Gongshang Confidante

"It's snowing tonight, and the road will be difficult tomorrow. Your Highness, please prepare some clothes." Xia Ling ordered the maids to pack up. Zhou Chiyu opened the window to let the bitter cold wind pour in. She stared blankly at the blooming flowers in the distance. Plum Blossom said, "Xia Ling, prepare the sedan chair and go to Ningrong Hall."

Xia Ling's hands stopped, and she ordered the eunuch to call Xia Hua to accompany her, and ordered the sedan chair to go out of the hall.

When the sedan chair passed by the northwest corner outside the hall, a fresh and bitter fragrance floated in. Zhou Chiyu stretched out his slender hands, opened the curtain and looked out, and said, "Go to the Jade Butterfly Pavilion by the way. opened".

The sedan chair changed its direction and headed towards the Yudie Pavilion. Still in the distance, you can see the jade butterfly swimming in the dragon plum, with winding branches and snow-white petals, standing proudly and fully blooming.

There is snow on the top of the pavilion, and the wind chimes under the green eaves make a faint, almost inaudible tinkling sound on a snowy night.

Zhou Chiyu got off the sedan chair, and her crimson deerskin boots stepped on the pure white snow, reaching her ankles. She stood upright with a calm expression, and her deep eyes looked at the plum blossoms that her mother and concubine loved most during her lifetime. Under the sun, it is not afraid of the severe cold, and it blooms proudly.

The snow gradually faded, and the figure of the plum shadow in front of me became clearer in the wind and snow. The thick snow piled up under the plum tree suddenly moved. Jumping up quickly, he swung his palm, and the wind was strong, hitting the snowdrift.

The snowdrift slid down with the wind, and one head turned back stiffly. Xia Hua, who was standing in front of her, sighed lightly. At the same time Xia Ling whispered beside her, "Xiao Sha!" Yu swept away, and two sleeve nails were shot out from the cuffs, and shot towards Huayu's hand, hindering her attack.

"Humph", a clear and cold snort, an agile figure fluttered down from the treetops, tiptoed to the ground, sleeves waved, wrapped around the sleeve nails that were shot at Huayu, turned over in the air, and gently pushed Huayu's arm with his left hand, Borrowing his strength, he swept up the treetops again, hiding his figure.

And Huayu's arm, which was pushed away, waved along with the trend, and just happened to slap Xia Hua's face who was rushing over.

Dazzling for a moment, when Zhou Chiyu said the word stop, Hua Yi had long since disappeared. Hua Yu and Xia Hua stood facing each other, and Xia Hua had a red palm mark on his face.

Xia Hua's martial arts skills are considered good, but he suffered a disadvantage in the hands of Hua Yu and Hua Yi, so he couldn't help but glared at Hua Yu angrily.

Huayu shook her hand, looked at her expressionlessly, and stood behind Zhou Chiyu without saying a word.

Xia Ling ran over, and dug out the blue-faced Xia Sha from the snowdrift. She knelt under the tree for an unknown amount of time, but she couldn't even stand up, her feet slumped in the snow.

"Xiao Sha! What a fool you are! It's such a cold day, you're going to die!!", Xia Ling was concerned about Zhou Chiyu who was present, and said in a low voice, quietly stuffing the hand stove in her bosom into her stiff and cold hands, He took off the cloak on his body, wrapped it around her, and rubbed her cold face with both hands.

Xia Sha's eyes gradually focused on Xia Ling's face, and Xia Hua who was coming, she rolled her eyes slowly, and said with a dry throat, "Xia Ling, Xia Hua, I finally understand what she said, she It's better to say that I'm dead, it's better than this life... Now, every day I am full of pain, guilt, and self-blame, life is better than death, I can't live anymore!!",

After finishing speaking, Xia Sha stopped talking, but turned her head to look at Yudie You Longmei, her face was ashen, "What are you talking about!" Xia Ling reprimanded in a low voice, turning her head to look at Zhou Chiyu nervously, lest she would be offended .

The snow fell heavily again, and the snowflakes fell, and soon they were covered with snow, "Help her to the pavilion", Zhou Chiyu frowned slightly, and ordered,

Xia Sha's body trembled when she heard the words, and she knelt down on the ground, refusing to go, and only begged, "Go, let me stay here with her, please, go, all go."

Xia Ling didn't know what to do, seeing that Zhou Chiyu's expression was stern and he couldn't refuse, so she and Xia Hua set up Xia Sha and walked into the pavilion.

The pavilion that used to be a happy place for the two of them was filled with her shyness and uneasy crooning, and it was also the pavilion that led the two of them to bad luck, making Xia Sha's body tremble uncontrollably.

The eunuchs and maids drew up long curtains beside the pavilion to block the wind and snow, and isolate the pavilion from the snowy outside world.

"You all step back, I have something to say to Xia Sha," Zhou Chiyu said calmly, even Huayu was dismissed, she frowned slightly, apparently even more unwilling to stay in the pavilion.

Zhou Chiyu looked at Xia Sha kneeling aside, curled up with a thin and ashen face, shivering, his eyes were like stagnant water, without any waves, he was determined to die, and had no love for life.

"Tomorrow, I will send someone to send you out of the palace. There is a house outside the palace to settle you down. Although it is not rich, it will ensure that you have no worries about food and clothing." Zhou Chiyu said lightly. He lowered his head and said in a low voice, "Slaves will not go out of the palace",

Zhou Chiyu's eyes flickered, and his tone was cold, "I don't care whether you live or die, but I won't break the promise I made."

"I beg the princess to let the servants to fend for themselves", Xia Sha knelt down and kowtowed, feeling hopeless.

Zhou Chiyu closed the hand stove in his sleeve, and said slowly, "The opportunity to leave the palace is once in a thousand years. After you leave the palace, you can find a husband and son-in-law, get married and have children, live a comfortable life like an ordinary family, and have no worries about food and clothing for the rest of your life. Do you really want to?" alright?",

Xia Sha kowtowed heavily without knowing the pain, and said, "This servant is weak and owes her her whole life. I just want to go with her and go down to the underworld, the eighteenth hell. looking at her",

Zhou Chiyu seemed a little displeased, and said very quickly, "Xiasha! The deceased is gone, no matter what you do, noble Xi will not come back to life, why do you have to go all the way to the end! The king of hell gave you this life, what will happen to you?" If you die in vain, don't even think about being reborn as a human in the next life!",

Zhou Chiyu was out of breath, and Xia Sha was terrified by what she said casually. She was cowardly, and she was most afraid of going to hell after death and not being reborn. In the past, such words could definitely persuade her.

Xia Sha lowered her head, took a deep breath, her expression became more determined, she kowtowed and said, "Your Highness, there is no need to say more, Xia Sha has already made a decision, I just want to accompany her to appreciate the Jade Butterfly Swimming Dragon and Plum Blossom, and let her go."

Such serious words failed to dispel Xia Sha's intention to die. Zhou Chiyu frowned, with annoyance on his face, but his tone was lighter, with a little helplessness, and said,

"If I say that the mansion and embroidery workshop outside the palace were bought by nobleman Xi, will you change your mind?!",

"If I say that nobleman Xi traded her death for your life, would you change your mind?!"

Xia Sha suddenly raised her head to look at Zhou Chiyu, she couldn't believe it, her eyes, which she thought were dry and could no longer shed tears, quickly filled with tears, she couldn't speak, she just shook her head desperately, her face full of sadness.

Zhou Chiyu took a breath of mist and said, "That's all." She lowered her head and thought for a long time, and said slowly, "Do you remember that in the winter when you were punished to go to the Clothes Bureau, you contracted typhoid fever, and your high fever persisted, and you were ill in bed. bed……",

Xia Sha vaguely remembered that the winter and lunar months of that year were extremely cold, and the nurse in charge asked her to fetch water for washing clothes. The water was so cold that her hands were so frozen that she didn't feel it, so she spilled half of a bucket of water out.

The nurse in charge thought she was clumsy and slow in doing things, so she poured the remaining half of the bucket of water over her head and punished her to kneel outside. Within an hour, she became unconscious and fainted, and she has been lying in bed since then. Unexamined.

"No one in the Huanyi Bureau is willing to hire an imperial physician for you. In the end, it was the little grasshopper who came back to the Palace of Feathers to beg me. It was so funny. She kept claiming that she would never see you in this life, but she knelt outside the palace for two hours, begging... I will save you." Zhou Chiyu looked at Yudie Youlongmei with a mocking smile on his lips.

"You two, it's ashamed to come before Bengong's eyes for doing such a lowly thing." Zhou Chiyu thought of the scene on the snowy night, and felt a little uncomfortable, but it was much lighter than the disgust at that time.

"Xia Ling and Xia Huazhi both interceded for you. I ordered the imperial physician to go to the Huanyi Bureau to see a doctor and get medicine. He said that if it was a quarter in the evening, your life would be gone..." Zhou Chiyu said lightly.

After Xia Sha woke up, the fever had subsided, she thought she was in charge of the nanny, she dared not do anything that would hurt someone's life, and asked the imperial physician to save her, but she didn't know that there was another reason behind it.

Zhou Chiyu glanced at her, and said, "The little grasshopper saw that I saved you, thanked you, and said something that I was willing to die for me, but what can a cold palace lady like her do for me?" ,

Zhou Chiyu changed the topic, "I never thought that the emperor would be lucky enough to meet her by coincidence, even bestow her life, and make her a nobleman... Everything seems to be arranged in the dark."

Xia Sha seemed to have thought of something, she looked at Zhou Chiyu in shock, her lips pursed, Zhou Chiyu rubbed the jade pendant around her waist, and said slowly, "So, she has become a very useful pawn in Bengong's hands, so, Little grasshopper, no, it's nobleman Xi, who has reached a consensus with me to exchange her life for yours!".

"It's you, it's you..." Xia Sha took two steps back in fright,

Zhou Chiyu's face was slightly stern, and the corners of his eyes were sharp, and he said, "She chose this path willingly, and all she did was for you!!",

Xia Sha raised her eyes sadly, tears fell to the ground, and her slender shoulders trembled violently.

Zhou Chiyu continued, "She bought a house outside the palace for you, bought an embroidery workshop for you, and hired an embroidery lady; she knew that you wanted to leave the palace and that you wanted to live;

She sacrificed her life in exchange for everything you wanted.

Everything she does is just to give you a dream that she wants but can never come true

And now, you tell Ben Gong, do you still want to seek death? ",

Xia Sha collapsed on the ground with a pale face, crying silently...

In the past, Xia Sha didn't dare to die, she wanted to live, she forced the little grasshopper to live, to live to endure the touch of a man she didn't love, to live to endure the alienation from her, to live to endure the pain of taking Bizitang, to live to endure the pregnancy... There are children who die in infancy, and live to bear all the sorrow, the pain, the torment;

Now, it is the little grasshopper that forces her to live, living and enduring the days of losing the little grasshopper, empty and hopeless.

Xia Sha choked her throat, sobbed intermittently, and suddenly burst into tears, venting all her sorrow and pain.

In this life, the most painful thing is not to die, but to bear the expectations of the person who loves you, and to live in a meek way...