box of hearts

Chapter 240
Qingtian closed his eyes and buried his face in the crook of his knees.Outside the Xiang curtain, a whisper like a nightingale floated in: "Your Majesty, Your Majesty?"

Qingtian just covered his head, his voice was hoarse and low: "Leave me alone, don't worry about me."

Outside the curtain, he hesitated for a moment, "Ma'am, it's Mrs. Zhao's family..."

Slowly, Qingtian raised his face.

It was late at night, but the deep house in Zhao's residence was brightly lit, lighting up all the way to the upper room.

Anxiously, she rushed out of the carriage, and before stepping into the door, Qingtian smelled a strong smell of blood, which made her eyes turn red, "Why didn't you call me earlier?!"

Tin'er, Mu Yun's close maid, was twitching, crying very sadly, "It's not yet the end of the month, but the wife suddenly had a stomachache the night before, the midwife came to see and said it's okay, and she slowly prepared to stretch herself." Pick up the straw paper, saying that there is still a day and a half to go after the birth. While rubbing the belly on the bed, the wife specially told us to wait for the mother and child to be safe before telling the mother, so that the mother will not worry about it. The sky still can't give birth, and the midwife panicked. She went in and took out the blood with her hands, but the blood couldn't stop. Now the baby hasn't come out, and the adults, the adults..."

Surrounded by weeping maids, busy family members and daughters-in-law, nuns kneeling in front of the small Buddhist altar and chanting... When they saw Qingtian, they automatically diverted their way.At the end of the road was a bed, and beside the bed was half kneeling a sweaty old woman, with her sleeves rolled up, blood staining her bare arms.

Yingzhi beside Qingtian burst into tears first: "Sister Muyun!" Qingtian pushed her away in a daze, and walked forward step by step.Mu Yun lay on his back in the bed, the pillow under his head was originally a blue and mixed flower brocade, which had already been stained into black and white, but the face sunk in the pillow was all pale, even the eyeballs were white. , with his lips parted wide, but there was no sound.Qingtian's face suddenly changed, "Mu Yun..."

Mu Yun's eyes reacted, and his slack eyes cast over little by little. He opened and closed his mouth several times, but there was only a ho-ho panting sound from the bottom of his throat, and he was already speechless.

Qingtian's upper and lower teeth began to fight, it was a violent collision at the juncture of life and death, "Mu Yun..." she called her, "Mu Yun, Mu Yun..."

Mu Yun seemed to be trying her best to say something, but what Qingtian saw was a slight, meaningless twitch on his face.Qingtian's teeth trembled more and more, the trembling spread to her whole body, she touched Mu Yun's hand with her trembling hand, and held it tightly, unable to tell whose hand was colder.

Mu Yun died half a quarter of an hour later, and together with the baby in her womb, the delivery room prepared for newborns resounded with mournful cries of death.Xiao Zhao broke in, howled and threw himself at Mu Yun's cold body that was almost bled out of blood, "Mu Yun! Mu Yun! You can't just leave like this, why did you leave me so cruelly? Today is the fifteenth day of the Mid-Autumn Festival, say Well, we are going to take my family of three to watch the moon, why did you leave alone? Mu Yun, come back, Mu Yun!..."

He cried out the statement that everyone who lost a loved one would cry, repeating the oldest grief for thousands of years, with tears in his chest.Suddenly, he threw himself on Qing Tian's skirt again, and slapped himself fiercely in the face, "Sister Qing, it's all my fault, it's all my fault! I didn't treat her well. I always dislike her for not being able to support her. Watching her steal girls, fooling around outside, when she was pregnant, I even quarreled with her for taking a concubine, she told me to be angry! Sister Qing, you kill me, you kill me for her, I will do anything I don't want it anymore! I don't want any Baoqixuan, or the richest man in the capital. I would rather just be a boy, a boy for the rest of my life, and be single-minded with Mu Yun! I only want Mu Yun, I only have her in this world, I only have her she!……"

Amidst the Zhao's house's earth-shattering cries, only Qingtian stood upright dumbly, looking down at Xiao Zhao grabbing the ground with his head, distraught.She envied him so much, and she also wanted to cry like him, but she couldn't cry, only the sharp claws in her throat, the fire burning her eyes, but there was no tear.This ticking is blood, this still warm blood is dripping from the edge of the bed, in the whole sea of ​​blood, the evening cloud stands stiffly, like a piece of decayed wood.Qingtian turned around violently, she couldn't look at it anymore, and couldn't look at it any more.

With both feet on the ground, she floated out of the Zhao residence, walking forward in a daze.Someone was calling her desperately from behind, but Qingtian turned a deaf ear to it, she could only hear her own footsteps, the mournful sound of the cloud board, and the moonlight stretched continuously above her head, forming an endless plain curtain, covering the entire sky. the whole city.

She didn't know how long or how far she had walked, and she suddenly felt pulled by someone, "Mother, where are you going? You've been walking for half the night with your eyes straight, where are you going?"

Qingtian turned her head and saw Yingzhi's face drenched with tears, she turned her head back again: in the distance ahead, there were dazzling lanterns, crowds talking and laughing loudly, and groups of fragrant women, like Yinghua Ruo Qimeng, everything is so familiar.Qingtian smiled slightly, "I'm going here, right here."

Here is East Chang'an Avenue, Goulan Hutong.

The Furen Temple in the alley is the ancestral court of the prostitutes. On the fifteenth night of the eighth month, all the prostitutes in Beijing come to visit.In the temple, the bronze statue of Mrs. Huarui still sits high on the lotus platform, and the goddesses who are still in love with the world are still crowding and burning incense.But seeing this one's moistened face is like a flower, and that one's round shape replaces the moon, just like the colorful neon lights at night, shining brightly against the backdrop.Thank you, as soon as I stood up, someone giggled non-stop, took the other hand, chewed the betel nut together, spit it out with a "spit", leaving a smear of red on the lips...

Qingtian looked at them infatuatedly. These fresh and beautiful faces were the flowers on the other side who had been looking at the shadows in the distant years. They were Diexian, Duixia, Zhaohua, Fengqin, Xizhu, and the second sister. , it was Mu Yun and herself... just made a wish in front of Mrs. Huarui's treasured statue, and they were approaching her in a coquettish manner, casting a glance at her as a stranger, talking and laughing with each other as they passed by her, disappeared.

She has no one left, every woman who cries with her, laughs with her, quarrels with her and reconciles with her blushing, those who know all her glory and scars, and she also knows their gorgeous robes and The women with fleas under the long robe[5], those women who can share their heart and lungs with each other, their smiles have been flying all over the sky with the night wind, and they have fallen into the bottomless river of forgetfulness.The witness of her half-life has come to an abrupt end; the last line of defense between her and the world has collapsed.

Qing Tian fell to her knees, tears finally flowed down her face.Right in front of this voluptuous statue, she fell to the ground and wept uncontrollably, causing other young prostitutes who worshiped the god to look at her curiously.They looked at this strange half-lady crying so that their whole body convulsed violently, like a firework on a dim candle that was about to burn out.

6.
When the candle goes out, the night ends with broken hearts and tears.

The sky was bright, Qingtian's face was haggard, and there were many scars, but he was already neatly dressed, sitting in the hall of Zhao Mansion.

"There are a few important things to do right now, one is the auspicious soil of the coffin, the other is the encoffining, and the other is the funeral arrangements. You are Mu Yun's husband, and it is up to you to choose the burial place for her coffin. Ask the Qin Tianjian Yinyang Division to review the book when reading it. It is advisable for small burials to be on the third day of the day, and for large burials to be on the next day. Dragons, tigers, chickens, and dogs should not be born when encoffining, and relatives should not be taboo. Jue Pavilion, the mourning will be held on July 49, and the obituary will be held in three days. I have sent people to invite Zen monks and Taoist priests. At that time, 99 eminent monks will worship and repent, and [-] Taoist priests will pray. There are half a hundred monks and priests, and there are seven pairs of altars. This month, I will take care of Mu Yun's funeral. I will come here every day, and I will trouble you to spare a room and a half for me to be the director. Mu Yun will serve After spending the rest of my life, it's time for me to serve her once."

Xiao Zhao sat down with him, his eye sockets collapsed overnight, his black beard was half white, his eyes stared forward absentmindedly, and he forced out a sad smile, "Mu Yun has a spirit in the sky." I know that the empress will come to handle her funeral affairs in person, and I must kowtow to the empress to thank her. I don’t need to worry about the coffin and graveyard, and leave it to me. I will ask someone to tidy up the first floor of the courtyard, and then ask the housekeeper to take the flowers from the house. Bring the roster to the empress, and everyone in the mansion is at the mercy of the empress." His brows and eyes trembled suddenly, and streams of tears flowed down, "I only ask my empress for one piece, if my empress knows which painter Danqing is good in the palace, please look for it. One came to reveal the truth to Mu Yun[6], and I will spend the rest of my life guarding her image."

The corners of Qingtian's lips also curled up, and he turned his face away, "You have a heart, why did I lose two hands? I remember Mu Yun's appearance clearly when she was alive, and I don't need others to draw her face. "

Immediately, I asked people to hold screens and paints, close their eyes and think about it for a while, and after a long time, they painted a big shadow of the evening cloud: wearing a golden emerald crown, two phoenixes picking cards, wearing a red makeup and flower robe, and embroidered on the chest. Belt, as if suddenly alive.Qingtian stared at the color and blank space in his brush, separated from the shallow drawing paper and the unquestionable life and death, suddenly threw the pen, covered his face and cried bitterly.

(End of this chapter)