It rained heavily all night, and the sky cleared up.
The snow on the mountain has melted, the willow buds are beginning to appear, and occasionally a kingfisher flies over, breaking the tranquility of the morning.
A ray of sunlight squeezed through the edge of the window and fell on Song Tangning's face, causing her to wake up in a daze.
Smelling the strong aroma of medicine, Song Tangning looked at the carvings of the Lin Tu Jade Book above his head, and for a moment he didn't know where he was.
"woke up?"
A cold voice came, like a stone falling into the lake, and it also awakened Song Tangning's memory before she fell into coma.
Song Tangning sat up suddenly. Regardless of the pain, he turned around and looked outside the crane screen. He vaguely saw the tall figure over there putting down the book in his hand, getting up and walking towards this side.
Xiao Yan saw the little girl's face turned pale with fright, holding the quilt and her almond-shaped eyes widening. He stopped beside her and said, "Be careful with your hands."
Song Tangning trembled: "Don't cut off my hand."
Xiao Yan: "..."
Phew.
When Mrs. Qin came over with the copper basin, she immediately laughed when she heard the movement inside. She looked at Xiao Yan, who had a tense face. The little girl over there was treating him like a wolf and a tiger. She held back her laughter and walked around him and walked in:
"Don't be afraid, madam. Our governor doesn't eat people. Don't listen to what people say about how ferocious he is. In fact, he is kind-hearted and extremely gentle..."
Song Tangning was even more scared.
Xiao Yan saw her huddled up holding the quilt, her face sullen and about to faint from fright. He glanced at Madam Qin and said, "If you don't know how to speak, don't speak."
"That's not because the governor is scaring others."
Madam Qin has a cheerful temperament and is not afraid of the cold-faced Xiao Yan.
Fine lines formed at the corners of her eyes when she smiled. She put down the copper basin and came to Song Tangning, "Okay, don't be afraid, I'm just joking with you."
Madam Qin covered her hands and pulled Song Tangning's tense fingertips away from the quilt.
"The injury on your finger is serious. Even though it's been treated with medicine, it will still hurt until the new flesh grows. Please don't exert force during this period, and don't touch the water, as well as the injury on your face."
"I'll apply medicine for you, and after the wound has scabbed, I'll use some Yurong Powder I made. I'll make sure you don't leave any scars."
Song Tangning looked at the smiling woman with some confusion.
Xiao Yan said quietly: "Ms. Qin is a descendant of the Cheng family in Shu. She has excellent medical skills. No one in the Imperial Medical Office can compare with her."
"Master, don't praise me. If you praise me, I will still be paid for my medical visits."
Madam Qin smiled and joked, then changed her tone and said, "But Madam Song is good-looking, so the money for medicine can be waived. Otherwise, this little face will cost so many handsome men that they will beat their chests and stamp their feet. My sister will not be able to bear it."
Song Tangning's face grew hot.
She could feel the kindness radiating from Mrs. Qin. For many years, no one had felt sorry for her beauty or ugliness.
Even if it was just a joke, the hands with rough fingertips holding hers made her feel particularly at ease.
She said a little embarrassedly: "Thank you, sister."
Madam Qin was particularly pleased: "Having a fairy girl like you gives me a big advantage."
Song Tangning pursed her lips and smiled softly, with a slight dimple showing on her cheeks.
…
The charcoal is burning in the elephant-headed copper stove, and the room is warm without feeling the cold of spring.
Madam Qin pulled Song Tangning to talk to her in a chatty manner, or her smile was soothing, or maybe Xiao Yan just walked to sit on the four-legged couch next to the screen and never tried to get closer.
After Madam Qin reapplied the medicine for her, Song Tangning's face finally had some color.
Her lips were still pale, her black hair hung down behind her, and when her curled eyelashes fluttered, her slightly red and swollen eyes became brighter, no longer as confused as when she just woke up.
After Mrs. Qin exited, she and Xiao Yan were the only two people left in the room.
Song Tangning raised his eyes cautiously.
The person opposite was dressed in black brocade clothes, with ink hairpins on his hair. He had lost the coldness when they first met, and was leaning on the couch with a lazy expression.
He is obviously a treacherous and sycophantic eunuch who is reviled by others, and no one is afraid of his ruthless methods, but he does not have the slightest bit of femininity in him like the servants in the palace. Instead, his features are as smooth as jade springs falling in the mountain stream, and there is a kind of hiddenness all over his body. The elusive awe-inspiring nobility.
Or he noticed that she was looking at him, so he raised his sword eyes slightly.
Song Tangning quickly shrank, lowered his eyes and grabbed the corner of the quilt.
"You forgot what Mrs. Qin said, don't you want your hand anymore?"
Seeing her subconsciously shrinking her hand, Xiao Yan sighed softly, "What are you afraid of?"
Seeing that the girl was silent, he said,
"It's too coincidental that you appear on Mount Qi. I have offended many people recently. Everyone in the capital knows that I go to the mountain to pay homage to my deceased friends at this time every year. You are hesitant to explain why, so I only regard you as... The assassins sent by those people will almost kill you."
"If we find out now, I won't hurt you."
His voice was still calm, but it was different from the way he frequently killed people on the mountain.
Although Song Tangning was still afraid of him, she still remembered that she had scolded this man before she passed out. She raised her head and said cautiously: "Then can the governor let me go?"
"You want to leave?" Xiao Yan looked at her.
Tang Ning Na Na: "If I didn't come back all night, my family would be worried..."
"No one from the Song family has been to Lingyun Temple to look for you, and no one knows that you almost died in the forest."
The palms of her hands tightened suddenly, and Tang Ning's face turned pale.
"You went to Lingyun Temple with Song Jinxiu, but he left you alone in the woods. You were accompanied by your cousin Xie Yin and your childhood sweetheart fiancé Lu Zhinian, but they all only remembered the crying one. Concubine."
"After they returned to the city yesterday, they coaxed the concubine to go to the Zhenbao Building to buy jewelry to make her happy. Later, they went boating on the lake. No one remembered that you stayed outside the city all night."
Xiao Yan was not someone who was willing to leave rotten flesh in his body, so he certainly didn't want his children to deceive themselves.
"It rained heavily in the mountains last night. If I hadn't happened to pass by, you would have fallen to your death in that snowy col."
"Your brother knew that there was danger in the mountains, but he has not left the city to look for you until today. Even Song Hong and Mrs. Song were not aware of it. Your maid wanted to come to you, but Song Jinxiu offended her. I got slapped a few times for being a concubine."
"Are you sure you want to go back like this?"
Xiao Yan's words were like a knife, stabbing Song Tangning with a pale face and gasping for air.
After Song Shulan entered the house, she was unhappy in every aspect. Whenever there was a dispute, she would always have a huge quarrel with her brother because of Song Shulan.
Yesterday was her mother's birthday, and she went to Lingyun Temple with her brother and the others to offer incense.
She originally made an appointment with Xie Yin and Lu Zhinian to go out together to relax and ease the relationship with her brother, but she didn't expect that her brother would actually bring Song Shulan with her.
She was extremely disgusted with Song Shulan, the outside girl, and she didn't like her brother being close to her. She felt very angry when she saw Xie Yin and Lu Zhinian taking care of her and even neglecting her because of the outside girl.
After going up the mountain, Song Shulan "accidentally" knocked over her mother's ever-burning lantern, ruining her mother's well-being.
All her anger burst out, and she slapped her in anger, and Song Shulan ran out crying.
Song Jinxiu was anxious and rode horseback in the woods to chase the person back. Her cousins Xie Yin and Lu Zhinian also dragged her over and asked her to apologize to Song Shulan.
Song Tangning naturally refused.
She was right. Why should she apologize to Song Shulan?
Song Tangning scolded Song Shulan for a few words, and Song Shulan cried and said she wanted to go back to Anzhou.
At that time, Song Jinxiu angrily rebuked her for being uneducated and lacking in the virtues of a woman's modesty, saying that she had no tolerance for insulting the poor Song Shulan.
She got angry and quarreled with him, and he told her to go back to Lingyun Temple and reflect on herself. Xie Yin and Lu Zhinian, who were supposed to be protecting her, also frowned and said she was too ignorant.
A few of them only focused on chasing Song Shulan, who was crying with pear blossoms in the rain, leaving her alone in the white forest.
In her last life, she lost her way in the forest. After dark, her horse was injured and fell down a steep slope.
She did not have the luck in this life to meet Xiao Yan and be rescued. Instead, she fell down and rolled into a bottomless snow nest. She was not discovered by a passing farmer until the morning of the third day.
When he was returned to the capital in a coma, his legs were lame, his face was disfigured, and his body bones were completely frozen.
Song Tangning breathed with resentment: "She is not a concubine."
"Um?"
"I said, Song Shulan is not a concubine, she is just an unknown concubine."
She remembered that she was full of resentment after returning from her previous life, and her aunt was also mad with anger because of her injury.
Song Jinxiu and the others felt apologetic at first, kneeling in front of her and crying and saying they were sorry. Mrs. Song and Song Hong also punished them severely and said they would send Song Shulan away.
But then something happened to her aunt, and the Song family's attitude towards her changed.
They began to persuade her to let go of the past and to pity Song Shulan's misery. They felt sorry for Song Shulan's righteousness in taking blood for her to seek medicine, and loved her soft-spoken gentleness. However, they were trapped in the back house due to disfigurement and a broken leg, and they also lost their dear aunt. Her temperament changed drastically and she became a being that everyone hated.
The initial argument ended with the door slamming and leaving.
Her unwillingness and resentment became "ignorant" in their eyes. Later, she understood the coldness of the Song family and just wanted to stay away from them, but they accused her one by one, saying that she would be in trouble if she appeared outside. Song Shulan's reputation was ruined and the Song family was ridiculed.
They cut off her contact with the outside world, took away the things her mother left for her, and locked her in an abandoned yard without seeing the light of day.
Her face was covered with abscesses, and she lingered in that room to "reflect on herself."
In the outside world, Song Hong was promoted to great heights, Song Jinxiu became famous in the capital, and Song Shulan took the things her mother left to her and became a talented woman that everyone admired. Even Lu Zhinian regretted his marriage and fell in love with her.
Song Tangning was full of resentment and had no place to vent: "She said she was my father's romantic debt when he was young, and she was my father's daughter who was raised outside."
"Grandma and the others said that if this matter spread, the reputation of the Song family would be tarnished, and my mother-in-law would also be laughed at. That's why they said that Song Shulan was a concubine born of a good slave by my mother's side."
Xiao Yan frowned: "They said you agreed?"
"That's why I'm stupid." Song Tangning's eyes turned red.
Xiao Yan was stunned by what she said. When he saw the little girl lowering her head, revealing her hair, and faintly seeing tears again, he sighed and tried to keep his voice as low as possible.
"Regardless of whether she is a concubine or a concubine, are you sure she is your father's bloodline?"
Song Tangning raised his head.
"Your father and your mother are extremely loving. After your mother gave birth to you, she was injured and found it difficult to conceive again. At that time, many girls in the capital were obsessed with your father's style and wanted to marry him. They were willing to join the Song family as a wife and a concubine to take his place. He refused every offer of incense."
"If he is really a womanizer, why would he keep a disgraced wife?"
Song Tangning's eyes widened: "But the third uncle and the uncle both said..."
No.
wrong.
Song Tangning suddenly turned pale.
She vaguely remembered that when Song Shulan first arrived at the mansion, her third uncle sent her directly to the main room.
At that time, the eldest aunt's face was extremely ugly, and the grandmother was also very disgusted with her. The government only placed the person in a remote courtyard so that she would misunderstand that she was a relative from some family who came to seek refuge.
It was only a few days later that the third uncle suddenly said that she was the bloodline left by her father when he was young.
Song Tangning vaguely realized that something was being concealed from her, biting her lip hard, trembling with anger.
