Let Me Pursue You - Chapter 53

Yuan Cixian moved the little man to her side, and leaned over to signal her to speak quickly.

Lu Shuangyu confirmed to her: “Three baskets have been agreed upon, and one must be selected.”

She nodded: “As long as you speak well and well, I can still teach you the skill of cutting tofu sticks tomorrow.”

This is what she studied in Shuzhou in various ways.

Lu Shuangyu calmed down, and slowly narrated: “Brother is afraid of dogs because of an accident when he was fifteen years old. Seven years ago, brother won the gold medal, was a high school candidate, and rode a horse through the streets with a beard. I heard that, Arguing to come to Chang’an from Luoyang, just to show off my elder brother. The so-called spring breeze is proud of horseshoe disease, and you can see all the flowers in Chang’an in one day.

“The champion and the second place who rode together with my brother that day were all elderly, and the young ladies in Chang’an City all stared at the young brother, throwing flower branches and silk handkerchiefs to him along Zhuque Street. it is good.”

Yuan Cixian listened silently. For some reason, she suddenly felt that this story was familiar, but she couldn’t remember it for a while, so she asked first: “Your brother has already answered it?”

She waved her hand: “My brother was thrown all over the face, how can I catch it, there are too many!”

“Then why did the accident in your mouth come about?”

When Lu Shuangyu said this, she gritted her teeth bitterly: “At such a beautiful time, I don’t know which naughty lady hit my brother’s horse with a slingshot! The horse galloped out after being frightened. After all, my brother was still young at that time, and he was not good at equestrian skills. If it’s not refined enough, it won’t stop no matter what.”

Yuan Cixian bit her lip quietly. The succession and transition of this story is so familiar, as if it was experienced personally.

She thought for a while, and then asked: “Your brother… did he fall from the horse later?”

“That’s right!” Lu Shuangyu said angrily, “Brother was knocked down, what a coincidence, I don’t know whose dog was not tied properly, before he had time to get up, he leaned over and sniffed, and then Stretched out his fat tongue and licked his mouth!” Lu Shuangyu felt aggrieved for her elder brother, “It’s nothing more than embarrassing scenes like this. Brother has been clean since he was a child. shadows, and it hurts to see a dog approaching.”

Yuan Cixian’s face was disheveled, and he asked: “Is the number one scholar at that time an old man in his fifties, with gray hair and almost unable to ride a horse?”

Lu Shuangyu nodded: “That person is Zhang Pushe, who is now one of the prime ministers, and he has been at loggerheads with brother.” She asked in surprise after answering, “How do you know about this?”

How did she know this? Because she was the very naughty little lady who shot Lu Shiqing off the horse with a slingshot!

She was just nine years old at that time, and was about to move to Yaozhou with her parents. Before she left, she heard about such a grand event as the No. 1 Scholar Parade, and thought that she would never see her again, so she ran to join in the fun. She was really naughty when she was young, and in her impression, Tan Hualang was particularly naughty that year, so she wanted to play tricks on him, took out her slingshot and shot him with a small stone.

But can she talk about it? No, no, Lu Shiqing would strangle her to death if he found out.

“I guessed it casually.” She stood up filled with righteous indignation, “It’s too much, this little lady who has done a lot of evil is simply outrageous! Your elder brother can see her face clearly, I’m going to seek justice for him!”

Seeing her reaction so fiercely, Lu Shuangyu blinked twice, and then said: “There are too many people. Brother said he didn’t see clearly, but only knew it was a little girl of eight or nine years old.”

Yuan Cixian was overjoyed, with regret on his face: “Oh, that’s a pity, a pity.”

Two days later, the winter solstice will come. The so-called “winter solstice is as big as the year”, according to the tradition of the Great Zhou Dynasty, a ceremony to sacrifice to heaven must be held on this day in front of the Jinshui Bridge of the Daming Palace. The country is prosperous and the people are safe, and the weather is smooth. After that, all civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty took seven days off.

Lu Shiqing went to Daming Palace early in the morning and came back after a busy day. For dinner, he ate soup made by Yuan Cixian himself, and wontons she made with Xuan Shi and Lu Shuangyu.

Yuan Cixian’s so-so soup was acceptable, but the wontons he sold were really ugly, most of them were crooked melons and cracked dates, and there were a lot of stuffing, which was worse than Lu Shuangyu’s. Lu Shiqing could tell at a glance that it was her handwriting, but deliberately pretended not to know, and when his sister got angry and asked him why he only ate Yuan Cixian’s wontons, he was surprised: “I thought you should make such rotten wontons. , I wanted to take care of your face, didn’t I?”

Lu Shuangyu was so angry that she ate all the wontons she made, and afterwards she kept crying to Xuan Shi that her brother had a sister-in-law and forgot about a sister-in-law.

However, Yuan Cixian is a guest after all, and there was no need to do these things at all, but since she learned about what happened seven years ago, she has been guilty, for fear that Lu Shiqing will look at her face too much, and one day she will be shocked Remember the past, so it is to please in every possible way, to plan for a rainy day. And to be praised as “virtuous” by Xuan’s family, making soup and wrapping wontons is really a good deal.

But Lu Shiqing couldn’t help feeling that there was a ghost inside. After all, Yuan Cixian can tell at a glance when he is sincere and when he is fake. Therefore, after eating the dinner that was lavishly offered to him, and going to the ancestral hall of the mansion, and finishing up the ancestor worship ceremony at sunset, he began to wonder if she asked him again, and waited for her in the study for a long time , I didn’t see her coming, thinking that she might be hard to tell, so I prepared to take the initiative to send it to my door.

Lu Shiqing bathed cleanly, stepped out of the door, and was about to go to the Dongkua courtyard separated by a wall, when he looked up, he saw a person sitting on top of the black clustered wall—Yuan Cixian was wrapped in a frost-colored winter coat and his blue-colored blouse. The crane cloak, with a pair of feet on lotus shoes, is resting its hands on the edge of the wall and looking at the sky. It looks very boring, and it really wants to climb over the wall and go out to play.

He stopped in his tracks, feeling that her habit of climbing the wall was very bad. After all, the wall has been a very dangerous existence since ancient times. It is not unreasonable to say in the poem, “The garden is full of spring and cannot be closed, and a branch of red apricot comes out of the wall.”

He frowned and said, “What are you doing climbing the wall?”

There was silence everywhere, although Lu Shiqing was far away, Yuan Cixian heard it with one ear, turned his head to look, only to see him standing under the stone steps in the courtyard at some point, looking at her from afar.

She carefully jumped off the wall, walked towards him, and replied, “I’m so bored…”

Why don’t you find him if you are bored?

Lu Shiqing wanted to stab her a few words, but felt that her voice sounded muffled, not as cheerful as the dinner just now. After thinking about it, she must be homesick in the middle of the night during the winter solstice festival.

In previous years during the winter solstice, she spent most of her time in Yaozhou with her parents, but now she would not be considered lonely if accompanied by her elder brother, but because of Jiang Birou’s troubles, she lived in his Lu residence as a sojourn.

She hasn’t made it her home after all. Due to her embarrassing status, it is impossible for her to take the initiative to participate in the ancestral hall during the day. And although his mother treated her well, it was not good to take her to “meet the ancestors” before she passed the door. When performing the sacrifice, she should also tacitly agree that she stayed in Dongkuayuan.

She never seemed to tell him about these things that might be a little bit wronged, and she even seemed to be in a good mood during dinner, without revealing it at all.

Lu Shiqing secretly regretted that he was careless for a while, and did not consider her emotions, so his tone was a little softer than usual, and he asked her: “Bored? Then what do you want to do?”

Yuan Cixian thought he would say “go to bed when you’re bored”, but when she heard this, she was pleasantly surprised: “Will you accompany me?”

He subconsciously prepared to nod, but he thought about what to do if she asked him to hold the dog again, so he left some leeway: “Tell me, I’ll think about it.”

As soon as she heard that there was something going on, she said bluntly, “I want to play Wumu.”

Lu Shiqing choked. Wumu is a gambling game, and folk gambling houses often use it to throw money. This idea is really a loser.

Seeing him choking, Yuan Cixian said aggrievedly: “During the winter solstice in previous years, Dad and I played Wumu.”

When Lu Shiqing heard this, his heart softened. It happened that Zheng Zhuo also liked to play with this thing earlier, and he left a pair of Wumu with him, so he sighed, agreeing, and then said: “Don’t let my mother know.”

She nodded her head three times: “Let’s go to your study and play secretly.”

The two slipped into the study, turned over the wooden furniture and came out. Lu Shiqing asked her: “Are you wearing a copper plate?”

Yuan Cixian shook her head: “I don’t bet on money, it’s so boring to bet on money. Dad and I used to fight for wine.”

Lu Shiqing choked again. When he was Xu Shan, he had already experienced enough of her terrible drunkenness. At that time, he was forced by his status and forced himself to calm down. But if she repeats her old trick now, pretending to be drunk and flirting with him as Lu Shiqing, he will probably die. Can’t stand it.

He made an excuse: “Do you want to wake up tomorrow morning smelling of alcohol, and let my mother know?”

Oh, here’s the problem.

Yuan Cixian shook her head: “Then replace wine with tea.”

Lu Shiqing continued to refuse: “Drinking tea at night is easy to cause insomnia.”

She found him annoying, so she simply gave him the opportunity to set the rules: “Then what do you say?”

Of course, Lu Shiqing had several ideas in his mind, but it was difficult to say anything right now, so he planned to wait until he was able to speak up later, and said: “Those who win the ‘picking’ get one, and those who are ‘highly picked’ get two. The winner is the winner, and the loser can be asked to do one thing in the future.”

Yuan Cixian was very forthright, and immediately said, “Okay, I’ll let you come first.”

The so-called “five woods” are actually five double-sided dice like almonds, with one side painted black and the other white. Two of the woods have patterns on both sides, the black side is painted with calves, and the white side is painted with pheasants, while the other three woods have no patterns on both sides, so there are four different results: calf, pheasant, black and white.

The so-called “picking” is a combination of five double-sided dice thrown together. There are twelve kinds of combinations that can be called “picking”, four of which are the most difficult to throw and are also called “guicai”, which generally count as double coins.

Lu Shiqing tossed five woods slowly, and then reported to himself: “Two calves and three blacks, all black.”

Yuan Cixian’s eyes darkened. This is an expensive pick that only has a 1 in 32 chance of being rolled.

She stared at him blankly: “Did you lie to me?”

He shook his head seriously: “No.” Then he stretched out his hand to signal, “Please.”

She threw away her doubts, she was one pheasant and four mysterious, she was not even an ordinary “cai”.

Lu Shiqing took a pen to take notes: “In the first round, I will make two notes.”

The two of them tossed five pieces of wood in turn by the candlelight, and Yuan Cixian became more and more unbelievable when he threw a stick of incense. When he looked at the paper at hand, he saw that Lu Shiqing had written down eleven, while she had only three.

She didn’t believe in this evil, and tried her best to check his hands and feet, forcing him to slow down the throwing speed, and even suggested that the two exchange seats, but no matter how she jumped up and down, the result was the same.

After half an hour, Lu Shiqing memorized thirty-two, and she memorized ten.

Yuan Cixian’s face turned green: “Lu Shiqing, do you hang out in gambling shops every day?”

Lu Shiqing drank the water lightly, and said lightly: “Do you think I seem to be a person of that age?”

Her lungs hurt from his indifferent attitude: “That’s why I proposed to play Wumu, can’t you let me?”

He was a little helpless: “It’s hard for me to lose this kind of game, it’s too much effort for you.”

“…”

If he is so capable, why doesn’t he go to the casino to make a fortune!

Yuan Cixian gritted her teeth and said in disbelief, “Come again!”

“It’s getting late, it’s time to go to bed.”

“You take seven consecutive days off, you can go to bed later! Come again!”

Seeing this, Lu Shiqing taught her solemnly: “Such a mentality is not advisable. Many gamblers like you have gone on the road of no return because of this. They lost all their money and were not convinced, so they borrowed money everywhere, and finally owed a whole body of debts.” , was broken by the creditor who came to the door and broke his leg, so he could not die well.”

“…”

Is he implying that she will die badly in the future?

Yuan Cixian scratched her face, looking like she was about to cry: “If the creditor chases after me, won’t you pay me back?”

Lu Shiqing just wanted to take gamblers as an example, and use their fate to persuade Yuan Cixian to stop fighting with him as soon as possible. How could she know that the thoughts in her head were jumping like a galloping horse, she was stunned immediately, and then Seriously said: “My salary is not high, maybe I can still afford it.”

Yuan Cixian was so angry that she wanted to punch him.

Lu Shiqing glanced at her tragic defeat and said: “Okay, the winner has been decided, you go back to sleep, there is still business tomorrow.”

Yuan Cixian stopped making trouble now, blinked her eyes, seemed to understand something, and asked: “Is it possible that your letter will be effective?”

He nodded: “The saint may call you into the palace tomorrow morning.”

She still doesn’t know what tricks Lu Shiqing is playing. She has asked him several times these days, but seeing that he has been keeping secrets, she asked again: “In that case, please tell me, what is in that letter? I know, It’s good to be mentally prepared.”

He shook his head: “There is no need to prepare psychologically. No psychological preparation is the best preparation. If you know too much, you will show yourself.”

Yuan Cixian pouted: “Are you questioning my acting skills?”

Of course Lu Shiqing questioned it, and it was obvious that she was unwilling to go to sleep, so she had no choice but to say something sweet: “No, companionship is like companionship with a tiger, and if you can reduce the risk, even a point is good.”

Well, that sounds pretty good. Yuan Cixian felt relieved, and went back to the room obediently, but she got up and walked a few steps but turned her head again and said with a pursed mouth, “It’s so dark outside, won’t you see me off?”

Send, send, little ancestor.

Lu Shiqing ordered the servants to bring a lantern, and took her back to the courtyard with his own hands, and left after the candles in her room were lit. Early the next morning, Emperor Huining really sent someone to the Lu Mansion to inform Yuan Cixian to enter the palace.

Facing the sage who has always been suspicious, it is best not to hide things that can be concealed, lest the old emperor find out and think in a wrong way. Therefore, Lu Shiqing told him about Yuan Ci Xianke’s residence in Lu’s mansion. .

When the imperial decree arrived, Yuan Cixian rushed out just after breakfast, got into the carriage and headed to Daming Palace, while Lu Shiqing, who was at home, took her to the gate of the mansion, stepped back and suddenly felt that something was wrong with this scene .

It seems that the wife who lives in the mansion sends her husband to court.

He frowned and gave a “tsk”, and went home to read idle books and enjoy the winter solstice vacation.

Yuan Cixian arrived at the Zichen Hall with some trepidation. When Emperor Huining saw her, he laughed, “Cixian, you won’t blame me for calling you into the palace during the winter solstice, right?”

Lu Shiqing was the one who took the winter solstice off. What the old emperor meant was that he ruined the rare and comfortable solitude of the two of them.

Yuan Cixian smiled and said: “Your Majesty, what are you talking about? It doesn’t matter that Lu Shilang and I will have a long stay in Japan! But you are in a hurry to find me, but there is something urgent?”

“It’s a little bit important.” He sighed, “Cixian, I found the real culprit who assassinated you in Shangzhou that day. I misunderstood Shaohe earlier. This matter was actually done by the Jiang family.”

Yuan Cixian was really taken aback. As early as when discussing with Xu Shan before, she knew that the people who assassinated her were King Ping and Nanzhao, but their hands and feet were too clean, and she could not find out the evidence with her power, but now a letter from Lu Shiqing has stirred up thousands of people with one stone. Layer wave, brought the Jiang family into it?

Her just-right stunned moment was exactly what Lu Shiqing said, “No mental preparation is the best preparation”. Emperor Huining saw it and explained: “Cixian, you and your sister-in-law don’t have a good relationship. If I knew this, I should have blocked this marriage back then.” After all, it was very sad Long sigh.

Yuan Cixian pretended to be ignorant and said: “Your Majesty means that sister-in-law sent someone to assassinate me because of her long-standing personal grievances with me? But how could it be possible for her to never leave one door and never leave another door…”

Emperor Huining really thought she was innocent, and sighed: “Your sister-in-law really can’t do it, but the Jiang family still has your sister-in-law’s second uncle.”

Yuan Cixian seemed even more surprised: “Your Majesty, this happened so suddenly, I have to deal with it.” After finishing speaking, she began to scratch her head, pretending that she couldn’t figure it out, and said for a long time, “Your Majesty, you Don’t lie to me?”

“What did I lie to you for?” Emperor Huining showed her the evidence, “This is a secret letter that my informant intercepted yesterday.”

Yuan Cixian took it and took a look. This is not the letter that Lu Shiqing handed to Yuan Yu earlier, but it is indeed from the Jiang family. The destination of the letter is Shangzhou, and the content is to explain to a local official to pay attention to the actions of the Yuan family in recent days, and to teach him some ways to deal with it in case of emergency.

Yuan Cixian roughly understood after reading the letter. The reason why those killers were able to escape despite the complete blockade of Shangzhou must be because there were spies in the local area, and the official in the letter presumably was their coordinator.

For some reason, Jiang Min discovered that this official might be exposed recently, so he sent someone to write this secret letter to remind him. Unexpectedly, it would be cut off by Emperor Huining.

Yuan Cixian returned the letter to Emperor Huining with a sleepy expression, sighed, and pretended to be a little frustrated.

Seeing that she was unhappy, Emperor Huining naturally had to make decisions for her, so he asked, “Cixian, how do you want me to deal with this matter?”

She thought for a while and said: “Although Jiang Siqing targeted me because of personal grievances, she is honest and loyal to His Majesty. Ci Xian must have made His Majesty embarrassing this time.”

These words are so reasonable, the old emperor said with relief: “It is right to make decisions for you, and I will do whatever you want me to do.”

Yuan Cixian sneered in his heart. Emperor Huining probably wouldn’t be able to kill a third-rank official for her, and these words were just to coax her.

At this juncture, the most important thing for her to do is retreat.

She shook her head and said: “Your Majesty, in the final analysis, this matter is a grievance between sister-in-law and me, and Jiang Siqing is only doing things for her own family. I don’t blame Jiang Siqing. If you really want to make decisions for me, please deal with it My sister-in-law.”

This kind of empathetic words are pleasant to hear.

Emperor Huining asked, “What do you want?”

“Since sister-in-law treats me like this, then our Yuan family has her without me, and me without her. My elder brother is soft-hearted, and maybe he can’t do anything. I hope you can help me kick sister-in-law out. This way I can relieve my anger .”

Emperor Huining seemed to think that her puffy appearance was cute, and said with a loud smile, “Why is this so difficult? I promise you.”

Yuan Cixian chatted with Emperor Huining for a while before leaving Daming Palace. The affairs of the Jiang family were not over yet, her seemingly magnanimous concession today was actually paving the way for the future, and driving Jiang Birou out was only the first step.

She returned to the Lu residence contentedly, and the first thing she did was to run to Lu Shiqing’s courtyard to thank her.

Lu Shiqing also seemed to have expected that she would come to thank him, and moved the door of the study with his own hands, ready to accept her compliments, pretending to be indifferent: “Happy, satisfied?”

Unexpectedly, Yuan Cixian’s praise was really beyond his surprise, and she threw her arms around his neck, hugged him and said, “Lu Shiqing, you are so amazing!”

Lu Shiqing was so flattered that he didn’t say anything for a while, but she whispered in his ear: “May I give you a reward? I heard that the reason why you are afraid of dogs is because you were kissed by a dog seven years ago.” Pass…”

Before he could react, he suddenly saw her let go of his neck, then stood on tiptoe, brought her mouth closer, stretched out her tongue and licked his lips, and then asked with a smile, “Is that so?”