Chapter 35: Escape from Marriage White Moonlight 12 New Year
Lu Jingming was speechless after being yelled at by her. After a while, he took a step forward: "I——"
"What do you mean?! I'm telling you, I'll pay you back everything I spent living at the Lu family's house with interest." Ali was shaking with anger, his head held high stubbornly. "I'll leave after the New Year. You don't need to chase me away!"
Lu Jingming frowned, then softened his tone, "Who said I was going to kick you out?"
He took a few quick steps but fell into the mud again. He finally got up with great difficulty: "I was just thinking..."
The word "apology" circled on his lips, then he took it back.
Even when he was seventeen, he had never bowed his head to anyone.
Ali didn't care what he said anymore, and with red eyes he loaded all the things he brought onto the ox cart.
Lu Jingming was getting anxious. He wanted to rush ashore and stop her immediately, but the more anxious he became, the more he couldn't move. "Wait! Wait a minute!"
Ali's hands kept moving, and she didn't want to say a word to him anymore.
"What I want to say is that I was wrong in doing this!" Lu Jingming looked at Ali's cold back with a look of resignation, his muddy hands clenched into fists at his sides, as if he was waiting for judgment.
Seeing that she remained unmoved, Lu Jingming's heart was in his throat: "I was wrong."
The only answer he got was Ali's long silence.
"It's my fault." Lu Jingming said as he pulled his legs out of the mud and quickly reached the edge of the field.
Just as he was about to climb up, Ali finally turned around. He immediately looked over, but the words he wanted to say could no longer be uttered the moment he saw her.
"...You are crying," Lu Jingming murmured, looking up into her sad eyes.
Tears welled up in his eyes, but Ali bit his lips tightly to prevent them from falling: "No! Someone like you is not worth my tears."
After saying that, she got on the ox cart and left without looking back.
The ox cart had gone a long way. She took a few deep breaths and tightened her grip on the reins.
Endless grievances flooded her heart, as if she had been falsely accused of theft by a maid in the courtyard, and even her mother didn't believe her; as if she had almost been bullied by a strange man, but she couldn't get a word of comfort from her father.
She should be used to it, but why does her heart hurt so much?
"It's nothing, it's nothing..." Ali trembled and swallowed back his tears.
The old cow seemed to sense Ali's emotions at the moment, and snorted and wanted to look back. Ali touched its neck, and the old cow's pace slowed down a lot. The man and the cow soon disappeared at the end of the road, leaving only a line of shallow ruts on the snow.
*
Regardless of whether the people on this land are happy or sad, the New Year has arrived as scheduled.
At dusk, the light snow had just stopped and the sky was getting darker. The big red lanterns in front of every household were lit early. The warm light enveloped the children playing on the steps. They gathered in twos and threes, and while their parents were still busy preparing the New Year's Eve dinner, they lit the firecrackers they had been coveting for for a long time. Crackling sounds came one after another, and the debris fell like red rain, and was then picked up by the cold wind, swept across the gray wall, and floated in the deepening dusk.
Behind the heavy gate of the Lu Mansion, Uncle Wei was pasting the word "Fu" (good fortune) on the courtyard. He carefully examined the word in his hand, a smile on his face. After adjusting the position, he solemnly pasted the word upside down on the door, muttering to himself: "Good fortune has arrived, good fortune has arrived."
Ali followed beside him, and the paste in his hand for pasting paper was almost gone.
"Okay, now it's complete." Uncle Wei clapped his hands and looked at his masterpiece with satisfaction.
A-Li also curled his lips: "I didn't expect Uncle Wei's handwriting to be so beautiful."
"I learned some of this when I was serving the master. Now that I can put it to use, I think I have lived up to the master's teachings."
The two of them talked as they walked back.
Turning around the corridor, Uncle Wei looked at the absent-minded Ali and said, "Miss Ali, you may not know that in previous years, the Spring Festival couplets and the blessing characters were written by the young master. This year, the old man is just doing it for you."
"Really? So that's how it is." Ali's expression didn't change.
Uncle Wei continued, "Everyone says the young master is cold-hearted, but in fact, he is the most sentimental. At that time, the young master was only eleven years old. When he saw the old woman buying blessing characters for the paper, he silently wrote several and gave them to me. I thought they were better than those sold at the market."
He and the old woman had been watching what had happened between the young master and Miss Ali these days, and they guessed that the two might have just had a quarrel and would be fine after some time. However, even on New Year's Eve, when they mentioned each other in front of them, their reactions were still the same.
Ali turned to look at Uncle Wei's worried eyes and just smiled foolishly.
One cannot be asked, the other is unwilling to say, they are really enemies from the previous life.
Uncle Wei sighed and swallowed the speech he had prepared.
The kitchen door curtain was lifted, and the diffused white mist rushed out with the aroma of food, which was very tempting.
The oil pan was sizzling, and the freshly fried meatballs were golden and crispy, floating on the oil and gently spinning. The firewood in the stove was burning brightly, and a large pot of fragrant eight-treasure rice was steaming on it. On the chopping board was the bacon that Aunt Wei had just cut, and next to it was a plate of steaming water-ground rice cakes, carefully stacked into the shape of a gold ingot.
Ali and Uncle Wei helped to bring the dishes to the table, and the three of them sat around together in a lively atmosphere.
Uncle Wei said a few auspicious words first, and Aunt Wei smiled and nudged him: "A-Li, this is the first time you're spending the New Year with us, so please be a little less talkative."
As she spoke, she pinched a sugar dumpling and fed it to Ali's mouth: "Candy is for the Kitchen God. The New Year is coming. Girls want flowers, boys want firecrackers."
"Well, thank you Aunt Wei." Ali pouted, and a genuine smile finally appeared in his eyes.
"Come on! Let's eat!" Uncle Wei said happily.
Ah Li raised his glass and said to Uncle Wei and Aunt Wei, "Ah Li, it's been almost three months since I woke up. What I'm most grateful for during these days is the care and concern you have given me, Uncle and Aunt. Ah Li offers a toast to you."
The sadness in her eyes faded a lot under the warm yellow light. Uncle Wei and Aunt Wei looked at each other with satisfaction and drank the glass of wine with a smile.
Ah Li put down her wine glass, her lips and eyes moist. She picked up a meatball and ate it: "Mmm! Aunt Wei's cooking is so good! I can eat it for a lifetime and never get tired of it!"
Aunt Wei gave her a few more and beamed with joy: "If it tastes good, eat more. Eat it forever!"
"Your Aunt Wei is right. You can eat it for the rest of your life." Uncle Wei took another sip of wine and agreed.
"Okay." Ali lowered his inexplicably sour eyes and nodded heavily.
The night gradually crept up to the window sill. The dishes on the table were all eaten up. Uncle Wei had passed out drunk on the table. Ali was also holding a wine jug with a blush on his face, and giggling from time to time.
Aunt Wei was still awake, a rare sight. She patted A-Li's face lovingly and said, "I'll go take some food to the young master. You stay here obediently. We'll stay up together to celebrate the New Year. Don't fall asleep."
Ah Li looked over and felt something was wrong: "Didn't he eat it a long time ago?"
Aunt Wei picked up the cloak beside her and put it on: "It's not the New Year's Eve dinner, it's this, the young master eats it every year at this time."
The basket in her arms was filled with some fragrant sweet potatoes.
He still eats this kind of food for the poor people?
Seeing Ali was stunned, Aunt Wei turned around and said, "There are still several on the stove. I know you like to eat them, so I saved them for you."
Ali nodded slowly, feeling a little distressed: "But I'm so full now, I'll eat later."
It was late at night when she finished her New Year's Eve celebration. After wishing each other Happy New Year with Uncle Wei and Aunt Wei, Ali's eyelids were so heavy that she couldn't open them. She was almost overwhelmed by the overwhelming sleepiness. She forced herself to return to her room and threw herself onto the bed like a boneless person.
The lights flickered and the room was filled with warmth. Ali fell asleep quickly, but was woken up by thirst not knowing how long it had passed.
After drinking the water, she sat blankly on the edge of the bed, and suddenly all sleepiness disappeared.
"Mom, Ali misses you." Ali's voice sounded softly in the room, but no one could respond to her.
It started snowing outside at some point, so she put on her cloak and walked aimlessly in the yard.
When they were in the Pan Mansion, they were not included in the family reunion dinner, and it was just her and her mother who spent the New Year together.
There was nothing hot to eat on their table, only the leftover osmanthus sugar from making rice cakes that her mother bought from the kitchen with the meager income she earned from selling embroidery.
She spent more than ten years eating that little bit of sweetness.
Although my mother was still thinking about Pan Yuan at this time, she would also cheer herself up to clean up the house and use the paper she had picked up to cut window paper-cuts for Ali to see.
However, most of these papers are white, and sticking them on the broken windows will only dilute the festive atmosphere of the New Year.
Ali stepped into a small pavilion and shook off the snow on her body. It was quiet here with few people coming. It was her favorite place to stay.
Ali leaned on the railing, carefully letting out the emotions that he had usually hidden, and looked at the moon on the edge of the clouds with his sparkling eyes.
She was afraid that she would never see her mother again in this life.
After this New Year, where will she be in the future?
She hugged her knees and curled up into a small ball.
Lu Jingming was reviewing his lessons in his study. The Spring Examination was approaching, and even though he had not returned to the Lu Mansion yet, he did not relax at all.
The newly replaced candle on the table was about to burn out. He turned a page and moved his stiff neck, but saw a familiar figure walking towards the window.
He put down the book in his hand and chased after him without hesitation.
But when he really caught up with her, Ali's figure was very close to him, but he stopped and watched her walk away.
He didn't know how to face her.
In addition to the quarrel that day, there were also feelings that quietly grew in my heart.
But he shouldn't do this. It's a betrayal to her and to himself.
Darkness surged in Lu Jingming's eyes as he turned around in the snow, his heart in turmoil.
Just before the falling snow was about to cover Ali's footprints, he suddenly followed her again, but did not say a word, just quietly accompanying her.
Watching Ali walk into the pavilion and sit down, he did not move forward, but just used a dead tree to hide his body and stared at her from afar.
She buried her face and shrugged her shoulders slightly, without making any sound, but Lu Jingming could clearly hear her crying.
This is their second and last New Year together.
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