Indulgence in the Red Chamber

After Honghui escaped from the woodshed, he didn't rush to run far away, but hid in a corner for a long time.When he heard those people dispersing in a hurry to find himself, Fang followed them and quietly left the small courtyard.

This area seems to be a slum area, with narrow alleys, low bungalows, and seven or eight families can live in one courtyard. Those who run a small business, in short, although this piece of thatched huts is down and out, it happens to be a place to hide.

Hong Hui touched his body, his coat had been ripped off long ago, and the purse and jade pendant he was wearing were long gone.At any rate, they were being conscientious and didn't take off his close-fitting middle coat. Inside the skirt was a Jade Guanyin that he had been wearing close to his body since he was a child, which was a talisman given to him by Daiyu at that time.

He was very hungry, because he escaped secretly after waking up from the coma, so he didn't know how many days he hadn't eaten.His stomach was rumbling, and the front heart had already stuck to the back heart.While evasively walking, Hong Hui searched for something to fill his stomach, wandered around, and suddenly smelled a faint fragrance.

Honghui was refreshed, um—it seemed to be the smell of food, but he didn't know what kind of delicious food it was, but it was so sweet.

Following the scent, it turned out that the scent came from the crack of an old wooden door.Hong Hui gently pushed open the dilapidated wooden door, and saw a little girl standing in front of an iron pot, holding a spoon in her hand and stirring slowly, a layer of white gas was rising from the pot, and the fragrance was even stronger. concentrated.

Hong Hui swallowed hard, thinking that his stomach would feel better, but found that he was even hungrier.

The little girl seemed to sense someone behind her, and suddenly turned her head to see Hong Hui, and asked strangely, "Who are you? Why did you come to my house?"

"I was passing by...because..." Hong Hui, as the emperor's grandson, had rich clothes and good food since he was a child. He has always given charity to others, and he has never asked others for charity. He was a little embarrassed for a while.

The little girl looked at him and kept looking at the pot, so she smiled and said, "Are you hungry?"

"Hmm!" Hong Hui was pleasantly surprised, thinking that he is simply my confidant!

"Then you sit there and wait, I'll serve you porridge. We don't have anything to eat at home now, only a mouthful of corn paste." The little girl went into the house and took three rough porcelain bowls out and put them on the table. The pots were filled one by one, and they shouted to the room: "Mother! It's time to eat."

"Cough, cough, cough..." There was a violent cough in the room, and then an old woman's voice, "Pumpkin girl, who's here?"

"A child. Passing by, I'm hungry." The girl brought the porridge in front of Honghui, and said, "Slow down, be careful of burning."

"Yeah!" Hong Hui nodded gratefully, holding the bowl and wanted to drink it, but when he brought it to his mouth, he was smoked by the heat, and looked at the porridge in the bowl with a frown, feeling a little helpless.

"Slow down, there is still in the pot. You haven't eaten for a few days?" The girl smiled, helped the old woman who came out of the house, walked slowly to the pot and sat down, then took a fan over and gently fanned.

"I don't know how many days I haven't eaten. Anyway, I'm about to faint from hunger. What's so delicious?" Hong Hui still took a sip of the cornmeal porridge and asked while breathing out the heat .

"You don't even know this? Could it be that you are someone from outside the sky?" The girl smiled disdainfully.

"It's no wonder that he, you see, the clothes on his body are made of high-quality river silk. He must be a child of a rich family, but why did he come to us? Are you still so hungry?" The old woman was not too hungry. Old, from his face, he is only 50 years old, but his hair is gray, and he looks like an old man in his 70s or [-]s from a distance.

"Ma'am, I am indeed not a child in this area. I went shopping with my family. I wanted to hide and scare my family, but I didn't want to really get separated. I have been hungry for a whole day and haven't eaten. This time I lost my way and turned around in these alleys, but I couldn't get out. Just now I smelled the aroma of this porridge, so I found this place. Thanks to this sister, she didn't drive me out. I was in I bow to you here." Hong Hui developed a small mouth that could speak well, and he uttered a few words, which amused the old woman and the girl.

"That's all. Our mother and I are at home now, and there are no outsiders at home. You have dinner and stay here for one night. You can go home early tomorrow morning. Stop messing around in the future, and be careful that people will get you out and sell you." Go to those places where the sun is not visible. You will never see your parents again. This is not for fun. You children of rich and noble families do not understand the suffering of the people and the sinister hearts of the people. How can you know the seriousness of this. "The old woman said, and she also picked up a bowl to drink porridge.

When Hong Hui was mentioned by her words, he remembered how worried E Niang was at the moment, and his heart was full for a while, no matter how hungry he was, no matter how delicious the polenta was, he couldn't eat it anymore.

"Hey, my mother just said these two words, scaring you? It's okay, our mother and I are not human teeth, and we will never sell you. Eat quickly, you will sleep in that room tonight , when it gets dark, go into the house and go to sleep. It’s okay for our family to keep you a bowl of porridge, but we don’t have lamp oil for you. It’s going to be dark this day, you’re almost full and go to sleep.” The girl smiled , and went to add porridge to her mother.

"There is no bedding there, go and move your godfather's bedding to him." The old woman sighed and shook her head as she said, "This old man never has a doorman, since he offended the young master that year. I was thrown out to Zhuangzi, and I haven’t come back for five or six years. I can’t help but live or die.”

"Mother, you said these again! It was because he got drunk and cursed at others that day, and the second grandma in the Xifu was born. Hearing his scolding words, he immediately became annoyed. That's why Master Xiaorong drove him to the Zhuangzi. However, although Zhuangzi is poor, he doesn’t have that kind of idleness. Years ago, Zhuangtou came to send the New Year’s tribute and said that the old man was in good health, but you are now talking about it.”

The old woman snorted coldly, and said, "Whose mouth can be shut up for the dirty things they did? It's just taking your godfather to vent their anger."

Hong Hui was confused by what he heard, but from the words, he could also hear that this family should be a slave of a certain big family, who lived here because he offended his master and was kicked out.So he smiled and said, "I don't know which big family is the one from the east mansion and the west mansion that my aunt said?"

"Young master, we girls are gossiping. You can go to bed after another bowl of porridge." The old woman was unwilling to say more, and winked at the girl again.But because of her own knowledge, she thought that officials and officials were protecting each other, and the young man in front of her might be the young master of some family. If she said it bluntly in another day, she might get burned.

After hearing the old woman's words, the girl had to stop talking, added porridge to Honghui's bowl, turned around and said bitterly: "It's just a bunch of hypocrites and wolf-hearted people. Relying on the merits of the ancestors to enjoy the glory and wealth. I will not I understand, it is just a matter of course for a slave to go through life and death in the end, and even if a master rewards us with the leftovers from feeding the dogs, it is a great favor. What kind of reason is this?" When she spoke, she put that' Hypocrisy and hypocrisy' bite very hard, as if it meant something.

"Pumpkin!" the old woman yelled sharply, "Do you think your godfather has a long life?"

Hong Hui thought about it carefully, in the capital, the only big family known as the East Mansion and the West Mansion is Jia's Ningrong Second Mansion.The girl also said that it was the merit of her ancestors, so she must be the Second Duke Ning Rong.Thinking of this, Honghui couldn't help but secretly rejoice that he didn't reveal his identity just now.This girl from the Jia family is the concubine of the crown prince, and they are the people on the same vine of the crown prince.The situation is so complicated now, if they know their identities, the consequences will be disastrous.

So he ate the porridge obediently, then said good night to the mother and daughter, and then went to the room pointed by the girl.

The room was small and dark, but luckily it was still dark, and the furnishings inside could be seen clearly through the window paper: a small kang table was placed on the clean straw mat, and there was only a dilapidated Eight Immortals table on the ground against the wall. The two broken chairs have been in disrepair for a long time, and the four legs are probably not the same length. The chairs are bare, and the boxwood boards are so worn that the original color cannot be seen.

Hong Hui sighed in his heart: I can barely make do for one night, get a good night's sleep, and let's go tomorrow.It's just that I don't know what street to go out from here, and whether those people outside are still looking for me.Thinking of this, he couldn't help sighing, slowly climbed onto the kang, and sat cross-legged on the bare straw mat.

The girl came in from the outside, holding a quilt roll in her arms, went to the kang and put it on it, and said to Hong Hui, "Hey, what's your last name? What should I call you?"

"My surname is Xuan." Hong Hui said a word in a hurry, but it was Xuan Ning's Xuan.

"Huh? I haven't heard of any adult named Xuan in the capital?" The girl looked at Honghui suspiciously and asked.

"My family is not here. I came here to join relatives. My family is in the northwest, and my parents are herdsmen on the grassland. Otherwise, I would get lost here?"

"Oh! I said so." The girl smiled, patted the quilt and said, "It's hot today, so I don't need this. My mother is afraid that you think the kang is too hard and you won't be able to sleep at night, so she asked me to bring it over. Lay it on for you."

"Thank you, big sister, thank you very much!" Hong Hui nodded gratefully, then raised his feet and hid to the side.The girl opened the bedding, made him a tidy bed, then clapped her hands and said, "Okay, you can go to sleep."

"Hey——" Hong Hui hurriedly raised his hand to hold the girl: "Sister, wait a minute, I want to ask you, where is this place?"

"This area is all the houses behind the Second Ningrong Mansion. The better houses in the front are lived in by prominent servants. On the east side of the street ahead is the Lai family, and to the west are the Wu family, Zhou family, and their families. The yards are next to each other, and our area is full of shameless slaves and some people who come to seek refuge with their relatives and friends, living together in miscellaneous. Oh, yes. Who is your relative? You always Do you know?"

"Ah, I came to Beijing with my elder brother to give a tribute to the commander of the infantry." Hong Hui didn't dare to reveal his identity, so he had to bring out his grandfather to speak.

"Wow! You are the commander of the infantry?" The girl looked at Honghui incredulously, and then smiled: "How did you end up in this field? Forget it, sleep well, I will send you to the infantry tomorrow." The Military Commander's Mansion. I still know the gate of the Commander's Mansion, but I don't know the people inside."

"Thank you, sister." Hong Hui nodded, thinking that he should not sleep too hard tonight, people's hearts are unpredictable, and if he is kidnapped again, he will really be unable to escape.Uncle Xuan Ning told himself to be calm and steady in everything, and not to talk too much to provoke unnecessary right and wrong. It seems that this is really a wise saying.

He wanted not to fall asleep, but Honghui was a child after all.I couldn't hold on until after the third watch.Sitting leaning against the window sill, his head slowly lowered, and accidentally touched the window sill made of green bricks, the back of his head hurt, and he woke up suddenly.

It was pitch black all around, and I couldn't see my fingers.There seemed to be a sound of wind whimpering outside the window, as if a child was crying.Honghui never stayed in such a dark room since he was a child. He was usually coaxed to sleep by a nanny. In recent years, he grew up and slept in a bed by himself, but there was always a lamp on in the room.Far away in the corner, even though there is a tent, you can vaguely feel a warm halo.

In this way, Honghui couldn't fall asleep no matter how sleepy he was.

The more I think about it, the more afraid I become, and the more I think about it, the more disturbed I become.Heartbroken, he simply groped to get out of bed, his feet stepped on the cold ground, slowly found the shoes bit by bit, and groped to put them on again.Relying on memory, I found the door, opened it gently and walked into the yard.

The night is like thick ink, and the wind carries thick moisture.It turned out to be rainy weather.

Honghui stood facing Night Breeze with his face raised for a while.After much deliberation, I feel that there is no better plan to escape from here, so let's take a step at a time.Tomorrow it will be dawn, and I will find a way to coax the girl to send herself to my grandfather's house, and it will be easy to say when I get there.

Back in the room, Honghui groped to get on the kang again.Leaning on the coarse quilt and squinting for a while, I heard someone laughing: "Why don't you lie down and sleep? Did you sit like this all night?"

When Honghui hurriedly opened his eyes to look, he saw the girl named Pumpkin standing at the door looking at him with a smile, pointing to the outside and saying, "It's raining, you can't leave today."

"Is it raining?" Hong Hui sighed in his heart, thinking that God was against me too.Then I thought about it again, since I don't want to go out when it rains, then those who hijacked me will definitely not wander around.It's better to leave here quickly while taking advantage of the rain.So he smiled and said: "It's hot and uncomfortable, it's going to rain. I'm not afraid."

"You are not afraid of me. We don't have umbrellas at home. Do you want me to take you home in the rain?"

"Good sister, are you afraid that you won't have an umbrella for you when you send me back? My father will definitely reward you heavily. I got lost last night, and they don't know how anxious they are."

"That's true. It's pitiful for you. Wash your face and follow me. I'll find an oilcloth and let's put it on." The girl said, turning around and finding a dark oilcloth from the cabinet in the corner, shaking her face. He laughed and said: "That's all, we have to go out with the two of us dressed together."

Hong Hui nodded hurriedly.He put on his shoes on the kang and pulled the girl out.

"Hey—you, don't you have breakfast?"

"No need, the family members who went back earlier are in a hurry." Looking at the rain outside, Honghui thought it would be better.The heavier the rain, the less pedestrians there are outside, so I don't dare to go out after the rain stops for a while.

A square piece of oilcloth, each of the two people held a corner to cover their heads, and spread it to both sides.The two hands that were leaning against each other unconsciously held each other, and the two stepped in unison, stepping happily in the water, the shoes were wet, and the rain soaked the soles of the feet, feeling cool and indescribably comfortable.Hong Hui couldn't help laughing, and stepped up playfully, splashing a splash of water on purpose.

"Hey, slow down! It made my pants wet." Although Pumpkin scolded, she also had a happy smile on her face.

The two trotted out of the gate, turned left and ran out along the alley.

"How far is it?" Hong Hui looked at the vast rain curtain ahead and asked sideways.

"Out of this alley, turn south again, go straight to Ningrong Street, and then go east all the way. Turn south again and you will be the gate of the Commander's Mansion." Pumpkin said, and turned to look at Hong Kong. Hui Hui asked hesitantly, "Are you a relative of the Commander's Mansion? Don't talk nonsense."

"Why not? You'll know when you get to the door. You saved me and sent me back. My uncle will reward you heavily."

"Your uncle?" Pumpkin slowed down and looked at Hong Hui suspiciously.The Infantry Commander's Mansion is your uncle's house? "Because of surprise, she couldn't help but raise her voice too high.

A man holding an umbrella who passed by the two of them stopped suddenly.

Honghui's eyes sank, and he secretly yelled "It's broken!"Then he felt a cold gaze cast on him from behind, and he was inexplicably flustered.He tightened Pumpkin's hand and ran forward desperately.

"Stop!" Someone behind shouted suddenly.

Hong Hui didn't speak, but ran desperately holding the pumpkin.Faster, faster!

Only by running, only by escaping from the sight of the person behind him, can there be a chance of survival.

"Hey, why are you running?" Pumpkin asked out of breath while running.

"Don't talk. Run!" Hong Hui didn't have time to say more, holding the pumpkin with one hand and tightly holding the tarpaulin with the other, the two ran wildly all the way regardless of the rain and mud.

The man behind him had already thrown away his umbrella and hurried to catch up.While chasing, he shouted: "Stop! You two brats, stop for me!"

The black tarpaulin was blown by the wind, and from the back, only four little feet could be seen running. It was impossible to tell which child was the girl who spoke just now, and which child was the nephew of the infantry commander's mansion.But the man in black knew that the prey he had been searching for all night was right in front of him.The master Qian reminded Wan Wan to be careful, but he ran away!If you can't catch him, your whole family will die!