Pei Gonggui

The only remaining candles in the cell were suddenly extinguished, and a deep silence came along with the darkness.

In the gloom, Pei Jun's shocked eyes could still clearly see Pei Yan's eyes looking at him, but he could no longer see clearly the expression on Pei Yan's face.

At this moment, there was a sound of iron ropes coming from the prison door, and it was the Yacha who brought the doctor.Seeing that there were no more candles in the prison, several people hurriedly called the servants to come in and take away the burnt wax residue on the table, and then re-lit the oil-filled lamps, apologizing and begging Pei Jun not to blame.

When the light came on again, Pei Yan had turned her face away again.The doctor who squeezed in from the prison door carried a medicine box and tremblingly came forward to ask a doctor. He looked at Pei Jun cautiously. "I want to report to Mr. Pei, these are all physical injuries. Although they are not necessarily disabled or damaged, injuries to muscles and bones are always inevitable. The most important thing right now is to wash and apply medicine, and then rest." He took out the wound from the box medicine.

Pei Jun fished out the broken silver from his waist and gave it to him, took the gauze and porcelain bottle he took out, and waved his hand.Seeing this, the doctor politely bowed and resigned, and the yamen servants took advantage of Pei Jun's benefits, repeatedly bowed their hands, and even asked the handyman to fetch a basin of hot water for Pei Yan, and told auspiciousness, and then went out with the doctor .

Seeing the people walking away, Pei Jun frowned and bent over to put the hot water basin on the wooden table, rolled up his sleeves and twisted out a piece of gauze. After gently wiping off the blood on Pei Yan's hands, he asked in a hoarse voice, "Who are you on?" Are there any injuries?"

Pei Yan's fingers twitched slightly in pain, but she tried her best to endure it: "Fortunately, someone told you to stop, so the injury is only on the arms and legs, and it should be okay to take care of it."

Pei Jun paused slightly after washing her hands, then picked up the medicine bottle: "With this injury, you may not be able to play the piano in the future."

Pei Yan hissed and asked him to apply the medicine, but she heard the words incomprehensibly: "After all, it's been a few years since I played, and I forgot about it long ago."

Pei Jun frowned more and more.He continuously poured out the medicine in the porcelain bottle and melted it on the hot and humid gauze, and silently smeared it on Pei Yan again and again, until he covered Pei Yan's hands and bandaged them, and finally asked in a low voice:

"You and Lao Cao... had a relationship?"

Pei Yan looked down at his hands being wrapped in layers by him, frowning as if calculating how to answer, but the dim light in the prison flickered in her eyes for a few moments, but it formed another sigh in her mouth:

"Forget it."

Then she gave a cool wry smile, and said slowly: "Do you remember... when I first entered the prison of the Ministry of Criminal Justice, you asked me why I married Jiang Xi? Officer, you didn't answer, but do you really understand what I mean?"

Pei Jun rolled up his sleeves for her, continued to apply medicine to her, his eyes reflected the large and small welts on her arms, his eyebrows trembled, and he silently listened to her continue:

"In fact, marrying a woman, or joining a man, are just things to do when you are old. Forget it. There may be some who want to change their lives, and some who want to jump on the branches and climb to the top, but in the end they choose the wrong person and the wrong position, and the result is not the same..."

Her pale face was reflected in the flickering candlelight, her bloodless lips moved slightly, and her tone was neither painful nor itchy, as if she was talking about something from another family:

"Ten years ago, when you told me to get out of Pei's house in front of the Mother's Soul Hall, did you ever think that I would end up in this situation?"

Pei Jun felt a sharp stab in his heart, and shook his head: "No."

Pei Yan laughed at herself again: "Neither have I. So..." She reluctantly blocked Pei Jun's hand, shaking off one sleeve with trembling arms, gritted her teeth with lowered eyebrows, and clenched her legs tightly with her fingers. Bian Haicao said: "I often wonder whether we underestimate fate..."

The so-called "fate" is a word that young people never trust.

At least the two brothers and sisters of the Pei family rarely had such worries about their fate before they got married or started their careers.

When Pei Jun received a letter of appointment to the Imperial Academy ten years ago, he never thought that it would be the beginning of his lifelong conquest, just as Pei Yan did at the Empress Dowager's birthday banquet ten years ago. When Qu Qinse stunned everyone and was awarded as the companion of Princess Anhua, she never thought that it would be the cause of her ten-year hatred.

At that time, Pei Jun had already broken with Zhang Ling and left Zhang's residence. In the autumn of that year, he had entered the Imperial Academy as an official. He didn't have to worry about eating and drinking.

Among the group of friends, Mei Linyu, the only son of the Mei family, is being confronted by his father, admonishing and reprimanding him for business affairs, and the chicken farm he secretly opened was discovered by his family, and the warnings turned into punches. The kicks landed on his delicate skin and tender flesh, making him so angry that he ran out of the house, went to Pei Jun's house to stay overnight, and squatted in Pei Jun's courtyard with a bruised nose and a swollen face, unwilling to be resigned:

"There are a lot of black places for cockfighting in the south, which one doesn't make a lot of money! My father thinks that raising chickens is shameful and cheap. He thinks that chickens should be eaten and won't let me mess with them. He is so stubborn. !"

"Then your father's stubbornness is also stubborn with you with tens of millions of taels of gold and silver, and you have to fight him hard." Pei Jun leisurely lined up two bundles of Nanjiang that he got from Cao Luan in the courtyard. Fireworks Cannon, glanced at him, "Didn't the two buildings in your second uncle's West Street be offered for you to open? Why do you have to raise chickens? Isn't this from your father?"

"Hey, you have to build a building, and you have to raise chickens. How can there be too much money?" Mei Linyu lost half of her depression when he heard him talking about business, and stood up and leaned next to him to help him hold the firecrackers. , with a beaming smile, "Speaking of which, the two buildings haven't been named yet, brother, you are knowledgeable, help me think about it?"

Pei Jun untied the rope, squinting at the colorful faces on his face: "Success, what business do you want to do?"

"Goulan, what else could be more profitable?" Mei Linyu gestured, "I have a man in one building and a woman in the other, and there is a big pavilion next to it, and I just happen to open another restaurant, and we can work together! "

At that time, the garden of Zhongyihou Mansion was full of red autumn leaves, even under the moonlight, the color was like a flame, not bad compared to spring flowers.Pei Jun glanced at it, too lazy to think about it, and said quickly: "If only 'Shuangye' is the same as 'February'. Food and wine are too boring, so 'half-full' is fine, add 'cooking' 'Words, more fun with fireworks.'

Mei Linyu could only read and count, and was impatient to read poems. Hearing what Pei Jun said, he didn't know where he came from, but he never doubted Pei Jun's knowledge, and immediately just applauded.Later, the fame of those two buildings became so high that all the dignitaries and romantic figures in Beijing mistakenly believed that Mei Linyu was a broken sleeve.

While the two were talking, Pei Jun squinted his eyes to polish the fire, lit a handful of firecrackers, and sparks of various colors rushed into the night sky, exploding into several colorful and huge fireworks, making a loud bang.

Holding a new bunch of firecrackers in his arms, he smiled with Mei Linyu while lighting it, and shouted to the courtyard next door: "Pei Yan! Pei Yan, come out and have a look! This is what old Cao asked someone to bring from outside the pass Squirming squirrel, you won't even be able to see it when you enter the palace!"

As soon as the voice fell, Pei Yan's scolding came from the other courtyard: "If there is nothing in the palace, you have it. If you say it, you won't be afraid of being laughed at!" The voice was soft and tough, gradually approaching from far to near, Pei Jun turned his eyes to look at the corridor. , it was Pei Yan who had stepped into the yard with small steps, pointed at his nose and said, "I will enter the palace tomorrow, if you don't stop, I will beat you into a squirrel!"

At that time, Pei Yan was trying on the clothes she would wear when she entered the palace the next day. She was wearing a light yellow skirt and a pink blouse, as she walked in the corridor illuminated by the bright candles, her whole body was extremely bright.When the fireworks in Pei Jun's hands were exhausted, she stepped forward and grabbed Pei Jun's ears, and she stopped only after forcing Pei Jun to swear to stop making trouble. Then she warned Mei Linyu, who was staring at her in a daze, "You too, come earlier!" Let's take a rest, don't just learn bad things from him and make your father scold you." After saying that, he raised his hand and tapped Mei Linyu's eyebrows, smiled gently, then turned around, put on her skirt and went back to the room.

But Mei Linyu's eyes followed her pink and yellow figure and disappeared in the corner of the corridor, and she didn't say a word until she went back.

That night, Mei Linyu sat on Pei Jun's bed with her arms folded and asked in a long voice: "Brother, you said that Sister Yan is such a good person, who can be blessed to marry home?"

Pei Jun tore off his shoes and socks, and bumped his arm against his small body: "Why, you still want to marry that tigress?"

"Sister Yan is smart and generous, how can you call her a tigress! To marry a wife like her, I'm afraid I'd have to laugh out of my dreams." Mei Linyu argued all the way, and then lost her mind, "However, businessmen are cheap. , your family is an official family, I... am not that lucky after all."

Pei Jun didn't like to hear his words, so he covered his arms with the quilt and stared at him, "What nonsense, my mother really likes you."

Mei Linyu got under the covers and sighed: "Your mother likes me as someone else's youngest son, not as her son-in-law."

Pei Jun lowered his eyes and thought about his family's situation in the court, sighed, raised his hand to rub his head, and lowered his voice: "Then who do you think she can marry?"

"I'm afraid that only the Tian family can be worthy of Sister Yan, but the emperor is still too young." Mei Linyu opened her eyes and stared at the plain tent on the top of the bed, said calmly, then shook her head as she spoke, "But no matter how young the emperor is, no matter how young It is also the emperor, although I am not so young, but I have not made a career."

Pei Jun sneered, and said to him: "Your Mei family is not big enough?"

Mei Linyu pouted: "Hey, that belongs to my father, not mine."

The boy's indifferent sigh is hidden in the crackling of candles in the autumn night.Before going to bed that night, Pei Jun only remembered that Mei Linyu sighed and sighed, tossing and turning, and the last words she said were:

"Tomorrow morning, I will send Sister Yan to the palace."

When Pei Yan entered the palace, she went to study with Princess Anhua.However, Princess Anhua doesn't like reading very much, but only likes to eat. In the palace, there are more banquets than meetings, and more food than poetry.Pei Yanshu hadn't finished reading two books, but the first time she returned home to take a bath, she was plump by two points, and her skin was as jade-like as snow, her belly was soft and plump, and when she smiled, a pair of pear dimples appeared on her cheeks, soft as feathers, sweet as sweet Honey—as long as there is no Pei Jun making troubles to make her scold her, anyone who sees her will call her a charming girl. The likes of princes, princes, princes and grandchildren have never crossed the threshold, and they have secretly entrusted matchmakers to inquire about it several times.

One day when she returned home from the palace, it happened that Mei Linyu and Cao Luan were playing around at home, so they made acquaintance with each other and laughed around, just like immortals who ascended and descended from the nine heavens to know the dust.

Mei Linyu was dazzled by her pink skirt hairpin, and slapped her hands to praise her for her beauty. Even Pei Jun barely uttered a beautiful word, but Cao Luan just stood aside with a smile on her eyes, and said, "Princess Anhua really loves her!" The color is deep, Ah Yan has gained weight again." After speaking, she was chased out of the door by the tiger girl of the general gate.

Once Pei Yan went out, she didn't come back until the lights were on.The remaining smile on her face seemed to be stained with honey, and she took back a little clay figurine in her hand, and stuck it into the orchid vase on the table by the window, and every time she came back to look at it, she would be happy until she was in the garden The flowers faded and the flowers bloomed, the green leaves turned yellow and sprouted again, until the clay figurines dried up and faded, nothing changed.

"...At that time, he said that I am three points as thin as autumn leaves, and three points of plumpness are like red plums covered with snow. He held my hand and said that he likes me, and it will last forever." Pei Yan fell into the contemplation of the past time , The smile is only indifferent, but the irony is not diminished.Pei Jun bandaged her hands, and she heard Xiao Ran sigh: "At that time, I was looking forward to leaving the palace, and I was even more looking forward to every time you went out to drink and bring him home to read and joke, and I was looking forward to every sacrificial banquet at home. Because I know , then he will come. I hope he will."

"The best and most beautiful years of my life were devoted to Cao Luan. I waited for him to promise me for three years. At that time, he was my heaven, the moon when I looked forward to the tomorrow at night. We hold hands, even if I just touched and separated, and I was still throbbing, like heavy rain hitting flowers... Until one day, I thought, why do I have to wait for him to speak? Why not let him be one point higher than my sky and become my Your husband, become my home..."

——That was Pei Yan's first desire as a woman.She wanted to be with him, even though it was impossible, she still said forcefully to Cao Luan: "Cao Luan, you marry me. You go to my mother and propose, I want to marry you."

At that time, she thought about all the ups and downs, everyone's obstruction and comfort, her family discord, and the world's indifference, but she never expected that all this bleakness had not yet begun, and the future of the two of them had already been broken by Cao Luanning. Eyebrow looked at her words:

"But Ah Yan, I'm not good enough for you."