Chapter 37 I've suppressed you for five years, don't you hate me?
They said he was "on his way back to the manor," but after asking around, I learned that Xiao Jinghong had just set off from Guangyuan in northern Shuzhou and was expected to arrive in five days.
As for the birthday gift she prepared, it was beyond Chen Yi's expectations. He didn't expect her to be as thoughtful as Xiao Wan'er.
Yan Hongshen carefully instructed his men to carry the box into Chunhe Garden, and introduced it as follows:
"It was carved from a giant tortoise shell specially sourced from Guangyue Prefecture and is named 'The Three Elements of Fortune, Prosperity and Longevity Gather Together'."
On the nearly ten-foot-long tortoise shell, three figures with different expressions were carved in openwork: one holding a peach, one holding a gold ingot, and one holding a "Fu" character.
The inside of the tortoise shell was filled with a crystalline, resin-like substance.
It was immediately apparent that it was a valuable piece, and that it could not have been carved overnight; it must have been a generous gift prepared by Xiao Jinghong months or even a year or two in advance.
After reading it, Chen Yi closed the box again.
After thinking for a moment, he instructed Xiaodie to go find the framing master from before and ask about the progress of the birthday greeting.
Ten days have passed, and even if it's inlaid with gold and jade, it should be finished by now.
Then Chen Yi led Xiao Wuge back to the pavilion, took out his fishing rod, and began his fishing expedition for the day.
He refused to believe that not a single fish could be caught in this pond; were they just born to clash?
Yan Hong stared at his retreating figure, slightly taken aback, and whispered to Wang Lixing beside him:
"Has your son-in-law always been like this?"
Wang Lixing did not answer immediately, but waved his hand to indicate that they should talk outside.
Upon arriving outside Chunhe Garden, where he met up with Ge Laosan and the others, Wang Lixing glanced around and asked, "Where's Fourth Brother?"
Ge Laosan said, "Fourth Brother said he has something to do and needs to go back. I reckon he should be back soon."
Wang Lixing frowned slightly, then calmed down and said to Yan Hong beside him:
“My son-in-law has been much more settled lately. At first, he spent his days in the side room reading and copying the family rules.”
"After that, the eldest young lady let him stay in the garden, and the young master spent his days fishing and drinking tea, occasionally practicing calligraphy and reading books, until the second young lady sent a letter, at which point he was allowed to leave the mansion."
When Chen Yi left the mansion twice, Wang Lixing looked slightly awkward, and he found it difficult to say what followed.
The last time he went to the brothel in the south of the city, he brought the young master with him, which angered the second master and resulted in punishment.
The next time was even more bizarre; it was said that they went to watch the third-ranked scholar parade through the streets.
In an attempt to help Li Huaigu and Yunniang, he pretended to be a villain and tried to abduct a woman, almost getting himself beaten by the officials in the manor's punishment hall.
After listening, Yan Hong said thoughtfully, "The son-in-law seems to have changed a lot compared to before."
"Oh?" Wang Lixing thought for a moment, "I forgot, when the son-in-law came to Shuzhou before, you were in charge of accompanying him."
Yan Hong nodded, a hint of emotion appearing on his face: "My son-in-law almost ruined me that time he ran away from the wedding."
Wang Lixing said with sympathy, "When we heard the news that he had run away from the wedding, my fourth brother and I were guarding the mansion. It was truly unexpected."
Yan Hong smiled wryly and said, "It's strange, but that day the wedding procession set off from Fengchun Tower in the north of the city. They hadn't gone far when they encountered another wedding procession. After some back and forth, the groom ran away."
"Fortunately, the second young lady later led us to find him, which allowed us to atone for our sins. Otherwise, my brothers and I would have lost our heads."
Wang Lixing patted him on the shoulder, offered a few words of comfort, and asked, "Did the Second Miss discover anything during her inspection of the three towns?"
Yan Hong glanced at him and shook his head: "Not for now."
Seeing that he was being evasive, Wang Lixing did not ask any further questions, as many matters concerning military affairs were classified.
Getting a simple "nothing happened" is enough.
...
The front courtyard of the Xiao residence.
Liu Si'er was dressed in full armor, with his helmet fastened and his neck guard pulled down, almost covering half of his face.
He calmly went to the back room on the right side of the main gate and knocked on the door of the innermost room.
Before the person inside could speak, he tossed in a yellowed slip of paper and whispered, "Urgent matters require expediency. Don't blame me for breaking the rules."
"This is the last letter for now; the Second Miss will be returning to the manor soon."
After saying that, Liu Si'er reached out and took the gourd hanging inside the door, loudly saying "thank you" as he went back the way he came.
Uncle Gui, inside the door, watched him walk away expressionlessly before opening the secret letter in his hand and glancing at it.
Then he found a play script, rewrote a secret letter based on it, destroyed the one provided by Liu Si'er, and slowly walked out of the Xiao residence.
An hour later, a carrier pigeon flew out of the tailor shop in the East Market of the city.
A day later, the carrier pigeon landed in a house in a small town called "Guangyuan" in northern Shuzhou.
Before an incense stick's time had passed, a falcon, much larger than a carrier pigeon, took flight from the courtyard and soared straight into the sky.
Two more days have passed.
As the eagles rose and fell, they traversed tens of thousands of miles, flying from Shu Prefecture to the capital.
The magnificent and vast Kyoto Prefecture was like a floating cloud in its eyes. It flew straight towards the imperial city to the north and landed on the top of a five-story cloud tower called "Fengyue Tower" south of the imperial city.
It was clearly not its first time here. After landing, it began to peck at the insects and snakes in the food box and swallow them whole.
Soon, a man dressed in a black robe and wearing a plain white mask, with only his eyes showing, rushed over.
He untied the letter box from the falcon's leg, then hurried downstairs, pushed open a mahogany door, ignored the masked person sitting quietly at the desk inside, and went straight to the bookshelf on the side to find a book of Peking Opera.
After carefully checking and verifying the deciphering to ensure there were no omissions, he finally breathed a sigh of relief and handed the translation to a red-robed figure who had been waiting outside the door.
"My lord, a letter has arrived from Shu Prefecture, from Yi Shang."
"Wait here."
The person in the red robe also wore a mask, but the mask had more patterns than the one in the black robe, like tiger stripes.
He took the deciphered letter and went to the deepest part of the third floor, gently knocking twice on the latticed wooden door.
"Lord, a letter has arrived from Shu Prefecture."
There was no sound coming from inside, so he didn't speak again, remaining in a slightly bowed posture, motionless like a wooden figure.
About the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, a slightly hoarse voice came out: "Come in."
The man in the red robe bowed again, gently pushed open the wooden door, closed it, and then knelt on the ground without raising his head.
This is an extremely spacious room, well-ventilated from north to south. Sunlight and gentle breezes stream through the windows, illuminating the golden-red floor and brightening everything inside.
But all around was empty except for a table, a chair, and a figure sitting in front of the table.
He wore a plain white robe, the loose robe accentuating his broad back and waist. He wore a white mask with black patterns on his face, and the character "王" (king) between his eyebrows was clearly visible, which was actually the head of a white tiger.
"read."
The man in red robes gently unfolded the paper in his hand. "Xiao Jinghong will soon return to Shuzhou to celebrate the birthday of Marquis Dingyuan. The cup that His Majesty bestowed upon Marquis Dingyuan has broken. The fledgling has already befriended Li Huaigu, the third-ranked scholar."
After reading it, he closed the paper and knelt down again.
The white-robed figure at the desk stared at a piece of paper on it. The right side of the paper was inscribed with the words "Shuidiao Getou: Celebrating Marquis Xiao's Birthday," and the signature in the lower left corner read: "In the twenty-first year of Anhe, Chen Qingzhou congratulates Marquis Dingyuan on his sixtieth birthday."
Looking at him, the figure in white robes asked softly, "Can you find out who helped the fledgling escape her arranged marriage that day?"
The man in the red robe paused. "There's no news yet. The Hawk only says that someone set this up."
The figure in white robes hummed in agreement and said unhurriedly, "It's nothing more than those few prominent families in Shu Prefecture not wanting to see the Xiao family rise again."
"You mean the Liu family, Master?"
"It doesn't matter who it is. The messenger hawk has given the fledgling some bait; it's time for him to taste the power."
"Furthermore, I ordered someone to go to the palace to report and inquire whether His Majesty intended to bestow upon the old Marquis another seven-colored glass cup as a birthday gift."
"yes."
The man in the red robe dared not say more. He bent down, left the room, closed the door, and then straightened up and hurriedly left.
After a while.
The figure in white robes raised the sheet of paper with cloud and pine patterns in front of him and examined it carefully.
"The strokes are powerful and expressive, conveying a sense of freedom and evocative imagery... Beautiful calligraphy, truly beautiful calligraphy."
After saying "good" twice, he sighed, "It's a pity that the ambition and hatred between the lines are gone."
After saying that, he gently shook the cloud-patterned paper twice with his fingers.
Then the entire sheet of Yunsong paper turned into tiny fragments, which drifted out of the window with a gust of wind that seemed to come from nowhere.
The figure in white robes flickered his fingers, a faint glint of light flashing in his usually calm eyes, as he murmured to himself:
"I've suppressed you for five years, don't you hate me?"
(End of this chapter)
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