box of hearts

Chapter 20 Suo Nanzhi (1)
1.
This is a very strange funeral procession, except for the coffin-carrying ceremony and music, all the mourners are all young women, all of them clapping their hands behind the coffin in splendid attire, singing long songs instead of crying.

Passers-by stopped inexplicably, and someone who understood explained to everyone: "The deceased is a kiln sister, who has no relatives and no reason, so there is not even a person who dresses her in linen and mourning, and mourns her spirit. The funeral is all in her yard. I don’t know when the rules were handed down, people in this industry can’t cry, they have to laugh, to celebrate the suffering in this life, and to be able to reincarnate innocently in the next life and start a new life.”

The humming whispers on the side of the road, coupled with the sharp suona and cymbals, could not cover up the singing of the prostitutes. After a short pause, the lead singer who followed the coffin, his clear voice was like a lark piercing the sky, and the ancient "Artemisia lily" ” sang and sang again: “Whoever lives in Artemisia, there is no virtuous and foolish soul to gather souls. How can the uncle urge you, and people’s lives will not be less hesitant…”

With the voices of the sisters, Qingtian sang a sentence, and then threw out a handful of Mingqian, his face was covered with a look of despair that couldn't be concealed by makeup.She hadn't closed her eyes for almost four days.After the incident, she explained part of the truth to Mu Yun: Qiao Yun defected and hired someone else.As for the other part that was really cruel—Qiao Yun was the real culprit who killed Xi Zhu, and Xi Zhu was just her own scapegoat—Qing Tian never mentioned it.Amidst the turmoil, everyone thought that Xizhu was accidentally killed by businessman Jiao Zun, so there was a lot of discussion about Qingtian behind his back: "Sister Qing did something too extreme this time, she even took her hair and stomped on her feet." Well, this is good, Miss Xizhu has really suffered a disaster, I'm afraid that Sister Qing will have trouble in her heart." Soon, everyone's views were verified.Second Sister Duan brought Xizhu's body back, and originally planned to throw the mat into a mass grave, but Qingtian refused to accept it, so she paid a thousand silver to make up for Second Sister Duan's shortfall, and bought clothes for Xizhu at the same time. Quilts, cloth mourning halls, buying coffins, asking monks and Taoists to do disaster-eliminating and evil-doing ashrams, and day and night watching coffins and crying funerals, without sleep or rest, eating or drinking, panicked the whole yard to persuade: "Life and death are fate, wealth and honor are in the sky, and the girl is mourning."

Almost all the people mourning for Xizhu were people from Huaihua Hutong, not to mention Diexian, Duixia, and Fengqin from Huai Ya Tang, but there were also shepherds from other courtyards.As for Xizhu's guests before her death, none of them showed up, only Dai Yan sent someone to bring a lot of funeral money.Instead, a strange man rushed in forcefully, crying into the coffin several times before fainting.Qingtian didn't have any impression of him, and it took a long time for Second Sister Duan to remember that this man was driving a coach in Jiangsu and Zhejiang restaurants, and he had picked up Xizhu for the coachman of Huaiyatang a few times. "Xizhu may not have even said a word to him." Second Sister Duan wiped her tears with a handkerchief, recalling like this.Despite Qingtian's repeated insistence, Xizhu only stayed in bed for a short three days, Huaiyatang is a place for pleasure, not suitable for prolonged sorrow.

On this day, when the coffin was released, accompanied by the rolling mourning and joy along the way, and clusters of spirit flags, the funeral deacon carried the coffin out of the city.After the burial was broken, more than a dozen prostitutes who came to see the funeral stood around the grave, silent.Xizhu is eccentric and bitter, and everyone hates her, but seeing her fame spread far and wide during her lifetime, what a lively spectacle, and after her death, she quietly buried her in the ditch, which aroused my own worries .Among the group of girls, Qingtian's knees softened, and he knelt down slowly, his blood-red smoked silk dress snaking across the loess.She caressed the tombstone lightly with her hand, and her fingers passed the inscribed six words: Tomb of Duan Xizhu, the school secretary.She imagined that if her name was engraved on this stele, who would come to see her off?Of course it won't be Qiu Qiye or Feng Gongye, but Qiao Yunze—the murderer of the honey-belly sword, will he come?

I am always particular about not being able to shed tears, but when I think about it, tears can't help but fall from Qing Tian's eyes.She pressed her hands on the hot stone tablet, closed her eyes and murmured: "I will be a wife of thousands of people in life, and I will be a ghost without a husband in death."

There was a depressing cry from all around, and among the ancient tombs, a group of young women in floral dresses were crying for a new tomb.The wind blew through the sky and the red sun, and under the sky full of dark money, Qingtian sent her funeral—it was not Xizhu who was buried deep in the ground, but Qingtian who loved and trusted someone with all her heart.Died, buried under the sun and elegy.

On the night of returning to Huaiyatang, Qingtian saw Qi She again.Accompanying him was still only the same eunuch and one bodyguard, when Zhou Dun and He Wuwei saw her, they were very different from the contempt of the previous two times, and they both greeted her cautiously.Qing Tian was taken aback for a moment, and also responded with a voice.Qi She dismissed his servants and looked her up and down in a neutral manner, "Why, you won't even give her a smiling face?"

"Don't dare," Qingtian immediately squeezed out a hard smile, but still looked extremely cold, "I'm just a joker. Speaking of which, the third master, you are—"

With one stroke of Qi She's palm, a soft light flashed on the white jade wrench on her thumb, suppressing her eloquence, "I made it clear enough last time, I treat you as 'a fair lady, a gentleman is a good girl'. In this relationship , you are not a lowly prostitute, and I am not a noble prince, you are a lady, I am a gentleman, it's as simple as that. Since I have something to ask of you, the so-called "give me what you want", if you have any wishes, just ask, I will definitely Do your best."

The wind is also hot in the night approaching midsummer, blowing the chirping of cicadas to my ears, blowing again and again, like a knife cutting.After a long time, Qingtian said in a low and hoarse voice: "Then this concubine does have something on her mind, after that night, 'he' will avoid seeing me."

"Why do you need to see me?"

"Damn understand."

The corner of Qi She's mouth slightly slanted, "That is to say, just after I confessed my heart to you, you asked me to connect with someone else for you?"

Qingtian's face was gloomy, with a look of indifference, "Third Master doesn't want to, so I won't do it."

Qi She had expected to know the difficulties in her heart, so she would not care too much about this inhumane attitude, so she just smiled lightly, "I don't want to, I have to do it more, but you have to understand my sincerity in seeking perfection. Speaking of which, no one in the Six Departments and the Nine Ministers can issue an explicit order to call the new Han Lin Minger to come to your Huaiya Hall. But since Qiao Yun is already in the court, he has to understand the rules of the court. His teacher Zhu Yiqing is Xi Party, father-in-law Zhang Yanshu belongs to the Western Party, and the leader of the Western Party is not the Queen Mother, but her subordinates. The first two times I came to you, I kept my identity secret, and you knew the importance of it, and you never revealed a word. From now on, this password is regarded as Now that the ban has been lifted, you can openly tell Second Sister Duan who I am, and it won’t be long before the whole of Beijing will know about your new guest. I don’t need you to sing songs and wine, or serve the pillow quilt, as long as you accept With this look of refusal to be thousands of miles away, every time you talk to me, I will make two more trips if I have nothing to do. The person you want to see will not offend me if you don’t want to offend you. Within two months, they will definitely come to your door .”

Qing Tian listened for a long time without saying a word, then turned to Qi She and smiled, his mournful eyes suddenly became rippling.Upon closer inspection, the water spirit was melted from ice cubes, and it was so cold that it stings.

2.
At Xu time, Qi She left.Second Sister Duan came over immediately and asked about the origin of the Third Master Wang.Qingtian was so shocked that the eyeballs of the second sister almost never fell off the ground, and she hugged her with tears in her eyes, "My son, you are really mother's precious baby!"

From then on, before Qi She came, someone would tell her that Second Sister Duan also specially cleared the corner door in the backyard for the regent to enter and exit, and asked the turtle slaves to drive out all the idlers in advance.But every time Qi She comes, he just sits in Qingtian's room, chats a few gossips, and leaves without even touching his lips.

Of course, it's not that he doesn't want to stay with her for a while. In fact, he is willing to spend a whole day, a whole life, just to see how she gently frowned and opened her eyebrows lazily, listening to every ordinary How Qi's words were transformed by her soft voice into a sound of nature that he had never heard before, as long as he was simply by her side, his heart would be fascinated and ecstatic.But this didn't make Qi She lose his usual prudence and rationality. He clearly knew that every decent smile, every quick answer, every graceful look and turn of her face in front of him...everything made him fascinated All these must consume her infinite energy, just like a warrior with bruises and bruises still has to bear armor to meet the enemy, like a dancer with a broken ankle staggering to please her spectators.He couldn't bear to treat her so harshly.

So even though he wished to see Qingtian a hundred times a day, Qi She strictly restrained his enthusiasm, he had to approach her step by step, little by little, from only appearing in her life for a quarter of an hour to two times a time. Quarter of an hour, then an hour, half a day, one day, ten days, half a month... until every day and every breath of the rest of her life was filled by him.Until she truly fell in love with him as he loved her.

For Qi She, this is a bitter and sacred practice, but in the eyes of countless onlookers, this is just a fragrant and slightly obscene degeneration of another ruler in power.

(End of this chapter)