed her eyes and found that she was still holding something in her hand that she wanted to give to her eldest sister.
A little eagle she had made herself. The wings of the wooden carving were crooked, but you could still tell it was an eagle that was about to soar into the sky.
Her elder sister once gave her a red tasseled spear, so naturally she had to return the favor by giving her her favorite thing.
The wedding procession from the Duke's Mansion had already left. Xu Lingjia turned over and sat up regretfully, staring at the little eagle in his hand in a daze: When will my eldest sister come home next time?
What she didn't expect was that she would see her elder sister again in an unfamiliar mansion, in an unfamiliar house, and she recognized the words hanging on the wall of the house.
mourning hall.
Unlike last time, this room was filled with miserable white.
Xu Lingjia was held by Xu Lingcheng and saw his elder sister sleeping in the coffin.
She still couldn't understand what death was. She only knew that her brother's eyes were frighteningly red, as if he had a rage suppressed beneath a cold mask.
Until a man appeared, Xu Lingcheng put her down, rushed up and wrestled with the man, and chaos suddenly broke out.
Xu Lingjia didn't look over. She climbed onto her elder sister's coffin with great effort and stuffed the little eagle that had been hidden in her sleeve into her elder sister's cold and stiff palm.
Ali held Xu Lingjia's hand, she trembled, and a tear rolled down her face.
One autumn day later, the Duke of Fuguo also passed away, and Xu Lingcheng inherited the title.
Three months later, the late emperor's condition took a turn for the worse and he passed away soon after. He passed the throne to the ninth prince who was only ten years old. The new emperor was young, and the government was jointly managed by his biological mother, the empress dowager, and three regent ministers.
"Ever since my brother took charge of all matters in the mansion, he has forbidden anyone to mention my eldest sister. There isn't even a tablet for my eldest sister in the ancestral hall."
Xu Lingjia's hoarse voice sounded, filled with resentment and confusion: "I think he hates his eldest sister very much, but why?"
Ali wiped the moisture from her cheek, not knowing how to comfort her.
"Did you know?" Xu Lingjia suddenly looked at Ali, his eyes red, "My eldest sister's memorial day is not in June."
Ali was puzzled: "Then why did you come to Puji Temple wearing plain clothes today?"
Xu Lingjia changed the subject, his tone gradually calming down: "You haven't heard about it in the temple yet, right? Earlier today, when Pei Miao was hunting outside the city, his horse suddenly went crazy and broke his leg."
With a "bang", the teacup beside him fell to the ground and shattered into pieces.
Ali's mind was in a mess, and he subconsciously bent down to pick it up. This was completely out of the plot of the story. What exactly happened?
Xu Lingjia grabbed her and said, "Silly! What if you cut your hand? Don't worry about it. Lan Cui and the others will clean it up soon."
Ali then sat back in his seat in a daze, silent for a while: "But does this have anything to do with your visit to Puji Temple today? And you are not..."
Xu Lingjia lay listlessly on the couch, his face buried in his sleeves. "I was going to visit Pei Miao today, but my brother suddenly lost his temper and wanted to lock me up at home without explanation. I cried and refused, and my brother... my brother slapped me."
The slap from her brother didn't hurt her, but the burning sensation went straight to her heart.
Xu Lingjia's voice was low, filled with endless sorrow. "Then he told me that the family my eldest sister married into was the Pei family. She married Pei Miao's brother, Pei Xiao, and died there under unclear circumstances."
Xu Lingjia's words were like a thunderclap, fiercely splitting Ali's chaotic mind and shocking her so much that she couldn't react for a long time.
Xu Lingjia couldn't stop sobbing, regret surging like a raging sea. "I, I originally thought that my brother didn't like my relationship with Pei Miao because he was prejudiced against him. So it turns out to be like this!"
"How could I like the brother of the man who killed my eldest sister?!"
Ali's breathing was short and rapid, and he looked at her anxiously: "But such a big thing, why has no one ever mentioned it?" There was no record of it even in the storybook.
Xu Lingjia sobbed uncontrollably, and only after taking a sip of the tea that A-li brought her did she calm down a bit. "This is my family's affair. Who dares to comment on it? Besides, in the eyes of those pedantic people, my eldest sister severed ties with her mother's family over a marriage, causing unrest in the family. This is extremely unfilial. They will never mention this to the clan members, lest their nephews and nieces follow suit."
"Plus, neither our residence nor the Pei family allowed the news to spread outside. My brother even sent people to warn the storytellers in the market. After so many years, naturally, few people know about it."
Ali slowly sat down by the edge of the table, extremely shocked. So that's how it was.
Xu Lingjia's eyes were red and swollen, but his gaze was more resolute than ever before. "My Xu family and the Pei family have a feud, and our two families are irreconcilable. My brother didn't tell me all this all these years just to make me happy. Now that I know what happened back then, I will never live like this fool again."
Ali looked at her. There was an eternal light dancing in the girl's eyes, which made people unable to take their eyes off her. Her figure gradually overlapped with the figure of the woman in the painting.
“Bang—”
“Bang—”
“Bang—”
The sound of drums and bells came from afar on the west side of the main hall. The setting sun completely sank into the sky, and it was already the hour of You.
Lan Cui knocked on the door and said, "Miss, there's Mr. He outside. He said he's here to take Miss He home."
Xu Lingjia stood up and took a look: "Is he your brother?"
The two of them looked out the window together and saw He Zhiyan, dressed in white, holding two oil-paper umbrellas, standing outside the yard with his back to the outside world, looking a little desolate.
"He's here to take you back, right? It's my fault. I got so carried away talking about old times that I lost track of time. Go now."
As Xu Lingjia spoke, he gently pushed Ali towards the door.
Ali turned around and looked at her with some concern.
Xu Lingjia couldn't help but laugh and raised her eyebrows: "Don't worry about me, my elder sister's eternal lamp is enshrined in the temple. I will go to talk to my elder sister tomorrow. No matter how many troubles you have, it doesn't matter."
"As for you," she suddenly lowered her voice and moved closer to Ali, "you should cherish the time you can spend with your loved ones, otherwise you will regret it like me."
Ali also laughed.
As soon as he stepped out of the room, He Zhiyan turned around and looked. The medicine bag tied around his waist was somewhat out of tune with his overall temperament.
When Ali came closer, he asked, "Why did you take so long?"
Ali shook his head: "I talked a little too much, it's okay."
Ah Li and He Zhiyan walked back side by side. Ah Li noticed that He Zhiyan's clothes were different from that in the morning. "Brother, did you just come down the mountain?"
He Zhiyan didn't seem to have any intention of hiding anything from her, and said truthfully, "I bought some vegetarian cakes and put them in your room."
Ali turned his head and looked thoughtful: "Is it the snack from Sufangzhai?"
The two of them walked through an archway one after the other. He Zhiyan didn't notice anything unusual about A Li and nodded, "Don't you always like to eat at his restaurant?"
Ali's pace slowed down as he followed behind him.
There are four gates in and out of the capital city. To go hunting in the western suburbs, one has to go out from Fucheng Gate. Sufangzhai is located next to Fucheng Gate, in the completely opposite direction of Puji Temple.
Seeing that A-li didn't catch up, He Zhiyan turned around and called her: "What's wrong?"
Ali suppressed the expression on his face, took a few quick steps, and suddenly hugged He Zhiyan's arm: "Look at your back, brother, you have lost a lot of weight."
He Zhiyan steadily caught Ali who was rushing towards him.
She looked up at him, confusion and worry in her eyes, but still said nothing.
The courtyard where the He brothers and sisters lived was not far from Xu Lingjia's, and they arrived there in a short walk.
He Zhiyan sent A Li into the house, looked at the sky outside, and lit all the lights in the house.
Ah Li ate the cakes that He Zhiyan brought: "It's not dark yet?"
He Zhiyan blew out the fire stick and put it away: "It's getting dark."
Suddenly, there seemed to be movement outside the window. He Zhiyan's expression was startled. A Li looked over and asked, "What's wrong?"
He Zhiyan closed the window, his expression normal: "It's okay, it's just a wild cat in the mountains."
"Go to bed early after eating. I'll go back first." He Zhiyan's house is next to Ali.
Ah Li walked him to the door, and He Zhiyan turned around and warned him, "It's windy outside, don't go out tonight, be careful of the cold."
Ali nodded: "I know, brother, you should go to bed early too."
Suddenly there was a loud thunder and a strong wind blew outside the house. She held the door that was blown open by the wind and used some strength to close it.
In the flickering light, Ali saw He Zhiyan's figure in the distance gradually blending into the darkness.
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