Xiangsheng prosperous

Chapter 38 The Painful Past

Chang Run came to Wenfu from Luoyang seven years ago.

It was Luoyang in May of 621. At that time, Li Shimin, who was still the king of Qin, led [-] Tang troops and had surrounded the entire Luoyang city for ten months.

A ragged little boy, estimated to be about six years old.Holding half of a dirty cornbread in his hand, he shivered tremblingly in the corner of the room.Next to him, lay the corpse of a woman with skinny limbs and a bulging abdomen.

That was his empress, she died of abdominal distension after eating grass roots mixed with steamed soil dumplings.

Although Luoyang is known as the Eastern Capital, the lack of food and food for such a long time has made the people and officers and soldiers of the entire city dying.

In the city, children are exchanged for food, bones are broken for cooking, and people who starve to death abound.The reason why the little boy is still alive is entirely because his mother left him the last rations in the family.

His father hadn't heard from him for almost a year, and he was still young, so his impression of his father was already very vague.During the ten months of the besieged city, he also changed from a carefree young gentleman of a merchant family to a little beggar who only has rice noodles and steamed buns in his eyes.The eyes that were pure and clean before now only reflect the dead body of his mother dully.

He can't remember what it was like a year ago, but now he only knows that he is very hungry and wants to eat...

There was a loud sound in my ear, something like "defeated..." and "Tang Jun...", and then the sound of horseshoes, the sound of fighting, and the crackling of burning flames... The boy seemed to be unconscious, just waiting quietly In this corner until all is at peace.

"Here's one! It's alive!" A strange and rude voice yelled, and a burly and shirtless man walked into the room and kicked away the corpse of a woman lying in front of the boy. He bent down and carried the boy on his shoulders like a lamb, then turned and went out the door.

This is a robber and a human trafficker.General Wang Deren abandoned Luoyang and fled, and the second general Zhao Jiqing offered the city to surrender.In this turbulent time, these villains who were lawless on weekdays became even more unscrupulous.Taking advantage of being able to sneak out of the city, abduct a few children along the way, and when they arrive in Chang'an, they can exchange them for coins and start over.

In this way, an unbearable past event spread slowly in the air filled with the aroma of diptero in Pengyun Fragrance Shop, and then gradually dissipated.

*****
After seeing off Qiu Mo and his party, He Guang walked from the front hall of the incense shop back to the back room, in a trance, and even staggered when he walked.He leaned on the wall, took a deep breath, and tried hard to suppress the turbulent emotions gushing out of his heart.

It's been so many years... He has been looking for his son for decades, and now he finally found it.

Over the years, he did not know how many days and nights he regretted why he left home to run a business the year before Luoyang was besieged.When he finally returned to his long-lost Luoyang City after a year, he saw the familiar scenery and the familiar streets, but his home was no longer a familiar home.

His wife, Ruiniang, has been confirmed to have died in this war disaster.When he wanted to find her body, she had long since been buried by the Tang army and Tang officials who broke into the city because the body was unclaimed.All he could recover was a few words that were written in the collective booklet before the burial: "The Cui family of the He family in Zhangshanfang, died, no relatives."

"Rui Niang, my son has been found, I finally have the face to come down to see you..." He Guang sobbed softly, covered his mouth with his hands, and let the tears drip down his fingers.He didn't know how to describe his current mood, how many years of searching, how many years of anticipation, finally came true at this moment, as if he had climbed from hell to heaven at that moment.

*****
Since returning from Pengyun Incense Shop, Wen Weixing obviously felt that Chang Run had become more silent than before.He will still do his own thing silently, but when he has nothing to do, he is more likely to stare blankly.

Wen Weixing can actually understand his feelings. After experiencing such trauma and living alone for so many years, the name "father" is just a term that Chang Run understands but doesn't feel. .However, when such a noun became a living person and stood in front of this 13-year-old boy, everything became different again.

Father was like a needle picking pus. Before seeing him, Chang Run and the sore wound in his heart were at peace, and they disappeared.But now, with the appearance of his father, those stinky and broken things were exposed again.

The human brain is a human organ that can autonomously resist major traumatic memories.Instead of facing such pain, it is better to forget it completely.

Wen Weixing and Chang Run grew up together, and the relationship between them is no longer a simple master-servant relationship.When he was a child, Wen Weixing was not as refined and refined as his Aye and elder brother. He preferred to go up trees, pick birds and get down trees to fight.So when the butler brought this bloated little boy in the smallest servant costume to him, his first thought was that it was over, and he would not be able to count on this skinny monkey to help him in future fights.

But Wen Weixing was never a person who would give up. He desperately held Chang Run to exercise and forced him to eat more meat. The purpose was to make him stronger and stronger, stronger and stronger just like himself.

As a result, Chang Run has indeed changed from a thin monkey to a helper who can help him in fights, and he is more cheerful and lively than when he first met him.But Wen Weixing found that Chang Run didn't seem to remember at all, or didn't want to think about his past in Luoyang.Every time I ask him a question about his hometown, he just shakes his head blankly.

"Sanlang, He Guang from Pengyun Fragrance Shop is here to ask for posts again. See you?" A Weng, the housekeeper of Wen's residence, asked him with a post.

Wen Weixing shook his head, took a look at Chang Run who was cleaning the yard, give him some more time, let him think clearly.

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The second bedroom of Qiu Mansion, Qiu Mo's boudoir
Qiu Mo is writing a prescription of clean and dirty fragrance recorded in the famous incense making book "Xiang Cheng" in the later generations in front of the table: clear fragrance in four seasons.

Recently, she has been focusing on investigating the truth about her mother's death. Qiu Mo hasn't developed a new fragrance for a long time.Although now because of Wen Weixing, Sanfang dare not ask Qiu Mo to go to Sanfang to learn the rules as before.However, the concern of Sanfang and Qiu Qianshen's insincere hints are reminding Qiu Mo that she hasn't married to Wen's mansion yet, if she can't continue to provide new incense prescriptions for Shanchuntang, then Erfang's current comfortable life can also be lived to the end.

"One and a half cents for fennel, one and a half cents for clove, five cents for sandalwood, and dragon brain..."

Alas, borneols...

After writing this, Qiu Mo scratched her scalp with her hands in annoyance.Originally, I thought I could use borneol, a rare fragrant material, to make hooks, so that the people in the third room could be more polite to themselves and the second room, but who knew that they would encounter such a thing in Pengyun Incense Shop.

At that time, Qiu Mo had no intention of talking about incense materials with He Guang.Only and Shuanghan quietly accompanied Wen Weixing and Chang Run, witnessing the embarrassing situation of a pair of father and son who finally meet after going through hardships, but are relatively silent and dare not recognize each other.

: "Oh... what should I do now..." Qiu Mo sighed, and now she felt embarrassed to go to He Guang alone, after all, she had just experienced the secrets of someone else's family.If you don't look for He Guang, what about her dipterocarp?

"Third lady! Third lady! There is an invitation card!" Shuanghan's voice came from outside the courtyard of the second room.

Her invitation?Qiu Mo was surprised that no one had ever handed her invitations.In order to avoid Mrs. Tian and Qiu Li's suspicion of Qiu Mo, Su Qian usually sends invitations to her elder brother through Su Jing or Su Xian when she wants to see her, and brings her to see Qiu Mo along the way.And Wen Weixing used red oiled paper to secretly send her the news before making it public, but after making it public, he simply let Chang Run send a message to Shuanghan to ask her to meet.

"Who sent the greeting card?" Qiu Mo asked.

"It's Boss He from Pengyun Incense Shop, maybe he wants to talk about spices with you, my lady." Shuanghan replied.

It turned out to be him.Qiu Mo was a little surprised, but she also breathed a sigh of relief.She was still worrying about the matter, and He Guang's proactive arrival undoubtedly relieved her urgent need.

"Invite Boss He to the main hall, I'll be there later." After Qiu Mo finished speaking to Shuang Han, she immediately got up and changed her clothes to prepare for the guests.

　Xiangsheng small knowledge
　　What happened in Luoyang in 621?
　　 In May 621, after the first battle in Gumafang, Zheng Wang Shichong, the king of Zheng who proclaimed himself emperor, was trapped and killed in Luoyang, the eastern capital, by [-] soldiers and horses from Qin Wang Li Shimin.

　　This battle has been fought since July 620, and Luoyang City has become an isolated city.The city was extremely short of food and clothing. One bolt of silk could only buy three liters of millet, and ten bolts of cloth could only buy one liter of salt.In order to satisfy their hunger, the grass roots and leaves in the city have been eaten up by the people. In the end, people can only eat the soil, and most of them died of illness.Even princes and ministers who are nobles often starve to death.

　　According to historical records, when Yang Tong moved to Luoyang in 617, there were 621 families in total.But in March of [-], not even three thousand households survived.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)