Leaving the palace and returning home, for other officials, this is nothing worth talking about, it is normal and should be taken for granted. But for Chen Chong, the meaning of returning home is a bit complicated. Because he actually has two families, one is happier and the other is more unfortunate, but they are both his own choices. So every time he left the palace, he had to think about where he would stop for the night.
This may seem simple, but it's actually complicated. After all, life is not like picking up shells on the beach at low tide. When you pick up this one, the remaining shells will be waiting for you in the same place. On the contrary, it is like flying many kites in a strong wind. When you close this line, the other line will drift away in the wind unknowingly. So people often either let go and only hold on to one or two threads, or they keep retracting all the threads that are drifting further and further away.
When it comes to returning home, Chen Chong knows that if he chooses to settle down in one place, the people in the other place will be miserable. So can the two be combined into one place? It's not that Chen Chong has never thought about it this way, but he knows that this is something that human dignity cannot allow, and he is not someone who takes pleasure in trampling on the dignity of others.
Although Chen Chong hesitated briefly when he mounted his horse and took a stroll, the answer was already determined: Abai understood him, but the princess did not. So he can only go to the more unfortunate side. Although he will feel pain because of it, he has a deeper responsibility after all.
It's just that Chen Chong still had a bit of luck. While looking at the rising moon in the east mountain, he imagined that nearly nine months had passed in a flash. Ten thousand years should be a little less optimistic! Back then, the First Emperor killed his mother Zhao Ji's two illegitimate sons. Duke Zheng Zhuang drove away his mother Wu Jiang's favored brother Gongshu Duan. It was once said that the two would never see each other again, but didn't they get back together in the end? Duke Zhuang of Zheng once said when they met: "It's so fun to be in the big tunnel." How great it would be if he and the princess could do the same!
But thinking of this, Chen Chong quickly shook his head and smiled bitterly. He knew that he was fanciful. How could such a good thing happen? No matter how people change, memories will be forgotten but never erased. Just like a broken mirror, even if it can be repaired, the cracks will not disappear. It’s just that people are often riddled with holes and will become accustomed to the cracks.
Just thinking about it, I arrived at the house before I knew it. Although it was named the Prime Minister's Mansion, because Zhuge Liang wanted to move the capital after taking office as Sili Xiaowei, he moved the new mansion directly to Luoyang, the eastern capital. Therefore, Chen Chong did not move, but changed the plaque of the former Sili Mansion, and the layout was the same as before.
At this time, due to the night ban and the New Year's Eve, most of the official offices were closed, and only a few disciples were guarding the treasury. Chen Chong didn't want to be disturbed, so he led the guards into the mansion through the side door and directly entered his courtyard.
When he first entered the hospital, Chen Chong wanted to say hello to the guard at the door. Unexpectedly, when he met him at first glance, he found that he didn't recognize him. This surprised him, and after asking, he learned that it was Chen Zhang who had raised the money. There are a total of seventeen guards in Chen Chong's courtyard, and four servants responsible for chores. They are all villagers selected by Chen Qun from the clan and have been with Chen Chong for more than ten years. When Cai Yan was alive, he personally allocated monthly salaries to them. After Cai Yan's death, Chen Chong was responsible for it himself, so they were all familiar with Chen Chong. It's just that Chen Zhang came of age in the past two years, so Chen Chong handed over the matter to him. Unexpectedly, he recruited some more people this year.
Chen Chong then asked about the current situation at home. The guard only said that everything was business as usual and he didn't know much. Asked again about Chen Zhang's whereabouts, he replied that Chen Zhang had been living in Dongguan Pavilion these days and did not return home often. This made Chen Chong feel a little dissatisfied, but seeing the guard's uneasy expression, he didn't get angry and just smiled and passed away.
It was already late at night. Chen Chong saw that the lights in his wife's bedroom seemed to have been turned off, so he was not in a hurry to meet him. Instead, he asked the guards to rest first. At the same time, he cleared a side room and moved all the bedding in. I plan to make do inside tonight.
But Chen Chong was not sleepy yet. The winter air was biting and his browbones, wrists and shoulder blades all ached. So he lit a lamp in the side room, lit a brazier, and planned to read for a while. But for some reason, Chen Chong felt upset for no reason and could not look in. So he put down the "Yin Fu Sutra" in his hand, put on a fur coat, and walked to relax by Xiaozhu Lake.
The plum blossoms by the lake were also in bloom at this time, and there was a quiet fragrance when he got closer, which made Chen Chong feel like he was relieved. It's like the wind blowing on your body, and what you see is nothingness. Although there are many worries in the nothingness, they gradually turn into a feeling of melancholy, and even the dull pain seems to disappear. Chen Chong felt a pleasant loneliness at this time, as if he had lit a glass of strong wine and evaporated himself.
Then Chen Chong walked step by step by the lake, without purpose or thinking, and he seemed to become hazy in the hazy night. The stars and moonlight on the sky looked at him, reminding him of the illusion of his youth, as if the years were broken in an instant. He remembered what Liu Jia said at the banquet: "You still haven't changed!", and then he unconsciously approached the water and looked at his reflection on the calm lake. But he couldn't see clearly at night, but he could only vaguely feel that thirty years had passed. The back of his former self overlaps with the current one, and it seems that nothing has changed.
But how come there is no change? At least many of the people who accompanied me back then have blurred my impressions, and I am not sure whether the faces in my imagination are real. Not long ago, Xuande's youngest son called himself "Aweng"!
Chen Chong then patted the shadows on the lake away and looked at the cold sparkling waves. He suddenly and bizarrely remembered a poem he wrote in the third year of Chuping's reign, and he naturally read it again:
"The troubles of the world go south together, and the Qing Dynasty returns to the north. White hair grows in foreign lands, and green mountains can be seen in the old capital. The full moon passes over the remnant barrier, and the stars are in the old pass. Cold birds and decaying grass fly together to Duanchou Bay."
At that time, I thought I understood the pain of separation very well, but now that I think about it, I still wrote it too lightly, too lightly. Chen Chong fell into silence for a moment, and the surrounding night scene seemed to quiet down with Chen Chong's old poems.
At this moment, a sound suddenly broke the tranquility of the night. Chen Chong thought it was an illusion at first, but soon he realized something was wrong. The sound gradually grew from weak to strong. It seemed like a woman's very painful moan, which made him feel familiar and familiar. strangeness. Chen Chong followed the sound and looked over, and was shocked to find that it was the princess's bedroom.
Chen Chong hurried there, thinking as he walked, could it be that the princess had a nightmare? No, he must be sick! The closer he got to the door, the more clearly he heard the painful moans of the princess inside, and he felt extremely worried for a moment. Just when he walked to the threshold and wanted to open the door by himself, unexpectedly, with a creak, the door opened by itself.
Chen Chong wanted to go in directly, but he bumped into an old woman. The old woman didn't see clearly who was coming, so she opened her mouth and said, "What are you doing here? Madam is in pain again. Bring her a basin of hot water quickly. Don't rush." "Unexpectedly, the person in front of her didn't move at all, which made her very angry. She cursed and lit the candle and wanted to continue scolding, only to find that the person who came was actually Chen Chong. This made her tremble in fright, and then she quickly knelt down. Neither the ground nor the air dared to make a sound.
Chen Chong didn't recognize this old woman, but he guessed that she was newly hired by Chen Zhang. But he didn't care about that much at the moment. His eyes were already deeply fixed on his wife who was tossing and turning on the bed and moaning, and he was tightly locked on her waist. The flat belly in the past has now become tall and bulging, and a foreign object can be vaguely seen moving under the belly.
It was obvious that the princess was pregnant. Chen Chong, who had many experiences, could tell at a glance that his wife was probably nine months pregnant and would probably give birth soon. The painful moan she made just now was obviously the pain before giving birth.
But the moment his wife turned sideways, Chen Chong met her eyes. He saw with his own eyes how her eyes turned from pain to shock, and then from shock to a hint of pride, and then he recognized that this was her revenge on him. The child she is carrying will definitely not be her own.
However, what made Wannian at a loss was that Chen Chong did not show a gloomy or even angry expression because of this. Instead, a smile of relief bloomed on his face as if he was relieved. He nodded to Wannian with this smile, then turned to the old woman who was serving him and said, "Wait a moment, I'll get the hot water later." Then he strode out of the door.
The old woman looked at the hostess blankly because of this. Although Wan Nian didn't know Chen Chong's intention, he also knew that this was a private matter between the two of them, and it was not easy to tell outsiders. In fact, everyone in the family thought that the princess was the prime minister's heir, and did not understand the twists and turns. Therefore, after Wannian reluctantly pondering for a while, he let the old woman go out to rest.
Not long after, Chen Chong brought a basin of hot water in, tested the water temperature with his hand, dipped it in with a towel, and then asked Wan Nian, "Does it still hurt? A Yansheng often complained of pain before she gave birth to her baby. Just rub it with warm water and it will be fine.”
Having said that, not allowing Wannian to refuse, Chen Chong had already wiped it out. Probably because of his rich experience, he pressed just right and soon made his wife's moans subside. He also rubbed her back and neck. This kind of treatment made Wan Nian feel more and more unreal. She had been mentally preparing for this day for nearly a year, and had imagined various scenarios in her mind, but she did not expect it to develop like this. When she faced Chen Chong at close range again, she couldn't help but sadly discovered that her strength was so weak that she was about to abandon her armor in an instant.
She asked almost in sleep: "You don't hate me?"
Chen Chong shook his head slowly, then took his wife's hand and said in a sighing tone: "Wannian, if you don't hate me, I will be satisfied. If I can make you feel at ease and happy in the future, I will only be happy for you, best wishes You have found a good man."
However, what Chen Chong never expected was that after he finished saying this, Wan Nian's face turned as white as ice and snow. She sneered and said: "Okay, okay, so that's what you think." She threw Chen Chong's hand aside and lay on her side on the couch with her back to Chen Chong without saying a word.
