"Senior brother, aren't you going to work on the new river channel?"
"I have nothing to do today, come and see my junior sister."
"It turns out that senior brother can also be lazy."
"It's not that I'm lazy, I'm really busy. Besides, I haven't been idle these days. I've been running around everywhere. I even went to Donglin Temple yesterday."
"What are you going to do at Donglin Temple?"
"The matter of Broken Wings Canal."
"Zheyi Canal? A new river channel... Senior brother really knows how to name it."
"How do you know it was me who took it?"
"It's very similar to my senior brother's style of doing things."
"What kind of style do I have... Forget it, come to think of it, I didn't expect Master Shandao to be so hospitable, considerate of the government, and insisted on joining the joint construction of Zheyi Canal led by Longcheng County Government..."
"That's good. So senior brother is really done with everything and is coming here again, right?"
"That's right, little junior sister, don't worry, you didn't delay your business."
"oh……"
"Hey, why is little junior sister silent?"
"tired."
"Then I'll retreat first and you can have a good rest?"
"Wait, you...come in."
"Um, wouldn't it be inconvenient?"
"I stayed in bed with my clothes on."
"Okay. I just brought you some grapes."
"Grape?"
In a boudoir that doesn't smell much of her daughter's makeup but has a bookish smell.
Ouyang Rong, who was lingering in the front hall, pushed open the gauze curtain in the back room and approached a fragrant couch with a dim shadow.
The beaded curtain on the bed was half open and half rolled up, and the girl in scholar's shirt bit her lip and sat on the head of the bed with her black hair pulled up by a red rope. She hugged the quilt and covered her huge chest. She glanced at him sideways. When someone came closer, she looked at him again.
Look straight back, without squinting.
"What's wrong with senior brother's face?"
Ouyang Rong went first and opened the window. With squinting eyes, he could see the maid waiting in the yard.
He pulled out a chair, sat down by the window, took a long breath, pointed at the two small red marks on his right face and said:
"Is this it? Last night when we were picking grapes, the grape trellis fell down. Well, I would have known better not to let Wei Lai hold up the ladder. It almost hit her, and besides, she didn't have much strength. I admit, I was careless and sat there for too long.
My desk skills are a bit inflexible..."
Xie Lingjiang frowned slightly and did not look at him:
"Shouldn't Senior Brother reflect on why he likes to show off his actions? Senior Brother told me not to act impulsively after I was beaten that day. But Senior Brother, shouldn't I let servants do these things? A rich man can't sit down in the hall.
Senior brother, you have nothing to do to pick grapes."
Ouyang Rong was slightly stunned and turned to look at his junior sister who sounded a little reproachful.
Why do I feel like I haven't seen you for a few days? It seems a little different.
Is this a bit mature?
Without arguing, Ouyang Rong lowered his head and took out a plate of washed grapes from the box he brought, and silently handed it to the small table next to the bed.
Xie Ling Jiang Yuguang saw it and seemed to realize something. He paused in his small plaintive words and was reluctant to say any more.
Ouyang Rong smiled and pushed the plate, "Here."
Xie Ling Jiang's head didn't turn around, "I won't eat it."
Ouyang Rong nodded and took the plate back.
"Wait... put it down."
"Don't you want to eat?"
"You give it away or you take it away?"
The girl inside the bead curtain stared at him angrily.
"Oh oh oh."
Ouyang Rong smiled inwardly and put his hand down honestly.
The duplicitous little junior sister is a bit generous.
"How did senior brother know that I like eating grapes?" Xie Lingjiang asked in a low voice.
"Your father said so."
"Senior brother, are you still asking my father this?" She couldn't help turning her head to look at him.
Ouyang Rong smiled and said nothing.
He had no problem asking the younger junior sister about her hobbies and tastes. Not only did she not know how to do it before, she also doesn't know how to do it now.
In fact, it was his aunt who asked his teacher Xie Xun to inquire about it before, and she was the only one who cared about such things.
My aunt talked about it during dinner yesterday, so that night, a grape trellis in Meiluyuan was brutally murdered by a young county magistrate.
After all, you can't come empty-handed when you come to visit someone. It's so embarrassing.
Ouyang Rong did not explain, fearing that the junior sister would become sullen and drive people away again.
"Senior brother has found out clearly."
Xie Lingjiang turned his eyes away and whispered.
Her hand slipped out of the bead curtain and reached towards the grape plate, but paused midway and retracted.
"Young junior sister, you won't spit out the skin when you eat grapes, right?"
"Senior brother, don't you vomit?"
Xie Lingjiang paused in his words, because in the corner of his eye, someone had already pinched the grapes, threw them into his mouth and started eating them without any politeness.
"Hmm." Ouyang Rong chewed and answered vaguely, but it was actually the same as not saying anything.
Xie Lingjiang has dark lines on his forehead.
Senior brother really doesn't treat him as an outsider.
The originally reserved and shy girl suddenly lost her formality and hurriedly rescued some grapes from her senior brother's clutches.
Outside, in the courtyard full of orchids, several maids on duty occasionally looked back curiously, and saw a pair of handsome men and beautiful women grabbing grapes from each other through the beaded curtain in the window.
A maid serving Xie Ling Jiang for many days couldn't help but look at her companion in surprise.
This noble lady of the Xie family has not smiled for many days, let alone shown such vitality, even when Miss Su came to visit her.
There was a lot of commotion in the house for a while, and a plate of grapes was blown away like clouds in the wind.
Ouyang Rong looked at the junior sister behind the bead curtain and couldn't help but ask:
"Junior sister, isn't it injured on your back? Why are you sitting on the bedside?"
Xie Ling Jiang lowered his eyes, "Why don't you lie down and grab grapes with your senior brother?"
Ouyang Rong suddenly became speechless.
It's true, you can't just sit down to meet guests, and my junior sister is so strong.
"That's right. How is Junior Sister's injury?" After a pause, he added, "It looks like it's not serious, right?"
"Senior Brother, don't you know what you did?"
There was silence for a while inside and outside the bead curtain.
The atmosphere was a bit chilly.
"Sorry." Ouyang Rong said, "At that time..."
"No, it's okay, no need to apologize."
The girl behind the curtain lowered her head and whispered:
"Senior brother's discipline... was very appropriate. I was... actually quite happy because senior brother didn't treat me like an outsider.
"My father once said that except for your family and... the people who care about you, no one outside will explain your mistakes, let alone be angry with you.
"So senior brother... junior sister understood at that time, thank you for your discipline."
Xie Lingjiang bit her lower lip subconsciously again, "If you make a mistake again next time, senior brother can...continue to discipline me."
"That day was a special situation."
Ouyang Rong was slightly startled, shook his head and laughed: "You can't use a whip next time..."
It was originally a joke, but unexpectedly a whisper floated out from the bead curtain:
"Also...it's not impossible."
"..."
When Ouyang Rong lost his voice, Xie Lingjiang immediately said:
"Actually, I still can't figure out why she did that to me."
When Ouyang Rong heard this, he was stunned for a while before he realized that this "she" should refer to Hu Ji named Zhi Ying.
Xie Lingjiang hugged her chest across the quilt, leaned her head on the back pillow, looked at the gauze curtain on the top of the bed, and said with a dazed face:
"I saved her from an eagle attack, I cared about her safety, I helped her redeem herself, and I brought her back to give her dignity... But why did she choose to help a bad guy who humiliated her, bullied her, and despised her?
If there are difficulties, coercion, or secrets, why don't you tell me? This makes me feel more uncomfortable than betrayal."
She turned her head, looked at her senior brother's heroic face with two red marks and asked:
"Is it like what the book says, that barbarians are fearful of power and not immoral? Maybe a little bit, but I don't think it is entirely true. Even if she is not Hu Ji, it seems that things will slip into that...
"What exactly went wrong... The book didn't say. What color is this world?"
Ouyang Rong turned his head and looked at the bright spring scenery outside the window, and asked, "Has Junior Sister figured it out now?"
The whispering girl Xie was silent for a moment.
She suddenly realized outside the window that the morning sunshine had arrived and fell right on the young man standing in front of the bed with his hands on his knees and listening intently.
This scene seems familiar.
That day in front of the county government office, she was exhausted and dejected. She stared blankly at her senior brother who stood under the noon sun and announced a fair verdict, and then boldly unveiled a new construction that shocked the entire audience. This was it.
That year at the old house in Wuyi Lane, when she was young, she hid behind the door and witnessed her father kneeling straight on his back in the lobby seat under the red sunset. He would rather die than surrender and refuse the olive branch offered by the envoy of the Wei family. This was also the case.
That year, when the Qian Dynasty changed to the Zhou Dynasty, the Queen ascended the throne, and only a few of the Li Qian royal family were slaughtered. Blood splashed all over the palace, and panic spread across the country.
eyebrow.
Only my father was dissatisfied. Even though everyone in the clan cried and begged him, my father still refused to enter the court and refused to kneel to the Zhou court.
Why did she study hard, refuse to get married, and work hard to practice Qi for so many years?
It was because of the light she saw on her father's body at the old house in Wuyi Lane that she felt the "Qi" of a scholar for the first time, and became one of the rare Qi practitioners ahead of all the Xie brothers and sisters.
This is the beginning of everything. This is what I have been pursuing stubbornly for these years. It has almost become...faith.
Xie Lingjiang will never forget it.
And now, she saw that the light on her senior brother and her father were really similar, but they were not the same.
Senior brother has another kind of "qi" in him, which has attracted Xie Lingjiang to get closer from the beginning, wanting to find out...
So she just said that she hoped that her senior brother would continue to discipline him. She was looking forward to the scenery on his path that was different from her father's, and followed him to experience it.
"Senior brother."
Xie Lingjiang called out softly, opened the bead curtain, looked at him with a pair of bright eyes, and said seriously:
"I haven't fully understood it yet, but no matter what... what she did is definitely not right, and this world is definitely not dark... it is different from what I thought before. I am disappointed, but... I don't give up.
.”
After a pause, she stared intently:
"I always believe that there is a light that always exists, and justice will definitely come."
Ouyang Rong was silent for a while: "Shan."
…
After a heart-to-heart talk, the atmosphere was silent for a while.
This kind of serious topic is not suitable for talking too much, especially in broad daylight.
When talking about life and ideals, you have to choose a blind light, right?
Soon, the two brothers and sisters in the room changed the topic.
"correct."
As if he had been sitting for a long time, Ouyang Rong got up and walked around the room. He remembered something. He turned around and said curiously:
"Among the maids who just brought me in, there is a little maid in goose-yellow clothes. Does Junior Sister know you?"
"The one with goose-yellow clothes?" Xie Lingjiang tilted his head, "Senior brother, are you talking about the colorful ribbon? The one with a little baby fat?"
Ouyang Rong nodded.
He was also a little surprised when he just saw the familiar little maid with a steamed bun face.
"Could she be Junior Sister's maid?"
"That's not true." Xie Lingjiang shook his head, "She is the personal maid of the little girl from the Su family in the next yard. She was called by Mother Weber to change my dressing in the morning."
"Little sister of the Su family?"
Ouyang Rong muttered and nodded.
This makes sense, it turns out to be the girl from this family.
However, the junior sister had never mentioned this matter about the Su family before.
Moreover, he lived in Meiluyuan, and the two families had been neighbors for so long. Ouyang Rong only happened to meet a girl from the Su family once at Donglin Temple on the mountain.
I don’t know if it’s because he’s too busy on weekdays, or because the law-abiding Su Mansion is too low-key and reclusive…
"Brother, why do you ask this?" Xie Lingjiang looked sideways.
Ouyang Rong casually talked about borrowing an umbrella in the pavilion yesterday.
"Looking at it this way, we are indeed destined." Xie Lingjiang nodded.
"What's the fate? The county is so small, you can't see it when you look up." Ouyang said nonchalantly.
Xie Lingjiang glanced at his senior brother, hesitated, and introduced:
"This family... Well, I forgot to tell my senior brother before. The master of this family is named Su and his given name is Xian. He is an old friend of my father and we studied together."
"Classmate?" Ouyang Rong nodded in understanding.
Xie Lingjiang did not explain the "reading method". He considered the words and sentences and said:
"Uncle Su and Mother Webber have one son and one daughter. The eldest son is named Fu, who is three years older than his senior brother. He is honest, honest, and studious. The youngest daughter is the younger sister of the Su family. She is also... gentle and considerate, with a pure nature, and is loved by the whole family.
These days, I live next to her...this family treats me very well."
In the Zhou Dynasty, the nicknames of ladies from wealthy families were not allowed to be disclosed casually. Even if outsiders knew it, they were not allowed to call them randomly. They could just call them according to their ranking in the family.
Ouyang Rong nodded, "That's good. Speaking of which, I also owe Su Mansion a favor. I'll have the opportunity to get to know each other someday."
Xie Lingjiang had already known about the Su family's donation of one thousand taels of silver before the Dragon Boat Festival, and was not surprised. She nodded and asked again:
"Senior brother just paid a visit, didn't you see Uncle Su and the eldest son of the Su family?"
Ouyang Rong shook his head. He was dressed in regular clothes. He came directly to pay a visit. He handed over a name card and was brought in.
"That should be because senior brother came too early. Su Dalang may still be studying early in the study. As for Uncle Su... Well, it's okay. Senior brother will come to visit. They will come over when they find out about it later. Senior brother can get to know each other by then."
"OK."
Ouyang Rong nodded lightly. In fact, he was not interested in this kind of social interaction, but he still had basic courtesy and emotional intelligence.
When Xie Lingjiang saw this, he stopped talking.
The letter that my father wrote to my senior brother in advance is still kept with her.
But you can't hand it over before the time comes.
But Xie Lingjiang didn't think that the senior brother should befriend this family.
On the contrary, this family should turn around and try to win over the senior brother.
So it doesn't matter whether senior brother knows or not, and according to senior brother's character of focusing on disaster relief and water control, even if he knows, he probably won't care.
"By the way, there's this for you."
Xie Lingjiang was still holding the quilt, lost in thought, when Ouyang Rong by the window took something out of his sleeve and tossed it to her.
"This is……"
Xie Lingjiang took it in a daze, and there was a crystal clear and round bead lying in the palm of his hand.
She is naturally familiar with what this is.
Xie Lingjiang looked a little ashamed and held tightly the bead that still contained someone's warm body temperature.
"Senior brother, I was angry at the time because of the food price issue, and I didn't know that Zhiying was that kind of person, so I rashly handed over the luminous pearl you gave me..."
Ouyang Rong shook his head, "You made the right choice at that time. A bead is indeed not as important as a human life."
Xie Lingjiang stared at him for a while, stretched out his hand and handed it back to him.
"Senior brother, take it first."
Ouyang Rong looked confused.
Xie Lingjiang said seriously:
"This was something that senior brother rewarded me before, but I paid it in error. Now senior brother Ye Mingzhu takes it back first. If next time, junior sister does something right and deserves praise, senior brother will give it to me again openly!"
"It's a ritual, right? Okay."
The junior sister was quite amusing when she took it seriously. Ouyang Rong took it with a smile and put the Night Pearl away again.
In fact, he was the only one who knew that this was a strange relic, but everyone including the pawn shop said that the glowing thing was a night pearl, so they followed suit.
Afterwards, the two brothers and sisters chatted for a while about Zhiyiqu.
After looking at the sun, Ouyang Rong stood up and prepared to leave.
But at this moment, a little maid with a bun face ran into the courtyard. After entering the door, she quickly glanced at someone's face and saluted like a lady:
"Master Ouyang, our elder brother is here and wants to see you."
Ouyang Rong raised his eyebrows and turned to look at his junior sister.
…
Four thousand five hundred words... Brothers must say it is short (hold your head). In fact, I have been laying the groundwork for the past two days, so I am a little slow and will be combined into one chapter... When the plot unfolds and gets better today and tomorrow, I will be able to