Yan Qingchi jumped into the Wang family courtyard with a light body.
Lu Yuan's banquet has ended long ago. If he goes back later, he will definitely be scolded by his adoptive father.
The atmosphere in front of the Wang family library was gloomy. As soon as Yan Qingchi appeared, he felt a scorching gaze on him.
Looking up, he met Wang Huaian's eyes.
Yan Qingchi thought that his adoptive father would send a message to scold him, so he was waiting shamelessly.
Wang Huaian just looked at her briefly and then turned his head away.
In front of the Wang family library, all the heads of the families were there. Mr. Zhongshu came to invite him in person. Anyone who dared to neglect them got into their carriages and came at a gallop.
It's best to keep a low profile at this time. Inkstone dodges and falls back to the short pavilion next to the inkstone washing pond.
Jun Bubai was dressed in white and stood aside in the pavilion. When he saw Yan Qingchi coming back, he asked curiously: "Is Lu Yuan's banquet over?"
There was a beauty leaning against him in the short pavilion. He sat sideways in the inkstone and leaned on the beauty's leaning chair to watch the excitement in the courtyard. He said, "It ended half an hour ago. I was afraid of being punished by my father, so I took a walk outside." Time will come back."
Yan Qingchi smelled of meat buns. Jun Bubai took a sniff, smelled the smell, and sighed, "I haven't eaten Grandma Sun's buns in Luogu Lane in the west of the city for a long time."
Yan Qingchi took out a roll of lotus leaves from his arms, threw it to Jun Bubai, and said, "You are only allowed to eat one. It was specially brought for my father."
The lotus leaf roll has the body temperature of an inkstone. I think I was afraid that the buns would get cold, so I kept them in my arms to keep them warm along the way.
Jun Bubai hasn't eaten for a long time. Now he's very hungry and can't care much. Unwrapping the lotus leaf roll, there is a layer of kraft oil paper inside to separate the soup and water. When the oil paper is opened, the aroma of the steamed buns and meat comes to the face. I can't help but praise Grandma Sun for her stable skills as always.
There were four meat buns. Jun Bubai picked up one, rolled it up in oil paper, tied up the lotus leaf roll, and handed it back to Yan Qingchi, who stuffed it back into his arms.
The buns are soft and not long after they come out of the pot. You are afraid that the soup will burn your mouth, so you take a small bite to cool off the heat in the buns, then take a big bite, which is the most enjoyable thing to eat.
"Everyone in charge is here. There is such a big movement, but who is going to deal with that poisonous woman?"
Yan Qingchi glanced at the people sitting on the chairs in the courtyard. He met them several times and couldn't name them, but he knew which family they were from.
Jun Bubai finished eating the bun in his hand, licked his fingers, leaned on the pavilion pillar, glanced at the courtyard, and saw that the second wife of the Wang family had not arrived yet, and sneered: "In the few hours since you went to the banquet, that poisonous woman ruined the Wang family again. Dozens of lives.”
The wind in the pavilion was very comfortable. Yan Qingchi yawned and lay on the back of the beauty. In the entire Wang family, she only cared about the safety of her adoptive father. He agreed, "That's just right. The coffin prepared for her prodigal son hasn't been buried yet, and the mourning hall rituals are ready. We can bury it in a deserted place and save a few taels of silver."
While the two were talking, they walked in and out of the main entrance of the library courtyard wall. Mrs. Wang walked into the front yard of the library carrying a shelf. The mourner was replaced by a dark purple brocade dress. The brocade dress was embroidered with dark patterns with gold thread, and her withered face was powdered. He had his hair straightened, his brows were green and his forehead was trimmed, his lips were touched with vermilion, and his disheveled hair was combed into a bun. He walked lightly and looked at the people in charge of each house in the courtyard.
Wang Huaimin, who was wearing a Confucian robe hanging to the floor, stumbled to catch up and covered his cheeks with the sleeves of his broad robe. As he staggered, the scars scratched by fingernails were exposed on his left and right cheeks, looking slightly embarrassed.
Mrs. Wang II ignored the people in front of the door and walked straight to Wang Huaian. There was no regret on her face and she did not salute. She straightened her body and looked straight at him.
"Le Yao, don't be rude."
The middle-aged man in brocade clothes who was sitting quietly next to Wang Huai'an's right hand was the first to speak out, stood up and scolded.
The woman turned around, snorted coldly, and said sarcastically: "When Ji'er's body was still cold, I sent people to you, my uncle, several times to seek justice for him, but you closed the door behind you, leaving my orphans and widows in the Wang family. I was bullied, and now you have received a letter from the Wang family, but you came just in time, but you came to divorce me for the Wang family."
The middle-aged man shook his sleeves, turned his back, put on his brother's airs and said scolding: "Ji'er has behaved badly. I have repeatedly advised you to discipline him. You dote on him in every possible way, favor and indulge, and you can't listen to others." It is offensive to say that drowning a child is like killing a child. Now that he has ended up like this, he has brought it on himself and cannot blame anyone else. You have no repentance and insist on going your own way. You even paid for murder and involved innocent people in the Wang family. You have caused such a huge disaster. Let me be in vain. The family has lost all face, so it is reasonable for the Wang family to divorce you with a letter of divorce."
The woman curled her lips and smiled, and her eyes fell on Wang Huaimin. Wang Huai'an, who had no strength to restrain the chicken, was so frightened by her sight that he rolled and crawled behind his brother Wang Huai'an to hide.
The woman mocked: "Look at his appearance. Back then, my brother and the Wang family praised him to the extreme, saying that he was the best-tempered man in Jiangnan. If I marry him, it will be the best marriage. I listen to my brother's words. , I thought that after getting married, we would be on the same page as him, have a son and a half, a husband and a daughter, and live in love for a lifetime..."
The longing she had long ago has long since vanished. The woman's eyes suddenly changed, she clenched her fists, wanting to tear the silent Wang Huaimin to pieces, and continued to recount the past:
"Brother, you know that when I was ten months pregnant, he wandered around the flower streets and willow alleys all day long and never came home to visit. The day I gave birth to Ji'er, he was bleeding profusely, but he was jealous of a promiscuous woman in the dark alley. Ji'er has been pregnant since he was a child. Weak. He entered school at the age of five. He was punished because he was slow in literacy. He wanted to compete with others. That was his own business. Why should I compare my Ji'er with others? You all said that Ji'er didn't learn. He has no skills, but he can write well at the age of five, and can read classical Chinese well at the age of eight. If it weren't for him, how could Ji'er hate school, learn to drink and gamble, get into trouble with prostitutes, and end up dying in a foreign country today."
After the woman finished telling her story, the middle-aged man moved slightly and turned to look at Wang Huaimin. After a long silence, he whispered: "Why didn't you say it before?"
After hearing what her brother said, the woman's chest moved, and she said coldly: "I married into the Wang family, brother, have you ever seen my sister? You can open and read the letters sent by people many times." You can manage everything properly, why didn't you help me with my affairs? When Ji'er was kicked out of the house, I sent people many times to ask you to intercede on his behalf. Even if the Bai family came forward to keep him in Jinling, it would be fine. Rather than die in a foreign land, I think the people in the south of the Yangtze River have a more adequate status in my brother's heart than I do."
"Bai Leyao, the Bai family doesn't care about your business!" The middle-aged man's taboo was touched. The man was furious and sat back down with a roll of his sleeves.
The woman was equally furious and called him by his name: "Xiangqing Bai, even if I die, I will not do any good to your Bai family."
The two broke up unhappy.
In the short pavilion, Yan Qingchi, who was watching the excitement, chuckled: "The tempers of these brothers and sisters are quite similar, but if I were her, I would have slapped him with an inkstone and gave him a happy face, and that Wang Huaimin , If you find that he has done something wrong, you should be shot to death directly, and it is not a bad idea to leave the father and leave the son."
Jun Bubai pinched out a trace of sword intention from his sleeve and stared at it, his heart in confusion.
If Wang Huaimin could abide by his duty and raise the case on par with Bai Leyao, Second Young Master Wang would not have gone astray; if Wang Huaimin had not interfered with it and compared himself with others, Second Young Master Wang could have read and studied essays, restrained himself, and been a good person like ordinary people. A knowledgeable and sensible scholar; if the second young master Wang is kicked out of the Wang family, Bai Xiangqing, as his uncle, can take him in, advise him step by step, and make corrections one by one, so that he can regain himself and return to his true nature; if...
But there are so many ifs in this world! What happened to Suzhou Tianxialou and what happened to Yang's mother was not something she could just forgive with a few words of complaint and her soft-heartedness. Jun Bubai used his fingertips to cut off his thoughts with a sharp knife, took a deep breath, and felt as calm as water.
Wang Huaian, who was silent in the courtyard, noticed the subtle intention of the knife in the pavilion and turned to look.
Yan Qingchi thought that his forthright words were heard by his adoptive father, so he hurriedly raised his sleeves to cover his face.
Jun Bubai looked at Wang Huai'an for a moment, then raised his hand and patted his chest, reminding Wang Huai'an that he still had the original volume of ancient books hidden under his clothes.
Wang Huai'an saw Jun Bubai's slight movements and was extremely worried. He was afraid that he would damage the original volume without knowing how to deal with it. He couldn't bear to look at it anymore, so he simply withdrew his gaze and looked at everyone in the courtyard.
Wang Huai'an's sleeves were covered with wind, and a gust of wind rose up from Wang Huaimin's feet who was hiding behind him, pushing him back into the courtyard and standing next to Bai Leyao.
Wang Huaian looked dignified and said: "Huaimin, what Le Yao just said is true!"
Wang Huaimin's face was aching, and he didn't dare to get too close to Bai Leyao. He moved a few steps to the other side, touched his aching face, and argued: "Brother, don't listen to her nonsense. Since she married into the Wang family, everyone in the Wang family has known, I was bullied by her everywhere, and if I did anything wrong, I would get punched and kicked, and I was in constant panic all day long."
Wang Huaimin paused for a moment. His brother Wang Huai'an didn't like scholars to get involved in romantic affairs, so he tactfully said: "So...that's why I went out to avoid the limelight."
Confusing right and wrong, talking about right and wrong, Bai Leyao sneered. Wang Huaimin did not dare to look back, raised his sleeves to cover his face, and took a few steps to the other side.
The wind fell into the courtyard, and Zhongshu Jun, who came riding the wind, held several account books and brought them to Wang Huaian's hand. The wide sleeves of his unparalleled wide robe were stained with the tacky smell of rouge and gouache in the dark alleys of Huajie.
Wang Huaian raised his arm and hung it in the air. He hesitated for a moment and did not look at it. He took back his hand. His eyes changed from easy-going to cold. Wherever he looked, he was as deep as a distant mountain.
Wang Huaimin suddenly felt his shoulders sink, his knees became weak, and he knelt down in the courtyard.
"Zhongshu, what kind of family law should he follow if he behaves like this?"
In the Wang family library where the sun was shining brightly, as Wang Huaian spoke, the temperature dropped suddenly, making it feel like a cold winter.
Zhongshujun replied mercilessly: "With fifty sticks, I will drive you out of the Wang family."
"Do you have any complaints?" Wang Huaian asked coldly.
In the desolate courtyard, Wang Huaimin raised his upper body and complained shamelessly, "You and I have lost our parents when we were young. The book says that when the father is gone, the elder brother is respected. In recent years, the older brother has only focused on self-cultivation. At the age of twenty, he was on the top of a saint." , becoming a role model for scholars to follow, have you ever looked back and asked, how did you read Yudi's book and how was your life?"
Wang Huaian remained silent.
His parents died early when he was young, and there were brothers peeping at the family property. If he was one step slower, he would be eaten alive and squeezed out of the Wang family, and he would go out to make a living with his younger brother Wang Huaimin. His father was gone, and his elder brother was his father. He studied hard, worked hard, and became the head of the Wang family at the age of twenty. He protected everything left by his parents, including Wang Huaimin, who was not familiar with the world, just so that he could not be ignored in the Wang family. Restraint and live happily.
Over the years, he has been ignored and allowed to do whatever he wants, which has led to today's situation.
Wang Huaian stared at Bai Leyao standing upright in the courtyard. It turned out that there was no difference between him and her.
