Chapter 77
C77: Fireworks
She spent three days at the Duke Dingguo’s Mansion on the pretext of a foot injury.
For the past three days, Yan Yu hadn’t left either, huddling in a small room with her. Sometimes he went out in the daytime and came back with her before dark.
At first, Duke Dingguo thought it was because of the conflict between the two of them, but when he came to visit, it didn’t seem like it. Yan Yu was walking in the yard with Xie Zhen on his back. A heavy snow had just fallen in the capital, and it was thick enough to drown the soles of one’s feet.
When she said she wanted to see snow, he carried her out to see it.
No matter how he looked at it, it didn’t seem like there was an argument?
Duke Dingguo originally wanted to go up and talk to the Sixth Prince, but seeing how warm the two were, it seemed that there was no room for him to intervene, so he tactfully left.
Actually, it was too stuffy in the house, so she want to take a walk. It was inconvenient for her legs and legs. She had wanted to ask Shuang Yu to push a chair, but she didn’t expect that Yan Yu would take the initiative to carry her. He wanted to carry her, and of course she wouldn’t refuse. She would just lie on his shoulder and let him walk out into the yard.
These days, most of the things she knew were his back.
He would carry her wherever she was inconvenient. That’s why she can now wrap her arms around his shoulders quite naturally and direct him left or right.
She pointed to a Yin Xing tree. “I’m going there!”
Without another word, Yan Yu carried her under the tree.
The branches of the tree had accumulated a lot of snow, a few snowflakes would rustle down. She straightened up long enough to get to the lowest branch, so she couldn’t help but make a bad idea and let him go back a little bit, then a little bit further.
“What are you going to do?” Yan Yu asked.
She smiled cunningly, and when he got to his feet, she shook the branch, causing the snow to rustle and fall on Yan Yu’s neck.
He felt a chill, then said angrily, “Xie Zhen!”
“You look as white as the glutinous rice balls I ate this morning.”
She still had the nerve to laugh?
Yan Yu turned around and stared at her, but the smile in her eyes suddenly made him hard to breathe. He pursed his thin lips and gave a soft snort.
Well, whatever she wants.
She had been cold towards him for the past two days, and she wouldn’t let go no matter what he did. Today, she finally managed to feel a little better, and a bright smile appeared on her face.
She brushed the snow off his neck and continued to wrap her arms around his neck as if nothing had happened.
Yan Yu walked around the yard and asked her, “Where else do you want to go?”
She tilted her head thoughtfully.
It was getting late, and all the servants in the Jade Yard had woken up. When they passed by the corridor, they would inevitably see the two of them.
Xie Xun came to see her, but she didn’t see her in the house. She went out into the yard to look for her. Just as she was about to run over, she was stopped by Madam Leng from behind. “What are you going over there for?”
She turned around and saw that it was her mother. “I’ll ask sister to go to the backyard to see the snow.”
Madam Leng nodded her head. “Your elder sister is talking to her hasband. Don’t disturb them.”
She seemed to understand but didn’t understand. She sadly asked, “Since elder sister is already married, can’t she play with me?”
This little fool, Madam Leng laughed and said, “Who said that she can’t? It’s just that she can’t do it now, you want to go to the backyard to check on the snow. I’ll go with you.”
Xie Liqing entered the palace. Emperor Yuan Huai prepared to entrust him with the task of building a few towns at the border. He was accompanied by a prince, who was mainly to assist the prince in his work. As for the appointment of the First Prince or the Sixth Prince … The Emperor was in the middle of weighing the results. He was afraid that it wouldn’t be long before the results would be out.
He was about to depart in the spring of the following year.
Xie Liqing wanted to bring Xie Rong along. After telling the Madam Leng about this matter, the Madam Leng did not object. They wanted to see more of the world and temper themselves. This was not a bad thing for Xie Rong. This trip would take a year or two. The Madam Leng had prepared the clothes of the two of them early on, She had arranged everything meticulously.
Xie Liqing teased her, “You’ve already prepared everything, yet you’re still waiting for me to leave?”
Madam Leng glared at him and deliberately asked, “I asked you to leave now, are you willing to leave now?”
He said he couldn’t bear to part with her, and wrapped his arms around her waist, “I can’t bear to part with you. With you here, of course I can’t bear to part with you.”
Although the Madam Leng was in their thirties, she still had a slim waist and a slim figure. She looked like a young woman in her forties. The two of them were old and married, but their relationship was deep. If it wasn’t for this rare opportunity, Xie Liqing really wouldn’t want to part with them.
Although she didn’t say it, her feelings for him were reflected in every detail. When he was low, she never blamed him, kept everything around him in order, and supported his encouragement in silence. She had taught all three children well, and there were reasons he could not understand, but she saw them more clearly than he could. Xie Liqing often sighed with emotion. If he had a wife like this, what other regrets did he have in his life?
Thinking of this, he was even more reluctant to leave.
Fortunately, he still had two months left, so he had the opportunity to slowly say his goodbyes to her.
It was too cold to stay out too long.
Under the gaze of one of the servants, Yan Yu walked two laps around with Xie Zhen on his back, and then went back into the house.
Inside, the stove was warm, and in her arms was a handstove, her cheeks red with cold, her eyes smiling.
Yan Yu took advantage of her good mood to ask again: “When do you plan to return home with me?”
“Isn’t this my house?” she asked.
He pursed his lips. “This is the Duke Dingguo’s Mansion, not our family.”
After a pause, he said, “The Prince’s Mansion is our home.”
“Ouyang Yi lives in there. I don’t want to go back,” she said.
Yan Yu sat on an embroidered pier, put her left foot on his lap, and took off her shoes and socks. Her feet were drugged every day, sooner or later, first with the maid’s help, and once they hurt her, so he did it himself. He looked at her and saw that she was almost well. He estimated that she would be able to walk tomorrow. He poured some ointment on his palm and dabbed it on her delicate ankle. “Come back with me. I will let her move out.”
She couldn’t help but want to move. But the more she moved, the tighter he tightened his grip, and finally she kept protesting: “Don’t scratch me. Don’t scratch me,” she said.
Her eyes were like crescent moons, but her mouth was pursed. “What if she wants to come back in the future? She lives outside. Do you visit her often? ”
Yan Yu paused for a moment and said firmly, “I’m not going.”
When she saw he’d finished, she pulled her feet back and rubbed them slowly a couple of times before putting on her socks.
Whenever he had her feet in his hands, she always felt very unsafe.
He thought for a while, “I will get steward Zhao to find a good family and marry her.”
However, Ouyang Yi was still in her filial piety, so she could not marry anyone for the time being. Yan Yu called Wu Ze over first, then Wu Ze picked a house for her and asked her to move there first.
Wu Ze had been with him for the past two days and had left to take care of the matter after hearing his words.
In less than an hour, he returned.
Yan Yu asked him, “Has the house been selected?”
He said no, but he brought another message. “Someone from the palace has found out why the horse went out of control.”
Yan Yu stood up and walked to the corridor, “Tell me more.”
The day before yesterday, after the incident with the Prince’s wife. There were only a handful of men in the regiment, and those who kept horses in the stables, each of whom had been cross-examined, were unsuspecting. However, there was one person whose whereabouts were rather strange.
The woman was not a stable man, and the area of her work was not in the vicinity, but she had been in and out of the stables once, when Xie Zhen was about to return to the Duke Dingguo’s Mansion.
This person was none other than the Qing Xia who had been ordered by steward Zhao to wash the kowtows.
Since Qing Xia was reduced to a lower maid, she has been hating Xie Zhe, she has been waiting for this opportunity for a long time, will feed horse with the things that will make mental disorders.
When the steward found her, she refused to admit it. In the end, the steward let her be beaten twenty times and threatened to beat her to death if she didn’t tell him the truth. She admitted it with a wail.
When Yan Yu heard this, he asked coldly, “Where is she?”
Wu Ze replied, “She’s currently being held in the woodshed, and How should Highness deal with her?”
Yan Yu waved his sleeves and went back into the room, leaving two words: “Die with a staff.”
Wu Ze was stunned for a moment before he went back to pass on a message to steward Zhao.
steward Zhao sent almost every day to ask when Yan Yu would be back, but Yan Yu himself did not know when he had convinced Xie Zhen to come back.
Wu Ze went back with his words, and steward Zhao led people to the woodshed to bring out the Qing Xia. In the short span of a few months, she was completely different from the pretty and clean servant girl from before. Not only was her body covered in dirt and filth, her hair was disheveled, and her body was covered with wounds from the last fight. Now that she was taken out and pressed down on the board, she heard Steward Zhao instruct the people on both sides ruthlessly, “His Highness said that he was going to kill her with the staff. The two of you, deal with it.”
After saying that, he stepped aside, no longer caring about whether she lived or died.
The rays of light were like a thunder striking the sky. After staring blankly for a while, only when the staff landed on her body did she feel terrified. She kept begging, “steward Zhao, this servant is wrong … Please spare my life …”
Unfortunately, this matter could not be decided by steward Zhao.
Plotting to harm the Prince’s wife was a great crime. His Highness didn’t torment her, but simply bestowed her with death. This was already letting her off easy. Initially, she was dishonest and committed a mistake. Initially, he thought that she would be more obedient in the backyard, but who would have thought that she would be vicious and try to harm the Prince’s wife. She had lost her life, and she couldn’t blame anyone else.
The cries for help in the courtyard gradually died down. When the steward walked out of the courtyard and saw this kind of thing, he became more and more numb.
Only a dishonest servant would end up like this.
If they stayed with their master, they should wholeheartedly serve him. They shouldn’t think about the things that didn’t exist. The most important thing was to keep a straight face.
When she asked who it was, he said, “A maid named Qing Xia.”
It took her a moment to remember who Qing Xia was.
“What about her now?”
He said, “Dead.”
“…” She probably guessed what was going on, so she didn’t ask.
She asked the doctor to look at her feet today. He said she could walk on the ground, but she needed to be careful not to sprained her feet again. She got out of bed and walked around twice, slowly, for a long time.
In the evening she had wanted to take a seat in Madam Leng’s room, but Yan Yu took her out of the house.
She didn’t really want to go out. It was cold outside and it was getting dark. She asked, “Why are you going out?”
But he wouldn’t tell her. He just said, “You’ll know when you get out.”
Mystery.
“I don’t want to go out. I want to talk to mum.”
Yan Yu could not persuade her, so he carried her directly to the carriage and forcefully brought her out of the mansion. It wasn’t until the carriage pulled out of the gate that she recovered from her daze. “You!”
However, it was already too late to alight from the carriage. Yan Yu blocked the entrance of the carriage. No matter how much she struggled, she was not allowed to leave.
Finally he took her in his arms and legs and said, “I’ll show you something.”
Only then did she behave. “What are you looking at?”
He coughed and looked away. “You’ll know when you get there.”
Again!
Annoyed by him, she stopped resisting and wanted to know what he was going to show her.
The carriage stopped in the middle of the street. The night market was brightly lit, and there were many passersby. The carriages were not suitable for walking, so they got off and walked. Yan Yu held her hand and did not move quickly, considering that her foot was just healed. Wu Ze and Wu Bin were following closely behind, protecting their safety.
She came out in a hurry, without her hat, but it was dark and no one was looking at her.
Yan Yu continued to lead her forward. There weren’t many people in the night market. The weather was cold, and most of the people had gone home to sleep. Only a few people came out.
Not long after she left, she stopped and said to him with her bright eyes under the night sky, “I’m tired from walking.”
Her foot injury was just right. It really wasn’t a good way to go.
However, this was outside, not the Duke Dingguo’s Mansion, nor was it the Jade Yard. He could not just carry her on his back. If others saw this, he would lose all his dignity as a prince.
However, he didn’t say anything. Instead, he squatted in front of her and said in a condescending tone, “Come up.”
She bent down and climbed onto his back. She was naked, so he picked her up.
In this way, the gazes of many people on the street landed on them.
However, he continued to walk steadily, as if he could not feel the gazes of others. His expression remained the same as he continued to walk forward.
“I used to tell you to carry me, but you didn’t.”
As a child, she said.
This girl was narrow-minded, she did not remember when he was good to her, but she clearly remembered the bad things about him.
Yan Yu pursed his lips and looked straight ahead, “At that time, you were taller than me.”
She thought about it.
But now he was taller than she was, more than a head taller.
“Are you tired?” she asked.
He stopped, lifted her up, looked at her, and then turned away without speaking. She thought there was something wrong with him, but after a while he said, “You kiss me and I won’t be tired.”
Xie Zhen said: “No!”
Who was going to kiss him on the street!
However, he was not angry. Instead, he looked at her and smiled. Under the light, his expression was gentle and his facial features were handsome. He was originally very good-looking, but because of his perpetually cold face, he gave off a cold and stern feeling. Now that he had a smile on his face, he was stunned by the few girls that passed by.
He carried her through the bustling city, crossed a stone bridge, and finally stopped at the edge of the lake.
There were quite a few boats docked by the lake. The boats were exquisite, and the pleasant sounds of bamboo could be heard intermittently. Several people descended from the nearest boat. Some of them were familiar faces, surrounded by a group of people. They were dressed in royal blue, yellow, purple, and noble colors.
When the man saw them, he seemed surprised. He walked up to them and called out, “Sixth Brother.”
Yan Yu put down Xie Zhe, slightly to the side to block her, “Big brother.”
This person was the First Prince, Yan Wen.
Unlike the warm of Prince, Yan Wen was like a wolf with sharp eyes, and seemed very difficult to get along with. His gaze slid across Yan Yu’s shoulder as he asked with a smile, “Could this be Sixth Sister-in-Law?”
She had never seen him before, and it was a little embarrassing for her to see him just now. She lowered her head and called out ‘Big Brother’.
Yan Wen seemed to have discovered something interesting. He looked them over with interest and laughed out loud. “Sixth Brother and Sixth Sister-in-Law are really … interesting.”
Yan Yu stiffly changed the topic, “Why is big brother here?”
Yan Wei pointed to a group of ministers behind him. “Several old men insisted on pulling me over for a drink. I had nothing better to do, so I came with them.” After speaking, he continued to smile, “I didn’t expect to meet Sixth Brother. This can be considered as a windfall.”
Yan Yu said nothing.
He understood the situation very well and did not disturb them. He tactfully took his leave and said, “I’ll be leaving first. I won’t disturb you guys.”
After the group of people left, Yan Yu led her to the pleasure boat after a long time.
Ever since Yan Tao was established as the Crown Prince, the First Prince rarely appeared. Others thought that he was honest, but in reality, he was just conserving his energy.
There were several servants on the boat. One was on the boat, while the other two stood to the side to wait.
The pleasure boat gradually left the shore and headed towards the center of the lake.
Yan Yu led her to the bow of the boat. She grabbed his sleeves, “Was that the First Prince just now?”
He nodded slightly.
“I’ve never seen it before…” she murmured.
Standing on the bow of the boat and gazing at the shore, the lights in the distance were like the stars in the sky, adorning the endless night sky.
“That’s what you brought me here to see?”
He stood behind her and called her nickname, “Lamb.”
She looked back, and just then there was a bang on the opposite shore, and the firelight blossomed and blossomed on the top of his head. Before she could regain her wits, more and more fireworks were set ablaze in front of her. In a split-second, the firewood lit up the night sky, and the entire lake was as bright as day.
Her ears were full of the sound of fireworks exploding.
Bang! Bang! Bang! She was dazzled.
Yan Yu walked up to her, bent down to hug her, and said in a low voice, “Come home with me.”