Chapter 57 (2) Sailing south and sailing north

Ever since Zhen Baoyu made her wish, she made up her mind to hand over the psychic jade entrusted by Sister Feng to its owner, Young Master Jia. Coincidentally, after a while, the owner who asked him to write the accounts wanted to go to Beijing to operate trade, and invited him to go north with the ship to help Documents and so on.Zhen Baoyu was overjoyed, so he came to bid farewell to Sister Feng, saying that he knew the plan to go to Beijing, and took the psychic jade from Sister Feng, treasured it and hid it in his underwear, saying: "I will do everything possible to find Mr. Jia. Hand over the jade, and I will tell you the details when I come back." Then the two said goodbye with tears.

Then Zhen Baoyu boarded the boat with his host's family on a certain day, entered the Grand Canal, and set sail to the north.He was a man who had never been out before. When he got to the river, he saw thousands of boats, big and small. Their sails and masts were like forests, their poles and oars were like soldiers fighting, and the boatmen were shouting loudly.All of a sudden, all the boats in the water were scrambling to separate from the shore, and they shouted, saying: "The dragon boat weaving fresh is coming!"Sure enough, I saw a group of large ships with yellow flags flying in the middle of the river, which was very powerful.

Just after the dragon boat passed, all the boatmen were scrambling to set sail again. It happened that they came to a very narrow part of the river. The reeds on both sides of the river were densely lined with green, and the boats going up and down in the north and south were much closer than before. .Zhen Baoyu stood on the boat and looked at the scenery opposite, enjoying it very much.Suddenly someone shouted: "Second elder brother, Baoyu! Why are you here? I think so hard..." Zhen Baoyu heard the sound and saw that there was a red dress in the cabin window on the opposite side of the ship—he was heartbroken. Surprised, she couldn't help thinking of how Sister Feng mistook Jia Baoyu when she first saw her, so she replied: "Who is the girl? ——My surname is Zhen, not Mr. Jia. I'm going to Beijing to visit him, and I want to meet him." . . . ”

The woman burst into tears when she heard this, and said, "My name is Xiangyun, and my surname is Shi. I am the cousin of the second brother Bao. I was sold as a maid and went back to the south of the Yangtze River. If you find the second brother Jia, tell him about me." I've arrived in the south of the Yangtze River, ask him to save me!..." It was too late to say it, it was too soon, before the woman could finish her sentence, the two boats had already moved away from each other, and the distance between them was getting farther and farther away. The sad woman's voice was drowned by the waves of the river, and she couldn't hear clearly.

Zhen Baoyu watched the boat gradually go away and disappeared, still standing outside the cabin, as if in a dream, but it was very real.The chaotic pole in the river stirred up a wave, and the water sprayed on his body like snowdrops, even splashing on his face. He just came out of the "dream", bewildered and bewildered, not knowing what it feels like in his heart, how to resolve this surprise and bitterness.