Lu Anran has a calm personality, which is best reflected in the fact that he does not easily get into trouble just because he is obsessed with one thing.
Back on the streets of Mengdu, the old man said that she was suitable to study medicine, and she did so.
Later, when she failed to study medicine, she resolutely gave up this practice and stopped treating living people from then on.
And now, she suddenly discovered that Yun Qi had initially approached her purpose. She had doubts, but looking at herself, she found that there was not much value in being exploited. On the contrary, the other party had also helped her.
In this way, she and Yun Qi can be considered as gentlemen.
Naturally, she felt that there was nothing to worry about.
But there were questions in his heart, so Lu Anran asked directly: "Why me?"
Yun Qi raised his eyelids lazily, his eyes met Lu Anran's firm ones, and he suddenly raised the corner of his mouth and let out a chuckle: "I thought you were interesting at first, but then you became even more interesting."
Lu Anran's thumb crossed the rim of the cup, eyes half-closed, and said: "Given the current situation in Prince Yun's Mansion, if the Lu family in Mengdu and the Crown Prince of Shengle County are too close, you are not afraid of the emperor's suspicion."
"Perhaps another word." Yunqi touched his lips, a hint of coldness hidden in his lazy smile, "Afraid."
Lu Anran raised his eyes with confusion in his eyes.
"In the previous dynasty, Xiao Zhan led an army of 100,000 men to garrison the territory of Mengzhou. Later, Emperor Dingkang was suspicious of dispersing his military power, so he was unable to resist the invasion of the Mulan tribe. The emperor of this dynasty took advantage of the external chaos to rise up, and the previous dynasty was destroyed."
Yun Qi held the tea cup with one hand, his dark eyes deep, and said slowly: "Although the Mengzhou territory is affiliated to the dynasty, it does not hand over military power, and this has become a hard problem in the hearts of every emperor. The previous dynasty wanted to completely recover it, but it always failed. No. The current emperor of our great cause has even greater ambitions."
"According to what you say, Mengdu's involvement with Prince Yun's Mansion will only save people's attention."
Yunqi half-squinted his peach blossom eyes and chuckled: "With your reputation and mine, of course the emperor will not believe that we really have anything. Maybe he is still speculating whether there will be any changes in Mengzhou."
The commoners in the capital didn't know this, but who among the respectable people had never heard that Yun Qi was fond of women and was sexually promiscuous, while Lu Anran was ugly and faceless, so how could someone like Yun Qi really fall in love with an ugly girl.
"But he won't stay still." Lu Anran opened the curtain of the carriage and looked at the moving scenery. Late spring was full of greenery and flowers were blooming. At this time, Mengdu was just feeling spring.
Yunqi's smile was slightly cold, and his black eyes were as deep as ancient wells. "Some things are destined to happen sooner or later."
"Where is the Crown Prince?" Lu Anran looked over with calm eyes, "Let the emperor guess what he wants to do with this time?"
Yun Qi's dark eyes flashed, and a chuckle escaped from his throat, and he said: "Is there no royal land in the world? You should ask the emperor what he wants. What can we do if Prince Yun's Mansion in Shengle County is empty?"
Lu Anran took a deep look and turned back. She did not carefully consider the truth or falsehood of Yun Qi's words, but just sighed in her heart because of the situation——
Who is in the hands of Mengdu County and where the Lu family will go? These are not the most important things. She is only worried about her father.
—
Liu Wu's embroidery is spread out in a deep alley in the south of Yi County.
"It's good now. Few people call me Mrs. Liu Wu. They like to call me Li'er Niang." When she saw Mrs. Liu Wu, she smiled brightly and completely lost the haze that had enveloped her at first. "Daughter I also took it, and as for my mother-in-law..."
Li Erniang paused and said: "For the sake of my daughter, I can no longer live with her under the same roof. I left Liu Zhiquan's half of the money from selling the shop to her, as a way to provide for her in her old age. From now on, I will be my own If she wants to survive, let her do whatever she wants."
When a woman leaves the few tiles above her head and walks out, her horizons and mind are broadened, and she is no longer limited to a small place.
Mrs. Liu Wu was taking care of the front, selling some embroidered satin and handkerchiefs, etc., and also accepting embroidery commissioned by various households. She took Lu Anran and the others to the backyard, "I still want to confess to you two. At that time, I I didn't tell the truth. Later, an official told me that he didn't care about the whereabouts of the girls, and I realized that you already knew that I was a villain."
There are some tables and chairs in the backyard, and several women are doing embroidery. All of them have their faces covered. They all have very skillful hands. When a piece of cloth is passed through their hands, a variety of vivid flowers, plants, insects and birds will appear.
"We are all poor people. Where can we go after leaving home? We have to suffer." Li'er Niang took a piece of embroidery cloth from the girl next to her and looked at it for a few times. She told the girl which strands of embroidery thread were used for fish scales and then added Returning it to her, the girl looked up and saw Lu Anran and Yun Qi, her eyes bent, and she turned back with a shy smile.
Li'er's mother took the two of them to sit down in the open hall and said, "Although I have some money from selling my shop, I still have to find a way to make a living and think about Li'er's future. So I thought about it, Set up an embroidery shop for yourself and give the girls a place to stay."
From where they were sitting, they could just see several girls outside.
They were concentrating on twisting the needles and threads in their right hands, and thin threads of various colors were shuttled back and forth, as if countless rays of light were interlaced. Although they could not see their faces, their peaceful and tranquil postures were already the most beautiful paintings of ladies.
"Why are they all covering their faces?" Yun Qi asked.
Li'er Niang smiled sheepishly: "Speaking of this, I have to apologize to Miss Lu. Sometimes guests will want to come in and have a look. They are not easy to see, because they see you with your face covered. , that’s why I thought of this method.”
Other girls in the capital will also cover their faces when going out, but they are all veiled, so you can still see the general appearance, but there is a looming one, and you can't refuse it.
But it was the cloth used by Lu Anran that was so tight and airtight that it made Li'erniang think about it.
"It doesn't matter." Lu Anran didn't care about this trivial matter and said, "They always hide at home, it's not a long-term solution."
Li'er Niang sighed: "There is no other way now. We can only wait and see when the time goes by."
Yun Qi stroked his sleeves gently, raised his eyebrows and said with a smile: "It's not difficult to go to the government office to help them re-register their household registration, but when going in and out of Yi County, sooner or later, you will meet someone you know."
When Li'er Niang heard the secret, her eyebrows were filled with joy, "Master, if you can help me, I will take them to the next county to make a living." After all, it's not like living there after leaving home.
"You don't want the shop here anymore?"
"The shop is open again, and people are like living water. How can a place be trapped." Li Erniang said: "To be honest, we have nothing to miss here in Yi County, so we might as well start over in a different place. "
After saying that, Li'er Niang said with emotion: "Humans, how can you be suffocated by rules, don't you think so?"
Yun Qi nodded: "I'll have someone look for you later."
Li'er Niang smiled sincerely and said, "Thank you so much, sir."
With something on her mind, Li'er Niang poured tea for the two of them, and a woman happened to bring two plates of pastries. Li'er Niang said: "I don't know if you two went to the peach blossom forest outside the county town last time. I I made some flower cakes with the girls, you can try them."
There are many fruit trees in Yi County, and flowers bloom every year. The excess petals are collected to make various flower cakes, which is also a local specialty.
"In the early morning when the dew has not subsided, I picked peach petals, put them in honey and kneaded them, then added some refried beans and rock sugar, kneaded the dough and added the stuffing, then put it in a pan and fried it until golden brown." The flower cake is opened, revealing the rose-red filling. "This way the floral fragrance is still there, and it tastes crispy and sweet."
After eating a pot of tea and snacks, Li'er Niang took the initiative and said, "Is it because you two came all the way to Yi County because of the Fox Fairy incident?"
Yun Qi picked up the jade bone fan placed on the table, rubbed the jade carving on the fan handle with his thumb, and looked at Li Erniang with a profound look in his eyes, "Not for the fox fairy, but for your husband's wife."
Li'er Niang's face was full of surprise, and she didn't know why she mentioned this again.
"Let's not talk about anything else. Just talk about that woman. Have you ever had contact with her?"
Li'er Niang didn't know the purpose of their visit, but she still said truthfully: "After Liu Zhiquan's accident, because someone was collecting debts, I began to think that all the money must have been spent on the outer room, so I found a few of his acquaintances, and finally asked That woman’s address.”
Li'er Niang had said this before, but at that time, no one cared about it, and they didn't expect that one day they would come to inquire.
Li'er Niang said with a hint of mockery: "I told you, looking at the style of that woman's dress, I don't know where I am attracted to Liu Zhiquan. It seems that she has a pretty boy out there."
Although the Liu family has two or three shops and runs a small business, "I don't care, but the money in the shop is generally clear, and there is no shortage on weekdays, so if someone hadn't taken 10,000 taels of debt money, Tickets are coming, I really don’t know…”
Although she still doesn't know where Liu Zhiquan spent the money.
"I sold the old house and all the fields, plus the money from the shop, and finally collected it and returned it to others. Now the only thing left at hand is this embroidery shop."
Lu Anran and Yun Qi didn't care what happened to Liu Zhiquan. They mainly focused on Jin Yu'e, "Jin Yu'e is your husband's concubine. How much do you know about her?"
Li'er Niang suppressed her confusion and thought carefully: "Let go of the resentment in a woman's heart and speak honestly. She is a very particular person who looks very smart. She is shrewd and smiles without speaking. She looks like a businessman." So-so, but his tone is not that annoying, and he is very organized in his conduct."
This is consistent with the conclusion that Lu Anran and others drew based on the furnishings in Jin Yu'e's room. A businessman who values profits but does not understand elegance is cautious and quite decent.
"I only met him once, just to make a fuss," Li'er Niang said with a self-deprecating smile, "but instead of saying a few words, she made me feel unhappy and embarrassed."
Lu Anran took a sip of tea to get rid of the sweet taste left by the flower cake in his mouth, raised his eyebrows slightly, and asked: "Does your husband have anything related to Jin Yu'e?"
"No, he went out to discuss business with people. When he came back, he smelled even more drunk. Not to mention leaving items behind, even the smell of powder was gone. Otherwise, I wouldn't have been unconscious for so long."
To put it bluntly, it was only when Liu Zhiquan's accident happened that Li'er Niang realized that her husband was so good at hiding things.
"My husband is, to put it bluntly, a bit unrealistic. He is not satisfied with the limited income of the Liu family. He thinks about making a fortune and becoming a master every day."
When Li'er Niang said this, she frowned and said, "By the way, he was very happy for a while, saying that the opportunity had come and he was going to become prosperous, but that accident happened not long after."
