still in the mirror

On the evening of the second day, lights were put on in the courtyard, and the mountains, trees, water, and corridors were all brightly lit, and glass lamps of various colors swayed, dreaming and phantom.

Qingyu went to the study to change tea, entered the door and called "Third Master".Li Chengwu was sitting in front of the desk writing. A young man was sitting crookedly on the three-screen couch, covered with a embroidered pastel pink ramie blanket, with one bare leg dangling leisurely outside the side screen.He held a lacquer tray halfway in his arms, and there were a variety of smoking accessories in it: cloisonné lamps, ivory bongs, jade paste boxes and enamel cigarette trays.

Qingyu walked to the flower stand beside the couch, took out the silver bottle containing water, and glanced at the man's cold tofu-like instep, a light blue tendon appeared and disappeared, it was the tip of his toe, stretching and shrinking to hook Weeping orchid leaves on a flower stand.

She wet the handkerchief and squatted down to wipe the semen stains on the mat. The young man came slowly to hold her hand and said with a smile, "Sister Qingyu is very busy."

Qingyu threw away her hand and glared at him. The young man asked again: "Why do you all call him 'Third Master'? Since the family has been separated, shouldn't he be called 'Master'?"

Qingyu ignored him, but Li Chengwu explained: "My eldest brother is in Nanjing, if we meet in the future, the old members of the family should call him master."

The young man laughed: "A new-style person like you, do you also talk about old manners like this?"

Li Chengwu was about to speak, when Qingyu interrupted suddenly: "I don't see the third master teasing children on weekdays, but now he is sick and wants to tease others," she said while wiping the mat, "I'm angry, and I don't have time Coax, I have time to be happy by myself, the poor servants in the family suffer from this trouble, and then you will blame us for not taking good care of the young master."

Seeing that Li Chengwu didn't answer, the young man said: "Is this the young master? I saw him once in the garden, such a beautiful child."

Qingyu didn't speak, just rubbed the handkerchief in the small silver basin.

Li Chengwu raised his head and glanced at the young man. The latter shrugged, put on a cloth blanket, got down on the bed, picked up the clothes on the floor, and went straight out of the room.

Only then did Li Chengwu snort coldly, and said, "You're blaming me! It's clear that you said he didn't eat this or that, and let me take care of it."

"I don't dare to blame the third master. I just feel sorry for the child. He secretly wiped his tears for a while. I went to ask what's wrong, but he didn't tell me."

"Then let him be alone. Boys can't be coddled."

Qingyu sighed: "The young master is no better than the young lady. Although they all lost their mothers, they are sent back and forth. It's really pitiful. It's okay to get used to it."

Li Chengwu said with a smile: "Yesterday I saw that You Ling came home late at night. I asked and found out that I brought Dongfang's clam soup back for Cong Fei. This morning I saw Ping Xi'er and Xiao Shuang'er again, carrying A bunch of sweets and fruits went upstairs, and they were all bought for him. I understand that you women love him like that. He is exquisite and quarrelsome. In fact, he has a pitiful background, even if he only occasionally says something A good word really hits your heart, I wish I could send all the delicious and interesting things in Beiping city, anyway, it’s my money.”

Qingyu smiled, and approved of Li Chengwu's words, Li Chengwu continued: "Women want to marry me, but they just want to find a prestigious shelter, and then use the money in the shelter to raise a boy like him. I want to be a woman, so happy! Although they sometimes lose some dignity, they don't feel it themselves."

Seeing that he started talking nonsense again, Qingyu ignored him, and just said: "Let me bring the young master here, you write yours, and he just sits on the side and doesn't make trouble."

Li Chengwu agreed, and after about a quarter of an hour, Qingyu dragged Cong Fei into the house.Li Chengwu didn't raise his head on purpose, listening to him arguing with Qingyu, Qingyu already had a way of coaxing him to sit on the couch with a few whispers, before leaving, he thought the cushion was dirty, so he wiped it vigorously with a handkerchief Twice.

Cong Fei sat down by himself for a while and then lay down. He pressed the uneven longevity patterns on the screen of the couch, and groped along the screen. Suddenly, he found a corner of paper exposed in the gap. He pulled it out and unfolded it. On the white pansy paper, there was There are more than a dozen columns of lowercase letters, and I don't know what Buddhist scriptures are copied.

"What are you looking at?" Li Chengwu said suddenly, "Come here, I'll give you something."

Cong Fei walked over holding the paper, Li Chengwu hugged him on his lap, picked up the paper in his hand, looked at it, and asked, "Have you ever learned to write and draw? It's a brush."

Cong Fei nodded, and Li Chengwu laid out a new piece of paper and said, "I'll see if I write one." Cong Fei took the pen and wrote "Seven" in lower case.

Li Chengwu thought it was really ugly, but he said: "It's okay, but what are you writing this for?" He took his hand, took him to dip in ink, and wrote the three regular characters "Li Congfei", using the pen solemnly. .

Li Chengwu said: "Look at this, it is Yan Zhenqing's regular script, its structure is relatively wide, so it looks a little rich."

Cong Fei nodded, Li Chengwu changed to a Jiufen Langhao pen, and wrote "Li Congfei" with his hand, his bones were strong.

Li Chengwu said: "This is written with a hard pen. It is Wen Zhengming's willow style, but it is gentler than willow style."

After speaking, he changed his pen again and took Cong Fei to write the Analects:

"Learning and learning from time to time, it's not easy to say." The pen is round and square.

Li Chengwu said: "This is Yu Shinan's lower case script. To practice his calligraphy, first practice "Confucius Temple Monument", and then "Play Lianzhu". Alas, if you don't understand now, you will understand when you practice."

"It's such a joy to have friends coming from afar." Simple and natural.

He said: "This is Zhong Yao's lower case. Look at the 'you' and the horizontal strokes of 'Fang', which are the brushwork of official script. Zhong Yao's regular script is the embodiment of regularization of official script in the late Han Dynasty."

"People don't know but don't feel stunned, it's not like a gentleman." The posture is light, light but not buoyant, the structure is stable, heavy but not stagnant.

He put down his pen and said: "This is Tang Xiaokai's "Ling Fei Jing". The author did not leave a name. It is said that it was written by Zhong Shaojing. There were many people who imitated it in the previous dynasty. I did not write it well, so I can't read it..."

Cong Fei suddenly said: "This is beautiful, I like this, like a bird."

Li Chengwu smiled, shook the child back and forth, and cursed: "What a heartless thing, from entering the house to now finally willing to say a word, Qingyu said that you are secretly wiping tears alone this afternoon, tell me What are you crying about?"

Cong Fei bowed his head and said nothing, Li Chengwu clung to his ear, his voice was soft and low: "You want to tell me, what should I do if a person is sad and angry, and his body is broken?"

Cong Fei shrugged his shoulders and sobbed softly.

"Oh my god, are you the reincarnation of Lin Daiyu?" Li Chengwu turned him half a circle, hugged him face to face, wiped his tears with his thumb, and asked, "What's wrong? Huh?"

Cong Fei dodged his hand indiscriminately, crying: "You are unreasonable."

"Where am I being unreasonable?"

"Obviously... you... took me to...in your room, turned around and said...I...occupied your room."

Li Chengwu smiled: "Why are you so angry? I'm just teasing you, but you're really entangled!"

Cong Fei said: "Then...why...why don't you come to see me?"

Li Chengwu said: "So you wanted me to come to see you. You didn't tell me before, but I'll know if you tell me today. Don't cry, huh? What else do you want?" He took a green onion-colored silk Pa, half-pinched Cong Fei's nose, "Come on, blow your nose."

After blowing his nose, Cong Fei was still sobbing, and said in a low voice, "I still want to sleep with you tonight."

Li Chengwu said: "Okay, what else?"

Cong Fei said: "Tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, I will sleep with you in the future."

Li Chengwu smiled: "Do you know what your name is? If you give some color, you can open a dyeing workshop. I will write a letter to the president and leave the place for weaving in Jiangnan to you."

Cong Fei lay sideways on his chest, sobbing with all his strength, Li Chengwu took out a brass telescope from the drawer, held it up to Cong Fei's eyes, and said, "Look, I went out to drink last night and slipped it off the general's body." Yes, pretty isn't it? British military binoculars."

Through tears, the binoculars were covered with gold-plated prisms, like two kaleidoscopes in a dream, a very expensive exhibit, the kind that my mother would not buy, nor would I be able to buy.

Li Chengwu went on to say: "I wanted to give it to you, but I didn't want to give it to a tantrum-loving crybaby." Cong Fei stretched out his hand and grabbed it. Li Chengwu raised it a little farther, and said with a smile, "I'll give you something. No one calls, I want to hear you call Dad."

Cong Fei called softly, "Dad."

Li Chengwu said: "You still have to kiss me."

Cong Fei sat up, held his face and kissed him.

"No," Li Chengwu said, "I have to kiss."

Cong Fei raised his head, Li Chengwu bowed down/body, kissed him, Li Chengwu gave him the binoculars, hugged him and got up out of the house, and asked: "How old are you? Why does it smell like milk? Didn't Xiao Shuang'er smoke your clothes?" ?”

Cong Fei said: "Sister Xiao Shuang'er said, I have a child's fragrance on my body, it's best not to smoke, so as not to make me old-fashioned."

"Heh, one or two of them are going to turn against each other. Why don't you join the female revolutionary soldiers? It's a waste of national talents here."

Qingyuxu is 21 years old. She has a good friend who owns a sesame oil shop. The dowry is all ready. She had to get married years ago, but when Cong Fei came and relied on her to take care of her, now Li Chengwu won't let him go.Qingyu said angrily: "Every household's slaves come and go, the old ones leave before the new ones come in, there is absolutely no reason not to let them go!"

Li Chengwu sat crookedly on the couch and read his business book. A boy of sixteen or seventeen was standing beside him with a stove in his hand. Li Chengwu didn't pick up the stove and didn't look up. He just flipped through the white pages and said: "I've already taken care of it. You don't have to think about it anymore. I gave your father some money. He won't marry you. You stay here and take good care of Cong Fei. Naturally, you won't be treated badly." , Besides, in this troubled world, who can you marry as a maid? Marrying in the past is also precarious, so it is better to be here."

After eating the thunderbolt from the blue sky, Qingyu stopped arguing, stared blankly at Li Chengwu's drooping eyelids, and finally murmured: "I should have known, I should have known, the third master is such a heartless master... "

She returned to her room, half-opened her eyes, and looked at the rattan box under the foggy gray quilt, which contained her dowry.She walked over slowly, knelt down softly, and laid half of her body on the quilt, her face buried in the cool gray mist, tears stained from the side of her face, and the fog ash was soaked into blue gray.

The wind was blowing outside the window, and the curtains fluttered, brushing against her slender back. After a long time, she didn't care about it. When the wind stopped and the curtains hung still, the rattan box disappeared. The foggy quilt was infested with worms, and the slender waist and back also had extra flesh. The young master Cong Fei who was taken care of by her was already 17 years old.

Five years ago, Qingyu moved to the south with Li's family. Those beautiful youths from earlier days were gone in the Tuisi Garden.The north is the first to enter winter, and the snow is spread on the eaves in large areas. Even the other roofs, the Retreat Garden also melts into the winter scenery of Beiping. We can't tell the wealth and hardship, it is all white and gray.