Chapter 34 fourth quarter

Huanhua Creek meanders out from the verdant forests. The clear water of the stream reflects the blue sky and white clouds, as well as the green trees and huts beside the stream. If you look carefully, you can find the reflection of the snow-capped mountains far away. The south of Chengdu is originally a quiet place.Huanhuaxi is famous for Du Fu's Thatched Cottage. Later, Xue Tao also moved here and built a small villa.Looking across the stream, we can see that the simple wooden eaves protrude above the sparse flower hedges, and a low mud wall blocks the peerless beauty. Xue Tao has avoided the world for many years, but admirers still visit Huanhuaxi from time to time.As more people came, several small wine shops gradually gathered in Xitou, and the tall wine flags could be seen from afar.After all, Xue Tao is over fifty years old, he lives in seclusion on weekdays, never meets outsiders, and often retreats to the mountains to practice Taoism, so even if someone came to visit, they were all turned away.The visitors are all literati and poets, and they still understand the truth of "it is better to forget each other in the rivers and lakes than to be in love with each other".So later, everyone simply sat down in the wine shop in Xitou, drank a few glasses, talked about Xue Tao's eclectic stories, sent out some emotions and wrote a few crooked poems, and finally looked at the depths of the stream, and they were exhausted. back.

But the young man in Hufu who came today seems to be a little different. As soon as he sat down in the Ye Family Restaurant, the eyes of the shopkeeper Ye Sanniang were glued.His handsome appearance and unrestrained demeanor came second, but what moved Ye Sanniang the most was the knot between his brows.At any rate, she has seen countless people, and Ye Sanniang, who is capable and shrewd, suddenly felt some unreasonable tenderness in her heart, and she just wanted to help him get rid of the melancholy between those brows. She greeted her with the best wine, who knows that people don't want wine, but tea.

Ye Sanniang said with a smile: "Master, such a romantic person, but he doesn't drink alcohol, wouldn't it spoil the scenery. Does the master think the wine in the small shop is not good enough? But the wine in my Ye's shop is as good as that of Mr. Wei and Mr. Wu. , Duan Hanlin is full of praise from all the talents of the Yuan Dynasty." "Oh?" The young master looked Ye Sanniang up and down, "How old is your lady, have you seen those people?" Ye Sanniang blushed and argued, "I heard what my father said." The young master smiled: "Looks like I have to taste my wife's wine."

After drinking a glass of wine, he suddenly coughed.Ye Sanniang panicked, he didn't look like a frail scholar who couldn't handle alcohol. The young master stopped coughing, and said with a sneer, "Don't panic, lady. It's not that your wine is bad, it's that I got seriously ill more than a year ago... I haven't drunk for a long time, and I'm not used to it." As he spoke, he drank another glass of wine, and sure enough, he stopped coughing. "Madam, is Master Xue Lian at home?" "I don't know." Ye Sanniang replied angrily. "You stay by the Huanhua River every day, why don't you know?" The young master looked at the stream flowing by the wine shop and asked, "What's going on?"

Ye Sanniang followed his gaze, and her heart tightened suddenly - a few wisps of bright red floated from the bottomless emerald green stream, spinning slowly with the current. "This..." she hesitated, "Is someone killing fish?" The young master laughed loudly: "It's a shame for you to say that." He raised his face, "Smell it again, it's such an elegant fragrance of flowers, it's not the smell of killing fish!" "Oh, that's right..." Ye Sanniang laughed. "I guess it's the juice from Mu Furong?" the young master said, "Could it be that Master Xue Lian started making Xue Tao paper again? But how did I hear that she never made Xue Tao paper again after she broke up with Yuan Wei?" ?”

Ye Sanniang blurted out, "It's definitely not Master Xue Lian." "Who is that? Could it be that there are other people living in Master Xue Lian's house?" The young master narrowed his peach blossom eyes slightly, seeing Ye Sanniangfang's heart beating wildly. "How could it be! Young master, don't talk nonsense." "Okay." The young master took out a copper coin and put it on the table, "Since the lady refuses to tell, I have no choice but to go and find out myself." Ye Sanniang hurriedly said: "Young master! Well, let me tell you the truth, Master Xue Lian is not at home, and you won't see anyone even if you go."

"Why didn't the lady just say that?" Ye Sanniang blushed: "Our restaurants rely on the reputation of Master Xue Lian to do business, so even if she is not at home, we will not say anything about it. Besides, Master Xue Lian has a rule of not seeing strangers, and the guests are just far away. Just watch." The young master nodded: "The lady said so, if I insist on finding out, it would seem that I am not elegant." Ye Sanniang pursed her lips and said with a smile, "Young Master, how can you not be elegant?" The young master also laughed and said: "Then I will ask the lady to give me the pen and ink, and I will follow the rules. After drinking the wine and enjoying the scenery, I will write a poem on it, and this trip to Huanhuaxi will be complete."

Ye Sanniang hurriedly took out the pen, ink and inkstone, and the young master drank a glass full, and raised the pen to write four lines of poems on the wall.Looking back, he said to Sanniang Ye: "Look, lady, how is my poem?" "Ouch..." Ye Sanniang showed embarrassment, "I can't read." The young master smiled without saying a word, put down his pen, and walked out of the wine shop in a graceful manner, heading out of the valley. Ye Sanniang hid behind a big tree with branches like coiling dragons outside the restaurant, and finally waited until the young master's back was completely out of sight. After instructing the young man in the restaurant, she quietly left the restaurant from behind, and quickly walked towards the restaurant. Walk to the depths of Huanhuaxi.

She came to Xue Tao's small courtyard and knocked lightly on the courtyard door a few times.Soon the door opened.Ye Sanniang said a few words to the crack of the door, and hurried back to the wine shop. After a while, the courtyard door opened again.A figure covered in black veil sneaked out of the door, holding a gray donkey in his hand.The man looked around and saw nothing unusual, so he rode on his donkey and headed out of Huanhuaxi. After walking not far, there was a chanting voice from behind the tree beside him: "I advise you not to cherish the golden thread clothes, and advise you to cherish the youth. There are flowers that can be broken straight, don't wait for the flowers to fall and break the branches."

The people under the black veil were shocked to look around on the donkey's back.Mr. Hu Fu stepped out from behind the tree, stood in front of the gray donkey, and said with a smile, "This Ye Sanniang really can't believe even half a sentence, she is obviously literate." "It's you!" The man on the donkey's back suddenly lifted the veil, still unable to believe what he saw, "How could it be you? Aren't you dead?" "Aren't you dead too, Qiuniang?" Du Qiuniang let out a cry, and fell obliquely from the donkey's back, just in time to be embraced by Cui Miao.

The long wooden table under the whitewashed wall is covered with white paper that has been soaked in hibiscus flower juice. After being exposed to the sun, the fragrance becomes more and more intoxicating and intoxicating.In the large blue and white porcelain vat next to it, there are still half of the hibiscus petals left.Cui Miao sighed in admiration: "It turns out that Xue Taojian was made in this way. Today is an eye-opener for me." Du Qiuniang had already taken off the curtain, but she was still wearing the taupe-coloured sarong she wore when she ran away just now, her black hair was tied with a village girl's flowered cloth scarf, and she didn't wear any jewelry.It's hard to give up on the natural beauty, but after washing off the lead, it looks even more bright eyes and white teeth, delicate and charming.Cui Miao couldn't help smiling knowingly as she watched her walking towards her. But Du Qiuniang pursed her lips: "If Cui Lang wants to find me, just come directly, why bother to scare people to death." "I'm not looking for Qiu Niang." "you?" Cui Miao smiled slyly: "I did come to visit Master Xue Lian, but I saw that the Ye family lady's words were flickering, which seemed to be deceitful. So I improvised and wrote the song "Golden Thread Clothes" on the wall, but I unexpectedly wrote Qiu Mother came out in shock. Haha, it was a surprise." "Is it really an accident?" Du Qiuniang murmured, "I really didn't expect to see Cui Lang again in this life." Cui Miao still had that cynical tone: "I said that Cui was born with a destiny for a beautiful woman." Looking around, he asked, "Is Master Xue Lian really not at home?" "Sister Xue has gone to practice Taoism in Qingcheng Mountain. She will stay for several months after she goes." "Aren't you going with me?" "Me?" Du Qiuniang raised her cherry mouth, "I can't bear that kind of life." "You can bear the present day?" Du Qiuniang lowered her eyes and remained silent. Cui Miao asked softly, "Is it lonely?" "So what." "So just do Xue Taojian to pass the time?" Cui Miao shook her head and sighed, "It's a pity that Qiuniang's natural beauty, and even more so, Qiuniang's talent and singing skills, are as straight as a deep valley orchid. Appreciation, let alone resonance. Is Qiuniang really willing to live like this for the rest of her life? "Advise you to cherish your youth", Qiuniang, this is a poem you wrote yourself..." "Stop talking!" Du Qiuniang tremblingly said, "It's fine for others to say such things. How could Cui Lang say that? It's not like you don't know that I have already died once in order to live a free life. .” Cui Miao asked: "Are you free now?" Du Qiuniang's face turned pale. "Forget it, let's not talk about this." Cui Miao said, "You really can't hold your breath. If it wasn't me, what would you be like now? If Master Xue Lian was at home, I would definitely not let you act so recklessly." Paused After a pause, he asked again with a smile, "It's been more than a year since you came to Chengdu to join Master Xue Lian, right? After all these days with him, haven't you learned the slightest bit of humility?" Du Qiuniang was surprised: "You even know when I came?" "Guess." "How did you guess?" Cui Miao pointed to the porcelain vat containing the hibiscus petals: "the hibiscus blooms in autumn, so these petals were collected last year. Master Xue Lian has long since got rid of the entanglement of love and resentment in the world. She will never make Xue Tao paper after breaking up with Yuanwei. She will never make an exception. It should be that you asked her how to make paper when you were bored. Since you have collected the petals of hibiscus since last autumn, then you must have come to Huanhuaxi earlier than that time, am I right?" Slightly After waiting for a while, he asked softly, "Qiu Niang, is life difficult after leaving Chang'an?" The two sat side by side under the flower fence, looking up at the sky from here, you can see whiter clouds above the layers of clouds, which are actually ice peaks on the top of the snow-capped mountains, with layers of mountains stretching straight into the nine days. The snow-covered iceberg is like a huge screen erected between the sky and the earth. Under its light, the human world seems extraordinarily comfortable and even more insignificant. Du Qiuniang said leisurely: "Oh, what should I say? I thought that with so many years of savings, I would have no worries about money, and my life would always be passable. But for the past three years, I have been living in anxiety every day. No matter how far I am from Chang'an, I am always afraid that people will see through my identity one day. I no longer dare to sing songs, and I don't even dare to fiddle with the pipa... I have been wandering alone for nearly two years, and I really can't survive this kind of duckweed. I felt that there was no hope in life, and I almost wanted to die. Later, when I saw Taoist nuns on the street, I thought that I should follow their example and become a monk. It is hard to become a monk, but it is better than wandering. But I am like this, which Taoist temple I went to, people will not interrogate me? I tried several times, no matter how much I lied, I was always found out immediately. It is not a small matter to refuse to take me in. I am worried that if I come and go like this, I will put My whereabouts were exposed. At the end of the day, I suddenly had a flash of inspiration. I thought of Xue Tao, who was born as a prostitute, but had already reclusively practiced Taoism. I thought about it, and she was the only one who could give it a try. So I ran here. At last, God was merciful. When I came to Huanhuaxi, I happened to meet Sister Xue at home. As soon as I saw her, I told all my experiences without any concealment. Sister Xue said nothing She left me without saying anything. Sigh..." Du Qiuniang sighed deeply when she finished her long speech, "Since then, I have finally lived a peaceful life for more than a year. I envy you from the bottom of my heart. Sister Xue was floating away from the world, so she begged her to teach me. However, she always said that my heart was undecided and my relationship with the world was not settled, so she refused to accept me as a disciple, and she would not even take me to Qingcheng Mountain to practice. So since the vernal equinox, I’ve been alone here at Huanhuaxitou, from morning till night, without anyone to talk to.” She complained coquettishly, “It’s as boring as it gets, I’m almost suffocated to death! " Cui Miao nodded slightly: "You regret it." "Regret? Of course not! Don't talk nonsense." "Isn't that what you said just now? Did I get it wrong?" "I don't regret cheating my death, I just... I'm not used to the current life." "That is regret." Cui Miao said lightly, "Some things are precious only when they are lost. Qiuniang, you love the past life more than the present one." "I can't help it!" Du Qiuniang argued, "Of course I like the life in Pingkangfang. I am free and free, and I can sing whenever I want. If I meet a benefactor who doesn't like me, I don't have to sing if I don't want to. But you You know, it is precisely because this kind of good life is unsustainable, that's why I... If I don't feign death and escape, I will be thrown into the palace." "After entering the palace, you can still play the piano and sing, and someone will appreciate it. Isn't it better than now?" Du Qiuniang looked at Cui Miao suspiciously: "What do you mean?" "I'm just a little confused. I don't know whether Qiuniang loves freedom more, or a bosom friend?" The suspicion in Du Qiuniang's eyes deepened, but she still thought about it and asked, "What if I want both?" Cui Miao said simply: "This is impossible." "why?" "Because Qiuniang's bosom friends can only be men, and men are always the most selfish." Du Qiuniang stared at Cui Miao in amazement: "You... Cui Lang, why are you speaking in a weird way? Are you really visiting Sister Xue?" Cui Miao spread her hands together: "Then why do you think I'm here?" Du Qiuniang's beautiful eyes flickered for a moment, and she suddenly asked, "Where's Master Pei Lian? Why isn't she with you?" "Master Pei Lian..." "That's right, isn't that fairy-like alchemist, Cui Lang's bosom friend?" Cui Miao couldn't hide the dull pain on her face anymore, and said with a sneer, "It's funny, but she has gone to the palace." "Master Pei Lian entered the palace?" Du Qiuniang was taken aback, "Why?" "Because she thought I was dead, so she responded to the emperor's call and went to the palace to practice Taoism." "My God!" After a while, Cui Miaocai said: "So I have freedom now, but I don't have a bosom friend." "Cui Lang..." Du Qiuniang couldn't help grabbing his sleeve, "What happened?" Cui Miao sighed: "It's hard to describe in one word. Anyway, it's all over, and now I'm alone with no attachments. When I was traveling around, I happened to come to the vicinity of Chengdu. Because I had a meeting with Master Xue Lian in Qingcheng Mountain, I I thought of visiting an old friend in Huanhuaxi. Unexpectedly, I met Qiuniang, an old friend." He smiled at Du Qiuniang, "Today, can Qiuniang sing "Golden Thread Clothes" for me again?" Du Qiuniang's starry eyes sparkled: "A thousand pieces of gold "Gold Thread Clothes" is no longer smelly in the world. But for Cui Lang, I would like to present this song." Early summer night.The Huanhua Creek under the starlight is sparkling, last year's hibiscus and this year's grass fragrance are mixed together, and Zhizhi hides under the courtyard wall and sings. Du Qiuniang is doing her makeup in front of the mirror.She swept her moth brow lightly, put her round dimple on her cheek, and inserted a jasper hairpin into her temple.Cui Miao picked a crape myrtle with dew from the courtyard, and put it next to the jade hairpin for her.Du Qiuniang stands gracefully, the golden-pink shawl resting on her delicate fragrant shoulders, swaying gracefully with her steps. In an instant, the famous singing girl who was crowned in Chang'an came back again. Du Qiuniang was about to pick up the red sandalwood pipa, when Cui Miao said with a smile: "Wait, one more thing, it will be perfect." "what?" "fragrant." Du Qiuniang said: "Sister Xue doesn't like incense. She always says that it spoils the natural atmosphere of vegetation. As time goes by, I also forget about it." Take out such a rare thing and use it." "What rare thing?" Du Qiuniang opened the dowry, took out a small package from it, and gently lifted the golden silk wrapped outside.When Cui Miao saw it, it was a small piece of black mud.He frowned: "This is... incense?" "Cui Lang has good eyesight." Du Qiuniang laughed, "Do you know what kind of incense this is?" Cui Miao shook her head. "This is ambergris." "Amberx?" Cui Miao snorted, "There is ambergris beside Qiuniang, where did it come from?" "Yes...he gave it to me, just such a small piece, and this incense can only be burned when he is around." Cui Miao nodded: "Okay, thanks to Qiuniang, I will do it again today..." He swallowed the rest of the words, but took the silk bag from Du Qiuniang's hand, tapped it lightly on the case, and took the dowry He found a small silver grate knife, scraped off a few small pieces from the dark ambergris, and threw them into the hollowed out incense burner. Both of them silently watched the fire light from the incense burner, and when it went out, a strange fragrance wafted out of the room. "Does it smell good?" Du Qiuniang asked softly. "It's hard to say." Cui Miao replied, "It's too special, the feeling of being extremely noble and extremely sad is something that should not exist in the world." "Cui Lang thinks so too?" Cui Miao said thoughtfully: "This fragrance reminds me of someone." "Who?" "The Empress Dowager." Du Qiuniang stared blankly at Cui Miao, but he smiled slyly: "Does it remind you of someone too?" Du Qiuniang's face immediately turned red, as if she had taken a sip of strong wine, she hugged the pipa and said angrily: "Who do you care about, just listen to the music." The "Gold Thread Clothes", which is hard to find in Chang'an City, resounds on the bank of Huanhua River thousands of miles away.