Mr. Lei He
"Chen Yunqiu, how are you? Are you okay?"
It took a long time for Shen Yunqiu to come back to his senses. Just as he was about to answer, he just moved his lips when the cut on his face by the wooden stick suddenly made him frown, which made him feel a little embarrassed for a moment.
"Now that's good! I used to laugh at you, but now I have to have a scar on my face too."
Su Xi ignored his self-deprecating joke and just looked at him with a scrutinizing look in his eyes.
"Why did Shen Wenzhao suddenly attack you? Is it because you stood up for me that time, or is it..."
Suxi suddenly remembered the unexpected scene he saw under the corridor.
"It's none of your business. I was so angry at the banquet today that I secretly said a few words to him. He couldn't get angry at the time, so he just wanted to get back at me."
After saying that, Shen Yunqiu saw Su Xi's angry and worried expression.
"Why did you provoke him? Don't you know he'll retaliate? Since there's no chance of winning, why do you still do such a foolish thing that hurts the enemy by eight hundred and hurts yourself by a thousand? Do you know that if I hadn't arrived in time, you would be dead today! If you die, I will be buried with you tomorrow!"
"I'm sorry, I won't do this again." Shen Yunqiu couldn't tell whether the girl's eyes showed more worry or blame, but he suddenly felt that he was a little ridiculous, as if the worry and heartache in her eyes could ease the pain in his body.
"But I don't know what's wrong with me today. I used to be used to enduring it, but today I just can't help it at all. It's like I have to fight for it, even though..."
Even though he had guessed that Shen Wenzhao would not let him go easily, he did not want to endure it any longer even if he was beaten to death.
Why?
He thought it was probably because he had someone to lean on. Although this support wasn't very strong, it at least gave him some leverage. Like today, when he was bullied, he didn't have to lick his wounds alone; at least there was someone to comfort him, someone who cared about him.
Shen Yunqiu came back to her senses and saw that Su Xi was no longer by her side. Instead, she was dragging Shen Wenzhao's limp body outwards little by little until they were far enough away from Xiyuan. She then hurried back, expressionlessly put her arm around his arm, placed it on his broken wheelchair, and pushed him into the house.
-
In the main house of the West Garden, Su Xi sat on a couch draped with plain white curtains at the head of the bed, scooping a spoonful of icy, cold wound medicine and rubbing it onto the man's bare back. As the paste touched his skin, she noticed that a large area of his back instantly turned red, even slightly concealing the purple and bloodshot bruises.
Looking up and seeing the boy's equally red ears, Su Xi smiled inwardly, but this joking mood could not last long. She scooped out another spoonful of ointment and thought deeply about the many things that happened tonight.
When she saw Lao Liu asking the Shen family for money, she was only filled with anger and fear. When she saw the guards killing people with her own eyes, she was even more scared. It was really a pity that she lost such an important witness.
but······
Old Liu was a member of the Lin family in his early years. Even if he was lured and bribed by the huge benefits of the Shen family, he should have asked Shen Pingchang for money. Why did he keep calling her Madam and saying that he had inherited the old relationship with the Lin family? Could it be...
Lin family? Lin family?
Could it be that this Lin was also an old member of the Lin family? And was Lin not only aware of Shen Pingchang's series of frame-ups, but was he even involved in them?
"hiss--"
With a light chuckle, Su Xi realized that he had used too much force in his hand, leaving a white mark on the red and swollen bruise on the man's shoulder. When he took his fingers away, the white mark slowly disappeared.
"By the way, Shen Yunqiu, was Madam from the Lin Cloth Shop back then?"
"Why are you asking this?" Shen Yunqiu suddenly turned around and looked at her with some confusion. "Besides, do you think it's appropriate to talk in this state?"
Hearing this, Su Xi realized that she was a little embarrassed. She hurriedly put on a clean undershirt that she found in the closet for Shen Yunqiu. However, she saw the boy opposite her staring at her face with an inquiring look, so she had to turn her head away uncomfortably.
"Little girl, you seem to be very interested in our Shen family's affairs."
"How could that be? I'm just curious, just curious."
Chen Yunqiu nodded, seemingly not intending to delve into the matter further. After a brief pause, he spoke, "I'm not very clear about this matter. I just remember that when I was a child, I happened to hear my father and mother arguing fiercely. During the argument, they mentioned something about the Lin's cloth shop. My father slammed the door and left. My mother sat on the ground and cried for a long time. When she saw me come in, she hugged me and cried for a while, then pushed me away and told me to get out."
Is that so?
It seemed that Lin was indeed from the Lin Cloth Shop. Furthermore, since she was surnamed Lin, she was probably a daughter of some noble family, or perhaps a cousin.
"What are you thinking? Why don't you apply the medicine to me? Are you really going to wait until I'm disfigured before you're happy?"
Su Xi came back to his senses and saw Shen Yunqiu pointing at his face. He picked up a little ointment and spread it evenly on his fingertips. He gently touched the long cut on the boy's cheek and blew a breath. Shen Yunqiu shuddered suddenly, and goose bumps appeared all over his face, but they couldn't cover up the blush on his face.
"laugh--"
Su Xi couldn't help laughing, and saw that Shen Yunqiu's already flushed cheeks were even redder, just like a monkey's butt.
In her previous life, this man always looked deeply sad. She had no idea that he had such an innocent and shy side, just like a good girl being teased by a frivolous playboy.
When he thought of this, Su Xi couldn't help but be stunned for a moment.
She didn't know when it started, but she once again confused this person with Shen Yunqiu from her previous life, even though the two were so different.
"What are you laughing at? You dare to laugh at me, young master? Don't you want your wages?"
This time, Suxi found that what Chen Yunqiu said was not "I don't want to live anymore" or "I'm tired of living", "Do you want to die?", etc., and he felt a little strange for a moment.
"Master Xiao, you blush so easily. Have you never been around a little girl?"
“How could it be!”
Shen Yunqiu gnashed his teeth, as if he was furious.
"You don't know, but two years ago, I was a famous storyteller and poetry master in Qingzhou. Teahouses and taverns of all sizes in Qingzhou were circulating my storytelling and poetry collections. I don't know how many young girls sent me letters expressing their admiration for me! If I hadn't concealed my identity, I'm afraid the threshold of the Shen Mansion would have been trampled down by now!"
For some reason, Su Xi felt a strange resentment when hearing this, but he still pretended to be disdainful: "Really? You must be lying! How can a young master like you who has never been in contact with a girl write a storybook? Besides, I have never heard of such a person as you in Qingzhou."
"If you haven't heard of me, then you must have heard of Mr. Lei He."
Chen Yunqiu raised his voice, a confident smile plastered across his face, as if expecting Suxi to jump up in surprise, react in disbelief for a moment, and then exclaim with overwhelming joy, "So you're the famous Mr. Lei He from Qingzhou!"
However, Suxi was just stunned for a long time, without any surprise on his face, and even the astonishment was so barely noticeable.
"Mr. Leihe..."
Su Xi murmured softly, remembering that in his previous life, after the Su family fell, he hurried back to Qingzhou. After burying his parents, he heard that there was an extremely famous man in Qingzhou named Lei He, who had disappeared for more than a year. Now he suddenly came out of seclusion and wrote a poem called "Ascending the Clouds".
The poem has only eight sentences, but it is concise and to the point. It directly says that Shen Pingchang is a vicious person who harmed his wife, framed his best friend, and forged the Su family's silver bill case, just to rise to the top and take advantage of the situation. The last sentence "The luck of the young man in the black shed is a thousand years, and the heart of the emperor is unpredictable" was circulated in every household for a while. Since then, Shen Pingchang sent a large number of government officials and soldiers to search for Mr. Leihe, and silenced the people. The people who were originally skeptical suddenly knew about Shen Pingchang's evil deeds, and all of them cursed and ridiculed him.
At that time, after Su Xi entered the Shen Mansion, he secretly went to the storyteller in the restaurant to look for this man, but no one knew the true identity of Mr. Lei He, let alone his name and address.
“So it’s you…”
Shen Yunqiu finally heard those words as he wished. However, the girl's eyes, devoid of any joy, made him feel extremely frustrated. He even felt as if those eyes were looking at him, but also as if they were looking through him at someone else.
"Hey, girl, haven't you ever read Mr. Lei He's storybooks? Even if you haven't read the storybooks, you must have heard of poetry! Don't tell me you haven't heard of poetry either?"
Shen Yunqiu was anxious to save face and kept on talking, but Su Xi couldn't hear a word he said. He just felt that everything was very strange and something was wrong.
If Shen Yunqiu was truly Mr. Lei He, then as the son of Shen Pingchang, it made sense that he couldn't stand Shen Pingchang's hypocrisy and would compose a poem to mock him. But in this life, when she returned, she had clearly already been a maid in the Shen family. Why hadn't she heard of Mr. Lei He's new poem being spread throughout Qingzhou? Why was this return so different from her previous life? And...
Why wasn't Shen Yunqiu surprised at all when he learned her true identity? Why did he wear that bracelet? Why did he know so many of her habits and treat her so specially? Could it be...
Could it be that he had come back to life in his previous life? But if so, why didn't he fight back if he knew what had happened? Why didn't he expose Shen Pingchang's conspiracy, but only wrote a poem to satirize her, and even watched her kill several people in the Shen family, and was willing to take the blame for her?
Shen Yunqiu talked for a long time but no one paid any attention to him. He was feeling depressed, but he saw the girl sitting at the head of the bed suddenly stood up absentmindedly and ran to the side room. After a while, she rushed back sweating profusely, holding a bracelet in her hand and shaking it in front of him.
"Have you seen this bracelet?"
"This..." Shen Yunqiu took the bracelet and looked at it carefully for a while, then suddenly started playing with it with great interest.
"How rich were you in the past? You even have such a good thing!"
Seeing his foolish look, Suxi snatched the bracelet away and, unwilling to give up, asked, "Have you ever written a poem called Ascending the Clouds? The last line is 'The fortune of a young man in a black shed lasts for a thousand years, and the emperor's sacred heart is unpredictable.'"
"No, this isn't my poem, but it's pretty good."
Looking at Shen Yunqiu's exceptionally clear eyes, Su Xi finally collapsed and sat back on the bed, thinking about what had happened, but she couldn't figure out why Shen Yunqiu didn't recognize her in this life.
"By the way, this wheelchair is broken. Tomorrow, take me to buy a new one and go to Fu Yu Lou..."
"good."
Su Xi was very upset and didn't want to listen to Shen Yunqiu's chatter anymore. She went straight to the small couch behind the screen, covered herself with the quilt and lay down, leaving Shen Yunqiu sitting there at a loss, wondering why this little girl was so moody.
-
It was midnight, the moon was at its zenith, and Shen Wenzhao turned over in a daze on a deserted path leading from the western garden of the Shen residence to the wild bamboo forest. He was suddenly awakened by a sharp pain in the back of his head.
"hiss---"
Shen Wenzhao staggered to his feet, feeling a splitting headache. When he touched the back of his head, there seemed to be some blood that had not yet completely coagulated.
After drinking too much, Shen Wenzhao looked around and found himself standing in a wild bamboo forest at the end of the small garden. There was no one around, only the strong smell of alcohol mixed with the night wind.
But he clearly remembered that he was full of anger and wanted to teach Shen Yunqiu a lesson. Could it be that he drank too much and fell asleep before reaching Xiyuan?
"Whatever, whatever. Anyway, this young master is magnanimous and doesn't want to bother with a dying useless person."
Shen Wenzhao patted his cheeks to sober up a little, and staggered back to Nanyuan. But as soon as he pushed the door open, the woman who was rummaging around the bed inside also turned around in fear. Their eyes met, and Shen Wenzhao's groggy head instantly cleared up. In the woman's terrified eyes, he kicked her to the ground, his eyes blazing with anger: "Well, you maid are very brave, daring to come to this young master's room to steal things! Now that little beast Shen Yunqiu is getting ahead of me, who do you think you are! Come here--"
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