The sky is covered with frost over the ten-mile flat lake, and every inch of blue hair is filled with worries about the past.
Looking at the moon to protect each other, I only envy the mandarin ducks but not the immortals.
The thick ink is swaying, the rice paper is like snow, the bright wrist resists the frost, and the jade hand holds the pen.
In March in the south of the Yangtze River in Chen State, the bright spring scenery always reveals a bit of charm.
On the banks of the vast Sujiang River, a woman is sitting at her desk by the window. She is dressed in red and has beautiful features.
The girl serving beside the desk wore a bun, but she was still young. She was dressed in a simple green cloth dress, with thick bangs covering most of her eyebrows. At first glance, she seemed ordinary.
Quietly raising his head, Lingchu read out the poem on the paper softly, looking a little startled.
The woman in red clothes is also a beautiful scenery that is hard to ignore in the beautiful Jiangnan of Chen State.
Countless talented people sung her praises, countless dignitaries bowed to her stunning beauty, and Huan Niang, a geisha who was famous throughout the Chen Kingdom.
Huan Niang has experienced the world in her life, and she is in a land of fireworks. She can see the love in the world most clearly, and she is calm and composed when dealing with it, and she has a certain clarity in her speech and laughter.
Lingchu was sold into a brothel when he was four years old, and was taken in by Huan Niang as a maid. He stayed in Fuchun House for four full years, and also stayed by Huan Niang's side for four years.
Huan Niang taught her music, chess, calligraphy and painting, as well as literacy and reading. However, she had cut her thick bangs since she was a child, and she was not allowed to enter the front hall at night.
She is not allowed to wear bright clothes on weekdays. All year round, she wears nothing more than a blue shirt and a bun.
Huang Li, the singing girl next door, said that Huan Niang was on guard against her, fearing that she would steal Huan Niang's business when she grew up.
But Lingchu didn't believe it. She had seen too many bickering tricks between women in this building, and the books Huan Niang had taught her to read, she more or less understood. I'm afraid this was the legendary provocation.
Well, that's a bit vulgar. Are you looking down on her? Do you think she is easy to cheat?
She is not a three-year-old child.
Lingchu, who was six years old at the time, would often smile and nod in agreement after listening to Oriole's words, then secretly disdain him and turn around to talk to Huan Niang.
Huan Niang would always listen quietly, then gently stroke Lingchu's hair, praise her intelligence with a smile, and then buy Lingchu her favorite sugar-frosted hawthorn balls.
Then the next day, Oriole will always have bad luck.
When I woke up in the morning, I picked up my lipstick and sipped it. The sleepiness on my face was still there, and a spiciness hit my ears and nose. The color of Oriole's pretty face changed instantly. I hurriedly ran to pour tea. When I took a cup of tea, the spiciness was not gone, and the bitterness filled my mouth and tongue. Apparently, someone added spicy powder to the lipstick and bitter melon juice to the tea.
There are many tricks in them, but they are harmless.
Every time he watched Oriole furiously go to make trouble with his nemesis Maiko Cai'er, Lingchu, now eight years old, still couldn't help but want to laugh.
Some of these little pranks were done by her, and some were done by Huan Niang.
The two of them always tacitly cracked melon seeds, ate cold melons and watched the show, enjoying themselves endlessly.
When she was studying, there was something Lingchu didn't understand, but Huan Niang explained everything clearly, as if nothing could trouble her. The person Lingchu admired most when she was young was Huan Niang.
As he grew older, Lingchu gradually understood a lot more. He knew where Fuchun Tower was, the painstaking efforts of Huan Niang, and the difficulties faced by the women in the building.
My admiration has not diminished, but I am inexplicably a little more bored.
I remember one time, she saw Oriole, who had always been domineering and arrogant, drunk and vomiting all over the floor in front of her.
A face that had always been carefully painted was as pale as fine rice paper. She pulled Lingchu to sing babblingly for a while, then stretched out her neatly manicured and vermilion-smeared fingernails to press against Lingchu's face. Chu had thick bangs and spoke a long sentence incoherently, but Lingchu could only hear one sentence clearly.
Oriole said, don't follow in their footsteps.
Finally left crying and laughing.
Later, I heard from Meizi, the maid in the same room, that Oriole was deceived by a poor scholar. As a result, he lost both his life and money, and all the money he had saved for several years to redeem himself.
Later, Oriole was still the domineering woman with heavy makeup, and the Fuchun Tower singer with a voice as melodious as Oriole.
It's just that I never had any trouble with the dancing girl Cai'er, and I never talked about Huan Niang with Lingchu.
As for Lingchu, he no longer had the opportunity or interest to play pranks.
She still remembered that after what happened at Oriole, Huan Niang said to the bright sunshine outside the window, as if she was sighing or mockingly, that love is the most luxurious thing in Fuchun Tower.
Finally, I sighed deeply. Since ancient times, sentiment has always been full of hatred.
In Lingchu's eyes, Huan Niang couldn't be a smarter, more free and easy person.
How could you write such a poem with obvious melancholy today?
"Let me tell you a story."
Huan Niang put down her paintbrush and leaned against the window sill, looking at the sparkling river outside the window with a calm expression and a hint of reminiscence in her eyes.
Once upon a time, there was a woman who was born in a scholarly family. She was the only daughter in the family. She had parents who loved her, and a handsome and knowledgeable man who grew up with her. Her life plan was very simple: get hairpin and then marry him.
Zhuma went out to study, while Qingmei guarded her sweet boudoir, waiting for you to return day and night, promising her ten miles of beauty.
Who had ever thought that her family was in decline and her parents were dead.
She waited for him, but what she waited for was an ultimatum, and Zhu Ma entered the Taoist temple and became a Taoist priest.
In the end, she fell into prostitution and was never seen again for ten years.
Huan Niang's delicate voice matched the beauty of March, as moving as the spring breeze, but her eyes were alienated and indifferent.
Lingchu opened his mouth, but didn't know what to say.
She thought of the gossip her roommate Mei Zi told her yesterday.
Meizi was serving tea and water in the front hall. She said that last night, a young Taoist priest came to the building. It was really strange for the Taoist priest to visit the flower house.
"Tonight, come to my room." Huan Niang ordered with a smile, and raised her hand to let Lingchu go back.
Lingchu returned to her room full of doubts. She didn't know why Huan Niang wanted her to go to her room.
You know, on weekdays, Huan Niang never lets Lingchu come out at night.
At night, after entering Huan Niang's room, Lingchu realized why Huan Niang had called her, because there was a Taoist priest sitting opposite Huan Niang in the room.
Lingchu consciously stood behind Huan Niang and quietly looked at the Taoist priest.
I saw that the Taoist priest looked to be in his early twenties, with fair complexion, slender eyebrows and bright eyes, and an outstanding temperament. He did not look like he was thirty years old at all.
Maybe Lingchu came in at the wrong time, and the conversation between the two parties was obviously a little stiff.
"Back then, I went to look for you, on the day you were born." The Taoist priest raised his eyes and looked at Huan Niang.
"I've been there too." Huan Niang's eyes were calm and without any trace of emotion.
"Where are you? I went to your house and found..." The Taoist hesitated to speak.
"I went to your house, but your parents said you didn't come back." After Huan Niang finished speaking, she smiled softly. She was no longer the innocent girl she was back then.
She knew very well what his parents were thinking, which was that they were from the wrong family.
The Taoist priest's expression changed slightly, "Wan'er, I..."
"No need to say more," Huan Niang said with a sudden smile, "In the final analysis, we still missed it, and we can't go back to the past, right? You can't do it, and neither can I."
The Taoist priest was speechless and sighed, "But after all, I can't help you."
I couldn't be by your side when you needed me most.
"None of us are at fault, it's just a matter of fate," Huan Niang poured a cup of tea, took a sip, looked at the shame on the Taoist priest's brow, and said with a chuckle, "You don't have to worry about it, I'm living a good life now. "
"But I want to make it up to you."
"Made up? How to make up for it?" Huan Niang covered her lips and smiled sweetly, her charming eyes were as bright as spring flowers, "Are you going to return to secular life and marry me? Or shall I marry you as a good person?"
"Taoist temples do not prohibit marriage. What I cultivate is Taoism, not Buddhism." The Taoist priest lowered his eyes seriously and looked at Huan Niang.
Huan Niang suppressed her smile and said in a melancholy tone, "It's a pity that I don't want to be a good person."
The Taoist priest's face darkened, "Wan'er...why bother."
"He Yi, if you really want to make up for me, why not promise me something." Huan Niang raised the corners of her lips and said.
He Yi nodded in agreement without hesitation.
"Okay," Huan Niang pulled Lingchu, who was standing aside as a wooden figure, "I want you to take her away and take good care of her."
He Yi was a little surprised, but still agreed without hesitation, while Lingchu looked at Huan Niang blankly.
"You can go. You can come and take her away tomorrow. After that, you won't owe me anything. You and I will be cleared." Huan Niang issued an eviction order.
He Yi looked deeply at Huan Niang, silently stood up and left.
