dusk.
The sunset is fiery red.
The moon disappears into the western sky.
Donglin Temple, Sanhuiyuan.
Zhao Qingxiu gently opened the courtyard door and walked into the quiet courtyard.
Old Monster Sun walked out of the ward, yawning and with messy white hair.
"Girl, why are you here? Where's the food? I'm starving to death. Do you have any meat? Come on, wine, wine! You have to feed me enough so that I won't waste my whole day helping this kid digest the tortoise-shell beetle."
"Yeah." Zhao Qingxiu obediently held a food box and handed it over.
In the courtyard, Mr. Sun happily took the box, opened it, smelled the aroma of wine and rice, and walked away with satisfaction, leaving the room behind him.
Zhao Qingxiu stretched out her hand and opened her mouth, but stopped talking.
Old Monster Sun waved his hand and drove him away impatiently:
"Go, go, wait for him to wake up, the food will be cold, the medicine is too strong, it will take a while to digest, then just throw two steamed buns next to the bed and let him get up in the middle of the night to nibble on it.
"Hey, dumb girl, your cooking is really delicious, but it's a bit spicy. I have some experience. You can't even order this local dish that's slightly spicy. These two words are more deceptive than a Taoist priest."
"Eh, that's not right." Old Monster Sun, who was paying full attention to the food box, reacted and turned around and muttered:
"Why are you bringing him food? Aren't you afraid that he will taste it and guess it's you? How will you leave then?
"No, no, these poor people have to eat them all. We can't keep him."
The old Taoist man in the crane cloak and Qiu embraces delicious food and wine, and he is upright and awe-inspiring.
The delicate mute girl lowered her head, shrank her little hands in Wu's skirt, and pinched the cuffs habitually.
Standing in the courtyard in the evening sun, her fingertips touched the hanging hair beside her ears.
"You want to see him wake up with your own eyes? Do you not believe in Pindao's medical skills or something?"
Old Monster Sun pouted:
"No, even if you pretend to be a cook, it won't work. He has seen us both in the underground palace, so he must be suspicious."
He imitated in a weird voice: "How can a little mute who is no one wanted in the Beitian Almshouse be able to cook my hometown cuisine? It's weird, it's really weird. Could it be my mute wife?"
I caught a glimpse of the mute girl in the middle of the courtyard suddenly squatting down and hugging her knees, her little body started to tremble.
Old Monster Sun immediately stopped talking and waved his hand towards the ward behind him:
"Okay, you go in."
Under the setting sun, the old Taoist priest Hehuo Qiu held the food box in one hand and lifted the wine bottle with the other hand. He raised his head and opened his mouth to catch the trickle of wine.
He clicked his tongue, walked away alone, and disappeared from the entrance of the courtyard.
An old Taoist priest's voice came faintly into the courtyard, which was profound:
"Mute girl, take a good look at him while it's still dark.
"Well, one last look."
The venomous old man Sun left, and peace returned to Sanhui Courtyard again.
The mute woman holding her knees stood up silently.
He walked to the wellhead, fetched a bucket of cold water, lowered his head and vigorously scrubbed his hands stained with vegetable oil.
Wiped very clean.
"Creak", the sound of pushing the door sounded in the house under the setting sun.
Zhao Qingxiu stepped on the drunken sunset and stopped on the bed of a handsome young man with short hair.
Look back inside the house.
Empty.
In front of the bed, there were two people, one lying and the other sitting.
The mute woman made a soft "Ah" sound in her mouth, and slowly stroked Ouyang Rong's thin and determined face with her fingertips.
His movements were gentle, as if he were afraid of waking up his deep dream.
Only she and Tanlang were left again.
Zhao Qingxiu suddenly remembered.
When they first met Tanlang, they met like this:
Quiet dusk, empty house, hospital bed full of medicine smell,
And he is unconscious...
At that time, her family was one of the poorest households in the village, and the only rich relative the elders mentioned was her cousin who married into the Ouyang family.
The Ouyang family is a large family in the village and town. There are many members of the family, and every generation has scholars who have achieved fame.
In fact, my cousin's life in Ouyang's family was not very good. She was young and widowed, taking care of her only son, and Tanlang was frail and sick.
However, the Ouyang family was from a poor family, and the family cultivated books. The family had designated fertile land, and the output was specially used for the education of Tanlang and other children, and also provided support for the widows in the family.
The life of my cousin's family is still much better than hers, and they are decent.
As long as she can remember, Zhao Qingxiu has known that she is a loser in the mouth of her parents. Later, she developed a high fever. When she opened her eyes, she could only say "Ahhhhhh" stupidly, and she became the object of ridicule and teasing by the children in the neighborhood. Mute girl.
Zhao Qingxiu still remembers the silent and oppressive atmosphere in that small and simple thatched house all year round, and the dining table where a family of three ate in silence and made a squeaking sound.
I remember the back view of my father sitting dully on the threshold, smoking a dry pipe.
I remember that every time my father and mother looked at her, they always had frowning eyes with something on their mind.
I still remember their occasional quarrels, the crocks and wooden stands smashed on the ground, etc.
No matter how hard she worked on embroidering needlework to support her family, she looked up with hope, but she still didn't see her father and mother showing off their faces.
Until that day, a day that Zhao Qingxiu would never forget in her life.
A smile finally broke out on her father's sunken face, which was covered with dry wrinkles, and he rubbed her crooked little head.
The cloth she weaved that day was not exchanged for rice, but was cut into a new piece of clothing by her mother.
The mute girl changed out of her rags, put on new clothes, and was sent to a high-walled courtyard.
Outside the house, there was the chatter of the father and mother who looked fawning and the frowning and reluctant cousin Zhao.
She was forgotten in the outer room, and just like today, she walked alone into the inner room filled with the aroma of medicine.
I saw him sleeping on the hospital bed.
The setting sun in the evening slanted down on the side of the face, as if covered with a layer of golden light, clean, peaceful and beautiful.
Zhao Qingxiu fell in love with Tanlang from the first time she met him.
do not know why.
The faces of my father and mother, who should have been clearly remembered, have been vaguely forgotten for a long time, but the look in front of the sickbed that day has been remembered for many, many years.
Later, without any accident, Zhao Qingxiu became Ouyang's child bride.
She didn't blame her parents for "selling" her. On the contrary, she was very happy for her parents at that time. Finally, she was no longer a loser who was eating rice for free.
At the same time, in front of cousin Zhao and Mrs. Zhen, the mute girl Zhao Qingxiu couldn't help but bow her head, feeling inferior and guilty, and felt that she was not worthy of Tanlang.
Her Tan Lang was a scholar whom she admired and envied immensely.
Zhao Qingxiu was very content and cherished the little husband in front of her, even though he often coughed on the hospital bed and woke up and fainted.
She stayed quietly beside the hospital bed, smiling and embroidering, silently accompanying him.
Zhao Qingxiu will never forget the peaceful and beautiful days before the hospital bed.
Later, Tanlang woke up from time to time and found that she was mute, but he didn't mind it at all.
When she woke up, she got the Book of Songs and began to teach her how to write.
Three hundred and seven words.
Zhao Qingxiu clearly remembered that Tan Lang taught her a total of 307 words before the white ape appeared at the window.
From the first character, which is also her surname, is the character "Zhao".
As for the last word, the word "Qing" in "There is a beautiful person, as graceful as Qingyang".
As for later, the appearance of the restless white ape caused misunderstandings between her mother-in-law Zhao and her aunt Zhen, and she was kicked out of the house. Zhao Qingxiu and Ye Weilai told the story in detail.
After being picked up by a master who "happened" to pass by and brought back to Yunmeng Jianze, Zhao Qingxiu looked back and fantasized about it again and again for countless days and nights.
If Tan Lang had not been seriously ill and in a coma at that time, and she tried to use the only 300 words she had in reserve to explain to Tan Lang the truth about the white ape stabbing people, maybe she would not have been kicked out of the house by her mother-in-law and aunt.
But then I thought about it, maybe even if it was explained, it would be hard for Tanlang and his mother-in-law and aunts to believe such a bizarre thing.
In other words, even if she saw the white ape with her own eyes and believed it, she was sitting in the deep room, as quiet as a virgin, but she attracted an active white ape and stabbed her young husband.
Maybe it’s an ominous sign in the eyes of the conservative and closed-minded people in the countryside, so maybe it’s a pig cage to greet her...
In the words of Master later: This is fate.
Sometimes Zhao Qingxiu believes in fate, but sometimes she doesn't want to believe in fate.
Everyone in the world boasts that the Yue Virgin inherits the mythical spirituality, knows it from birth, fights with the agile white ape, and awakens the peerless swordsmanship, which is completely natural and the best in the world.
But only Zhao Qingxiu himself knew that when the white ape sneaked into the house, he grabbed the embroidery needle and stabbed Tanlang stubbornly, seemingly to attract the attention of the silent virgin girl.
Zhao Qingxiu, who was timid and timid, could bravely pick up the embroidery needle and stab the white ape.
She only cared about her husband, Tanlang, and did not want to learn any peerless swordsmanship.
This is...fate?
The same is true now. When Tan Lang was found twice in Longcheng, he was seriously injured and fell into a coma.
In front of the hospital bed, the slanting sunset gradually disappeared and the vision inside the room was dim.
Zhao Qingxiu bent down and looked closely at his sleeping face, gently caressing him with the four fingers of her right palm.
She wanted to remember his face while it was still dark.
Because soon, it will be dark for her.
After a while, the infatuated mute girl slowly lowered her eyes, withdrew her gaze, turned and walked to the table, and put into her sleeve all the handwriting that she had written when she had communicated with Senior Sister, Xie Lingjiang and others these days.
Among the various words on these papers, there were also 307 words that she knew by heart.
It was written by Zhao Qingxiu in a daze late at night when she was alone at Tanlang's bedside.
How she wanted him to take a look at the calligraphy she had learned.
Zhao Qingxiu's eyes fell on the last word "Qing" on the paper in her hand.
"Zhao Qingxiu" was the name she took after returning to Yunmeng Jianze with her master.
Before that, they had always called her "Embroidery Lady".
On that day, I bid farewell to Tanlang forever and left my hometown where I had lived for more than ten years. Master turned around and asked his name.
She sat blankly on the dirt and wrote the word "Qing" on the dirt next to her with her index finger.
From then on, there was no more child bride named Xiu Niang in the world, and there was more virgin Zhao Qingxiu.
Zhao Qingxiu’s story is simple.
Her relationship with Tanlang is also simple.
It's so simple that there is only Tanlang in her heart.
Clean up all traces of her in the house.
Zhao Qingxiu turned around slowly.
“Cough cough cough—!”
At this time, a violent cough came from the direction of the bed.
Zhao Qingxiu's delicate body stiffened and she hurriedly hid in the shadows.
But soon, as someone on the hospital bed coughed louder, she bit her lip nervously in the shadows and suddenly felt something was wrong.
Approaching the bedside again and seeing Ouyang Rong's pained expression clearly, Zhao Qingxiu's face was stunned for a moment, then panicked.
"Water...water...water..."
The good news is that the young man on the bed is finally weak and can speak. The bad news is that his face is flushed, his eyes are tightly closed, and he is gritting his teeth and tearing at the collar of his clothes. He seems to be unbearably hot.
"Ah, ah, ah!" Zhao Qingxiu was so anxious that she was spinning around.
She first ducked to the table and filled a cup of herbal tea for Ouyang Rong.
Seeing that her abnormally hot condition still showed no signs of abating, the mute woman hurriedly ran out and pulled over an old Taoist priest in a crane cloak who had swallowed wine and wiped his mouth.
"Why is it so urgent? Please explain clearly...forget it, it's really difficult to deal with a mute like you."
Old weirdo Sun sighed, held up his sleeves with his hands, and walked in calmly.
While walking in the courtyard, he first glanced at the strange Ouyang Rong on the hospital bed, then immediately switched to a frowning and serious expression, and took a breath:
"not good!
"Dumb girl, maybe the medicinal properties of the turtle-shell beetle are too strong, or it may be that the red flowers and salvia miltiorrhiza in the prepared formula stimulate the strong qi and blood in the Guanyuan point under the abdomen."
"ah?"
"Anyway, the situation is not good now."
"Ahhhhhh!"
"What should I do, you ask? Well, it's easy to handle but not difficult to handle, and it's not difficult to handle even if it's difficult to handle.
"In short, this boy's qi and blood are now hot and dry, and his body's yang energy is too heavy, so he needs the virgin's yin energy to balance it."
Old Monster Sun's face was not red, his heart was not beating, and he said seriously:
"I almost forgot. This kid had lost his mental energy before, but the energy and blood in his body had always been strong. Now he was accidentally stirred up by thunder from the sky... What a crime."
He looked around, spread his hands, and sighed: "Pindao is a Taoist doctor, not a madam. Where can I find a virgin for him so late at night? What's more, one more business requires more money."
After hearing this, Zhao Qingxiu, who had an anxious face, opened her pink lips slightly.
At this moment, she noticed that an unscrupulous doctor next to her was looking at her out of the corner of his eye.
Her cheeks were extremely hot.
But he turned around and saw the hot young man who was twisting his clothes.
Zhao Qingxiu was at a loss again.
Old Monster Sun looked away as if nothing had happened and sighed:
"Hey, it seems that you Yue girls are prohibited from marrying for the rest of their lives, otherwise they will be punished. Forget it, the rules are the most important. If you don't vent your anger on him, you will be in trouble. Then...
"I'd better go and call that handsome female Confucian scholar named Xie. She seems to care about this guy, and he's perfect. She's probably willing to bite the bullet and suffer a big loss."
Old Monster Sun turned around and was about to leave, but as soon as he took a step, his sleeve was tightly grasped by a small hand with only four fingers.
"Uh, dumb girl, what are you doing? Let go quickly, it's too late."
She shook her head vigorously and refused to let go.
Old Monster Sun suppressed the corners of his mouth and frowned in thought: "Then what do you mean..."
The clear eyes of the mute woman reflected the young man on the bed of a patient.
For a moment, I thought about the beauty of adulthood, but my heart felt inexplicably empty, as if I was about to lose everything completely.
This is...her tanlang.
Old Monster Sun nodded and said to himself:
"Oh, so I mean, come on...you young people really can't let go."
Zhao Qingxiu's pretty face flushed red, and she was so embarrassed that she wished she could find a hole in the ground and crawl into it, never to come out again.
But Mr. Heyi Qiu had already made the decision for her:
“Just because you’re not allowed to marry for life, doesn’t mean you can’t lose your virginity for life, right?
"It's quite flexible. Okay, I'll prescribe you some medicine later and cover it up, but don't let your senior sister know about it. Fortunately, there is a gynecologist here.
"Okay, Pindao, go guard outside and stay away. You can think about how to save him here."
Old Monster Sun goes out.
Zhao Qingxiu burned her face and buried her chest. She quickly closed the door of the courtyard and house, took off the sword from her back and set it up in front of the door to set up a warning formation.
She turned around, and there were only two people left in the room.
Looking at the familiar empty and quiet house and the familiar Tanlang’s hospital bed,
Zhao Qingxiu's little face suddenly regained some composure.
There was relief, shyness, and joy in her eyes.
It's fate.
This world-famous Yue virgin has surprisingly thin and beautiful collarbones. He only needs to untie his waist, draw back his shoulders slightly, and a double-breasted Wu skirt will completely slide off, like peeling off a lychee.
After a while, a scene even more beautiful than the white moonlight appeared in the back room.
I don't know anything, I can only fumble awkwardly, and the scenery becomes more and more shy.
…
Old Monster Sun walked out of the house and stayed away from Sanhui Courtyard.
While drinking, he shook his head:
"This silly girl, since she likes him so much, how can she do nothing?
“You have to ask for something.
"The poor Taoist can be regarded as the beauty of an adult. Hey, no, why do you feel that in this kind of thing, the woman will suffer more, and the mute girl will suffer again?"
The old Taoist priest immediately shook his head and muttered:
"That's not right. Don't you brat claim to be a gentleman, and are you famous all over the world as a gentleman? Hypocritical! Don't even think about being alone and building a gentleman's memorial.
"Well, for every dog-killer who is righteous, there will be a scholar who is unfaithful."
…
I don’t know how much time has passed.
On a certain hospital bed.
The young magistrate closed his eyes and slept peacefully.
The mute girl was clumsy, with teeth marks on her thin neck. Her little face was dazed, as if she was in a state of wandering heaven.
"Hmm... eh..."
The mute woman covered her neck injury with her hands and focused all her vision on the white wall in front of her.
The wall is empty, but she is full, the wall is hard, but she is soft, the wall is white, but she is pink, the reflection in her eyes rises and falls, the wall moves.
She smiled.
At this moment, she finally had everything about him.
Okay, I’ve finished writing the picture I’ve always wanted to depict, just for this bowl of vinegar and a meal of dumplings... (Holds head)
(End of chapter)
