Having a happy event during a spiritless period could give the feeling of a lively Spring Festival in the middle of a cold winter. Everyone you knew and didn't know would all be tainted with a bit of joy.
Nie Qing never thought that his marriage would be held in Murong Mansion. To be exact, he had never thought about getting married before. No matter how determined one was, one couldn't beat the words 'without the freedom to act independently'. He wanted to stand behind Murong Yunshu silently, paying attention to and guarding her as a friend, but if he remained alone, then this kind of guarding would become her burden. It would also become a burden for the translator if you don't read this chapter, not at xinshou blogspot com.
"Nie Qing?" Feng Ling, who was covered with a head covering, called out softly. She had clearly heard Nie Qing enter the door just now, but why was there no sound at that moment?
Feng Ling's call brought Nie Qing back to his senses, "I am here." He walked up and sat next to Feng Ling, still a little distracted.
"It's time to lift the head covering." Feng Ling shyly spoke as her face blushed. It wasn't that she was in a hurry. She was just worried that Nie Qing didn't know what to do next. After all, he always looked so slow and prudent when it came to the matters of men and women.
"Hmm." Nie Qing answered in a low voice with his head lowered. His mind still had an internal conflict with himself.
If he ran away from his marriage at this moment, he was afraid that the whole world would hunt him.
He was not afraid of death but worried about shattering that clear smile and bright joy on Feng Ling's face.
Nie Qing did not say anything, and Feng Ling also stopped talking. The two of them just sat there in silence. They say one-centimetre closer as if they were mutually dependent for life.
After a long time, when Feng Ling began to get agitated from sitting or standing, candlelight suddenly lit up her face. Feng Ling looked up in surprise, and the tears in her eyes were spinning. "I thought......I thought......" I thought you regretted it.
"Silly girl." Nie Qing let out a low sigh and embraced Feng Ling into his arms. As he closed his eyes, his heart was miraculously filled with something, no longer so empty that it could drive him mad.
"Nie Qing."
"Hmm?"
"I will try to be a good wife, like Murong." Feng Ling still couldn't change the way she addressed some people. She kept referring to Murong Yunshu as 'Murong' while Chu Murong as 'Little Murong'.
"There's no need to be like her. You're Madam Nie, and she's Madam Chu. You two are supposed to be different."
"But everyone likes her."
"That's because she has a lot of money."
"Really?"
"Hmm."
"Nie Qing. You're so cheesy."
"……"
"I like it, though."
I like it too. Nie Qing said in his heart.
Perhaps he would never be able to remove Murong Yunshu from his heart altogether in this lifetime, nor could he love Feng Ling as much as he loved Murong Yunshu. But he had the confidence and willingness to let the face of the person in his arms always shine sunny and warm the deepest pallor of his heart.
*
Spring was in the air inside the mansion, and the moon was full outside.
"Do you finally feel at ease?" Murong Yunshu asked with a crooked smile.
Chu Changge's eyes drifted away, ignoring the banter under her eyes, knowing perfectly well what she was asking about. "At ease with what??"
Murong Yunshu raised her eyebrows and smiled lightly. "It doesn't matter if you won't admit it. I know anyway."
"......" Is there such a thing as giving someone a death sentence?
"The night we got married, there wasn't such a nice moon." Murong Yunshu murmured as she looked up at the somewhat excessively bright moon in the night sky.
When Chu Changge heard that, he also looked up at the sky, and there was indeed a white moon in the sky. Suddenly, he asked, "Did you even see the moon that night?" How could she have the chance to see the moon on the night of their wedding? Had he not worked hard enough that she became bored enough to look at the moon to pass the time in the process?
"How could I possibly see it?" She hadn't even seen the sun on the following day. "It was Huberg who said that." Murong Yunshu said, "He told me, the night when we were married, he had a vision, where black clouds covered the moon which was an inauspicious omen. He said that the shrike and the swallow would fly in different directions."
"......" Chu Changge frowned, "How much did you collect from him as a gift?"
"Er...... it's not much. Just a hundred taels. He's considered the least charged of his acquaintances."
Chu Changge's frown tightened. "I heard that he spent his days pinching his fingers to tell fortunes that his fingers were all calloused, and he could only earn fifty taels a month."
"It seemed so. I've heard that too."
"And you took a hundred taels from him." Capitalists indeed devour a man without spitting out the bones.
"Hmm." Murong Yunshu was frank. Everyone carried their gifts in large boxes, but only Huberg held his gift with two hands. She guessed he, himself, felt that this humble gift of his was too thin, so he packed it in a delicate brocade box. Those who didn't know would have thought it contained some rare treasure. [T/C]
"If someone exploited my income for two months in one go, I wouldn't just curse that person and his/her partner to end up just like the shrike and the swallow flying in different directions." Chu Changge said.
Murong Yunshu raised her eyebrows. Experience told her that his following sentence would not be a good one.
"I will curse that person for being childless."
"......" Sure enough.
After a while, Murong Yunshu said with a lingering fear, "Fortunately, I didn't overcharge you for the dowry."
Chu Changge's face was full of black lines as he did not know whether to laugh or cry, "Don't worry. Even if you steal everything from me, I won't curse myself to be childless."
Uh. That's true. Murong Yunshu smoothed out her eyebrows. Was the moon too good? Why did she feel like she had a little sign of brain damage in her......
*
Nie Qing and Feng Ling left for the capital on the second day of their marriage, while Feng Cheng stayed in Murong Mansion to study how to suppress the plague.
These days, Murong Yunshu felt that Chu Changge was a bit nervous. Apart from not allowing her to leave his sight, the most obvious thing he did was that he immediately went into a state of readiness whenever any grass stirred in the wind.
It seemed that although he said that Huberg was merely talking nonsense, he still believed it in his heart.
The disaster of the shrike and the swallow flying in different directions. This prophecy was so poisonous that one dared not scoff at it. One feared that if one blasphemed against it, the woe would indeed come true.
She had not told Chu Changge about this prophecy precisely because she was worried that he would treat every tree or bush as an enemy soldier.
He had been swayed amid a raging storm, and now that he was finally anchored, she wanted him to be able to live in peace.
However, ever since she found out that day that Fang Hongfei might still be alive, she began to have a bad feeling. It always felt that Huberg's prediction was about to come true. That was why she spoke about the prophecy.
On this day, another guest came uninvited to Murong Mansion.
It was her? Murong Yunshu looked at Qiu Shuiyin in surprise. Wasn't she working as a military physician in Hua Tiancheng's army? How could she appear in Jinling?
"When I heard that there was a plague in Jinling, I came here." Without waiting for Murong Yunshu to ask, Qiu Shuiyin explained it to her first.
Murong Yunshu nodded slightly, still full of suspicions. "You're not working as a military physician under Emperor Tian anymore?"
"We are friends." Qiu Shuiyin responded faintly.
Murong Yunshu raised an eyebrow. Then?
Qiu Shuiyin: "I won't associate myself with my friends' enemies."
Murong Yunshu was stunned for a moment, then asked with a grave expression, "The news of Chu Changge taking over the Daye Dynasty has already spread among the Yan army?"
Qiu Shuiyin nodded.
"How did Hua Tiansheng be willing to let you go?"
Qiu Shuiyin: "I went to the mountains to collect medicine and ran into your people, who brought me here."
Her people? Murong Yunshu was surprised. Suddenly, a familiar neigh came from the door, followed by a joyful shout――
"Old East, Old South, Old West, I'm back!"
"Lil North!" East, South and West shouted at the same time and darted out.
The four people huddled together at the door, feeling excited.
"Lil North, you've finally returned." The West Guardian burst into tears.
North Guardian looked at Old West, "Old West, I didn't expect you to miss me so much!"
"Yes, I miss you." How can I not miss you when it's me who has become the cannon fodder without you around?
East Guardian: "Lil North, why are you dressed in rags like a refugee when you're supposed to return to your hometown in silken robes?"
North Guardian: "What's the point of returning to my hometown in silken robes? I just heard that the Sect Leader had become the Emperor and came back by fighting them with a single spear and a horse!"
"Lil North, you did it with gusto."
"That's certainly true. Now that the Leader is the Emperor, and since Hua Yeli also wants to be the Emperor, he will surely cross paths with the Leader and become the Leader's enemy. No matter what, I can't stay in the enemy's army camp. Even if I have to fight for my life, I will do it just to come back." North Guardian said with a proud face.
"Actually....." South Guardian spoke with some reluctance. "If you are still in Western Shu right now, you should have received the secret letter sent by me."
"A secret letter? What secret letter?" North Guardian did not understand. [+]
South Guardian pondered for a moment before saying, "A secret message from the Sect Leader asking you to stay in Western Shu to be his inside man."
"Uh......" The North Guardian's expression froze. Dared he say he had come back for nothing? He was still waiting for the Sect Leader to praise him for his commendable loyalty! This was a blow—too much of a blow for him to accept.
Chu Changge: "Forget it. Since you've already returned, we'll discuss the matter of the inside man later. Lil North, you've had a long journey and are tired, go and rest first."
"Yes."
"Wait." Chu Changge called out to the North Guardian, who was about to leave and reminded, "When you see Little Murong, you must make a detour."
North Guardian froze. His face was full of confusion, "Why?" His relationship with the Young Sect Leader was quite harmonious.
Chu Changge: "Anyhow, you just need to take a detour."
North Guardian frowned in thought, nodded and left. The trio of East, South and West also trailed off after him, with odd smiles in their eyes.
Murong Yunshu silently shook her head and said, "He just got back."
Chu Changge: "I was kind enough to remind him."
Murong Yunshu: "You know very well that the more you remind him, the more he won't listen. Originally, he was going to the North Courtyard, and Little Murong lived in the East Courtyard, so the two of them could not meet at all. Now that you've reminded him, he'll undeniably go to the East Courtyard to have a 'chance encounter' with Little Murong." Curiosity killed people!
With Murong Yunshu correctly guessed his mind, Chu Changge was silent for a few seconds before he said, "Don't you think that it is a father's duty to find entertainment for his son?"
Murong Yunshu was also silent for a few seconds and then said, "You can't take my job away."
Instantly, all the faces of maids and servants present were filled with black lines. Miss, can't you just pretend to be normal once in a while?
*
As Qiu Shuiyin watched the family talk and laugh, seemingly setting each other up but actually loving each other, her heart was envious and sad. How wonderful it would have been if she had been part of it too.
Murong Yunshu: "It so happens that Feng Cheng is also in the mansion. So you will stay in the western courtyard like him so that you two can exchange ideas on controlling the plague in time."
Feng Cheng? Qiu Shuiyin's eyes moved slightly. Was that handsome and gentle man still as full of vicissitudes as he was four years ago?
He was one of the few people she knew, a mentor and a friend.
She couldn't express it, but she was somehow eager to meet him again.
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Black Belly Wife