Chapter 102: Extra 4: Previous Life (Part 3)
After Ji Rang left Beijing last year, Zhang Bo transplanted many plum trees to the west courtyard. All of them bloomed this winter. The trees were full of white plum trees, like clusters of snowflakes piled on the branches. When the wind blew, the snow and flowers fell to the ground.
The west courtyard was hung with bright red silk in the silver light of the flying snow.
When Si Xia and Ying Ge, one on each side, supported Qi Ying, who was wearing a phoenix crown and red sails, out, Ji Rang was waiting outside in his wedding dress. He rarely wore such bright colors, and the red color made him look like a romantic and elegant young man.
Si Xia smiled and said, "Miss, don't step on the threshold. Step over it."
Qi Ying obediently lifted her feet, and the rings on her bracelets jingled as she stepped over the threshold.
Ji Rang laughed, took the girl from the maid, held her soft hand, and led her from the west courtyard to the Ji family ancestral hall. Zhang Bo stood aside excitedly and sang: "Bow to heaven and earth."
"Bow to your parents twice.
"Husband and wife bow to each other."
"The ceremony is over."
When he said the last word, his voice trembled and he wiped away tears with excitement.
After the ceremony, Ji Rangyi leaned over and picked up the bride. She struggled a little, and her face under the veil must have turned red again. She said softly, "I can walk by myself."
Ji Rang laughed twice in a good mood, then carried her out of the ancestral temple.
Outside, the house was covered with snow, and it was cold and quiet. There was no banquet for guests, no grand celebration, and except for the west courtyard, the entire general's mansion did not show any joy of a wedding.
But they had gone through the great church service and she was still his legally wedded wife.
Back in the west courtyard, the red silk fluttered in the snow. Ji Rang carried her into the house and put her beside the bed.
Two pairs of wedding candles were burning on the table. Ji Rang closed the door, picked up the wedding scale on the jade plate, weighed it, and walked to Qi Ying. He smiled and said, "I'm going to pick out the wedding handkerchief."
She sat there with her head down and said obediently, "Okay."
When Xicheng reached under the veil, he paused. Qi Ying heard him ask, "Yingying, will you blame me if I can't give you a name?"
She raised her head. Although her face could not be seen through the veil, I could still imagine her smiling with eyes curved. “No. That’s not important.”
It was freezing cold outside, but in this small house, there was the warmth that he wanted to protect his whole life.
Ji Rang lifted the veil.
I saw a bright and beautiful face.
He smiled and said, "Yingying, you look great in red."
She smiled shyly.
He pointed his finger backwards, and his inner strength, which had reached perfection, was like breaking the wind, extinguishing the pair of wedding candles. When the light dimmed, the gauze curtain in front of the bed also fell down, hiding the spring scene in the room.
After the marriage, the servants in the mansion changed their way of addressing her and no longer called her Miss Ying, but called her Madam instead.
Everyone in the capital knew that the general had a concubine. It suddenly seemed that the general was not indifferent to women. Now that the position of the main wife was vacant, those previously dormant thoughts began to become active again.
Gradually, more people came to the general's mansion to propose marriage.
As a result, General Ji was not even seen, and the old steward dismissed them all. Later, the high officials in the capital tried another method, planning to start with the female relatives. The noble ladies in the capital often had banquets in their mansions, and invitations to Qi Ying began to be sent to the general's mansion.
Everyone wanted to see the only woman who accompanied the general. Although she was a concubine, these noble ladies looked down on her, but who told them that they had no other way to get close to the general.
As a result, the invitation was returned.
It was Ji Rang who personally stepped forward to withdraw.
The reason he gave was very high-sounding: "It is difficult for a lonely girl from the mountains to be accepted by a noble family. I don't want to spoil your interest, but I will not accept any invitations from now on."
Qi Ying didn’t know any of this.
She was also trying hard to learn embroidery from her nanny. Although she had been learning for more than half a year, she always lacked confidence in herself. Seeing that the Chinese New Year was approaching, she had to embroider a sachet for the general before the New Year, and finally mustered up the courage to start.
The resulting embroidery made even Si Xia and Ying Ge burst out laughing.
She lay on the couch, holding the sachet and looking left and right, and couldn't help but sigh: "Is it really so ugly?"
A hand reached down from above her head and took away the sachet: "It's not bad looking. Is it embroidered for me?"
Si Xia and the others left without knowing when. Ji Rang stood behind them with a smile on his face. While she was distracted, he hung the sachet around his waist.
He was wearing a lake blue long coat today, which made him look handsome. The sachet hanging on him was totally out of place. Qi Ying climbed up using both hands and feet and reached out to grab the sachet on his waist.
Ji Rang slightly turned aside and avoided it, grabbing her restless hand. Qi Ying's face turned red with anxiety: "Give it back to me!"
His eyes were full of smiles: "If you give it to me, it is mine, there is no reason to take it back.
She was embarrassed and annoyed: "It's not well embroidered, give it back to me and I will embroider a better one again."
Ji Rang raised his eyebrows: "No, I want this one."
The little girl was half-kneeling on the bed, her hands still bound by him, her eyes slightly red from shame, this posture was really arousing. He looked at the bright sunny day outside the window with deep eyes, sighed with regret, and let her go.
Qi Ying snorted and turned her head away, ignoring him.
She used to be a little cautious in front of him, but now she is willing to throw a tantrum, which makes Ji Rang in a good mood.
He smiled and teased her: "Are you angry? Then the day after tomorrow's Huaying Festival, I will go alone."
The little girl couldn't help being amused and immediately turned around to look at him eagerly.
The situation in the capital was turbulent, and the king was not the only one eyeing the general's mansion. In order to protect her, Ji Rang seldom took her out of the mansion, so sometimes she was inevitably lonely.
When I heard that I could go to the triennial Huaying Festival, I didn’t have time to be angry anymore.
Ji Rang suppressed his smile and said, "Want to go?"
She nodded eagerly.
So obedient that it's heart-warming.
He picked up the sachet and shook it. "Do you want this one back?"
The little girl felt very aggrieved: "No more."
He finally couldn't help himself and leaned over to kiss her. Qi Ying was a little shy and pushed his chest with her little hand: "The door is still open."
Then he casually waved his hand, and the door slammed shut with a force as strong as the wind.
It was still daylight.
She was too embarrassed to make a sound, and only whimpered and called "General" softly.
"I've told you so many times." He bit her ear as if to punish her: "Call me husband."
She straightened her instep and begged for mercy, saying incoherently: "Husband..."
However, Ji Rang did not accompany her to the Flowering Festival two days later. He was summoned to the palace by an imperial decree early in the morning and did not return until the evening. The Flowering Festival only takes place during the day and ends at sunset.
Qi Ying missed the once-in-three-years meeting with Hua Yingzhu. She was so angry that she stayed angry for the whole night before Ji Rang tried every means to coax her back to him in bed.
Even a hero cannot resist the temptation of beautiful women.
Ji Rang used to be ashamed of this statement, but now he knows that beauty is delicate and weak.
Once he won a battle and returned to the capital to report, he always wanted to leave the next day. His father once said that military generals should avoid making friends. Going to the capital is complicated and one wrong step will arouse the emperor's suspicion. The Ji family has been keeping to themselves for many years, so he can only protect himself. He also avoids this place.
But now he wanted to stay more and more, to stay with his little girl.
There were still wars in the north, and he had her in his heart, and the whole country in his heart, so he didn't spend much time in the capital every year. Sometimes he thought about taking the girl with him, but he rejected it in an instant.
Firstly, it was very cold at the border, and he didn't want her to suffer.
Secondly, the more he showed concern, the more dangerous Qi Ying's situation would become. Various forces were eyeing them covetously, and he dared not take any risks.
But the little girl didn't complain at all.
When he was around, she would accompany him wholeheartedly; when he was not around, she could live happily in the mansion alone without causing him to worry.
Sometimes, he even felt that this was a gift from God in recognition of his contributions in defending his country.
In the past two years, Xixia has always been making small moves under his nose, trying to recover the four border areas that Xixia had assigned to Dajin during the reign of the previous generation of kings.
town.
He left Beijing in the summer, and it has been nearly half a year.
Small-scale battles occurred from time to time, but the Xia people were cunning and always retreated after a fight, so the border remained in a stalemate.
In the winter month, he received a letter from the little girl.
She learned her calligraphy by herself. She was not strong enough to write with strong strokes, so her calligraphy looked a little weird, but it was well-behaved and came out on paper with great care.
The little girl told him that the albizzia tree in the yard was in bloom, and asked him to come back soon to enjoy the flowers.
One can almost imagine her sitting by the window, looking at the flowers and writing.
Ji Rang couldn't help but smile. The tent was suddenly opened and the deputy general walked in hurriedly: "General, Xixia has made another move."
His face darkened and he put the letter into the box.
There was a dried snow lotus in the wooden box, which he had picked himself on the snowy mountain. He planned to take it home and give it to the little girl as a first snow gift this year.
When the wooden box was closed, he whispered in his heart: Wait for me to come back.
But I never thought that this time, he wouldn't be able to come back.
Although he won the battle, there was a traitor in the army who revealed the food route to Western Xia. The food was robbed. Ji Rang led his troops to stop them, but he did not expect that Chen Shang had already colluded with Western Xia and secretly buried troops there.
Even the undefeated god of war could not defeat the fire pouring in from the mountain pass.
Long arrows rained down from the stone walls on both sides, burying the soldiers of the Great Jin Dynasty. Before losing the last bit of consciousness, he could no longer feel the pain in his body.
He was just wondering what to do with his little girl.
When he regained consciousness, he was sitting in a carriage.
Next to it was his coffin.
Ji Rang subconsciously reached out to touch it, and his fingers passed through the blood-stained corpse.
He is dead.
But he still has a trace of soul left in this world
He thought, it was probably a hint of obsession.
Before he died, he still wanted to see his little girl again.
This obsession hovers alone between heaven and earth, unknown to anyone and invisible to everyone, existing only for one person.
A few days later, he finally met the little girl.
She wore a bright red cape, like a peach blossom blooming in the snow, with bright eyes and eyebrows. He knew that she looked good in red.
She was dressed so beautifully and stood at the door to greet her general, but all she got was a coffin and a corpse.
At that moment, the little girl's soft and bright eyes fell to the ground like a mirror, shattered into pieces, and fell into a dark abyss with no escape.
He stood in front of her and whispered her name: "Yingying."
But she could no longer hear.
She threw herself on the coffin and cried until she fainted.
The festive lanterns and window papers were all taken down in the general's mansion; they were happily waiting for him to come back to celebrate the New Year.
White flags fill the sky.
The little girl knelt in front of his mourning hall for a whole day and night. During the day, officials came to pay their respects, and the emperor also came. At night, it gradually became quieter, and the old servants had to prepare for the funeral, so she was the only one left in the mourning hall.
Like a soulless, cracked porcelain doll that will break if touched.
Ji Rang squatted down beside her, feeling extremely distressed. He wanted to hug her and tell her not to be sad, and to look forward to the future, and life would still go on. He believed that Uncle Zhang would make good arrangements for her future.
But he could do nothing. He was just a lonely soul, and even when he gently reached out his hand, he couldn't wipe away her tears.
Ji Rang lowered his head and kissed her lead in the void.
A night breeze blew by.
She seemed to sense something, raised her head suddenly, and called out in a trembling voice: "General?"
Ji Rang reached out and touched her head, his voice bitter: "I'm here, Yingying, be good, don't be sad, okay?"
But she couldn't hear it.
She just stared into space for a long time, then smiled desperately.
The wake ended in the evening of the next day.
She supported herself on the ground with her palms and slowly stood up. She had been kneeling for too long and stumbled when she stood up. Ji Rang wanted to help her up, but his arms only grasped at nothing.
Fortunately, she did not fall down. She took a deep look at the coffin in front of the hall, then turned and walked out. There were too many people coming to pay their respects, and people were coming and going in the mansion, so no one noticed her.
Ji Rang looked at his gradually fading body, not knowing when he would completely disappear. Feeling deeply uneasy, he followed Qi Ying back to the west courtyard.
I saw the little girl took out a white silk.
At that moment, the soul, which had long lost the sense of pain, was almost torn apart.
“Yingying!”
Ji Rang roared and rushed over, trying to pick her up.
But it's no use.
It's no use no matter what.
Even though his throat was roaring with blood, she couldn't hear his voice.
No matter how hard he tried, he could only pass through her body like a gust of wind.
He could only watch as his beloved girl ended her life in the warm evening light.
I can't cry.
It was as if the whole soul was shattered into ashes.
Outside the window, the tree of Albizia Julibrissin swayed in the wind, its pompom-like flowers blooming gorgeously. It was just as beautiful as she had described in her letter.
I saw it.
Such beautiful flowers, and such beautiful you.
The figure kneeling on the ground gradually became transparent in the faint light.
He sobbed silently, and a tear of blood fell from the corner of his eye.
His consciousness gradually blurred, and the last lonely soul clinging to this world was about to disappear. The setting sun came in from the window, and he raised his head slightly and looked at the golden halo.
If God really has mercy on all living things, please give me a little of that mercy.
If there is an afterlife, I would like to exchange all my achievements and honors in this life for the chance to stay with my girl forever.
Even if you are in hell, you can still step on Shuras.
For eternity, I don’t care.
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