"Senior Brother, aren't you going to work on the New River Road?"
"I have nothing to do today, come and see my junior sister."
"It turns out that senior brother can also be lazy."
"It's not that I'm lazy, I'm really busy. Besides, I haven't been idle these days. I'm running around everywhere. I even went to Donglin Temple yesterday."
"What are you going to do at Donglin Temple?"
"The matter of Zheyiqu."
"Zheyi Canal? New river channel? Senior brother really knows how to name it."
"How do you know it was me who took it?"
"It's very similar to senior brother's style of doing things."
"What kind of style do I have... Forget it, come to think of it, I didn't expect Master Shandao to be so hospitable, considerate of the government, and insisted on joining the joint construction of Zheyi Canal led by Longcheng County Government...",
"That's good. So senior brother is really done with everything and is coming here again, right?"
"That's right, little junior sister, don't worry, you didn't delay your business."
"oh."
"Hey, why is little junior sister silent?"
"tired."
"Then I'll retreat first, and you can have a good rest?"
"Wait, come in."
"Um, wouldn't it be inconvenient?"
"I stay in bed with my clothes on."
"That's okay. I just brought you some grapes."
"Grape?"
In a boudoir that doesn't smell like her daughter's makeup but has a bookish smell.
Ouyang Rong, who was wandering in the front hall, pushed open the gauze curtain in the back room and approached a fragrant couch with a dim shadow.
The beaded curtain on the couch was half open and half rolled up. The girl in a scholar's shirt with black hair pulled up by a red rope bit her lip and sat on the head of the bed. She hugged the quilt and covered her tall chest. She glanced sideways at him. When someone came closer, she looked at him again. Look straight back, without squinting.
"What's wrong with senior brother's face?"
Ouyang Rong went first and opened the window. With squinting eyes, he could see the maid waiting in the yard.
He pulled out a chair, sat down by the window, took a long breath, pointed at the two small red marks on his right face and said:
"Is this it? Last night when we were picking grapes, the grape trellis fell down. She, I would have known better not to let Wei Lai hold up the ladder. It almost hit her, and she didn't have much strength. I admit, I was careless and sat there for too long. At the desk, my skills are a bit inflexible..."
Xie Lingjiang frowned slightly and did not look at him:
"Shouldn't Senior Brother reflect on why he likes to show off his actions? Senior Brother told me not to be impulsive in doing things after I was beaten that day. But Senior Brother, shouldn't these things be left to servants? The son of a rich man cannot sit down in the hall. Senior brother, you have nothing to do to pick grapes."
Ouyang Rong was slightly stunned and turned to look at his junior sister who sounded a little reproachful.
Why do I feel like I haven't seen you for a few days? It seems a little different.
Is this a bit mature?
Without arguing, Ouyang Rong lowered his head and took out a plate of washed grapes from the box he brought, and silently handed it to the small table next to the bed.
Xie Ling Jiang Yuguang saw it and seemed to realize something. He paused in his small plaintive words and was reluctant to say any more.
Ouyang Rong smiled and pushed the plate, "Here."
Xie Ling Jiang's head didn't turn around, "I won't eat it."
Ouyang Rong nodded and took the plate back.
"Wait and put it down."
"Don't you want to eat?"
"You gave it away and you take it away?"
The girl inside the bead curtain stared at him angrily.
"Oh oh oh."
Ouyang Rong smiled inwardly and put his hand down honestly.
The duplicitous little junior sister is a bit generous.
"How did senior brother know that I like eating grapes?" Xie Lingjiang asked in a low voice.
"Your father said so."
"Senior brother, you still ask my father this?" She couldn't help but turn to look at him.
Ouyang Rong smiled and said nothing.
He had no problem asking the younger junior sister about her hobbies and tastes. He didn't know how to do it now, let alone before.
In fact, it was his aunt who asked his teacher Xie Xun to inquire about it before. She was the only one who cared about such things.
My aunt talked about it during dinner yesterday, so that night, a dry grape rack in Meiluyuan was brutally murdered by a young county magistrate.
After all, you can't come empty-handed when you come to visit someone. It's so embarrassing.
Ouyang Rong did not explain, fearing that the junior sister would become sullen and drive people away again.
"Senior brother has found out clearly."
Xie Lingjiang turned his gaze away and whispered.
Her hand slipped out of the bead curtain and reached towards the grape plate, but paused midway and retracted.
"Little junior sister, you won't spit out the skin of grapes when you eat them, right?"
"Senior brother, don't you vomit?"
Xie Lingjiang paused in his words, because in the corner of his eye, someone already picked up the grapes, threw them into his mouth and started eating them without any politeness.
"Hmm." Ouyang Rong chewed and answered vaguely, but it was actually the same as not saying anything.
Xie Lingjiang has a black line on his forehead.
Senior brother really doesn't treat him as an outsider.
The originally reserved and shy girl suddenly lost her formality and hurriedly rescued some grapes from her senior brother's clutches.
Outside, in the courtyard full of orchids, several maids on duty occasionally looked back curiously, and saw a pair of handsome men and beautiful women grabbing grapes from each other through the bead curtain in the Xuan window.
A maid serving Xie Ling Jiang Duo Ri couldn't help but look at her companion in surprise.
This noble lady of the Xie family has not smiled for many days, let alone shown such vitality, even when Miss Su came to visit her.
In the house, there was a commotion for a while, and a plate of grapes was blown away like a wind-swept cloud.
Ouyang Rong looked at the junior sister behind the bead curtain and couldn't help but ask:
"Junior sister, isn't your back injured? Why are you sitting on the bedside?"
Xie Lingjiang lowered his eyes, "Why don't you lie down and grab grapes with your senior brother?"
Ouyang Rong suddenly became speechless.
It's true that She can't wait on her stomach to meet guests, and the junior sister is so strong.
"That's right. How is Junior Sister's injury?" After a pause, he added, "It looks like it's not serious, right?"
"You don't know what your senior brother did."
There was silence for a while inside and outside the bead curtain.
The atmosphere was a bit chilly.
"Sorry." Ouyang Rong said, "At that time."
"No, it's okay, no need to apologize."
The girl behind the curtain lowered her head and whispered:
"Senior brother's discipline was very appropriate. I was actually quite happy at the time. Senior brother didn't treat me like an outsider."
"My father once said that except for your family and... the people who care about you, no one outside will pay for your mistakes, let alone be angry with you."
"So senior brother and junior sister understood at that time, thank you for your discipline."
Xie Lingjiang bit his lower lip subconsciously again, "If you make a mistake again next time, senior brother can continue to discipline him."
"That day was a special situation."
Ouyang Rong was slightly startled, shook his head and laughed: "You can't use a whip next time..."
It was originally a joke, but unexpectedly a whisper floated out from the bead curtain:
"It's not impossible."
When Ouyang Rong lost his voice, Xie Lingjiang immediately said:
"Actually, I still can't figure out why she did that to me."
When Ouyang Rong heard this, he was stunned for a while before he realized that this "she" should refer to Hu Ji named Zhi Ying.
Xie Lingjiang hugged her chest across the quilt, leaned her head on the back pillow, looked at the gauze curtain on the top of the bed, and said with a dazed expression:
"I saved her from an eagle attack, I cared about her safety, I helped her redeem herself, and I brought her back to give her dignity... But why did she choose to help a bad guy who humiliated her, bullied her, and despised her? If there are difficulties, coercion, or secrets, why don't you tell me? This makes me feel more uncomfortable than betrayal."
She turned her head, looked at her senior brother's heroic face with two red marks and asked:
"Is it like what the book says, that barbarians are afraid of force but not moral? Maybe a little, but I don't think it is entirely true. Even if she is not Hu Ji, it seems that things will slip into that..."
"The book doesn't say what went wrong. What color is this world?"
Ouyang Rong turned his head and looked at the bright spring scenery outside the window, and asked, "Has Junior Sister figured it out now?"
The whispering Miss Xie was silent for a moment.
She suddenly realized that outside the window, the morning sunshine had arrived, and it happened to fall on the young man standing in front of the bed with his hands on his knees and listening intently.
This scene seems familiar.
That day in front of the county government office, she was exhausted and dejected. She stared blankly at her senior brother who stood under the noon sun and announced a fair verdict, and then boldly unveiled a new construction that shocked the entire audience. This was how it was.
That year in the old house on Wuyi Lane, when she was young, she hid behind the door and witnessed her father kneeling straight on his back in the lobby seat under the red sunset. He would rather die than refuse the olive branch offered by the Wei family envoy. This was also the case.
That year, when the Qian Dynasty changed to the Zhou Dynasty, the Queen ascended the throne, and only a few of the Li Qian royal family were slaughtered. Blood was splashed all over the palace, and panic spread throughout the country. The kings of the Wei family were all in the limelight. eyebrow.
Only my father was dissatisfied. Even though his clan members cried and begged him, my father still refused to enter the court and would not kneel to the court of Zhou.
Why has she studied hard, refused to get married, and worked hard to practice Qi for so many years?
It was because of the light she saw on her father at the old house in Wuyi Lane that she felt the "Qi" of a scholar for the first time, and became one of the rare Qi practitioners ahead of all the Xie brothers and sisters.
This is the beginning of everything. This is what I have been pursuing stubbornly for these years. It has almost become...faith.
Xie Lingjiang will never forget it.
And now, she saw that the light on her senior brother and her father were really similar, but not the same.
Senior brother has another kind of "qi" in him, which has attracted Xie Lingjiang to get closer from the beginning, wanting to find out...
So she had just said that she hoped that her senior brother would continue to discipline her. She was looking forward to the scenery on his path that was different from her father's, and followed him to experience it.
"Senior brother."
Xie Lingjiang called out softly, opened the bead curtain, looked at him with a pair of bright eyes, and said seriously:
"I haven't fully understood it yet, but no matter what... what she did is definitely not right, and this world is definitely not dark... it is different from what I thought before. I am disappointed, but... I won't give up. .”
After a pause, she stared intently:
"I always believe that there is a light that always exists, and justice will definitely come."
Ouyang Rong was silent for a while: "Shan."
After a heart-to-heart talk, the atmosphere was silent for a while.
This kind of serious topic is actually not suitable for talking about too much, especially in broad daylight.
When talking about life and ideals, you have to choose a blind light, right?
Soon, the two brothers and sisters in the room changed the topic.
"correct."
As if he had been sitting for a long time, Ouyang Rong got up and walked around the room. He remembered something. He turned around and said curiously:
"Among the maids who just brought me in, there is a little maid in goose-yellow clothes. Does Junior Sister know you?"
"The one with goose-yellow clothes?" Xie Lingjiang tilted his head, "Senior brother, are you talking about the colorful ribbon? The one with a little baby fat?"
Ouyang Rong nodded.
He was also a little surprised when he just saw the familiar little maid with a steamed bun face.
"Could she be Junior Sister's maid?"
"That's not true." Xie Lingjiang shook his head, "She is the personal maid of the little girl from the Su family in the next yard. Mother Weber called her to change my dressing in the morning."
"Little sister of the Su family?"
Ouyang Rong muttered and nodded.
This makes sense, it turns out to be the girl from this family.
However, the junior sister had never mentioned this matter about the Su family before.
Moreover, he lived in Meiluyuan, and the two families had been neighbors for so long. Ouyang Rong only happened to meet the girl from the Su family once at Donglin Temple on the mountain.
I don't know if it's because he's too busy on weekdays, or because the law-abiding Su Mansion is too low-key and reclusive.
"Brother, why do you ask this?" Xie Lingjiang looked sideways.
Ouyang Rong casually talked about borrowing an umbrella in the pavilion yesterday.
"Looking at it this way, we are indeed destined." Xie Lingjiang nodded.
"What's the fate? The county is so small. You can't see it when you look up." Ouyang said nonchalantly.
Xie Lingjiang glanced at his senior brother, hesitated, and introduced:
"This family... Well, I forgot to tell my senior brother before. The master of this family is named Su and his given name is Xian. He is an old friend of my father and we studied together."
"Classmate?" Ouyang Rong nodded in understanding.
Xie Lingjiang did not explain the "reading method". He considered his words and sentences and said:
"Uncle Su and Mother Weber have one son and one daughter. The eldest son is Mingfu, who is three years older than his senior brother. He is mellow and honest, diligent and studious. The youngest daughter is the little sister of the Su family. She is also... gentle and considerate, with a pure nature, and is loved by the whole family. These days, I live next to her... This family treats me very well."
In the Zhou Dynasty, the nicknames of ladies from wealthy families were not allowed to be disclosed casually. Even if outsiders knew it, they were not allowed to call them randomly. They could just call them according to their ranking in the family.
Ouyang Rong nodded, "That's good. Speaking of which, I also owe Su Mansion a favor. I'll have a chance to get to know him someday."
Xie Lingjiang had already known about the Su family's donation of one thousand taels of silver before the Dragon Boat Festival, and was not surprised. She nodded and asked again.
"Senior brother just visited, didn't you see Uncle Su and the eldest son of the Su family?"
Ouyang Rong shook his head. He was dressed in regular clothes and came directly to pay a visit. He handed over a name card and was brought in.
"That should be because senior brother came too early. Su Dalang may still be studying early in the study. As for Uncle Su... Well, it's okay. Senior brother will come to visit. They will come over when they find out later. Senior brother can get to know each other then.",
"OK."
Ouyang Rong nodded slightly. In fact, he was not interested in this kind of social interaction, but he still had basic courtesy and emotional intelligence.
When Xie Lingjiang saw this, he stopped talking.
The letter that my father wrote to my senior brother in advance is still in her custody.
But you can't hand it over before the time comes.
But Xie Lingjiang didn't think that the senior brother should befriend this family.
On the contrary, this family should turn around and try to win over the senior brother.
So it doesn't matter whether senior brother knows or not, and according to senior brother's character of focusing on disaster relief and water control, even if he knows, he probably won't care.
"By the way, here's this for you."
Xie Lingjiang was still holding the quilt, lost in thought, when Ouyang Rong by the window took something out of his sleeve and tossed it to her.
"This is."
Xie Lingjiang took it in a daze, and there was a crystal clear and round bead lying in the palm of his hand.
She is naturally familiar with what this is.
Xie Lingjiang looked a little ashamed, holding tightly to the bead that still contained someone's warm body temperature.
"Senior brother, I was angry at the time because of the food price issue. I didn't know that Zhiying was that kind of person, so I rashly handed over the night-light pearl you gave me."
Ouyang Rong shook his head, "You made the right choice at that time. A bead is indeed not as important as a human life."
Xie Lingjiang stared at him for a while, then stretched out his hand and handed it back to him.
"Brother, take it first."
Ouyang Rong looked puzzled.
Xie Lingjiang said seriously:
"This was something that senior brother rewarded me before, but I paid it by mistake. Now senior brother Ye Mingzhu takes it back first. If next time, junior sister does something right and deserves praise, senior brother will give it to me openly again!"
"It's a ritual, right? Okay."
The junior sister was quite amusing when she took it seriously. Ouyang Rong took it with a smile and put the Night Pearl away again.
In fact, only he knew that this was a strange relic, but everyone, including the pawn shop, said that the glowing thing was a night pearl, so they followed suit.
Afterwards, the two brothers and sisters talked about Zhiyiqu for a while.
After looking at the sun, Ouyang Rong stood up and prepared to leave.
But at this moment, a little maid with a bun face ran into the yard. After entering the door, she quickly glanced at someone's face and saluted like a lady:
"Master Ouyang, our elder brother is here and wants to see you."
Ouyang Rong raised his eyebrows and turned to look at his junior sister.
