Chapter 22 second quarter

It was thirteen years ago that the official's first visit to Mr. Li's residence in Zhen'anfang.That day was August 17th of the first year of Daguan, two days after the Mid-Autumn Festival.The reason why the official remembered that day clearly was not because it was particularly memorable, but because the extremely awkwardly arranged dramatic scenes on that day once made him lose face, leaving him with only a very shameful memory. There's more to the shame than that.The officials believed that until today, thirteen years later, no matter how many gentle and considerate words he said to her, how many unswerving vows he made, he still could not make her change her mind and enter the court willingly. One of the important reasons is that I'm afraid it's because her first impression of him was too bad.Although Shishi himself has not expressed it to him so clearly, in his relationship with Shishi, many things have to rely on his feelings, experiences, and guesses to understand her meaning.Except at critical moments, she doesn't express her thoughts easily.

He remembered that he did a lot of preparations for his visit to the Longxi Clan that day.Beforehand, he asked Zhang Di and the other two internal eunuchs to pretend to be personal attendants, and packed two bolts of purple velvet from the inner palace, two ends of Xiaguang felt, four longan-sized rustling pearls, and four hundred taels of platinum in a gift box to send to the teacher. The teacher's adoptive mother, Grandma Li, said that Zhao Yixin, a great merchant from Zhongzhou, admired the teacher's reputation and asked to "go over to the hut for a drink".Grandma Li was really moved by this rare gift and agreed to receive him.In the evening of the appointed day, under the covert protection of a group of internal prisons and imperial guards, he straddled the "Little Crow" and came to Li's house as a guest.Grandma Li began to welcome him in the humble outer hall, and after sitting for a while, invited him into a more delicately furnished small pavilion.Offer clear tea and seasonal fruits.Grandma Li talked with him about gossip in the market, and took the opportunity to inquire about his family background.For the former, although he pretends to be an expert, after all, his knowledge is limited, and sometimes he can't help showing his feet.Regarding the latter, he was even more secretive, so he had to answer a few vague words.Fortunately, Grandma Li's focus was only on his source of income, and there was no need to seriously verify it, so he dealt with it carelessly in two strokes.Soon after, Grandma Li confessed and went out, leaving him alone in the pavilion admiring the screen couplets hanging on the wall.This aspect is his specialty and he has the full right to speak.He found that the calligraphy and paintings of the ancients and contemporary celebrities hanging here are all exquisite.Among them, what he appreciates most is a screen strip written by Yan Shuyuan, with excellent words and the name of the teacher is embedded in the words.Xiaoyan passed away more than ten years ago, so the teacher in the poem cannot be the current famous teacher Li.But it was a coincidence that she was able to get this painting and decorate it in her living room.

Here, he initially saw Shi Shi's interests and hobbies, which are really extraordinary. When it was time for dinner, he was taken into a more ornate back hall by Li Laoxun.A sumptuous table of wine and food has been prepared there, and Grandma Li is still sitting with her, drinking a few cups of wine.Grandma Li boasted about warmth and coldness, and gossiped, appearing extremely warm.Here he was treated like a wealthy businessman with a big gift, and he had nothing to complain about.But he came here for Shi Shi, and after coming for more than an hour, he had already changed seats three times, but still did not see Shi Shi's shadow.To make him wait so long is going too far from the topic.

In the end, he was sent to a small pavilion where guests were received in the upper division building.Surprisingly, there was still no one there, not even a personal maid.But the elegant and remote layout of the pavilion (the gorgeous atmosphere in the back hall has been swept away here), made him feel that there are teachers everywhere, and reminded him of this pavilion and its owner. It truly deserves the word "rhyme". He hasn't seen Li Shishi in person yet, but a beautiful figure of Li Shishi assembled based on his knowledge and imagination has already emerged in his mind.

He didn't know how long he waited until he heard the rustling of clothes in the door leading to the inner room, and then under the bright light, he saw Grandma Li hugging the silent teacher Shanshan come.Her attire did not conform to his guess beforehand, she seemed to have no make-up at all, no makeup, no black eyebrows, loosely tied a homely lazy bun, wearing an ordinary black shirt , but has the figure of a water lotus, and in terms of expression and posture, it seems to be what he idealized, even more beautiful and more "charm" than he can imagine. She sat silently on a plain pier next to Grandma Li, and she didn't greet him specially, and didn't pick up on Grandma Li's intention to bring them together, it seemed that she didn't want to pay attention to him at all.It turned out that Zhixi, who had played an important role in Grandma Li, also had an equally important reaction in Shishi.She heard that the visitor was a wealthy businessman who gave a great gift, so she refused to receive him.Grandma Li had to spend a lot of talking and talking to persuade her to come out and meet him, but she decided in her heart that she could only treat him as a rich businessman.The tighter Grandma Li squeezed her, the more disgusted she was.Grandma Li, who knew her temper all along, was also afraid of breaking down, so she didn't dare to push her too hard.Grandma Li only winked in secret, asking him to strike up a conversation with her and please her.

"May I ask how old my lady is this year?" He asked awkwardly, not knowing that in the circumstances it was a stupid remark that was neither necessary nor possible to get a real answer.Of course Shishi would not answer him.He asked again and again, Shishi simply sat on the bed of Concubine Xiang to avoid him, which made him very embarrassed.Grandma Li had to ask, sticking to his ear, and said softly: "Shishi is born with a petty nature, and she is not willing to talk to strangers. It is better for the guest officer to take care of her." He lifted the curtain and went out with a smile.

When there were only the two of them left in the pavilion, Shishi still ignored him, but took off a Yaoqin hanging on the wall, rolled up his sleeves, and played it lightly and slowly. She played the qin in order to fulfill the duty of a courtesan to a visitor with a turban.This is not so much to deal with the visitor, but rather to deal with Grandma Li. If she doesn't do something for him, she won't be able to pay her adoptive mother. She plays the qin, and also wants to take the opportunity of playing the qin to prevent him from saying those stupid things.Until now, she hadn't looked at him directly, but she could deduce his character from the question just now.She was afraid that when there were only the two of them left in the room, he would ask some more boring and stupid questions, which would make her difficult to deal with.

She played the zither to express her contempt for him and put him in the position of a "cow".In her mind, all high-ranking officials and wealthy businessmen turned into cows in front of her "Green Qi" Qin.But the sad and depressed sound of the piano moved her and aroused her sense of life experience.After playing casually for a while, she completely ignored his existence.Seriously play a piece of "Wu Jiang Leng" composed by herself.After the end of the song, there was a coldness, and even the light ink landscape painted on the screen seemed to be colored with the color of the green qiqin, turning green, and later turned into a deeper dark green.At this time, Dai Green also dyed her clothes, skirts, hair, siblings, and her thoughts and feelings.Everything turned dark green.He suddenly looked up and saw a small couplet embedded in the wall of the dressing table: "The mountain between the screens presses the green eyebrows; the temples grow autumn in the mirror." Flashing green.

Then he heard her whisper again: Crystal tears suddenly flowed into her eyes. Although living in the grove of Qiluo, Li Shishi, who has become a peerless famous Shu, has a bleak life experience.She is the daughter of Wang Yin, a craftsman at Yongqingfang Dyeing Bureau in the East Second Chamber of Tokyo. Her mother died of illness the day she landed, leaving her and her father to live.The precocious Shishi can still recall some fragments when her father fed her with soy milk and goat milk.Dad earns twenty or thirty big money every day, and it is difficult to support himself, so how can he drag another daughter.Someone advised him to sell his daughter.Say what:

"The baby's parents have good features, and they won't suffer losses wherever they go. You are willing to sell her to a rich family. You can relax yourself and let her live a good life." Dad got angry and said: "If I'm poor, I need to be so poor that I have ambition. Sell my own daughter to others to support her, and ask her to be a Meixiang servant girl for the rest of her life? Even if I live a good life, my daughter is not rare!" Father kept his word, he would rather have a full meal or a hungry meal, but his daughter would not treat her badly at all.Thanks to the help of a few poor friends, they raised her until she was four years old.In the spring of that year, she fell ill again, and her father was as anxious as an ant on a hot pot, and managed to scrape together one or two hundred dollars to see a doctor and redeem the medicine.When I arrived at the pharmacy, there was still fifty big coins short, and the shopkeeper hung the packaged medicine high on the hook and said, "I've got the money together, and I'll get the medicine again!" Taking the elixir and elixir to bring him back to life, he went to where to get the fifty cents for a while, so he had to beg twice and three times, saying that when he got all the money tomorrow, he would definitely make it up.If you do not believe, leave your clothes as a pledge.

The shopkeeper couldn't help laughing bitterly when he saw this bizarre and colorful shirt: "The rags are left behind, and they are torn into rags, and they are still pickled! I don't open a pawn shop here, so what's the use of keeping the clothes? The poor boy has no money to redeem the medicine, so why don't you go to the Baoji Huimin Bureau to ask for alms?" "Now the Huimin Bureau's medicines are all given to the rich officials. How can it be my turn to the poor?" One sentence offended the shopkeeper.It turned out that the medicinal materials in more than a thousand drawers, large and small, were all transported from the warehouse of the Huimin Bureau by tricks.He immediately turned his face away, slapped the counter and cursed: "Poor boy doesn't have eyes, how many customers have time to talk to you in the morning?"Her father was in a hurry, punched him across the counter and knocked him to the ground, grabbed the medicine bag and left.How could it be that the pharmacy was overstaffed, so he was dragged and dragged into Kaifeng mansion.Unexpectedly, Kaifeng Fuyin is the backstage boss of this pharmacy, and the shopkeeper is also the old man of Kaifeng Yin's concubine. When things get serious, he realizes that he has caused a murder. The last time he saw his poor friend with a doll in his hand in prison, he raised his hands covered in indigo and begged his friend: "Brother takes good care of this little girl. After I die, I will repay you by turning into a horse in the next life." This was the last sentence that Shi Shi could hear her father say from other people.In less than half a month, his father died in prison before the case was concluded and the distribution was completed.Two years later, the poor friend entrusted by my father was also arrested and imprisoned for some reason. After losing these relatives, Shi Shi became a helpless orphan girl wandering on the streets for a long time, suffering all the tortures of life.When she was eleven years old, Grandma Li, who belonged to the Changji family, adopted her and took a lot of painstaking efforts to gradually train her to become a famous singing girl in Beijing, which changed her life.After becoming famous, even though rich clothes and fine food came to her door, she could never wipe away the wound that was deeply burned in her heart.Every time she plucks the strings, she plays casually, and often unknowingly plays "Wu Jiang Leng", and whispers "Liao E" without stopping. If the officials at this time can listen to her with silent sympathy after reciting the following poems: She might change her contempt for a rich businessman.Seeing him as at least a visitor who could understand her feelings, she spoke to him politely. The sound of her piano is so sad, and her crooning is so painful, it seems that the world has traded color for her again.Now this dark green pavilion is suddenly covered with a layer of mournful and gloomy silver-gray.He knows music, and often calls himself Gu Qu Zhou Lang, and he is by no means the "cow" in Shishi's imagination.But his so-called "confidant" is nothing more than understanding music from the theory and technique, and from a superficial and false emotional sense.Now that the film of court consciousness has been put on his fingertips, how can he really and directly touch the heartstrings and resonate with a girl who mourns her wandering childhood?He and she are two completely different people, no matter now or later, there has never been a real resonance in the whole relationship between the emperor and the courtesan.Only the last time they met was the only exception. Not only did he not continue to read the poem, but he did the last thing Shi Shi wanted to see at this time - clapping and praising.As a result, the sound of the piano and the singing stopped abruptly.The great merchant Zhao Yi, who was already on the verge of falling beside the teacher's piano stage, was suddenly thrown into the abyss. At this time, the sky was approaching Huixi, and he couldn't stay any longer, so he drank half a cup of apricot cheese in a hurry, went out, and left in dismay. Feeling apologetic, Grandma Li was surprised to find that half of the street was full of imperial guards and internal prisons when she sent him out of the gate.As soon as they saw him go out, they immediately went forward, helped him onto the light chariot, and brought the little crow with them.Go back to the palace.The sight scared her half to death. It was the first time that the official family was neglected by a woman, but because of this, he was even more determined to take her into the palace and make her his private property.

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