Before leaving, she specifically told Cuiwei: "Don't tell anyone where I'm going, especially the Jiang sisters."
Cuiwei nodded cautiously: "Miss, you must come back quickly. What if Prince Yan comes looking for you and doesn't see you?"
"Nothing. If he comes, just say I'm bored and want to go out for a walk. I can't help it if I don't let you follow me." Su Qian felt that Cui Wei was overthinking it, and added, "He is busy. How can he have so much time to come to me? Besides, he just came at dinner time yesterday. He won't come today. Don't worry."
…
Su Qian stopped a passerby and asked, "Hey, buddy, do you know which teahouse is bustling around here?"
The passerby glanced at her and asked, "Are you from out of town?"
Su Qian nodded: "Exactly."
The passerby added, "The most lively place in this area is the Mingxiang Pavilion in front. There are storytellers telling stories there, but lately, the stories they tell aren't very good."
Su Qian noticed something and asked, "How can it not be a good story?"
"Just a few days ago, when Lu Huan led his troops to station in Zhiyi City, the local people regarded him as a great hero and savior. Some scholars wrote poems praising him, which were then widely circulated in the streets and alleys. Teahouses then adapted them into stories and told them every day in the teahouses."
"It would have been fine if he had told the story a few days ago. After all, no one knew at that time that he had evil intentions and was trying to shift the blame to someone else. But now everyone in the city knows that Lu Huan is a traitor who murdered his own father and former comrades, and even left our Zhiyi City unattended. But now, this story is still being sung in teahouses. It's really... really nonsense." The passerby said angrily.
Su Qian was thoughtful. "I see. Thank you for your guidance, big brother."
Su Qian said goodbye to the passerby and turned to walk in the direction he pointed.
When she arrived at the door, before entering the teahouse, she could already hear the storyteller's voice, accompanied by the boos and jeers of the tea drinkers. The two sounds came one after another. Su Qian could hear that the audience did not agree with the story, but the number of people in the teahouse did not decrease. They were still sitting in the hall, drinking tea, eating melon seeds and listening to the story.
Su Qian entered the teahouse and looked around. The interior decoration was very classical and simple, exquisite and elegant. It was a good place to drink tea.
She asked for a private room and went up to the second floor to sit down. The window of the private room was open and a screen was used to cover her face. Su Qian could vaguely see the storyteller.
The storyteller, about thirty years old, sat calmly at the tea table, telling stories and occasionally pausing to sip tea. He seemed quite content. "Speaking of Lu Huanna, he's a pitiful man, too."
Someone in the audience immediately objected: "Hey, sir, you're not right. How can a butcher be pitiful? He killed his father and abandoned the city. He is a traitor to our Nanchang Kingdom."
The storyteller stroked his beard calmly and said, "My dear brother, as the saying goes, there must be something hateful about a pitiful person, but there must also be something tragic and painful about a hateful person."
"Pathetic?" A man sneered, "He's the only legitimate son of a first-rank general stationed in the country. He's been raised in luxury, pampered and doted on. He's enjoyed all the wealth and glory that poor people like me only dream of. What's so pathetic about him?"
The storyteller said, "There are thousands of kinds of suffering in this world, but the hardship of the poor people making ends meet is not one of them."
The man said again, "Tell me about it."
The storyteller took a sip of tea and slowly spoke, "As for Lu Huan, his biological father, Lu Guang, was a First-Rank General of the Nanchang State, in charge of military affairs. However, his biological mother was only the daughter of a Third-Rank County Magistrate. Their statuses were not compatible, and they should not have had any contact.
But who would have thought that one day, General Lu Guang won a battle and was ambushed by the enemy on his way back to the capital. He was seriously injured and had to stay temporarily at the county magistrate's residence to recuperate. As a result, the county magistrate's daughter unexpectedly fell in love with the general.
"Then what?"
"The county magistrate's daughter knew she and the general were worlds apart, so she didn't dare beg to marry him, and so she kept her feelings a secret. But somehow, later on, these two people, despite their vastly different statuses, actually ended up together."
The people in the audience began to discuss, asking, "Could it be that the general was moved by the county magistrate's daughter's thoughtfulness?"
Storyteller: “Probably.”
"The general and the county magistrate's daughter held their wedding in Qiongzhou. After that, the county magistrate's daughter said goodbye to the county magistrate and set off with the general on the road to Shangjing.
General Lu treated his wife with respect after their marriage, and he kept no concubines or maids. Two years after their marriage, his wife gave birth to a son, whom he named Lu Huan. Huan means to awaken, to awaken, and it was said that the birth of this son awakened General Lu's paternal love.
After the wife gave birth to the legitimate son Lu Huan, the general took him to his side and taught him personally, without burdening the wife at all. This shows how deeply the general loves him.
Su Qian thought, isn’t this great?
There is nothing sad about having loving parents, fine clothes and delicious food, and being taught by the father himself. Such an background is already better than 95% of people.
She grabbed a handful of melon seeds and continued listening to the storyteller.
"If the story ended here, it would be perfect, but things are unpredictable."
"When Lu Huan was eight years old, the general's wife died in childbirth. Less than a month later, General Lu Guang married the emperor's younger sister, Princess Nankang. Although Lu Huan had little contact with his biological mother since childhood, she was still his biological mother after all. How could she be so heartless?
When the general's wife passed away, he was still a child, preoccupied with the grief of his mother's passing. Before he could think of anything else, he had a nominal stepmother. Furthermore, Princess Nankang was lively and cheerful, and after their marriage, she often talked to the general about their love for him. This left General Lu Guang with even less time to spend with Lu Huan, and the father-son relationship gradually faded.
Hearing this, Su Qian suddenly thought of a sentence: "Without mom, there is also no dad."
Thinking that Lu Huanying was like this, and that he was actually able to kill his own father, it seemed that the gap between him and Lu Guang was deep.
Su Qian felt that the melon seeds in her hand no longer tasted good. How could she persuade a man who hated his own father and country?
Moreover, Lu Huan wanted to kill her. He was just letting her go for the time being.
Although she was resurrected after being killed last time, who knows if she can be resurrected again next time.
Lu Huan is a very troublesome person.
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