remember
Shen Yunqiu tried his best to suppress his anger, and clenched his fists tightly in his sleeves, almost squeezing his palms to bleed.
He was already a crippled being, with not much time left to live, and his father, mother, and grandmother had left him to fend for himself. Knowing that he had a disability in both legs, they even sent a maid to humiliate him! With such behavior, did they really think he was a soft persimmon that could be manipulated at will?
Shen Yunqiu was furious, but he heard the servant chuckle and said in a carefree tone, "Young Master, don't be angry. If you have any objections, why don't you go out and talk to the old lady yourself? Why embarrass me?"
"you---"
Shen Yunqiu could no longer restrain himself. He picked up the inkstone at hand and threw it at the servant. However, his body was too weak and he could not control it. The inkstone fell to the ground before it hit the servant's feet. He fell limply from the wheelchair and could only rely on his elbows to support his trembling body. He looked very embarrassed.
Standing blankly beside the wooden door carved with intricate patterns, Suxi saw his own shadow stretching out in front of him. At the end of the shadow, the young man was gasping for breath, half raising his body and looking up. Veins were densely popped on his forehead, as if such a simple action had exhausted all his strength.
"Haven't you seen enough? If you have, get out of here."
The voice was so low and barely audible that the servant left in satisfaction without even saying a word.
For a moment, the blood in his chest surged. Shen Yunqiu tried his best to raise his eyelids and glared at the little girl who was still standing a few steps away. Suddenly, he lost strength and spat out a mouthful of blood.
"Chen Yunqiu!"
Su Xi snapped back to her senses, no longer minding the strange events of the day. She hurried over, lifted the man from her arms, and helped him back into his wheelchair. She pulled a handkerchief from her lapel to wipe the blood from the man's lips, while stroking his chest to soothe his breathing. Only when no more blood fell from his lips did Su Xi breathe a sigh of relief. Turning around, she caught a glimpse of Shen Yunqiu staring at her face with a strange expression, his eyes filled with confusion.
His heart trembled, Su Xi quickly withdrew his hand, squatted down and dipped the handkerchief in the copper basin to wash it, but his mind was extremely confused, as if he was waiting for the man to say something, but was also a little afraid that he would speak.
He waited tremblingly like this for a long while, until the handkerchief was rubbed off by himself, and then the voice behind him sounded again.
"If you're so afraid of me, then just leave now. There's no need to force yourself to take care of a useless person like me."
"Master, I am not afraid."
"Not afraid? Then why are you crying?"
Hearing this, Su Xi suddenly stopped what he was doing. Only then did he realize that his nose was sticky and his voice became nasal.
She felt a little embarrassed for a moment and wanted to find a hole to crawl into immediately, but Shen Yunqiu seemed to understand and let out a long "oh".
"You saw that I was about to die, and you were probably afraid that you would be buried with me as soon as you entered the mansion. Don't worry, I can still hold on until winter, which is enough for you to escape. Although the Shen family has omnipotent power in Qingzhou, once you leave Qingzhou, no one will bother to find the whereabouts of a little maid like you, let alone my maid."
Shen Yunqiu hadn't spoken so much in a long time and was exhausted, but he didn't hear any response for a long time.
But he probably knew what this ugly and plain little girl was thinking.
"Hey, little girl, you don't have to worry about money. Since you're already miserable enough, you can take all the valuables in my room. I won't need them anyway. When the time comes, you can pawn them at the shop and get a lot of gold and silver, enough to last you half a lifetime..."
The sudden wailing interrupted Shen Yunqiu's weak words.
He was stunned for a moment, until all the unfinished words were blocked back into his throat by the crying. Shen Yunqiu burped and felt at a loss for the first time in his life.
"Hey, you...what's wrong with you?"
The little girl seemed to be extremely angry. She threw the handkerchief into the basin with a bang, and suddenly stood up and turned around. Her nose was red and swollen, and her face was covered with tear marks, which made the scar on her face even more ridiculous.
"Chen Yunqiu, the old lady said you won't live past the New Year, is that true?"
"New Year's Eve?"
Shen Yunqiu felt a chill in his heart when he thought of the doctor's diagnosis half a year ago.
His grandmother really remembered the date of his death clearly.
After collecting his thoughts, Shen Yunqiu raised his head and looked at the little maidservant in front of him who was crying breathlessly with a bit of amusement: "What do you think? Looking at me like this, can I still be healthy and live a long life? But you, little girl, are so brave that you dare to call me by my name? Aren't you afraid of me..."
"So what if I call you by my name? You're almost dead, what else can you do to me? I'm telling you, Shen Yunqiu, you want to drive me away? No way! I have to stay and pester you, and I'll make you unhappy every day, so that you won't be able to rest in peace even when you're almost dead!"
There was another bang, and the door was slammed halfway. On the other side, the girl's back was seen running away in anger, just like a young woman who had caught her husband cheating on her. Shen Yunqiu pushed the wheelchair to the front of the door and saw that the girl seemed to open the door of the side room very skillfully and went in. He didn't feel angry at all, but instead felt a very strange feeling.
To this day, he has become accustomed to the flattery, praising the powerful and bullying the weak, and the fickleness of human nature in this corrupt Shen family. He has long been able to identify the hypocritical masks hidden under false concern. Of course, he can also see that although the little girl seems to be aggressive, she is actually quite sincere.
It was clearly their first meeting, so why would she care about someone like me, someone she had nothing to do with? Why did she look at him with such strange eyes, as if they had known each other for a long time?
"What a weirdo."
Thinking so hard that it gave him a headache, Chen Yunqiu muttered to himself, then closed the door and pushed the wooden wheel into the house.
-
In the middle of the night, everything is quiet. The autumn wind in the yard sweeps through the fallen leaves like the sound of ghosts, which makes people feel scared.
In a side room in the West Garden, Suxi rested on a moldy pillow she'd found in a wooden cabinet, covered by a damp, dusty quilt. She felt a chill permeating her entire body, unable to sleep. Her head felt like a million grasshoppers were dancing. Annoyed, she turned over, crouched on the edge of the bed, and peered through the small hole in the window paper at the bright yellow light streaming from the main house across the street. The flickering candlelight cast a hazy shadow on the figure lying peacefully within the bed curtains.
This hasn't changed.
Su Xi thought that in his previous life, Chen Yunqiu also liked to sleep with the lights on. She even secretly laughed at this spoiled young master in her heart. He was a real man and not young anymore, but he was still afraid of the dark.
Laughing secretly in his heart, Suxi supported his sleepy head with his elbows. The grasshoppers in his brain gradually stopped jumping, and the halo in front of his eyes became more and more diffuse, and then diffused again, turning into the warm sun hanging in the sky.
When he opened his eyes again, Suxi saw a girl in a scarlet jacket and with two silly buns pushing a heavy-looking carved ebony wheelchair on the gravel road. She passed through the half-moon archway and stared blankly at the man in the wheelchair with his long black hair half-tied behind his head.
She had already imagined the demonic and ugly image of the Shen family thousands of times in her mind. She didn't expect that the young master of the Shen family had such a handsome face, with sword-like eyebrows, bright eyes, a straight nose and thin lips. He looked exactly like a handsome young man in a picture book.
"That pretty boy is definitely not a good person."
The girl pursed her lips and muttered quietly, but she heard the man suddenly chuckle. She came back to her senses and realized that she had pushed the wheelchair to the door of the main house in the West Garden. The wheelchair was so bumpy that the thin blanket covering the young master's knees fell to his feet, crumpled into a mess, and she almost stepped on it.
Alarm bells suddenly rang in his heart. Su Xi hurriedly picked up the blanket and rubbed it on his clothes again and again, fearing that he would be beaten before he could take revenge, which would be a waste of time.
"Young Master, it was all due to my carelessness. Please be magnanimous and forgive me!"
When the blanket was handed to her, she was almost too scared to open her eyes, and her hands trembled even more violently in the long silence.
"Master, I know your things are valuable. If you don't mind, I will wash them and return them to you. Or you can wait and buy you a new one when I get my monthly salary..."
The soft touch in her hand suddenly disappeared, and the woman suddenly opened her eyes, and saw that the blue-gray thin blanket had been pulled back by the man.
"May I have your name?"
Does this mean punishment?
Her heart skipped a beat. Suxi lowered her head and twisted her fingers in annoyance. Her voice was as trembling as a mosquito's buzzing: "My name is Xiaoxi..."
"Creek, creek."
The young man repeated it in a low voice, dragging out the last syllable, and it was unknown what he was thinking about.
However, Su Xi heard a hint of tenderness in the voice and couldn't help but get goose bumps all over his body.
"Xiaoxi, please help me cover it."
"Yes." Su Xi pretended to be respectful and squatted down to carefully place the blanket on the man's knees, pressing the corners through the wheelchair armrests. When he looked up, he saw the young man staring at his face without blinking. His eyes, which reflected the sun's halo like spring water, contained inexplicable emotions. The look was very strange, as if he was facing a bowl of exquisitely shaped hibiscus ice cream in Fu Yu Tower. He wanted to swallow it in one bite, but was reluctant to waste such a beautiful and exquisite pastry. He tossed and turned, staring at it for a long time, unable to eat.
But I am different from that Hibiscus Ice Cream. How could someone stare at such an ugly face like this? Or is it...
Su Xi only realized her identity as a maid belatedly and jumped up in fright. She looked at the young man in the wheelchair with great vigilance. However, the young man completely ignored her startled behavior and pushed open the door and walked into the room on the wooden wheel.
"Come in."
Hearing the sound, Su Xi bravely followed inside. He saw a bed placed against each wall of the main house in the West Garden, separated by a screen. Inside, the soft couch was covered with fluffy bedding. A soft, gold-thread pillow rested on the top of the bed, and a lifelike rag doll, resembling a yellow and white raccoon, crouched beside it. A curtain hung from hooks dangling from the beams. The black curtain was intricately woven, with a light, thin inner layer and a rich, luxurious outer layer. It was clearly made of the finest Shu brocade. Such fine fabric could only be afforded by the Su family and the wealthy families of Qingzhou.
For a moment, Su Xi didn't know whether he was dazed or angry. He was afraid that the young master would notice that something was wrong with his expression, so he turned his back in panic and pretended to admire the curtain, quietly raising his hand to wipe away the tears that could not help falling from his face.
"Little girl," Shen Yunqiu glanced at the darkening sky by the window and spoke slowly, "I'm letting you know in advance. This young master is used to sleeping with the lights on at night. If you don't like it, just draw the bed curtains. Do you understand?"
"Master, what did you say?" Su Xi did not dare to neglect and turned around quickly. However, it took him a while to understand the meaning of Shen Yunqiu's words. His eyes suddenly widened: "You...you mean, this soft couch is prepared for me? But..."
Seeing the girl's eyes wandering back and forth between the two beds, Shen Yunqiu suddenly chuckled, as if he could see through the hidden thoughts that she dared not say out loud:
"Don't overthink it. This young master won't force you to do anything, nor will he bully you like a maid. Few people come here on weekdays, so you don't have to feel constrained. Just sit by the stream and do what you want. As for this bed, I just arranged it casually because I was afraid you'd miss home. I usually don't sleep much at night, so you'll feel more comfortable sleeping here."
The man said it calmly, but Su Xi really couldn't believe his ears.
She really couldn't believe what the Shen family said, but she subconsciously listened to it and took it to heart. Somehow, the emotions that had been suppressed for many days suddenly burst out like a mountain torrent bursting through a dam, and she could no longer suppress it.
No longer caring about revenge plans or being cautious, Suxi burst into tears, unconsciously thinking of her father and mother who loved her so much, the raccoon cat at home, the soft bed, the golden abacus, and the sunny day when her father pushed the swing, swinging her and her mother high up...
The more she thought about it, the more uncomfortable she felt, and the more suffocated she felt. The girl's tears seemed to never stop flowing. She thought that after she had behaved like this, the young master should probably punish her. This was perfect, as she could finally be free and reunite with her parents in the underground.
But the crying became more and more shrill and louder, but the man just sat there motionless and said nothing, as if he was not angry at all, and was not curious about why the woman in front of him suddenly lost her composure.
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