Pei Gonggui

In the vestibule, several servants were bringing out plates of exquisite dishes from the flower hall, lamenting one by one, pouring them into the wooden barrel beside the steps, and carefully putting these carved dishes into the wooden bowl filled with warm water. In the basin, the two little maids squatting beside the basin immediately started washing with water.

When Uncle Dong saw Pei Jun turn back, he couldn't help worrying and asked again: "My lord, we dumped all the dishes, how can you explain it when you enter the palace later?"

"Is there anything I can't explain?" Pei Jun smiled and glanced at the dim sum in his hand, "Didn't the former palace always send away the food and leave, and never asked me how I ate."

"Then you ate all of it in the past, and we are not afraid of people asking, but now..." Uncle Dong sighed, and handed the plate in his hand to Liu Jin, "Forget it, I don't care anymore, you say it Just fall."

Liu Jin picked up a pastry on the plate, blinked and looked at it: "This jujube paste cake is so finely beaten, it smells so good."

"If you want to eat, let the cook at home cook it," Pei Jun said as he walked towards the east courtyard, "There is nothing you can't make, and it's not bad for the palace."

Uncle Dong heard the meaning of these words, and slapped Liujin on the back of the head with one slap, his eyes ordered him to drink some snacks quickly, turned around and followed Pei Jun to the east courtyard, and immediately ordered his servants to bring hot water, and followed along the way. Pei Jun reported the affairs of the government.

Pei Jun listened to him without saying a word. At this time, he had just walked into the room. When he looked up, he saw two slender bamboo sticks inserted into the carved frame of the screen at the front door.He frowned, walked closer and took a closer look, and saw two colorful and smiling little clay figurines poked on two bamboo sticks: one was wearing white clothes with a sword on his waist, the other was wearing red clothes, holding a baby in his hands, Like a couple, they both have noses and eyes, and they are alive and well. They are obviously things sold to dolls in the streets and alleys for fun.

Seeing it, Uncle Dong hurried up and took out the two clay figurines: "These are the clay figurines that Xiao Shizi bought a while ago. Why did they get inserted here...I'll put them away right away."

Pei Jun pulled the clay figurine out of his hand, and compared the two for a while, but didn't see a pattern. After turning around the screen and walking inside, he saw that he was originally clean and orderly when he lived alone. In his house, there are all kinds of children's things scattered everywhere at this moment.Jade chains, slingshots, bamboo cats, a little golden snake with its body and head split in half, and little tigers sewed with floral cloth were all over his bed and table, and a lone wooden top was thrown on the ground beside him. The leather whip on the head was broken into three parts, and each part was still in a mess, it must have been eaten by a dog.

He turned his head and saw Jiang Xuan, the culprit, was still playing with stone beads on the Arhat couch. With a flick of his fingers, the stone beads hit the teacup, and with a thud, they didn't know where to go up.The child quickly jumped down to the floor again, lay down on the bottom of the couch and looked for beads everywhere, scraped the new clothes embroidered with gold silk on the ground, and kept rubbing the cuffs on the wooden edge with the hand that reached into the corner of the couch.

His hands were short and he couldn't reach inside. He turned his head and saw Pei Jun was there, and ordered: "Uncle, come quickly, the pearl has gone inside!"

At this time, servants were coming in one after another, pouring hot water into the bathtub behind the partition fan on the left, and had to go back and forth several times. Apart from the young and middle-aged Pei Jun, there was only an old Uncle Dong left in the room.Therefore, Pei Jun had no choice but to temporarily stuff the clay figurine in his hand to Uncle Dong, went to Jiang Xuan and squatted down, pulled Jiang Xuan up, patted him and asked, "Where did you get off?"

Jiang Xuan took his sleeve with a small hand and pointed to the farthest corner.

Pei Jun prostrated himself on the ground with a good temper, raised his eyebrows to look in, and stretched out his hand to feel the stone bead out.Unexpectedly, when he opened his palms and took a look, he saw that this stone bead was a warm jade chess piece he put in a sandalwood box on the bookshelf - I remember that it was a thank you gift from Yan Yuliang when he first moved to the official department in the early years, and it was said to be an ancient jade from outside the Guan , The chess master's private treasure is priceless outside, but now, it is only used as marbles for his nephew.

"...Ancestor," Pei Jun lay on the ground, staring sideways at Jiang Xuan, who was obediently squatting beside him, and sighed, "If uncle comes back a few days later, will the house be smashed by you?"

"No. Uncle is not here, I am very good." Jiang Xuan didn't know what he was cherishing, so he just took out the jade chess from his hand, and then climbed onto the Luohan couch to play again.

"Do you still want your clay figurine?" Pei Jun got up and asked him, "Put it on the screen to prevent you from getting in and out, and poke your eyes if you don't want it. If you don't want it, ask someone to throw it for you—"

"No, no, no!" Jiang Xuan yelled immediately, throwing away the jade chess in his hand, "I just kept it for my uncle to see, it was pinched by my uncle and uncle."

"...Who?" Pei Jun looked back at the clay figurine in Uncle Dong's hand, feeling something was wrong with his ears.

Jiang Xuan ran to Uncle Dong, took the two clay figurines and ran back to Pei Jun, held up the white one and said: "This is uncle!" Then he raised the red one: "This is uncle!" Pointing to the doll in the arms of the man in red: "This is my uncle hugging me! Hehe, does it look like it?"

"..."

—Like a ghost.

Pei Jun was not happy: "Why is your uncle wearing a sword and white clothes fluttering in the wind, and I am like your nanny?"

Jiang Xuan was still quite unconvinced: "You don't have a sword yourself. Uncle already has one, so it looks like this."

Unexpectedly, the children's clay figurines were so realistic, Pei Jun was speechless for a moment.Tsk tut shook his head and looked at Jiang Xuan, he muttered "Wolf with white eyes", then he didn't want to talk to him anymore, he just walked to the left room and told someone to close the partition, took off his clothes and went into the bath.

Days of tiredness soaked in water, as if melting into the radiating heat.Pei Jun sat in the warm water mixed with ointments and herbs, rubbed his body vigorously a few times, feeling relieved, then folded his hands and lay on the edge of the tub, quietly watching Uncle Dong pick up the stinky clothes for him. Feeling like I was back in my childhood, I said lazily: "Don't take it away, just throw it away. I don't want to wear these clothes after washing."

"Then don't you have to collect it before throwing it away? The clothes themselves don't have long legs." Uncle Dong babbled, pulling the underwear he took off from the shelf, sighing at him, and shaking the clothes with his hands, "Yes When I look at you from time to time, I really don’t seem to have grown up, but when you stand up and walk to the side—oh, you’re a big guy again. I can’t even wear a patch coat every year. Same, my eyes are dazzled, and I almost can’t remember clearly.”

"Which one looks the best?" Pei Jun smiled and chatted with him, in front of Uncle Dong, he just had the cheek to regard himself as a handsome young man in fresh clothes.

Uncle Dong frowned and thought about it, and really answered him: "It's better to be red now, to see people's spirit; it's not like the blue and green ones in the past, to see coldness."

Pei Junben leaned back against the wall of the barrel without even submerging his shoulders in the water, but at this moment he sat up a little after listening to the words: "I used to be cold?"

"Isn't it?" Uncle Dong glanced at him and lowered his voice, "You have been in Jingzhaosi for two years, how many times have you been to Prince Rui's Mansion along the way? When did you go in and see once?" He revealed the old man's face Feeling emotional, "If it weren't for the case of the young lady, you might not even look at her for ten or eight years. Why would you call me 'uncle'?"

This is just a hypothesis, but to Pei Jun's ears, it is a fact that has already happened.He sighed, and poured water on his neck. He seemed to have accumulated a thousand words in his stomach for a moment, but in the end, he regretted it, and only murmured: "I don't know how hard she is going."

Uncle Dong continued to take off his trousers to straighten, and asked, "Even if you knew, would you really help her if you were thinking about the past?" He shook his head, "You and Missy are both Stubborn temper, exactly the same as the master back then... But the matter of Madam's passing away in the past has nothing to do with the eldest lady. You figured it out a few years ago, and the eldest lady probably knew it too, but you still pointed She vented her anger, and she only vented her anger on herself, a pair of sisters and brothers, this twist has not been in touch for seven or eight years, making me an old man really anxious to see—"

"My lord, you have to be merciful and merciful." Uncle Dong took down the last piece of clothing on the shelf, and the usual words finally became earnest, "Everyone knocks out teeth and swallows blood, dare to call Most of the pain is not real pain, how do you know who is suffering secretly? Maybe someone misses you in everything and is good for you in everything, but you don't know at all."

Uncle Dong walked out with his clothes in his arms after he finished speaking, but he stepped on a soft object when he stepped out. A sachet? ... It doesn't look like it's from our house."

As soon as Pei Jun raised his head, he saw the unicorn sachet given to him by Jiang Yue hanging in Uncle Dong's hand, so he immediately stretched out his hand to Uncle Dong: "Give it to me."

"It's taking a bath, let's see if it gets wet." Uncle Dong withdrew his hands and put the sachet behind his back, "Where did this come from? It looks like something from the Prince's Mansion, you don't mean to call it again." Which girl did you go to?"

In the past, when Pei Jun was [-] or [-] years old and his reputation for breaking his sleeves was not obvious, he would often keep some sachets and handkerchiefs from girls when he went out to play. The servants in the mansion who went out to do the shopping came across that the silk embroidered by my young lady was used by an old grocery shopping woman to wipe her sweat, and it immediately became popular, and it was passed back, which caused a lot of noise in the tea party of the ladies in Beijing. Jun was someone who would never be sympathetic to others, and since then no one has looked up to him.For this reason, Pei Jun was scolded for a while by ladies who had done elegant poems, and the children of rich families often made fun of it. It took many years to settle the turmoil, but by that time, his reputation of breaking his sleeves and going to the dragon bed was gone again. When it got out, Yue Mo fell into the tongues of those who complained that he didn't understand his daughter's feelings back then, and the word "no wonder" became even more so.

He laughed and said to Uncle Dong: "Which lady's sachet will use this color, isn't it too ugly? This is from Prince Jin."

Uncle Dong's eyes widened: "What are you doing with his sachet?"

"What are you taking? He gave it to me in person." Pei Jun simply got up from the water, snatched the sachet from Uncle Dong's hand, and sat down in the water again.

Uncle Dong was even more puzzled: "How many years have you two been fighting, why did he give you a sachet?"

"Because I stink, he thinks I stink, and he is afraid that I will stink him, okay?" Pei Jun grabbed the sachet and waved at him, "Come on, stop nagging, go back and rest earlier."

But Uncle Dong watched him carrying the sachet around the edge of the bucket, but stopped on the spot when he was about to go out: "My lord, are you really ignoring that man in the palace? Just because of the incident with Deng Sheng?  … Prince Jin also came here last time, and this time he came again—seeing that he was chatting and laughing with you every time, could it be that... you want to help Prince Jin in the future? Yes, but I hear People say that Prince Jin wants, wants..."

Pei Jun held up the sachet in his hand, dangling it, leaned back on the barrel wall and looked up, half-closed his eyes, and finished Dong Shu's unfinished sentence like a laziness: "Is Prince Jin going to rebel?"

Hearing Uncle Dong's sigh, he raised his hand and pinched the sachet hanging on his finger into his palm, let out a deep breath, and said: "You can rest, don't worry about this matter."

Then he ordered: "No one in the mansion can say a word about King Jin's visit tonight. When Qian Haiqing comes back tomorrow, you can tell him—since he is receiving the accountant's monthly salary, he should do it after the exam. Work as an accountant. Ask him to check the accounts of all the servants in the mansion to see if there is anyone who is greedy for money, and also ask if there is anyone who is short of money, and then let Liu Jin pay close attention to the income and exit, so as not to develop fine work. If someone is in a hurry to spend money, just use the money in the mansion to help him, and don't let outsiders take the lead and help the people in our mansion into people outside the mansion—but if there is such a person, once you find out, you should also Know what to do."

Uncle Dong agreed again and again, and walked out Su Rong, but when he opened the partition, he saw Jiang Xuan standing at the door with the puppy in his arms, and he didn't know when he was there.

Pei Jun was taken aback, and leaned over to the bucket to look at the child: "What's wrong with Xuan'er?"

Jiang Xuan pouted: "Uncle doesn't come out, Grandpa Dong is here too, no one is playing with me anymore, I want to come too."

Pei Jun laughed: "Uncle is taking a bath, why are you here? This is not a rule."

But Jiang Xuan couldn't help but squeezed in, sat on the footstool in front of the tub, touched the little black dog on his lap, and looked at Pei Jun eagerly: "I haven't seen my uncle for a long time, I want to play with him Son."

"Then why did you argue with your uncle just now and ignore me?" Pei Jun waved to Uncle Dong, signaling him not to close the door and go out first, and he got up, then looked down at Jiang Xuan who was sitting by the bucket, and smiled gently Get up, "Everyone in the family is used to you, I think you are going to play crazy, so you don't remember my uncle."

The dog on Jiang Xuan's lap barked softly, and stretched out his tongue to lick the back of his hand, but the eyebrows on Jiang Xuan's small face drooped: "No. They play with me during the day, but I still sleep alone at night. .”

He blinked: "At that time, I missed my uncle very much."

With his chin resting on his arm, Pei Jun asked him seriously, "Why?"

Jiang Xuan said: "Because uncle and concubine mother are the same. They all play with me during the day and leave, but if monsters want to eat me at night, only uncle will protect me like concubine mother."

"What kind of monster..." Pei Jun was surprised by his nephew's bizarre conjectures, he laughed dumbly, and pinched his face with his wet hands, "You also have the blood of our Pei family on you, why are you so timid?" After thinking about it Thinking, he said: "Why don't you wake up earlier tomorrow, and uncle will teach you boxing, and when you master martial arts, you won't be afraid of any monsters, and you can sleep by yourself."

Jiang Xuan nodded quickly when he heard this, but immediately shook his head in hesitation, hugged the puppy tightly and said, "Grandpa Dong also said that he wants me to learn martial arts, but he has to guard me for the next few days before he dares to sleep, otherwise I will die." Don't dare to close your eyes."

"But Xuan'er, you can't sleep with your uncle all your life?" Pei Jun frowned when he said this, "Besides...Xuan'er, don't go out and talk about sleeping with uncle or watching him take a bath. .”

Jiang Xuan didn't understand: "Why?"

Pei Jun said, "Because uncle has a bad reputation."

Jiang Xuan didn't understand anymore: "What is fame?"

The interpretation is so deep that children don't understand it, and Jiang Xuan's age can't explain the nun's teaching, so Pei Jun can only say: "Fame is like what would you think of when you hear your seventh uncle?"

Jiang Xuan immediately said: "Uncle is doing well! Uncle is very powerful, uncle is the most powerful."

Pei Jun nodded in anticipation and said: "This is your seventh uncle's reputation. Such a reputation is a good reputation, but uncle doesn't have it. Uncle is a stinky villain, whoever gets it, even Xuan'er gets it."

Jiang Xuan immediately stood up with the dog in his arms: "That's not true! Uncle, it won't stink after washing it."

"What do you know? I said yes." Pei Jun lightly raised his hand to scratch his nose, and saw that Uncle Dong had brought a clean towel outside, so he closed his words and said, "Uncle will sleep with you for the last time tonight. Tomorrow From now on, you will move back to your mother’s house, and from now on, you will get up early every morning to learn boxing from your uncle, and then your uncle will find someone to teach you how to read and write, and enlighten you, you know?”

Seeing that the good times are coming to an end, Jiang Xuan whimpered: "Uncle is a big bad guy."

Pei Jun smiled: "Look, what did you just say?"

Jiang Xuan yelled angrily: "Uncle is bullying people! Watch me tell a puppy to bite you!"

Unexpectedly, as soon as he finished speaking, the dog in his arms actually bit Pei Jun's back. The pain caused Pei Jun to slam his hand, but the tassel of Jiang Yue's sachet in his hand was caught by the dog, and he let him No matter how he called it, he didn't let it go, so he had to bow his head and beg his nephew: "Xuan'er, hurry up, this is your uncle's sachet, please tell it not to bite it! It will be terrible if it is bitten!"

Jiang Xuan was also startled by the puppy, and obediently said "let go, puppy", and hugged the dog, and the black dog let go immediately.

Pei Jun heaved a sigh of relief, and exclaimed: "... Strange, such a small bastard can recognize the master?" He smiled wryly and shook his head, thinking to himself that Mei Linyu had indeed found a loyal dog for his nephew. Good or bad, I don't know if it is God's will.

He asked Uncle Dong to bring a towel and took Jiang Xuan away. Then he got up and dried himself, changed into fragrant pajamas, walked inside and asked his servants to take the dog away, twisted his hair until it was almost dry, and left. Lead Jiang Xuan to sleep on the couch.

However, as soon as he lay on the bed, he opened his eyes and was startled - he saw Jiang Xuan's two clay figurines, one white and one red, inserted firmly into the flowers and leaves carved by the head of his bed. He was looking at him with a gloomy smile.For a moment, he felt that this child really had the lingering taste of the Jiang family, so he couldn't help but cursed, patted the bed board and shouted: "Jiang Xuan! Take your clay figurine away!"

"No, no." Jiang Xuan was extremely stubborn, climbed onto the bed with hands and feet, hugged the little cloth tiger, got into the bed, exposed his head to look at the clay figurine above his head, and begged Pei Jun: "Uncle, let uncle come with us sleep."

"..." Pei Jun stared at the smiling white-clothed swordsman looking down on him, and finally couldn't say "no" for a long time, so he sighed, turned sideways silently, and first coaxed Jiang Xuan to sleep.

After Jiang Xuan fell asleep, he lay flat and looked back at the clay figurine beside the bed. He remembered what Uncle Dong said just now, and in his mind there were "suffering in secret" at one moment, "will rebel" at another moment, and the day and night again. Every time Jiang Yue spoke, smiled and sighed, he suddenly felt as if his cavity was pierced by thin threads, throbbing a little bit, and still tingling with soreness.

Some things that he knew would change sooner or later in the future began to stir in his heart faintly in the present smooth days mixed with sweet water.

He raised his finger and touched the clay figurine in white clothes who was still smiling on his head. While thinking about it, he asked it again in a low voice:

——Jiang Yue, what do you think we are?